The blessings and curses of cohabitation
As a teenager, I found my first real job at Martin-Boyd Christian Home, a Church of Christ retirement community in Chattanooga. The patience, compassion, and work ethic I learned there have had a lasting impact on my life. Imagine my excitement when my own daughter, a 2009 high school graduate, asked me to drive her to Martin-Boyd for a summer job interview.
I was excited to see the changes made over the years. Martin-Boyd has always been an establishment that honors its elderly residents, but now the architecture was updated with beautiful crown molding and individual door frames that give residents a greater sense of dignity and autonomy.
In the center of the elegant sitting room, lively birds flitted about a large glass enclosure, lending their bright colors to the atmosphere. The fattest cat I have ever seen perched on a richly upholstered chair. A sleek tabby weaved his way across the room, turning to rub against the leg of someone’s walker and then pausing for a head scratch.
The familiarity and obvious pleasure the residents feel toward these animals supports what elder care professionals have known for some time: Pets are therapeutic. In fact, when an aging person can no longer live at home, one of the greatest losses may be the loss of their animals. Petting a cat or dog has been shown to lower blood pressure, ease depression, and put a smile on one’s face.
Keeping pets should be source of enjoyment, enhancing the life of both the humans and the animals involved. In our society, we see many examples of harm caused by greed, arrogance, and even mental illness.
From time to time, the news carries a story of a house overrun by pets. Typically we hear about an older woman housing hundreds of cats in a home filled with feces and even a few rotting corpses. Authorities swoop down on the unfortunate woman, charging her with animal cruelty and removing the numerous animals to treat them as victims. But who is really the victim here? Seems to me the cats are in charge, treating their poor “owner” as a slave while they procreate madly. As the old joke goes, dogs have owners but cats have staff.
Then there are the pit bull owners, who may be crazier than the cat ladies. Every time a child is mauled by a savage dog, pit bull apologists rush in to blame the child. Last Friday an eight-year-old Lookout Mountain girl was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries after a pit bull attack. The apologists noted that the attack happened in the pit bull’s own yard while he was “defending his territory” from the girl’s small terrier. Although the dog owner had no proof of rabies inoculation, the apologists began their mantra of “Where were this girl’s parents?”
Eight-year-old children are often allowed to walk down the streets of their own neighborhood – particularly when a pet is missing. Chaining a pit bull in the yard is an unsafe practice, just as it would be unsafe to chain a bear or a lion in the yard and then expect children to just stay away. It was a relief to hear that the dog owner called 911 and then shot the animal in the head, unlike other cases where pit bulls have been spirited away from the scene of the crime. In one case, the dog owners hid the offending animal and presented authorities with a similar-looking dog instead.
Pet owners have the responsibility to protect little neighbors from vicious dogs. Chains and ropes do not provide adequate protection, since a child may wander into the animal’s circle. A tall chain-link fence provides better protection. It’s all well and good to say “Children should stay on their own property,” but the reality is that children do not exercise adult judgment. This is why homeowners must put a fence around their swimming pool, rather than just saying “That kid that drowned shouldn’t have been on my property in the first place.”
Many people around the United States love dangerous breeds like pit bulls, and feel perfectly comfortable around them. Other people like to keep poisonous snakes for pets. Those of us who don’t share your affinity simply ask that you keep such pets to yourself. Do not bring them to the park where our little ones are playing. Do not parade them through the local street fair, forcing us to sweep our children away from a mouthful of fangs right at the level of their little faces. Do not leave a dangerous dog unattended on a rope in your yard, where an unsuspecting child may become their next chew toy. Do not assume that just because you consider Killer a loveable, harmless pup, he will ignore the instincts present in every cell of his body.
People and animals can live in harmony. All it takes is a bit of wisdom on the part of human beings.
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Showing posts with label Walker County. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walker County. Show all posts
Monday, June 15, 2009
Monday, November 5, 2007
GREAT big sales tax, GREAT big power grab
Remember when Republicans were against big government? At least that’s what they said. Georgia GOP House Speaker Glenn Richardson is revising our tax system to centralize power into the hands of Big Government. This power grab will be funded by a high sales tax that will drive business out of Georgia, hike up the cost of living, and tax the daylights out of everything that breathes.
This week, I’ll explain how Richardson’s plan hurts taxpayers and local governments. Next week, we’ll look at the effect on Georgia businesses and unemployment.
