MARTA CUTS

MARTA released its proposed FY2011 budget Friday. The service cuts are not as drastic as previously proposed. This good news assumes that the Governor signs the transportation bill, which lifts the 50-50 restrictions on MARTA’s sales tax revenue. Increases in sales tax projections are allowing MARTA to borrow more capital funds, freeing up existing funds for operations. Even with these changes, MARTA will be using $70 million of its reserve fund to balance the 2011 operations budget. The reserve fund will be depleted by 2013.

Brian Baj, Sandy Springs

AN OPEN LETTER TO ROSWELL CITY COUNCIL

Please allow me to introduce you to the concept of a Zero-Based Budget. When Jimmy Carter became President he introduced the Federal Government to the budgetary concept known as Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB).  Subsequently, ZBB has been encouraged for municipal budgets because expenditures can easily run out of control if it is automatically assumed what was spent last year must be spent this year. 

Roswell utilizes a traditional budgeting method, whereby departmental managers justify only increases over the previous year’s budget and what has previously been spent is automatically sanctioned.  There is no incentive to reduce costs or develop new ideas and the current budget process simply encourages the mentality of “spend it or lose it”. 
 
By contrast, with zero-based budgeting, every department function is reviewed comprehensively and all expenditures must be approved, rather than only increased.  Budgets will then be built around what is needed.
 
The term “zero-based budgeting” is commonly used in personal finances to describe the practice of budgeting every dollar of income received, and then adjusting some part of your budget downward for every other part that needs to be adjusted upward.
 
Mayor Wood’s FY2011 preliminary budget, which was recently presented to the Roswell City Council, is simply more of that same old traditional budgeting.  Not one Council member knows how many programs have outlived their reasons for being. So now that revenues have fallen short of expenditures for the fourth consecutive year, this Council will continue dipping into reserves which after viewing this proposed budget is a foregone conclusion, considering the fact that Not one penny is budgeted for road repairs or resurfacing which totaled $3.5 million last year alone. 
 
What I find even more disturbing is the reality that the Wood Administration has begun the process of laying the groundwork for another bond referendum, to the tune of $75 million needed to address the deterioration of taxpayers’ assets which are not being maintained. 
 
Finally, I wish to encourage you as responsible City Council members not to miss the reality that municipal
employees only exist because of private-sector productivity, and declining revenues simply do not justify maintaining the current staff or benefit levels.

Lee Fleck, Roswell

HONORING OUR VETS

On this Memorial Day, as we gather for town parades, barbecues and events, we do so to honor and remember those who have served this great nation. The service and sacrifice that America’s troops have demonstrated over our nation’s history, and those who fight today to preserve our way of life, are immeasurable.
As a U.S. Marine, my father served abroad courageously in the Korean War, and as a veteran back home, he made sure the service and sacrifice of others was not forgotten. At five years old, Dad brought me to a veteran’s cemetery. As he read aloud the names on the headstones, openly weeping before me, I knew then that I would be following in his footsteps and also serve in the Marine Corps. Many years after that day, I witnessed Dad pass away. He was a fighter until the very end…just like the Marine we all knew.

After his passing, there was only one more thing left to do to honor this fallen hero and ensure that he will never be forgotten: Dad was laid to rest with his brothers at Arlington National Cemetery. The hallowed grounds of Arlington are now a place I visit frequently, not only to pay respect to Dad, but to pray for all of those brave men and women who died in service to our great country. 

In remembering the fallen, we cannot forget their families. There are widows, fatherless and motherless children, who only have the pictures and stories of the loved ones they have lost. As we all remember and pray for each of them let us remember the Marine Corps motto, Semper Fidelis, meaning “Always Faithful.”  No matter what challenge is before us, no matter what challenge may be before the children of the fallen, faith and prayer will keep our country strong.

It’s now time to instill the same sense of duty and sacrifice into our children that my father passed on to me. These are the lessons that must be passed on from one generation to the next in order to keep the United States of America the most free and prosperous nation on Earth. Abraham Lincoln said in his second Inaugural Address let us “…care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan…”

This Memorial Day, the Fulton County Republican Party honors the families of those men and women who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom.

May God bless our troops. And may God bless the United States of America.
 
Shawn Hanley, Sandy Springs, Chairman, Fulton County Republican Party

Filing Bogus Ethics Complaints Undermines Our Political Process
Filing a bogus or suspect ethics complaint against a candidate in the midst off an election is a misguided decision partisans make.  Attempts at a nuclear take-out attack on one candidate on unspecified ethics charges is, frankly, despicable. 
 
An ethics complaint is a serious step to be undertaken in egregious and extreme cases.  The fact that someone may be opposed to one candidate or another is irrelevant.
 
Unfounded ethics complaints, especially when they are publicly reported, besmirch the name, honor and reputation of public servants in the absence of due process.  When all is said and done, we have nothing of greater value in the public sphere than our honor and reputation. Power, office, money – what do they count if one’s good name is ruined for now good reason?
 
Nonsensical ethics filings prior to an election are destructive of our political process.
 
Powell Harrison, Roswell