Saturday, May 18, 2013
Gwinnett County Board of Education adopts $1.763 billion FY2014 budget and tentatively adopts 1.30 mills increase in tax millage rate.
After holding the line in the face of declining revenue in recent years, the Gwinnett County Board of Education anticipates having to raise the tax millage rate to fund the FY2014 budget. The school board adopted a FY2014 balanced budget totaling $1.76 billion, a decrease of $12.8 million or .7 percent from the FY2013 budget at its meeting Thursday (May 16) at the Instructional Support Center in Suwanee. The board also tentatively adopted an increase of 1.30 mills in the tax rate. Despite “a tremendous downturn in the economy we’ve been able to have the millage rate unchanged for some time,” Rick Cost, chief financial officer for Gwinnett County Public Schools, said. This increase includes .55 mills for maintenance and operations (General …
Friday, May 17, 2013
Seven companies submitted bids.
An Atlanta-based engineering and planning services firm has been awarded a $20,700 contract to assist with the City of Dacula's comprehensive plan update. Robert and Company was one of seven companies that bid on that project. Bids ranged from $19,000 to $120,400. Companies were scored based on related experience; qualifications and project management; project understanding and approach; and price. Robert and Company's score of 93 was the highest. The company that submitted the lowest-priced bid of $19,000 scored an 80. The Dacula City Council awarded the contract to Robert and Company during a called meeting on Wednesday, May 15. In order to maintain qualified local government status and retain eligibility for certain grants, the city is…
Monday, May 13, 2013
The City of Dacula has received bids related to the plan update and is likely to award the best, most responsive bid during the special called meeting.
The Mayor and Dacula City Council will hold a special called work session and special called city council meeting on May 15, 2013. The work session will begin at 6 p.m. followed by the special called city council meeting at 6:30 p.m. The purpose of the meetings is to discuss matters concerning the 2030 Comprehensive Plan update The City of Dacula received bids through 3 p.m. on May 8, 2013 for professional services in the update of the City 2030 Comprehensive Plan. The bid opening was at 3:05 p.m. at City Hall. Seven companies provided bids that ranged from $120,400 to $19,000. The bids varied widely, but out of the seven, the City received three competitive bids well within the range of costs expected by the City Staff. The bids are being…
Thursday, May 9, 2013
SB 101's sponsor Sen. Frank Ginn vows to keep fighting for the measure.
The campus carry bill, HB 512, didn't pass in the last session of the Georgia General Assembly. The Board of Regents, the Chancellor of the University System and the Presidents of Georgia's public universities and colleges opposed it. As did many parents, faculty and community members. No matter. According to Senator Frank Ginn (R-Danielsville), "that bill is alive and well and in the Conference Committee right now. It could be passed on the first day of the session next year." Ginn told people who attended a Federation of Neighborhoods meeting Monday night that his pupose in introducing SB 101 was to address reciprocity between Georgia and South Carolina for licensed gun owners. His bill more or less got away from him, and other …
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Several people attended the May 2 Dacula City Council meeting to express concern regarding the rezoning of property on Harbins Road for a drive-through cafe.
Even though she does not live within the city limits of Dacula, Alice O'Lenick said the construction of a drive-through cafe on the Great Beginnings campus on Harbins Road will have a negative impact on her since she lives nearby and drives through the area each day. "This is a neighborhood of just residential and agricultural areas," O'Lenick said. "There's no retail area except for Texaco anywhere close to this and then, all of a sudden, in the middle of a neighborhood, you're going to put a drive-through cafe." Lloyd DeLatour, owner of Great Beginnings daycare on Harbins Road, applied to have part of his property rezoned from O-I (office institutional district) to C-1 (neighborhood commercial district) to allow for the construction of a…
Thursday, April 25, 2013
The facilities would be part of the Great Beginnings complex.
Lloyd DeLatour, owner of Great Beginnings daycare on Harbins Road, hopes he will soon be able to expand his business. "We're the biggest childcare facility in the state of Georgia," DeLatour said in a presentation during the April 25 Dacula City Council work session. "We're constantly reinventing ourselves and adding new programs." DeLatour has asked that part of his property be rezoned to C-1 to allow for the construction of a drive-through cafe primarily geared toward serving breakfast to the 540 people who bring their children to Great Beginnings on their way to work and lunch for the 65 people employed by the daycare. He would also like to construct a new family activity center which he says would complement Great Beginnings' existing…
Sunday, April 21, 2013
In theory mass transit is wonderful, but in practice it doesn’t seem to work, at least in Gwinnett County.
Monday, April 15, 2013
A country based on a Ponzi scheme tax structure and thousands of pages of regulation, that takes two Philadelphia lawyers to guess at what the correct tax treatment is for any item on the tax return, isn’t long for this world.
Welcome to Tax Day 2013. Was it Mark Twain who said, “There are two sure things in this life: death and taxes?” Let start with the premise, no one likes to pay taxes. Taxes are the necessary inconveniences which supports the services your government provides. In our country at the federal level, we have a progressive tax on the income a person receives. If you make a lot of money, you pay a lot of federal income taxes. On the other hand, if you make little money, you pay less. We are to the point in the United States that about 50 percent of our citizens pay taxes to support federal services for 100 percent of our citizens and residents. Some kinds of income are treated differently from other. Some incomes have special tax treatments. In…
Sunday, April 14, 2013
The Internal Revenue Service says taxpayers who need more time to file shouldn't panic. Some Dacula tax preparers might be able to help.
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Sunday, April 14
Can't file your tax returns by the Monday, April 15, deadline? Extensions are available. Those who haven't finished completing their returns can get an automatic six-month extension. The fastest and easiest way to get the extra time, the IRS says, is through this Free File link — use the free service to electronically request an automatic tax-filing extension on Form 4868. Filing this form gives taxpayers until Oct. 15 to file a return and allows individuals to avoid a late-filing penalty. To get the extension, you must estimate your tax liability and also pay any amount due. Can't pay the full amount you owe the government? Click here to find out about setting up payments. If you need professional help, here are some Dacula-based tax …
Selective hearing might be the best way to describe what is taking place in the political world.
As a parent, we have said to our children: “Are you listening to me?” In the sales world, listening is described as an art. The person who is the best at listening is the top sales person and the most successful in life. I often joke about men developing selective hearing when it comes to responding to what we have heard our wife say. Selective hearing might be the best way to describe what is taking place in the political world. As I talk with lawmakers, I receive the impression they are looking at me and want me to think they are listening, yet when the time comes for them to vote on an issue, they vote the opposite way I had encouraged them to vote. We sit back in wonder as we hear about what is taking place in Washington, where each …
Tommy Hunter
11:08 pm on Saturday, May 18, 2013
Sure wish this got as much attention in the press as any change the BOC might ever propose would. Wonder how high it has to go before it will??? more ›