Newspaper Page Text
Page 2A
The Braselton News
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Area N e ws
Politics
Drought
Richardson defends sales tax plan
A confrontational state
official attempted to sell
his proposal to overhaul
Georgia’s tax system at last week’s
Commerce Kiwanis Club meeting.
But all he may have done was irri
tate local business leaders, many of
whom described Georgia’s Speaker
of the House Rep. Glenn Richardson
as “arrogant.” And Richardson
vowed to punish any other state rep
resentative who opposed his plan to
do away with property taxes.
Jackson County Industrial
Development Chairman Scott
Martin asked Richardson to state
whether he would penalize state
representatives who opposed the
bill.
“Absolutely,” he said. “If you
don’t support me, I’m not going to
elect you to office.”
Local state representative Tommy
Benton has not taken a position on
Richardson’s proposal, but has said
he’s open to “new ideas.”
Richardson also asked Martin
“What do you do for a living?” say
ing he wanted to “know the pretext
for the question you ask. If you’re
getting a check from a governmen
tal entity, you’re going to resist
change.”
Martin, an employee of Jackson
EMC, told Richardson that his slide
presentation and comments had not
provided a lot of information as
to how the change would affect
residents.
“I want to know what it’s going
to cost me ... I want to know how
much I’m going to be paying in
sales tax,” Martin said.
“Then you can vote against it,”
Richardson snapped.
“That’s exactly right,” Martin
countered.
“If you want to give a speech,
sir, I’ll be glad to give you this
podium,” Richardson groused. “I
can spend 14 hours going over all
these numbers ... I’ve got reams of
paper on this subject;
I will never be able
to tell it in a presenta
tion. It’s about a con
cept. Do you want to
go through a system
that pays on land or
pays on consumption?
If you want change,
vote ‘yes,’ if you want
to keep it the same,
vote ‘no.’”
Richardson was also
curt with others who
questioned his plan.
When Dr. Clark Hill, a local physi
cian, pointed out the complexities
of charging a sales tax for an office
business when he has no way of
knowing for weeks what the charge
would be, Richardson’s response
was that “just like every other per
son, you adapt to the tax laws.”
Overall, Richardson’s talk was
heavy on his philosophy of taxa
tion and light on details as to how
a revolutionary change in the way
Georgia schools and city and county
governments are funded will affect
taxpayers or the entities that spend
the tax money.
The motivating factor for the pro
posed constitutional amendment is
Richardson’s belief that the taxation
of property - land, houses, busi
nesses, vehicles and inventory - is
illogical and that Georgians would
be better served if every citizen paid
taxes as they consume - or spend.
He calls property taxes “regres
sive.”
“If we tax groceries at the four
percent rate, lottery tickets at four
percent and services at four percent,
those three things alone - the very
first year we can end all school
taxes on homesteaded properties in
the state of Georgia. One point nine
million homeowners can see their
tax bills reduced.”
Ultimately, he said, the process
would eliminate all property taxes,
replacing them with
a sales tax. What he
did not mention at his
Kiwanis presentation
is that somewhere in
the process the four-
percent statewide sales
tax would be upped to
6.5 percent - and local
sales taxes, which are
three percent in most
areas, would still be
levied.
While phasing in the
transition to a sales tax,
Richardson also proposes freezing
the assessments on every home
steaded property in Georgia and
allowing assessments to increase a
maximum of one percent a year. He
would cap the “growth of local gov
ernment” to the rate of the govern
mental consumer price index “plus
population increase,” unless voters
approve increases by referendum,
and allow taxpayers to appeal their
tax bills (the only appeals now are
at the time of assessment notices).
“It is a litmus test for wheth
er you want change in Georgia,”
Richardson declared.
As for concerns that schools
would have insufficient revenue
during economic hard times,
Richardson brushed it off.
“Bad times for people, bad times
for government,” he explained.
“Good times for people, good times
for government - that’s when you
do things.”
He blew off complaints from
school superintendents about hous
ing kids in trailers.
“I went to a school that didn’t
have air conditioning,” he said.
“You don’t live beyond your
means.”
Richardson termed predictions
of revenue shortfalls and economic
difficulties from his “The GREAT
Plan” as “hocus-pocus-the-sky-is-
falling.”
RICHARDSON
Local governments also cutting water use
Do local governments practice
what they preach?
When it comes to conserving
water, the answer is “Mostly,”
according to a small survey of
local government offices.
A quick look at the water usage
of local city halls and county
buildings shows that over the last
few months, governments have
been cutting back on their water
usage. The cuts come after many
of these same governments have
been encouraging local citizens
to conserve water during one of
the worst droughts on record for
the area.
Some local government offices
use only a few thousand gallons
of water per month and have small
variations in their month-to-month
usage.
The largest users are area jails
and prisons, which use several
hundred thousand gallons each
month. But even those facilities
were using less water in recent
months.
Some local governments are in
the process of making even more
cutbacks. In Commerce, the town
is soliciting bids to replace 11
commodes and two urinals with
higher-efficiency units. The city is
also planning to talk with the city
board of education about install
ing higher-efficiency toilets in the
school system.
In Winder, the city has already
replaced several fixtures with low
er-flow units and has done an audit
of city water usage, said Roger
Wilhelm, program coordinator with
the Winder utility department.
“You have to sweep around your
own back door before you tell
others two sweep around theirs,”
he said.
