Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current, January 15, 2020, Image 9
PAGE 9A 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 The Dawson County News welcomes your opinions on issues of public concern. Letters must be signed and include full address and a daytime and evening phone number for verification. Names and hometowns of letter writers will be included for publication without exception.Telephone numbers will not be published. Letters should be limited to 350 words and may be edited or condensed.The same writer or group may only sub mit one letter per month for consideration. We do not publish poetry or blanket letters and generally do not publish letters concerning consumer com plaints. Unsigned or incorrectly identified letters will be withheld. Mail letters to the Dawson County News, RO. Box 1600, Dawsonville, GA 30534, hand deliver to 30 Shoal Creek Road, fax to (706) 265-3276 or e-mail to editor@dawsonnews.com.