I am writing in response to the front page story in The Bulletin on June 17 regarding Wayne Purcell and Brett Evert charging their hotel guests tax and keeping the tax revenue as additional profit. Put simply, this is stealing and it is indefensible. Taxes that are charged to tourists staying in hotels are supposed to be submitted to the city to pay for public services like police, fire and water. How dare these people try to mislead their neighbors to think that they are entitled to line their pockets with public dollars?
During the city's difficult economic times, the residents of Bend are hurting. People are unemployed. The city is laying off employees and public services are being reduced. How could these hotel owners possibly think it is okay to steal from their neighbors?
If the Bend city council is reading this letter, you must collect our money from Mr. Purcell and Mr. Evert and let them know that regardless of how much money they have, they are not entitled to steal from the citizens of Bend. Maybe the city council should follow the president's lead with BP in the Gulf, and require that these two weasels put up an escrow account while they try and argue that they really didn't steal all that money.
