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Lincoln Daily News.com
601 Keokuk St.
Lincoln, IL 62656
TEL: (217) 732-7443
FAX: (217) 732-9630
Lincoln Daily News publishes daily news about the Lincoln/Logan County area on
the Internet at www.lincolndailynews.com.
(We are not a print publication.) All subscriptions are free!
Content:
The articles published in
Lincoln Daily News are the result of
research, interviews and news releases submitted. Any opinions expressed are those of
the writers.
Our staff:
In the office
Managing editor: Jan Youngquist
ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com
Technician,
writer:
Gina
Sennett
gsldn@lincolndailynews.com
Office assistant during vacations:
Trisha
Youngquist
Advertising sales and promotion
Lucky Eichner: ldn@lincolndailynews.com
Writers
[click
here]
For employment information, contact Lincoln Daily News at their
offices.
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Our mission:
The mission of Lincoln Daily News is to tell the stories of Logan County in a contemporaneous manner, with lively writing and a predilection for simple truth fairly told.
Lincoln Daily News seeks a relationship with the good people of Logan County that is honest,
neighborly and never patronizing.
Lincoln Daily News presents news within a full context that contributes to understanding.
Lincoln Daily News is more interested in the marketplace of ideas than the competition of personalities. Without shrinking from the bold delivery of unvarnished fact,
Lincoln Daily News operates from the premise that God's creatures deserve the presumption of right motive.
Lincoln Daily News eschews malice and cynicism; it approaches every person with dignity and every subject with equanimity. In short,
Lincoln Daily News informs, stimulates and entertains.
Corrections:
Please contact us by phone, fax, mail or e-mail with any
information about mistakes, typos or erroneous information.
If the error is in an item which is still in the paper, we will
correct it online immediately.
Our services:
Lincoln Daily News provides daily news, sports, features and commentary on Lincoln, Logan
County and the surrounding area.
To promote local businesses, we offer display advertisements at very
reasonable rates, and links to business websites. Call (217)
732-7443 or e-mail ads@lincolndailynews.com.
"Happy ads" are a special feature to enable our readers to celebrate birthdays, graduations,
anniversaries and other good news.
Call us for details.
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The
Lincoln Daily News publishes letters to the editor as
they are received.
The letters are not edited in content and do not
necessarily reflect
the views of Lincoln Daily News.
Lincoln Daily News requests that writers responding to
controversial issues address the issue and refrain from
personal attacks. Thank you!
. Please send your letters by e-mail to ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com
or by U.S. postal mail to:
Letters to the Editor
Lincoln Daily News
601 Keokuk St.
Lincoln, IL 62656
Letters must include the writer’s name,
telephone number, mailing address and/or e-mail address (we will not publish
address or phone number information).
Lincoln Daily News reserves the right to edit letters to reduce their size or to correct obvious errors.
Lincoln Daily News reserves the right to reject any letter for any
reason. Lincoln Daily News will publish as many
acceptable letters as space allows.
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To the
editor:
Citizens For Justice, Inc. is asking
every voter in Lincoln, including those from both parties, to vote
no regarding the city of Lincoln’s proposal for an 8 percent
increase in the
sales tax rate. We can’t think of a worse time to raise
taxes. We are equally wary of candidates who would raise our
taxes. It seems to us that Alderman Prather, former city finance
chairman Steve Fuhrer and Mayor Beth Davis favor every tax
increase that surfaces, instead of making tough decisions.
Only about a couple weeks ago the
city borrowed $620,000, with interest and payments due and payable
over a four-year time frame, to balance the budget that should
have included items like street projects. We believe it is
belt-tightening time and not the time to raise taxes.
Because the mayor and city council
failed to cut enough expenses to balance the budget earlier and
instead they chose a one-year fix by taking excess funds from
several different accounts to make up the $240,000 shortfall, it
required this $620,000 loan from the State Bank. We were unable to
stop this act of poor judgment in our opinion, but we get the
opportunity to vote no to this latest sales tax increase
[to top of second column in this letter]
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Anyone who has ever worked with
balancing budgets knows that the only true controllable
expense is the labor force. Why do you think businesses all
over America have been laying off workers during the past
two or three years? The city of Lincoln may also need to
borrow money next year to finance its sewerage plant rehab
if the state is as broke as they claim to be, according to
the words of city attorney Bill Bates. This leads us to the
task of first making the tough decision to lay off excess
city workers by comparing the level of staff other cities
our size maintain at every level of their operation to ours.
We see a tax increase coming
from state government soon after the election, regardless of
who gets elected, due to their $2,000,000 deficit. It is
rare that we get an opportunity to vote on tax increases.
Let’s take advantage at this time by voting no to this sales
tax increase, and instead send a message to Mayor Beth Davis
and our city council members to make meaningful changes by
reducing the city’s operating expenses.
Lester C. Van Bibber III
President
Citizens For Justice, Inc.
(posted 10-19-02) |
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Dear
Editor:
I read with interest your lead
article in today’s edition of LDN (10-16-02). The article
discusses the desire of the city to raise the sales tax by 0.5
percent in an effort to increase city revenues. Today’s economic
climate makes this tax increase almost inevitable, and your author
did an excellent job of explaining the necessity of the tax and
ways in which it will be used.
I believe one more aspect of the
sales tax needs to be addressed. State law requires that tax be
paid at the point of sale to the end user. By point of sale, I am
referring to the geographical location of where the sale takes
place. Thus if a company has a store in Lincoln, then all sales in
Lincoln are presumed to be made through the Lincoln store, and the
Lincoln tax rate is charged. Even orders placed with a distant
customer service center are presumed to be made through the local
store. More importantly, Lincoln receives the city share of all
tax revenues generated by a store in Lincoln. This occurs
regardless of where the corporate headquarters is located.
Unfortunately the opposite is also
true. If goods and services are purchased in Lincoln through mail
order or from a company that does not have a physical presence in
Lincoln, then the sales tax of the company’s closest office (once
again consider Springfield or Peoria at 7.25 percent) must be
charged. In addition, the city portion of the sales tax collected
is received by that city and not Lincoln.
[to top of second column in this letter]
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This is one concrete reason why
it is important to support local businesses and companies.
Not only do your purchases support them, but the city
receives its portion of the sales tax revenue. This will
ultimately help to keep local taxes as low as possible.
Before making a purchase, ask
yourself, "Who gets the tax money I am paying, and how do
the taxes I am about to pay help Lincoln?"
Local businesses support the
community. When the community supports the local business,
everyone wins. One of the things we love about doing
business in Lincoln is the local support we receive.
Sincerely,
Ed Stanfield
Glenn Brunk Stationers
Lincoln
(posted 10-19-02) |
