Newspaper Page Text
Page 4A — Wednesday, November 4, 2020, The True Citizen
OPINIONS
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LOOKING BACK
{this week in Burke County history}
10 YEARS AGO-NOVEMBER 3,2010
Two veteran Burke County Board of Education members
were ousted in the General Election. Ruby Saxon Myles
narrowly defeated longtime vice-chairman Willie Latimore
and Larry Preston unseated Willie Jordan. Nathan Deal easily
defeated former Gov. Roy Barnes with 53% of the vote to
Barnes’ 43%.
BCHS and EBA planned a joint dinner theater to raise
money for the Center for New Beginnings.
Waynesboro City Council voted to hand over supervision
of the police chief to the city administrator. It was a return
to the setup in place until 2002 when the council placed the
chief under their own watch.
25 YEARS AGO -NOVEMBER 9,1995
By a vote of 2556 to 2499, Alberta Anderson defeated
Joanne Dixon for the 116th District seat in the Georgia House
of Representatives.
Ninety jobs were set to be lost when the Louisiana-Pacific
plant and sawmill here closes. Twenty three employees were
terminated at Plant Vogtle as Georgia Power continued to
downsize its operations.
Virgil H. Choates defeated incumbent Midville Mayor
Scott Cochran by a vote of 118 to 57.
50 YEARS AGO-NOVEMBER 4,1970
Jimmy Carter was elected Governor of Georgia, defeating
Republican nominee Hal Suit. Carter carried Burke County
by a vote of 2401 to 1033.
Waynesboro Industries began small scale operations here,
according to company president Charles Scavullo. He credited
the startup to pre-employment training provided by Augusta
Technical School.
K.C. Childers, director of the Eastern Georgia Farmers
Cooperative, reported that there were now 519 members of
the organization. Woodrow Harvey was chairman of the board
of directors of the co-op.
75 YEARS AGO-NOVEMBER 8,1945
U.S. Navy Lt. Elmer Stephens was discharged and resumed
his position as Assistant Cashier at the Bank of Waynesboro.
Hamer’s Drug Store, one of the county’s best known firms,
was purchased by Walter West, Jr. and G. Wayne Parrish.
They intended to continue business under the current name.
Georgia Adjutant General Marvin Griffin was scheduled to
speak to the local American Legion post.
Mayor D.L. Stone and council members T.S. Rackley, J.E.
Mundy and John D. Greiner all announced their candidacy
for re-election.
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some emblems seer (M people wields great povier
LONG LIVE THE GOOD OL' BOY SYSTEM
BEN ROBERTS
benroberts@bellsouth.net
If you were paying attention
to last week’s True Citizen,
you might have noticed some
interesting information tucked
between the jail bookings and
the football scores.
The advertisements for the
2020 Tax Digest and five-year
levy histories for the Burke
County Board of Education
(BOE) and the Board of Com
missioners were mixed in
among the campaign ads and
the property listings.
The ads break down the total
value of taxable property in
Burke County. This is what is
commonly referred to as the Tax
Digest. It also lists the proposed
tax rate (millage rate) as well
as the total amount of revenue
(tax dollars) the municipal-
If you've read these scrib-
blings over the years, you
understand that folks from the
Blessed South have our own
way of speaking. For instance,
Southerners tend to leave the
r's and the g's out of our speech
patterns.
"Hey man, yo dog has been
diggin' in my yawd again."
If you read that and don't
understand it, you probably
haven't lived around these parts
very long.
To make matters pertaining
to proper use of the English
language even worse, Face-
book and other social media
outlets allow members to post
hundreds of words with not
one comma, not one period, not
even an ellipsis.
we had supper tonight at fish
eye it was so good the people
are the best the food can't be
beat i can't wait to go back again
ryan your the best
(Note to editor, please don't
hx the previous sentence, I was
making a point.)
Regardless of how much I
agree with the sentiment about
a local eatery, the lack of basic
punctuation makes me cringe.
ity expects to take in based on
those hgures.
Earlier this year these two
panels put together a budget
to plan how much they were
going to spend in the coming
year. Now it’s time to adopt the
millage rate which determines
how they will raise the revenue
needed to cover that previously
adopted budget.
To put it in terms each of us
can understand, the budget rep
resents the bills the government
is going to have to pay next year
and the tax dollars they collect
are the revenue to get it done.
In the case of the BOE, they
passed a budget back in August
for just over $56-million. Ac
cording to their 2020 Digest
projections, they anticipate tax
revenues of over $74 million.
