Social media is lighting up with deluges of disinformation around city taxation as we have intentionally entered the overspend zone. Yet again.
One of the key topics coming from the "spend then tax" crowd is that damned legal document known as the city charter. Seems when this fuster cluck was being sold to the electorate the pro-city folks included a maximum millage rate in the charter. The pitch at the time was this would guarantee we'd not end up with out of control spending and taxing, and since everybody agreed THIS city would be fiscally responsible (wink, wink) it wouldn't ever be an issue. Until it is. Like now. Another interesting deception coming from this crowd spins around the word "invest," as in "invest in the city." Sounds good, right? Problem is none of these lip flappers can can actually show how this so-called "investment" actually pays off. They also fail to mention that these "investments" come with ongoing operational costs for security and maintenance. Who's going to pay to keep these twelve foot wide "investments" clean and safe? Oh, yeah, that would be us, the taxpayers. So what they are really investing in a future of never ending tax increases.
Another deception centers around the property valuation freeze. Left out of these hyperbolic complaints is the fact that this freeze only applies to homestead properties, which, in the state of Georgia, means you must own the property and it must be your primary residence. Interesting side effect: if you're also a citizen it makes you eligible to become a voter. In the city. Ooops. What this set of whiners neglects to point out, front and center, is that commercial properties, including rental properties, are NOT homestead properties. No freeze for these. Just never ending backdoor tax hikes. This might explain why the city has become a proponent of apartments everywhere. The other fact that gets buried is that when a home sells, it is marked to market. Per Rocket Homes, this includes 43 homes sold in August alone (in July the number was 51). So the freeze gets thawed and the city sees a huge jump in a sold property's valuation. Cha-ching. Maybe that's why the try so hard to piss off long term residents. To get them to sell out and move on.
These folks absolutely refuse to entertain the notion of cost containment. They won't even consider slowing the rate at which they balloon city spending. It is as if the world will implode if they don't spend at least 5% more each and every year. Heaven forbid someone should question why a city of this size needs an assistant city manager. Really? They do like to compare Dunwoody to other cities. Notably those in other counties and cities which by any objective measure are not comparable. They want everyone to share their fear of missing out but they seem terrified of being ourselves.
Why is that? Because these folks have no vision but they do have an excess of envy. So when they see someone else getting something, anything, even if it is inappropriate for Dunwoody, well they lust after it. Not because it is any good, but simply because somebody else has something they don't. It is easily mistaken for a herd mentality but it is far worse. It is greed and jealousy.
This is why we need to "right size" city government. And "right" means smaller.
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