To the Editor:

Its a shame it had to take the closing of the mill to wake them up that the good times of spend, spend, spend are over. Now, instead of saying Isle of Wight will need to increase taxes 27 percent to make up for the 25 percent loss in the tax base, let’s make them do the right thing as we have to do when we take a cut in income.

So now Isle of Wight County needs to take everything off the table, including the $101 million for a school we don’t need, the Route 58 project that nobody with any common sense wants, and, for God’s sake, stop construction on the new courthouse we can’t pay for.

Most of us who are blessed enough to have a job have had to take a pay cut or a lesser paying job from being laid off. So we are making less money to pay the taxes and our properties, land and homes are losing value in today’s economy.

Isle of Wight needs to know you can’t get blood from a rock. We the people are broke, too. They need to lower our taxes for our county to even have a chance for a comeback. The mill is no different from other big companies. The greed of the tax collectors drive them all away.

Mark Whaley

Isle of Wight County