Chelsea State Bank ad

Letter to the Editor: Dexter Township Board of Trustee race

Dear Editor:
With regards to the 2020 Dexter Township Board of Trustee race, let’s peel the skin off the onion.

Let’s look at what the democratic slate is all about and who they are.

The slate of democratic opponents wants to raise your taxes and is being driven from behind the scenes by a person who stands to benefit from that tax money as he does from other townships.

The democratic candidate for clerk admits it in her literature when she says we need a land preservation program. Then she says we need it “to draw families who want to live in our rural community.” This is code for shut the door and don’t let anybody else in after I have moved here. She has been a vocal opponent of any new growth but she says wants to “draw families”? She wants to raise your taxes but she pays ZERO real property taxes. And the democratic candidate for treasurer is a renter who has lived in the township for only two years, pays no property taxes, but they’re both willing to impose new taxes on the taxpayers.

The common theme in all of the candidates statements is to protect farm families and offer farmers options for selling their lands, that translates into TAXING YOU to achieve their goals. And when they TAX YOU, their mentor, the person behind this democratic slate makes money. There is a distinct odor to this.

A short lesson in Purchase of Development Rights- (PDR). This is a big government program, usually coming from urban areas to extend their tentacles outside their urban borders to control someone’s land use. To insure you don’t violate the purchase agreement that you signed to sell your rights, the government establishes a program, then hires a coordinator, that I dub as “the farm police”, and he/she gets six percent of your tax dollars. First, they use government money, your taxes, to buy your development rights, then they tell you what you can and cannot do with your land. If you, the taxpayer, don’t agree to paying your tax dollars for someone’s 401K – that’s too bad. If you don’t pay it, you could lose your property at a tax sale. All this is done for the underlying reason of closing the doors to future township residents.

Please read the democratic candidates own statements regarding Dexter Township. One says she lives in a paradise. Another says “Dexter Township is already thriving and a place of beauty and respite. The Township enjoys high income, low poverty rates, high home values, good public schools, access to health care, 24-hour police and fire protection and a rural character with access to nearby city amenities.” Sounds to me like the CURRENT Board has done a great job.

Dexter Township operates as a local unit of government and obeys all the statutes regarding open meetings. All our meetings are live streamed, the door is unlocked and everybody is welcome and respected. One of the candidates calls for the party line code word “transparency”. In all of my time on the Board, I have never seen that candidate at any meeting. In fact, I can only recall two candidates on the entire slate ever attending a Township Board meeting. The next time you talk to a candidate ask them what are the duties of the office they’re running for and I’ll bet they can’t tell you. Ask them when is the last time they volunteered to do any community work or serve on any board or commission in the township. Is that because the average length of residency in the township for six out of the seven democratic candidates is 4.8 years or for lack of interest?  Compare this with the six incumbent republican candidates and the one non-incumbent candidate averaging 34.5 years of township residency and the current board members serving on numerous boards and committees representing the Township.

What we have is a democratic slate of interlopers with no government experience, driven by a nefarious; person who stands to gain financially from their slate versus a proven Republican slate who have worked very hard to develop and maintain the very desirable township in which you live and provide you with great municipal services at reasonable costs to keep your local taxes low. This REPUBLICAN slate of candidates deserves your support and your VOTE!

Thank You,
Jim Drolett
Dexter Township Trustee

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

1 thought on “Letter to the Editor: Dexter Township Board of Trustee race”

Comments are closed.