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The damage that the Hall County Board of Commissioners is about to do to this county will not only hurt the quality of life in this county, but will cause irreparable damage to our local economy. How in the world could anyone with a rational brain possibly think that eliminating 77 county jobs or so, eliminating public parks and libraries and cutting two ambulances will help local business?
The merger savings that local business will get if property taxes remain the same is not worth it. If jobs are cut, that means those who are let go can't go out and buy that fishing pole they've had their eye on, go out and have a nice dinner, go buy a new pair of shoes or buy a grill. Those who are let go will have to file for unemployment and just spend on "necessities," as so eloquently put by one of our commissioners.
So naturally, business will suffer. Meaning they won't make as much profit because people who would normally shop won't do so because those laid off people have to hold on to their money. Thus those businesses will have to either cut hours or lay off their employees to make ends meet and so on and so on.
But boy, great job by the Hall County commissioners. At least taxes didn't go up! Give each other a high-five and be proud of yourselves because you took a stand against higher taxes. Because higher taxes hurts business, even if our local economy is set back for years to come.
There's an old commercial that said, "You can pay a little now or a lot later." The Hall County commission has set things up so that the citizens will pay a lot later.
Complete and utter lunacy.
Juan Morfa
Flowery Branch