AJC ignores our jobs success story
Before the AJC spends another minute targeting the Atlanta Public Schools for manipulating data to advance their interests, your staff should take a good, hard look in the mirror. Did anyone at AJC think to question the horrible job numbers for Atlanta and Georgia that were reported with great condemnation right before the last election? We were lagging the entire nation in economic recovery! All we needed was new leadership. Remember? And now, are we to believe tens of thousands of jobs have just appeared over the last few months out of thin air? Come on AJC, not all of your readers have just fallen off the potato truck.
STEVE WARD, GAINESVILLE
Look for waste before hiking taxes
I urge the Georgia Assembly to look for waste in the budget before considering new taxes. This applies to all tax increases, but especially the transportation bill (House Bill 170). Proponents claim this bill raises $1 billion a year in new revenues; they also claim it is not a tax increase. Not true. It’s a tax increase at both the state and municipal levels.
A prioritized project list has not been published. It is dangerous to throw a billion dollars extra per year to any government agency. Unfortunately, GDOT has a reputation for being wasteful and inefficient. Even with a slow recovery, the state expects tax revenues to increase 5 percent per year. With a $21.1 billion budget, that’s over $1 billion added revenue per year. A phased-in use of that money over the next five years, plus restoring the 4th penny to transportation use, would start restoring our crumbling bridges and roads. A five-year sunset would force the Legislature to then evaluate progress and give oversight to use of the money.
JERRY KOTYUK, MARIETTA
Some taxes for society’s collective good
The writer of the March 13 letter (“Medicaid issue not a moral argument,” Readers write), who attempts to explain how core religious beliefs are consistent with the refusal to expand Medicaid, should be commended for his sincere, non-vitriolic presentation. It should, however, be pointed out to those who take the letter writer’s view regarding social safety nets, and the government as “inherently and inescapably coercive in its reach,” that that view does not necessarily reflect reality.
As members of a society, we can sometimes do more good when we act collectively than as isolated and separate individuals. Thus, we can think of the taxes we pay to help others as costs we should willingly undertake for having a society in which we all benefit. The option is, after all, always open for us to live somewhere else where addressing the suffering of others is not given much priority.
SANJAY LAL, MORROW
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