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Page 4A The Braselton News Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Opinion “Difference of opinion leads to enquiry, and enquiry to truth ” -Thomas Jefferson letters Says turn to God for rain our views Hoschton needs to cut police budget NEXT WEEK, the Hoschton City Council is slat ed to take up further discussion about the town’s 2008 budget. That will be an important issue since Hoschton finds itself in a financial mess owing to poor budget planning for 2007. Next year, the budget has to be right. There is no room for error this time around. Crossed-fingers and guesswork aren’t good enough to pull the city out of its financial hole. That’s why town officials need to take quick and dramatic action to get spending under control, both for the balance of 2007 and for next year. There’s really only one way to do that — make a dramatic cut in the city police department. Like many small towns, the police department makes up a large percentage of Hoschton’s total spend ing, around 45-55 percent of the town’s general fund. That’s simply too much. Hoschton can’t absorb that kind of expense in one department and expect to have any funds for other needs. While cutting Hoschton’s police funding may at first appear draconian, it really isn’t. According to data from the Georgia Department of Communi ty Affairs, small towns the size of Hoschton (pop. 1,000-2,500) have an average general fund bud get of $813,500 of which police is only $280,900 of that total (2006 data.) Now look at Hoschton’s 2007 amended budget — currently $484,000 is for police expenses out of a total budget of $800,000 in the general fund. Based on DCA data, Hoschton’s police budget should be more in the line of $260,000-$280,000, not nearly half-a-million dollars. That’s a lot less than what’s being spent today, but it’s more realistic for a town the size of Hoschton. If Hoschton officials are serious about getting a handle on the town’s financial problems, they will have to make some difficult choices, one of which should be to cutback on the town’s law enforce ment expenses. The Braselton News A Publication of The Jackson Herald & Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc. Mike Buffington Editor & Co-Publisher mike @ mainstreetnews.com 706-367-5233 Scott Buffington Co-Publisher & Advertising Manager scott@mainstreenews.com 706-367-5233 Angela Gary Managing Editor angie @ mainstreetnews.com 706-367-2490 Kerri Testement News Editor kerri@mainstreetnews. com 706-367-5986 Jeremy Ginn Advertising jeremy@mainstreetnews. com 706-367-5990 Web Site: braseltonnews.com Classified Advertising classifieds @ mainstreetnews.com PO Box 908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549 General Phone: 706-367-5233 Dear Editor: As citizens, I believe we are wise to ask in these times of modern technology and human ingenuity how we have arrived at such a critical water short age with so little warning. We are also justified to expect government authorities to impose water restrictions and strict conservation measures to make the available water last as long as possible. Your editorial for this past week closed, “Plan for the worst, hope for the best and let the public know what’s going on every step of the way. That’s what government is all about.” Plenty of folks seem to have taken responsibility for the “plan for the worst” aspect of this drought. I’d like to offer some suggestions regarding the “hope for the best” aspect. One aspect of our “hope for the best” strategy is the hope and belief that our neighbors in our community, in our town and throughout the county are taking this drought every bit as seriously as we are and that we all are now practicing conser vative water use in our homes. Make no mistake - regardless of the outcome we are in this drought together as a community. We can choose to be individualistic and selfish, or we can choose to be communal and selfless. Our hope is that most if not all choose the latter. Another aspect of our “hope for the best” strate gy is that our local, state and federal officials might find a way to extend our water resources a little bit beyond the current projections while we wait and hope for the much anticipated and needed rain. But if no additional rain falls, sometime in Janu ary 2008, our home water pipes will run dry. And therein truly lies the crux of this crisis. From where will the much needed rain come? For some, the answer seems to be found in expecting and hoping that mother nature will pro vide the rain. If we believe that rainfall is simply a random act or consequence of the forces of nature, then all we can really do is wait and hope that those forces will meet our needs. For others, including myself, the answer and the preferred “hope for the best” strategy is expecting and hoping that God will bless us with the much needed rain, or possibly more miraculously (at least in our eyes) pouring out the much needed water from the springs of the earth. Or perhaps God has some solution men have yet to even pon der or consider. If we believe our water is divinely provided, then we wait and hope that God will provide. I won’t be either so bold or so foolish as to sug gest that this drought is some kind of punishment or condemnation from God. Nor will I be so bold or so foolish to blame God for this water shortage. All I can truly do is evaluate what part I may have played in this crisis. I have always used water out of the faucet like it was coming from a never-ending supply ... no more. Perhaps there are things God would have each of us learn about Him and about ourselves in the midst of the trials of this drought. Perhaps not. As Jesus taught, our Father in heaven knows our every need. His desire is not that we worry about ‘What will we drink?’ or even about what tomorrow holds. His desire is that when we find ourselves in the midst of such a crisis that we will place our faith or trust in Him and in His provision for us and for our needs. I truly believe that in the midst of this drought, God would have us turn our hearts to Him and lift our voices individually and together in prayer for the much needed rain. Perhaps those prayers begin in an early morning or late evening quiet time. Some of these prayers could be offered up in the midst of a drive to work. Maybe they are offered up together with our children at bedtime. Perhaps our requests are lifted up as a family over dinner. Or maybe in a neighborhood gathering we share our needs in prayer. Or perhaps we take a few minutes with co-workers and seek God’s pro vision. And then it moves into our church families, our communities, our towns and all of Jackson County. Hopefully one day soon, we will find ourselves a bit stronger for coming through this crisis, we will find our lakes and reservoirs filling or full once again and we will join together in thanksgiving and praise to the God who heard and answered our prayers. Sincerely, Bernie Webb Hoschton A new driver at the wheel IT’S NOT exactly what you would call a strong mandate. The