Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Well, it appears Mathews County is trying to make the citizens feel guilty for not providing enough revenue to cover the current or the next year’s budget. So why don’t we try another angle, take the revenue and work the budget around that? No, we make the budget and then ask the citizens to pay a “ham biscuit” tax.

The government just imposed a 15 percent increase in the real estate rate and, with a reassessment just around the bend, they want to make the citizens feel guilty for not voting for a meal tax. The county government knows well that the meal tax is a progressive tax and the citizens will pay for all the “ham biscuits” for the rest of their lives and, I might add, so will their children. I like the way Ms. Moran states the tax on a $10 meal would only be $.40. Well, she may eat alone, but most people take their families.

Would it be too much to ask that we reduce our budget and give the poor citizen a break? No,...