TAX LIENS
Response to "Taxpayers lose on lien sales" News, Feb. 24
Kudos to the AJC for persevering to unravel the tax lien scandal in Fulton County.
Clearly, without your diligent efforts, the taxpayers of Fulton County would continue to be fleeced thanks to their own extremely well-paid tax commissioner, Arthur Ferdinand. He has described his responsibility as “to optimize the collection of taxes, not to maximize the amount of taxes collected.” This is what Fulton County pays him to do? His job is to avoid responding to your information requests and to be non-transparent?
I have a simple solution: Throw out the bum. You’ve lost an estimated $20 million, thanks to him. At the very least, throw out the bum.
ROBERT SAUNDERS, MARIETTA
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Robbers should get
longer prison terms
Regarding “Armed robbery: unequal justice” (Metro, Feb. 24), armed robbers should be considered “domestic terrorists,” period!
These thugs are terrorizing Atlanta neighborhoods at alarming rates. It is offensive and disconcerting to read that these criminals are often serving between three and six years of “mandatory”10-year prison sentences. When did we get soft on crime? When it became too expensive? When did it became common to hear of couples strolling down one of our popular urban streets being held up at gunpoint? When armed robberies at our downtown college campuses occur on a regular basis? When society begins to expect crimes of this nature in our great cities?
What would give us back some sense of safety on our Atlanta streets again? To lock up these domestic terrorists for 25 years, or let them back out in three or six?
KAREN TABER, ATLANTA
Remember outcry for
mandatory sentencing
Andre Jackson’s piece, “Making justice smarter and more efficient” (Opinion, Feb. 24) laid out the rationale for modification of the current policy of mandatory prison sentences. He made the point that given more discretion, judges would be able to sentence some offenders to a more productive type of punishment. So far, so good.
Unfortunately, Mr Jackson’s treatise didn’t find room to explain why mandatory sentencing was introduced in the first place. Decades of horror stories of how some judges used their discretion to let criminals off easy created such an outcry that mandatory sentences became the law of the land. Giving the complete details of why a law was originally enacted while agitating to change said law would better serve the interests of readers.
ERIC SANDBERG, ATLANTA
REAL ESTATE
Attorney’s review is
not always necessary
As a Realtor of 26 years, I wanted to respond to John Adams’ column (“It’s best to review sales contracts with attorney,” Homefinder, Feb. 24).
While it might be wise for a home buyer or seller to have an attorney review a contract if the transaction is in some way extraordinary or includes non-standard stipulations, it is alarmist and unnecessary to have every real estate contract reviewed by legal counsel. We agents use Georgia Association of Realtors forms, so as long as those are used, most buyers and sellers would be duplicating efforts and spending unnecessary money to have an attorney review them.
If, for their own comfort level, a client wanted to have an attorney review the contracts, I would encourage them to do so. I can recommend external resources to my clients, but they should choose independent sources for additional advice and counsel.
BILL GOLDEN, ATLANTA