Again, using their own projec
tions, that’s $14 million more
And don't even get me started
on the misuse of your vs you're.
Cringe.
But there's another punctua
tion mark that you and I better
get used to.
The asterisk.
*
"Asterisk. “The character (*)
thought of as being appended to
something, typically in order
to indicate that there is a limit
ing fact or consideration which
makes that thing less important
or impressive than it would
otherwise be."
That's Merriam-Webster's
dehnition of the asterisk.
Here's mine:
“Yeah, but..”
For instance,
Most people in our neck of
the woods love college football.
We eagerly look forward to the
season starting, and usually en
ter a semi-mournful state when
it ends. Around mid August,
the discussions start as to what
kind of chance our favorite
team has to win the National
Championship. Most seasons
begin with high hopes that "this
year" our boys will bring home
the trophy.
Not this year.
Not in 2020.
The year of our Lord, 2020,
when the history is written, will
be known as the year of the *.
The year of the *, but also the
than they collected last year.
And a combined increase of
71.5 percent in revenue since
2015.
The County Commission
anticipates tax collections of
just under $31-million which
includes a projected increase
of $4.5 million over last year.
Their adopted budget plans
to spend roughly $86-million in
the coming year, however, only
$23-million of that amount has
to be covered by those property
tax revenues. The remainder
of the budget is covered by
various other sources of income
including hre fund tax, sales tax
revenue, federal funding and
various hnes and fees collected
throughout the year.
It is worth noting, sales tax
revenue is estimated using his
torical data and hnes, fees and
federal monies can be unknown
quantities in any given year. It’s
hard to know how those col
lections could be affected by
things happening in the world
beyond our control, like say,
a pandemic that lasts for 12
months or more.
To be fair, both of these
boards are operating well with
in the black but they’re also
spending huge sums of money
year of Covid-19.
Whichever college football
team wins the Natty, let's face
it- probably Alabama or Clem-
son, when the stories are writ
ten, there will be an asterisk
included.
"The hll-in-the-blank were
named winners of the National
Champions for 2020."
Yeah, but... the qualifying
asterisk * will also be there.
“Dozens of teams normally
in contention did not compete
due to the pandemic.” Addition
ally... “Some losses by teams
who were considered favorites
were due to key players being
quarantined for two weeks.”
“Forty percent of Football Bowl
Subdivision (FBS) teams are
not playing at all.”
Possible headline in January
2021:
The Alabama Crimson Tide
won their 700th National
Championship.*
Yeah, but.
There's more.
Before Coronavirus became
a familiar word to all of us, the
economy was on track to break
all previous records. It actually
DID break many records. The
numbers were through the roof.
The Republicans were loving it
and there were actually Demo
crats who were unbelievably
lamenting it because it made the
president look good. America
compared to other communities
of similar size and demograph
ics.
We could hll up this entire
newspaper debating over how
much money is spent by elected
officials in this county and
how that spending is priori
tized. What’s not up for debate,
however, is that this continued
uptick in spending is not sus
tainable in the long term, and
maybe not even in the short
term beyond the next hve years.
We could hll a second volume
explaining how Plant Vogtle
and the other utilities make up
nearly 80-percent of the total
property value in this county
and that because of that, they
pay the vast majority of those
$31- and $74-million tax bills.
But that golden goose won’t
live forever. In fact, once the
current construction of Units
3 and 4 are complete, possibly
as early as 2021 and 2022, the
drastic increases in Vogtle’s
value will come to a halt.
When their overall value de
creases, so will their portion of
the tax bill. So tell me, Burke
County, who picks up the tab
for all this spending in the years
to come?
was roaring.
"The Dow Jones all-time high
of 29,551.42 was reached on
Feb. 12, 2020, a result of the
longest bull market in history".
*
Yeah, but.
Then China sent us a gift.
By the time this piece goes
to press, we will have a pretty
good idea of who will occupy
the White House until January
20th, 2025. In my lifetime,
there's never been a nastier
more rancid political season
and there's plenty of blame for
both sides. I voted weeks ago
and I will never make apologies
for my decision no matter how
the election turns out.
Whoever wins will have done
so because that candidate got
the most electoral votes this
past Tuesday. The candidate
will have convinced more elec
tors than his opponent that he's
better able to lead the country
through the continuing troubled
waters.
The winner will be the duly
elected president of the United
States and the leader of the free
world.
*
Yeah, but.
You can write your own end
ing to why whatever side loses
will never accept the verdict,
continued on page 9A
Don Lively
YEAH...BUT