[PUBBY]

New tax rates for 2012 passed, but not unanimously as the commissioners voted 4-1 for both the budget and the increased mill rollback rate to allow raises but retain the option of furlough days. Voting against the rollback was Post 2 Commissioner Todd Pownall. Voting with the majority and voting for the increase in millage to maintain county funding on the diminished digest for the first time was lame duck Commissioner Larry Ragsdale. Passage of the funding was done early Friday morning to meet state deadlines so certifications can be sent to the state and the county could be authorized to send out its 2012-2013 property tax bills.

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[Lady Raider]

[Hotrod]

A tax increase just a month after the election, bet the vote would've been no 2 months ago.

[FreeBird]

Please advise Mr. Graham that the Paulding County Marshall's office is charged with enforcing local county ordinances.

Point taken, Mr. Pownall, you support the Sherriff's office and fire department.

[crossroads]

Who was that woman blocking her face when she saw she was being filmed? Just curious.

[LPPT]

crossroads, on 24 August 2012 - 02:54 PM, said:

Who was that woman blocking her face when she saw she was being filmed? Just curious.

The man was Tony Crowe that was his wife.

[LPPT]

I have a request in with the finance office to get the exact numbers for what we are saving yearly in operation cost with the facilities that are closed. We will see when we got it.
My understanding is that many will recoup what they have lost in wages due to the furlough days with out us having to pay the operational cost. I have been told that the savings are minimal in departments such as fire and law enforcement were some has to be there 24 hours.

There is no arguing that our tax rate was raised, but taxes were not raised, many of us will still pay less this year than last year. Revenue is being made up in many ways, some might want to look at those ways.
Tommy justifiably pointed out the value we get for our money, some want to argue about where they wanted to see some more cuts or felt that others deserved more. All the shifting in the world was no longer going to cover the basic needs of county services.
There is no fat in the county budget, there are those that claim things that don't suit them are fat. The worse critics don't sit at a table and decide who is getting cut and who is staying, they just cry about taxes and tax rates with the evidence of deep cuts sitting right there in front of them, the evidence of property values going down right there in front of them, yet they want to nit pick over every little thing that does not suit them.
So understand that the issue is not so much over the tax rate going up, but those that wanted to hold back the rate hike to get their way in how it was divided up, then it would have been ok to move forward with it. I hope you understand that this would have been an endless struggle and at some point you have to say lets vote and do it.

There was plenty of compromise on where the money went but I doubt there was that much discussion about not raising the millage. You have 5 sitting commissioners and you need to understand that the vote to raise your tax rate was dependent on them agreeing on how it was spent period. Not any real objection to raising, that was a done deal when the details were settled.
This is the process and it is a good process, the discussion of what and how much to fund, you would not want them to unanimously add layers of fat to our county budget and raise the millage.
We have a very good commission that has worked together to cut this county budget to the bone for 2 years, disagreed at times about what and how much but they have had a single minded goal to save money.

It is ridiculous to me that people would turn on them, especially the tax payers because one or two things don't suit.
It has been laid out to you every single year how much that digest has fallen, the cuts have been laid out in front of you. You have seen the evidence yet some would still pick up the torches and pitchforks because of something they don't like.
The amount of tax most people pay has gone down, yet still they yell.
Nothing else has gone down for anyone, as far as the cost of living goes, yet the 5 men that give you the one break you get, you turn on.
I just have to shake my head.

[feelip]

FreeBird, on 24 August 2012 - 02:23 PM, said:

Please advise Mr. Graham that the Paulding County Marshall's office is charged with enforcing local county ordinances.

Point taken, Mr. Pownall, you support the Sherriff's office and fire department.

Fo reeal.

[Greatma]

Tommie Graham SHIUT UP !!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[FreeBird]

LPPT, there is waste in the county. I saw some yesterday at Burnt Hickory park. Four county vehicles and probably 10 men. I saw 3 of them actually doing any work. That is waste.

[Animal]

No not so,I saw the same thing yesterday,4 of them were sitting down drinking water they were conserving energy

[Palm Trees Rock]

You want to save money. Scrap the Marshalls office. All those duties could be rolled into the Sheriffs office and you could get rid of a lot of wasteful duplicate type salaries, paint jobs, supervisors, etc.

BTW...Todd Pownall is spot on. No raises while furloughs are going one!! That is total stupidity.

[GOP]

Tommie Graham (while possibly well intentioned) is a RINO. (Republican In Name Only) He assumes residents will forget his big government hijinks when he is back up for election. Typical RINO. He puts residents on the hook for his government film studio and gives raises to government workers while the citizens suffer and go without raises in the private sector. Wants to hire 27 new firefighters as peoples homes are crashing in value. What do former developers like Tommie do after they help bring down the private economy...they move on to a new sand box...local government...

