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Health & Fitness

Roswell City Council At the Wheel of the 'Get-Away' Car

If they get-away with it now, they'll be back.

Last week the Wood Administration announced a forthcoming 0.4 mil property tax increase which according to the city’s Legal Notice equates to $1.7 million annually.

This property tax increase comes after the citizens just approved a $14 million bond referendum last November.

This is a very poor decision because it will have a negative psychological effect on property owners relative to supporting future bond referendums.

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And what is most disturbing about this decision is that the city has $16 million in unallocated reserves sitting in local banks doing nothing but drawing interest!

The mechanics for this property tax increase comes from the fact that the city will be “rolling-over” debt payments on retiring general obligation (G.O.) bonds into day-to-day city operations. 

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By state law this roll-over will constitute a property tax increase, and this is only a portion of Roswell’s debt that is scheduled to retire over the next two years. 

Previous G.O. bonds were primarily used for the purchase of park lands (i.e. Big Creek,  Leita Thompson,  addition to East Roswell Park, and the park at the Chattahoochee River), and these debts have been refinanced over the years. 

The 2002 and 2008 refinanced bonds will be paid off in two phases, one next fiscal year 2014 and the balance in FY 2016. This retiring 0.4 mills in debt service is the first portion to roll-over into city operations and approximately another $2.5 million more is scheduled to be retire in FY2016.

The retirement of these bonds has been well known by Roswell’s City Council since June 15, 2009, and that fact is a matter of public record. It is my position that the public voted to make these bond purchases with the understanding that once paid off, the debt would be retired. But instead, Roswell’s get-away drivers now have the pedal to the metal!

Simply think of this situation as if you were paying off two car loans and remember how pleased you were once you did.  Well, with its recently announced property tax increase, the city of Roswell just changed the rules and they want you to send them a check for the interest payment on these two loans – FOREVER.

This approach by our public servants of keeping our tax dollars once they have the money is, for a lack of any better description, grand larceny.  And the single most important reason that the get-away drivers prefer doing it this way is because, unlike a taxpayer approved bond referendum that spells out precisely how the money is to be spent, rolling-over debt service monies into day-to-day spending allows the Wood administration to spend your hard earned tax money however they wish.

So precisely what does this 0.4 mils mean to your bottom line?

$40 per $100,000 in assessed value in next year’s tax bill…..PLUS there will be another $60 per $100,000 two years thereafter, because you can be certain of one thing..............If they get-away with it now……...........……they’ll be back……………

THERE GOES THAT GET-AWAY CAR!

Lee Fleck,

Roswell’s “Budget Hawk”

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