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♦ 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.