Letters policy: Send by e-mail to letters@gainesvilletimes.com (no attached files, please, which can contain viruses); fax to 770-532-0457; mail to The Times, P.O. Box 838, Gainesville, GA 30503; or click HERE for a form. Include full name, hometown and phone number for confirmation. They should be limited to one topic on issues of public interest and may be edited for content and length (limit of 500 words). Letters originating from other sources, those involving personal, business or legal disputes, poetry, expressions of faith or memorial tributes may be rejected. You may be limited to one letter per month, two on a single topic. Submitted items may be published in print, electronic or other forms. Letters, columns and cartoons express the opinions of the authors and not of The Times editorial board.
On March 15, Hall voters will have the opportunity to vote on a SPLOST for education.
I am opposed to passing this proposal at this time. So far in the current SPLOST, the Buford school system has collected about $19,000 per Hall County student. Hall County has collected about $2,600. This is outrageous!
If this referendum is defeated this time around, it may give our legislature time to correct its abject failure to stop Buford from blackmailing Hall's schools. It may also give our county school board time to develop some more fortitude in dealing with Buford's outrageous demands. The new SPLOST is even worse than the current one in this regard.
To defeat this now would give our school board time to tighten up some contracts, look for more savings and ways to spend less and improve education at the same time. It can be done!
I have proudly paid Hall school taxes for nearly 50 years. I was a soldier in the battle to get the original SPLOST education law passed.
If this SPLOST is defeated, the school board would have plenty of time to make another proposal in conjunction with a primary election next year, thus saving the cost and trouble of having these special referendums.
By the way, a one- or two-mill property tax hike is not any worse for many of us than a 1 percent sales tax, especially if prices of stuff we buy keep going up.
Jimmy Echols
Lula