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Page 4A 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