August 14, 2013

Daddy used to say the only people who complain about paying taxes are the people who have something to pay taxes on. The point being, if you don’t own anything, you don’t have to pay anything. He had a point, but we all long to own a piece of the rock, a slice of the American dream. So, taxes are just a part of life.

A sobering story is told in  the last pages of this edition of The Prentiss Headlight. By the numbers, there are 18 and one half pages of property with unpaid taxes. The story the people of Jeff Davis County are telling is that they do not have the money to pay or that they are intentionally choosing not to pay their annual property taxes.

Numbers tell the truth of where we stand financially in this county. The town of Prentiss has 78 unpaid lots, Bassfield–21, Personal Property Lots–44, Mobile Home–417, and the biggee…the Land Taxes –  1247. Jefferson Davis County had 1165 unpaid lots in 2010 compared to 1169 in 2011, only an increase of four lots. We had an increase of 82 unpaid lots this year. That’s a sizable jump.

Other numbers that speak the truth: The Collins New-Commercial had six pages of taxes, Lawrence County Press, a paltry seven pages while The Prentiss Headlight stuffs the mailbox at a hefty 30 pages this week.                                     The message being broadcast is loud and clear: “Supervisors/Super-intendent of Education: We can’t take much more.”

The rest of us are saying, “We’re out. We’re not paying any more.”