COLUMN: We’re paying now for lack of foresight
I can’t shake my shock and sadness at the news that the City of Winder just laid off 30 employees. Thirty families are now changed immeasurably in these hard times. Thirty heads are now spinning with thoughts of checking and savings account balances, bills due, prescriptions to buy, and “What am I going to do next?...No one’s hiring…What will become of us?”
I can empathize because Mr. Clark was laid off in July. He hasn’t worked, or even had much of a nibble on his resume since…times are tough and only getting tougher for so many!
The paper (this newspaper) said these people lost their jobs “due to a financial condition that has ‘significantly worsened,’” according to the Winder powers that be. The actions were “precipitated by the declines in two of Winder’s main sources of revenue – sales taxes and water sales,” the city administrator said.
“Sales tax collections are 15-20 percent below what the city had conservatively projected,” he added. Water consumption also fell by 20 percent.
“The city’s general fund is supported primarily by these revenue streams and the severity of the downturn was unexpected,” and therein lies the problem, folks. These problems were not unforeseen. They were just not dealt with.
I live in Winder and I started getting notes about the drought and watering restrictions on my trash can and in my city bill two (if not three) years ago. I remember grumbling, as I watched my roses and tomatoes struggle, that maybe “they” should stop rubber stamping subdivisions and control growth until the drought ends since those of us who are already here might like to have a patch of grass or a little bit of a garden.
But did they? Oh, no.
The city kept annexing property for subdivisions and the county kept okaying every Pop’s-farm-turned-200+ houses like there was no tomorrow. What did they think? In their short-sighted minds, was there really no tomorrow?
With regard to sales tax collections being down, Hello! We’re in a recession and we’ve never, anywhere here in Barrow County, prioritized solid, sustainable commercial growth over making sure our own made significant profit off real estate dealings, most of them having to do with non-sustainable residential growth.
Our “Main Street” has operated as despicably as has this nation’s Wall Street with regard to reining-in the personal gain of our relatives and buddies so that we could do right by our community. It is no surprise that, as the drought continued and times got tougher, the growth that has been the opiate this county has depended on for the past 20 years, dried up. Now everyone’s head is spinning, wondering what happened.
The handwriting has been on the wall for years. Back in the late ‘90s and early 2000’s (and ever since), school board officials have begged local officials to slow down residential growth and concentrate more on commercial growth.
The handwriting on the housing crisis wall became pretty clear in 2007, when permits (meaning construction under way) were still going gangbusters, but actual sales began to level off…These crises our governments are reeling from are no surprise. They were just not dealt with.
I actually ran for Barrow County Commission Chairman back in 2000, because I and my small, but dedicated band of supporters, realized (as my campaign materials proclaimed) “It was time for a change!”
My platform included “progressive, professional, pro-active government… ethical leadership… managing and providing for rapid growth… planning for the future, including our need for water, industrial growth and infrastructure… more support for building a well-educated local job force…” We even had a website detailing how we would achieve these goals.
We were “ahead of our time,” as many friendly people (who, I’m sure voted for the competition) said. We worked hard and cost the competition more money and effort than they initially planned.
But in the end, I got 42 percent of the vote, certainly not enough to win, but pretty good for the only person running as a Democrat in the county, a female-outsider with a hyphenated name. The point is, even back in 2000, I saw this coming. The people who worked so hard on my campaign saw it coming. The folks that voted for me saw this coming. How did the powers that be not see it coming?
Why are we now asked to swallow that 30 more local people/families are jobless due to a “down turn that was unexpected?”
I don’t know how or when President Obama’s stimulus package will trickle down to Barrow County, but a lot of people do need help.
I like Mr. Clark’s idea that every one who owns a home should be given some of that money for tangible energy-bill-reducing improvements, like new windows, weather stripping, attic insulation, and such. That would get materials being bought, workers doing work, power bills down some, and people maybe feeling a little optimism again.
I like the late night TV show host’s notion that instead of giving the money to the banks, why not give the money to us and let us give it to the banks? That way, he said, we’d all be out of debt and the banks would still end up with the money.
I also liked what Winder Mayor Chip Thompson said about the job cuts, calling them “the hardest thing” he’d “ever had to do.”
“We didn’t cut fat,” he said, “We cut muscle. We cut down to the bone.”
I hope some of those laid off folks remember, as it is so hard to do, as job application, after job application is rejected, it’s not about them. It’s about a reprehensible lack of foresight on the part of our powers that be, followed by a round of really hard times, that has them where they are.
