Jonesboro City "Lays Off" Employee's

[Wow]

I sure hope the city has a plan to make up lost tax revenue. With the city growing like it is, even in these less than good economic times, we as citizens of this town need to make sure our city government maintains a level of service to meet our needs. Its not real wise for a city to start slashing people that are crucial in our everyday needs of them. I suspect there could always be some fat trimmed here and there, but the mayor says there could be more cuts, and folks, I suspect those next cuts could severely hurt the city in its operation. At best it could place severe work loads on the remaining people left. So whats next? Where will cuts be looked at next? Could it be the SRO cops in schools? Could it be the Jets bus? Could it be a fire station closed? Could it be garbage and street workers? Could it be people in the permit office? Could it be the mayor's assistant? There is a whole host of areas that could be looked at. But the fact is from my understanding some areas are already low manned and they could not sustain a level of service if they received cuts in manpower.

This is pretty serious in my mind. There are two departments in the city that we can not allow to be cut, and that is the departments that serve us in times of emergencies. I look at these departments and the people working in those departments as our local security just like our national security. I do not wish to place them in harms way, by cutting their level of manpower. Politicians have for years always placed our troops whether local or national under less than ideal situtations, by reducing their strength. They are our protection. They live to protect us in dangerous situtations. Cutting any part of them, will place them in higher risk for themselves and most likely us that they protect.

This mayor better really find some inovative funding pretty quick. He claimed to be a finacial wizard, so he better realize there are people in this town who place their safety tops on the list for everything. If not I suspect he want remain like Mr Forman did for very long.

[Guest]

If we had a better business oreintated mayor instead of what we got it could help. Wish Formon was still mayor he seemed legit

[TheObvious]

Guest wrote:

If we had a better business oreintated mayor instead of what we got it could help. Wish Formon was still mayor he seemed legit

YOU have just made the most ignorant post on all of Topix. No doubt YOU are a racist bigot just like Formon. Go hide !

[J-Town Conservative]

yeah, it just wouldn't make sense to cut out expenses at a time when revenues are dropping, huh? Why would we want to try to stay out of bankruptcy? Why not do like California and issue city employees IOU's instead of paychecks, and keep tightening zoning and building regs to encourage more and more citizens and businesses to seek friendlier cities like Paragould. Let's follow the Memphis city formula and continue to tax and regulate all the tax-paying population right out of the Jonesboro city limits. Or the NYC model, where you just keep hiking taxes on the wealthiest people to pay for the riff-raff that doesn't want to work. Those rich people will never move away to somewhere that has lower or no taxes, stick it to em. In the meantime, lets hire more govt employees and give em all raises. The city has all the money it could ever spend, and if not we can find it somewhere. Maybe Obama will bail us out.

[Wow]

J-Town Conservative wrote:

yeah, it just wouldn't make sense to cut out expenses at a time when revenues are dropping, huh? Why would we want to try to stay out of bankruptcy? Why not do like California and issue city employees IOU's instead of paychecks, and keep tightening zoning and building regs to encourage more and more citizens and businesses to seek friendlier cities like Paragould. Let's follow the Memphis city formula and continue to tax and regulate all the tax-paying population right out of the Jonesboro city limits. Or the NYC model, where you just keep hiking taxes on the wealthiest people to pay for the riff-raff that doesn't want to work. Those rich people will never move away to somewhere that has lower or no taxes, stick it to em. In the meantime, lets hire more govt employees and give em all raises. The city has all the money it could ever spend, and if not we can find it somewhere. Maybe Obama will bail us out.

Bullshit! The city has been operating on a one cent sales tax for 15 years... Fricking one cent! Sorry but the free stuff they do for us, is about to come to a end, like the bus system Jets, Free!, Garbage collection, Free!.. Its people like you, that make our schools like Jonesboro suffer because of your living in the 70's mentality. Sorry but it cost money to do stuff in todays time. When gas raises up, guess what, everything else raises up as well. I don't like taxes, but this city has not burdened us with many taxes. Infact the free stuff they have done for us, like Jets and Garbage, is a bonus for many people, that can't afford to have transportation. But its time those things get charged. And a tax for my safety is ok as well.

