I take extreme exception to your editorial endorsing a special tax district to fund Daufuskie Island ferry services.

I have run boats from the Bahamas to Hudson Bay. My daddy was a dockbuilder, his daddy was, too, and my great grandfather was a Confederate naval officer, so I can speak with some authority when it comes to marine issues.

Every last entity who has touched a ferry here, with the sole exception of Wick Scurry of J&W Corp., has either gone broke or is about to. Scurry has been at it 35 years, and some years his company survived only because of infusions of personal funds.

As things now stand, Beaufort County spends about one-tenth the property taxes collected on the island to fund existing ferry services. Is 10 percent too much to ask? And we are supposed to tax ourselves more?

Those who are ramrodding this ferry tax have no landing on either side, no parking on either side, no boat, no skipper, no budget, no clue. At a recent meeting, when Scurry informed tax district supporters that 30 percent of his costs are associated with docks he already owns, their eyes just glazed over.

It is widespread opinion here that this is no more than a scheme by real estate-development interests to shift the burden of ferry operation onto the people of Daufuskie.

Roger Pinckney

Daufuskie Island