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you what we want. We’re not going to take anything else.”

The citizen concluded, “We have decided that this is what we want to do – it’s not your place to decide that we didn’t know what we were talking about.”

Citizen Phillip Patterson began his commented to the Board by explaining that he was a member of a military family that moved to the county 4 months ago. Patterson said that he and his wife are from Georgia originally, but specifically were drawn to Montgomery County upon searching for a new place to call home.

“We could’ve went anywhere, but we wanted to come home [to Georgia]. We picked this spot because it felt like what we grew up in – it felt small. It felt like somewhere for my daughter to grow up in, to make a family, to meet people, and to have a community – something we haven’t had in 22 years. And I will give you this – you live up to expectation. She’s done really well here, she’s enjoyed her time in this school system, and all those things that matter are the people,” he said.

Patterson continued, commenting on the school’s budget. “We have a lot of stuff on there that’s fluff – things that we’re afraid to lose, things that if we lose them, our kids aren’t going to get the best education and all these things. I’ll tell you in the 8 times that my daughter has moved, her education hasn’t mattered a hill of beans whether or not what you did. It mattered what we did as parents, it mattered our support to her, it mattered us selling something to her to wanting her to make herself want to be better,” he told the board.

As a 3rd generation military member, Patterson said that he had learned that freedom and democracy did not always have positive outcomes, but was important to be upheld. “You have to take the good with the bad. Sometimes, freedom’s good; sometimes, freedom’s not. It just is what it is, but we’re free,” he explained. “What about this sounds free to you? That I have to come to you after we made a choice and have to sell you on what we made a choice about.”

He told the Board that throughout his world travels, he had learned that you can judge a country by how it treats the elderly, as he emphasized that this legislation was passed specifically with the elderly in mind, and stressed that these senior citizens and taxpayers deserved a break.

“You’re asking us to trust you with our future but you don’t want to trust everybody’s future that we voted for to the state. That’s kind of crazy that I have to trust you, but you don’t trust them,” he remarked.

Citizen Shawn Shein echoed many of the speakers’ sentiments, as she told the Board to accept the exemption and raise the millage rate if needed because keeping the millage rate had helped ease the tax burden but would not help taxpayers as much as the exemption would.

Citizen William Parten was the last to speak, as he told the Board that if they chose to opt out of the exemption, he would ensure that there would be consequences. “I will work to see that y’all won’t be on the board any longer,” Parten said.

He explained that he is a senior citizen who has lived in the county for the past 20 years, but only lives off of retirement payments that were based on costs from 25 years ago. He says these payments have not increased to keep up with inflation, but his property taxes recently increased from around $1,500 to $2,300 with recent assessments. “I cannot afford all these increases,” Parten emphasized.

Next Hearing

The Board will hold their last public forum to hear the concerns of the citizens at 6 p.m. on Friday, January 31, in the Board Room of the Montgomery County Board of Education. All individuals wishing to address the Board should sign up prior to the hearing on the speaker sign-in sheet, which is located near the entrance of the Board Room.