To the editor:

Hopefully, everyone has learned a lesson now that the Deciphera deal has unwound. The next step will be making sure that this kind of closed-door shenanigans aren’t repeated and determining the fate of our city commissioners in the next election if they don’t fix the trust issue they have opened up.

We as residents should not sit back and let money from us go willy-nilly to somebody else to pay their taxes. I wasn’t given a chance to vote whether or not I wanted to pay for Deciphera’s tax burden for the next ten years, which I would have been required to do had matters not been changed by Deciphera’s pullout.

This matter could easily have turned into a legal matter based upon whether money collected in taxes can be diverted and derailed to pay for the tax burden of a corporation without my voting for it or my permission.

Finally, had we allowed this tax rebate to proceed, each new firm in the future who desired to come to Lawrence would expect exactly the same kind of tax gift that Deciphera was to receive. What would our commission do then? Those future firms would feel quite justified in filing against us if they were denied the same type of tax break Deciphera had been given. We in Lawrence have too much to offer for us to simply “give away the store.”

D. Wayne Parkinson,

Lawrence