My Two Cents
Visited 1280 times, 1 so far today Print This! | Twitter This!
Dear Commissioners:
We heard it at the public hearings – times are tough. We heard that our neighbors want to keep, possibly even expand, the police, fire and court funding. We also heard that many individuals and businesses simply cannot afford to have the County take an additional $60 Million in taxes. You can meet both of these objectives simply by taking this opportunity to reevaluate the purpose of County government. At some point the County will have to do what so many residents have done and differentiate between wants and needs. Why not do it now?
Residents have said that we should have planned for this situation years ago. I maintain that it is never too late to start. We should be planning for even less revenue in 2010 by cutting spending now. If you don’t make the hard cuts this year, you will raise taxes. But what about next year? If anything I believe we will be in a worse position in six months and you will be faced the same decisions as you prepare the 2010 budget. The Atlanta Business Chronicle estimates that the tax digest for Gwinnett County will be down as much as $2 Billion next year. About 44% of your operating funds come from property taxes, and $2 Billion looks like about 7% of the County’s total tax base. The 2009 budget also projected almost $19 Million misc/interest revenue, but as of the middle of this year you had received less than $2 Million. Not surprising, with interest rates hovering around 0%. You see how your investments only made 15% of what you made in same period last year? Expect that to continue into next year as well.
So here are just a few suggestions.
The first is to avoid any more of the tricks. People will see through it and then you just look bad. For instance, when everyone cut back on water use municipalities around the state had to raise water rates to meet their budgets. Gwinnett County simply added special fees, surprising many residents with water bills that were almost twice what they were a year ago. Then you had a Commissioner who is stepping down suggest a tax increase. Stuff like that doesn’t fool anyone.
Selling the airport sounds like a great idea. Running an airport is not a function of government and I would be excited to see what a private company could do with the facilities. Kudos to Beaudreau.
Bring in more money from Sales Taxes. In 2008, total retail sales in Gwinnett County amounted to almost $16 Billion. An additional 1% sales tax would raise $154 million. In 2008, $300 million came from property taxes, so the County could have added this sales tax and reduced the County portion of everyone’s property taxes by 1/2. This means that a typical resident who pays $4,000 per year in total property taxes would only pay $3,320 per year, saving $680. If he was spending an additional 1% on everything he purchased in Gwinnett then he could spend up to $68,000 per year and he would be right back where he started. Remember that this spending only counts retail purchases, so things like a mortgage or car loan are not counted.
Remember 1991? The economy was in the midst of a recession. Gwinnett County building permits had all but stopped. Citizens were cutting back and asking government to do the same. But as bad as it seemed, unemployment was only 4.3%. While some County expenses have increased as a percent of the budget (the 1991 Tourism Fund at $685,000 represented 0.26% – today it consumes almost 1.5% or $13.5 Million) some have remained almost the same. But the 3.5% of the budget that goes to Recreation only represented $8.5 Million in 1991. Today it is over four times that amount yet we only have twice as many parks. According to your budget document the County “… offers something for everyone, from taking a yoga class, learning how to make pottery, or joining in a pick-up basketball game.” Cool – when we have the money. But right now people are dropping their pets off at shelters because they don’t have the money to take care of them. I doubt they will be taking pottery classes.
Charity is wonderful, but taking money from people at the point of a gun and giving it to your favorite non-profits is something else. The residents of Gwinnett give a great deal on their own, and if you let us keep the $60 Million we will have more to give.
Gwinnett county courts have to support over 40 different languages. Drug cartel trials require allowance for non-English speakers, and translators are one of the large fixed costs they face. Can the County mandate that all proceedings be in English? If not, what would have to be done to make the switch?
And no more sweet offers to get County employees to quit. You were very generous with our money earlier in the year, but next time decide yourself who you can function without, give them two weeks notice and send them on their way. That is what real companies do. Then they don’t lose the best employees and have to hire them back later as consultants.
You asked us to be more involved with the budget process, so this letter contains my two cents. Feel free to do with it what you will. And thanks for listening…
Sincerely,
David Hancock
Great article. I find it difficult to defend how Gwinnett got to this budget crisis when you look at all of the vacant land paying little taxes converting to sprawling subdivisions where each house is paying almost as much tax in one year as it cost the entire property prior to development. Additionally, all of the buildings and businesses that are paying a higher assesment. Businesses have boomed in the county in the last decade paying annual license fees.
I do not feel we should be here to begin with! I have never been a proponent of taxation. However, I am even stonger opposed to homeowners carrying the bucket for the county. Our elected commissioners need to get with the state Legislators and institute a 1 penny retail sales tax. That should roll back the millage rate making housing more attractive and share the cost to operate the county with apartment dwellers and visitors fairly. Keep our parks open and funded and maybe win “outstanding parks system” nationally again keeping Gwinnett in high esteem.
SPLOST creates a mandate to build. It does nothing to support ongoing maintenance. That is rather twisted logic. Maybe eliminate SPLOST for the one penny retail sales tax?
I like the ideas. The only real disagreement I have is about raising the sales tax another 1%. Keep to the moral high ground – NO tax increases. Reduce the County portion of everyone’s property taxes by 1 WHOLE, not 1/2 – eliminate the property tax, and don’t replace it with another tax. Cut $300 million in expenses — it CAN be done, because you’re right, they’re doing a whole heckuva lotta stuff that government just isn’t SUPPOSED to do.
Thanks David, This is a start. We need to really discuss what is the purpose of government, protect life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. They have gotten to far away from this. I agree that the airport should be sold to a private company, and I would consider taking it one step more and look at the bus (transit) system as well. We see Marta struggle year after year and this system if it would have been a profitable business someone would have stepped up. I also started to look at other budget items that should be questioned, and maybe I have detailed these items more where yours is general, Tourism fund? Tourism statbility fund? Tree bank fund? Recreation fund? Street light fund? Street hump fund? just to name a few… It is time to start cutting else where and not the police, fire and courts. This can be done and not have to raise taxes.