LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Residents need relief from property taxes

Dear Editor,

Chairman Kelly Miller of the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors wants to ease the tax burden on seniors by allowing seniors to defer their real estate taxes until they sell their property or die. Supervisor Dickie King is in agreement and wants to look at any option to offer tax relief to seniors.

What is surprising to many, and may be news to these gentlemen, is that seniors who own their homes already have this ability. Reverse mortgages and/or home equity lines of credit are being used by millions of senior citizens to pay taxes or for other costly expenditures. If Chairman Miller, Mr. King and the other three Republicans on the board of supervisors really want to help senior citizens and the rest of the tax abused property owners in Chesterfield, they need to clamp down on the reckless county spending that is running at three to four times the rate of inflation.

A five cent reduction in the property tax rate has been proposed to help reduce the tax burden on Chesterfield taxpayers. With an increase of 16.6 percent in assessments, that's just not good enough! Chesterfield taxpayers need at least a 10 cent rate decrease, and some have even recommended a revenue neutral 12 cent decrease in the tax rate. Even with a 10 cent reduction, total tax receipts will still increase over last year at a rate in excess of inflation.

It is past time that our five Republican supervisors begin practicing Republican values of less government, lower government spending and cutting taxes. In an election year, when Republicans are going to have an uphill battle to retain their seats, it would be wise for Republicans to act like Republicans and provide real tax relief for the taxpayers of Chesterfield County.

Fred deMey

Chesterfield

Winning the lottery is virtually impossible

Dear Editor,

Have you ever tried to imagine just how hard it is to win a lottery? The lottery administrations make it sound fairly easy with phrases like "If you don't play you can't win." How do you win at a lottery?

Imagine that you are blindfolded and you're led into a large room. In this room are all the phonebooks of every city in America. To win the lottery you just have to pick up a phonebook, open it up and point to your name in the book. Blindfolded, of course. Good luck.

Don Fairchild

Chesterfield