After reading this post, a question came to mind. Have we the
citizens of Lowndes County
actually been encouraging our elected
officials to be fiscally irresponsible with public funds by allowing
SPLOST to continue? if elected officials had to allocate resources
in a yearly budget, we may actually encourage our officials to
allocate resources towards public projects that would be desirable
by the public rather than a priority in pthe minds of our elected
officials.
Speaking of
transparency,
Lowndes County voters defeated SPLOST VII 18,864 to 17,923 (51.28% to 48.72%).
Kay Harris in the VDT today quoted Ashley Paulk with this reason:
The defeat came as a surprise to Mayor John Gayle but not to Lowndes
County Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk, who said he warned the
mayors of the five municipalities that if they continued to argue
over
LOST, the local option sales tax, that voters would turn
against SPLOST in retaliation.
“I told them at the beginning if they didn’t stop arguing over
a few percent of the LOST and refused to leave the numbers as is by
taking the county’s offer, that taxpayers were going to turn against
the SPLOST,” said Paulk.
“Voters are disenchanted with the way their local governments
have gotten greedy and they’re tired of the arguments over money.
They voted SPLOST down because they don’t trust us with their tax
dollars, and it’s a real shame.”
I would agree
bickering over the
LOST pie was one of the reasons
SPLOST lost, and add to that the opaque back-room processes by which
the SPLOST VII projects were selected.
While the library needs updated and expanded facilities,
the lack of documented decision process
for the architect
and lack of adequate explanation for that
probably didn’t help, either,
nor did
the county’s puzzling lumping of the library in with Parks and Rec.
which they later tried to clarify.
Perhaps the voters are
tired of seeing transparency be a constant source of tension.
And I’m using the library as just one example. I could equally cite the
project for a farmers market under the overpass, which I think is a bad idea
because the farmers market already has a fabulous location at the historic
Lowndes County Courthouse, and so far as I know none of the vendors who sell there
were even asked if they wanted a new location, much less the public who buy there.
Looks like history may repeat itself like last decade,
now that LOST negotiations between the cities and the county have failed.
Except this time apparently the law has changed so they can’t sue each
other directly.
Instead next it goes to
Superior Court “baseball arbitration”.
However, I bet that still involves lawyers at taxpayer expense,
not to mention the Court’s time.
It’s sort of sad because it is a waste, if you will, of taxpayer dollars.
That the elected officials can’t get together and come to some agreement
to say that they all understand how the money has to be divided up
Yeah, it’s sad that more money has to go to lawyers
insted of being spent on services.
I continue to think the local governments could spend their time together
better
trying to increase the size of the pie instead of squabbling over slices of it.
Do big box stores count as development? Are they worth millions in tax incentives and bond investments? Maybe we can find something better for local industry and jobs.
Rumors have been flying for years about a Bass Pro store coming to Valdosta, like this one on a Georgia Outdoor News forum:
01-22-2008, 09:05 PM, bear-229 ive heard the land has been bought. very close to the new toyota lot but it has not made it to the “new locations” on the web site
That’s on James Road, in that huge proposed development that Lowndes County approved around that time.
Both Bass Pro Shops and its archrival, Cabela’s, sell hunting and fishing gear in cathedral-like stores featuring taxidermied wildlife, gigantic fresh-water aquarium exhibits and elaborate outdoor reproductions within the stores. The stores are billed as job generators by both companies when they are fishing for development dollars. But the firms’ economic benefits are minimal and costs to taxpayers are great.
An exhaustive investigation conducted by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity found that the two competing firms together have received or are promised more than $2.2 billion from American taxpayers over the past 15 years.
Two kinds of taxes: Lowndes County Commission Work Session Monday 8:30 AM and Regular Session Tuesday 5:30 PM, with a property tax millage hearing 5PM before the Regular Session.
Apparently the cities and the county have come to some agreement about Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) VII. Road repairs are being contemplated for Cat Creek Road and Cameron Lane. And there’s something about an RFP for an architect for the library.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PROPOSED AGENDA WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 23, 2012, 8:30 a.m. REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 24, 2012, 5:30 p.m. 327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Chatham County and its cities appears to be the future of Lowndes County and our cities. On LOST negotiations, Chatham got tired of listening to the cities and called in the mediator.
With a month of negotiations still remaining, Chatham County has given up on working solely with the eight municipalities to determine how an estimated $600 million in Local Option Sales Tax revenue should be split up during the next 10 years.
Chatham County Chairman Pete Liakakis requested Tuesday night that a third party be brought in immediately to help determine distributions, instead of waiting the full 60 days available to reach an agreement before mediation is required.
“I believe the parties are so far apart, that the current process is at an impasse,” Liakakis said.
Liakakis said a proposal presented by the cities two weeks ago that would lower the county's share by about 7 percent while boosting the municipalities' portion was flawed because it is built around the concept that the county's share should be based on the residents living outside city limits.
“It ignores the fact that the county provides services to all citizens of the county,” he said.
The five local cities (Valdosta, Hahira, Remerton, Dasher, and Lake Park) presented their case in terms of changed demographics from the 2000 to the 2010 census. Much of the presentation was explained by Hahira City Manager Jonathan Sumner.
Lowndes County wasn’t interested in discussing, and is waiting for arbitration, which will happen in 60 days (presumably from when they started negotiating). The VDT writeup protrays that as a surprise, but it’s what County Chairman Ashley Paulk has been saying since before these negotiations began.
I would have preferred to hear what services the cities do now or could with more tax revenue provide that would benefit the entire county.
Even more, I think the local governments could spend their time together better talking about how to increase the pie, for example through solar energy for municipal revenue
or through county-wide fast Internet broadband access, either of which would help attract knowledge-based jobs, which would provide employment and increased tax revenue.
However, I salute the cities and the county for being transparent about their positions, as you can see in these videos.
Videos of Mayors and County in Hahira LOST Negotiation, Mayors and County in Hahira, Lowndes County Commission (LOST), Hahira, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 May 2012. Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
It’s great that the local cities and the county government
think they can negotiate how to share Local Option Sales Tax (LOST)
money this time without spending a lot of money suing each other
like they did back in 2002.
It’s not so great that they’re doing it at an unannounced time and place.
As required by state law, Lowndes County issued a letter to the
mayors of all the municipalities in the county, requesting they
attend a renegotiation meeting Monday, April 9 to discuss LOST
(local option sales tax) distributions.
“This has to be done and approved by the end of the year in
order to stay in place, so we have to start the process now,”
said Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk.
Well, that’s interesting.
When is this meeting?
Ah, the time of day wasn’t included in the article.
For the past 90 years this debate has been dominated by the professional purveyors of moral panic in our society – a toxic combination of politicians, pressmen, prelates and policemen, aided and abetted by ill-informed parents, who have sought to pre-empt any serious discussion of “psychoactive” substances.
actually been encouraging our elected officials to be fiscally irresponsible with public funds by allowing SPLOST to continue? if elected officials had to allocate resources in a yearly budget, we may actually encourage our officials to allocate resources towards public projects that would be desirable by the public rather than a priority in pthe minds of our elected officials.
