Letter from Les Plotner, city treasurer

Dear Editor:

Thanks for relating to your readers the financial report I gave recently to the Lincoln City Council. I'm sure it was difficult getting it all together, and yet it was done in an orderly and accurate fashion.

City finances are difficult to comprehend, and the only real master of understanding city finances is the city clerk, Mel Riggs. She is a pleasure to work with and has an amazing knowledge of such. If anyone has any specific questions about financial particulars regarding the city of Lincoln, Mel Riggs is the person to speak with about such.

I noticed one statement in the report which is probably an error I made rather than you. The Wal-Mart rebate will use four years (2002-2005) as a base for rebating them for their infrastructure costs, which includes basically roads and sewer construction. All sales tax over that base figure will be rebated to Wal-Mart until their $585,000 of infrastructure costs are recovered. Example: If base figure is established at $325,000 for the four-year period and Wal-Mart pays $425,000 for a year, then they would get a $100,000 rebate for that year. This would continue until the debt for infrastructure is repaid. Hopefully, the report is not confusing to your readers.

I did try to report to the city council in an understandable manner.

Thanks again for your coverage.

Les Plotner, city treasurer

[Posted August 14, 2008]

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