To the editor:

I read recently that Douglas County had a rather nice surprise: $30 million in extra tax revenue! Great! Now I read that the Douglas County Commission moved $17 million of that money from the General Fund to reserve funds or “rainy day” accounts. This money will be held in these accounts until a need surfaces. Some of these accounts are already so well funded that they exceed the county’s policy for maximum amounts permissible to be held in them. It is great to have a strong safety net in our rainy day funds, but the net effect reduces the ending balance in the General Fund so that when the next budget cycle starts it will require that we allocate more tax dollars for the following year’s General Fund. The net effect is that more tax dollars will be paid by our citizens. Commissioner Gene Dorsey got it right. Even if the county produces a neutral mill rate levy for the next year, what would be wrong with a tax decrease? A more equitable distribution of property tax funds must ensue.

Bob Schumm,

Lawrence