An open letter to Fort Smith city officials:                                                      November 29, 2009

No “frills” budget you say?

Zero % inflation and a 3.4% increase in Fort Smith city
budget over 2009?

A quote from the T.R. stated “in the face of stagnant or
shrinking revenues” …how is it that the budget can be increased 3.4%?  No mention of the cost of city government
takeover and expansion of the sanitation department and at the same time
Sanitation funds dropped $1.4 million or 9%.   (?)

It is contemptible that City Directors owe their allegiance to
city employees versus the revenue producers that subsidize this behemoth.   Earlier this year you gave another 3-3 ½ % increase
to all city employees.   The rationale is
to “boost morale”….what have you done to boost the morale of struggling taxpayers,
especially those who have lost their jobs, e.g. Whirlpool, Altes Sanitation,
etc. etc. etc.

City employees are not an endangered species and can be
replaced in 24 hours at less cost and more productivity, but that would not
bode well for the ensconced political protection racket.

Here comes that bureaucratic phrase again, “Quality-of-Place”.   This feel good, “compassionate” phrase is
designed to lull citizens into a deeper comatose state, while expanding all
sorts of previously failed and future failed government initiatives.   For now, they are off the table, but not for
long.

$38 million in capital recreation projects?  You boys have been drinking the same brew or
smoking the same cig that the Nomadic Kenyan imbibes.

1.      
$20 million for a baseball field? (or some other
“quality of place” expensive government expansion foolishness.)

2.      
$10 million for an aquatic center, 2 girls’
softball fields in Ben Geren Park.

3.      
OMG, $4 million for trails??

4.      
$1 million for a dome over Creekmore Park

5.      
$500,000 for soccer fields (to keep the illegals
off the streets?)

6.      
$500,000 for “fishing tournament facilities”.

Nothing about the civil rights museum, commonly known as the
Marshall’s Museum.  Why?

You have and are betraying the revenue producing citizens,
who many if not most are fighting for their economic lives as the depression,
expands….yes, EXPANDS.  Words to describe
your actions that come to mind are angst, disgust, contempt, double-speak, etc.
etc.

All governments, and in this case the city of Fort Smith, is
on an unrelenting drumbeat for government expansion, reducing the citizen
revenue producers to only that….revenue producers.  Your acts are nothing more than Marxist….a redistribution
of wealth.  You know “from each according
to his ability, to each according to his need”… known in some circles as
Communism.

Kindest regards,

Joe & Barbara McCutchen    Fort Smith        arkansasfreedom.net    CC: taxpaying citizens