LETTERS
To the Editor:

What a joke. The commissioner says he is having a millage rollback- From 5.1 mills to 5.05 mills. This would save a home owner who pays tax on $50,000 after 40% and personal exemptions a measly $2.50. With the veto of tax relief everyones taxes will actually increase $114.40, less the tax cut the commissioner is giving us, means an actual increase of only $111.90 on $50,000.

Mike Sims

To The Editor:

Regarding American political luminaries who have passed from the scene, there are many about whom I have said, or at least felt, "Where are they now that we need them." Today's big spenders in Washington bring to mind three men whose frugality concerning the public purse, and whose understanding of the Constitution as intended by the Founders, would be a welcome relief.

My first citation may be a surprise. Those who have seen the tombstone of Davy Crockett may recall that it reads: "Davy Crockett, Pioneer, Patriot, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, State Legislator, Congressman, Martyred at The Alamo. 1786 - 1836." As kids we learned that he was the "king of the wild frontier" and that he died at the Alamo, but we were taught very little about his work in the US Congress, where he served two terms as a member of the House of Representatives. His performance there should, but unfortunately does not, serve as a model for modern Congressman. For example, during his first term in office, Crockett successfully opposed a $10K relief bill which was proposed for the widow of a naval officer, giving the following eloquent rebuttal:

"We must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not attempt to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money." When the vote was taken, the measure failed; and rumor has it that Crockett was the only member of the House to make a substantial private contribution to a charitable fund for the widow.

The second is about President Franklin Pierce who, in a famous incident in 1854, was pilloried for vetoing an extremely popular bill intended to help the mentally ill. In the face of heavy criticism, Pierce countered: "I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity." To approve such spending, argued Pierce, "would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded."

The last is Grover Cleveland, the "king of the veto," who rejected hundreds of congressional spending bills during his two terms as President in the late 1800s, because, as he often wrote: "I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution."

Where are these guys, now that we need them!

Cordially, Chuck Esposito

Suches, Ga.

To the Editor:

There is now a 50% increase for each bag of garbage taken to the recycle center. Could this be the reason there is no property tax increase this year as the county gets it share in fees. Could this be because of election year coming up next year? Does the Commissioner have the word MODERATION in his vocabulary? high increases in the county budget and fees are not moderate.

Mike Sims