| Today's Feature Willis Will Not Do City Tax Books.
County Clerk's Office Gets
The Job.
County Assessor Jim Willis has
notified Joplin, Carthage, Carterville, and Webb
City that his office will not be providing the
service of printing their tax bill and city
books.
Presiding Commissioner Danny
Hensley said yesterday that the County Clerk's
office will pick up the job. He says the tax
bills should be completed sometime in
mid-October. Hensley thinks the communities
involved will be billed for less than half what
they are accustomed to paying.
The County Commission had
proposed that the Assessor's office continue to
prepare the city's tax books, but charge only
enough to pay for actual expenses of doing the
work. According to the Commission, Willis has
personally received approximately $12,000
annually for the work. The State allows county
officials to contract with cities and retain the
income as long as the contracts are approved by
the County Commission. The Commission told Willis
last Thursday that they would not approve any
contracts that allow for payment directly to a
County official. (see letters below)
Letters from Willis:
Dear Commissioner:
Enclosed you will find a copy
of a letter that was mailed out Friday, September
11, 1998 to the cities of Joplin, Carthage, Webb
City and Carterville. A copy was sent to my
attorney also. I hope this settles the matter.
Thank you, James H. Willis
Dear City Offices,
You may or may not be aware of
the circumstances concerning the printing of your
tax bills and books this year by our office. The
County Commissioners (Danny Hensley, Anna Ruth
Mosbaugh & Mike Cloud) have decided that this
office should no longer provide the service of
printing your city tax bills and city books. We
were satisfied, as you were, for us to provide
you this service, however it seems our agreement
does not satisfy the commissioners. There is a
possibility the County Clerk's office will be
allowed to print your statements and books for
you but we have not been informed of any
decisions at this time.
If you have already sent you
tax bills to us you need to have someone come
pick them up (We have Carthage and Webb City tax
statements in the office).
We are sorry for any
inconvenience this presents to you and your staff
but the issue is out of our hands. We would like
to thank you for your understanding and patience
over the years.
Best of luck, James H. Willis
Leadership Carthage Seminar
Registration Deadline.
Today is the deadline for
registration for the Leadership Carthage Program
sponsored by the Carthage Chamber of Commerce.
The program is designed to ensure the continued
improvement of the Carthage area by developing a
network of leaders throughout Carthage that
possess a broader understanding of the
community's needs and issues and to increase
commitment to community service and leadership.
The program is a nine session
seminar that will meet twice a month beginning in
January 1999 and conclude in May.
Candidates will be selected on
the basis of written applications submitted to
the selection committee. Criteria includes a
desire, motivation, and interest to serve the
citizens of Carthage in future leadership roles.
The selection committee will seek a class
representing a diversity of backgrounds,
affiliations and goals. Class size will be
limited to 15 participants.
The schedule includes seminars
on Carthage local government, economic
development, Jasper County government, Carthage
history, available health and human services,
recreation and tourism, and education.
Tuition for the program is $250
for members of the Carthage Chamber and $300 for
nonmembers. Application forms are available at
the Carthage Chamber of Commerce, 107 E. Third,
on the Square.
County 911 Board Reports First
Year
The Jasper County Emergency
Services Board, which is responsible for the
implementation of Enhanced 9-1-1 Services for all
portions of the County, offered a summary report
of the first year of activity.
The Board's 9-1-1 Center, which
serves as the Primary Public Safety Answering
Point for the County, handled about 13,000 calls
routed to the Center via 9-1-1 trunks during the
period. Additional calls answered at the Center
on other emergency numbers contributed to the
nearly 44,000 events created for the 30 agencies
served by the Center.
The Board provides emergency
and non-emergency call taking and direct dispatch
services to twenty-seven agencies and call
transfer services to three other agencies within
the County. In addition, the Board funds
equipment and personnel at the Joplin
Communication Center to assist the City in its
local communication efforts.
Board Chairman Harlan Snow
released the data which shows that in the first
year, calls for emergency medical services
yielded 4,496 events while fire calls produced
another 5,716 event records. The balances were
calls for Police Services as well as calls
transferred to non direct dispatch agencies.
Call volume is heavily
influenced by cell phones, said Mr. Snow who also
advised that cellular phone users really do need
to have an address reference when calling 9-1-1
to report emergencies. Once again, we urge call
callers to use exit numbers, milemarkers or
obvious collateral structures to help locate the
site of the emergency. This close approximation
is needed due to the many fire and medical
service boundaries that exist throughout the
County.
