Well, well, well.

Folks, being the age that I am, I thought I had every wrinkle you could dream of or imagine. Our Ellis County leaders have just "out-wrinkled" as all. I am writing about the latest valuation on all property in the county. This new wrinkle is called "increased oil interest value." Since this was in The Hays Daily News on Aug. 19, I have tried every face cream and in desperation even some "mud products," and I still was not able to hide this new wrinkle.

You would think, or at least I do, that with all the oil has been discovered in Eliis County in the last six or seven years, the county would be getting one hell of a lot of taxes on top of what they were getting before the last six or seven years. If the county was able to pay all their bills before all this new oil popped up, why do they need it now?

Oh, stupid me. I almost forgot we bought a bigger building because we need more working space. Yes, I have seen how crowded some of the offices are. Every office has to have a certain amount of space to be able to do things efficiently. No argument from me there. However, in lieu of the fact there will be more working space, shouldn't these same people be more efficient now? So why is the move on to hire more people?

I think it would be interesting to have somebody from the Ellis County Treasurer's office to publish just how much more in taxes (from oil) the county is getting now than six or seven years ago.

Folks, what's coming next? Would it surprise you that when the farmers will get better harvests and a better price per bushel it will increase our property taxes? Just a thought.

Here's something that's more than just a thought. What's going to happen if and when we ever get wind farms in Eliis County? If they raise our property taxes just because oil is bringing in more tax dollars, how high are our taxes going to increase because wind will be bringing in more tax dollars? If our county commissioners are going to treat the wind farms as they are more oil, then our property taxes will be a hell of a lot more than whatever we would be saving on cheaper light bills. Just think. All the wind farms are being put up with our tax dollars in the first place and then when they are operating we have to pay more taxes they are producing electricity. Go figure.

Remember, all these weird things are happening in our government because we are letting it happen. If you don't like something, make a phone call and voice your opinion. Yes, you can tell them I said so, because they quit biting me a long rime ago because they got tired of biting into old meat and then just end up spitting it out.

Folks, I look at it this way. If I replace my hail-damaged siding with gold-plated siding, will the farmer's land taxes go up because my house would be worth more money? I hope every farmer gets oil wells. We need it. But if our house taxes are going to go sky high just because we have more oil in Ellis County, then it is just a matter of time when all we can do with the oil is try to drink it or take a bath in it. We certainly won't be able to buy any of the oil products we are accustomed to.

This whole setup sounds looks like an oxymoron to me.

Like I've said before, "We ain't seen nothing yet," Wait until the boys in Topeka get done putting two saddles on us all for the new school tax procedure they are dreaming about.

Back to Ellis County. If nothing changes in the November elections, then I guess we'll just have to keep on paying and paying and paying.

In the meantime, I'll keep on looking for some more magic mud cream.

However, as dry as it has been around here all summer, it's pretty hard to find mud, much less to make cream out of it. I think my wrinkles are here for the duration.

Seriously, folks, if we don't start letting our elected officials know that they work for the taxpayers and not the employees, then we deserve what we're getting.

Vernon S. Befort

Hays