Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Why does Solicitor Harris get a free car?

The taxpayers of Fayette County have always been asked to pay more and more in taxes every year in order to maintain struggling county and municipal budgets. Justifications have been heard over and over again, from growing need for additional services to a new courthouse to more police to fight crime in order to keep Fayette County safe. And we complain and we holler, but in the end we pay.

But I personally have had enough of the rampant hypocrisy which exudes from every pore of many of our elected officials whose collective motto must be, "Do as we say, not as we do."

Everyday our elected Solicitor General Steve Harris gets in his government-issued vehicle and drives himself from his home to work, to lunch, to run his errands, and then back home. Who pays for his transportation costs?

Well, who do you think? All of us who pay taxes in this county pay for it.

Why is it that the IRS prohibits any of us to deduct from our taxes the use of an automobile if we are commuting to and from work, and yet, Mr. Harris can be seen arriving to the spanking new Fayette County Judicial Center every day in his taxpayer-paid-for car? Why does he go home every afternoon in this same car?

Give me a break! What in the world does a Solicitor General need a car in the evening for? Do the judges get this perk? How about the county commissioners?

I'm sick of these wolves-in-lambs-clothing who dare to call themselves Republicans.

Around election time, they dance around preaching the evils of big government and government waste to get their precious votes, but once in office they slide into their big corner offices and drive their county-issued cars all over town while the rest of us suckers have to pay not only for our own transportation costs but also theirs! Real Republicans would never accept such a wasteful government benefit!

We paid for their new courthouse with new huge offices for the solicitor general and all the judges. We paid for their new jail to house the masses they’re arresting lately. We are now paying for a renovation of the sheriff’s facilities. But we are not going to pay for your free commute every day!

Unless, maybe, and just maybe, we all get brand-new county cars to drive to and from work too. And this time, those hypocrites in office can pay OUR way!

Charles Myers

Fayetteville, Ga.