As asserted many times, while the catalyst for forming the group may have been the inability of the City and County to come to an agreement, it is not a City of Cumming committee...
As asserted many times, while the catalyst for forming the group may have been the inability of the City and County to come to an agreement, it is not a City of Cumming committee. It is public knowledge that it was Mayor Gravitt that got the ball rolling with the committee. Each Councilman appointed a person, the mayor appointed someone and the rest came on board on their own free will. I came to be a member of the board as I requested more information and was invited to the first meeting. In addition, as was inaccurately pointed out, the committee has not made an issue of the SPLOST split at any time.
To continue the assertion that this is a city committee and we are all puppets is a ridiculous and desperate publicity measure. There are some of Forsyth County’s finest citizens on this committee. These people have given so much back to this community for many, many years that it is shameful that they are being referred to in this manner.
Taxes will go up if we approve SPLOST VI and its related $160 million bond if we cannot go back to the table and include other projects that are badly needed. We need to find a way to include a jail and courthouse in SPLOST funding. Road improvements are badly needed but we also need other county improvements as well. Some of these improvements are not a direct benefit like roads and intersections but are still needed to support a growing community. Commissioner Dave Richard said himself at the Town Hall meeting that he knew taxes would go up to fund some of these projects. Furthermore, Commissioner Richard said “As most people in the jail are Forsyth County residents, they citizens should pay for it. Paying with SPLOST puts the burden on our county visitors.” So the bonds will come and they will raise taxes if the current leadership has anything to do with it.
Defeating the renewal of SPLOST VI for 12 months will not create an unbearable burden. Sometimes we have to face small burdens in order to correct years of mismanagement and right past wrongs.
It has been business as usual until the Cumming Forsyth Tax Relief Committee (anti-SPLOST Committee) was formed. Then there was an all out push to get more propaganda out into the community. The leadership of this county has tried to create a public impression that they make no mistakes. They have ignored the wishes of the community for too long. That’s disrespect.
In my opinion, SPLOST VI was not created to respect the citizens; it was not created in a clear and concise manner in which every citizen could understand its impact. The terminology, while it may be legally correct, does not go the extra steps to show respect and it was rushed through without enough public input.
The rush I refer to is this: We knew for 5 years that this SPLOST would come up for renewal. 5 YEARS! But we wait until 6 months before it is to be voted on to start work on it. This list that the county is touting as well thought out and well prepared was presented and approved at a January 8th Called Meeting/Work Session…only 1 month before the vote and not at a Regular Meeting/Public Hearing. By then the ballots were printed and we were already being sold on the supposed benefits of SPLOST VI.
Logic tells me we should have had longer than 54 days (minus weekends, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays) to create such an important plan and decide how we should spend all this money. We had years to work on this and we rushed it through.
Regarding SPLOST 5 projects, I too want everyone to get the list from the county website. Take some time, drive around and see for themselves the status of the projects. That will be the proverbial “proof in the pudding”.
I propose we empower a citizens committee to be deeply involved with recreating SPLOST VI and that the committee remains in place to monitor SPLOST money management and monitor projects. This way we will insure that the money is spent on what we were told and that the projects get completed in a reasonable amount of time. I will continue this push even though I was told to “take my committee and stuff it” but one County Commissioner.
At this time, I am not involved with the disagreement regarding division of SPLOST money so I will not address those comments at this time but don’t want to give the impression I am ignoring it.
And please, everyone take the time to go the website of Commissioner Dave Richard. Read through all the sections and you will get a feel of who is really representing you. It’s embarrassing.
