I guess it would be more accurate and fair to say that none of your candidates have ever won this county. Of course, some of your guys have won the other counties that gave you the overall win.

‘Nuff said. I think you know.

Fulton doesn’t have 10
DeKalb doesn’t have 10
Cobb doesn’t have 10

And these 3 count as the most densely populated counties in Georgia. What is it, a county that has 50,000 residents that has 10 commissioners?

Nice spread of government responsibility there. It’s a wonder anything gets accomplished.

hmmm…i guess partial representation of said county does not count? (legislative district)

Actually, I don’t know the answer to my own question (which proves that I’m not an attorney) but I know of at least one.

You wrote, “At all these same places, same accessability, I see 8 or more of my Commissioners (out of 10) and usually my Mayor, too.

I am still a proponent of the General Assembly eliminating income tax and using the expanded sales tax to make up the difference.

The BIG difference – the single MOST IMPORTANT difference is simply this: I have one House Rep and one Senator. There are how many Reps in the state House? Like 180? There are how many seats in the state Senate? like 56? (my numbers may be off a few)
At all these same places, same accessability, I see 8 or more of my Commissioners (out of 10) and usually my Mayor, too. I see 6 or more (out of school board members.

So, no matter how great is your relationship with your General Assembly reps, they represent a miniscule fraction of the decision makers. I have the home phone numbers, addresses, emails, etc. of all my Commissioners and School Board members and know them all (but one) on a first name basis.

Local is always better! Besides, if you hate your city/county government, you can move about 20 miles away and be in a different jurisdiction and keep your same job, same church, same friends, etc. Moving out of the state is a major, life-changing step.

No thanks. I’ll stick with the devils I know extremely well.

Amen.

Its politics though, meaning that the effect, tax reform, is something the masses salivate over, when the CAUSE, spending, is untouchable.

Look what happened when Sonny breached the subject of actually making state employees SHARE some of the $2.5 billion unfunded liability in the employee health program, instead of passing 100% of the cost to the taxpayer. The backlash from the state employees quickly made all the pols flee in terror and make the easy decision to pass 100% on to US.

http://www.cbpp.org/taborvideo.htm

Local politicians and state politicians (ALL politicians) are seduced by the power of the purse, and abolition of the property tax would remove the seduction from one (highly populated) level. With only a few pols whose palms must be greased, the “expense ratio” of the Speaker’s plan is lower than the alternative.

The more noble reason is the unfairness of the appraisal-based property tax system. Housing prices are going down this year but assessments are not, for the local taxing entity wants the cash for its purposes. My house goes up in value just because other people are paying more for the right to be my neighbor and without regard to my income or ability to pay more in taxes. Everybody in the cabal — local politicians, homebuilders and remodelers, real estate agents — wants to “add to the tax base” and “protect our neighborhoods” regardless of the impact on the poorer current residents.

Any tax collection system will be abused unless there is a strict and simple spending cap like the one passed in Colorado a few years ago. Make that a part of your plan, Mr. Speaker.

Secondly, I would not be so concerned about people who live outside this state transacting business in it, as I would those living in it transacting business outside of it. If you live in say Augusta, and you know you can buy all your consumer goods across the river cheaper than you can in Augusta, why shop in Augusta?

Of course, we don’t know how much cheaper do we? It could be one cent per dollar or three or seven. Refer to the above comments about vague tax policy.

Finally, while this isn’t a particularly sexy issue, and so it has been glossed over by almost everyone, no one is really talking about the effect of general obligation bonds. A few billion dollars worth that are now unsecured. Not to mention the fact that the rating for every bond will likely change (not for the better).

Investors will take losses in millions of dollars on these bonds and the municipalities will be saddled with debt that costs way more than it’s capacity to generate revenue. Sounds like a winning combination, so let’s just guess the abstract way this new tax scheme will fix all that.

However, the FairTax does not eliminate state and local taxes, and it does not take all state revenue to the federal government for them to divide and return to the states. In fact, the last version of the FairTax I’m familiar with (I’ve quit following it, frankly) relies on the states to collect the taxes for the federal government.

I’m more than willing to look at a “final plan” and judge it on the merits. Until then, we only have the comments from the Speaker and Rep. Ehrhart. These comments indicate that the GreatTax will be used to reign in wasteful spending at the local level.

I’ve chosen to live in communities that have generally low tax burdens, that are fairly well run, and have local elected officials that are generally accountable to their voters. I don’t choose to gamble my quality of life nor that of my neighbors based on the whims, rifts, or ego-trips that occur for 40 days per year under the gold dome.