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Send a letter to the editor to P.O. Box 1600, Dawsonville, GA 30534; fax (706) 265-3276; or email to editor@dawsonnews.com.
DawsonOpinion
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15,2020
This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and
others. Signed columns and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not reflect our views.
Gen. Assembly
needs to look at
film tax credit
DICKYARBROUGH
Columnist
Another session of the General Assembly is
upon us. This is an election year and there
will be more posturing under the Gold Dome
than a prirna ballerina in a performance of
“Swan Lake.”
One of the big issues will be how to deal
with Gov. Brian Kemp’s call for the
Legislature to cut 4% from many program
budgets this fiscal year and 6% next year in
case of an economic downturn. The cuts
would amount to some $500 million.
While they are at it, someone needs to take
a hard look at Georgia’s much-ballyhooed
film tax credit. A recently released state audit
says what many have thought all along — the
economic benefits have been grossly exagger
ated, and it is costing We the Unwashed
money.
This may be new news to some, but not to
Kennesaw State University economics profes
sor J.C. Bradbury who produced a study last
year entitled “The rapid widespread propaga
tion of specious information regarding
Georgia’s film industry.” That is economist-
speak for saying that Hollywood’s numbers
are as inflated as Sean Penn’s ego.
Dr. Bradbury’s analysis posited that
Georgia’s film industry contributes approxi
mately $3 billion to Georgia’s $588 billion
GDP, or approximately 0.5% or l/200th of
the state’s economy, a rather small part of our
economy.
I wrote about his study last August and got
a lot of mail from readers around the state
questioning the wisdom of giving away so
much money to an industry group threatening
to boycott the state after an anti-abortion bill
was passed by the General Assembly and
signed into law by Gov. Kemp.
I am not a big movie fan — I think the last
movie I saw was “Lassie Come Home,” star
ring, uh, Lassie — but I suspect the boycott
talk is just so much Hollywood hooey. The
film industry is not about to pass up the bil
lions of dollars the state has been doling out to
them.
One response defending the program said I
was totally wrong and that I had become “a
grumpy old man” (I threatened to sue for libel
until my lawyer told me to go look in the mir
ror and see if a grumpy old man was staring
back at me) and that Dr. Bradbury was “clue
less.”
I wonder how he feels now about the state
audit that says the economic benefits of the
film credits have, in fact, been exaggerated
and that the Department of Economic
Development has used an inflated multiplier
to pump up the numbers as Dr. Bradbury sug
gested in Ms report and that most of the wages
from productions were paid to non-residents,
including Mgh-salaried, out-of-state talent.
It seems the state currently spends more
dollars doling out tax credits to the film indus
try than it spends on our court system, driver’s
license services, Georgia State Patrol, housing
juvemle offenders and criminal case investiga
tions combined — services I think we would
find more important to our quality of life than
an episode of “The Walking Dead.”
Auditors recommend the General
Assembly cap how much money film projects
can get from the tax credit. Currently there is
no cap. The state audit found millions of dol
lars of ineligible expenses and inflated num
bers by the film compames. And, according to
the audit, about 80% of the credits are sold off
by film compames that pay little or no taxes in
Georgia to people or compames that do owe
state taxes.
The audit says, “The film tax credit results in
significant revenue loss for the state by reduc
ing income tax revenue that would have been
paid otherwise. The lost revenue includes
income taxes owed by tax credit purchasers on
activity unrelated to film production." ’
Here is how it works: An entity owing the
state $1 million in taxes could purchase that
amount in tax credits from a film production
company tMough an intermediary for around
$900,000. The buyer purchasing the credits
then submits the tax credits to the treasury
rather than making a tax payment. Nice, eh?
No doubt, the Hollywood crowd — assum
ing they aren’t too busy boycotting the state
(Wink! Wink!) — will respond with some
slick PR campaign defending the massive
giveaways and killing the messengers but in
my opirnon and that of the state auditors, the
state government needs to get this boondoggle
under control now.
Admittedly, I am a grumpy old man and
don’t know much about show business, but I
think even Lassie would agree that the state’s
current film tax credit scheme is a bunch of
poop.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough atdick@dick-
yarbrough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta,
GA 31139; online at dickyarbrough.com or on
Facebookatwvwv.facebook.com/dickyarb.
"Now don't be squeamish. We're only taking off 4%."
The modern-day chain letter
I come from a
bunch of supersti
tious women, so I
have some curi
ous ways and
beliefs.
I don’t pick up
pennies on the
ground unless
they are heads up; I will, howev
er, turn them over for the next
person to find some luck.
If a broom falls, I normally
cuss under my breath because I
don’t like uninvited company.
And even though my own
SexyFrank is a black kittie, I
cross myself seven times any
time one crosses my path.
The line of demarcation
between the Redheaded duo and
myself gets blurry when tNngs
like chain letters were involved.
Mama always loved to wait
for the mail man when I was
growing up, hoping to have a
chance to look through her mag
azines before she went to work.
Instead, she normally found a
chain letter.
Those tNngs were like an
amateur ransom note with the
poorly scrawled penmansNp on
the front of the envelope with a
demand for a dollar inside or
else you’d be cursed with bad
luck or some plague befalling
you.
Mama would normally send
the dollar.
Granny the polar opposite,
would get on the busy end of a
hissie fit when she would get
one.
“I swunny it’s a dang crying
shame that people know how to
send a cussed chain letter but
they don’t know how to send a
blasted get well
card when I was
in the hospital a
few months ago,”
she exclaimed,
crumpling the let
ter into the trash.
