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THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2008
Editor: Angela Gary
Phone: 706-367-2490
E-mail: AngieEditor@aol.com
Website: www.mainstreetnews.com
Opinions
“Where the press is free and every man
able to read, all is safe.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Are property tax
freezes fair?
I have to admit to being a bit jealous of the tax bill
some of my relatives in South Georgia are pay
ing.
Their property tax bill last year? Just $25.89.
And another relative paid $29.00 last year.
My bill? Around the $1,500 mark last year.
What’s the difference? I live in Jackson County,
while my relatives live in Muscogee County, one of
several communities in Georgia that has a property tax
freeze.
The issue of reforming property
tax law is becoming a hot topic in
the General Assembly this year,
with several proposals to revamp
how citizens generate funds for state
and local coffers.
The latest proposals considered
by state legislators last week call for
freezing property taxes at the 2008
rates until the property is sold.
The first proposal would apply
to all property (residential and non-
residential property). Property taxes
could only be increased by two per
cent each year from its 2009 value for residential prop
erty and three percent for non-residential property.
The second proposal would apply to only homes and
would freeze property taxes until the home is sold.
Both issues would require a constitutional amend
ment, which would require voter approval at the ballot
box.
I don’t know too many people who wouldn’t agree
with paying fewer taxes. But you have to wonder if
paying fewer property taxes would truly provide for all
of the services needed for a community.
Columbus implemented its property tax freeze in
1983 and voters overwhelming reaffirmed it about a
decade later. It basically freezes property assessments
from the time one buys a home until they sell it again.
A new assessment would be done when the house is
sold.
For those relatives who have been living in their
homes for several decades, their property taxes have
remained low with the frozen assessments.
But if someone were to buy the house next door, their
taxes would be considerably higher. Is it fair for a hom
eowner on the same street in the same neighborhood to
be paying so much more in taxes for the same services?
As a student in Muscogee County schools, I remem
ber hearing the complaints about the property tax
freeze.
Not enough classrooms? Blame the property tax
freeze.
Schools needing repairs? Blame the property tax
freeze.
Lack of supplies for students? Blame the property tax
freeze.
Some complained that the property tax freeze in
Columbus unfairly targeted schools, which couldn’t
benefit from increased property tax assessments.
But the author of the proposed statewide property tax
freeze says the legislation would prevent “backdoor tax
hikes on our homes.”
After so many homeowners in Jackson County saw
their property assessments rise last year, I’d say many
would favor this legislation.
But the proposals, if adopted, would most likely
require local governments to seek voter-approved
bond and sales tax measures more frequently. Jackson
County voters just shot down a bond referendum.
Asking local voters for more tax money has recently
proven to be a tougher sell than in past years. Indeed,
local governments would have to prove they are better
stewards of our money.
kerri
testement
Kerri Testement is news editor of The Braselton
News, a sister publication of The Banks County News.
Her e-mail address is kerri@mainstreetnews.com.
The Banks County News
Founded 1968
The official legal organ of Banks County, Ga.
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher /Ad. Manager
Angela Gary Editor
Chris Bridges Sports Editor
Sharon Hogan Reporter
Anelia Chambers Receptionist
April Reese Sorrow Church News
Phones (all 706 area code):
Angela Gary Phone 367-2490
Angela Gary Fax 367-9355
Homer Office Phone 677-3491
Homer Office Fax 677-3263
(SCED 547160)
Published weekly by MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.,
P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549
Subscription in county $19.75
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Postmaster, send address changes to:
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Homer, Ga. 30547
Is state Democratic party back from dead?
P roponents of a strong two-
party state government ought
to be jubilant at the outcome
of Georgia’s Feb. 5 presidential pri
mary.
The record turnout suggests that the
state Democratic Party is on its way
to becoming the comeback donkey.
Ordinarily, individual presidential
primaries are meaningless blips on
the charts of history. Because primary
participants are mostly activists vot
ing in modest numbers, the prima
ries hardly ever provide an accurate
preview of coming events. The 2008
Georgia primary may be different. If
it is, a tsunami is in the making.
Check out this profile of our pri
mary:
•Republicans still rule, but ...:
More Georgians chose a Republican
ballot in 103 of Georgia’s 159 coun
ties, yet statewide, Democrats out
voted Republicans by a five percent
margin.