Richardson calls it the GREAT Plan: Georgia’s Repeal of Every Ad valorem Tax. (The acronym should be GREAVT, but perhaps that sounded too much like grave or gravy.) He says he will make it illegal for counties to tax property, automobiles and boats. He says he will make up for lost county revenue with sales tax. Of course, that’s not mathematically possible without either raising the sales tax rate outright (which he claims he won’t do) or hiding additional sales taxes other places. By focusing on the repeal, Richardson hopes you won’t notice his funny math, and all the tax he’s adding elsewhere.
Richardson wants to expand the sales tax to cover anything that can be bought and sold, including services. Imagine paying sales tax for groceries, prescriptions, yard work, and even doctor visits.
But that’s still not enough revenue. In order to replace $9 billion in property taxes, Richardson must squeeze an extra $1,000 out of every man, woman and child in Georgia. At 4%, each Georgian would have to spend $25,000 in services per year. It just won’t work. Georgians only average $24,000 total spending per person. They can’t spend more on services alone than they spend altogether.
Rest assured, Richardson is not willing to give up one dollar of tax revenue. Georgia’s big government still has the same bills as before, and Richardson claims that local schools and municipalities will not be short-changed by the new system. All of the funds to operate Georgia will still come from taxes – that is, from us taxpayers.
Richardson has creative ways to extract these funds from you: multiple sales tax charges on every item. Currently the consumer pays sales tax just once, when an item is purchased at the store. Under the GREAT big tax, business-to-business transactions and raw materials will also be charged. Although he claims he will hold the line at 4%, the sales tax is much higher than that when you factor in the multiple instances of taxation before a product reaches the end user.
Imagine, for example, a loaf of bread. Under the GREAT big tax, bread and other groceries are no longer exempt from sales tax. Neither are raw materials or freight. The bakery will pay sales tax on the flour, the yeast, the packaging, and also the freight to get those goods to the bakery. Then the retail store will pay sales tax when purchasing the bread from the bakery. The same loaf of bread will get taxed at least three times. With most products, there are even more distribution and manufacturing layers.
All of this additional sales tax ends up tacked onto the final retail price – and taxed again at the checkout. Business-to-business taxes do not escalate in a straight line because of the tax on tax. When a product goes through several steps to reach the consumer (as nearly everything does), a so-called 4% sales tax may cost the consumer 20%.
Still other new taxes are concealed in the loaf of bread. What about the sales tax paid through the marketing firm who wrote the advertising campaign, and the sales tax paid through the newspaper who ran the ad? The store will also pay sales tax through the companies that clean its rugs and trim its lawn. All of these additional taxes end up in the price of a loaf of bread, where they are taxed yet again.
GOP House Speaker Glenn Richardson may not be trying to bankrupt consumers. His real goal is to take the reigns from local government. By eliminating property taxes, the Speaker can micro-manage every county.
Property taxes are paid to the county and used in the county. Property taxes support our local government and our county schools. Under the new plan, counties and municipalities lose the ability to set, collect, and disburse property tax monies. Instead, the lost revenue will be replaced with sales tax collected by the state. And guess who’s holding the purse strings? The Georgia House of Representatives, which Richardson rules with an iron fist.
In other words, Richardson wants to eliminate a tax which is locally controlled and replace it with a tax that he controls. The state gives up nothing, and gains control over everything. Counties, municipalities, and schools will have to go begging to the General Assembly for every dime. The goal of local elections will be finding Richardson cronies who can stay on the volatile Speaker’s sunny side.
The GREAT big sales tax does not eliminate programs like SPLOST which add local sales tax on top of state sales tax. In fact, Richardson wants to expand local option sales tax so that counties can use the money for maintenance and operation. Now, why would counties need operating funds if he were really going to make sure that local governments receive the same funds as before?
It is easy to see what will happen. As local governments and schools cower at Richardson’s feet begging for funds, they will be forced to cover shortfalls. Since property taxes will be illegal, local governments will demand even more local option sales tax on the top of the GREAT big sales tax. By this time consumers may not be able to afford a cup of coffee.
Understandably, local government officials all over Georgia oppose the plan. In fact, many of them dispute the figures. Tom Gehl, spokesman for the Georgia Municipal Association put it like this, “The speaker has a right to his own opinion, but he doesn’t have a right to his own math.”
