This year’s drop in the Jackson County tax digest is a big deal. For decades, county leaders have been used to the tax digest going up every year, thus bringing in more money even if the millage rate stayed the same.
No longer. Reality has finally hit home.
COLUMN: Smith wrong on employees ‘milked’
In truth, the county’s tax digest should have shrunk last year. The real estate bubble burst in 2008, but county officials were VERY slow to make adjustments to the digest. Many other counties took a big loss last year with lower values.
For the county government, the lower tax digest is expected to lower revenues by $1.4 million. For the county school system, that number will be even larger.
The combination of lower property taxes, lower sales taxes and declining fees has hit local governments hard.
That’s not always a bad thing, however. Public officials run for office saying they’ll streamline government.
OK, here’s your chance.
Alas, what candidates say on the campaign trail is often not what they really mean. When it comes right down to it, government officials are loath to make hard choices. No government official really wants to cut government spending. That makes people mad.
But government at every level — local, state, national — is too big and too intrusive. When you hear a government official say all the “fat” has been cut, then you know he’s lying. Government is obese from years of gorging from hapless taxpayers.
So it wasn’t too much of a shock when commissioner Dwain Smith called for the county to stop furloughing employees. The county has “milked” employees enough, he said.
No, Mr. Smith, the only people being “milked” are the taxpayers. Instead of laying off county employees, Jackson County decided to use furlough days. If you do away with furlough days, how would you propose to pay for those employees? How do you propose to make up the looming $1.4 million shortfall in property taxes?
Smith is a former county employee himself so has little perspective for what’s going on in the real world outside of government. Out here in the private sector, furlough days, layoffs and pay cuts are the norm. Far fewer government employees have been affected by the recession than in the private sector.
So why should the private sector be expected to continue funding for public employees? The recession has devastated many families. They’ve lost jobs. They’ve lost homes. They’ve seen their equity drop dramatically.
But you want to tax those people more so government employees will be shielded from the economic reality?
This is why so many people are angry at government today. There is a huge lack of spending discipline in the public sphere.
More cuts in government may be needed. Layoffs, cuts in services, etc. are possible.
Mr. Smith is wrong. County employees are lucky to still have a job. That they are expected to sacrifice as much as the private sector is only fair. They are not being “milked” as Mr. Smith suggests.
This is the real world. Smith and other government oligarchs need to get used to it.
Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
For the county government, the lower tax digest is expected to lower revenues by $1.4 million. For the county school system, that number will be even larger.
The combination of lower property taxes, lower sales taxes and declining fees has hit local governments hard.
That’s not always a bad thing, however. Public officials run for office saying they’ll streamline government.
OK, here’s your chance.
Alas, what candidates say on the campaign trail is often not what they really mean. When it comes right down to it, government officials are loath to make hard choices. No government official really wants to cut government spending. That makes people mad.
But government at every level — local, state, national — is too big and too intrusive. When you hear a government official say all the “fat” has been cut, then you know he’s lying. Government is obese from years of gorging from hapless taxpayers.
So it wasn’t too much of a shock when commissioner Dwain Smith called for the county to stop furloughing employees. The county has “milked” employees enough, he said.
No, Mr. Smith, the only people being “milked” are the taxpayers. Instead of laying off county employees, Jackson County decided to use furlough days. If you do away with furlough days, how would you propose to pay for those employees? How do you propose to make up the looming $1.4 million shortfall in property taxes?
Smith is a former county employee himself so has little perspective for what’s going on in the real world outside of government. Out here in the private sector, furlough days, layoffs and pay cuts are the norm. Far fewer government employees have been affected by the recession than in the private sector.
So why should the private sector be expected to continue funding for public employees? The recession has devastated many families. They’ve lost jobs. They’ve lost homes. They’ve seen their equity drop dramatically.
But you want to tax those people more so government employees will be shielded from the economic reality?
This is why so many people are angry at government today. There is a huge lack of spending discipline in the public sphere.
More cuts in government may be needed. Layoffs, cuts in services, etc. are possible.
Mr. Smith is wrong. County employees are lucky to still have a job. That they are expected to sacrifice as much as the private sector is only fair. They are not being “milked” as Mr. Smith suggests.
This is the real world. Smith and other government oligarchs need to get used to it.
Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
Yes Mike you have some valid points but you can't just run out on the street and hire a decent 911 dispatcher and or paramedic and they just might save one of the Buffington clan.
I think the BOC should stop all building and road projects and gut those areas to bare minimum. They should cut planning and zoning down to maybe 2 folks until the economy turns around and also slash code enforcement and animal control in half.
If SPLOST fails(I am voting NO due to the Rec funds and city pet projects) then guess what those cuts happen anyway.
I expect a millage increase soon but if they don't cut some fat from those depts they can expect me not to vote for any of the incumbents.
If the Jackson County Merit System was half honest (do they even propose to have one) they would hire the qualified people that apply for work and not one of their neices or nephews that couldn't qualify for a clerk job at Dollar General.
