Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I thought I would take this opportunity and respond to allegations made by Mr. Rusty West in last week’s Gazette-Journal (“A looming bill is growing,” March 19 Readers Write). For the record, I am the only supervisor with a newsletter to which he refers. It is unfortunate that Mr. West resorted to personal attacks as a means to support his argument for raising taxes. But nevertheless, let me dispel some of his misconceptions.

With regard to developing a budget, we unanimously voted 11 months ago to hire a professional budget analyst to improve and assist the county administrator with such an important task. Mr. West apparently does not seem to understand the importance of a budget analyst’s responsibilities. Such a person (who is not a “low-level employee”) helps each department fully justify and adjust each budget line item starting from zero. This person then monitors and reports-out costs. Developing a budget is not as s...