April 11, 2011

In this Issue:
Volunteer Meeting This Week
State Legislation Alert: ACTION ITEMS
Cobb Commission Meeting - April 12th, 9am
Energy & Environment
GTPI Treasurer Position Open

Hello Patriot Friends,
 

This weeks meeting Volunteer Meeting will be held:

Date: April 14, 2011
Time: 6:45pm
Location: 900 Roswell Street, Marietta, GA
(Old Chevy car dealership building to the east of Roswell St. Baptist Church)

This week's speaker will be Bruce Cook, Chairman/CEO, Citizens for Restoring America's Financial Future and founder of One Cent Solution.

We'll also discuss the wrap-up of the Georgia Legislative Session.  Please forward this email to your friends and family even if they don't live in Atlanta.  We can use their help with our Georgia Legislative Agenda.

State Legislation Alert: ACTION ITEMS

This is it, folks. This is the last week of the regular legislative session this year. Tonight, the Senate may vote on HB 87.

Please call the Senate Leadership and your Senator tonight and ask them to please vote for the original version of HB 87 (Immigration).

Please call the House Leadership and your representative; and ask them to pull the "poison pill" (merging the House and Senate Budget Offices) from SB 223 (Government Accountability, Sunset Bill) and vote for it. Call them often through Thursday.

The tax bill has been pulled for now, but it may re-emerge in the special session this summer or next year. We will review it again at that time.

Thank you for all of your help.

For your reference, you can download a list of bills GTPI is watching and a complete contact list for Georgia State Representatives and Senators:

GTPI Position on major state legislative bills
Georgia House Leaders
Georgia State Representatives
Georgia Senate Leaders
George State Senators

Cobb Commission Meeting - April 12th, 9am

This is short notice, but for those of you that can make it, try to attend the Cobb Commission Meeting Tuesday, April 12th. They are scheduled to vote on the Cobb budget. Tom Maloy will speak for a more reasoned approach to solving the budget shortfall. The meeting is at 9:00 a.m. at the Commission Meeting Room at 100 Cherokee St. on the Square in Marietta.   Maybe some other tea party members can attend.

Thanks to Ron Sifen, Madison Forum Member, for the following information:

Cobb County now says it has a $31 million shortfall in the current fiscal year budget, and it projects additional $30 million shortfalls for the budgets in each of the next 2 years.

The commissioners are now considering more tax increases on top of the $492 million SPLOST, or drastic spending cuts, or some combination of the two.

In December, the County said the shortfall for this year was about $24 million. Continued excessive spending for the last 4 months has grown the shortfall to the $31 million. If the County had addressed this in December, they would have had 9 months to manage a much smaller deficit. Obviously, that would have doomed the SPLOST. Did the County deliberately delay dealing with its budget shortfalls until after the SPLOST vote, making the problems even worse?

On April 8, the MDJ reported details of the budget and tax proposals that the commissioners will consider on April 12.
* Close 13 of Cobb County's 17 libraries indefinitely
* Close 3 senior centers
* Close Mable House Amphitheater, 2 pools, and large cutbacks for parks
* Across the board 3.5% cutbacks for all other departments, including public safety
* For this year, $16 million in one-time savings for postponing or canceling various purchases, and tapping several reserve funds.
* Even with all of the above, this plan also includes a half mill property tax increase.

Since this plan relies so heavily on one-time items and tapping reserves, it does very little to lay a foundation for solving the projected shortfall in next year’s budget.

Of course, our libraries are taking massive cuts. I was astounded at how tiny the projected savings are from closing 13 of our 17 libraries. The proposed budget seems excessively draconian with regard to widely-utilized, valued services, and does not address our real excessive spending problems.

Reportedly, there is another alternative that would do the one-time savings but not make other spending cuts, and increase property taxes by at least 2 mills.

If the commissioners refuse to get serious about responsibly cutting excessive spending, 2 mills will only get us to September 2011. Later this year, there would need to be at least an additional 2 mill increase, and still another increase at the end of 2012. And again, all of these millage rate increases will be in addition to the $492 million in SPLOST taxes for additional amenities that we cannot afford.

Cobb County is going to have to recognize the economic realities of 2011, and eliminate its excessive spending. We cannot imitate the State of Illinois, and try to tax our way out of this problem. We have to adjust our spending to the economic realities of 2011.

As an example, Commissioner Ott has suggested 5 furlough days for all County employees, and exempt all "on-the-street" policemen and firemen. This one suggestion would save far more than completely closing 13 libraries. Meanwhile, the County could reduce operating hours at all of the libraries, and still achieve additional savings, without completely decimating the library system.

As another example, Commissioner Ott has been pointing out for months that Cobb County has had an alleged official hiring freeze since 2007. Yet the County continues to pay for the costs of advertising for open, non-critical positions, and routinely continues to hire people to fill those positions. Cobb could achieve massive savings this year, and in future years, by simply adhering to its already existing hiring freeze.

Hopefully, commissioners can come up with a new package that would be less draconian with regard to libraries, better protect public safety services, and provide a better foundation for resolving the already identified budget gaps for 2012 and 2013.

We cannot tax our way out of this problem. Even if the half mill for the Fire Fund turns out to be defensible, Cobb County has to recognize the economic realities of 2011, and responsibly reduce spending accordingly.

I also recommend that the commissioners make it clear that SPLOST spending must be prioritized to spend only on true necessities first, and delay any spending on non-necessities until such time that Cobb County can sustain those services without any additional tax increases.

Please send your comments to
tim.lee@cobbcounty.org,
bob.ott@cobbcounty.org,
helen.goreham@cobbcounty.org,
woody.thompson@cobbcounty.org,
joann.birrell@cobbcounty.org,
dhankerson@cobbcounty.org,
rsifen@aol.com

Energy & Environment -
What you need to know about regulations that are creating economic gridlock in our nation.

Many of you have asked for links to resources on the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy presentations presented by Patti Gettinger.  Now, for your further research, Patti has put together a very informative website where you can find links to important resources and download her PowerPoint presentations.  Check it out:  www.regs-gridlock.com .  Great job Patti!

GTPI Treasurer Position Open
The Georgia Tea Party Board has an opening for a Treasurer position.  All parties interested should submit a letter of interest and qualifications.

Yours in liberty,

The Georgia Tea Party

UPCOMING EVENTS

Volunteer Meeting are held at 900 Roswell Street, Marietta, GA
(Old Chevy car dealership building to the east of Roswell St. Baptist Church)

Mark your calendar for these upcoming events and check our Event Calendar for updates. 

Georgia Tea Party^TM Board of Directors

Michelle Bouchelle
Patti Gettinger
Bill Hudson
Jim Jess
Tom Maloy
Field Searcy
Sue Stanton
JD Van Brink
Michael Williams