This is very evident when you are trying report a suspucious person or some overgrown olf on a four wheeler that uses the highways for his NASCAR training and personal use. I sometimes feel like the man who got disregarded when he call about someone casing his home, all officers are "busy". He then called back and said "Don't worry, just send the coroner, I shot both of them." Six deputies showed up in 5 minutes. Jackson Co.for sure.
cut in hours -$99. every 2 weeks
furlow day - $125 a month
no contrabutions in retirement - $60 every 2 weeks
add it up and thats $443 a month plus it now cost us an additional $50 every two weeks for insurance that brings the total up to $543 each month. I am just the average county employee and most other employees have given up the same and more So to say we are not milked is not exactly true.
Prior to 2007, I worked mostly government jobs and got used to a smooth privileged ride. I have since become a convert on the idea of small government, low taxes, and less regulation.
Government should live with constraints and "man up" to the challenge. I have to cut my spending when I lose income.
Folks, don't complain. You could have lost everthing like I have. The County manager should make a trip downstairs one morning around 9am, or visit the EMS office across the alley and you will definitely know where you can save some money. IT won't be saving any of my tax money though,I have nothing to pay taxes on anymore. I too,use to have work.
If so, then why is anyone surprised?
After reading some of the articles and comments posted on mainstreetnews.com over the past few years about the goings on in Nicholson, I guess everyone involved in government that is from Nicholson needs to take their blinders off and see what the real world is all about.
Sounds like you knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Bubba. Maybe it's time you found something else to do.
Economic times are very tough right now. People are hurting. There is an ever present understanding that expenditures are important. Things we pay no attention to, and take for granted in better times are all of a sudden brought to light by the current environment. How do we fix it?
First of all, we must understand that we have to ride the same train out of this that we rode in on. As for high government expenses, we set ourselves up for it. We are too heavily dependent on government because we built a big government. If more was private, services would be better, basically the same folks would work it, they would just work for a private company instead of government.
Government is too big! Waaaaay too big!
But there will always be folks that can't take care of themselves and want government (i.e. their neighbors) to do their thinking for them.
The simple reason for the housing bubble is that there was too much easy money for home loans for people who would not or could not pay their mortgages. It was a giant ponzi scheme perpetrated on us, the US citizens. We're still falling for it as that part of the economy is still pumping out lots of funny money to funny people. I guess the reason people can't figure this out is that they went to government run schools which teach no economics.
A poor man never created a job for anyone. There is no such thing as trickle up. It's a myth.
Many in this country believe that Ronald Reagan was a god descended from starry heights to whip people into his ideal of a good American citizen divided into the haves and have nots. However, that whole issue is debatable. Debatable because of the variables each situation contains.
There will always be people who function at the bottom of society and for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that those are the people who are most exploited. It doesn't matter whether it's through their own ignorance or the flash-and-dash antics of greed, exploitation is exploitation.
I wonder what men and women like Ted Turner, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates and other entrepreneurs would say about poor people not being able to hire people. Just saying that - there are so many variables to opinions about people that to adopt only one stance is too simplistic and can lead one into sounding elitist.
The "big money people" in our country took their marbles and went home. Marble being a symbol for jobs that are much needed in this country. I may not know economics as thoroughly as other people might, but I know enough to know that there are more than economics issues at hand here. There is also a moral aspect that we don't speak about. These jobs are gone and many Americans not working because a few people, of the "trickle-down" sort, sought to line their pockets with their own brand of 30 pieces of silver and betrayed the very foundation we are taught the country was based upon. Nothing, NOTHING excuses such behavior.
Americans have much work to do to restore confidence, rebuild the economy and continue the work of The Constitution of the United States. Pointing fingers and name calling does not resolve issues and most certainly does not open real channels of communication.
So I'm still tickled.
You have a good argument but it's been tried... By the Soviet Union. Charity is the Church's job, not the government.
The vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of riches. The tyranny of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. (paraphrased from Winston Churchill)
Coveting your neighbors' wealth will not make you rich Tickled but it could cause us all to be poor.
An elitist might be someone who wants to take away a person's lifelong hard work because he "thinks it right."
You and your ilk are destroying what was once a great country.
Because of this they have no knowledge of what a person goes through that owns a business, puts HIS or HER money into it, works 60-80 hours a week praying that they will be the 10% that succeed and then get accused of being greedy by the 49% Drones that we have on the take. The best and most knowledgeable politicians in office have been responsible Business Men and know how to take a dollar and make seven out of it. Our pathetic country is eaten up with Drones in Washington, in State Government and county govenment.
For those that know what a Drone is good for, one out of the hundreds in a hive of bees gets a Saturday Night date with the Queen. The rest of the Drones are run out of the hive and return to dust.
Our intelligent leadership in Jackson Co. needs to look to the bees and get the Drones on the highway. The leadership doesn't pay them, the taxpayers do and we can't wait for the Saturday Night date!
Government creates nothing except messes. Private business create jobs and some create Gross National Product. Wake up Dwain and watch the bees!
When my pay was cut we cut our household budget to match income.