Capt. Bill Rowland of the
Carthage Fire Department and Vice Chairman of the
9-1-1 Board said that local agencies have seen an
increase in calls for service with the activation
of countywide 9-1-1 services. The fact that
callers can directly access a full time dispatch
center with standard response protocols for the
wide variety of potential emergencies, as well as
the use of Emergency Medical Dispatch Protocols,
causes a response on calls where the exact nature
of potential injuries in unknown. This process is
designed to assure prompt arrival of emergency
services at the scene rather than risk a delayed
response while waiting for more detailed
information from another caller. When a caller is
unable to report on whether a victim is conscious
and or breathing, the protocol assumes the worst
and recommends a response from a service which
will be able to provide the highest level of
emergency medical care should the victim actually
be in a cardiac or respiratory arrest. The
distance that advanced life support services must
travel is also a practical consideration,
independent of the nationally approved medical
dispatch program. Local fire department rescue
units, serving as First Responders, often answer
these calls as well, offering prompt assistance
and stabilizing the victim until additional help
can arrive. These First Responders, many of them
volunteers, can also verify that no further help
is needed at a scene.
Still another source of
increased call load is from 9-1-1 hang-ups. In
these cases there is no specific information to
deal with, however not responding to the
location, to at least check out the scene is an
invitation to tragedy. The 9-1-1 Center has a
duty to alert appropriate public safety agencies
that call has been received from their service
area. We would rather have the location checked
than find later that a victim was unattended for
an extended period of time because we disregarded
the 9-1-1 hang-up call, said Chairman Snow.
Commentary
by Martin
"Bubs" Hohulin
State
Representative, District 126
We’re
number one! How many times have you heard someone
yell that outwith much pride? Well, in this case
we are number one but unless you are a dyed in
the wool liberal there isn’t much pride
involved. We are number one in growth of
government since 1992. According to the Tax
Foundation,Missouri ranked 47th in 1992 in state
and local tax burden as a percent ofincome. Today
we are 16th and coming up on the inside rail. No
other state has had such growth..
Need more proof? The Cato
Institute just finished grading the nation’s
governors for their handling of their
state’s financial matters. Our own governor,
Mel Carnahan, was given an F. The grade was due
in large part to the aforementioned growth. This
growth has come about because of Carnahan’s
pushing of Senate Bill 380, the largest tax
increase in the history of Missouri. Not only did
it raise taxes on the state level, but it
blackmailed voters into raising local taxes as
well. While Senate Bill 380 was the main tax
increase there were others as well. Missouri
raised taxes on tobacco in 1993, you know, back
before raising tobacco taxes was cool.
The frustrating thing about
this news is that there are several of us that
constantly have tried to hold the line on taxes
and spending and every time we do we are called
cold hearted and extremist. We are accused of not
being compassionate. My compassion lies with the
taxpayer. We can’t continue to beat on the
folks that are working the jobs and paying the
taxes and spend their tax money into oblivion.
Fortunately, I think the tide
is turning our way. I spent two days this week
talking to the American Government class at the
Lamar High School. It was juniors and seniors I
was talking to and I was surprised at how aware
they were of the tax situation. Most of them that
were upset had jobs and had noticed how much
money was being held out of their checks. Several
wanted to know why they had taxes held out of
their checks but couldn’t vote. That made me
think of all the people that could vote but
choose not to. These kids want a say in selecting
the people that spend their hard earned tax
dollars, but because they are not eighteen,
can’t. Then we have literally thousands of
people that stay home on election day when they
are eligible to vote. Most of the kids were much
more aware of politics in general than I was at
that age. They weren’t too impressed with
the way their tax dollars were being spent and
they had already caught on that if they work hard
and earn more, they are punished by the tax
system. One young man said he worked four hours
of overtime and by the time the extra taxes had
been held out, his check increased by only about
five bucks. I hope they carry that resolve and
zeal into adulthood.
I still haven’t met anyone
that thinks I can spend their money better than
they can and they are right. If we let people
keep more of their own money, that is money they
can use for retirement, living expenses,
education, health care, etc. When taxes go up,
that is money out of your pocket.
As usual, I can be reached at
House Post Office, State Capitol, Jefferson City,
MO 65101, or 1-800-878-7126 or
mhohulin@services.state.mo.us for your questions,
comments, or advice.
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