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Letter to the Editor
Please consider taxpayers plight
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Forsyth County News
Taxpayer — who is looking out for you?

If you answered nobody, you are correct. The past few months the Forsyth County Tax Dept. has raised assessments on property for which the value has continued to go down. Does this make sense?

How many people do you know that have been trying to sell their home for over a year. I know quite a few. The only people that have been successful had to cut their price substantially and in some cases lose money on their home. You drive through subdivisions and see “for sale” signs with the word “reduced” used a lot.

Some people have just given up and taken the sign down.

While taxpayers are suffering through high gas and grocery prices, the tax commissioner is buying lunch for whoever, using taxpayer funds. $16,000 was the last figure I heard. Did he pay it back? I don’t think so.

What happened to tax relief from the state that was supposed to help the taxpayer?

The county has given raises to county employees up to 7 percent. The county has paid to the aides for Ledbetter and Tam severance pay, thousands of dollars — something Conway, Tam and Ledbetter set up.

The county has said it has a temporary hiring freeze. Since the volume of new homes has gone way down, why has there not been some cuts? A lot of taxpayers have been laid off or lost their jobs. The county employees should not be exempt.

The state government is making cuts — shorter work weeks, closing parks, and eliminating things. They are doing this to make up for income loss.

The county position seems to be let the taxpayers pay, we are not cutting anything. I have just mentioned a few examples of waste. It would be nice to know how many credit cards and autos and other expenses that are floating around and what kind of charges are made to the credit cards. Maybe an appointed taxpayer committee needs to look at this. Somebody does.

Bill Dickerson
Cumming