An open letter to taxpayers of Kemmerer and Diamondville:

Taxpayers and, I hope, voters, please ask yourselves this question: Is it worth paying a total of six percent sales tax on every taxable item you buy in this county for the next (estimated, oh yeah) 3 3/4 years, to pay $5.29 million dollars to unknown paving contractors for work on repairs for a narrowly selective list of roads and streets in these two towns?

I think this 6th penny sales tax is primarily a subsidy to unknown paving contractors, pure and simple. Which contractors get the millions? Is there no way of knowing until the contracts are awarded? I’m afraid so. Do the taxpayers have any say at all about how these contracts are bid and decided? I doubt it. Some of our streets and roads are indeed rough, but... hello.... this is Wyoming. We should expect our roads and, yes, even our streets, to be rough. I’ll drive a bit more slowly and take my chances on paying just a bit more often for new shock absorbers, and not the extra one percent on sales tax, thank you very much.

I say no to being taxed more and more every year for unnecessary expenditures. Please vote NO on this onerous, burdensome tax.

Robert C. Mathews

Diamondville, Wyoming