To the editor:

Bill Newsome’s claims that 1) the taxpayer’s checkbook is open and 2) nothing is more important to the City Commission than stopping Wal-Mart flies in the face of fact. The taxpayer’s checkbook is apparently open to Newsome’s legal attacks on the city but, on the whole, the City Commission has been quite careful with spending taxpayers’ money.

Any visit to the City Commission would destroy Newsome’s second argument. Two overriding issues of considerable concern to the commission are neighborhood matters and budgets. Commissioner Hack, for example, is to be commended for her concern about the loss of tax revenue without the Wal-Mart and its effect on educational funding.

I would, however, remind Commissioner Hack that in most communities studied, the overall, long-term effect of Wal-Mart’s business practices results in a decline in tax revenues and an increase in the demand for services. The latter is a consequence of both low wages and structuring the payroll model to heavily depend on part-time workers that get their benefits from the taxpayers rather than company plans.

What Newsome overlooks is the fact that zoning involves more than just his (and his client’s) desires. Many of us, for example, do not want another south Iowa or Wanamaker recreated on Sixth Street. We certainly are unwilling to watch Lawrence’s viable downtown be destroyed. We are appalled by Newsome’s screech heard throughout Lawrence that if he didn’t get his development approved he would file another lawsuit.

Stewart Nowlin,

Lawrence