Or that’s kind of
what she said; her
sentences had a few more color
ful metaphors than I can’t print.
“Mama, you went in the hos
pital for your yearly-resting-of-
your-nerves,” Mama gently
responded.
Granny shot her a stank eye.
“Let me tell you sometNng, if it
wasn’t for dealing with nonsense
such as tMs, I wouldn’t need to
rest my dadblamed nerves! Who
in the dickens is sending these?”
Mama shook her head. “I
don’t know but I don’t tMnk you
should break the chain. It’s not
worth a dollar to risk bad luck
and all the ill that could come
with it.”
“You wanna know who’s gonna
have some bad luck? The person
that sends me another one of
these!”
Mama furtively dug the offen
sive letter out of the trash as
Granny stomped off to her sew
ing.
“What are you doing?” I wMs-
pered.
Mama waved me away.
“Shush. It’s worth a dollar to me
to make sure Mama doesn’t
break tMs. Don’t you tell her.”
Now, one of the things about
these chain letters is, in addition
to tMeatening you with a swarm
of locusts there was also a tiny
little hope you’d get some small
fortune yourself if you sent it to
10 people you knew.
Hey, back then, we didn’t have
the internet and the hope of some
foreign prince wanting to share
Ms fortune with us via email.
Mama sent the dollar back,
tMnking that would be the end of
it and Granny would be sNelded
from any curses by mail.
Until a few weeks later, she
got another one.
“I wanna know why in the
Sam hill these tNeves tMnk they
gonna get a plug mckel outta
me!” she exclaimed, twisting the
letter in her hand. “I shoulda fell
off their sucker list when I didn’t
send them my dollar.”
Mama sat silently, not saying
a word.
“Jean.”
Mama wouldn’t meet her
gaze.
“Jean,” Granny repeated.
“These shameful heathens
wouldn’t have sent another letter
uNess they got money before.
Have you sent them any
money?”
My mama still didn’t say any-
tMng.
“Jean!”
“Alright! I’ve gotten the letters
and I sent them a dollar.”
“Why are they still sending
me a letter?”
“Okay! Maybe I sent them a
dollar for you so you wouldn’t
be cursed! But maybe they need
ed the money and didn’t know
any other way to get it. It was
fine!”
Granny looked at the envelope
closely. “What the -1 know tMs
handwriting.”
“You do?” we both asked.
She nodded. “I sure dang do.
How much have you sent them,
Jean?”
Mama gulped. “Ten dollars.”
Granny shook her head as she
picked up her purse.
“Where are you going?”
Mama asked.
‘To get your dadblamed 10
bucks back.”
She did, too, and I imagine
those shameless heathens never
expected the Redhead Prime to
show up on their doorstep with
their chain letter in hand, tMeat
ening them with far worse than a
federal mail offense if they sent
one more to our house.
Thank goodness chain letters
are now extinct. Instead, we have
emails and memes telling us to
forward to mne friends to receive
blessings.
The other day, I received one
with a Bible verse on it.
I shared it with Mama via text.
She promptly called.
“I don’t know mne people to
send it to, will you forward it for
me?”
“Mama,” I sighed.
I had to explain to her that it
was oNy for her to see the scrip
ture and that nowhere in the
Bible did it say forwarding texts
or emails paved the way to heav
en.
Finally, after 10 minutes of
explanation, she was somewhat
convinced.
I sighed again.
Bless it, I should have asked
her to send me a dollar.
Sudie Crouch is an award
winning humor columnist and
author of the recently e-pub-
lished novel, "The Dahlman Files:
ATony Dahlman Paranormal
Mystery."
SUDIE CROUCH
Columnist
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Transparency concerns
with the BOC
The headline in Jan. l’s paper,
“BOC approves developments on 400
corridor” surprised and confused me. I
had understood that no applications
would be approved until February,
2020. So to try to find some clarifica
tion, I did some research. And I found
the Board of Commissioners did
indeed adhere to their stated proce
dures, but it seems to raise some trans
parency concerns.
The Nov. 12 Dawson County News
stated the BOC voted on Nov. 4 for a
moratorium on rezoning until Feb. 7,
2020. That this would be in effect,
“while the commissioners attempt to
rework the rezoning process, thereby
ensuring the process be fair and effi-
Letter policy
cient.” And then the article did con
clude stating “changes to the plan
could be ready for vote as early as
Dec. 19. If approved at that date, the
moratorium would be lifted thereafter.”
Research shows that the Elliot family
submitted two rezoning applications,
both dated Oct. 11, 2019. On both
applications, the Planning Commission
Meeting date was noted for 11-19-
2019, the Board of Commissioners
Meeting date for 12-19-2019. These are
the two rezoning applications referred
to in the paper last week unanimously
approved.
Although I have some concerns
regarding some of the proposed devel
opment in these projects, that is not
my issue.
The dates reflected on the applica
tions, the moratorium timing, and the
subsequent lifting of the moratorium
on Dec. 19th when the applications
were approved seem coincidental.
However, I understand the
Commissioners followed their stated
possible procedures. What I hope they
understand is that transparency is a
requisite for public trust.
What rezoning laws were reworked
between Nov. 12 and Dec. 19 that then
resulted in the lifting of the moratori
um? What changes have been made?
Making the process clear as to how
and why decisions get made is manda
tory for maintaining public trust. This
timeline of events raises questions of
the sort that do not help that to occur.
Gregg Anne Zubay
Dawsonville
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