As an active and involved city of Cumming resident for nearly 20 years, there were plenty of things in the [Forsyth County News] June 28 article about proposed land annexations into the city that concerned me (on both sides). However, the particular comments made by County Manager Eric Johnson are the ones I would most like to address. Mr. Johnson states that “the county should also look at how much city residents are using county-funded resources and could look retroactively at what is owed.”

I would like to remind Mr. Johnson, and the [Forsyth County] Board of Commissioners, that first of all, nothing is “county-funded.” Everything is “taxpayer” funded, a concept that often escapes those embedded in government.

Second of all, and perhaps most important, he forgets that city of Cumming residents are also Forsyth County residents. There seems to be a misconception out there that city residents do not pay property taxes.  While it is true that we don’t have an additional city property tax, we pay county property taxes at the same rate as every other Forsyth County taxpayer.

If anything, I might add, city taxpayers are overpaying because we don’t use one of the biggest chunks of the county budget — the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office.

Ironically, businesses within the city of Cumming collect a bulk of county sales tax revenue due to being a pro-business community which has welcomed the retailers with open arms. This city of Cumming-based revenue source has benefitted the entire Forsyth County community tremendously.

The city of Cumming, under steady leadership for many years, has always been more fiscally responsible and more business-friendly than county government which has seen a revolving door of commissioners who get little done other than squabble with each other and fight off lawsuits on our dime because of poor, activist mentality decision-making.

Forsyth County government is notorious around the state for being bogged down in bureaucracy and red-tape and one of the hardest counties in the state to do business in. It is no wonder entities seek to be annexed into the city. Perhaps, instead of constantly spitting and hissing across the street at the city, the Forsyth County folks might want to take a few notes and figure out a way to be more competitive and business-friendly so they aren’t the over-regulating, tax-and-spend, red-tape machine of Georgia, which has caused them to become the bane of the business-person’s existence.

Julie Tressler

City of Cumming and Forsyth County resident