Letter to the Editor

Valley View:

There were several interesting letters to the editor last week regarding the upcoming vote on supporting Valley View.

While we agree that some assistance in funding the home is needed, we feel the committee is taking the easy way out. The bulk of the proposed need of $300,000 will fall on the shoulders of the county’s property owners. Those of us farming are already being pinched hard this year. The drought is causing a great deal of hurt, not only on farmers, but also on all the businesses that rely on the farmers’ spending.

As there are 4,481 registered voters in Valley County, we feel a more equitable way of funding the nursing homes’ shortfall would be for each of these voters to pay an equal share. $300,000 divided by that number of voters comes to $66.95/voter, or $133.89/couple. We’d have no argument against funding the necessary increase for their budget in this manner.

Property tax notices are prepared and mailed out by the county yearly. Do the same for this. Simply add the name and address of each voter. The information is already in the computers.

This would solve the problem of people who own no property and/or who wouldn’t pay anything imposing a burden on those who do own property and are already facing huge tax responsibilities

As was said, it’s easy for those who won’t be personally affected to vote yes on this issue, which then opens the door for many other projects to be placed upon the backs of property owners.

-Dennis and Mary Honrud,

Opheim