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DEL.ICIO.USTaxpayers union jumps into budget fight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The dialogue isn’t getting any tamer in the House-Senate budget confrontation.
The National Taxpayers Union has entered the fray, on the side of Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and the Senate, with a letter the organization says is going out to 8,000 members in Georgia.
The group takes on the specifics of the mid-year, $700 million budget. “A $1 million sop for the Tour de Georgia is not a core responsibility. Nor is $5 million for the National Infantry Museum Project,” the group states.
We’re having a problem posting the entire letter, dated March 29, as a PDF. But these are the most incendiary paragraphs:
“Many members of the Assembly spent years campaigning on the reduction or elimination of the supplemental budget.
“Unfortunately, some have allowed the trappings of office and the appeal of pork to change their minds.
“Our members, however, have not changed their minds and believe that this supplemental should not be used as an excuse to propagate wasteful spending.”
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By Bill Kecskes
April 6, 2007 11:22 PM | Link to this
I’m an angry taxpayer and I VOTE!
I don’t want my money or anybody’s hard earned money wasted on legislator’s pet pork barrel projects like those found in HB 94: $100,000 to renovate Warm Springs FDR Golf Course - $18,000 to Savannah for weight lifting equipment - $75,000 to the Georgia Voyager Magazine - $35,000 to improve Dooly County’s Big Pig Jig site - $155,630 to provide guided tours of the State Capitol Building - $70,000 to design Roman Arches for Rome’s Art Council Building - $1,000,000 for the Tour de Georgia bicycle race - the wasteful list goes on and on ————
Georgia taxpayer’s are angry and want their elected legislators to keep at least one campaign promise they all made: “to be responsible fiscally conservative watchdogs with the state’s budget”.
Increasing legislator’s per diem allowance to the tune of $494,000+ is not being fiscally responsible either. It’s called being piggy.
Being a fiscal conservative means being responsible and appropriating only the minimal amount of taxes to provide necessary services and protection to Georgia’s citizens.
Our tax money is not meant to be wasted on legislator’s pet pork barrel projects benefitting only a handful in each district.