Newspaper Page Text
♦ TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2006
4A
Mxm&tan Gaily; .IJoarttal
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
President
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Group Marketing
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
Small is big
The latest Georgia Small Business
Profile was released by the Office of
Advocacy recently.
The office, according to its own release,
documents the number and type of busi
nesses, ownership demographics includ
ing minority and women-owned statistics,
employment
and financ
ing data, and
other business
information.
Here are
some figures/
information
it released:
In 2005, an
estimated
813,100, or
97.8 percent,
of the state’s
businesses
were small (fewer than 500 employees). They
employed 1,549,208 workers, and in the lat
est year studied, they created 71,096 (net)
new jobs for Georgia.
Women-owned firms totaled 196,195 and
they generated S3O billion in revenues.
Moreover, there were 18,310 Hispanic
owned firms, 90,461 Black-owned firms and
26,916 Asian-owned firms.
According to the office’s research, small
business created 60 to 80 percent of the net
new jobs in our economy.
That’s all good news, and information
apparently not lost on Houston County
planners.
If you take a drive around the county,
you’ll find a multitude of small businesses
already established and just as important,
that available office space for small busi
nesses is at a premium.
In fact, a lot of it we’ve noted is in brand
new complexes just begging to be occupied.
Small businesses are a crucial part of job
growth and our economic growth in our
state and our community.
We tip our hats to those who were smart
enough to realize that ahead of time.
Letter to the Editor
Perry on right track
As a member of the “vocal group of advocates”
who has been pressing for implementation of impact
fees to assist in providing infrastructure caused by
rapid development in our county, I am extremely
pleased to witness the actions of Perry City Council.
I congratulate the mayor and members of council for hav
ing the courage to provide an additional revenue source
to meet their growing needs without the necessity of
relying upon tax increases and property re-assessments
of current city residents.
The implementation of impact fees is a respon
sible and correct response to provide expanded ser
vices to future residents without levying charges
upon existing residents, who have neither request
ed nor will benefit from residential development.
Impact fees simply provide a financial source to provide
resources necessary to meet service demands. Builders
and developers are reaping much financial gain from
their enterprises.
To expect that any residual effect of their develop
ments be borne by current residents, who have not asked
for and will not benefit from development is unreason
able. Developers and builders will simply pass on what
ever impact fee is charged to the eventual home buyer.
Developers argue that impact fees will “put a damper
on home sales and, consequently, the prosperity in our
county that is fueled by subdivisions”. That is pure
hogwash! People are moving to this county because of
perceived value to be derived by doing so. Typically, fami
lies are moving here for our school system. Whatever the
reason, there is a monetary value that can be attached to
it and it will not dissuade prospective immigrants from
purchasing homes in our county. The “prosperity” to
which developers mention is the increasing value of their
bank accounts. County taxpayers are being taken to the
cleaners.
When a family with two school age children move
to our county, the county will have invested some
$40,000 in providing education to those children
before any tax revenue is received from that fam
ily. Needless to say, there are other costs of provid
ing governmental services that will be incurred prior
to the family’s first full tax payments to the county.
Within a two hour drive of our county is a community
that does not charge impact fees. Instead, they use a stan
dard established by the ICC for deriving the
See LETTER, page §A
Audrey Evans
Vice President
Marketing!Advertising
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
Women-owned firms
totaled 196,195 and
they generated S3O
billion In revenues.
Moreover, there were
18,310 Hispanlc-owned
firms, 90,461 Mack
owned firms and 26,916
Asian-owned firms.
Random pre-hoMay thoughts
Getting some everyday thoughts
out of the way before Christmas
and the holidays overwhelm us
all:
■ Wasn’t it a hoot to read that three
women showed up at a White House
party wearing the same $8,500 gown as
First Lady Laura Bush? Two angles to
this story. Isn’t it absurd that anyone
will pay $8,500 for a dress? Women
wearing dresses that cost much less
are horrified if someone else shows up
with one like theirs. Wouldn't it have
been fun to be a bug on the wall at the
White House that evening?
■ When you read that the federal
government or some businesses say
they are “working toward color blind
ness” you know darn well that they are
using code words so that they can not
be color blind.
■ The commission that has told
President Bush how to get out of the
mess in Iraq said that he should get
Iran and Syria to help him. Can you
imagine either of those countries help
ing him when everything already is
going exactly the way they want it to?
■ How many years has it been since
ponds and lakes in this area froze over?
I remember playing golf at Sandy Run
Golf Club back in the ’sos and ’6os
when lakes there froze over almost
every winter. Thomas E. McMinn Jr.
can tell you about the time an oppo
nent’s golf ball bounced off the ice on
number 2 hole and wound up a few
inches from the cup, giving him an
easy birdie.
■ I’m amazed at the schedule County
Christmas bells toll for world in crisis
While public opinion is all over
the board as to what is or is
not the most important issue
to Americans, I argue that, for the first
time, a series of foreign and domestic
happenings are converging at once and
threaten our nation as never before.
Let’s start at home. We all know
that illegal immigration, in most polls,
remains a hot domestic topic. That’s
understandable. Yet even as that drama
unfolds, the very underpinnings of our
economy slowly erode.
Some of us are vaguely aware that
the value of the U.S. dollar continues
to slip. Fewer know that the situa
tion is actuated by an unholy - and
unwritten “alliance” with China.
That nation backs our currency by pur
posely manipulating their own money
and guaranteeing ours through an
imbalance of trade.
The profitable business flows one
way, to China. Worse, the long-term
stability of the dollar rests in the
hands of an emerging superpower that,
alone among nations, has the poten
tial to truly rival America as a world
superpower. The value of our cur
rency potentially could be reduced to
the value of the paper it’s printed on,
depending on the whims of Beijing.
At the same time, reports that the
housing slump may be ending soon
are probably wishful thinking. In fact,
a new chapter in that book may be in
the writing. A crash of the Sunbelt’s
crazed condominium fever could be the
next real-estate crisis.
Take a drive through downtown
Miami, Tampa, Atlanta and other
growth cities of the region. You’ll
see little beyond construction cranes
and derricks dotting the skyline. But
though they number in the thousands,
there are no longer thousands of people
to live in them.
OPINION
"It's OK that they still believe in Santa Claus.
What's scary is when they think we're him!"
Foy
Evans
Columnist
loyevansl9@cox.net
Commissioner Tom McMichael keeps.
Several days a week he is at a gym
nasium working out at 6 a.m. Then
he deals with several jobs, most of
them free, and winds up his day at
some meeting. He’s no spring chicken,
though he acts like one.
■ Weren’t the Eagles and Demons
players and fans lucky that they got
to play their football playoff games in
the comfortable Georgia Dome instead
of outside in the bitter cold weather.
Hopefully, next Saturday night will
bring some more bearable weather for
Northside players and spectators.
■ Question: Do you really believe
that female sports writers have any
business in football locker rooms after
games?
■ Has it ever occurred to you that
the quickest way for a politician to end
his or her career is to tell the truth
on hot issue subjects? We say we want
them to tell us the truth, but we’ll kick
them out of office if they don’t tell us
what we want to hear instead of the
unvarnished truth.
■ A friend asked, “Why doesn’t
Warner Robins go ahead and annex
Matt
Towery
Columnist
Morris News Service
Next, let’s inventory the mills and
manufacturing plants. It won’t take
long, because there are fewer and
fewer. They’re all hopscotching their
way to China and other, mostly Asian,
nations.
And thus come projections for slower
economic growth in our nation next
year. We may have a bullish stock mar
ket right now, but with thousands and
thousands of homes being repossessed
each week, and with mortgages on
them having been used as bricks-and
mortar “credit cards” for so long, the
conditions for a significant economic
downturn in the coming year are real.
Now throw into the mix the expan
sion or amplification of President
George W Bush’s “Axis of Evil.” Ah,
for the innocent days of only three
enemies!
Iraq, Iran and North Korea now
appear to be just the frontline acts in a
planet gone wild.
Iran not only seeks nuclear weapons,
it’s now taken to taunting the world
with a menu of terrifying possibilities.
North Korea is even more unpredict
able, because more desperate.
All the while, our shaky but suppos
edly loyal ally Russia is doing Soviet
Union impersonations. Its newfound
capitalism is a cutthroat business envi
ronment Don Corleone would be proud
of.
When homebound and expatri-
H| MR
/ MBjB
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
Centerville?” It isn’t that easy. Citizens
of Centerville would have to vote for
consolidation and so would the Warner
Robins voters. Don’t hold your breath
until this happens.
■ It has been a surprise to me that
the Russell Parkway Extension did not
take off with big commercial growth
immediately. Now that the stores that
sell big ticket items have decided to
open on Highway 96 (presumably
because it is not as close to Watson
Blvd.) it will take years for Russell
Parkway to live up to expectations.
■ When you read that a developer
has plans for a subdivision with several
hundred or a few thousand homes it
does not mean that that many families
suddenly will join us. It means that,
over a long period of several years, the
developer hopes to see his subdivision
sold out. Look around at some of the
older developments for examples of
what I mean.
■ Centerville seems to be getting
closer to adopting a plan for a down
town. Rabun Smith and I were talking
about it and recalled our youths when
folks drove to town, parked their cars
in one central city block and families
socialized all day Saturday. His fam
ily did it in Fort Valley. Mine did it
in Americus. And I still can smell the
aroma of the 8 o’clock coffee that they
ground up in the A&P store where we
parked. Rabun and I already are mak
ing plans to join each other visiting
friends and acquaintances in down
town Centerville.
ate Russians start dropping like flies
from radioactive poisons in their sushi,
James Bond movies suddenly view
more like a personal warning to us all
than fantasy entertainment.
And then there’s our dazed President
Bush. For years I’ve openly wondered
at his astonishing lack of even basic
eloquence. Lately it’s only gotten
worse. The man appears as stunned as
someone who just stepped from a car
wreck.
And no wonder. Beyond his myopic
obsession with Iraq, Bush doubtless
is overwhelmed by the combination of
economic and geopolitical events that
he as the American president must be
as painfully aware of as anyone.
I think he knew this time would come.
I also think no one person could have
prevented it. Among battling terror
ism, trying to stabilize the Middle East
and prevent every aggrieved nation
from becoming a nuclear power, and
worrying over monetary stability, the
president has more on his plate than a
human being should have to eat.
Like him or not, please pray for this
man and for all mankind. If you look
into the president’s eyes, you can see
genuine fear, masked as it is by an
inner strength.
For the first time since I’ve been
writing this column, I share his fear.
Matt Towery served as the chairman
of former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s
political organization from 1992 until
Gingrich left Congress. He is a for
mer Georgia state representative, the
author of several books and currently
heads the polling and political infor
mation firm Insider Advantage. To
find out more about Matthew Towery
and read features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit
the Creators Syndicate website at www.
creators.com.