I don’t enjoy doing this, but enough is enough. In the January 20th edition of this newspaper, Harold Yates’ comments in his election ad is a slap in the face to the Commissioners Court that I am duty bound to correct. Harold attended the budget hearing that was held August 16, 2021, and when the floor was opened for questions, he did, as he states, ask why the tax rate was flat considering the added tax revenues from the pipelines. Whereupon, I reminded him that in my opening remarks of that same meeting, just minutes earlier, I had stated that the proposed tax rate was not flat and that court was going to reduce the tax rate from 0.71 to 0.595 while still being able to give a significant COLA, or cost of living allowance, increase of $100 per month to all full-time employees. He apologized and said that he had missed that. He must have also missed the state required tax rate ‘Notice’ where the court announced the decrease from 0.71 to 0.595 published two weeks earlier in the San Saba News August 5, 2021 edition. In the same January 20th ad, his statement that “after further discussions,” clearly implies that further discussions triggered by his questions caused the tax rate to be lowered which is absurd since the court had set the reduced 0.595 rate three weeks earlier. Therefore, this misrepresentation is an accusation and insult to your dedicated and hardworking court.
Now, please let me switch to my defense, there is a rumor going around that I have required, or have pressured employees of the courthouse to be vaccinated, and nothing could be farther from the truth. Although I have chosen to be vaccinated, and as a public service, we are doing all that we can to make vaccines available to those that want to be vaccinated, I firmly believe that it is a decision everyone needs to make for themselves. What we don’t know about COVID now could fill volumes, and I wonder if we will ever know.
Please maintain your common sense, and your sense of humor. May God bless you and our beloved San Saba County.