To the editor:

It takes money to make money, goes the old adage, and once again we have seen that.

When corporations with big money get behind a tax-rate increase, well, there’s no stopping the propaganda they can put out and the tax money that goes out of our pockets and into government bureaus.

It appears the public can be bought and scared with campaign advertising dollars for the second time we see.

Two years ago, me, my wife and three young children moved to St. Louis County. In that time, we have seen our taxes go up first with the Mehlville School District property-tax increase and now with the county sales-tax increase for police and public safety.

Both times we heard that the sky was falling. Property values will go down, children will have to walk to school instead of being bussed and our best teachers will leave. Now crime will go up and many of our best police officers will leave, and worst of all, they won’t have anyone to talk to when they ride around in their cruisers alone.

From recent history, Mehlville Fire Protection District officials also scared the people into a tax-rate increase in which we saw that the tax revenue wasn’t even needed.

We see that corporations have gotten with these government officials to jack up our taxes.

We’ve seen that insurance companies, bus companies and other companies that would directly benefit from doing business with Mehlville School District got behind Proposition R, contributing thousands of dollars to the campaign.

I’m not sure what benefit the contributors to the county’s Proposition P, STL Citizens for Safety, would get, but still Centene Corp. kicked in $250,000, Civic Progress and the Regional Business Council provided $150,000 and $100,000, respectively.

What did the citizen opposition group raise? Well, in the case of Prop P, $140.

I am not anti-children, anti-education or anti-police. I want good schools, good teachers, safe neighborhoods and happy policemen, but please can we stop with the unnecessary scare tactics for the tax-rate increases so that me and my family can afford to live in this county?

What will be the next fake government catastrophe foisted on the citizens of this county? Please stop scaring us out of our hard-earned dollars.

Edward Harlow

Oakville