Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Political magic and spin rides again. So, open your “Change” purse, the meal tax is coming. Why? Because the Mathews County administrator, in concert with the board of supervisors (or vice versa), seemingly have a “fool” proof marketing strategy: Give the food business a kickback for collecting the tax, exempt the fundraising groups, add the buffers of touting it as being a future offset to the already recently raised property taxes, the visitors of Mathews will help to pay it, anywhere else has one, and if you don’t eat out you don’t pay it. Financial incentives for some and barrels of whitewash for everyone else will do the job.

Another equally “fool” proof facet to this strategy is failing to identify, at the onset, even a few of the needs it will meet, but instead of including it in the general fund, offering a cleverly skate around or omission of exactly what wasteful abyss they will hurl it into next as a ...