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4A WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2006 Mcnxstan iiatly djmmrni OPINION Daniel F. Evans Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President Don Moncrief Managing Editor We're No. 1 Here’s some more good news for the state. According to a report released Monday by renowned economist Arthur Laffer, Georgia’s eco nomic outlook now ranks first in the nation. Not only is that impressive in its own right but equally moving is the fact that in 2002 we were ranked 24 th . Laffer reached his conclusion via the Laffer Curve, a model which illustrates the theory that cutting taxes in certain situations can lead to an increase in economic activity and government revenue. His annual study is a seven-cat egory analy sis that com pares state tax and fiscal policies. Georgia’s success, Laffer con cluded, is credited in large part “to its commitment to reducing the tax bur den on its citizens and businesses over the past four years.” He also praised Georgia’s 2005 decision to determine porporate income taxes based on sales lalone, a move that he predicts might save businesses SIOO million annually. (Note: Last November, Site Selection magazine also ranked Georgia’s business climate as the third best in the nation.) “I am proud of the progress we have made the over past four years,” said Gov. Sonny Perdue in the release, “by reduc ing taxes and strengthening our econo my. The report reaffirms what Georgians already know - that Georgia is a great place to live and do business.” We in Houston County can certainly second that. We’ve evidence of strong growth on almost every street corner and now there’s significant proof that maybe we’re on the right track in plenty of regards. Did you vote? Hopefully you did. Hopefully you realized how monumentally important it was. You - and we - began the first step of many in deter mining what our future will look like in the process. Here’s hoping everybody cast their lot in that regard. WORTH REPEATING “We can not subscribe to one law for the weak and another law for the strong; one law for us, another for our opponents.” Dwight David Eisenhower, 1890-1969 34th President of the United States HOW TO SUBMIT LETTERS We encourage readers to submit letters to the editor. Letters should not exceed 350 words and must include the writer’s name, address and telephone number. All letters printed in The Home Journal will appear with the writer’s name and hometown - we do not publish anonymous letters. The news paper reserves the right to edit or reject letters for reasons of grammar, punctuation, taste and brevity. Letter writers are asked to submit no more than one letter per person per week. We cannot guarantee that a letter will be printed on a specific date. The Home Journal prefers that letters be typed. Letters to the editor are published in the order they are received as space permits. A Journal employee will call to verify the author of each letter. There are three ways to submit a letter to the editor: E-mail it to hhj@evansnewspapers.com, mail it to The Houston Home Journal at P.O. Box 1910, Perry, GA 31069, or drop it off at 1210 Washington St. in Perry - between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Foy S. Evans Editor Emeritus Laffer reached his conclusion via the Laffer Curve, a model which illustrates the theory that cutting taxes in certain situations can lead to an increase in economic activity and government revenue. His annual study is a seven-category analysis that compares state tax and fiscal policies. Open government doesn't impact There should be no con flict with open govern ment and industrial recruiting in Georgia. Many economic develop ers believe Georgia’s open records laws hamper their efforts to bring jobs to their communities. They cite spe cific examples of being asked by industrial prospects to sign nondisclosure agree ments when prospects don’t want their name mentioned or their interest in moving a plant known to the public until they feels it’s proper. Many feel media intrusion conflicts with this require ment. Economic developers believe if the interest is made public too soon, other states can peer into the negotiations, find out what incentives the community is offering and use this knowl edge to make counter offers and steal the industry away. The economic developers with whom I have spoken understand the public has the right to see what tax concessions for roads, infra structure, demographics, traffic or waste disposal are offered before the deal is signed by local governments. But they want the right to negotiate in secret and then make details available to the public before the up or down vote by the elected govern ment agency. To them, it’s a matter of timing. Media interests feel they should be able to report any government activ ity, anytime, anywhere. The recent court battle between What is effect of new chHd support law? Dear Mr. Rockefeller, I have been paying child support for the past three years for my two sons. I was wondering how this new child support law I have heard about might affect me? Dear Reader, I cannot answer your question in one column, so once again, I will do so in two parts. This is a good question and any one receiving or paying child support should endeavor to figure out how these changes might affect their particular situation. I suppose the most impor tant message I can convey is that the old child sup port rules no longer exist. Frankly, I am not entire ly sure what the rules are until Jan. 1, 2007, when the new rules take affect, as the Georgia Legislature repealed the old rules as of July 1, and did nothing to address this “limbo” period. Presumably, judges (and juries) will be guided by the old rules until Jan. 1, 2007. But, come Jan. 1, 2007, the new rules will assuredly be used. These new rules really look nothing like the old ones - hence, my strong suggestion to educate your self. What they contemplate is that child support will be