About LDN

Letters to the Editor

About LDN

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.

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.

Letters to the Editor

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!

Looking for family

Hi, folks of Logan County,

Here comes another great story about American immigration: Johann Bauer (born April 2, 1876), a 15-year-old boy from Oberlaitsch, Oberfranken, (near Bayreuth) from a family of 17 (!) emigrated to the States in 1890 or 1891, seeing no chance for himself to prosper in the Old World. He settled in Lincoln, Ill., Logan County, as a farmer and grew a family of 10, as far as we know. Johann must have done well for himself, as he was able to revisit his German relatives in 1946, directly after the war.

We, his German relatives (Johann was my great-grandmother’s brother), would very much like to contact the American branch of our family. Who can help us to find Johann Bauer’s (or Bower’s or Bour’s or any similar form of the name) family in the USA?

Please contact:

Jürgen Hahn

Kirnberg

Am Mühlbuck 9

D 91607 Gebsattel

Germany

Internet address: juergenhahn_@firemail.de

(posted 10-24-02)

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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.

Vote no regarding higher sales taxes

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]

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)

Supporting local businesses keeps sales tax in the community

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]

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)

Lost Labs found!

To the editor:

I have found my Labs. They are safe and sound back here at home again!

Thank you for taking the time in trying to help me out. I’m truly grateful. 

Ray Dean Treuthart

Lincoln

(posted 10-18-02)

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