Government Water Usage
Government
July
Auq.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Braselton Town Hall
12,900
42,250
38,150
8,400
NR
Braselton Police Bldg.
44,300
46,450
15,660
5,950
NR
Commerce City Hall
20,000
20,000
15,000
15,000
12,000
Hoschton City Hall
936
698
818
816
NR
J.Co. Courthouse
137,500
166,000
176,000
111,500
79,000
Courthouse Irrg.
94,500
91,500
95,500
0
0
J.Co. Admin.
18,000
26,800
22,600
18,500
19,850
JCCI
869,000
889,000
935,000
753,000
773,000
Jefferson City Hall
1,700
1,600
3,600
1,600
1,750
Winder City Hall
4,900
5,200
5,600
5,300
4,900
Barrow Co. CH & Jail
341,400
386,200
326,200
296,500
NR
Former DA
Madison cleared in area bank robberies
Former Piedmont Judicial Circuit District
Attorney Tim Madison has been cleared of any
connection to two recent bank robberies in the
state.
Late last week, GBI and FBI agents searched
Madison’s Franklin County home in connection to
the robberies in Thomson and Oconee County.
Sources close to the probe said Monday that
investigation into the matter cleared Madison of
any involvement. Bank videos of the robberies
showed a man who resembled the former DA.
Madison resigned the DA’s seat last June amid a
state probe into questionable financial transactions
in his office. He was indicted by a Banks County
grand jury in August on theft charges, along with
his wife and a former assistant district attorney. He
has pled not guilt to the charges.
All three currently await trial in Banks County.
Jackson County School System
Jackson County School System
Elrod discusses higher tax exemptions with BOE
Larger property tax exemptions for senior citizens
has been discussed in Jackson County for several
years and last week, tax commissioner Don Elrod
showed some proposed ideas to the Jackson County
Board of Education.
Although the BOE didn’t take any action on the
ideas, pressure from both local senior citizens and
state officials calling for property tax reform has
pushed the exemption issue back into the spotlight.
According to Elrod’s data, raising the exemptions
from $20,000 to $40,000 for those age 65 and older
would cost an additional .25 mills. Raising it to a
$50,000 exemption would raise the millage rate by
.33 mills.
“It’s something that’s been discussed not only in
this community, but in a lot of communities lately,”
said Superintendent Shannon Adams. “A lot of senior
citizens on fixed incomes question why they should
pay any school tax. If there were a greater exemption,
it might lessen the burden on some of those folks. But
as Don pointed out, that’s just a shift to somebody
else. It’s a tax shift, not a tax decrease for the entire
population.”
Rising city, county and school property tax rates
has been controversial in recent years and several
high-ranking state officials say they plan to address
the matter in the upcoming state legislative session.
Some officials want to abolish property taxes and
replace them with additional sales taxes. But that idea
has faced major opposition from many local officials
who say it amounts to a state takeover of local gov
ernments by the state.
County school board approves new employees
BY BRANDON REED
The Jackson County Board of
Education approved several new
hires Monday night. Those hired
were:
•Denise Craig, food ser
vice assistant, Jackson County
Comprehensive High School
(JCCHS).
•Michelle Hardy, special edu
cation paraprofessional, West
Jackson Middle School (WJMS).
•Lauren Harrington, special
education teacher, West Jackson
Intermediate School (WJIS).
•Jane McManus, special educa
tion paraprofessional, WJMS.
•Patricia Page, Pre-K parapro
fessional, West Jackson Primary
School (WJPS).
•Holly Sewell, custodian, East
Jackson Comprehensive High
School (EJCHS).
•April Stephenson, Pre-K teach
er, North Jackson Elementary
School (NJES).
•Mary Tatum, kindergar
ten, paraprofessional, Maysville
Elementary School (MES).
•Julie Zogran, social studies
teacher, EJCHS.
•Stephanie Elrod, paraprofes
sional, MES.
RESIGNATIONS
The following resignations were
approved:
•Michelle Allen, Pre-K teacher,
NJES.
•Deborah Chitwood, kindergar
ten paraprofessional, WJPS.
•Nichole McLendon, special
education paraprofessional, MES.
•Gabriela Mioc, food service
assistant, WJMS.
•Jessica Poe, food service assis
tant, JCCHS.
•Laura Rittenberry, parapro
fessional, Gordon Street Center
(GSC).
•Tammy Rosario, custodian,
EJCHS.
•Leah Sanders, kindergarten
paraprofessional, MES.
•Amanda Seagraves, paraprofes
sional, EJCHS.
TRANSFERS
The following transfers were
approved by the board of educa
tion:
•Pam Shields, assistant princi
pal, South Jackson Elementary
School (SJES) to principal, Benton
Elementary School (BES).
Jefferson
Jefferson traffic light to operate by New Year
The much-anticipated traffic sig
nal at the Kroger intersection in
Jefferson is slated to be in operat
ing mode by Jan. 1.
This week, the east side of Old
Pendergrass Road was reopened to
traffic after several weeks of turn
ing lane installations. Some of the
underground work is also being
done this week at the site for the
traffic signal installation.
Officials leading the effort hope
to have the traffic signals hanging
by the end of next week and in
“flash mode” around Christmas.
Final road markings and signs will
be installed when the signal is
activated.
The traffic signal has been
anticipated by area citizens at the
intersection of the Damon Gause
Bypass and Old Pendergrass Road
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