Property Tax Reduction?
By far the most passionate and interesting request made during this morning's Budget Committee Meeting was the one made by Commissioner Tommy Pollard. While Commissioner Pollard is not a member of the Budget Committee he is a regular attendee of the meetings and when given the opportunity to address the committee he asked that every consideration be given to a reduction of seven cents in the property tax rate.
I am in full agreement with Commissioner Pollard's proposal and while this may seem like a small amount it would certainly be a huge step in the right direction.
The proposal was met by the committee, for the most part, with silence, before deciding that it was a matter that could not be considered before work on the budget for next year is begun.
After the meeting several other Commissioners I spoke with were in firm agreement with the reduction, among them were Commissioners Adams, Risner, Beets, J. Harwell. Others I did not get a chance to speak with may also be supportive.
I urge everyone to contact your County Commissioner and ask them where they stand on this issue and why. Don't wait until it's time to decide, start calling them today and if they are not for the reduction nicely suggest they reconsider. The county and all of government must return to the ideology that it exist to serve the people and not to be a master over the people. Allen Barrett
I am in full agreement with Commissioner Pollard's proposal and while this may seem like a small amount it would certainly be a huge step in the right direction.
The proposal was met by the committee, for the most part, with silence, before deciding that it was a matter that could not be considered before work on the budget for next year is begun.
After the meeting several other Commissioners I spoke with were in firm agreement with the reduction, among them were Commissioners Adams, Risner, Beets, J. Harwell. Others I did not get a chance to speak with may also be supportive.
I urge everyone to contact your County Commissioner and ask them where they stand on this issue and why. Don't wait until it's time to decide, start calling them today and if they are not for the reduction nicely suggest they reconsider. The county and all of government must return to the ideology that it exist to serve the people and not to be a master over the people. Allen Barrett
posted by Allen Barrett | 1:23 PM
42 Comments:
What I dont understand is if the supposed value (sales price ) of my house has gone down 40% in the last two years , why hasnt it been reduced by that amount on the tax rolls? .
The taxpayers are having to REDUCE their spending during the current recession . WHY isnt the county government having to do the same ??
Did anyone notice how many county departments wrung their hands and cried out for more taxpayer $$ last year when gas hit $4 -and were given budget to cover it . But NOT ONE of them have given $$ back now that it's under $2 .
THAT is how Giles government works !!
Tackswhacker
8:06 This is how all county goverments and state goverment works. And don't forget the federal gov. Instead of income tax decrease we are getting and increase and have doubled our debt.
Increases and doubling debt is due to the poor leadership of our county executive. She always put it down to someone else asking for funding or a state mandate. Has anyone ever seen those mandates? The commissioners never push to ask for copies of those "mandates". Or she touts something the county MUST have. We have done without before and now is the time to start cutting back as the rest of the nation. Giles county government lives in never never land and all in public employ need to wake up.
10:27 I don't think the county gov has increased property taxes in the last couple of years. If you kept up with state and federal gov. you would know what has or has not been mandated. When it's mandated it's all over the T V.
You are right. The county tax has not increased since 2004 (is that correct Mr WAB?) and that is due mostly because of Mr Barrett and a handful of other concerned citizens holding the commissioner's feet to the fire. We dont need another county tax increase until other counties catch up with Giles Co. The commissioners need to start to think about cutting funding not increasing it. And 10:48, thats what I was saying, Ms Vanzant states things are "mandated" by the state when they truly are not. Despite that the commissioners just go along with it without question and thats one of the reasons why we have such a high tax rate.
10:27 I hate to disagree, but last year was the FIRST year since McGill has been assessor that my property hasn't been reassessed Of couese last year he was running for re-election and would have lost votes if he has reassessed). I swear every time he drives by my house and sees the grass is mowed his eyes have dollar signs in them and he runs back to his office and ups my assessment. Maybe your property hasn't been reassessed (and count yourself fortunate) but mine has.
7:15 Are we not speaking of different increases - tax rate as opposed to assessing?
WAB, what did commissioners Pollard, J. Harwell, Beets and Risner suggest could be cut from the budget in order to achieve a tax rate reduction or was it just words?
1032 one of the things we must accomplish is a common sense approach to finance. If you don't have the money, you don't spend, you learn how to priortize & make what is available work as best you can.
The schools took a tax increase that wasn't needed based on a bunch of lies. It's past time to take it back.
Look what they did with the loot - built a gazillion dollar piece of crap on the hill side they said was a spring & filled it with a bunch of high paid gophers. Roll it back!
