Body Guards

Barack Obama has body guards.

Joe Biden has body guards.

Hillary Clinton has body guards

Paul Ryan has body guards.

Nancy Pelosi has body guards.

Whenever and wherever they go.  Be it a school, a church, or any other “gun-free zone”.

So exactly why are you and I prohibited by law from being our own body guard at all times?


 

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Play or Pay: How We Are Subject to TSPLOST Extortion

Cities in Fulton County are being held up at legislative gunpoint in Fulton County, Georgia, and if they do not play along with how the rules have been written by the State Legislature, their constituents will pay the price.

Cities within Fulton County (I live in Johns Creek) are required to either get on board with a Transportation Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST) or run the risk of having the TSPLOST passed in the fall of 2016, and their jurisdictions be subject to the tax and receive nothing. Continue reading

Georgia’s Job Growth Is Higher Outside of Metro Areas

Despite the general perception that it is the metropolitan areas of Georgia that are its economic engines, the rate of year over year job growth is actually higher outside of those metropolitan areas.  And some of your Metro areas have very dismal growth, despite large state and federal expenditures in those areas. Continue reading

The Right to Bear Arms Vs. Property Rights

In a story today at Breitbart News (link below), a District Judge has stated that your right to defend yourself does not start only at your door.

It’s always good when a judge affirms what most of us already agree with.  But here is where it becomes tricky.

Do your constitutional rights go with you wherever you go, or do they end when you enter property not owned by yourself and not government property?  Are your rights merely extended to you on your own property, in essence?


 

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MARTA: It’s Not About Racism-It’s About the Math

MARTA_trainSince the beginning of the Mass Transit era in the Atlanta metropolitan area, I’ve constantly heard the arguments that the reason people were against the transit system was racism.

This is usually the moment that the local politician or commentator makes the statement about how people feared that their homes would be broken into and their tv set stolen and taken away on a bus or train. It’s a tired example, and an inaccurate example. Continue reading

Brace Yourself For the Slowing Georgia Economy

images_man_braking_car“Individual income tax collections for the month increased by 11.5 percent, while gross sales tax collections deposited during November rose a minuscule 0.2 percent. Net sales tax revenue fell by 1.3 percent.

Corporate tax revenues in November increased by $5.1 million.”

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/capitol_vision/2015/12/georgia-tax-receipts-up-7-5-percent.html

There’s what you need to know in a nutshell.

Gross sales tax collections rose only 0.2% in November.  Net Sales Tax Revenue fell by 1.3%.  That says recession.

In an economy that is based on consumption, consumption must outgrow everything else.

The individual tax collections will soon follow suit as well as corporate tax revenues.

If people are not spending more money, companies do not make as much profit.  Companies that do not make as much profit do not need as many employees.  Fewer employees means lower income tax collections.

The state of Georgia did pass a Billion dollar transportation tax earlier this year.  We have begun to see that impact.  Taking a billion dollars out of gross receipts and sending it to the state, rather than to the bottom line of companies and into your banking accounts as savings has a cost.

We will see that cost in full glory shortly.  The tax, however, will not be reversed.

What we will see is everything else blamed, from warm weather to cold weather, to the strong dollar to …..

The truth, however, is much simpler.  Governments that tax too much destroy their own economic engines.