Just got this information:
I know this is short notice but we have just put together a rally in opposition to raising taxes in Newton County.
We will have State Senator John Douglas speaking at this rally.
We will be on the Square at 6pm for the rally and then about 6:30pm we plan on going over to the Old Courthouse before the BOC’s meeting to speak with the Commissioners and letting them know as Tax Payers we do not want our taxes raised and we do not want layoffs for our Public Safety Jobs (Police/Sheriff’s Dept., Fire/EMS). The BOC’s meeting is to start at 7pm and we can then listen to their comments after we have spoken to them. There will be no discussion after the meeting to the BOC’s at this meeting.
This will be a peaceful rally in opposition to raising taxes, similar to the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party Rally in Atlanta earlier this year.
Homemade signs in opposition to tax increases are encouraged, similar to those from the TEA Party’s just please remember to keep them respectful as the media will most likely be in attendance.
Hope to see you there and please bring your family and at least a friend or two ; )
If you could, please RSVP eschristian@gmail.com because we are sending out press releases to the local and Atlanta press and would like an estimate on how many will be able to attend.
{ 10 comments }
There may be a similar protest planned in Gwinnett County June 2nd….
There will be Tea Party Protest in Gwinnett June 1st or 2nd protesting the Gwinnett Commission’s plans to raise property taxes of city residents by 25 – 30%
I will call tomorrow and get a permit and determine the location
debbie – what city is raising taxes?
Elizabeth is doing a fantastic job at growing and energizing the base in her world. That’s what good organizational leadership is all about. Congrats Elizabeth!
It is not the city. The Gwinnett County Commission is looking raising property taxes 25% in unincorporated Gwinnett and 30% if you live in a city in Gwinnett
Wait. I thought they were just locking at raising taxes outside city limits. I need to look into this b/c we own property in the city of Lawrenceville.
If Gwinnett wants more foreclosures, this is the way to get them.
Kellie, The County Commission sets the millage rate for the entire County, which encompasses all cities and towns. The various cities will also establish their millage rate, as well as the various boards of education.
With valuations going down and budgets increasing, the millage rate will have to go up. Most communities in Georgia will have sticker shock when their tax bills arrive.
Interestingly enough, in Bibb County, the Commissioners quit recording their committee meetings, which appears a blatant attempt to skirt the sunshine laws of Georgia. Pressure needs to be kept on local governments as they will extract as much $$$ from your wallet as they can.
I don’t live in Gwinnett but we do own commercial property in the city of Lawrenceville. Our taxes will go up about $8000. We can’t afford that with how slow business has been.
These guys must live in a bubble. Do they not see what’s going on outside of their little world? Oh, but we NEED a baseball stadium and we NEED more parks and we NEED new playgrounds. Give me a break, we need our business to survive.
Hey Obama, can you bail me out?
Thank you Erick so much for posting this ; )
Thank you Maurice for the kind words ; )
Thank you Jason Pye for helping get the word out early on your blog about what our BOC’s were up to ; )
Thank you to all of our citizens who came to our rally.
Okay – to the UPDATE ; )
First of all GRASSROOTS WORK and combine that with technology like the Peach Pundit blog and emails and facebook and twitter, etc… if you combine those with the right message, doing the right thing that is a winning combination!!!
Tonight at 6pm we had a rally in our town “square” – we had about 80 people show up (on a Church night) in the middle of the work week to a political rally (that is AWESOME)!!! We had the Atlanta media show up – Fox 5 News, Channel 11, Channel 46. We had both of our local newspapers attend with reporters who are very objective, fair and actually report the facts not like we see in most of the big newspapers. We had our Chairman Ester Fleming speak and he gave an awesome speech. We had our State Senator John Douglas and he also gave a very awesome speech as well. And last but not certainly least my Commissioner Tim Fleming – this guy is young, Conservative and walks the walk – he ran a campaign on no tax increases and he kept his word and stuck to his principles of a fiscally conservative government – and his speech was awesome also. We had a very energized crowd – we had 5 democrat protesters (in favor of tax increases???) but they were peaceful. The rally went great and then we went over to our BOC’s before the meeting began and the citizens were able to speak to their commissioners before the meeting.
The meeting began and (D) Kathy Morgan (Chairman of the BOC’s) began by reading her oath of office and spoke about procedural issues and then she showed her frustration, I guess from the feedback she received, and spoke about the “trouble makers out there” and “fear mongering” etc… etc… etc… and went a little Elaine Lucas on us then the meeting began. The Commissioners spoke and in the end – NO TAXES WERE RAISED, ALL PORK WAS CUT FROM THE BUDGET, and NO CUTS TO PUBLIC SAFETY.
This was a huge victory for the taxpayers in Newton County. Last week we had the most likely scenario that we would receive a tax increase, a budget with pork, and cuts to public safety. That was just crazy in these economic times. Cut public safety, raise taxes and have pork ??? – sounded more like President Obama and D.C. than my county. We got the word out and thanks to awesome bloggers like Erick and Jason and I did not get to hear it personally but I think Chris Krok gave a shout out to us as well and thanks to the citizens who called and emailed and spoke with their commissioners – it made the difference.
By the way – we have 4 democrats and 2 republicans currently on our BOC’s and this victory happened because of all listed above and I also thank God that he blessed us as well.
Please do this in your communities – GRASSROOTS WORKS!!!
Good luck to the folks in Gwinnett – YOU CAN STOP THEM TOO.
CONGRATULATIONS ELIZABETH! Great Job!! Keep up the good work. When we stand together against higher taxes, it is hard for our elected officials not to listen.
Comments on this entry are closed.