awarded starting with a rather complicated table Neely Young Editor / Publisher Georgia Trend Central Atlanta Progress (CAP) and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and The Atlanta Journal- Constitution and the Georgia Attorney General regarding bids for the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the 2009 Super Bowl brought this issue to a head. Last year, the AJC was denied documents relat ing to the bids and asked for a ruling from Attorney General Thurbert Baker, who issued an opinion that the documents should be made public. Both institutions, CAP and the Metro Chamber, refused and the Attorney General brought suit. The issue made its way to the Georgia Court of Appeals, which held for Baker. The court ruled that the purpose of the Open Records Act should be broadly construed to encourage public access. The court case made it look like “the media” won a great victory, and Georgia’s economic development com munity lost a major tool for attracting new industry to the state. Yet this perception M I really hate global warming..." Jim Rockefeller Columnist ajr@rockefellerlawcenter.com based on the number of chil dren and the combined gross income of both parents. This table sets a child “cost” correlating to the number of children and this corresponding gross income. Each parent is presumed to pay a “pro rata” share for this presumed cost of rear ing each child; this share is calculated from each par ent’s “pro rata” contribu tion towards their combined gross income. Let’s take a broad exam ple. Let’s say there are two children, the mother (the “custodial” parent) earns $2,000 per month, and the father (non-custodial parent) earns $3,000 per month. In this case, the parents’ com bined gross income is $5,000 per month, the mother’s income is responsible for two-fifths of this amount (or 40 percent) and the father’s income is responsible for 1 " is incorrect. No one won or lost anything, because the Open Records Act already provides exemptions so developers can negotiate out of the public eye, and also it gives public access before the deal is finalized by local and state governments. In the NASCAR case, the prospect’s identity was already known, because this was a highly publicized competition among several major U.S. cities. But, if a local development authority, or the state’s Department of Economic Development wishes to keep the identity of an industrial prospect secret, all that’s required under current practice is that the prospect not be identified in any documented record until the parties wish the identity to be made public. Industrial developers have also taken the approach of not documenting a prospect’s actual name, but referring to it by a color or a number until it’s time for disclosure. Industrial prospects can work with the government via a third party, such as an attorney or real estate i|: ■■ M. • ’IF vS; 1 s I three-fifths of this amount (or 60 percent). The child cost figure from the table is $1,297 - meaning that the father would be required to pay the mother $778.20 per month (60 percent of this child cost) as a “basic child support obligation”. Uninsured medical expenses would be split on this same 60/40 basis, in addition to this child support obliga tion. Under the old guidelines, the father would probably have been required to pay 25 percent of his monthly income to the mother in child support, or $750 per month; typically, the unin sured medical expenses would have been split on a 50/50 basis. So, under this scenario, the father’s child support obligations would actually increase a fairly sig nificant amount. Let’s flip the numbers (or HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL recruiting agent, so the principal busi ness entity ’s name isn’t dis closed in a document until time for piiblic approval. This explanation of the Georgia Open Records Act is meant to clear up any confusion that gives the impression that the media is against job formation and recruitment of industry in our state. We in the media want Georgia’s economic developers to be successful. We’re cheering them on, and want to report their suc cesses. We live in an open and free society. Ahy special conces sions from state and local governments should be open to the taxpaying public. The current law provides eco nomic developers methods to keep talks with prospects private, ahd it also makes them open to public at a proper time. With a few exceptions, Georgia has prospered and successfully recruited indus tries under the current law. In fact, Atlanta’s loss of the NASCAR facility had noth ing to do with open records. Atlanta lost to Charlotte before the appeals court decision. There should be no con flict between open govern ment and industrial recruit ing. It has not occurred in the past, and it should not in the future, Neely Young is edi tor in chief and pub lisher of Georgia Trend. Contact him via e-mail at publisher @georgiatrend. com. switch custody), so that the primary Urage earner is also the custodial parent. In this case, the non-cus todial parent’s income is $2,000 ahd under the old guidelines, using the 25 per cent figure, would have been ordered to pay SSOO per month in child support. But, under the new guidelines, 40 percent of $1,297.00 is $518.80. With a 60/40 split on uninsured costs, this par ent probably has almost the same resiilt under the new guidelines as before. There are some other significant changes to how child support is determined in Georgia. Next week, I will touch on them. Despite the minimal change shown by my calculations above, the affect an.? of these changes have on a specific family will vary froiii case-to-case, and all factors need to be con sidered. Warnet Robins attorney Jim Rockefeller is the for mer Chief Assistant District Attorney for Houston County, and a former Florida State Attorney. Owner of Rockefeller Law Cenler, Jim has been in private practice since 2000. E-mail your comments or confidential legal questions to ajr@rockefellerlawcenter. com.