The Citizen Newsletter

The Conservative Voice of Henry County

Issue # 336

March 31, 2012

Over 37,000 reads at Scribd.com

CONGRATULATIONS!
CELEBRATING 10 YEARS

In This Issue:
Page Feature 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Georgia s 2012 Tax Reform Jason Hill for Rockdale BoC Tommy Smith for Henry BoC Chair Dr. Pam Nutt a Class Act Gary Barham for Henry BoC Taxes pay for T-SPLOST Campaign Spitting Out the Kool-Aid THE HENRY COUNTY TIMES
Henry County's only locally owned and operated newspaper. Proudly celebrating 10 years of serving our readers, the people of Henry County.

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Editorial / Publication Policy

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Georgia s 2012 Tax Reform

Are we reading this correctly? The legislature just killed the annual tax we pay for car tags? We don t want to take away from the other things HB386 has in it but the Georgia Independent Auto Dealers Association (GIADA) has been pushing for this a LONG TIME. According to them it levels the playing field between personal auto sales and personal sales.

The Citizen queried David Curry, Henry County Tax Commissioner, and here is what we learned:
Yes and no. HB386 will do away with ad valorem tax as we know it; however, it doesn t completely go away. Anyone who currently owns a vehicle will continue to pay an ad valorem tax bill. Anyone who trades or purchases a vehicle beginning March 1, 2013 will fall under the new plan. Also, as I understand there will be an open window from January 1, 2012 to March 1, 2013 for people to opt in the new plan if they purchased their vehicle during this window. To be honest they are still working out the details of the new bill. I believe it will be a great benefit to the citizens of Georgia once all the kinks are worked out; however, I am afraid it will take a lot of educating and patience to implement it. One reservation I have, I do not know many people who have an additional 6.5%-7.0% to pay when registering their vehicle. For example, no matter if you purchase a vehicle from an individual or a business you are required to pay the title fee when registering the vehicle. If you purchase from an individual you ll be required to pay the title fee at the local tax office so ..you buy John Doe s p/up truck for $15,000, you come to register and tag the truck and I tell you that ll be $975.00 title fee and $20 tag fee. Now either you are going to go into cardiac arrest or you re going to cuss me all I m worth. Either way it isn t good. But, at least you don t have an annual ad valorem tax bill due every year. As I learn more I ll try to keep you informed, like I said there will be some wrinkles to iron out I m sure. So, as it stands with today s understanding and wrinkles not yet resolved: Vehicle owners will continue to pay the annual ad valorem tax unless they trade vehicles. If they trade vehicles they will pay a one-time registration/title fee, and nothing after that. If this is right HB386 serves the automobile dealers first, and some citizens later. In other news . The bill involves income tax and sales and use tax modifications to Georgia State law. Besides reducing the number of sales tax exemptions allowed by law, the bill increases the number of services that are now taxable. Some services added to the (now taxable) sales tax list: Garbage and trash pickup Septic cleaning Watch or jewelry repair Shoe repair Weight loss centers Global positioning services Online dating services Automotive repair services

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Laundry and dry cleaning Water softening Housekeeping services Gardening or lawn services

Haircuts Veterinarian expenses Safe deposit box rental Digital products such as ring tones, audio books, music

From the Jason Hill Campaign

Pancake Breakfast!

Saturday, April 28, 2012 7:30 am to 9:30 am Still Lumber Company 1515 Old Covington Rd, NE Conyers, Georgia 30013

Meet and Greet with Jason Hill Candidate for Rockdale County Commission Chairman
(behind Sonic on Hwy 138) Please feel free to bring the kids
WWW.ELECTJASONHILL.COM