A school should know how to deal with adversity & be able to teach some of it to the next generation. We had record revenue years & they blew every bit of it & raided savings too --- and didn't apparently even pay the people who make it work cost of living increases! It's a darned shame & past time to change it!
It's time for the school board to zero base their needs & come back to Tommy & tell him they can double his 7 cents & give the children a better real education in the process! Be honest, be real, be frugal!
Pollard has guts, common sense, and a moral sense of being - three traits that are well above any other you can name. We are very lucky to have him on the commission! We do have some darn good commissioners & they will prevail in the end!
8:40
I do agree with all you say. However, I think it will be the common sense people in Giles County who will prevail. Doubt the commissioners will be the ones to sort it out amongst themselves.
Ask your commissioners what services will be given up if the property tax were reduced. You can not take it from the school system, as it is mandated by the state to provide the same funding, at minimum.
It is easy for persons to stand up and promote themselves by asking to cut taxes. The difficulty comes in deciding who and what will suffer from these cuts.
1220 - sounds good, except that isn't what the state mandates! I'm sure you've read BEP & more - got all the facts, except adenda overrides common sense.
Like I said ... Whack em ... unless ... Hopefully, like someone else said - the school board will take control, allocate the dollars where they belong & generate a huge surplus ... & they can be the bearer of good tidings with a roll back.
12:20 We have always heard from a handful of commissioners that we are mandated to give the schools at least the same funding as the previous year however, that appears not to be true.
A commissioner said something that wasn't true, how dare you suggest such a thing.
Yes, it's just a shame that we have all these corrupt and dishonest people serving in public offices throughout Giles County.
Not all but a great many in public office only in it for what they can get out of it for self, friends and family. Sad but true.
I thought they all were crooks and liars? At least that sems to be the prevailing blog attitude. And that is truly sad.
412 feels lonely & wants everyone to believe everyone in the county is being called an idiot, liar, & crook. Not true! What looks so prim & proper is really an old hag with no marbles left.
We have some good honest commisssioners & a few that thinks they know it all & do as they are told by "the Spear." Tske Tommy Campbell for instance. He has been there for 200 years.
To the 2 Apr 10:32 poster.
Sorry to be so slow posting a response to your question.
In conversations about the possible tax reduction the prevailing thought has been first you reduce the tax burden on the citizens then reducing the budget will follow. There have been no specifics about what could be cut but there are certainly a number of things that could and should be cut. A ten percent cut in most departments would not create any overwhelming obstacles. Some things that I can see would be the sheriff's detail in the courthouse, the amount of contributions to the industrial development board (which still does not give any written reports on their activities), limitations on the amount of sick leave that can be used instead of sold back to the county at retirement (this would prevent having to hire someone to do the work while also paying someone to stay at home), selling some property and getting it back on the tax book as a resource instead of a liability this would also remove the need for insurance on those properties, reduction on the amount of money paid to the city for the airport, cuts to some charitable services that can hold fund raisers for themselves, sale of the ambulance service, etc. Understand, please, that these are some of my own ideas and have not been discussed with or endorsed by any commissioner. Allen Barrett
Thanks WAB. I like your ideas. What about adding the county mayor only has one secretary, I think she has two or more.
Get the commissioners that want to cut the tax rate, to reduce the budget by: Impeach Mrs. Vanzant, sue her for all the $$ she has cost the tax payers while she has illegally helt the Office, plus all the property she has purchased and people she has hired with in this illegal position.
Should be enough to lower the tax burden.
In the future all those people she had put to work in her office and the Fincancial Office will NOT be a budget item but an unemployed item.
Otherwise don't SAY A WORD when your taxs' goes up again!
Here's how the private sector works:
You have 10% less this year because we have 10% less.
Present plans to reduce expenses 10% and 20%, by innovation (find a better more efficient way to do everything you do).
If you can't get to 10% we'll hire someone who can.
If you beat 10%, you might get a raise or bonus, or both ... if we make any money!
I agree 100% Anonymous posted at
5:46 April 8th.
I'm calling my three commissioners, now some of you that have talked here, do some talking on the phone to your commissioner.
I have also called my commissioners and asked for a wheel tax. I'm tired of paying all the taxes to keep the illegals and lazy people up. These people drive better cars than I do and don't pay a dime. At least with a wheel tax they will pay something.
805 you've got lovellitis - perianal itchemitis - not a personal pain in the rear end, but a pain in everyone's rear end! Guess you & your supporter have to scratch something - it's all you can find!
