In case your interested, on Friday the Georgia Senate voted to kill the Homestead Tax Relief Grant for the coming year.

No big surprise there, right?  The state needs to balance its housing bubble-induced budget, so the $428 million saved should help.  We all pay a couple extra hundred bucks on our property taxes, but hey whatcha gonna do?

However, since most people won’t be thinking “Hey, whatcha gonna do?” when they see they gotta pay hundreds more in property taxes in a crappy economy, the senators at the GA capital are looking for ways to cover their behinds from angry taxpayers.

And who better to hide behind than local governments?!

So, on the same day that the Senate voted to nix HTRG, they also voted to increase the homestead exemption from $2,000 to $4,000, decreasing the amount of tax revenue sent to local governments already struggling to balance their individual budgets.

So, that means your local government will be in the unenviable position of choosing between cutting services and raising taxes right after the state has already done it by eliminating HTRG!  Hooray!

So, when you’re looking to spread the blame this coming year,  make sure to save a little extra for your state legislator.

UPDATE: From Ebay…Opening Day is now set for Monday, so the first pint is Monday at 5pm. We have looked for a way to work with a 501(c)3 to make this donation tax deductible, but have been advised that is not going to happen. We can issue a letter saying this is charitable giving, but that the recipient does not have non-profit status. You would have to work with your accountant/tax professional and decide how to proceed on your own.

In the last 10 minutes of bidding, the price for the honor of downing the first pint at Leon’s Full Service jumped $1,000 and ended at an impressive $2,650.

Two bidders, r***7 and p***a, drove the price skyward in the final minutes of the auction, with r***7 taking it in the end.

Who is r***7? Leon’s is scheduled to open to the public Monday, so we shall soon know. If/when I get details on the event, I will post here.

Congrats to r***7! And to Daren Wang and the BSP boys, who came up with an ingenious way of raising additional funds for Trackside/5th Earl employees.

Cheers all!