Last week I wrote about how the new group of Tate County Supervisors weren’t earning an “A” rating from the people who elected them.
Well, while I still don’t think they have completely redeemed themselves, I am glad cooler heads prevailed and a deal for fire coverage with the City of Senatobia was finally struck.
Following a somewhat lengthy meeting held at the Back Acres County Club, the county finally agreed to up the payment of $30,000 per year to $75,000 to the city. This will ensure that Senatobia Fire and Rescue Chief Ethan Foresman can literally still afford the gas to make medical and fire calls to the fire district.
One argument made by District One Supervisor Leigh Ann Darby, was the county pays for ambulance service to the city and doesn’t charge the city.
What Darby failed to point out with her logic is that city residents pay county taxes as well. While county residents earn the perks of county life, City of Senatobia residents pay Senatobia Municipal School District taxes, City of Senatobia taxes and Tate County taxes. Darby failed to think of the people paying into all entities. During the meeting, Darby told everyone present that she thought taxation without representation was wrong. She really made a big deal of that point, yet, she is telling the city dwellers who pay taxes to the city and county that they don’t have representation at the county level. Wow…well, I’m glad city dwellers are so important to the county. The irony. (I hope my unveiled sarcasm is obvious.)
I’m glad negotiations were struck, and deals were made. Finally.
It really shouldn’t have came to the hoopla that it did in the first place.
Perhaps this will end up being a lesson for our elected leaders to pay more attention to the people who hired them. Perhaps egos will be sat aside and compromise will be the name of the game since there are many more negotiations between the city and the county to be worked out. Let’s hope stalemates can be avoided in the future.
