Editor, The Herald:

It is amazing how stupid the Cumberland County Board of Supervisors apparently think the taxpayers in our county are as, in my opinion, they try to buy our votes with a miniscule two cent per $100 valuation tax decrease. They must think that we have all forgotten the huge eighteen-cent increase they approved last year and are ready to vote them back into office so they can start raising taxes again next year.

The two-cent tax reduction, according to the figures used by the Supervisors of one cent increase equaling $30,000, only amounts to about $60,000. Or if using the figures they tout in The Farmville Herald of approximately $80,000 per cent of taxes, $160,000. It would be wonderful if the Board of Supervisors could get their stories straight.

According to the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors' letter to The Farmville Herald, even with a barebones budget last year, they were able to increase services and make major advances in and for the county. A wonderful job of singing their own praises, even if some of the claims might be questionable. 24/7 law enforcement coverage by the Sheriff's Department for the first time in the history of the county? Sheriff Hodges instituted that service within six months of taking office three years ago. Last year the Board of Supervisors cut the Sheriff's budget, taking away two positions.

A Community Center housing a Community College branch, Social Services, a clothes closet, and Bear Creek Academy. An award-winning school system that will attract development! An industrial park being constructed in the courthouse area. Amazing what accomplishments our Board of Supervisors have made.

Hopefully the voters will remember some of the other accomplishments of this Board of Supervisors as well.

A county that is around $50,000,000 in debt.

A solid waste dump (that hasn't been built yet even though the supervisor spent the money).

A biosolid storage and distribution facility.

A chicken litter digester to keep farmers from having to spread chicken litter on their fields so they can keep on spreading biosolids on them.

All this while county businesses close. Cumberland Trading Post, our sporting goods store, is closing. The last grocery store in the courthouse area closes so that county residents have to go the Farmville, Dillwyn, or Powhatan to buy their groceries. All of these accomplishments as our Board of Supervisor seek to buy our votes with a paltry two-cent tax decrease and keep on singing their own praises. I can hear them now… How great we art!!!

David Meinhard

Cumberland