Newspaper Page Text
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The Braselton News
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Opinion
“Difference of opinion leads
to enquiry, and enquiry to
truth. ” -Thomas Jefferson
Braseltoons by John Sheppard
"I used to be in fairytales but the
security of chess lured me away."
letters
Says thanks for support at thrift store
our views
Hoschton needs to
rebuild reserve funds
NEXT WEEK, the Hoschton City Council will
make one of the most important decisions in its
history. The council is slated to adopt its budget for
2008 Monday night after weeks of discussion and
controversy.
Usually, city budget actions are routine. Indeed,
some area small towns don’t even take the pro
cess seriously and just recycle old numbers year
after year.
To their credit, Hoschton officials are taking the
town’s 2008 budget very seriously. That’s in large
part due to the town’s shaky financial standing af
ter a disastrous 2007 financial year.
The town will begin 2008 with little reserves in its
general fund, owing to a variety of mistakes made
in the 2007 budget.
But while town leaders are taking the 2008 bud
get seriously, they have not addressed the city’s
oversized police department. Over half of the
town’s general fund is used to pay for an eight-man
police force.
For a town the size of Hoschton, that’s too much.
The state average for a town the size of Hoschton
is in the $280,000 range for a police department,
not the $480,000 range currently being discussed.
If Hoschton leaders are serious about getting the
city on a long-term, stable financial footing, they
will reduce the amount of public funds being spent
on the town’s police department.
That’s not to suggest the city should abolish its
police force, or that the current police department
isn’t doing a good job. Under the direction of chief
Dave Hill, the Hoschton Police Department is a
good organization.
But even good organizations can grow too large
and consume too much money. That’s what’s hap
pened in Hoschton over the last few years — the
police department has simply grown too large too
fast for the small town to absorb the costs.
For Hoschton to achieve many of the goals its
leaders want to accomplish, it must get a stronger
financial base.
The only way to do that is to cut city spending
in 2008 to start rebuilding the town’s financial re
serves.
The Braselton News
A Publication of The Jackson Herald &
Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc.
Mike Buffington Editor & Co-Publisher
mike @ mainstreetnews.com
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher &
Advertising Manager
scott@mainstreenews.com
Angela Gary Managing Editor
angie @ mainstreetnews.com
Kerri Testement News Editor
kerri @ mainstreetnews. com
Jeremy Ginn Advertising
jeremy@ mainstreetnews. com
Web Site: braseitonnews.com
Classified Advertising
classifieds@mainstreetnews.com
PO Box 908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549
General Phone: 706-367-5233
Dear Editor:
For almost three years, I was privileged to be a
part of Peace Place Thrift Store. I worked 60 plus
hours to help the shelter for battered women and
children. Recent changes in structure require me
to move to another mission.
It is with sincerest thanks to this wonderful com
munity who helped make the store a success. The
community participation and the generous dona
tions were the backbone of our operation. I am
humbled by the loyal volunteers and the people
God put in my path to strengthen and encourage
me daily. The support this newspaper gave the
store was a vital part of our growth.
I do not feel worthy of the awesome encourage
ment from the group of volunteers and customers
who showed up at last Tuesday’s board meeting
in my support. I am reduced to tears over the
monetary gifts to ensure my son has a Christmas
from this group of angels. On Thanksgiving eve, a
gift basket from Living Word Church and a box of
food showed up from Jefferson High School. How
can I ever thank these people who took care of our
needs when I felt so abandoned?
Jefferson is a town that embraces its own and
welcomes all. I look forward to our future in this
place.
Sincerely,
Kathy Nowell
Peace Place Thrift Store
Taxes and water are on a collision course in state legislature
TWO BIG issues are on a collision course as we approach the upcoming legisla
tive session: taxes and water.
It looks like quite a few legislators are going to get trapped and crushed between
those colliding issues.
Let’s look at taxes first. House Speaker Glenn Richardson is
determined to force a vote on his GREAT property tax proposal
(GREAT being an acronym either for “Get Rid of Every Ad
valorem Tax” or “Glenn Richardson’s Eminently Awful Tax plan,”
depending on how you see the issue).
Richardson wants to eliminate the property tax and replace it
with a broader statewide sales tax on all goods and services.
The heart of the speaker’s plan is a provision that would cen
tralize the collection of sales tax revenues in Atlanta, with the
state then doling out money to local governments and school
boards according to some arcane formula. Local entities
would hereafter receive tax funds equal to whatever their rev
enue levels were for the year 2006, with possibly some adjust
ments for population growth or inflation.
By centralizing government revenues in this way, the Richardson plan would
enable the handful of legislators who determine the state budget each year to set
strict limits on what local governments and school boards can spend as well.
Richardson and his conservative Republican allies have often said that they
think local governments are already spending too much money - you can reason
ably predict that once they gained the power to control local budgets through the
GREAT plan, they would clamp down on the money available to county commis
sions and school boards.