678-720-8480

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Tommy Smith
Republican for Commission Chairman
VOTETOMMYSMITH.COM 7 Fortson Drive Hampton, Georgia 30228 MEDIA RELEASE For Immediate Release Contact: Tommy N. Smith (678) 471-3204 Former Hampton Mayor Tommy Smith To Challenge Incumbent BJ Mathis for Chairman of Commission ( Ha mp t o n ) S a y i n g i t s c le a r l y t i m e fo r a ne w C h a i r ma n a n d ne w le a d e rs h i p , R e p u b l i c a n a n d former Mayor of Hampton Tommy N. Smith announced Thursday that he will challenge incumbent BJ Mathis in the Republican Primary for Chairman of the Henry County Commissioners. Chairman Mathis is lurching from one bad, rushed decision to another. She rushed a closeddoor decision to make a sitting County Commissioner the County Manager without public input and in direct violation of Henry County s laws. Just two months ago month she created millions in new debts by buying an airport at the urging of her biggest donor, and its millions of debt we taxpayers cannot afford. And this reckless, unplanned spending is creating massive tax increases for our future. We have to change course right now. We cannot afford any more big spenders in government. I ll bring conservative fiscal principles back to Henry County. Meet Tommy: A Veteran, Family Man, and Life-time Dedication to Henry County Tommy has lived in Henry County all of his life. After graduation from Henry County High, he served in the United States Air Force. He has served as a councilman and Mayor for the City of Hampton. He is retired from the FAA as an air traffic controller. Tommy and his wife, Gayle, have been married 46 years and have raised their four children Kelley, Lori, Amy and Jared in their home in Hampton, Georgia. The Smiths are members of Mount Carmel United Methodist Church where Tommy served as a Trustee.

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School Board Member Dr. Pam Nutt a "Class Act"

Dr. Pam Nutt, media specialist at Moore Elementary School in Griffin, Georgia, was recently honored as an 11Alive News "Class Act" by Education Reporter Donna Lowry. Lowry made the certificate and educational gift card presentation during a ceremony at the school. The story will air on 11Alive in a couple of weeks. Nutt has been a member of the Henry County School Board of Education since 1997.

FACTS, NOT FICTION

At her campaign website, Elizabeth BJ Mathis says,

You can rest assured that considerable thought goes into every penny spent.

What she does not talk about

Nash Farm, $8 million; Abernathy Farm, $4 million; Cotton Fields golf course, $22 million; Tara Field, $4 million now future unknown. And the $38 million she tried to give a benefactor for a movie studio. Mathis says Henry County needs an experienced leader.

How about a leader we can trust?

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Gary Barham has a shiny new Facebook page. If you live in

Henry County I hope you help him get elected to the District 3 seat on the Board of Commissioners. He's vowed a moratorium on any further land purchases which is something I am certain Randy Stamey absolutely would refuse to do. VOTE GARY BARHAM!

Gary Barham held a campaign kick-off on Saturday, March 31st at the McDonough Moose Lodge. See
photos at
HTTP://TINYURL.COM/7V8NWT8.

It was worthy of note to see elected officials, past office holders, Republican Party regulars, bloggers, and others at the Kick-Off. In a campaign year it is important to note not only that people attend but WHO attends. At his first campaign meeting Gary Barham was honored by two former mayors, a state senator, three candidates for other county offices, and some of Henry County s most ardent conservative activists. The Citizen s editor was on hand to interview attendees and photograph the event. Mr. Barham was very open and congenial, but more so than the typical political persona we see at such venues. Mr. Barham is genuinely sincere in his statement, I am not a politician, though I spent 31 years working in government. I have been a public servant and that is what I offer the citizens of Henry County. Having opportunity to speak with supporters a common theme was heard: We need change from the top down. Barham s campaign is to replace the incumbent District 3 commissioner. He is direct in his analysis of county policies; and, is specifically concerned with better management of county finances. Barham s positions are also shared by candidates Tommy Smith, seeking to replace the incumbent Chairman, and William Bo Moss who seeks to replace the incumbent District 1 commissioner. Supporters talked openly about wanting a clean slate and the importance of the July Primary Election.

Cobb Rep. Ehrhart criticizes Cumberland CID for putting up $70K more for TIA education
CUMBERLAND State Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) condemned the Cumberland Community Improvement District s Thursday decision to give another $70,000 to educate voters about the July 31 referendum, which would raise the sales tax by 1 percent for 10 years to fund transportation projects. For goodness sake, that s so starkly inappropriate, Ehrhart said. It s using tax money. Cumberland CID Chairman Tad Leithead said he recently met with the Metro Atlanta Voter Education Network, which his CID has already given $300,000 to in order to educate voters about the referendum by running TV ads.

