Tag Archives: Law

Videos: ESPLOST V kickoff meeting @ ESPLOST 2015-02-24

Co-Chair Jerome Tucker emphasized that ESPLOST helping
public schools also helps economic development.
See below for who we now know are the
committee members for the Educational Special Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST).
It’s mysterious why that information wasn’t in

the PR before the meeting,
but now we know, since Gretchen went and took the videos
and collected the flyers you’ll find below.

Early voting already started that same day and continues through March 13th,
with the final Election Day 17 March 2015.

Lowndes/Valdosta Citizens for Excellence in Education

Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax

For Lowndes County Schools and Valdosta City Schools Continue reading →

ESPLOST V kickoff meeting today @ ESPLOST 2015-02-24

A committee of unknown members is holding a kickoff meeting today
for the Educational Special Local Option Sales Tax.

Various local news media carry the announcement below,
but none of them seem to have the names of the committee members
beyond one co-chair.
I guess we’ll find out from the videos Gretchen is going there now to take.

In the City of Valdosta’s

In The City This Week, Feb. 23-28,

Feb. 24: ESPLOST V Campaign. The ESPLOST joint committee will host a
campaign kickoff on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 5 p.m., in the Valdosta
City Hall Annex Multi-Purpose Room. At the meeting, committee
members will share proposed projects for Lowndes County and Valdosta
City Schools with citizens. Early voting runs Feb. 23 through March
13. The final opportunity to vote will be on the official Election
Day, March 17. For more information, email Co-Chair John Eunice at
jleunice@yahoo.com.

-jsq

Minnesota follows Austin with Value of Solar Tariff: better than net metering, or not?

Yes, it’s better than the unequal “net metering” Georgia has now,
where your one-and-only utility pays you a rate they determine,
typically their “avoided” rate of not generating energy by some
other means, which is usually a lot less than what you pay your utility.
Is it better than real one-to-one net metering?
That’s a harder question, because even if it pays more now, it’s
less predictable.
In any case VOST has spread

from Austin to Minnesota.

Herman K. Trabish, GreenTechMedia, 10 April 2014,

A Rising Tension: ‘Value-of-Solar’ Tariff Versus Net Metering,

Source: Institute for Local Self Reliance

The Alliance for Solar Choice, a group made up of Continue reading →

Videos: Devine tabled, Naylor boat ramp, no HB 170 or animals @ LCC 2015-02-10

Nothing was said about the
GA HB 170 state tax grab from local governments,
even though both school boards and the Valdosta City Council
already passed resolutions against it.
No citizens spoke about animals, or about anything else,
not even in the Public Hearings,
except for

me thanking the Commission about the Naylor Boat Ramp.

The
Devine Subdivision at Tillman Crossing
was tabled at request of applicant to try to sort out continuing
concerns about safety and congestion,
while
REZ-2015-01 Gramercy 2
and
REZ-2015-03 Scurry Property,
were unanimously approved.
No citizens spoke for or against any of them.

You the taxpaying public didn’t get to see any of the materials
in the board packet
beyond the one-page agenda item forms, before the Commission voted last night,
unless you were in the Commission Chambers or watched the LAKE videos of yesterday morning’s Work Session.
The open records request for those rezonings came back with
paper maps, despite my request for electronic format;
at least the paper maps were in color this time.
I asked again for electronic format, and will post them
soon even if I have to scan them.
The other open records request, for maps and materials for the
engineering agenda items, came back with no maps at all, so I sent
it back to be satisfied.
Both County Planner Jason Davenport and County Engineer Mike Fletcher
said they had never seen those open records requests,
and they’d both be happy to email electronic copy if they
were authorized to do so by the County Clerk.

All the other items were unanimously approved: Continue reading →

HB 57 solar financing bill unanimously passed Georgia House

Monday morning HB 57 passed 165 to zero,

according to

Gavin Bade in Utility Drive yesterday.
The

bill still has (for 46-3-62(2)) the same residential 10 kilowatt
limit as in the 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act,
but changes the 100 kilowatt commercial limit to:

(B) One hundred and twenty-five percent of the actual or expected
maximum annual peak demand of the premises the solar technology
serves, for a commercial application.

