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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 C^roce $mficjues COMING SOON! 4188 Hwy. 53, Suite 104, Hoschton, GA "Find great treasures at affordable prices! Vickie Robinson, Owner (678) 425-7945 after a slew of accidents and sev eral fatalities happened over the last two years. The project is being overseen by Jackson County offi cials and paid for by the City of Jefferson. 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