Check the facts!

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March 4, 2010

Letter to the Editor, March 5, 2010

Anonymous CNHI The Jacksonville Daily Progress Thu Mar 04, 2010, 09:31 PM CST

JACKSONVILLE — Dear Editor:

In last Tuesday’s paper, it quoted Jacksonville Pastor Darin Wood as saying he lived in Corsicana when they went “wet” and “said the city is still running deficit budgets across the board.”

Pastor Wood said he is part of the group that will oppose our election. So given his comment, we thought it would be interesting and informative to check if the facts match his comments, since clearly we are going to be hearing claims that alcohol sales won’t really increase tax revenues and other misinformation.

So we went to the Texas comptroller’s Web site (www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/local) to see exactly what happened to Corsicana’s sales tax revenue after their election.

According to the TABC Web site, in 2004, Corsicana voters approved the same two versions of alcohol sales we will be voting on in May.

From 2001-2003, Corsicana’s sales tax dropped three years in a row, from $4 million to $3.77 million — a 7.3 percent decrease in tax revenue.

They had their wet-dry election and from 2003 to 2008 (when the national economy went south), their tax revenues grew from $3.77 million to $5.3 million — a 41.2 percent increase, so it would seem that Pastor Wood has his facts confused with current data.

So, Pastor Wood, we are sure you mean well and are sincere in your convictions, but when you make statements that communities who voted “wet” have been running deficits, please make sure you let the people know that if Corsicana spent more monet than they made, it sure wasn’t because they were running out of money, or that the wet-dry election petition was passed by the Corsicana voters.

The fact is they not only reversed a three-year downward spiral in tax losses, but grew to a five-year increase of over 40 percent.

So in this upcoming election, we encourage all Jacksonville voters to check the facts on both sides. And when you do, we hope you will vote yes for Jacksonville’s beer and wine and restaurant propositions.

It makes good economic sense.

Sincerely,

George W. Douglas,

Jacksonville

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Letter to the Editor, March 5, 2010

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