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CIDs have been a big contributor to the education campaign, so the MAVEN folks had a meeting to update us on what MAVEN was doing with our money and to show us the ads before they went on TV The CIDs in metro Atlanta had already funded MAVEN by about $1.5 million, and along with funds from other sources, had a $2.1 million pot of money to spend on education. Advocates can be people spending their own money. In other words, the entire business community can advocate, Leithead said. We re (the CID) spending tax dollars. That s why we re not advocating. We re educating. That s the difference. Ehrhart said Leithead is fooling no one. That s disingenuous and beneath them. It s word games, Ehrhart said. I love what (Samuel) Alito said: We re not stupid is the new catch phrase in the Obamacare hearing. To the CIDs: We re not stupid. These aren t educational ads, they re political ads. Ehrhart said it would take an act of the state legislature to stop the CIDs from what they are doing. That s something that will have to be looked into next year, Ehrhart said. I thought they got the message on that. That s a shame. It s certainly using tax money to advocate for (an election). I m hoping they re not successful in buying it. Read more: THE MARIETTA DAILY JOURNAL

Spitting Out the Kool-Aid

Peggy Noonan, the head speech-writer for Ronald Reagan, and, inexplicably, a once-supporter of Obama, published an article in today s Wall Street Journal calling our president creepy , devious , and dishonest . She says Americans have moved from not liking Obama s policies to, now, not liking him. Sure took her long enough to find out that the Emperor has no clothes. Mathis, Stamey, Holder running on experience. Commissioner Holder has served Henry County over thirty years in various positions, the last twelve years as a county commissioner. Commissioner Stamey is in his second term as county commissioner. Chairman Mathis served one term as District 2 and is now the Chairman. A listing of monies spent and properties purchased is daunting. And the so-called investments made by this board have given us all a bad experience. 1 This is almost akin to Hanoi Jane saying she s not a Communist. Anybody that voted for Barry because he was black was a total fool. In fact it should be a question when interviewing for a job. These morons deserve to be unemployed, just like our president . Ok, Barry deserves to be in prison for ignoring his oath of office but that s another story. The joke in all this is that Barry actually told these idiots what he intended to do and he s pretty much doing it. Yet, these mouth breathers and sheeple are *shocked*, shocked I tell ya, that he s actually doing it.

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BJ Mathis won the Chairmanship after serving one term in District 2. She amassed the Preacher Brigade and Soccer Moms of Henry County to bolster her warm heart and good intentions. The joke in all this is that Mathis actually told these idiots what she intended to do. Now that we face a $12 million budget deficit for 2012-13 the herd has taken to the blogs and Facebook to openly support her adept planning and politically astute leadership. We cannot fix stupid. We can vote it out of office. Where is the difference between Obama s deviousness and Mathis s treachery? It s all about image and securing the votes of, perhaps, otherwise intelligent people. Fact is that Obama and Mathis project the image of paying a debt to the less fortunate. Fact is they both do it with other people s money. Regarding some who have already come to the Mathis Defense Team there is one school teacher who cannot understand mathematics. He said that paying the same dollar amount of taxes on property with reduced value is not a tax increase. Think, people! We pay 7% sales tax (7 cents per dollar) at the checkout. When we purchase a 50-cent item the tax paid is half of that paid on one dollar. Only the Mathis Minions would pay 7-cents instead of 3.5-cents for the lesser value. Of course the Soccer Association got their mega-complex on Mt. Carmel Road. That was a promised improvement over those unsatisfactory fields on McDonough Parkway and the planned facility on Jonesboro Road (HTTP://PROOFOFRIGHT.WORDPRESS .COM/2012/03/23/HCBOC-RANDY-STAMEY-CRONY-ALERTJONESBORO-RD-PARK-EDITION ). For Mathis it was a double-win since she was able to bail out a benefactor when the County paid for the Jonesboro & Mt. Carmel properties. Mathis buys votes and support with our tax dollars. Her supposed integrity rests on opening the public treasury to voters who believe government exists to redistribute wealth. The regular people have soured on the unqualified, political hack Chairman who refuses to wear the Big Girl Pants and instead just blames our budget woes on a bad economy. Watch as Mathis cries (again) when the board increases our property taxes. We must stop the unanimous and bad actions by the board of commissioners. We need a clean sweep from the top down! .
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Nash Farm, Cotton Fields gold course, Abernathy farm, Echols property on Hwy 155, Tara Field airport. Proposed $38 million bond for Abbate s movie studio.
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In July 2008, BJ Mathis offers YMCA money to Soccer Association. In campaign materials Mathis told the Soccer Moms & Dads, "Elect me and I will get you another $5 million." HTTPS://APP.E2MA.NET/APP/VIEW:CAMPAIGNPUBLIC/ID:19188.1180895071/RID

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