Spencer Phelps, Libertarian candidate for Marion City Council President has publically called for the removal of his opponent in the City of Marion. Below is the text lifted from The Marion Star Newspaper.
"Paying your taxes must be a lot harder than I realized. So many prominent people have had to resign or withdraw their names for consideration to extremely important positions because they can't seem to file their taxes properly. Of course, for some reason, Tim Geithner got a pass, but hey, he used Turbo Tax, so we can't blame him, right?
According to a news report that broke on TV 22 last week, apparently even our local officials, the people we voted into office, can't seem to get it right. According to the report, our city council president, Dave Edwards and our first-ward councilman, Ralph Cumston owe over $50,000 in delinquent property taxes on almost 40 properties they own. But forget about that atrocity for a second! They hadn't paid city sewer/garbage bills on these properties to the tune of over $10,000! Think about this for a second: These two guys haven't paid their city utilities and still collect a Marion paycheck!
Now, bless their hearts, they've been paying it back little by little. I know I have to see my name in the headline of a newspaper to remind me to pay my cable bill every month. But here's the thing, if you or I did what they did, we'd be forced to stack our trash bags in the backyard and bury our "people waste" in the front. I could understand if they missed one payment. We've all done that once or twice in our lives either on accident or because we got behind a little. But these guys stopped paying their taxes and bills in 2007 (from records of their properties on the County Auditor's Web site)! On top of that, according to a letter sent to them from the County Treasurer's office, they flat out ignored all communication from the county about it. But according to Ralph in his Marion Star interview, it was because of $4/gallon gasoline.
This has scandal written all over it, and I honestly don't feel like reading two to four weeks of headlines involving Sewer-gate. Dave Edwards and Ralph Cumston, what you have done disgusts me to the point that I've lost all respect for you. That may sound harsh, but to sit on our city's council as elected officials who are charged with the duty to serve us, knowing full well you haven't paid your utility bills and taxes since 2007 is a slap in the face of every citizen of Marion that pays their bills and taxes on time.
Dave Edwards, Ralph Cumston, and anyone else involved, please do yourselves and Marion a favor and resign before your disgusting actions leave a black eye on the Democrat party of Marion and Marion itself. You cannot officiate over a city to which you are not paying your taxes and bills. I realize being a candidate for city council president myself makes for a bit of a dual-motivation for this letter, but the unpleasantness remains. Actually, I was hoping for a fun, positive campaign where I could just do my silly stuff and have a good time, but I felt there was a need to address this situation.
Regardless of whether or not you do the right thing and resign, I hope you can repay those utility bills very soon. Marion needs all the help it can get in these tough times. Do what I and a lot of Marion's non-tax-dodging citizens do: Use your bank's mortgage escrow system. I pay my bills on time every month without even thinking about it! Why can't you?
Wow, that sounded mean. You know, maybe this whole mess is just a big misunderstanding. Who knows? Maybe Dave and Ralph were just using Turbo Tax to keep track of their expenses!"
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