State Transporta tion Board voted by only a 7-6 margin last week to select Gena Lester Abraham as the next commissioner of the Department of Transportation, which means she will be the first woman ever to hold that important position. Whether she will end up loving the job or hating it is another matter. Georgia is hopelessly behind on dealing with its traffic congestion and legislators tend to blame DOT for not working quickly enough to get highways built. Some lawmakers, like Speaker Glenn Richardson, are also very displeased that the Transportation Board members picked Abraham instead of state Rep. Vance Smith, who badly wanted the appointment. Abraham has the academic credentials (a doctorate in civil engineering) and the experience (she has been in charge of state government construction projects for several years) that would be essential for a position like DOT commissioner. Gov. Sonny Perdue backed her because he and her other supporters feel she can bring about a cultural change in the enormous bureaucracy that has run the DOT for so many years. She does present a contrast to past commissioners, who were either career engineers moving up the DOT ladder or political cronies of the governor. Abraham has never worked as a DOT employee and she isn’t limited by any allegiance to departmental traditions. While it was Perdue who lobbied the Trans portation Board members to appoint her, she actually got her first job in state government when she was hired during the Roy Barnes administration to oversee the renovation work on the state capitol. Obviously, Abraham can bring a new way of looking at things as she takes con trol of the massive department that has nearly 6,000 engineers and employees on its payroll. It probably wouldn’t hurt to look at DOT’S established procedures and see if there aren’t any better and faster ways for a highway to be designed, paid for, and built. Will a shakeup in the DOT culture be enough to deal with the traffic congestion crisis that threatens, along with the water shortages, to choke the life out of the state’s economy? There are some people who contend that the only problem with DOT is that it operates inefficiently in carrying out its mission of building our roads and bridges. By naming someone with a new approach to running the department, like Abra ham, they say that DOT can save all sorts of money that can be used to pay for additional new highways without anyone having to raise taxes. That might not be enough. Even if you assume, for the sake of argument, that Abraham is such a skilled leader she can squeeze an additional 10 percent out of the department’s budget through better management, you’re talking about $200 million in extra funding at most (DOT spends about $2 billion a year). If she could save that much money in administrative costs, that would be great for the taxpayers. It would make barely a dent, however, in the funding shortfall that Georgia faces in the area of transportation infrastructure. To build enough highways to cope with current and projected traffic congestion, Georgia would need about $7 billion to $8 billion more than it figures to bring in under the existing tax structure over the next decade, according to transportation experts. Even if the state should decide that mass transit is a better alternative than building new highways, it would still cost billions of dollars to buy buses and install commuter rail facilities. Abraham’s an intelligent person who knows the construction trade, but she’s no miracle worker. She can’t make billions of dollars suddenly materialize out of nowhere. If they really want to deal with Georgia’s traffic mess, our political leadership is going to have to give up the idea that we can solve all our problems if we just cut taxes some more. Highways cost money. Transit systems cost money. Govern ments can only raise money by levying taxes. The governor and the legislature are going to have to make some hard decisions in that area. Traffic congestion is out of control - the evidence is there for anyone with the eyes to see it - and eventually we’re going to have to pay for some kind of solu tion. There’s no such thing as free asphalt. The greatest DOT commissioner in the world couldn’t escape that basic economic fact. Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s Georgia Report, an Internet news site at www.gareport.com that covers government and politics in Georgia. An ‘old’ saying about age I’M NOT that old - really, I’m not old. I’m a year shy of 30. I haven’t been conscious of my age since 21 - when I could officially buy alcohol. Before that, I was aware of my age when I turned 18 and could cast a vote. And before that, it was 16 when someone could give me keys to a car and I could drive myself and my friends around town. Heck, I even remember being 11-years-old and telling my friends I had five years until I turned 16 and that means I don’t have to listen to my parents anymore - I could get in my car and drive away if I didn’t agree with them. Oh, how age changes you. Last weekend, James and I went to a haunted house in At lanta that we last visited seven years ago. That was before we had our college degrees, before we started our careers, before we got married and before we had a baby. Seven years ago, we stood in that long line with the thousands of high school and college kids - we blended in with the crowd. But approaching the age of 30 - and standing in that same line with the younger crowd - we couldn’t help but notice our age. We’re not old that old - really, we’re not that old. I couldn’t even enjoy the haunt ed house like in my younger days. Instead of being scared out of my wits, I found myself analyzing the logistics of the haunted house. I wondered how many people worked there, what kind of profit margin they have and how much they paid for that big prop that’s supposed to scare me. A few weeks ago, I was talk ing with a co-worker about “all of those youngsters.” “All of those youngsters?” Geez, that’s a comment my grandpar ents would make - but not me, I’m not that old. Also, I now find myself actually paying attention to commercials promoting anti-wrinkle creams. I don’t have any wrinkles - really, I don’t. But am I approaching that age where I’m willing to pay $30 for a moisturizer that promises a youthful appearance? That’s something my mom would worry about - but not me, I not that old. I once made the comment to a senior attending doctor at the hospital that it was weird that in terns and residents - doctors now younger than me - take part in my daughter’s medical care. I’ve always had this image in my mind of how “old” doctors “should be.” “Oh, you think it’s weird now, wait a few years,” the attending doctor said. “I was like a ‘Doogie Howser’ during my residency, but I aged really fast.” That’s the funny thing about age and how it really does follow that “old” saying - you're only as old as you feel. Kerri Testement is news editor of The Braselton News. Her e-mail address is kerri@mainstreetnews. com. Keri Teste ment kerri@mainstreet- news.com