For those who are unfamiliar with the acronym RICO, it stands for the “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.”
It was established to allow the government to punish individuals associated with criminal activity, specifically the leaders of crime organizations.
If that is beginning to sound to you a lot like the Augusta government, you may not be too wrong. Except for the fact that all these elected leaders think they’re Steven Segal, you know, “Above The Law.”
They are the ones who make and pass the very laws that allow them to fleece the property owners who actually pay inflated property taxes.
They add fees onto the tax bill such as streetlight fees, and that’s whether you have a streetlight near your property or not. After all, when you travel into a part of the county that does have street lights, you use them. That just happens to be the reason one of the seated commissioners gave.
With logic like that, then have everyone visiting Augusta stop at the county line and pay that fee. After all, they use them as well. See how ridiculous that sounds?
The Engineering Department added the storm water fee that goes on your water bill, and I am still waiting to hear how and where the millions and millions and millions of those dollars have been spent.
The Utilities Department has their games they play as well. The most popular game is the overbilling game. Since many customers have auto-pay from their banking accounts, the department is hoping no one actually checks their bill. But just in case they do, the standard answer, “You must have a leak,” is bestowed upon the questioner.
Now, how does a leak with the sewage increase work? That’s outbound. Again, the answer that was given to me by a customer representative, “The cost of chemicals to treat the waste has gone up tremendously.”
In the Tax Commission office there was once the Tax Commissioner, Steven Kendrick, who wanted to be mayor. So, Kendrick and his assistant made a deal to swap jobs. Kendrick would drop back and become the assistant and the assistant, Chris Johnson, would be moved up to tax commissioner position.
Johnson resigned as assistant and collected mega bucks as his severance. This move also allowed him to run for tax commissioner, and a most assured win was in store for him. It also gave Kendrick a cushy position if he failed to win the mayor’s seat.
While all of this was quite unethical, it was not illegal. The loop holes were found and closed without objections.
The Tax Assessor’s office is indeed staffed with a very self important group. They are led by a panel of appointees that resemble the appointees to the United States Supreme Court, you know, for life.
The past tax assessor was Chief Appraiser Alveno Ross. Indeed, Ross was a smooth operator. Most commissioners would let all within hearing distance know how extremely fortunate Augusta was to have Ross as the chief appraiser. All the while on most days you could find him smoking while hanging out in the Municipal Building parking lot and socializing.
Ross was so smooth that he talked the commission into giving him a raise that would bring his salary to the $145,000 a year mark.
Ross then went about restructuring his staff and giving a couple of promotions with raises. All while under the watchful eyes of the appointed board members.
Then, Ross turned in his resignation and went back to Macon, from which he came, carrying with him a six months severance pay and package.
The new chief tax appraiser is Scott Roundtree. Running true to form, he is on another money grab by re-appraising property again this year. Seems to be an average of a 25% hike. He says he just can’t help it. After all, the city needs the money to provide services for the citizens.
Now one of the shame of this is by the city commissioners. They proudly and boldly stated that they would not raise taxes and would not attempt a millage rate increase. Wink, wink.
They didn’t lie; they didn’t raise taxes. They just stood by and watched the appraiser do his thing. Higher property appraisals mean more taxes paid in. All the while Finance Director Donna Williams stated the property owners should be glad of the higher appraisals. That means that when they sell their property, they can get more for it.
First of all, many people don’t want to sell. If they do, they can’t get the same size home for the money they would get for their property. This means paying a higher mortgage or they would have to downsize considerably.
How much more can the property owners take with these higher and higher taxes?
How about giving property owners who are age 65 and older who have retired and are on a fixed income a break. They have been paying into this broken system all these years.
The city could freeze their property taxes at the rate it is before the re-appraisals. As long as they own the home and live in it, let the taxes be frozen. After all, they have been being fleeced all these years, why not give them a break?
Has anyone noticed that more apartment units are being built in Augusta than single family homes? Why is this?
Augusta elected officials love to brag about Augusta’s growth. The census of 2010 states that Augusta’s population was at 195,844 people. The census of 2020 states Augusta’s population at 202,081. That’s 6,237 people in 10 years. Not exactly a growth boom.
Ever notice at 5 o’clock the traffic begins to resemble the start of the Indy 500. Washington Road becomes bumper to bumper with folks headed home to Columbia County. Highways 56 and 25 are loaded with heavy traffic with folks headed home to Burke County. Highway 1 south has heavy traffic headed home to Jefferson County.
Many folks take that 13th Street turn that carries them across the river and home to Aiken County.
Have you ever wondered why so many people like to work and make money in Augusta but not live in Augusta? Could it be the politics, judicial system and school system?
As always, you just can’t make this stuff up.
