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Thoughtful. Independent. Visionary. A fiscal conservative. Each is a term that has been used to describe DeKalb County Commissioner Elaine Boyer. The Republican has represented District 1, encompassing North DeKalb including Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Tucker and Smoke Rise, for the past 14 years. Next year Boyer will become the longest-serving member on the DeKalb Board of Commissioners. Boyer is crusader for some basic tenets in governing DeKalb: reducing the size of government; limiting the tax burden on residents; promoting personal responsibility; and protecting our traditional families and liberties. Prior to each vote cast, Boyer reviews proposals to see if they meet that litmus test. This is a mark of a true conservative - one who seeks to get government out of the way of the consumer, the businessman, the entrepreneur. For years, Boyer has been the lone voice against raising taxes on DeKalb citizens. She has fought - and, unfortunately lost - as others have voted to spend the county's penny sales tax known as HOST instead of using 100 percent of the funds for tax relief. Boyer has voted against back-door property tax hikes as well as millage increases, both which drive up the cost for homeowners to remain residents of DeKalb. She has been an outspoken critic of the CEO when he has expanded government services into areas Boyer believes can be best handled by the private sector. At the same time, she has advocated for neighborhoods while balancing the rights of property owners and promoting growth. A small business owner, Commissioner Boyer believes county government should be run like a business. But without a Republican majority, commissioners in the past and present have enacted policies against her wishes to expand the number of county employees, services and expenditures. One thing you can't dispute about Commissioner Boyer: she sticks to her principles. As a veteran commissioner, she believes it is important to stand up for what the voters elected her to do: advocate for her 120,000 constituents and others in DeKalb. Boyer is a lifelong Republican, having grown up in Clarkston. She currently resides in Smokerise with her husband of 28 years, John Boyer, and their two teenage daughters, Sarah and Rebecca. The girls attend DeKalb County schools. The Boyer family is actively involved at Grace Fellowship Church. Not only is Commissioner Boyer a veteran of local politics, she worked in the campaigns of 4th District Congressional candidate John Mitnick and Clint Day, a one-time candidate for lieutenant governor. During her last election in 2004, she won with 65 percent of the vote. Elaine Boyer, the type of commissioner all of Georgia could use.
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