To Be In 5 Districts Where Commissioners Approved 26-Cent Tax Hike
posted July 23, 2007
County School Board member Rhonda Thurman said billboards spoofing County Mayor Claude Ramsey and five County Commission members who voted for a 26-cent property tax increase will be going up Wednesday.
She said there will be five billboards - one in each district for those who supported the higher tax - Curtis Adams, Richard Casavant, Greg Beck, Warren Mackey and John Brooks.
Ms. Thurman, who spoke to the Pachyderm Club on Monday, said the billboard is titled "the Back Room Boys."
She said it features "Santa Claude passing out his bag of goodies."
Ms. Thurman said, "Mackey has a little propeller on his head for the playground he got. Casavant has a mortar board, and Curtis Adams, a headmaster hat for his school."
She said the newly formed group she is part of - HET (Had Enough Taxes) - also plans to put the billboards back "at election time three years from now."
Ms. Thurman said, "We want to remind people about this on election day."
She told club members that "Hamilton County's population growth is stagnant, but county spending continues to go up and up."
Ms. Thurman said county teachers "want a 3.5 percent raise. They are getting more than that. Health insurance for them is going from $6,300 to $7,000 so that is a $700 raise right there. When they make more, we contribute more for their pensions."
She told the club that those working in government "don't have the stress that workers or business owners in the private sector have. They don't have to worry about being laid off. They don't have to worry about meeting a payroll."
Ms. Thurman said her group found that "Hamilton County is one of the few large counties in the state that doesn't put its budget online."
She also said she is working with a Texas woman on the idea of putting online the check register of the county schools - all the checks that are written. She said it is done in the Dallas area.
Ms. Thurman added, "I am for all the transparency we can have in government."
Asked if she might run for county mayor, she said some have talked to her about it. But she said, "I haven't given it any thought. Three years is a long way away. I don't even know what I'm having for dinner tonight."
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