Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I find the current accusatory rhetoric regarding use of the sales tax to be not only inaccurate and insulting but also slanderous. A group of people has wrongfully and viciously accused the board of supervisors and county administrator of misrepresenting to the voters the purpose of the Nov. 3, 2020 sales tax referendum.

The group says they advocated that the funds would be used for future school projects and people voted “YES” on that basis. While they are well-meaning people, they do not realize that theirs was not the only advocacy effort.

I worked with a different volunteer group advocating “YES” votes for referendum. We used Department of Elections documents and documents/press releases from the county’s website as far back as September 2020; we explained the referendum to over 1,500 voters.

To a person, voters said they would vote “YES” to avoid property tax increases to fund school needs. It would serve us all well to recognize that multiple...