8:05 you fit right in with the obamaitcs and wanting everyone to have an equal case of misery. Why not look at the situation as cut the taxes on everyone and increase their lot in life. By the way everyone is paying property taxes renters pay through pass ons from the owner.
hey 9:05-You are one of the reasons the blog has no credibility. It doesn't matter whether you agree with 8:05 and their position on a wheel tax, they do have a right to their opinion. Can you not disagree without insulting the person? You don't want a wheel tax, great. You missed an opportunity to tell 8:05 as well as many others the downside of that tax in a civil way. You may have changed their mind. I didn't see any disrespect in their post. If someone has a different opinion than you do, they are stupid, so presumably you have all the answers??? I see pros and cons to both sides, wish I knew it all like you do.
We haven't lost freedom of speech yet Giles Co, let's discuss like grownups before we do.
752 It's all in the motive - same persons & same game - divide by pseudo- "fairness" then conquer by taking their money.
Can't afford a property tax increase of "X" but can force someone else (unknown?) & everyone else to pax the same "X" dollars of tax in a new fragmented unaccountable scheme!
The issue is all about spending more to increase the marginal propensity to fail, which can only be matched by the marginal propensity to promote marginality by calling it excellence!
It's a bit like cowpieology - let it be, the flies wll eventually leave, It'll dry & get hard, & you'll have your very own frisbee, free, wthout a tax increase.
7:52 You say we haven't lost freedom of speech in Giles Co - what about the two men getting arrested a couple of years back for trying to speak at a school board meeting? How soon we forget.
That wasn't for free speach. That was for disrupting a meeting.
8:36
That is exactly what happened. I'm glad someone besides me knows that.
No. It was proved they did NOT disrupt a meeting. Their right to free speech was taken from them. Since you both remember so well, you will remember Mr Barrett followed the school board rules but Gonzoles and some of the other members chose to ignore that.
There is a deeper point here. 836 & 738 both claim the two men were wrong & the tyrants were right. The jury put it to rest, by fiding for Barrett & Winkles, not the school board (Jackson, Gonzo & the puppet).
If the two men had filed for damages (10K+ for defense of wrongful charges) plus a gazillion more for wrongful arrest & jail, slander, and much more than enough to bankrupt the county - maybe the two above idiots noted would have disappeared into oblivion.
Foul evil people have no sense of truth, right, wrong, or simple decency.
On the other hand, one of the writers could be an Alabama commuter % the other might be missing a hammer & a brain.
Surely not an Alabama commuter, well where on Earth is the Giles Co border patrol ??? Just can't keep them foreigners out, can we? Guess that's what wrong with our town. How dare somebody drive from way down there and most likely buy lunch, gas, probably stop at our stores once in a while and pay us sales tax. Just send that foreign money back. We don't need those kind up here trying to fill our kids heads with all kind of nonsense, like there is a big old world out there.Haven't them foreigners figured out that we don't won't their kind up here, only born and bred Giles Countians allowed. I know, lets just "freeze em out". Send back to their own kind. Quick somebody, form a committee, circle the wagons, call out the guards, send for the calvary, help, help, the sky is falling.
Gimme a break, and at the risk of sending some of the natives into cardiac arrest, there's probably more foreigners that just Alabamians...maybe Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Texas, California, Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, Kansas, Arkansas, and maybe about 38 more foreign "countries". No wonder Pulaski is drying up, nobody is welcome here! If only the natives stay, we'll be a ghost town one day.
Barrett and Winkles knew what they were doing. They were disrupting a meeting.
The county took the easy way out by not fighting.
9:13 The county didn't have anything to fight with. The county via the school board was proved WRONG. Period.
I can remember when people were allowed to question and make comments at public meetings. The school board meetings are public meetings. By rights the public is legally still allowed to question and make comments, however we seem to have a different standard here in beautiful Giles County.
But then we don't seem to know much about the state sunshine laws either.
Someday the voters may just get their fill of this and vote those who do not abide by state laws out of office. May the day be soon!!!!!!
April 19 8:19
You missed the point completely the comment wasn't about the visitor who comes to see the beauty of Giles County but the school director who signed a contract agreeing to move to Giles County in order to be and remain School Director. It's his large taxpayer salary zooming across the border and the lies he has told that is bothersome. Even his second in command with the second highest income lives in Lincoln County.
7:57 A good place to start getting change is this County Charter being offered. Those of us who feel the same as 7:57 need to be at the meeting April 23, 6 pm at the Technology Center.
Without being beligerant, and without a lot of propoganda, what are the benefits and what are the negatives of this new charter?
Benefits are the State is removed from local government (without losing a penny of State income), no negatives. In other words, the county governs itself on local issues and affairs instead of the State.
At yesterday's Budget Committee Meeting, Tommy Pollard brought up about the 7 cent property tax decrease. Some of the Committee didn't want to cut. Can you believe that.
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