LET'S START A TAX REVOLT!

We recommend that you read the informed observations made by Rick Fischer concerning Missouri Auditor Susan Montee's audit of the City of St Peters. Rick has completed Part 2 of his comments and you can read these at the following link:

http://rfischer-outsider.blogspot.com/
.... and be sure to scroll down the page to the article entitled "St Peters is a dirty city - Part 2"

In our opinion there are some serious concerns citizens should have about many things connected with the St Peters Audit.

To mention just one issue, Lakeside 370 (Now Premier?) is developing into one of those ill conceived, poorly planned, poorly executed, financially dangerous and environmentally harmful projects promoted by politicians with an over-eagerness to please their developer clients. (Those "clients" are obviously not the taxpaying citizens of St Peters) If some of the multitudes of problems connected with this project are not solved, it could turn into a gigantic financial fiasco. The audit states that failure to get a LOMR from FEMA could generate a loss in excess of 15 million dollars and there are other "problems" too.

In spite of this and several other important and unresolved issues, the city gets a "clean" rating. We recommend that readers read the Audit and review the comments on Wake Up Call Missouri to decide whether or not a "clean rating" was justified. It's really too bad the City decided not to televise the public meeting where the report was given but that goes along with their "mindset." The "excuse" as to why they didn't televise it seems contrived!

Regarding the media handling of the Audit press release, questions come to mind. Why did the media, particularly the Post Dispatch and the Suburban Journal rush to publish articles that showed the city "clean" when any reasonably bright first year journalism student would have had serious questions about it? Could they have been protecting their revenue stream? Serious publications recognize their obligations to the communities they serve and in their Audit reporting, questions arise about how these media organizations addressed those obligations.

Their reporting leaves one wondering whether they care if taxpayers will be seriously injured by policies conjured up by politicians who have a solemn obligation to protect the public interest. Questions can be legitimately raised (See wake up call Missouri, link above) about this Audit and the circumstances surrounding it. This was supposed to be a "Performance" Audit but the Auditor simply glossed over or ignored some very basic questions.

We are coming to the conclusion that nothing short of a good old citizen's tax revolt, like California's successful Proposition13, will sufficiently inhibit elected officials from throwing tax money at every project their "clients" suggest. If anyone is interested in pursuing such an initiative for St Charles County, let us know. ....... chuck@riteon.org