Vox Pop

Vox Pop, voice of the people, publishes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Submissions are limited to 100 words. To call in a comment, dial 829-2900 or 1-800-547-2909 then enter code 8008. To e-mail a comment, write to voxpop@brainerddispatch.com. Comments, which must meet the newspaper's standards of fairness and good taste, may be edited for clarity, length and libel.

Taxes

Sunday's paper attributes the following to Sen. Paul Koering: "...referred to Don McFarland's lament about high taxes and credited Pawlenty with doing a good job keeping taxes down..." Someone should tell Koering that the only taxes increased in the last four years have been property taxes. Pawlenty's proposals will actually cause property taxes to increase even more. Koering apparently doesn't realize that property taxes are the worst tax for people and small businesses of his district to pay. Income taxes have never put someone out of business because you only pay them if you make a profit; however, property taxes have caused many businesses to close because they must be paid even if you are losing money and have nothing to pay property taxes with. (128 words)

They have the right

Planning and zoning regulations and long range planning deny the "rights" of land owners' freedom to use their land as they want, don't they? However, they also keep our neighbors from grazing a herd of goats in their yard instead of mowing and these rules keep adult bookstores and strip clubs from locating right next to churches or schools. The Baxter City Council has every right to deny a superstore that could undermine our ecomony by replacing good jobs with marginal ones, destroy our environment, and does not fit into their long range plan for this area.

Thanks, Vox Pop

Thank you, Vox Pop, for finally having an open forum that really is open. I finally feel that others out there feel the way I do. We could never express it to your traditional and often stuffy "letters to the editor." Baxter can disappear into one big mall, Brainerd city council members can be shipped to a remote island, and Paul and Babe are just plaster, metal, and a fable. Get over it.

In agreement

I agree with the person who wrote in regards to special license plates. What about sexual offenders and/or repeat offenders of other serious crimes? Probation or not, how are these offenders being tracked? Serious repeat offenders are not only people with DUI's.

Refreshing

It is indeed a laudable ambition and refreshing to note the qualities and characteristics, such as leadership abilities, ethics and a backbone, that the Baxter City Council seeks for their city administrator. Would that their counterparts to the east had had that foresight some years ago.

How many cookies?

I'm seeing many good arguments, both in favor and opposed, to more superstores. Many are covnerned our area may turn into the Twin Cities. Have you ever started munching a bag of chips or cookies, not paying any particular attention, and suddenly realized they're were no cookies left? In terms of overdevelopment of our region and the Baxter Highway 371 area in particular, I wonder how many cookies we have left?