The Board of Education is Out of Control

Posted with permission from Michael Fitzgerald, the president of the North Fulton & Friends Tea Party.
 
"I am a co-founding member of the North Fulton & Friends Tea Party (NFFTea). We have committees that study and make recommendations to the lead committee on positions ranging from national spending to local issues. We have an education committee that recommended we take a “No” position on ESPLOST IV.
 
Our justification is based upon the following synopsis of the final report: 
 
NFFTea’s position is based upon analysis of the proposed tax continuation, proposed projects, history of the Board of Education, and tax philosophy of the Tea Party movement. 
 
•  NFFTea sees neither accountability nor obligation on the part of the Fulton County Board of Education to tie the expenditure of nearly one billion dollars to improving education or test scores. We cannot find any position, statement, or commitment from the Board of Education to quantify how this massive expenditure will advance their primary objective: educating our kids. One Example: How does spending millions to convert buses to “green energy” improve education of the children? 
Shouldn’t we measure and hold elected officials to account for their primary objective for wanting to spend nearly one billion tax dollars? 

•  The education SPLOST was originally conceived and intended to be an interim tax for spot capital projects - and never intended as a never-ending stream of billions in cash for a wish-list of never-ending projects. 

•  Experience with any government agency provides little confidence that just because the Board of Education says we need to spend $912 million dollars doesn’t make it so. The glossy taxpayer-paid brochure slick and polished presentation makes it sound as if we have no choice but to vote for the SPLOST or pay it in property taxes! We do have choices! Why not a smaller tax or fewer taxes? 

•  Additionally, we find it curious and an interesting coincidence that what revenue the Board of Education says is required fits so nicely into a convenient one penny sales tax. Is there any chance the Board of Education back-filled projects to use up revenues from a penny tax? Fulton County Schools just completed the last three SPLOSTs and spent multiple billions of dollars on capital projects. 
Isn’t this enough? If not, what is enough? Is there even a chance SPLOST IV is just a means to keep this bloated billion dollar money train moving for the bloated school bureaucrats and developers? 

•  As our press release states, we acknowledge But $912 million!? Perhaps a smaller project list and more reasonable capital budget makes more sense - just like the shrinking budgets of struggling taxpayer families dealing with a tough economy, who are still being asked to pick up the tab.

•  The press release also addresses the prospect of transferring this massive expense to property taxes. By more than double, the largest line item on every Fulton County property tax bill is for Eeducation. The Fulton County School System’s property tax budget is well into the billion dollar range. In these trying economic times, should not the Board of Education be considering more discretion with these expenditures? 

•  At NFFTea, we make specific reference to the Board of Education transferring these proposed expenditures to property taxes.  This is unacceptable and will be met with a harsh backlash! Such an act will prompt the Tea Party to offer a conservative, small government Constitutionalist to challenge each position of the Board of Education that votes to raise property taxes in the next election. 
 
Accountability to the taxpayer is critical.  Are we not taxed enough already? 
 
NFFTea is comprised of businessmen and women, small business owners, technologists, parents and we are an active civic force of American patriots attempting to reign in and gain control of our spendthrift government at every level - including the Board of Education. 
 
From the billions that have been spent in the last three SPLOSTs and the school system now asking the taxpayers to pick up another billion…the Board of Education is asking for too much!

Enough already!  It is past time to slow this hemorrhaging spigot of money.