It appears that state revenues for the year will be as much as one billion dollars below projections. Times are hard and we are all struggling and wondering when will it end. So the State of Georgia, with the responsibility to the Governor must find a way to cut expenses. A few years back the state created a program where it would collect taxes from us and redistribute them to local governments (cities and counties) in the form of a Homeowners Tax Relief Grant(HTRG). Great idea. We as homeowners get some relief from property taxes, which incidentally is the major source of revenue (school’s and city) for the City of Decatur. Now how do get this relief? Local governments issue a tax bill with an item shown as HTRG which reduces our tax bills (about $251.96 for me). Most governments in Georgia have already issued tax bills and listed the credits. Local governments get this money from the state by sending a bill later in the year. Now the state says, “Whoops, no money!” so we as a local government will not receive these funds. How much is it for Decatur? General Fund $370,000, Capital Fund $36,000, DDA Fund $14,000 and the school fund $683,000. For the city of Decatur a total of $1,103,000 (estimated for 2008). Now we have already made and approved our budgets so we how do we make up this lost revenue? For Decatur, we have a second bill yet to issue so we remove the credit on our 2^nd bill and show it as an increase of (in my case) $251.96, or we have keep the credit and cut services. So, the state makes a choice to cut expenses for lost revenue. Oh no, wait, it was not the state that had to cut services or increase taxes, it was your local government. Pretty easy choice for the governor; just take it from someone else.

Last year we fought hard against a proposal for the state to collect a sales tax and redistribute it to us for property tax with a promise that they would always try hard to keep our revenues at the same level. And we said, “We don’t trust you,” and they wondered why!!!! Some relief program: it’s dropped at the first sign of trouble because it is easy for them to do.

I was privileged to join the Atlanta Regional Commission ”links” trip to Denver last week along with several others from the metro Atlanta area. It snowed and was cold, but other than that it was a very informative trip. We had the opportunity to hear of Denver’s public health system (their Grady that actually makes money with out state assistance). We rode the light rail system from downtown Denver to Englewood and back and listened to them tell how they weathered a drought worse than ours. As with any region they certainly have their own issues and problems to deal with, but it does help to see what they have done that has worked for them and see if there are lessons to be learned for the Atlanta area. It became apparent toward the end of the trip that most everyone felt that transportation and water are our greatest challenges here in Atlanta. There were a number of Decatur residents on the trip and all seemed to think it was worthwhile. As one said to me as we were departing Denver “We certainly are not perfect, but we ain’t so bad either”.  

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Well here I am, a baby boomer blogging. The world is certainly changing. Over the last year or so I began to pay attention to blogs, not just those that are about Decatur, but several that deal with just about anything from politics to sewage ( my profession). I believe when used properly, they have value. This is my attempt to let you know what is on my mind about those particular issues that may or will have an impact on our city. I encourage your comments on what I have said or any issue you wish to discuss. This is being done by me personally and has no official ,or unofficial for that matter, ties to the city. So, the opinions you see here may not be those of the management, but lets get started.