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Dear Editor,

Let us consider this remedy for the current situation of tax collection in police jurisdiction a “Strength Woven in Unity” for our county and city governments. This solution includes Chambers County Commission government collecting the jurisdiction taxes for Lafayette and Lanett and passing them to the respected city while these two cities continue to provide the services within their jurisdiction. Simple, right; unless there is no “Unity,” or is this another way to stick it to two struggling cities in the county? No fault to anyone except the city’s government officials. The citizens should not suffer due to this error by the people they elected to handle its governmental functions. 

The Times-News clearly explained why Lanett failed to file an annual report of fees, license revenue, and other taxes from their police jurisdiction. 

4Lanett had twenty (20) months to prepare this report, which could have been taken from our city audit. 

4Lanett disregarded the press release on the law (Act 2021 – 297) 

4Lanett failed to respond to the Alabama Department of Revenue or the website ADOR setup. 

4Finally, The Alabama League of Municipalities emails, Clerks’ meetings, newsletters, elected officials’ meetings, correspondence and everything else informed our city officials of this new law. 

Therefore, I pride myself on attending the ALM conference each year during my time as an elected leader of Lanett. I believe I was one of, if not the first, certified municipal officer of Lanett. However, this is not about me. It is important that elected officials stay informed on the changes in law annually. I

n this case, it could cost Lanett around or above $500K per year. We pay our mayor $1500 a month and our council $750-$800 a month; they should be required to become certified municipal officers. Maybe it is true we are sitting on a barrel of blasting powder in Lanett because of poor governmental leadership. 

This portion of my opinion only includes Lanett’s name because I am a citizen of that city.

Rev. Stanley Roberts, Sr

Lanett