Don't believe the campaign lies

I am so weary of reading the gobbledy-goop written to the editor page of the Whitefish Pilot and Daily Inter Lake downgrading the city of Whitefish. I can hardly stand it.

I sat down a couple of weeks ago to write a letter to the editor, and six typewritten pages and four hours or so later, I was almost finished. Of course, we all know that that length of an article can't be published.

It's easy to counter writers that simply don't know what they are writing about by just giving the correct information, but it is so discouraging to read letters from people that do or should know what they are saying, but are simply trying to damage credibility to the city, staff and council.

This is what is going on. We have those writing letters bashing the budget, and I am appalled at the things they are saying about the staff and Gary Marks, our city manager. They have never been to a budget meeting, gotten a copy of the budget, nor talked to anyone about the budget that I am aware of, but they would have you think they are some kind of authority.

The things they say and allude to are way off base. The budget is complicated and hard to understand, and they are capitalizing on that fact to lead you astray knowing this. Don't believe it.

Then there are the other disgruntled people, standing on the side lines, taking pot shots at all of us and hoping to convince the readers that they also know it all and are some kind of experts, when what they both really are doing is twisting information and handing out bad and untrue information for all to read. There have been a couple of others, too, with various cries of disguised distress.

Folks, your staff and council put in many hours of hard work and overtime just to accommodate you, the citizens. Keeping the mill-levy down and working for Whitefish is what it is all about.

The city can't help the fact that the county, state and schools cause constant raises to our taxes. Our city is the only thing we can work on.

Gary definitely included the resort tax income in all that he has written about. Our mill levy without the resort tax is still lower than comparable cites. The resort tax only helps it to be even better.

Gary has pointed this out also. We are living within our means. Read your city hall newsletter. It tells it like it is.

The group that is out there trying to damage the credibility of the city and influence the election this fall were named by the Pilot a couple of weeks ago. Among those names are, you guessed it, the names that you see signing letters to the editor. This was a good move by the Pilot. I hope all of you were aware of the names and the issues. Please be aware.

Shirley Jacobson is a Whitefish City councilor.