Citizens should oppose the plan, too. We may not agree with every decision that our local officials make, but we elected them. They work right here in our county, where we can drop in to talk to them about problems, stand up to speak at a local public meeting, and tell our friends to help us boot them out if they do us wrong. That is more difficult to do with state officials who have a broad voter base, work in Atlanta and often operate beneath a veil of secrecy.
State Reps Ron Forster (Catoosa/Whitfield) and Martin Scott (Dade/Walker) seem to be caught in the Speaker’s spell. State Senator Jeff Mullis is more lucid, even citing the local control issue -- yet he also praises Richardson for introducing the proposal.
The GREAT big sales tax is a great big disaster looming in Georgia’s future. It will strip local sovereignty and put entirely too much political power in the hands on one man.
Stay tuned next week to learn how Richardson’s GREAT big tax will result in a mass exodus of Georgia jobs.
Jeannie Babb Taylor
This week, I’ll explain how Richardson’s plan hurts taxpayers and local governments. Next week, we’ll look at the effect on Georgia businesses and unemployment.
Richardson calls it the GREAT Plan: Georgia’s Repeal of Every Ad valorem Tax. (The acronym should be GREAVT, but perhaps that sounded too much like grave or gravy.) He says he will make it illegal for counties to tax property, automobiles and boats. He says he will make up for lost county revenue with sales tax. Of course, that’s not mathematically possible without either raising the sales tax rate outright (which he claims he won’t do) or hiding additional sales taxes other places. By focusing on the repeal, Richardson hopes you won’t notice his funny math, and all the tax he’s adding elsewhere.
Richardson wants to expand the sales tax to cover anything that can be bought and sold, including services. Imagine paying sales tax for groceries, prescriptions, yard work, and even doctor visits.
But that’s still not enough revenue. In order to replace $9 billion in property taxes, Richardson must squeeze an extra $1,000 out of every man, woman and child in Georgia. At 4%, each Georgian would have to spend $25,000 in services per year. It just won’t work. Georgians only average $24,000 total spending per person. They can’t spend more on services alone than they spend altogether.
Rest assured, Richardson is not willing to give up one dollar of tax revenue. Georgia’s big government still has the same bills as before, and Richardson claims that local schools and municipalities will not be short-changed by the new system. All of the funds to operate Georgia will still come from taxes – that is, from us taxpayers.
Richardson has creative ways to extract these funds from you: multiple sales tax charges on every item. Currently the consumer pays sales tax just once, when an item is purchased at the store. Under the GREAT big tax, business-to-business transactions and raw materials will also be charged. Although he claims he will hold the line at 4%, the sales tax is much higher than that when you factor in the multiple instances of taxation before a product reaches the end user.
Imagine, for example, a loaf of bread. Under the GREAT big tax, bread and other groceries are no longer exempt from sales tax. Neither are raw materials or freight. The bakery will pay sales tax on the flour, the yeast, the packaging, and also the freight to get those goods to the bakery. Then the retail store will pay sales tax when purchasing the bread from the bakery. The same loaf of bread will get taxed at least three times. With most products, there are even more distribution and manufacturing layers.
All of this additional sales tax ends up tacked onto the final retail price – and taxed again at the checkout. Business-to-business taxes do not escalate in a straight line because of the tax on tax. When a product goes through several steps to reach the consumer (as nearly everything does), a so-called 4% sales tax may cost the consumer 20%.
Still other new taxes are concealed in the loaf of bread. What about the sales tax paid through the marketing firm who wrote the advertising campaign, and the sales tax paid through the newspaper who ran the ad? The store will also pay sales tax through the companies that clean its rugs and trim its lawn. All of these additional taxes end up in the price of a loaf of bread, where they are taxed yet again.
GOP House Speaker Glenn Richardson may not be trying to bankrupt consumers. His real goal is to take the reigns from local government. By eliminating property taxes, the Speaker can micro-manage every county.
Property taxes are paid to the county and used in the county. Property taxes support our local government and our county schools. Under the new plan, counties and municipalities lose the ability to set, collect, and disburse property tax monies. Instead, the lost revenue will be replaced with sales tax collected by the state. And guess who’s holding the purse strings? The Georgia House of Representatives, which Richardson rules with an iron fist.
In other words, Richardson wants to eliminate a tax which is locally controlled and replace it with a tax that he controls. The state gives up nothing, and gains control over everything. Counties, municipalities, and schools will have to go begging to the General Assembly for every dime. The goal of local elections will be finding Richardson cronies who can stay on the volatile Speaker’s sunny side.
