Atlanta's financial crisis

Hiking taxes doesn't make sense

Listening to the news got me to think hard about some proposals by politicians in these trying times. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is talking about increasing taxes. How does she even think this is possible? We have declining home values, [and] since property tax is based on value, how can she justify this measure?

It was also reported that Georgia has the second-highest bankruptcy filings in the country. Please tell me where these politicians think we are going to get this money they need. If we have to reduce our burdens personally to pay our bills, it is time government does the same thing. Laying off the personnel who make $50,000 a year is not going to cut it; high-paying bureaucratic jobs need to be eliminated.

Maybe we should go back to the mayor and council being a community service job and have them get real jobs. The same with the politicians in Washington. If they have to feel the pain and burden we do, maybe they would make wiser decisions about spending our money.

LYNN M. RUSSO

Duluth

Red ink didn't just 'appear'

As a retired city of Atlanta police officer, I find the financial "crisis" in Atlanta outrageous. A $140 million shortage does not just appear. Everywhere one looks in Midtown, we see upscale development that should result in upscale taxes. Police paid their share of a pension, and the city was supposed to pay theirs. So it cannot be blamed on pensions.

City unions and employees have always argued the city had money when it wanted to do something, but never enough for decent raises. The retirees, employees, taxpayers and citizens of Atlanta are entitled to a thorough, independent investigation into this matter.

FAYE COFFIELD

Lithonia

Ineptitude at City Hall is costly

In one day's AJC alone, we were informed of five more projected increases in water/sewer charges, a probable property tax increase and a drastic reduction in city personnel and services. The portion of my income dedicated to the city of Atlanta last month in water/sewer bill and sanitation fees exceeded electric and gas service combined, not to mention already sky-high property taxes.

We have already endured several rate hikes, including a penalty for conserving, and provided a 1 percent sales tax levy for water/sewer services. The city's chief finance officer admitted she doesn't know how much money the city owes vendors. It seemed to come as a surprise to everyone in City Hall that they had spent tens of millions of dollars they didn't have, and that doesn't even include all the unpaid bills that cannot be properly accounted for.

No government, business or household can operate this way without serious consequences. When Atlanta becomes a city where only the wealthy and the subsidized poor can live, who will be left to shoulder the burdens of this ineptitude? We need drastic measures to change the culture at City Hall immediately.

STEVEN J. BRADEN

Atlanta

Overhaul pension system

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out Atlanta's financial problem, the one they don't want to touch: It's the pension system, and they won't address that issue. The pension system needs a complete overhaul, probably requiring switching to a 401(k)-type program where the employee contributes, along with reducing the current plan's benevolence.

Major corporations faced with this challenge have altered their programs to be more realistic. Why can't the city of Atlanta?

FRED HAHN

Roswell

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Gas prices

Responses to "With $4 gasoline, American lifestyles will change," @issue, May 5

Only financial pain provokes change

Jay Bookman provides a valuable exploration of the ubiquitous effects of exorbitant gasoline. However, a tangential point should be addressed. People are changing their lifestyles across America because they must, economically. The incentive to reduce gasoline usage essentially takes two alternate forms: economic and environmental concern.

Often, there is an economic disincentive to reduce gas for environmental reasons, ergo, many people do not. It is telling of the general attitude among Americans that, now that there are extreme economic disincentives to gasoline usage, people are actually responding. It establishes clearly that the environmental situation will only improve with economic assistance and only as a residual incidental effect. In our capitalistic society, it seems as though it really does all boil down to money.

STUART WHATLEY

Atlanta

Do the numbers; stop guzzling

Allow me to add some numbers to Jay Bookman's column. With $4 gasoline, an SUV or van getting only 12 miles per gallon costs 33 cents per mile in gas alone, while a small car averaging 36 miles per gallon costs only 11 cents per mile. For a person earning $150 to $200 per day, the gas commute cost may be worth it; for someone earning less, it becomes a sacrifice.

But think about how much your small side trips can really cost. A truck getting only 5 miles per gallon costs 80 cents per mile to operate. I don't think that we Americans will really change unless the gasoline prices zoom up to equal those in a country such as Britain at $8-plus per gallon; today's $12-per-day commute would suddenly cost $24.

And if, as some experts have predicted, oil and gasoline production begins to drop relative to demand, we could shortly see such prices.

We Atlantans and Americans must change our vehicles and driving habits now or face severe consequences.

CHARLES TATTER

Marietta

Hardship? Not so much

Every day I hear about the hardship that rising gas prices are having on the American people —- stories of people having to buy less and choose between medications and food. Are these the same people who were at the movies last weekend spending $10-a-head plus refreshments, boosting the top-rated movie opening to $100 million in sales? Or are they the people who waited in line to purchase the so-violent video game at $60 each?

SUZANNAH HEIMEL

Decatur

Don't fall for gas-tax bribe

Sell my vote for 18 cents a gallon for three months? Don't think so!

ROBERT MALLER

Atlanta

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Coal-fired plant a dirty deal on many levels

Would you buy a 20-year-old car that was being sold to you as new? What about a 20-year-old computer? Why then would Cobb EMC want to be part of Power4Georgians, a coalition to build coal-fired power plants in Georgia? It's bad enough that Georgia already has the two most polluting coal-fired power plants in the country. Now, Cobb EMC and Power4Georgians want to add another, using the same outdated, polluting technology that was used 20 years ago.

The best part of the deal? The primary use of this "new" dirty power will be for sale to other states, since Georgia has no shortage of power, only water, which these plants use enormous amounts of. Doesn't this speak directly to the allegations of mismanagement and poor decision-making by Cobb EMC?

JON ACUFF

Atlanta

Robbing Lanier sells us down the river

Michael Sole, Florida Environmental Protection secretary, says there is no legal or legitimate reason to keep more water in Lake Lanier ("Florida to fight drought strategy," Page One, May 1).

Lake Lanier is at elevation 1057.6, which is lower than it has ever been at this time of year and 11 feet lower than it was on May 1 last year. If rainfall for the remainder of 2008 is similar to that of 2007, water supply for metro Atlanta will reach a crisis situation.

Releasing water at this time from Lake Lanier, which controls only 5 percent of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river basin, to supplement flows in Apalachicola Bay is irrational and dangerous. Lake Lanier was not authorized or built to enhance flows above natural conditions in Apalachicola Bay.

I would modify Sole's statement a bit: There is no legitimate or legal reason to release water from Lake Lanier to increase river flows in Florida.

JOE GOODE

Atlanta