Editor, Gazette-Journal:
By the time you read this letter, the town hall meeting that we were all urged to attend on Tuesday of this week will have been held. Presumably the meeting was held to explain and discuss the ramifications of a meal tax.
But, the discussion will have been held one week before the ballot, and not (as it should have been) before the action by the board of supervisors to petition the court to put the proposition on the ballot. It would have been more appropriate to have the public discussion in time to discuss whether to include it as a referendum for vote or not. So, the only opportunity to discuss in depth the subject of “taking the pressure off property taxes” (Mindy Moran, Gazette-Journal, October 23, 2014) will be a series of three-minute, one-way, citizen comments on Tuesday night. 
Notwithstanding the above, my independent, non-scientific, oral poll of restaurant managers, other food preparers, other small business owners, and just plain f...