The GREAT big sales tax does not eliminate programs like SPLOST which add local sales tax on top of state sales tax. In fact, Richardson wants to expand local option sales tax so that counties can use the money for maintenance and operation. Now, why would counties need operating funds if he were really going to make sure that local governments receive the same funds as before?
It is easy to see what will happen. As local governments and schools cower at Richardson’s feet begging for funds, they will be forced to cover shortfalls. Since property taxes will be illegal, local governments will demand even more local option sales tax on the top of the GREAT big sales tax. By this time consumers may not be able to afford a cup of coffee.
Understandably, local government officials all over Georgia oppose the plan. In fact, many of them dispute the figures. Tom Gehl, spokesman for the Georgia Municipal Association put it like this, “The speaker has a right to his own opinion, but he doesn’t have a right to his own math.”
Citizens should oppose the plan, too. We may not agree with every decision that our local officials make, but we elected them. They work right here in our county, where we can drop in to talk to them about problems, stand up to speak at a local public meeting, and tell our friends to help us boot them out if they do us wrong. That is more difficult to do with state officials who have a broad voter base, work in Atlanta and often operate beneath a veil of secrecy.
State Reps Ron Forster (Catoosa/Whitfield) and Martin Scott (Dade/Walker) seem to be caught in the Speaker’s spell. State Senator Jeff Mullis is more lucid, even citing the local control issue -- yet he also praises Richardson for introducing the proposal.
The GREAT big sales tax is a great big disaster looming in Georgia’s future. It will strip local sovereignty and put entirely too much political power in the hands on one man.
Stay tuned next week to learn how Richardson’s GREAT big tax will result in a mass exodus of Georgia jobs.
Jeannie Babb Taylor
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Thumbs up, thumbs down
THUMBS UP to all readers who grow their own vegetables. I admire your hard work and tenacity. Your labors benefit not only those who enjoy the sweet, succulent produce of your garden – but also the rest of us who share this planet. Every juicy, ripe tomato and fat zucchini you carry to the supper table arrives there without the consumption of fossil fuels which contribute to smog and deplete the ozone. Those of us who lack a green thumb can do our part by purchasing more locally-grown produce.
THUMBS DOWN to those who waste thousands of gallons of water on shrubbery during the worst drought Georgia has faced in decades. The blueberry crop is devastated and cattlemen are struggling feed their herds. Our flower gardens can stand to suffer a few days a week. Buy some mulch; it prevents evaporation.
THUMBS UP to everyone who celebrated Independence Day responsibly. Officials responded to the drought fire risk by limiting the height of fireworks displays, while American patriotism roared full steam ahead. The support for Lance Cpl. Will Chambers’ family was especially moving.
THUMBS DOWN to local churches that used Independence Day and/or Memorial Day as an excuse to bring political agendas into the church. Patriotism is good and proper – but the stock slideshow a Republican-affiliated “prayer” group sent out for churches to show on Sunday morning was not proper. Aside from the fact that it is illegal for non-profits to engage in party politics, the content itself was inappropriate. Tanks and rocket-launchers should not be splashed across the sanctuary walls coupled with music and text designed to instill feelings of triumph. The faces of victims are decidedly absent from these deceptive displays. Some politicians pretend that American soldiers are in Iraq by invitation, opposed only by a handful of insurgents. Yet even this week, a Marine testified in a court-martial that his unit routinely beat Iraqi civilians when told to “crank up the violence.” Marines executed the wounded to avoid offering them medical care. Shooting an unarmed Iraqi man and planting an AK-47 near his body was a standard procedure in a venue where “all Iraqi men are considered insurgents.”
THUMBS UP to Wes and Scott Smith at Northwest Georgia Bank for giving Catoosa County the beautiful new amphitheatre at Benton Place. Last year it seemed half the county wanted to burn the Colonnade, and I wondered how Catoosa would ever regain some kind of cultural credibility. It’s wonderful to see local business step up to the plate. Thanks also to the unnamed individuals who worked behind the scenes to make this happen – including Georgia prison crews.
