WTF?!? More local news SE GA

20Gauge

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
We are currently being bombarded with advertising regarding a new SPLOST. Basically a 1% increase in the sales tax for special projects. Something I am not too opposed to as they allow people to choose whether or not to spend.

What stuck me was one particular advertisement.....

What they are complaining about is the county has 1 year put aside in reserves for emergencies. This (as explained by the council) is to cover for things like major issues like a Hurricane wiping out half the county, etc. These things have happened in the past and the reserves have kept them from raising taxes.

Basically the anti SPLOST people want is for us to spend every dime we have and have no reserves at all. They say "they have over taxed us and stolen from us".

What do you think?

Should a county / city have a year's worth of reserves to handle emergencies?
I know we have almost a year for our personal needs. Should a city be any different?

Note: fixed as I had city when it was county... sorry
 
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Kathy in FL

Kathy in FL

Administrator
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It depends on what is covered by a sales tax increase. Here in Florida the sales tax laws can be strange. One of the biggies is that medicine in all forms are taxable, while medical services and medical devices are exempt. Another is maintenance contracts are taxable but the items to perform the maintenance is not.

What transactions are subject to the sales tax in Florida? (salestaxhandbook.com)

And cutting government spending should come first. Gov should have to live within budget the same as the rest of us with no automatic increases
 
D

danielsga

Contributing Member
Generally I believe they aren't being honest. They have the vote not during the general election but during the summer when not many vote, so it passes most of the time. Also, once it passes it's hard to get rid of. Look for this also at a later date, if the local county voters gets tired of all the different splost,they make it regional splost. That's what Lowndes County did to the west of you.
 
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summerthyme

Administrator
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I'd realky like to see who handles the "reserve fund" and what rules are in place for its use. We had a very crooked Town Supervisor in the early 2000s. He insisted on keeping an "emergency fund" of over 100,000... in a town of 1700 people. It turned out he was getting rich using the money to play the market. In April 2001, he tried to commit suicide (ok, he SAID he fell asleep in his running car, inside his closed garage). We connected it later to the market crash, when a fax demanding he pay his broker was "accidently" sent to the town secretary's office- he had gotten everything sent to his home office until then.

But typically... he got away with all of it. We couldn't get ANY law enforcement to look into it, and the state wasn't interested in doing an audit. Small towns!

Summerthyme
 
Dux

Dux

Veteran Member
We had a vote on property taxes shortly after the election. It passed. Now people are crying.
 
W

Walrus

Veteran Member
Murt said:
I am against politicians having more money
Especially mine
Click to expand...
There used to be a good hillbilly song which played on some "welcome to Branson" radio channel which had the chorus "If ten percent is good enough for Jesus, it oughta be enough for Uncle Sam" - including its lesser minions.
 
20Gauge

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
Kathy in FL said:
It depends on what is covered by a sales tax increase. Here in Florida the sales tax laws can be strange. One of the biggies is that medicine in all forms are taxable, while medical services and medical devices are exempt. Another is maintenance contracts are taxable but the items to perform the maintenance is not.

What transactions are subject to the sales tax in Florida? (salestaxhandbook.com)

And cutting government spending should come first. Gov should have to live within budget the same as the rest of us with no automatic increases
Click to expand...
They are required to specify the projects. They are things like new buildings or cars for the cops, things like that.
 
20Gauge

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
Blacknarwhal said:
Ah, so the county is already running close to the bone. Okay!
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I messed up and mixed city with county on the original.

The city is a spend thrift. Everyone is a pig when it comes to city money and they are always short.
The county makes a penny squeak. Then they boil it once again. They do a lot with very little.
 
20Gauge

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
summerthyme said:
I'd realky like to see who handles the "reserve fund" and what rules are in place for its use. We had a very crooked Town Supervisor in the early 2000s. He insisted on keeping an "emergency fund" of over 100,000... in a town of 1700 people. It turned out he was getting rich using the money to play the market. In April 2001, he tried to commit suicide (ok, he SAID he fell asleep in his running car, inside his closed garage). We connected it later to the market crash, when a fax demanding he pay his broker was "accidently" sent to the town secretary's office- he had gotten everything sent to his home office until then.

But typically... he got away with all of it. We couldn't get ANY law enforcement to look into it, and the state wasn't interested in doing an audit. Small towns!

Summerthyme
Click to expand...
Funny thing. The county is required to show where the fund is and certify (not that does much) that the money is there and invested safely. I am somewhat comfortable with that.

It is the city and school board that are horrible. We seemed to have gotten liberals in both and there is never a dime that they didn't want and a quarter then intended to spend.
 
O

Ogre

Veteran Member
Our city raised the tax rates last year, bragging that they hadn't raised the rate in 8 years. Never mind that because of reevaluation everyone's accessed value had gone up over 50% in that time.
 
20Gauge

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
Ogre said:
Our city raised the tax rates last year, bragging that they hadn't raised the rate in 8 years. Never mind that because of reevaluation everyone's accessed value had gone up over 50% in that time.
Click to expand...
Yeah, they do seem to have 3 different ways to raise taxes while saying they never did.
 
M

Murt

Veteran Member
Walrus said:
There used to be a good hillbilly song which played on some "welcome to Branson" radio channel which had the chorus "If ten percent is good enough for Jesus, it oughta be enough for Uncle Sam" - including its lesser minions.
Click to expand...
I think that was Ray Stevens
 
W

Walrus

Veteran Member
Murt said:
I think that was Ray Stevens
Click to expand...
Sure might've been, he has a theatre in Branson, I think, or else he's performed a lot there. The voice on the song didn't sound like his, though - way different pronunciation of words. Maybe he was speaking some Joe-juh hillbillyspeak.

Edited: Ah. He's performed some at the Andy Williams Moon River theatre.
 
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