If you go to lowndescounty.com, pull down Government at the top,
select Board of Elections, then
Election Results, you can select a format for displaying
election results.
And the results at 8:50 PM 15 March 2010 are:
| BOE SALES TAX QUESTION | VOTES | |
| YES | 82.66% | 2,931 |
| NO | 17.34% | 615 |
| Total Votes: 3,546 |
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If you’re not yet convinced to get out and vote today to continue
the 1% ESPLOST local sales tax that pays for school buildings, books,
band instruments, and sports equipment for the Valdosta and Lowndes County, Georgia school systems,
here are two Facebook pages:
And
where you can vote.
And here’s
lots of detail on where the money goes.
The two school boards are setting a standard for local government transparency in posting a detailed notice in the newspaper five times,
holding information sessions, going to other people’s meetings and speaking,
handing out flyers, etc.
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Speaking to the Lowndes County Commission on 8 March 2011,
Nolen Cox said businesses produce money and government consumes it,
and he doesn’t like taxes.
He appears to be opposed to the ESPLOST election.
He’s the same fellow who introduced the topic of climate change denial in a Lowndes County Commission meeting.
Here’s the video.
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Apparently
VLCIA
collects $3 million in tax revenues annually
and pays about $368,000 in staff salaries and benefits,
plus $125,000 in legal and accounting costs, as well as
other items in general operations.
This is according to VLCIA’s
Operating Budget (FYE 30 June 2011),
obtained by
open records request in February 2011,
and given to LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Look for yourself;
here it is
in PDF and two different single-page forms.
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Kara Ramos reported in the VDT on 18 Aug 2010 that Private prison company picks Valdosta as potential site:
The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) announced an economic development partnership for future construction of a private prison.
Who is CCA? NPR’s Laura Sullivan reported on 28 Oct 2010 about Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law:
Continue reading
What is the Industrial Authority’s plan to bring in real clean jobs?
MAGE SOLAR is hiring for the first of 350 jobs in its photovoltaic (PV) solar manufacturing plant in Dublin, Georgia, with half the population of Valdosta, in Laurens County, with half the population of Lowndes County. They’ve parlayed their position between the Atlanta airport and the Savannah seaport for many new clean jobs.
Suniva of Norcross’s second PV plant with its 500 jobs went to Michigan. Saginaw Valley calls itself Solar Valley and collaborates with governments, academia, and industry, winning thousands of clean jobs in wind and solar manufacturing and generating plants.
Here are videos that illustrate the VDT’s point today in
What We Think:
While officials continue to downplay local citizen anger about current projects, citizens are organizing in a variety of ways to affect change the next election cycle. When Sterling Chemical came to Lowndes County in the 1990s, citizens were told the project was a “done deal,” and so it was. Sterling is still here, but those in office at the time aren’t, and the director of the Industrial Authority at the time is no longer here either.Maybe the VDT is referring to this kind of response from the VLCIA panel on 6 Dec 2010:As has been shown worldwide, citizens are tired of being told what’s best for them, having no say so in how their tax dollars are spent, and having their concerns ignored.
Until officials understand that it is coming from all directions and not just led by a few malcontents, the swell will continue to grow. And those who continue to ignore the anger and frustration do so at their own peril.
“these things do prop up the local economy, period, end of discussion.”A previous questioner who had a job in Vietnam notes he was lied to about Agent Orange and asks “can you assure me that I won’t be affected by this?” Continue reading
“Proposed plant said to be ‘medical atrocity'”,
about Dr. William Sammons’ Monday
talk about health problems of biomass and how solar is better.
The VDT then featured biomass in its reporting on the AAUW Candidate Forum: Continue reading
Continue readingA growing organization of concerned citizens are opposing the building of a biomass energy plant in Lowndes County.
Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy hope to promote clean and sustainable energies while also educating the public on how a biomass plant could be detrimental to community health.
The goal of the organization and the opposition to the plant is not to inhibit economic development but to promote a conversation on sustainable energy, Dr. Michael Noll, WACE president, said.
The new organization is not the only one in the community speaking out against the biomass plant.