Henry County's Bailiwick

Many people have lost sight of what a county government is obligated to provide its citizens.  In Georgia, unlike most states with large cities, the county is still the center of political and cultural life for a majority of the state's citizens.  Counties carry out locally a variety of state programs and policies, including collecting taxes, overseeing elections, conducting courts of law, filing official records, maintaining roads, and providing for the welfare of citizens (police and fire services).  That is the bottom line of what a county is required to provide those who live within it's borders.  And many counties are failing at providing the basic duties of government.  For example: Henry County does a poor job of making the roads ready for the huge influx of people who have moved here and continue to move here by the thousands with more on the way.   They are not required to continue to build parks, water parks, arena, amphitheaters, and the many other amenities that people want with SPLOST programs.  For those who claim to be conservative, they sure do like to tax themselves into the gutter and then want to see the bureaucracy grow to untold proportions that they cannot support.  With the projects on the SPLOST list many of them should be done privately and not through the use of taxpayer dollars.  Why should those of the population fund items they will never use?  Why expect to lay that burden on the backs of those who cannot afford it?  The reason is that they found a cash cow that is easy to milk from consumers.  Years ago they started SPLOST to help with road issues and said it would only last the duration of the time allotted.  Then, they came back to the well once again and again.  Many of these infrastructure projects that were listed have never come to fruition because the money seemed to get allocated to other projects and that is not how the program is supposed to work.  And to keep the citizens from voicing their opinions on these subjects the BoC leadership wants to limit your time to speak to three minutes which is not enough time to state a position.  You are guaranteed the right to redress the government for grievances in the United States Constitution and many areas are in violation of the Constitution in this matter.  The best thing to do is to cut off the slush fund and Vote NO on SPLOST V on November 5th.

The Staff