Daily Progress: Letter on New Taxpayers Group

Media General's newspaper in Charlottesville, The Daily Progress, published a good letter to the editor today regarding the new Charlottesville Taxpayers Association. (See my posting of March 9.)

Here is the letter, as transcribed from the paper's print edition (since The Daily Progress does not post letters or most opinion pieces in its on line edition):

The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.)
Wednesday, April 6, 2005, p. A10

Taxpayers group is welcomed

The establishment of the new Charlottesville Taxpayers Association is good news (“New city group seeks tax relief,” The Daily Progress, March 12). This development is long overdue.

For too long, Charlottesville taxpayers have lacked an organized voice to address budget and tax issues.

Year after year, when City Council holds hearings on the budget, individuals have spoken up on one or another specific line item. While their opinions have been welcome, they have also been toothless.

Nobody, up till now, has taken the time and the energy to bore through the opaque, Byzantine structure of the city budget in order to address the matters at its core.

A glance at the new organization’s web site, www.cvilletaxpayers.org, demonstrates that this group is taking up that tedious task.

All Charlottesville taxpayers owe a debt of gratitude to fellow citizens who are willing to do the hard work to scrutinize the budget and develop alternatives to what the city powers-that-be have to offer us.

Richard B. Morrison
Charlottesville