•Democrats roared: Thirty percent
more Georgians cast ballots in this
year’s Democratic primary than in
2006 for Democratic Lt. Gov. Mark
Taylor in the general election for
governor. At the same time, the total
Republican vote was down nearly 25
percent from Gov. Sonny Perdue’s
2006 high-water mark.
•The dividing lines: Most of
Georgia appears on a color-coded
map to be fairly evenly divided
between the parties. Democratic
dominance continues in the state’s
metropolitan cores, as well as in
Southwest Georgia and the Macon-
to-Augusta corridor. The GOP
still reigns in North and Southeast
Georgia. However, Republican power
is slipping. In 2004, President Bush
carried Cobb and Gwinnett coun
ties, then considered the center of
GOP might, by
a whopping 28
percent. In the
presidential pri
mary, the GOP
had only a seven
percent edge over
Democrats in the
number of ballots
cast in both coun
ties.
For the first
time since she
took office a year ago, Democratic
Party Chairman Jane Kidd had more
to smile about than Republican lead
ers being outed as immoral nitwits.
“We are very enthusiastic about the
turnout,” Kidd says. “You watch. This
is just the beginning.”
So what does it all mean?
For starters, more blacks are voting
than ever. Spurred by the charisma of
Barack Obama, African Americans
accounted for nearly 60 percent of
the Georgia Democratic primary vot
ers. If Obama survives the primaries
and emerges as the nominee, look
for black voting to skyrocket in the
November election. He also has the
potential of attracting more young
voters of all races, as well as some
Republicans disgruntled by the pres
ent state of their party. If Obama fiz
zles and Sen. Hillary Clinton prevails
as the nominee, African-American
voters may lose much of their
enthusiasm for going to the polls.
She will have almost no pull with
Republicans, even disgruntled ones.
Latinos, mostly Democrats, are vot
ing in steadily increasing numbers.
Hispanic voter registration in Georgia
was said to be up this year over last
by more than 12,000. Georgia legisla
tors who spend much of their time
dreaming up new legal tortures for
migrant laborers ought to look for
another line of work.
Then there’s history — the per
petual spoiler of any good yarn. This
tale ought to end with Democrats
regaining parity in Georgia and a
Democrat moving into the White
House.
Will it really? Take a short look
back at Democratic presidential cam
paigns. Democratic nominees, with
the exception of Bill Clinton, soared
in the summers then fell with the
autumn leaves.
In Atlanta in 1988, Mike Dukakis
marched out of the Democratic con
vention in July with a 17-point lead
over Republican George H. W. Bush.
By October, Dukakis was washed up.
Vice President Al Gore looked
to be a 55-45 shoo-in against a
Republican Texas governor who,
the media pointed out, did not even
know the names of the president of
Romania or the Emir of Tunisia. The
race ended in a photo finish with the
Supreme Court clearing the way for
George W. Bush to become president.
Sen. John Kerry looked good to go
as he charged out of the Democratic
convention in the summer of 2004 to
challenge Bush, whose popularity had
begun to plummet. By November,
snob-surfer Kerry allowed himself to
be branded a wartime fraud, and he
was a dead duck.
One can get even money that
Democrats are so cursed with the
autumn blues that the nominee
will be out of gas — again — in
November.
You can reach award-winning
political columnist Bill Shipp at P.O.
Box 2520, Kennesaw, GA 30156,
e-mail: shipp1@bellsouth.net, or Web
address: billshipponline.com.
bill
shipp
Letters to the Editor policy given
The Banks County News has estab
lished a policy on printing Letters to
the Editor.
We must have an original copy of
all letters that are submitted to us for
publication.
Members of our staff will not type
out or hand-write letters for people
who stop by the office and ask them
to do so.
Letters to the Editor must also be
signed with the address and phone
number of the person who wrote
them.
The address and phone number
will be for our verification purposes
only and will not be printed unless
the writer requests it. Mail to,
The Banks County News, P.O. Box
920, Homer, Ga. 30547.
E-mailed letters will be accepted,
but we must have a contact phone
number and address. Letters that are
libelous will not be printed.
Letters may also be edited to meet
space requirements. Anyone with
questions on the policy is asked to
contact editor Angela Gary at
AngieEditor@aol.com or by calling
706-367-2490.
News department contact numbers
Anyone with general story ideas,
complaints or comments about the
news department is asked to call edi
tor Angela Gary at 706-367-2490.