This in turns means local governments would have less money available to build
new roads, schools, hospitals, and other facilities that taxpayers typically expect.
State government would not be able to step in and make up the difference. Inde
pendent analyses of Richardson’s tax proposal indicate that it would reduce overall
revenues by $2 billion or $3 billion a year and leave a giant hole in the state budget.
That brings us to the second big issue of water. Most readers are familiar by now
with the crisis that the drought has caused in the metro Atlanta area, which is now
the home for about half of Georgia’s population. As early as three months from
now, or perhaps within a year, the major sources of drinking water for North Geor
gia could go dry.
Surprisingly, none of our political leaders are asking the question that screams to
be asked: what do we do if we really run out of water? We’re not talking about a
small town like Orme, Tenn., where water has to be trucked in every day for its 145
residents. We’re talking about a part of Georgia whose population is roughly 4.5
million. How do you provide life’s most basic necessity for that many people?
There aren’t many options that would be available. We could send tanker trucks
or run a pipeline down to areas like Macon that have excess water and are willing
to sell it to parched municipalities. We could start a crash program of building
more reservoirs. We could erect a desalination plant down by the coast and pump
desalinated water through a pipeline from Savannah to Atlanta, an idea that Atlanta
Mayor Shirley Franklin proposed several years ago.
Perhaps these alternatives would enable us to get through this drought and deal
with future dry spells as well. But all of them would be enormously expensive to
implement - costing taxpayers not just millions, but billions of dollars.
How do you raise a sum of money this large if you also enact a tax-cutting pro
vision that reduces the revenues state and local governments can raise? That’s
where it gets tricky - and that’s why legislators could find themselves in a very
uncomfortable position come January.
Do you go with the speaker and vote for his tax plan? That might gain you some
brownie points with Richardson, but it also could cripple the state in dealing with
current and future water shortages.
Do you vote against the speaker’s tax plan? That might be the responsible thing
to do for the long term, but a vengeful Richardson could make sure you never get
anything else accomplished as a lawmaker.
It’s rather like asking someone if they prefer death by hanging, or death by a fir
ing squad. That’s a choice lawmakers would rather not have to make.
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s Georgia Report, an Internet news
site at www.gareport.com that covers government and politics in Georgia.
Holiday safety
needed this
time of year
IT’S 6:30 A.M. and the traffic guy
on the local news station is already
astonished at the traffic at the mall.
A bird’s eye view of the mall
shows practically no parking spac
es. Shoppers are “hunting down”
those leaving the
mall and follow
ing them to their
vehicles — ready
to pounce on
valuable parking
spaces.
Meanwhile, I’m
sitting at home
— away from
the madness on
America’s biggest
shopping day,
“Black Friday,”
the day after Thanksgiving.
Although I may be missing out on
some good deals, I just don’t see
how all of that madness is worth it.
The early morning wake-up call, the
fight to get in line, the pushing to
get the latest-and-greatest “it” thing
and the possibility that the “it” thing
won’t be in stock when you get to
the store — no, I’ll stay home.
For that matter, I don’t plan to do
as much Christmas shopping at the
mall this year, either. It’s harder with
a baby to get anything done in pub
lic — much less accumulating more
gifts and being safe while doing so.
That’s something that’s easy to
overlook during all of the shopping
madness — your safety.
Just recently in Gwinnett County,
a woman lost two of her fingers
when a man driving a vehicle in a
parking lot grabbed her purse as
she was walking to a store. The
suspect was later caught by po
lice and is believed to have been
involved in a similar purse-snatch
ing case.
The injury to the victim was
unusual, but the manner in which
the suspect committed the crime is
becoming more common — purse-
snatching by moving vehicle.
Be careful when you go shopping
to keep an open eye in parking lots.
Go shopping during the daytime
hours to get a better view. Or, ask
a security guard to watch you go to
your vehicle.
Use caution around ATMs, as
they are an easy target for thieves
— who now know that you have
cash in your wallet. Many grocery
and retail stores allow you to get
cash at the registers, instead of
standing at an ATM in an open
parking lot.
After shopping in a store, put your
gifts in the trunk of your vehicle or
under car seats — away from the
view of thieves who prowl parking
lots looking for gifts left in vehicles.
Last year, there were media re
ports about thieves waiting outside
major electronic stores and watch
ing which customers had the big-
ticket items. The thieves would then
follow these customers to another
store or even their home, where
they would steal the items from their
vehicles.
But, there are also plenty of op
portunities for thieves to steal from
you during online purchases.
Be sure to use only reputable
sites that are “secure” for payment
option. Keep track of your credit
card purchases, to see if anyone
may be using your card number
illegally.
With all that you have to do this
holiday season, taking these few
extra steps could keep you (and
your wallet) safe.
Kerri Testement is news editor of
The Braselton News. Her e-mail ad
dress is kerri@mainstreetnews.com.
Kerri
Testement
kerri@mainstreet-
news.com