They are still the muscle and the bone of a work force we hope to see return.
Lorin Sinn-Clark is a columnist for the Barrow Journal. She can be reached at lorin@barrowjournal.com.
The paper (this newspaper) said these people lost their jobs “due to a financial condition that has ‘significantly worsened,’” according to the Winder powers that be. The actions were “precipitated by the declines in two of Winder’s main sources of revenue – sales taxes and water sales,” the city administrator said.
“Sales tax collections are 15-20 percent below what the city had conservatively projected,” he added. Water consumption also fell by 20 percent.
“The city’s general fund is supported primarily by these revenue streams and the severity of the downturn was unexpected,” and therein lies the problem, folks. These problems were not unforeseen. They were just not dealt with.
I live in Winder and I started getting notes about the drought and watering restrictions on my trash can and in my city bill two (if not three) years ago. I remember grumbling, as I watched my roses and tomatoes struggle, that maybe “they” should stop rubber stamping subdivisions and control growth until the drought ends since those of us who are already here might like to have a patch of grass or a little bit of a garden.
But did they? Oh, no.
The city kept annexing property for subdivisions and the county kept okaying every Pop’s-farm-turned-200+ houses like there was no tomorrow. What did they think? In their short-sighted minds, was there really no tomorrow?
With regard to sales tax collections being down, Hello! We’re in a recession and we’ve never, anywhere here in Barrow County, prioritized solid, sustainable commercial growth over making sure our own made significant profit off real estate dealings, most of them having to do with non-sustainable residential growth.
Our “Main Street” has operated as despicably as has this nation’s Wall Street with regard to reining-in the personal gain of our relatives and buddies so that we could do right by our community. It is no surprise that, as the drought continued and times got tougher, the growth that has been the opiate this county has depended on for the past 20 years, dried up. Now everyone’s head is spinning, wondering what happened.
The handwriting has been on the wall for years. Back in the late ‘90s and early 2000’s (and ever since), school board officials have begged local officials to slow down residential growth and concentrate more on commercial growth.
The handwriting on the housing crisis wall became pretty clear in 2007, when permits (meaning construction under way) were still going gangbusters, but actual sales began to level off…These crises our governments are reeling from are no surprise. They were just not dealt with.
I actually ran for Barrow County Commission Chairman back in 2000, because I and my small, but dedicated band of supporters, realized (as my campaign materials proclaimed) “It was time for a change!”
My platform included “progressive, professional, pro-active government… ethical leadership… managing and providing for rapid growth… planning for the future, including our need for water, industrial growth and infrastructure… more support for building a well-educated local job force…” We even had a website detailing how we would achieve these goals.
We were “ahead of our time,” as many friendly people (who, I’m sure voted for the competition) said. We worked hard and cost the competition more money and effort than they initially planned.
But in the end, I got 42 percent of the vote, certainly not enough to win, but pretty good for the only person running as a Democrat in the county, a female-outsider with a hyphenated name. The point is, even back in 2000, I saw this coming. The people who worked so hard on my campaign saw it coming. The folks that voted for me saw this coming. How did the powers that be not see it coming?
Why are we now asked to swallow that 30 more local people/families are jobless due to a “down turn that was unexpected?”
I don’t know how or when President Obama’s stimulus package will trickle down to Barrow County, but a lot of people do need help.
I like Mr. Clark’s idea that every one who owns a home should be given some of that money for tangible energy-bill-reducing improvements, like new windows, weather stripping, attic insulation, and such. That would get materials being bought, workers doing work, power bills down some, and people maybe feeling a little optimism again.
I like the late night TV show host’s notion that instead of giving the money to the banks, why not give the money to us and let us give it to the banks? That way, he said, we’d all be out of debt and the banks would still end up with the money.
I also liked what Winder Mayor Chip Thompson said about the job cuts, calling them “the hardest thing” he’d “ever had to do.”
“We didn’t cut fat,” he said, “We cut muscle. We cut down to the bone.”
I hope some of those laid off folks remember, as it is so hard to do, as job application, after job application is rejected, it’s not about them. It’s about a reprehensible lack of foresight on the part of our powers that be, followed by a round of really hard times, that has them where they are.
They are still the muscle and the bone of a work force we hope to see return.
Lorin Sinn-Clark is a columnist for the Barrow Journal. She can be reached at lorin@barrowjournal.com.
Welcome back, Ms. Sinn-Clark!