[LPPT]

GOP, on 01 September 2012 - 12:47 PM, said:

Tommie Graham (while possibly well intentioned) is a RINO. (Republican In Name Only) He assumes residents will forget his big government hijinks when he is back up for election. Typical RINO. He puts residents on the hook for his government film studio and gives raises to government workers while the citizens suffer and go without raises in the private sector. Wants to hire 27 new firefighters as peoples homes are crashing in value. What do former developers like Tommie do after they help bring down the private economy...they move on to a new sand box...local government...

Are you talking about the businesses he built with his own money using local labor, and employing local people.

That studio cost us a little over a million and potentially pumps that back into the local economy every month they shoot. Ask the guy on 278 with the Millions of dollars in equipment he rents to the studio how he feels about it. Ask his employees how they feel about it. Just how many businesses have you built? how many people do you employee? How much outside money are you bringing into the local economy?
Nobody is going to disagree with you about Tommy not being Mr. Personality.

He has excellent business sense he understands that we are losing money by training and losing people to other counties,he also has the foresight to know taxpayers are going to be breathing down his neck when their homeowners goes up significantly.

Further more the taxpayer's of this county will immediately get a return on their tax dollars by staffing and maintaining those firehouses by keeping our homeowners insurance lower.

And just so you know, those raises barely covered their insurance premiums and furlough days. These people put their lives on the line and our public safety people are some of the lowest paid in the metro.

Just so you know, Tommy took the lead position in reducing the cost of the North paulding projects, the fire station, Library and Park saving us millions.

The money had already been appropriated and their was no backing out, true to form they were written with open ended overage that was already well beyond the amount appropriated, he and the commission saved us millions.

[stradial]

FreeBird, on 24 August 2012 - 08:39 PM, said:

LPPT, there is waste in the county. I saw some yesterday at Burnt Hickory park. Four county vehicles and probably 10 men. I saw 3 of them actually doing any work. That is waste.

Just an FYI about pay for DOT jobs.
Did you know that the person that holds the flag and waves you on or stops you at a DOT work site makes more money than the people who are working with the shovels?
Do you know why that is?

Because it is harder to lean on a flag than a shovel.
(bet you thought I was going to say something about saftey, didn't you)

[GOP]

Government jobs and raises for Goverment employees doesn't help the economy...just ask Obama how that is working out. Film studios are a fine idea in the private sector or in a booming economy but don't turn around and raise taxes right after you ask the citizens of Paulding to co-sign.

As to Tommie Grahams personality...non issue. I imagine he is a nice honest guy that is trying to do the right thing. As a citizen in a free country we are all welcome to share our point of view. Raising tax rates on homeowners in this economy at this moment in time is a mistake and Tommie Graham was the one leading the charge...

[LPPT]

GOP, on 01 September 2012 - 02:40 PM, said:

Government jobs and raises for Goverment employees doesn't help the economy...just ask Obama how that is working out. Film studios are a fine idea in the private sector or in a booming economy but don't turn around and raise taxes right after you ask the citizens of Paulding to co-sign.

As to Tommie Grahams personality...non issue. I imagine he is a nice honest guy that is trying to do the right thing. As a citizen in a free country we are all welcome to share our point of view. Raising tax rates on homeowners in this economy at this moment in time is a mistake and Tommie Graham was the one leading the charge...

The tax rate was raised, very few people will pay more than they did last year in taxes and some will still pay less even at the higher rate because their property values fell even more.
Go to the county website and look at the 4 year history of tax revenue in the county. I honestly don't see how folks can complain.

As far as the movie studio, they have not stopped making movies in the recession one of the reasons they have not is that Georgia and some other states have given the industry some huge tax cuts and incentives to make movies.

We are having new businesses coming to the state to serve the industry, they rent leases, hire people and bring money to the region from other states and regions.
As long as we continue to offer tax breaks money from California and New york will continue to pour into the state, not money designed to fill government coffers, but money intended to boost the local economy through local businesses.

We had no specific industry owned by anyone already here that benefited from this, so there is no evidence I have seen of cronyism. All businesses in our county will benefit to some extent unless the majority of folks head over county lines to spend.

Please take the time to go to the website and research the digest and the cuts over the last 4 years.
You may not agree on what's been cut and what got funded, but that is par for the course in politics.
I also got my report for the operations cost savings for the year with the furloughs still in place, unfortunately it is on my desk at the office.

[spucketts]

The amount you pay in property taxes will only go down if the assessors office reevaluates and lowers your property value. Of course if you have the time you can fight your tax apprasial.

As for the movie studio, how often are they filming and what percentage of revenue generated stays in the county? One property I was involved with in Atlanta was with Disney and all the big saleries were people they brought in from California.