Recently, local cities and interested groups submitted a wish list to the Newton County Board of Commissioners for projects they would like to have paid for through the 2011 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

SPLOST is an optional 1 percent sales tax. Revenue raised through SPLOST must be used for capital projects, generally infrastructure and buildings.

A great past success of a SPLOST was the creation of Lake Varner.

If you missed the complete list of requests for 2011 SPLOST money, see www.covnews.com.

The list includes a new indoor pool for the YMCA and a new city hall for Covington.

After reviewing these requests, we feel some have some real merit and others are completely unnecessary.

Our feelings are this: The county just went through a budget cutback on services and people and the probability of that happening again is almost assured.

If the county agrees to spend tax money on any new property purchase or building, it is going to increase its costs in the future. We are concerned where that money is going to come from.

During these difficult economic times we would like to see county leaders vote to use SPLOST money to pay down the county’s debt service on its existing capital projects and to use the money to repair such projects.

It is the fair and right thing to do at this time. We need to insure that our county is in sound fiscal shape as we prepare for future growth in Newton County