One last question ...

Is there any provision in the Constitution or the electoral process that allows for a delay in the election due to a lack of qualified candidates?

Tax hypocrisy

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer in Columbus. Mayor Tomlinson and City Council have given millions in tax benefits to their friends and campaign contributors to local millionaires in the form of tax abatements via The Development Authority. Tax abatements were intended to entice businesses outside of the city and state. It is harmful for the local council to give them a tax advantage over other competing businesses. Smaller business owners end up subsidizing them with property taxes, possibly to their own demise. One prominent hotel owner renovated his hotel and received tax abatements for the next 20 years that amounted to well over $100,000 taken from the city’s tax coffers. His son, a legislator, is one of the most outspoken critics of the tax freeze, stating everyone should pay their fair share. Just think if a citizen were to renovate his/her home they would be punished by lifting their tax freeze and end up paying more in property taxes, if that isn’t hypocrisy.

Mayor Tomlinson and her supporters stated the tax freeze is unfair, but their negative campaign has pitted neighbor against neighbor and has even resorted to race baiting in their redlining comment. If the tax referendum were to pass, would she guarantee that the courts would not overturn the freeze and lift everyone’s property taxes? When you buy a car or a home appliance you at least get a guarantee. The media is in collaboration with her in spreading her propaganda.

My wife received her absentee ballot September 23, but the Ledger-Enquirer failed to let us know the wording on the referendum until September 29, a cloak of darkness. Vote No.

The ugly American

Trump is a microcosm of the lost character of our country. Michelle Obama's speech was a call for our country to get back to a moral fiber; to ask ourselves if money is our God or are we going to keep supporting lies and liars like Trump.

Make America Great Again will not be found through the top 1 percent, at least not the ones who represent evil.

Stifling progress

As employers, we are voting Yes to Thaw the Freeze. The Freeze stifles growth and job creation and limits our workforce.

Columbus has had zero net job growth in the 35 years of the property tax freeze. Similar cities without a Freeze are outpacing us. Since the 1982 enactment of the Freeze, our population has increased by 30,000 for a 1.7% annual growth rate. That is less than the national birthrate.

Employers looking to expand or move here monitor population growth as an indicator of a healthy market. If our population is stagnant, that counts against us.

The Freeze is a “Welcome Stranger Tax” which puts a disproportionate tax burden on new property transfers, particularly harming young professionals, military families and newcomers. These citizens are important to our ability to hire and fill good paying jobs. If our tax system is not welcoming or fair, we cannot attract and maintain the needed workforce.

Therefore, citizens end up providing more in services than any growth pays for those services. With such an unsustainable tax base, employers realize that the city may not be able to provide infrastructure needs or the quality of life employees demand. The world is too competitive to keep this outdated system.

Freeze systems encourage closed communities. That is not a growth policy. Employers know it and consider it backward and non-competitive.

Teresa White, Aflac; David Koontz, St. Francis Hospital; Kessel Stelling, Synovus; Troy Woods, TSYS; and Marc Olivié, W.C. Bradley Co., join me in this letter.

Join us in voting Y to Thaw the Freeze.

Conscience vote

This letter is addressed to Roman Catholics and Evangelicals. One of the recent WikiLeaks disclosed the position of the Clinton hierarchy on abortion. They are definitely in favor of a change in rules regarding abortion. They wish to repeal the Hyde Amendment which prohibits use of federal funding for many cases of abortion. This is also the position of The ACLU and Planned Parenthood.

If elected President, Mrs. Clinton will use the power of the federal government to crack down on those people who are pro-life on the abortion issue. She says “deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.” She also was reported to respond to a question about this by saying “people will just have to live with it.”

There have been over 5 million abortions in this country since Roe v. Wade. As Christians we need to strengthen the rules for abortion rather than weaken them. A beating heart is a living soul.

No letters relating to the Nov. 8 election will be published after Friday, Nov. 4. Depending on volume, it is possible we might not be able to publish some letters received earlier. We will make every effort to publish letters received in time for the Friday deadline.

This story was originally published October 26, 2016 at 6:07 PM with the headline "One last question ...."