Bade reported 13 January 2015 that Continue reading →

Oppose reducing sales tax funding to local goverments –Lowndes County Board of Education against HB 170

According to Terri Welden at the Lowndes County School Superintendent’s
office just now,

the Lowndes County Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution
against HB 170 last night.
It reads in part:

WHEREAS, this Board urges the members of the Georgia General Assembly
and our local delegation to strongly oppose any provision or measure to reduce
allocation of sales tax funding to local governments;

Here’s

the entire LCBOE resolution,
which is quite similar to the ones passed that same night by the

Valdosta Board of Education
and the

Valdosta City Council.
What will the

Lowndes County Commission do at its meeting tonight that still
doesn’t even have HB 170 on its
agenda? Continue reading →

HB 170 would have a devastating effect on our community –Valdosta Board of Education

The Valdosta Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution against

HB 170 last night and forwarded it to the local legislative delegation
via email and on paper, according to Joy at the Valdosta School Superintendent’s
office just now.

Not surprisingly, VBOE’s resolution looks a lot like

the City of Valdosta’s resolution.
Both were written before yesterday’s
changes to HB 170,
which
still pit counties against cities.

The Lowndes County Board of Education unanimously passed a similar resolution
also last night.

What will the
Lowndes County Commission do tonight?
And what will the

Lowndes County Board of Education do Thursday?

Here’s the Rationale in the yesterday’s VBOE agenda:

HB170 has been introduced this legislative session. It proposes to
remove the local tax on fuel and replace it with a tax at the
distributor level which would be paid to the state. For Valdosta
City Schools this would mean a reduction in revenue of approximately
$1.8 million annually from ESPLOST. The total loss of revenue for
the city and county governments and the city and county school
districts would be approximately $12 million annually. If passed,
this bill would have a devastating effect on our community.

And here’s

the resolution: Continue reading →

HB 170: counties vs. cities? @ LCC 2015-02-10

Yesterday a Georgia House subcommittee did exactly what Valdosta

urged it not to do about distributing HB 170 funds.
Given that LMIG mismatch between cities and counties
to replace the previous mismatch of forced double taxation
on cities and counties, is the legislature trying to cause
dissension between counties and their cities, or is it just that inept?
We know Valdosta’s position.
What will the Lowndes County Commission do?

Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson

wrote to bill’s sponsor: Continue reading →

HB 170 voted out of subcommittee; what will Lowndes County Commission do? @ LCC 2015-02-06

How long will the Lowndes County government and ACCG wait to act,
while the Georgia legislature moves on

its stealth transportation
tax hike for Atlanta that would defund local school boards and city
and county governments?
A House subcommittee has made some changes to the bill,
but it would still force local governments to raise taxes,
and it adds an unrelated repeal of an electric vehicle tax credit
to its boondoggle for trucking companies and Atlanta.
Do we want our local public schools to be defunded like
wildlife programs were through the state’s wildlife license plate revenue
tax taking?
If not, now’s the time to lobby against HB 170, before
the full House Transportation Committee meets Thursday.
Yet there’s still nothing about HB 170
on the county’s agenda for this evening’s voting Regular Session.

Valdosta has already Continue reading →

$12 million loss to local Lowndes County governments –text of Valdosta resolution against HB 170

Local schools would lose
$4 million annually
and local governments overall
$12 million annually,

because
HB 170 would

“re-allocate local sales tax funding from local governments to the state of
Georgia”, resolved Valdosta’s Mayor and Council last Thursday.
Plus HB 170 would effectively authorize
“double taxation of municipal residents”,
because both Lowndes County and Valdosta would have to raise property taxes,
which would result in Valdosta’s citizens being taxed more twice (by
both the county and the city).
For how serious Valdosta considers this threat to its ability to provide services
to local citizens, witness how fast this resolution got passed
(within weeks after HB 170 was introduced into the legislature)
compared to how long it took for Valdosta to pass
a resolution against the Sabal Trail pipeline
(about eighteen months).

Here’s

the complete text of the Valdosta resolution that
passed 5 Febuary 2015.
See also

Valdosta’s PR about this resolution, which contains links to the evidence,
and

Valdosta’s letter to the sponsor of the bill.

RESOLUTION NO. 2015-3

A RESOLUTION TO OPPOSE THE STATE OF GEORGIA’S

TRANSPORTATION FUNDING ACT OF 2015 Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange