Tax Free Shopping

I have to question the intelligence of the Georgia Legislature. Of course, them being politicians, they most likely did not have much intelligence going in and being under the "gold dome" has sucked what sense they had left out.

Yesterday was the start of Georgia's annual "tax free" shopping for back to school. Under the plan, electronics (computers, etc), clothes (up to 100.o0 per item) and school supplies are tax free. Now, mom and I went shopping today and it seemed to us where we were that retailers had marked prices UP to compensate for losing the sales tax. I can understand that in today's economy. I don't necessarily agree with it, but being a capitalistic free market society, until Obama and the Democrats have their way, I see their point. Stores are all about making money. This brings me back to the lack of brilliance of Georgia legislators.

The state of Georgia is in the biggest budget crisis it has ever been in since at least the Great Depression. So, in an effort to "save" money, the governor cut school funding and furloughed teachers for three days. He did this LAST TUESDAY!!! Most school systems were forced to take the days during pre-planning so teachers do not get all the time that they deserve to plan. They were not even allowed in the buildings. Now, this does not effect me because I teach at a private school, but I have lots of friends who are public school teachers.

My question to the legislature is this: Why have you not taken pay cuts? Why has the governor and other top officials not been furloughed. What about the Board of Regents, the head football coaches at State Universities that play football. Why have these people not had to take a pay cut. I realize that they feel they are helping families with the savings on sales tax. But, when stores mark up the prices to mark them down, there is no real savings. Truth be told, the only people we are hurting are the children of the state of Georgia. No wonder we are 49th out of 50 in education. The lawmakers in this state need to remember that Teachers are a powerful voting bloc. We got rid of one governor who screwed up education. This one has a term limit but we sure can vote out the legislature.

Ok, that is my rant against the government for today. Tomorrow mom and I are going to the Office Depot Teacher Appreciation Day (always good for free stuff) and to relax before pre-planning starts. Only a few more days of summer left:(