[dawg]

Well you can bet that the mayors assistant will not be cut. Hey maybe if he didnt have to have three or four new cars a year that could save the city some money. Or just maybe at his salary, he could pay for his own car! I know that the city has provided a vehicle for the Mayor for many years, but if times are bad enough to start cutting jobs then maybe its time to look at eliminating these types of expenses as well. And did I read the paper correctly that these employees will be paid untill the end of the year but are not expected to show up for work. That is a really sound policy, pay them for nothing for two months. I too would not mind if they added a slight sales tax increase. And whoever that was that wants Foreman back, his management was what caused a lot of this mess so why in the world would you want him back.

[guest]

taxes sux trim the fat

[guest]

TheObvious wrote:

<quoted text>
YOU have just made the most ignorant post on all of Topix. No doubt YOU are a racist bigot just like Formon. Go hide !

go back to Hell where you belong HATER! Cooksey STFU.

[J-Town Conservative]

Wow wrote:

<quoted text> Bullshit! The city has been operating on a one cent sales tax for 15 years... Fricking one cent! Sorry but the free stuff they do for us, is about to come to a end, like the bus system Jets, Free!, Garbage collection, Free!.. Its people like you, that make our schools like Jonesboro suffer because of your living in the 70's mentality. Sorry but it cost money to do stuff in todays time. When gas raises up, guess what, everything else raises up as well. I don't like taxes, but this city has not burdened us with many taxes. Infact the free stuff they have done for us, like Jets and Garbage, is a bonus for many people, that can't afford to have transportation. But its time those things get charged. And a tax for my safety is ok as well.

He don't know me very well, do he???

My post was sarcasm dude, google it. Yeah they operate on 1 cent, but the bottom has dropped out of retail, so that 1 cent keeps getting smaller. As far as I'm concerned, those money-pit Jets buses ought to be parked over on the Nebo Auto lot marked "for sale by owner - Make offer" Keep you tax money and call a damn cab.

[chuck]

Wow wrote:

I sure hope the city has a plan to make up lost tax revenue. With the city growing like it is, even in these less than good economic times, we as citizens of this town need to make sure our city government maintains a level of service to meet our needs. Its not real wise for a city to start slashing people that are crucial in our everyday needs of them. I suspect there could always be some fat trimmed here and there, but the mayor says there could be more cuts, and folks, I suspect those next cuts could severely hurt the city in its operation. At best it could place severe work loads on the remaining people left. So whats next? Where will cuts be looked at next? Could it be the SRO cops in schools? Could it be the Jets bus? Could it be a fire station closed? Could it be garbage and street workers? Could it be people in the permit office? Could it be the mayor's assistant? There is a whole host of areas that could be looked at. But the fact is from my understanding some areas are already low manned and they could not sustain a level of service if they received cuts in manpower.
This is pretty serious in my mind. There are two departments in the city that we can not allow to be cut, and that is the departments that serve us in times of emergencies. I look at these departments and the people working in those departments as our local security just like our national security. I do not wish to place them in harms way, by cutting their level of manpower. Politicians have for years always placed our troops whether local or national under less than ideal situtations, by reducing their strength. They are our protection. They live to protect us in dangerous situtations. Cutting any part of them, will place them in higher risk for themselves and most likely us that they protect.
This mayor better really find some inovative funding pretty quick. He claimed to be a finacial wizard, so he better realize there are people in this town who place their safety tops on the list for everything. If not I suspect he want remain like Mr Forman did for very long.

All we can do is pray about this situation! I hope this mayor works out a plan so we can keep all of our emergency personnel! He has done some pretty frivolous spending him self. I also think that the former mayor set the way for this lay off and financial burden.. He was the worst mayor. I hope perrin can fix this soon without anymore layoffs. If not he needs to resign ASAP.

