To the editor:

Pam Carvalho (LJW, Dec. 15) makes good points countering an allegation, attributed to me, that people in the country don’t pay full costs for public services. My brief statement at the planning commission study session was necessarily simplified, then further simplified by the newspaper account. (A fuller account is given in the official minutes.)

Ms. Carvalho mentions water and sanitary systems that country households may provide for themselves. However, other services such as roads, public safety, court systems and schools are still provided by government. While general quality of services is lower than in town, average delivery costs are higher. Distance adds costs to busing children and answering public safety calls and adds to miles of roadway maintained per household. Also country dwellers may use services in the towns. The exact balance of all this hasn’t been studied in Douglas County.

There are two other questions of balance that seem more clear-cut. First, if we compare real estate devoted to households with real estate devoted directly to farming, farming pays disproportionately high taxes per services received. Therefore each new household moving into the country increases the tax burden on farming.

Second, during the process of rural development, when households accumulate in an area they demand higher levels of services and have political clout to make it happen. The major part of the cost of those increased services is passed on to other taxpayers. Moreover, inefficient patterns of sprawl housing make those new services especially costly to provide.

David Burress

Lawrence-Douglas County

planning commissioner