She can also be reached by e-mail
at AngieEditor@aol.com.
Anyone with comments, ques
tions or suggestions relating to the
county board of commissioners,
county government, county board of
education, Maysville City Council
and crime and courts is asked to
contact staff member Chris Bridges
at 706-367-2745 or by e-mail at
chris@mainstreetnews.com.
Bridges also is sports edi
tor of the paper and covers local
high school, middle school and
recreation sports.
Anyone with comments, ques
tions or suggestions relating to
Alto, Lula, Baldwin and Gillsville,
should contact Sharon Hogan at
706-367-5233 or by e-mail at
sharon@mainstreetnews.com.
Calls for information about the
church page should go to April
Reese Sorrow at 706-677-3491.
Church news may also be e-mailed to
asorrow@mainstreetnews.com.
The Banks County News web
site can also be accessed at
www.mainstreet.news.com.
Keeping talking:
maybe someone
is listening
Y ou have to hand it to right
wing talk-show host king Rush
Limbaugh.
People aren’t mindlessly listening to
his message the way they used to but he
keeps talking. Limbaugh obviously sub
scribes to the theory if you say something
enough times — regardless of whether
it’s true — then people will start to
believe it.
It’s funny really listening to the once
mighty talk show emperor spew forth his
right-wing venom day after day. There
was a time when
Limbaugh’s dia
tribe was aimed at
anyone associated
with the Democratic
party or anyone
with an leftist affili
ations. (Kind of
reminds me of the
late Joe McCarthy
and his infamous
witch hunt for sup
posed Communists
several decades
ago.)
Seems though Limbaugh has gone
so far off the deep end now that even
Republicans — or least those he doesn’t
deem “real” Republicans — are also open
to his weekday rantings.
Now, let’s be clear about something.
Those who have read my views on
Republicans know I am not a card-car
rying member of the party. However, for
someone, anyone, to attack John McCain
the way Limbaugh has been doing for
numerous weeks shows just how warped
his mind has become.
Let’s be frank about this: John McCain
is an American hero. If he were standing
next to me right now, I would shake his
hand and say, “Thank you.”
“Thank you Senator McCain for what
you have done for our country. Thank
you for what you did while serving our
country during the Vietnam War. Thank
you for somehow keeping the faith dur
ing those dark times you went through as
a prisoner of war. Thank you for giving
of yourself to serve the people of this
country as an elected official. Thank you
for showing what the definition of an
American hero is all about.”
That’s what I would tell him.
I would also be tempted to tell
Senator McCain, who will no doubt be
the Republican nominee for President,
that he should never be disheartened by
people like Rush Limbaugh or that Rush
Limbaugh want-to-be Sean Hannity (who
hasn’t spoken one word of truth in years
on the air.)
Limbaugh did his best to keep
McCain from being the nominee of the
Republican Party. He tried to convince his
listeners that McCain “wasn’t conserva
tive enough.” Limbaugh, who obviously
doesn’t have his pulse on even the people
of the right-wing movement anymore has
been turned away plain and simple just
like the extreme right wing candidate he
supported in Mitt Romney.
It amazes me that anyone would put
stock in anything Rush Limbaugh says
anymore. This is a man after all who for
years said people who used drugs should
be in jail. This is the same man who
when caught with illegal prescription
drugs did not serve jail time. Of course,
the noble thing to do would have asked
the judge to sentence him to time behind
bars. Afterall, that’s what he said people
who used drugs illegally should be sen
tenced to. Limbaugh is the ultimate defi
nition of a hypocrite.
I congratulate a majority of Republican
voters for not listening to Limbaugh and
the likes of Hannity, Laura Ingraham,
Ann Coulter, etc. Maybe there’s hope for
the Republican Party yet.
All I know is if John McCain is eventu
ally elected president it will be a major
improvement over what we’ve had the
past eight years. Is he my ideal candi
date? No. I do disagree with him on some
issues. However, you can rest assured of
one thing: it makes my liberal blood boil
to hear people who aren’t fit to sit in the
same room with McCain criticize him the
way these right-wing spewers have been
doing. I would rather they simply said,
“Thank you” and went on their way. To
put down an American hero the way they
are doing is a disgrace.
chris
bridges
Chris Bridges is a reporter for The
Banks County News. Contact him at
706-367-2745 or e-mail comments to
chris@mainstreetnews.com.