THUMBS DOWN to the Catoosa County Commissioners for their unilateral decision to advertise for a county Fire Chief and combine two or three local fire departments into one -- without consulting those departments. Good thing they still know how to back-peddle and utter “Nothing is set in stone.” Apparently their standard operating procedure is to make decisions without consulting those who are affected by the decision. The fire department faux pas is just another example of this isolationist mentality. It was bad enough when the commission threw away $19,000 for a fire study that yielded the same results Chief Chuck Gass and Chief Bruce Ballew had already worked together to provide. Do we really need to add insult to injury by putting out an ad for a new fire chief? Personally, I don’t think the commission will find better leadership than we have now.
THUMBS UP to Whitfield and Catoosa County law enforcement for protecting our children. It is wonderful to see the sheriffs of neighboring counties working together. Thank you for arresting the 1890’s Days attacker and also cleaning up Stephenson’s Park. We know that creeps lurk where children play, awaiting an opportune moment to make their move. Safe parks and safe festivals require the vigilance of citizens and law enforcement alike.
THUMBS DOWN to the slack attitude of officials in surrounding counties. Corruption has become a regular scandal in these parts. One police officer was arrested for false statements regarding a murder, while another officer was fired after explosives were reportedly found in his locker. An off-duty officer, and city police chief and a judge have all made recent news for driving drunk. Those who are trusted with enforcing the law should also remember to obey the law.
THUMBS DOWN to those who waste thousands of gallons of water on shrubbery during the worst drought Georgia has faced in decades. The blueberry crop is devastated and cattlemen are struggling feed their herds. Our flower gardens can stand to suffer a few days a week. Buy some mulch; it prevents evaporation.
THUMBS UP to everyone who celebrated Independence Day responsibly. Officials responded to the drought fire risk by limiting the height of fireworks displays, while American patriotism roared full steam ahead. The support for Lance Cpl. Will Chambers’ family was especially moving.
THUMBS DOWN to local churches that used Independence Day and/or Memorial Day as an excuse to bring political agendas into the church. Patriotism is good and proper – but the stock slideshow a Republican-affiliated “prayer” group sent out for churches to show on Sunday morning was not proper. Aside from the fact that it is illegal for non-profits to engage in party politics, the content itself was inappropriate. Tanks and rocket-launchers should not be splashed across the sanctuary walls coupled with music and text designed to instill feelings of triumph. The faces of victims are decidedly absent from these deceptive displays. Some politicians pretend that American soldiers are in Iraq by invitation, opposed only by a handful of insurgents. Yet even this week, a Marine testified in a court-martial that his unit routinely beat Iraqi civilians when told to “crank up the violence.” Marines executed the wounded to avoid offering them medical care. Shooting an unarmed Iraqi man and planting an AK-47 near his body was a standard procedure in a venue where “all Iraqi men are considered insurgents.”
THUMBS UP to Wes and Scott Smith at Northwest Georgia Bank for giving Catoosa County the beautiful new amphitheatre at Benton Place. Last year it seemed half the county wanted to burn the Colonnade, and I wondered how Catoosa would ever regain some kind of cultural credibility. It’s wonderful to see local business step up to the plate. Thanks also to the unnamed individuals who worked behind the scenes to make this happen – including Georgia prison crews.
THUMBS DOWN to the Catoosa County Commissioners for their unilateral decision to advertise for a county Fire Chief and combine two or three local fire departments into one -- without consulting those departments. Good thing they still know how to back-peddle and utter “Nothing is set in stone.” Apparently their standard operating procedure is to make decisions without consulting those who are affected by the decision. The fire department faux pas is just another example of this isolationist mentality. It was bad enough when the commission threw away $19,000 for a fire study that yielded the same results Chief Chuck Gass and Chief Bruce Ballew had already worked together to provide. Do we really need to add insult to injury by putting out an ad for a new fire chief? Personally, I don’t think the commission will find better leadership than we have now.
THUMBS UP to Whitfield and Catoosa County law enforcement for protecting our children. It is wonderful to see the sheriffs of neighboring counties working together. Thank you for arresting the 1890’s Days attacker and also cleaning up Stephenson’s Park. We know that creeps lurk where children play, awaiting an opportune moment to make their move. Safe parks and safe festivals require the vigilance of citizens and law enforcement alike.
THUMBS DOWN to the slack attitude of officials in surrounding counties. Corruption has become a regular scandal in these parts. One police officer was arrested for false statements regarding a murder, while another officer was fired after explosives were reportedly found in his locker. An off-duty officer, and city police chief and a judge have all made recent news for driving drunk. Those who are trusted with enforcing the law should also remember to obey the law.
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