Fifty percent of voters rejected the city’s 1% safety sales tax on the Aug. 4 ballot, indicating a clear loss of confidence and trust in city leaders by a large segment of city residents.
If the city would create separate line items for actual funds received by the tax and specific line items for related expenditures on their audited statements, they may regain some of the confidence they have lost — no pools, no transfers, no use of safety sales tax funds for other purposes.
Voters need to see that city leaders are keeping their promises with complete transparency.
Richard A. Erlanger is a Columbia resident.
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