Letters to the Web Editor

Smith County Commissioner JoAnn Fleming has my vote. And I do want the commissioners to “micromanage” the ESD.

This is a new taxing entity which I did vote for, mainly because we were told that our homeowners insurance would go down. I am still waiting for that, but the bureaucracy created costs $460,000.

There has already been talk of hiring full-time firefighters and building new fire stations. I am certain that in a year or two the 8.25 percent that ESD started out costing us won’t be enough.

When volunteer fire departments were funded by chili suppers and fish fries, no one paid much attention to how the money was spent, but now we are talking about tax money, and a lot of it, and yes, I want our commissioners to keep a very close watch on it.

At one meeting a while back, the Tyler Paper reported that when the commissioners were about to vote to pay some expenses, they asked for invoices and were told by Jim Carlyle that they were in the safe and would be available after the meeting.

Our commissioners allowed that?

When spending tax dollars, government answers to the taxpayers.

Mike McClure
Tyler