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THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. APRIL 16. 2009 — PAGE 5A
Opinions
Remember to support Madison Co. businesses
Dear Editor:
It’s been about a month now
since we had that big snow
storm. I know I still have bro
ken limbs to clear out of the
yard. I was driving up Hwy.
106 the other day, and passed
a sign at Pine Bush Nursery
saying “storm sale." They had a
number of their growing houses
destroyed by the heavy snow
that came. It got me to thinking
of these economic times and the
more than ever need to support
local businesses in our area.
John and Pat Dunleavey are the
owners of Pine Bush Nursery.
John was one of the original
founders of the Madison County
Rotary Club. He and Pat were
also the first financial supporters
of the Rotary Club’s dynamic
new literacy plan, jumping in
and sponsoring the first 50 pre-
kindergarten kids for this great
“books into the home” program,
getting this initiative off to a
fantastic start. I know they've
put a lot of years into growing
their community as well as their
nursery.
As if the drought weren’t hard
enough on the nursery business
already, this heavy snow took
its own toll. But here it is now
springtime and many of us are
looking at doing a bit of land
scaping to herald in the season.
What better time, and what bet
ter place to find what you need
than to cruise over there and
support the local businesses of
our county.
Pine Bush is just one exam
ple of the many businesses in
Madison County that give back
so much to their community.
And it is just one example of
ways we can sustain our own
community by buying locally
when we can. Groceries, gas,
hardware ... anything we need,
let’s make buying locally our
first choice. In doing so, we
can have an effect on our own
prosperity and help insulate our
community from the economic
storm of this time.
Sincerely,
Chris Young
We need to abolish property taxes
Dear Editor:
I am responding to the editorial
column from Frank Gillispie in the
April 3 Journal, ‘Time to abolish all
property taxes."
I strongly agree with Mr.
Gillispie’s thoughts about prop
erty taxes and his idea to replace
them with a sales tax, which would
broaden the tax base. It is espe
cially a great idea in our county,
with all the corruption in the tax
assessor’s office. However, it really
needs to be implemented statewide.
Otherwise people would avoid
using local retailers and service pro
viders due to the higher sales tax.
This idea has been proposed by
Representative Glenn Richardson,
where he suggested elimination of
the state income tax and ad valorem
(company inventory, automobile,
property) tax, as well as the county
property tax.
Eliminating the property tax, as
Mr. Gillispie and Rep. Richardson
have suggested, is a much more fair
way to collect local revenues to run
government. It would collect a little
from everyone who uses the gov
ernment services instead of a great
amount from a few select citizens.
Elimination of the property tax
would be a great step in the right
direction and the need for it can
not be seen more clearly than in
Madison County, with the corrup
tion in the tax assessor’s office.
There is a strong similar proposal
nationwide to replace the income
and payroll tax: The FairTax. To
learn more about this, go to www.
fairtax.org
Thanks for a great local news
source!
Sincerely,
John Graves
Neese
Powell .cont’d from 4A
Assembly for approval. But DOT
board members. Senators and
House members, who have a say
in what projects are funded now,
would have their voices limited
under the bill. Members of the
General Assembly currently elect
DOT board members from the
state’s 13 congressional districts.
This plan was adopted in 1966
to stop the political corruption of
“road politics” and political power
being controlled from the gover
nor’s office.
Top Senate and House lead
ers and the governor will now
have greater power over the DOT
appropriations process than they
have since the 1950s. As the old
saying goes, “power corrupts, and
absolute power corrupts abso
lutely.”
For the second year in a row,
however, the legislative leadership
failed to agree on a method to
allow voters to decide on a pro
posed transportation funding solu-
tion.Georgia is at least 10 years
behind on dealing with Atlanta
traffic as well as developmental
highway systems in rural areas.
Despite this issue being a top pri
ority coming into the 2009 ses
sion, the Senate rejected a House
proposal for a statewide sales tax
referendum for transportation.
Likewise, the House gave thumbs-
down to the Senate’s regional sales
tax plan.
The governor’s only contribu
tion to the transportation issue was
the power-grab legislation, leav
ing Georgia in another year of
gridlock.
2009 will be remembered as the
session when Georgia taxpayers
and utility rate payers had to foot
the bill for misplaced priorities and
fiscal irresponsibility. If shifting
more of the school tax burden to
local property owners and ending
the homeowner relief grants was
not enough, the legislative major
ity found it necessary to allow
Georgia Power to raise its custom
ers’ rates to finance the construc
tion of two nuclear reactors at
Plant Vogtle, six years ahead of
when they are scheduled to be
up and running. The expansion
is expected to cost $14 billion. I
question the philosophy of paying
for services not yet received to
build plants that may not get built.
This action is of special concern
to those of us who live in the
Lake Hartwell area, because com
pany officials have acknowledged
this power plant expansion could
actually double the consumption
of water flow from the Savannah
River, threatening Lake Hartwell’s
water levels for years to come.
While looking at our property
tax and utility bills or seeing the
need for road work, we will have
every right to be mad. Only time
will tell how long we are going
to take it.
Rep. Alan Powell (D-Hartwell)
represents the 29"' District
(Franklin, Hart and Madison
counties) in the Georgia House
of Representatives. Contact him
at 507 Coverdell Office Building,
Atlanta, GA 30334; by phone
at 404-656-0202 or by e-mail at
cdanpowell23@hotmail.com. For
more information, visitwww.alan-
powell.net.
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