Henry Bodmer, Kenmare

This week Ward County sent out the proposed property tax levies for 2021. While most of the line items such as the school levy, township levy, city levy, and so forth were about the same as last year, the proposed county levy is a whopping 18% increase. While just what portion of the county obligations caused this huge increase can only be answered by a further investigation of the proposed budget, part of the answer was revealed in the picture on page one of The Minot Daily News for September 8. The picture was of a local citizen arguing about the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution.

It seems that the county commissioners are wasting their time and our money debating the 2nd Amendment which is a responsibility of the federal government and not the prerogative of county commissioners. Any attempt to override federal law was decisively articulated by President Andrew Jackson in 1832 when he declared he would hang (from the first tree he could find) any South Carolinian who refused to enforce the federal tariffs.

The commissioners should devote their time and effort on managing the county’s roads, bridges, and other such things of use to the county’s citizens instead of debating what they have no authority over.