THOMASVILLE — Consolidation of services, city and county governments, property taxes and fuel prices.

Those are the subjects about 600 citizens concurred Tuesday are among their top concerns. The subjects will be addressed at future meetings of citizens.

Tuesday night’s meeting at Thomasville Municipal Auditorium was the second. The first was in mid-November.

Mark Lastinger, Times-Enterprise managing editor and meetings organizer, said Thomas County government has a “meaner and leaner” 2009 budget as a result of citizen input at budget work sessions.

“That was a great job,” he told the audience, which burst into applause.

“You can’t be a sideline player in this game,” said Randy Young, also an organizer, an educator and Times-Enterprise columnist.

Barbara Collins, who attended the budget sessions, said she did not think $1 million would have been cut from the county budget in the absence of citizens’ presence during budget decisions.

She and the Rev. Dewitt Rehberg, who also attended the sessions, encouraged fellow citizens to attend Thomas County and Thomasville City school board meetings.

Later in the meeting, Rehberg asked if any service station owners or fuel distributors were present. There were none.

“Silence speaks volumes,” Lastinger said. He encouraged letters to the editor about fuel prices, which are consistently higher in Thomas County than in nearby communities.

He said someone asked him why he did not complain about the price of coffee. “If I drank $70 worth of coffee a week, I would fuss about that,” he explained.

A suggestion from the audience was to invite fuel distributors from other communities to attend the next meeting,

Dr. Ben Grace, a retired dentist, asked about city and county governments “becoming one organization.” The audience applauded Grace when he said he wondered if combining the two entities would save money.

Gloria Taylor, who is retired, said her property taxes increased 150 percent last year. She is tired of paying taxes to support services enjoyed by others who pay no property taxes.

District 173 state Rep. Mike Keown told citizens an effort would be under way in the 2009 Georgia Assembly to end “spiraling, out-of-control” property reassessments. If approved, the legislation would put a cap on reassessments at 3 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less.

A property owner should be taxed on the individual’s investment in property and not on a bureaucrat’s idea of what it is worth, Keown, R-Coolidge, said.

Lastinger thinks high taxes and government are out of control.

Within hours after Lastinger’s recent column about U.S. senators’ and representatives’ raises was published, two lawmakers’ spokesmen responded that their bosses did not vote for raises. Lastinger pointed out that senators and representatives do not have to vote for raises, which are automatic unless they vote against them.

“These folks in Washington are playing us for fools,” the newspaper editor said. He wants Georgia lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to realize people in this part of the state “have more sense than they give us credit for.”

Bill Raiford asked why some state employees received raises last year, while others did not.

District 11 state Sen. John Bulloch, R-Ochlocknee, said that according to the Georgia attorney general, teachers’ raises could not be withheld because they are contract employees.

Keown said Georgia government is looking at a $2 billion to $3 billion shortfall.

“That would be no problem if we were in Washington,” he told the crowd. Georgia, however, must work with a balanced budget.

Saying he thinks there is too much waste in state government, Keown said he is looking forward to cutting 8 to 10 percent.

Keown used to be employed by the Georgia Department of Corrections. During state cuts in 1991, he learned one day that the next day would be his last on the job.

“I know what that feels like” he said, adding that some state agencies probably have more employees than are needed.



Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 220.