City is killing its vital tax base

Will Augusta ever learn? Consider the following:

 •  Two-thousand-plus taxpaying families are moving to other counties annually.

 •  What's the difference in raising values or raising the millage rate?

 •  Raising values or millage is like a restaurant that raises prices if business falls off. This causes more people to stop eating at that restaurant, and shortly thereafter the business closes.

 •  Raise values, raise millage rates, run businesses out, taxpaying families move - then the city files for bankruptcy.

Will this continued lack of leadership ruin one of Georgia's oldest cities?

What's the answer? Make Augusta the easiest place to do business. Keep taxes lower by being more efficient. Don't hire more people; just hire better, more productive people and get rid of the dead wood.

Where is the $5.2 million required to evaluate coming from?

I've been told the past 15 years that the assessed values, by state law, must be 100 percent of value. Are you telling us the values are all wrong? I don't think so! With people moving out, taxes going up, businesses moving out and malls closing, how can values go up? The above equals lower values. ...

Cliff Channell, Augusta