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PAGE 4A BARROW JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2008 Opinions “Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ” - Henry Ward Beecher - Chris Bridges, editor • Email: cbridges@barrowjournal.com our views What we believe T HE OPINION page holds a special place in newspa pers. It is here that ideas are expressed, issues debated and solutions sought for complex prob lems. This debate takes several forms. Columnists express their personal views about local, state, national or international issues. Editorial car toons also express their opinions visually, often with humor and biting sarcasm. Readers also have their space on this page with letters to the editor. Here, readers can debate and dis cuss issues they feel passionately about. Sometimes those views are about politics, sometimes they are about local problems that need to be resolved. And then there’s this column, the newspaper editorial. Here, the newspaper expresses its institutional views about the community and the world. These views are based on a vari ety of sources. Newspapers are unique in that they have represen tatives — reporters — who attend countless public meetings and sift through piles of public documents. Over time, this collection of data builds a body of institutional knowl edge allowing issues large and small to be analyzed. Some believe that newspaper editorials are simply expressions of political dogma. But good editorials are not shrills for a political party or other narrow interests. Good edi torials synthesize information and attempt to frame issues for a deeper, more meaningful debate. Still, everyone brings certain views to the table when they debate pub lic policy issues. This newspaper is no different. There are certain core principals we believe: -We believe in fiscal responsibility of our governments. While many in government give lip service to accountability, some governments do not live up to that. We follow the money and when spending or tax abuses occur, we have no hesitation writing about it. -We believe in leadership for pub lic service, not private gain. Most people involved in community lead ership or public positions do their jobs for the community. But some are mostly self-serving, using their position to further themselves. Those people need to be held account able. -We believe in open government and transparency of pubic actions. While there are some limited legal reasons for closed-door meetings of public officials, sometimes that is abused. The public’s business should be done in public. -We believe in the freedom of speech and the rights of citizens to voice their opinions on public issues. This newspaper certainly doesn’t have all the answers. But we will attempt to explain issues and offer ideas for debate. By providing a wealth of informa tion and a framework for discussion, we believe citizens in Barrow County will be better informed to make the right decisions for our community. The Barrow Journal Winder, Barrow County, Ga. www.BarrowJoumal.com Mike Buffington Co-Publisher Scott Buffington Co-Publisher Chris Bridges Editor Susan Norman Reporter & Web Editor Susan Treadwell Advertising Manager Susan Mobley Office Manager Jeremy Ginn Marketing Manager Jessica Brown Photographer The Barrow Journal 77 East May Street Winder, Georgia 30680 Web Site: www.BarrowJournal.com Email: news@barrowjournal.com Phone: 770-867-NEWS (6397) Fax: 678-425-1435 analysis Three Constitutional Amendments on ballot Next Tuesday, Georgia voters will face three proposed state Constitutional Amendments. All three involve creating special taxing pow ers or districts. Here is an analysis of the three proposals: AMENDMENT 1: Would create a special tax classification for some large tracts of for est. ANALYSIS: Similar to the current conser vation use program, this amendment would allow forest tracts of 200 acres or more to be taxed at a lower rate in return for a non-devel opment contract. Supporters say this would help preserve large tracts of forest that cur rently don’t qualify for the conservation use tax program. Critics say it could harm some school systems by taking tax dollars away. Although the state would be authorized to fill in some of that gap, in this time of austerity that’s unlikely. AMENDMENT 2: Would allow school tax funds to be used for tax allocation districts designed to finance redevelopment projects. ANALYSIS: Earlier this year, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that school tax dollars could not legally be used to help in redevelop ment projects. Locally this affected the Town of Braselton, which is proposing to create a Tax Allocation District (TAD) to redevelop its downtown area. The idea behind TAD proj ects is essentially to “freeze” property taxes on specific tracts destined for redevelopment for a period of years. The idea is to encour age redevelopment in distressed areas. Local school systems have to agree to the deal for it to become effective. AMENDMENT 3: Would allow the creation of special private infrastructure development districts. ANALYSIS: This proposal would, in effect, create private governments for large develop ment projects. These private groups would have the power to incur debt, assess fees (taxes) and to operate infrastructure projects. Local governments would have to approve these districts. ■SWl" HAL10CEN COSTUME IPEAS... WITCH. FRANKENSTEIN. FINANCIAL APWSER. BOO! Who wins, who loses on election day? I DON’T NEED to remind you what next Tuesday is and you’ve probably heard all you ever want to hear about the national race for president. But what about Georgia? The most suspenseful race for Georgians on Nov. 4 is still that Senate battle where Saxby Chambliss is trying to hold off Democrat Jim Martin. This was once an election that looked like an easy win for Chambliss, but over the past month the polling gap between the two candidates has slowly closed. Even with all the TV spots he has been running, Chambliss can’t seem to shake off Martin. The gap has also been closing between Barack Obama and John McCain among Georgia’s voters in the presidential race, although that one is not as close as the Senate race. More African-Americans are going to vote in Georgia than ever before - but will it be enough to pull off a upset in either race? I will predict, without a lot of confidence, that McCain and Chambliss will hold on and carry the state. But I won’t be terribly surprised if I’m wrong. In