To the Editor:

On behalf of the Morgan County High School Marching Band please accept our sincere thank you for the generous support you provided during our "Dress A Band Student" Uniform Drive. Thanks to you the drive was a success. We achieved our goal and our new uniforms are here at last!
Your staff has done an excellent job of covering our band recently and over the past year!  We appreciate the opportunities you have given us to advertise our spring fundraiser concert and most recently to thank our donors.
As we march out onto the field this fall you should take pride in knowing the Morgan County Citizen made a difference. Our band program is a vital part of our school and community and we do appreciate your support!
We look forward to seeing you this fall at the MCHS Stadium.
With sincere thanks,

Jeffrey Rowser
Band Director, and the MCHS Band Program
Mailed

Printed in the August 30, 2012 edition

To the Editor:

We have to cut spending!
Doing the math on last weeks article about insurance for library employees its easy to see why we are in such debt. It appears that the government will need to steal more than $7200 more per year to pay for library employee insurance. This will bring their insurance premiums to  $11,208 per year. What kind of insurance do we provide for our servants? Multiply this times millions of government servants. Thats not even considering the multi-million dollar library government found it nesasary to build because of a roof leak in the existing library.  Does anyone else see a problem here? And people have to ask how we got to the financial mess we are in.
As for TSPLOST, is 441 so congested down at the Putnam County line that government finds it needs to steal millions of dollars from us serfs for a widening project? Does anyone see multi-million dollar congestion on 441? And why are we expected to pay for all of this infrastructure at Baxter? Why does the government find they can steal money from us serfs, doing all we can just to survive, in order to build infrastructure for multi-million dollar companies?
Government is suppose to be our servants. I'm getting confused as to who is serving who.
Governments a joke.

Alan McKay
Buckhead
Via e-mail

Printed in the August 23, 2012 edition

To The Editor:

Now comes the logic of our elected and un-elected bureaucrats at the BOE. Quotes printed in the Citizen from Superintendent Bennett and BOE member Howard instruct us (whether more revenue collection or not) that raising the millage rate is not raising our property taxes. For the sake of simplicity (or logic) a property owner paid $1,500 in tax for 2011 on property assessed at $200,000. In 2012 the property owner pays $1,500 on an asset assessed at $150,000 (worth $50,000 less). Apply a bit of critical thinking here; pay the same amount for two different asset values on value higher and one value lower, paying more for an asset of lower value is, by definition, a property tax increase. Property taxes for the BOE have increased 5 mills since 2008 while property values have plummeted, the value of the dollar has shrunk, unemployment has risen, wages have shrunk, (except for government employees), business income is way down and investment portfolio value has taken a big loss.
Calling it a “Rollback Rate” or saying “we aren’t collecting any more revenues” is putting lipstick on the pig makes it something other than a pig. These bureaucrats are taking a greater portion of our asset values and this is not a tax increase? Hmm! Wonder what sorts of math, logic and critical thinking skills are being taught in the Morgan County Schools.

Mark Grubaugh
Buckhead
Via e-mail

Printed in the August 16, 2012 edition

To the Editor:

With the recent mass shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin, not to mention the dozens of others over the decade, proponents of the second amendment see no reason to do anything about gun violence or gun control. Just like fundamental racists of capitalism and conservatism have spent all their time since the last presidential election spreading fear and propaganda and thinly veiled racism to hold to their ideal that America should only be run by rich old white capitalism. And then there are the gays who are just as fanatical and out of touch as the racists on the right working to suppress and bully everybody who disagrees with them and their agenda and idealism.
None of these things appeal to me because I am a reasonable person. No matter how passionate I may feel about something it doesn’t give me the right to run over everyone else’s rights because I have money and power. Your job as a voter is to make sure that extremists and fear mongers aren’t playing your passions and fears like a fiddle all the way to the voting booth. If you really truly want to fix what’s wrong with our country then stop voting your fears, passions, prejudices and hatred. And stop listening to people who blame just one man, the president for absolutely everything.

Chris Murray
Madison
Hand-delivered

Printed in the August 9, 2012

To the Editor:

One sure-fire way to guarantee 100 percent participation during early voting would be to include a check-off box on the ballot sending a cease-and-desist order to candidates informing them you have already voted and to immediately remove you from their automated call lists.

David Boardman
Madison
Via e-mail

Printed in the August 9, 2012

To the Editor:

Can someone explain how a piece of property can decrease in value by 13 percent and property taxes go up by 1.4 percent and this is not a tax increase?
For it not to be an increase the taxes should fall to about $189.00 not increase from $218 to $221.
Only government can steal more of your money and tell you their stealing  less.
I'm glad to see we have an extra $6,000 laying around to buy shovels for the Baxter project. They must be in bad financial shape. I would have thought for a project of that size they would use heavy equipment.
Come on people wake up. Tell government we are not that dumb.
Stop wasting our money.
Government's a joke.

Alan McKay
Buckhead
VIa e-mail

Printed in the August 2, 2012 edition.