January 12, 2009

Well, the sewer issue is until later on in the year and I will be at there to help us all get a more reasonable rate, but for now I would like you to read the official adopted minutes from the meeting where there was a 3-2 vote to give away our leverage to negotiate the sewer rates. Here is the article for you to read again

Now onto our last council meeting we had last week. To refresh your memory, you can read about the meeting here.

There was another 3-2 vote about who would sit on the TADAC (Tax Allocation District Advisory Committee). The committee’s main purpose is to decide who and how much TAD money will be given to. This means a developer or business owner may get up to 15% of the cost of their project to redevelop areas to increase the building or properties value – thus leading to increase of taxes collected based on it’s new value. This is a great idea.

The committee will consist of three Flowery Branch elected officials, the city planner and manager, the county administrator and the Hall County Chairman or a representative. Where Craig and I have a problem is if we have so many 3-2 splits on important topics – why are all three of them on this committee? I guess it is a powerful committee that gets to dole out funding. I also guess that may be why my proposal of myself, the Mayor and one of them made sense as well as help keep some balance.

I guess they are flexing their muscles again.