Revenue or Race?
What is wrong with this place? Socialism has crept into even our local municipalities. For those of you who are not aware, let me give some brief background on what I’m about to rant about. The city of Atlanta has a large suburban area surrounding the city, especially in the very large elongated county of Fulton, which Atlanta is part of, in the center. An area known as Sandy Springs sits adjacent to Atlanta’s north border. The north side of metropolitan Atlanta is considered to be one of the more affluent areas of town, especially Sandy Springs. The other portion, Southwest Fulton County, would be considered by many folks as the less wealthy area. I would say that most metro areas throughout the country have a good part of town and a bad part of town, so Atlanta is no exception.
A lot of tax money is put into the county budget from Sandy Springs and other less dense areas of North Fulton County. Unfortunately, South Fulton does not bring so much tax revenue in. You say “so what”. Yeah, that’s not a big deal, until you consider that the money from Sandy Springs residents hasn’t been used to fund the services it deserves in their locality. The money from Sandy Springs is just redistributed to South Fulton to fund their services. A recent accounting spreadsheet that I have seen showed four areas of the unincorporated county. The county as a whole, net out at about $0, which is what should be expected. However, look at the South Fulton area, and find that the area nets about negative $25 million. What do you know; the Sandy Springs area nets a positive $25 million. The other areas or the county are more balanced.
In the eyes of the County Commissioners, just steal from the rich and give to the poor, right! Come on people, if an individual works hard to get where they are at and can afford a nice home, they shouldn’t be punished for it. Let them make good use of their money, for services that THEY use. Am I the only one that sees the logic in that?
For about 35 years, the residents of Sandy Springs have been fighting to incorporate their own city and take over the task of managing their locality. It hasn’t been able to pass in the Georgia congress, until this year, when more capitalist-minded representatives took over the majority in the State Government. About time!
I understand that residents of South Fulton County would be disappointed. Why wouldn’t they? They’ve been able to get things for practically free for so long. Why do they need to fight it though? I’ve heard one resident down there say that Sandy Springs can go do whatever they want, and incorporate, but just don’t take our money. WHAT?! Our money? So now they are putting stakes on other people’s money. Wow!
A lot of tax money is put into the county budget from Sandy Springs and other less dense areas of North Fulton County. Unfortunately, South Fulton does not bring so much tax revenue in. You say “so what”. Yeah, that’s not a big deal, until you consider that the money from Sandy Springs residents hasn’t been used to fund the services it deserves in their locality. The money from Sandy Springs is just redistributed to South Fulton to fund their services. A recent accounting spreadsheet that I have seen showed four areas of the unincorporated county. The county as a whole, net out at about $0, which is what should be expected. However, look at the South Fulton area, and find that the area nets about negative $25 million. What do you know; the Sandy Springs area nets a positive $25 million. The other areas or the county are more balanced.
In the eyes of the County Commissioners, just steal from the rich and give to the poor, right! Come on people, if an individual works hard to get where they are at and can afford a nice home, they shouldn’t be punished for it. Let them make good use of their money, for services that THEY use. Am I the only one that sees the logic in that?
For about 35 years, the residents of Sandy Springs have been fighting to incorporate their own city and take over the task of managing their locality. It hasn’t been able to pass in the Georgia congress, until this year, when more capitalist-minded representatives took over the majority in the State Government. About time!
I understand that residents of South Fulton County would be disappointed. Why wouldn’t they? They’ve been able to get things for practically free for so long. Why do they need to fight it though? I’ve heard one resident down there say that Sandy Springs can go do whatever they want, and incorporate, but just don’t take our money. WHAT?! Our money? So now they are putting stakes on other people’s money. Wow!
You know what is really sick about this whole thing though, some of the County Commissioners are crying “racism”. A county commissioner said recently “This provision is not only unfair but also in violation of the U.S. and Georgia Constitutions in that minority residents of Fulton outside Sandy Springs are denied an opportunity to vote because of their race and ethnicity.” Because of race!? How absurd; whatever happened to the fact that the voters live in Sandy Springs, not because they are white. That is such a senseless comment. The is really hard for me to deal with, since this doesn’t make sense in so many ways. Wake up Emma Darnell (a black commissioner for the county). This is about keeping the money where it belongs, not race. Believe it or not, African-Americans live in Sandy Springs too. Some of them have gotten off the “racism” bandwagon and worked hard to achieve great things to move to that area of town. I’ve heard many times in recent accounts that Queen Darnell herself has made derogatory race-related bigoted comments to caucasians looking to appeal their high taxes. I’ve heard comments like “You white people need to be paying more taxes, anyway.” You know, I don’t mind paying my fair share of taxes, even more taxes, as long as I am paying for something that I am getting. Wake up Emma, your energy wasted to expel your racism and ridiculous tsunami quotes need to go toward governing the county that you work for, instead of being a moron and spouting your unreasonable acquisitions. I would say “stop stealing from us,” but it looks like the vote will be going through in June, anyway. Sorry about your luck.
3 comments:
my only concern is that the powers that be are aware of the tremdous force it takes to run an area like SS. Police, fire, utilities, garbage pick up. When it becomes a city, all of that must be in place - not just planned for. Be careful what you wish for....
Thanks for your concern. There are many people on several task forces planning, and subsequently ready to take over the city when the time comes. There are many talented people ready for the task. I might just be one someday, too.
From Sandysprings.net:
That is why, even before the bills providing for our ability to vote (HB36 & HB37) were passed by the legislature, we began the process of research and information gathering on the functions and actions of the future City of Sandy Springs government.
The Committee for Sandy Springs put out a call to the community, at meetings, in the paper and on the internet asking for volunteers. The response was more than we had hoped for. To date we have 12 Task Forces (listed with the chairman of each below) that have over 130 citizen volunteers that are well down the path of researching how to transfer the responsibilities for providing services away from Fulton County and over to the new Sandy Springs Government that will be elected by the people of Sandy Springs in municipal elections, established by the City Charter, to be held on November 8, 2005.
Between the passage of the referendum and the City Council and Mayor taking office, there will be a five person transition board appointed by Governor Perdue. These individuals will receive the reports and recommendations of these task forces and use them as a base line for negotiation with other government agencies where necessary, and to help have a framework of governance for when the City Council takes office on December 1, 2005.
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