Did you know?

Dear Editor:

Did you know that this Morgan County Commission voted to reduce your tax rate to the lowest that it has been in the last ten years?

Did you know that by switching insurance carriers, taxpayers will save $61,466 annually on the county’s property and casualty insurance?

Did you know that Morgan County now uses a State Purchasing Card with a 1% return on county purchases resulting in a $10,000 yearly savings?

Did you know that by refinancing the soccer field loan and changing the interest rate from 8% to 4.75%, the county will save $183,975?

Did you know that by selling the hospital to Valley Health, the county has already received $1.5 million and will continue to receive payments in the amount of $57,200 per month for the lease of the old hospital complex and $4,375 per month for the lease of Dr. Hashem’s offices?

Did you know that money received from the hospital sale and lease payments will be used to pay down the debt on the new courthouse?

If you didn’t know it, you should. All of these savings have taken place since the election of our two female commissioners.

You won’t find this information on the front page of your local newspaper, but you should because this is what every hard-working county resident really expects from their county commissioners — the ability to make the necessary decisions that result in savings to the taxpayers.

Steve Hutchinson
Great Cacapon

Editor’s note: Most of these items were indeed reported in The Morgan Messenger.

The lower tax rate was part of an article on next year’s budget and employee benefits in the March 17 issue. As far as we can figure, the “tax cut” amounts to less than 50 cents for a home valued at $200,000. That’s why we didn’t make more of it.

The switch of insurance carriers to save money was reported when it happened last year.

We did not know about the savings from renegotiating the soccer field loan. Asked about it on Monday, Commission President Brenda Hutchinson said this happened early in 2009 and they didn’t make much of it at the time. We have been unable to find any mention in commission minutes.

Finally, the sale of the hospital and its benefits for taxpayers were reported several times, most recently on the March 31 front page after the sale took place.

Readers may recall that The Morgan Messenger editorialized back in 2007 about selling the hospital to help pay for the new courthouse.