Council, commission

reversing their roles
Honestly, having been reading the accounts of the Salisbury City Council and the County Commission I am kind of dumbfounded! It’s like they are in reverse roles.
City/town councils are typically concerned with what goes on within their boundaries, i.e., streets, parks, water, police, etc. And county commissions typically deal with bigger issues — zoning, planning, overall county services/infrastructure, courts, licensing, what’s going to happen a decade from now and how should we be preparing for that, etc.
To the credit of the Salisbury City Council, it seems to be leading the way, taking the high ground and forging a progressive city and Rowan County.
And unfortunately for us, the county commission comes off as evangelical, petty, unreasonable and lacking any big ideas for the county.
Makes me wonder — why did we do this to ourselves? And don’t we deserve better than this? Don’t we need to be thinking now about how we can promote the county commission to be more like the Salisbury City Council?
— John Blair

Salisbury

Questionable tactics
Regarding Christopher Dorner, the ex-Los Angeles policeman who died in a standoff with police after being charged with killing four people:

There is no excuse for killing a human being. Never.
Christopher Dorner, the ex-cop, was wrong to kill. California police were wrong to kill.
Make no mistake about it: Two wrongs don’t make it right. We expect the police to bring to justice those who do wrong. How are they any better than him?
— Patricia Forney

Salisbury

No time for tax hikes
Lately, we have heard a lot (from both the state and the county) about raising the sales tax.
State legislators want to raise it to 8 cents, up from 4.75 cents on every dollar spent. Meanwhile, the county has talked about raising their portion by 1 cent (to 3.25 cents, up from 2.25 cents). In addition, the state wants to charge tax on food and a whole array of other services not currently being taxed.
Do not think they will do away wih the state income tax in its entirety.
Let’s look back at Rowan County. A 1 percent increase would add one cent on each dollar spent, or $1 on each $100. The board says this would allow a decrease in property taxes by perhaps two cents per $100 of assessed property value.
Now is not the time for either the state or the county to think about raising any taxes. Maybe the state and county should do with less, as the people at Freightliner and Food Lion who are about to lose their jobs will have to do.
— Nancy T. Andrews

Salisbury