Published: October 09, 2008 06:30 pm         

Let’s go bankrupt

We must not allow Wall Street bankers to again see our county leaders as suckers who can be manipulated. They saw a good thing and took advantage of our “experts.”

During this huge sewer debacle, many have been convicted of crimes. The debt left to us will take more than a lifetime to pay off. Even now there are other “elected leaders” intent on spending local governments in our county into oblivion. Our federal government is already there.

That domed stadium which was voted down will surely be built regardless of that vote. The loudest voice to ignore the will of the people in that case happens to be Birmingham’s daily newspaper, The Birmingham News. I can’t quite believe a large daily newspaper would advocate going against what the electorate voted to do. A move to implement an annual sewer rate (tax) increase of 2.8 percent to pay those Wall Street bankers $3.2 billion over many years will kill the hopes of citizens and curtail new businesses and people moving to our area. And there will be those moving away to escape this mess our elected leaders have got us into.

News reports indicate the sewer tax has already climbed to a record increase of 329 percent since 1996. They tell us this will be a rate increase and not a tax. That is hogwash. A rose by any other name is still a rose. And when government extracts money from citizens calling it a rate, a fee or anything else, it is still taxing us. Many of us will be dead and our youths will be elderly by the time those billions of dollars are paid off.

I urge my county to bankrupt. Let those who misled our elected leaders suffer some of the loss. They took advantage of our leaders who fancied themselves as knowing all about high finance. Wall Street saw a good thing coming and they took advantage of our “great pretenders.” Now they are demanding our sewer tax be raised annually and to tax those who are not even on the county sewer system. Wall Street wants the money by any means and now those greedy banks have got our country at the edge of another great depression.

Good can come out of bankrupting, and I am not so concerned about the reputation. A certain protection will be accorded to our citizens in that our present and future elected leaders will find it harder to get huge loans and be forced to be frugal with our tax dollars. We will have a measure of protection from Wall Street pushing and guiding our inexperienced leaders into huge complicated loans again.

Elwyn H. Hudson Sr.

Mt. Olive