Taxpayers may pay water authority debt
The Lamar County water authority will ask county commissioners to cover all $470,478 of next year’s debt payments – and possibly beyond
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It is called bankruptcy. It is not the tax payer’s responsibility to fix stupid!
JM and the county commission; the microscope will be upon you all and you won't be able to wiggle out from under it. Raise taxes and your political ambitions are over and terminated. The people are fed up!
Acquire some responsibility and lead by example. Example being; money management and living with what you have available. Stop begging for more tax money and stop making excuses. And if you can’t do it: Resign!
Check the records & note who the greedy folks were who advised the authority to keep borrowing money several years ago. These guys are really good at getting rich on the tax payers in Lamar and other counties.
If the BOC co-signed on the loans, it's not really a question.
Here's to January 20, 2013 - The End of an Error.
Why should I have to pay for a water service that is nowhere near my home, with no plans to come anywhere near, and which I don't want to use even if they run by my house?
I have to agree with poster #2 that the first option, even if it will only reduce the debt a small percentage, should be paycuts (or maybe terminations) for the management of the water authority before you ask me to effectively take a paycut to subsidize your poor administration.
At least the Fire/EMS fee purports to offer a service (although I would have to pay the ambulance if I use it). For many Lamar Countians this added cost offer nothing. If imposing a cost to citizens who have no chance of using a service is legal it should not be and it is certainly not ethical.
Speaking of fair ! The fair tax would see to it that everyone pay the same !
True American citizens need to stand up and fight for what is right ! You need to VOTE for the person who is going stop illegal aliens from coming to America and robbing us of our jobs . You also need to VOTE for someone who will put an end to our government giving Dairy Queens and gas stations to foreigners that don't have to pay taxes for so many years and then pass it on to a relative . When they come to America they need to have citizenship and find a job as most of us have . We are not helping our selves by standing aside and allowing our government to give our hard earned dollars to foreign people !
Get on the internet or the phone and let your local Congressman know how you feel, and remember to VOTE ! Just make sure you educate yourself about the person you are voting for .
surrounded by to many incompetents who for the most part have limited experience in running a business, hiring qualified personnel and do not know how to operate of the “downside” of a profit curve.
When floating loans or accepting grants that require the Authority to exempt certain socio-economic groups from payment because of their supposedly inability to pay hook-up fees, etc., validates an old truism, make it free, they will demand and the producers will be stuck with the costs.
The original members of the Water Authority Board seemed to be most conscious and reflective of their commitments to the keep the Water Authority in the black. However, it seems over the last 3-4 years the Water Authority has become a haven for “good ole boys & girls” whose appointments reflect the pervasive attitude of Lamar County politics, ie, “heck he a good ole boy”; “my goodness I have known him for years, I even knew his Daddy”; “remember he is a deacon in his church and that makes him A-OK”; on and on. Never a word about ones qualifications to manage $6-8MM enterprise, never a word about ones experience in financial and fiduciary responsibilities, never word about what happens when the Authority is required to manage its fiances when the economy turns sour.
Chairman Wesley Wilson when talking about the Authority financial problems is quoted as saying
“Legislation to create a fee district didn't materialize, this is our last resource to put it plainly. There's nowhere to go from here”, I expect to some flak from it".
I assume Mr. Wilson means that the hard-working property owners of Lamar County is where he
seeks relief. First, I would recommend resigning and then allow GEFA to take over the Water Authority they probably can do no worse!
Also in the same article in the B-H, “Commissioner Jimmy Hearn, also an authority member, abstained from the May 24 vote to do so and said he would also abstain from any upcoming commission vote.”
Remember this about Commissioner Hearn, although abstaining from voting on Taxpayers May Pay Water Debt, which I commend, he is also pushing for a 2 mil ad valorem tax increase, for which much would be used to bail out the Water Authority. How about that for “hope and change”!!!!
Ms Ferris, Misters Wilson, Hearn, et al, need to read “The Peter Principle”, by Dr. Laurence J. Peter, written in 1968.
Like smoking the Lamar County Water Authority is hazardous to ones (financial) health!!!
Julia
Then what do we sell for the shortage next year?
This water mess started because B'ville had a surplus of capacity when Carter's left. The idea was to sell all the extra capacity off to county people, so B'ville would get some return on the investment in the water plant.
I say let it go belly up. Let the people who loaned them the money have the system.
Every one else needs to tell their perspective commissioners the same thing!
Whether you like it or not, we have a 2 party system and the all the third party does as elect opposite of your views.
It made me consider what real benefit will come to most county residents from the Water Authority, and honestly I don't see any benefit to most of the county homeowners. Like me, many people I have talked with do not want the water even if the service comes by their house. We have a well and are happy.
It occurs to me the main beneficiaries of this are the county developments such as the one out 341 South area (Abbott Woods?) and the like. Are wells not allowed in these areas? If this is the case I wonder if the majority of citizens are subsidizing a few county development projects.
Does anyone know the history of the whole water project?
Walter--I would be interested in reading a history of the Water Authority and the case for getting it started in the first place. It would be interesting to me to read that so I can further understand how our country got into this mess. I would also be interested in the personnel costs of the Water Authority to see what they are spending on employees and how much the director of this failure makes. If those management personnel take a significant cut in pay, even if it is only a dent in the debt, I would feel better about stepping in as a taxpayer to bail them out.