Hold county officials for Coal Township road tax

Dear Editor:

It's election time and the time to speak my mind.

In 2008 Coal Township finally succeeded in getting the 35 cents special road tax passed after several attempts. Road rock is no longer $2 a ton and the recent winter was very hard on gravel roads. This special road tax would have put approximately $16,000 into the township's 2009 budget for road maintenance and would have released money to be spent on other needs. Well, guess what happened?

Somewhere between the office of county clerk and county assessor an error occurred and the special road tax did not get on the 2009 tax statements for Coal Township residents. Board members kept questioning the fact that no money had been received. No results until the auditor uncovered the error. Meanwhile, the township board just had to wait. I'll give you three guesses as to the answer given in this situation. It was the computer.

Vernon County carries errors and omissions coverage. The agent writing this coverage is local. After a meeting of the county commission and several Coal Township residents who protested the county's idea that maybe it would be okay to just double up the road tax on the 2010 tax statements, the commissioners led the residents to believe they would contact the insurance agent regarding a potential claim. The commissioners really didn't want to have a claim on their policy because it might bring about an increase in premium. I wonder why they even bother to carry this coverage? A second meeting of the commissioners and Coal Township board members brought forth a denial that this was a legitimate claim. The Missouri Attorney General so informed the commissioners. I have spent hours on the Internet reading statutes and all I can find is what the county can legally do to a township, but nothing as to what a township can do with the county. Can't anything be resolved by our local county government? Somebody goofed in the courthouse, but they found a loop-hole.

Coal Township is the loser. They lost one year of their four-year special road tax and they lost approximately $16,000. There is no way to recover either. How would another township feel if this happened to them? It is election time and the only recourse left to Coal Township residents is the ballot box. There is space on the ballot for write-in votes and an arrow which needs to be filled in to make the vote valid. If enough dissatisfied county residents step up and exercise their voting rights, changes can be made. Let's hold our county officials accountable.

Virginia Johnson

Taxpayer and resident of Coal Township