The Gadfly is a series of letters offering commentary on local issues and published in the Warrensburg Gazette.

Dear Editor

All the voting is over and by the time this hits print, we may even know who won what. While supporters of the losing candidates are sure that the country or state or county is going to h*** in a handbasket, I imagine the rest of us will again have the time and attention span to examine some of the local issues that will affect us right here in Warrensburg.

Our County Commission will face some major problems. One is coming up with the money to create our new courthouse annex at the old Baptist church site. Some costs will be cut by eliminating ‘gold-plating’ by the architect, others by cutting some usability. Then, the commissioners will need to address the jail problem. While the Sheriff & his staff are certainly cramped, they’ll have to decide just how much of a tax increase they’ll be willing to put forward in a town that already has a high tax rate. The Commission will also have to figure out how to get the Sheriff’s operations budget under control and how to pave roads as promised if use tax receipts continue below estimates.

The City of Warrensburg’s financial problems are still there. Despite collecting record amounts of revenue, the city hasn’t come up with a way to make the Taj Mahal (aka Community Center) pay for itself. They’re planning to defer maintenance on streets and employees (especially in jobs that require training) feel underpaid.

CMSU is being sued for breach of contract by Dr. Elliott and for wrongful termination by the former faculty advisor for the Muleskinner, who let the students make public information public. Meanwhile, the Muleskinner is back to being a milquetoast paper that will avoid any controversy. I did see a report that CMSU has offered to use taxpayer money to pay faculty member dues to the Greater Warrensburg Area Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (GWACC&VC); if true, this is not only an improper use of our money, but it would give CMSU even more voting control of the GWACC&VC.

Speaking of the GWACC&VC, they continue their stealth management of the tourism tax money. They managed to sneak their budget meeting in without my knowledge, but never fear, I’ll get the information one way or another and tell everyone how they’re using their ‘corporate welfare.’