Rick Badie's Gwinnett: No time for meek leaders

By Rick Badie

Has the criticism eased? Will the demand for services outweigh opposition to a Gwinnett County tax hike?

County officials hope the natives are less restless. That needs and desires will lead to broader support for higher taxes. On Oct. 23, the county announced plans for a 2009 mill levy that would increase its portion of property taxes by about 21 percent. If set, the proposal would generate $52.6 million in additional revenue. The money would be used to restore emergency services and operations cut earlier. Under the plan, residents would see property taxes on a $200,000 home increase by about $13 a month. We’ve been here before. Last spring, to be exact.

Then, Gwinnett County commissioners floated the idea of a potential 3-mill tax increase. A flood erupted. The tax hike got beat down in public hearings. Commissioners balked rather than implement the increase. They directed county staff to make cuts to balance the budget. The reductions were drastic. Even some commissioners acknowledged enacting them would endanger safety. Closing a library is one thing. Fewer cops is altogether different. In a recent AJC article, Commissioner Kevin Kenerly offered this comment regarding the latest tax proposal: “We need to become leaders,” he said, “and do what we have to do to protect and serve the citizens.”

Too bad they didn’t lead this summer when they floated the idea of that first tax hike. Had they been serious, they would have been proactive. They would have gone to the people, explained the county’s dire financial straits, then presented best- and worst-case scenarios with or without an increase.

It still would have been a tough sell. The word “taxes” tends to send people into orbit. It doesn’t help that the officials asking us to dig deeper are the same folk who built a baseball stadium with scant transparency and OK’d questionable park land deals. Nevertheless, we live in a county where certain standards have been set with first-class parks and an awesome library system. On a negative note, local drug busts in recent days are proof the county needs all the law enforcement it can muster. Now is not the time for meekness.

Debbie Dooley is a grass-roots coordinator for Freedomworks, a group that opposed the initial tax increase. With this latest proposal, she said she is impressed with the detail offered in plans. “They explained in detail what this mill rate would fund,” she said. “It’s what we’ve wanted all along. People just want accountability from their elected officials.” This time, it seems, we have it. Because of that, it’s time to look within.

So what say you, Gwinnett taxpayers? Can you look beyond what you know or think you know about the leadership of Commission Chairman Charles Bannister and his lieutenants and support a tax hike? Or are you so blinded by the “no-new -taxes” mantra that you can’t see anything else? Public hearings and county staff presentations to community groups about the tax hike will indicate where we stand.

In the same AJC article, Kenerly offered one other truism. “A vote for this [proposal] is a vote for protecting the citizens of the county,” he said. “We’re going to get yelled at. We’re going to get blogged at, [but] we were voted in to lead, not follow which group is the loudest.”

Rick Badie, an Opinion columnist, is based in Gwinnett. Reach him at rbadie@ajc.com or 770-263-3875.