[Mrs Jackson]

dawg wrote:

Well you can bet that the mayors assistant will not be cut. Hey maybe if he didnt have to have three or four new cars a year that could save the city some money. Or just maybe at his salary, he could pay for his own car! I know that the city has provided a vehicle for the Mayor for many years, but if times are bad enough to start cutting jobs then maybe its time to look at eliminating these types of expenses as well. And did I read the paper correctly that these employees will be paid untill the end of the year but are not expected to show up for work. That is a really sound policy, pay them for nothing for two months. I too would not mind if they added a slight sales tax increase. And whoever that was that wants Foreman back, his management was what caused a lot of this mess so why in the world would you want him back.

I agree a sales tax increase would be just fine. you go to other cities in Arkansas and they have a much higher sales tax! So if we need to increase the sales tax to help the citys budget so be it. Please do! The crime in Jonesboro is really growing and we can't afford to loose police and now that the FD are first responders they get grant money for that. We can not loose our police and fire PERIOD!!!

[Wish in one hand]

Mrs Jackson wrote:

<quoted text>I agree a sales tax increase would be just fine. you go to other cities in Arkansas and they have a much higher sales tax! So if we need to increase the sales tax to help the citys budget so be it. Please do! The crime in Jonesboro is really growing and we can't afford to loose police and now that the FD are first responders they get grant money for that. We can not loose our police and fire PERIOD!!!

Say bye bye they next

[Timothy]

Why didn't they just explain the problem and ask the people if they would take a pay-cut instead of them losing their job's.I know I would've took a pay-cut and I know a couple of more people that would to if they could keep their jobs.I'm wondering why the mayor didn't ask this,I'm wondering if he "The Mayor" would take a pay-cut as well.I mean isn't he rich enough.

[America 1st]

Just for the record, it's a 1 PER CENT sales tax, not a 1 cent sales tax as we've been conditioned to believe.

It's not that the city gets a penny for every sale, it's gets 1% of the total sale. An astronomical difference.

I hate it when proponents of tax hikes incorrectly state that it's only one cent when it is one per cent. Let's call it what it is.

Another beef is when people refer to the "Democratic" party. It's the Democrat party, not democratic. The terms were switched so that we subconsciously think that party is more in line with democratic principles when the truth is that they are farthest away.

Okay, I'm done venting my spleen. Please carry on.

[Please explane]

America 1st wrote:

Just for the record, it's a 1 PER CENT sales tax, not a 1 cent sales tax as we've been conditioned to believe.
It's not that the city gets a penny for every sale, it's gets 1% of the total sale. An astronomical difference.
I hate it when proponents of tax hikes incorrectly state that it's only one cent when it is one per cent. Let's call it what it is.
Another beef is when people refer to the "Democratic" party. It's the Democrat party, not democratic. The terms were switched so that we subconsciously think that party is more in line with democratic principles when the truth is that they are farthest away.
Okay, I'm done venting my spleen. Please carry on.

Say I spent 100.00 dollars, what would be the difference in the tax
amount that I would pay? 1 cent vs 1 percent

[guest]

1% of $100.00 is not 1 cent. 1% of $100.00 spent is $1. That's a 99 cent difference.

[guess]

collect money from all the drug dealers. that would really bring in alot of money to keep the city going for a very long time

[guest]

Please explane wrote:

<quoted text>
Say I spent 100.00 dollars, what would be the difference in the tax
amount that I would pay? 1 cent vs 1 percent

1% of $100.00 is $1.00. So the difference on a $100.00 purchase would be $.99.

[Guest]

I know a few hot city employees I would like to "lay on" for a little while.

[business]

its the same old stuff. the city has to be run like a business. period. we cant continue to put people in place who are out of the same mold. the good ole' boys attitude doesnt work any more. same for the council. we have people on there spending hard earned tax dollars who cant even run their own lives. until the corrpt people are out of the picture and cut all the fat, ie, brothers,sisters, cousins and who ever else in the family needs a job, the problem of not enough money will continue. look at all the ditch work a few years back . it wasnt bid out lik eit should of been , someones relatives got that job. this city needs a good flushing. and yes if the city would privatize the trash collection it would save a bunch and the service would be as good.