Gwinnett taxpayers raised up, shouted and, in some instances, demanded that their county government shelve talk of raising property taxes to balance the 2009 budget.
At May public hearings, hundreds of residents turned out to express disdain with Gwinnett County Commission Chairman Charles Bannister and his lieutenants for proposing a property tax increase to prop up the $1.7 billion 2009 budget.
Naturally, no one supported the government’s answer to the budget crisis: more taxes. Their uproar proved successful. Commissioners backed down and authorized county departments to instead make cuts. Residents declared victory and called representative democracy a sweet thing.
But this week, we learned the (ongoing) budget reductions may cut deeper and hurt more than many realized.
We learned as much when someone leaked a county memo that outlined cuts to the media. The proposal calls for $225 million in cuts through 2014.
County officials are looking at cuts for Gwinnett’s …
