New County Extension Agent
Jenna Kicklighter will introduce herself at Monday morning’s Work Session,,
they’ll consider a
a
Beer and Wine License for Dollar General,
a
new secondary
Internet Bandwidth Contract
with
Mediacom,
and the US 41 N widening has already spawned
further road paving
to promote development:
Lowndes County Engineering has received a proposal Continue reading
Caught on-camera:
ALEC’s off-duty sheriff’s deputies getting TV reporters thrown out of their own hotel
for “taking pictures in the hotel”, after ALEC’s marketing droid denied any
lobbying going on, nevermind the lobbyist and
legislator in a bar spelling out how it works:
ALEC gives “scholarships” to legislators who then meet in closed rooms
with corporate reps (including all the companies involved in the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline) who have equal votes
on draft bills for legislators to get passed as law in many states.
Bills promoting fracking, pipelines, LNG export, and against solar power,
renewable portfolio standards, not to mention for private prisons
and privatized education and against municipal broadband and country-of-origin labelling, plus many other
corporate give-aways subsidized by the taxpayers and the environment.
It’s time for the IRS to revoke ALEC’s 501(c)(3) status.
And for the Georgia legislature to apply the state’s sunshine laws to itself.
Brendan Keefe and Michael King, WXIA-TV, 22 May 2015, Legislators and corporate lobbyists meet in secret at Georgia resort, Continue reading
Yesterday a Georgia House subcommittee did exactly what Valdosta
urged it not to do about distributing HB 170 funds.
Given that LMIG mismatch between cities and counties
to replace the previous mismatch of forced double taxation
on cities and counties, is the legislature trying to cause
dissension between counties and their cities, or is it just that inept?
We know Valdosta’s position.
What will the Lowndes County Commission do?
Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson wrote to bill’s sponsor: Continue reading
How long will the Lowndes County government and ACCG wait to act,
while the Georgia legislature moves on
its stealth transportation
tax hike for Atlanta that would defund local school boards and city
and county governments?
A House subcommittee has made some changes to the bill,
but it would still force local governments to raise taxes,
and it adds an unrelated repeal of an electric vehicle tax credit
to its boondoggle for trucking companies and Atlanta.
Do we want our local public schools to be defunded like
wildlife programs were through the state’s wildlife license plate revenue
tax taking?
If not, now’s the time to lobby against HB 170, before
the full House Transportation Committee meets Thursday.
Yet there’s still nothing about HB 170
on the county’s agenda for this evening’s voting Regular Session.
Valdosta has already Continue reading
Commission and staff followed up on
safety on Val Del Road that
John Page brought up in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard
a month ago.
Appointed board and agency openings: they have a list, but you can’t see it,
for the Bad Dog Board or any other.
The Chairman had “support” for a referendum to appoint Tax Assessors,
although “this is not a vote”.
About Internet access,
County Manager Joe Pritchard discussed a map of a “skeletal framework”
of city and county, VSU, SGMC, Georgia Military College, Wiregrass Technical
College, “the outlying cities”, as well as the industrial parks,
for DSL, cable modems, etc.
This discussion has come a long way in the year since
Chairman Bill Slaughter said “We have broadband”.
They seem to want the county to be Continue reading
HB 170 is a stealth tax raise by the state that would force
county and city governments to vote for higher local taxes.
The Transportation Funding Act of 2015 is bad news
according to every city councillor and county commissioner I’ve heard from.
Harrison Tillman estimated about $335,000 reduction in taxes to the county and a $12.6 million overall loss in revenue in his presentation yesterday morning to the Lowndes County Commission Annual Planning Meeting. Commissioner Demarcus Marshall and Chairman Bill Slaughter went to Atlanta to talk to the proposers of this bill, with little effect.
Here’s ACCG’s HB 170 writeup Tillman used, and Continue reading
The Naylor boat ramp might be finished this fall,
and here’s a list of other SPLOST expenditures, from
yesterday’s Lowndes County Commission Annual Planning Meeting.
County Manager Joe Pritchard asked Chad McLeod Project Manager and Mike Fletcher County Engineer to come forward, saying “Turn in your book to that tab….” A book you, the taxpaying public reader, do not have. The county can publish board packets on their new website if they want to.
McCleod presented current facilities for SPLOST VII, after a long introduction by Pritchard, who said McLeod was the county’s liaison with Parks and Rec (VLPRA) and the Sheriff’s Department and other offices. McLeod said VLPRA projects are built by the county and turned over to VLPRA for administration, except for two projects at Freedom Park, which are being managed by VLPRA due to House Bill 489. He listed dollar amounts. I couldn’t catch all of them, but here are some of them: Continue reading
The rest of the videos from Thursday are up,
as they meet again this morning at 8:30 AM.
The new videos are about
Revenue and Tax Update,
SPLOST Facility Update (including boat ramp),
Budget Management,
Solid Waste Management,
Litter Control,
and an unscheduled
Closed Session.
All yesterday’s videos are added now to the original post.
-jsq
Update2 2015-02-06:
Why HB 170 is bad –Harrison Tillman
Update 2015-02-06:
The rest of the videos from Thursday are up,
as they meet again this morning at 8:30 AM.
The new videos are about
Revenue and Tax Update,
SPLOST Facility Update (including boat ramp),
Budget Management,
Solid Waste Management,
Litter Control,
and an unscheduled
Closed Session.
Videos are already up for the
audit report and
finance from day 1 of the
Lowndes County Commission Annual Planning Meeting.
More to come.
Meanwhile, see also Gretchen’s notes about
the new boatramp on the Alapaha River
and
illegal trash dumping. Continue reading
They’ve been working with Dr. Acree on land aquisition, and with GA-DNR
on flow levels and ramp placement, as well as anticipation of survey and
final designs, they said during the SPLOST agenda item,
reports Gretchen from the
Lowndes County Commission retreat.
No word of when they anticipate completing the boat ramp,
and it sounds like they haven’t actually purchased the land yet.
-jsq