the congressional races, it’s almost guaranteed that Georgia’s entire House delegation will be reelect ed, just as it was two years ago. The only two districts that were even considered competitive this year are the ones represented by Democrats Jim Marshall and John Barrow, who won their races by razor-thin margins in 2006. Barrow looks a lot safer now. The black vote in his Savannah-to-Augusta district now exceeds 42 percent and he has swamped his Republican opponent, John Stone, in the fundraising arena. Marshall must face a more impressive GOP oppo nent in Rick Goddard, but he still had more than a two-to-one money advantage going into the cam paign’s final weeks. The only hope for Goddard is that enough voters in this middle Georgia district are angry at Marshall for voting in favor of the Wall Street bailout bill. At the legislative level, there will be no change in the General Assembly’s balance of power. Republicans will retain majority control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, primarily because of a big assist from the Democratic Party. There is at least one Senate district and six or more House districts that could have been trouble for Republicans because of this year’s strong Democratic trend. In each of these districts, however, the GOP is assured of winning the seat because the Democratic Party failed to persuade any candidates to qualify. If you took those uncontested but competitive House districts and added to them the four or five Republican-held seats that the GOP leadership con cedes they will probably lose on Nov. 4, that would have put Democrats very close to regaining majority control of the lower chamber. Because of their poor candidate recruiting, Democrats missed a golden opportunity to win legis lative seats in a favorable election cycle they probably won’t see again for 20 or 30 years. House Speaker Glenn Richardson and his Republican colleagues should send a big bouquet of roses to Democratic Party Chair Jane Kidd as thanks for the big favor she did for them. There are a few House races worth watching as the returns come in election night. In Rome, Republican Rep. Katie Dempsey goes against Democrat Bob Puckett in a rematch of race that she won by less than 200 votes in 2006. Rep. Mike Jacobs, who was elected twice as a Democrat by DeKalb County voters before switching parties, is trying to fend off independent candidate Michelle Conlon. Rep. Jill Chambers, whose DeKalb district voted for John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race, has her hands full running against Democrat Chris Huttman. Further south, Rep. Allen Freeman of Macon is in the fight of his life against James “Bubber” Epps, a Democrat who was once the Twiggs County commis sion chairman. Rep. Austin Scott of Tifton is going up against Democrat John Tibbetts for the second election in a row. There are some endangered Democratic incumbents also, such as Rep. Jeanette Jamieson of Toccoa. She won a close race two years ago and the Republicans are trying to knock her out this year with challenger Michael Harden. All of these legislative elections, along with the U.S. Senate race, could swing either way. That’s all the more reason for everyone to get out and vote next week. Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s Georgia Report. He can be reached at tcrawford@ caDitolimDact.net. Future bright for good local newspapers WE’VE all heard in recent months how the economy has taken a nosedive and left many businesses struggling to remain above water. Make no mistake; these are tough times for many people and for many businesses. A variety of factors have played in these overall rough times. Some businesses have managed to hold on despite all the political bickering. If the cards fall right, most will be able to keep their doors open and employees work ing in coming months and years. I certainly hope so. So it may seem strange for a new newspaper to be arriving in Winder and Barrow County at this time. After all, there are already other publications which attempt to cover the area. But there is something a good “hometown” newspaper can offer that other publications will never be able to match. From school events to weddings to covering the local teams, community newspa pers will always have a place in our homes. There are many good things we believe the Barrow Journal can offer readers in Winder and Barrow County. With that in mind, the Barrow Journal begins its odyssey this week. You hold in your hands something special, something unique. You possess the debut issue of a new publication that we believe will fill a void in local news and advertising cover age. Personally, I hope one day this edition will become a collector’s issue. There have been other papers through the years that have attempt ed to do what the Barrow Journal is now working to accomplish. For a variety of reasons, those publica tions are no longer with us. Starting a paper from scratch is not an easy task. It can be daunting. Mainstreet Newspapers, the parent company of the Barrow Journal, is focused on community newspapers. It is not a large news paper chain that purchases publica tions to simply squeeze money out of a community and invest nothing to the community in return. Rather, it is a company that invests in the communities where it publishes newspapers. Most of the staff of the Barrow Journal, including myself, live here. That gives us extra motivation to make this product the best possible and represent us well. We are not here to weasel every cent from the community while not caring about its overall condition. We’re here for the long-haul. We have already established long term roots by purchasing property for our office on East May Street. Our goal today and in the future is simple: To be your primary local community voice. This debut issue is only the start in that direction. We have many things planned for the future in our coverage of Barrow County. We will roll those out as we build this newspaper into one of the state’s finest. We look forward to growing in coming weeks, months and years. We welcome feedback from you, our readers. Let us know what you think of this issue and what you would like to see in future editions. We hope to become a familiar friend, one you look forward to having in your home each week. It’s a lot of work, but anything worthwhile always is. Chris Bridges is editor of the Barrow Journal. He can be contacted at: cbridg- es@barrowjournal. com. ▲ ii chris bridges