Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Having my personal property tax rise 35 percent was a good indicator which way Mathews County had decided to go, but when my hundred-year-old farm house went from $132,800 to $214,400, an increase of $81,600, about 60 percent increase, led to the question: Why does Mathews County need all this money?

Have they changed the direction to keep our county intact and opted for growing government? I asked one supervisor this and didn’t get an answer.

I’m 65 and have been a resident of Mathews for 31 years, lived in harmony with beautiful people who vote their mind, and show how we want to keep Mathews. Who has been asleep at the switch that all of a sudden we are faced with such an increase in taxes? When the magnitude of 35 percent and higher occurs, it leaves me thinking taxes are going to rise faster than the middle class can keep up with, and sooner than later the rich will gobble up lost homes at deflated prices.

Are our supervisors out of t...