Editor:

It was a sad day in Baldwin County this past Tuesday when the County Commission decided to sign an agreement with the Department of Revenue without first discussing with me, the elected official, about the ramifications it will cause to the citizens.

I have for the last several years been adamantly opposed to annual appraisals and was successful the first year in putting it off. But, without any support from our legislators and now the selling out of the County Commission you can rest assured with the State Department of Revenue takeover will result in the increase of not only taxes but also the operating costs of administering their program.

If there were mistakes made over the last several years by my office, it was errors in favor of the taxpayer. All of this was based on a report that was, for the most part, based on hearsay and not facts, which goes to show me the County and the legislators are interested in one thing and that is getting more money out of our citizens.

I have for the last 20-plus years done nothing but keep the best interest of the taxpayer at the top of my agenda and now by me opposing annual appraisals it is upsetting your representatives and others who want it by distracting you, the citizens, with tactics of me not doing the job.

I did meet all state guidelines this year resulting in higher values and taxes and now the solution to this is to bring in the state to correct the problem.

The only thing this is doing is reassuring that annual appraisals will continue, and rest assured more taxes.

If this is not true then why haven’t our legislators produced something besides open promises, and now your County Commissioners taking the action they just approved? I can tell you why and it all boils down to MONEY!!

As long as the majority of the people continue to support me I will keep fighting to do my job the right way.