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Opinion
Words to grow by...
Growth has become a major issue.
People are questioning how their county
develops, and is growth even desirable. The
Atlanta Journal Constitution of November
12, 1995, carried an article about the issue.
The article cited area opinion leaders and
public officials. The issue is that “...subur
banites...don’t trust government to use their
tax money to wisely manage growth.”
“Perhaps worst of all, many feel shut off
from the decision-making process.”
According to the article, solutions sug
gested cross the spectrum of ideas for limit
ing growth. Cobb County would limit fur
ther residential growth by limiting lot size
and, therefore, density. Gwinnett voted to
slow growth by defeating a sales tax to pay
for infrastructure. So did DeKalb. All of
these counties are further developed than
Forsyth County and are having to deal with
the effects of growth and how it was han
dled. Forsyth County must avoid as many
problems with growth as possible, rather
than trying to fix them later.
The big question, the key question and
decision, is whether to “manage” growth.
But, there is one thing to keep in mind:
Growth is like an 800 pound gorilla. When
growth begins, once that music starts, the
gorilla will dance. You know you’re going
to dance! The question is “who will lead?”
What does “management of growth”
mean? Management means making choices
about the degree to which growth will be
regulated. There are two extremes, inten
sive management with very tight controls
over growth and considerable direction by
government; the other extreme is where
market forces dictate what and where
development occurs.
Rather than use the word “manage”, use
the word “guide” because the process is one
of compromise and balancing of many dif
ferent points of view. It is not one dictated
by any single group. The task of elected
representatives is to balance different inter
ests in “guiding” growth.
How intensively should growth be
“guided”. The State of Georgia has not
faced the problems of explosive growth like
Florida or California. In Florida, the state
has a very structured planning process that
encourages growth management, the level
Clinton hoping you’ll forgive, forget
By Sen. Paul Coverdell
U.S. Senator, Georgia
In the past few weeks, the
American people have heard one
apology after another from the pres
ident. One wonders why he feels
the need to vent himself in public so
often.
At a Houston fund-raiser in
mid-October, the president con
fessed he had raised our taxes too
much.
“Probably there are people in
this room still mad at me at that
budget because you think I raised
your taxes too much,” the president
said. “It might surprise you to know
that I think I raised them too much,
too.”
In attempting to take back his
statement the next day, Clinton
blamed it on not following his
mother’s admonition that someone
should never give talks after 7 p.m.
At the end of October, after
months of saying it would take ten
years, rather then seven, to balance
the budget and harshly criticiz
ing Republicans for moving too fast
Clinton admitted: “Well, I think
we could reach it in seven years.”
Last week, in a rambling, one
hour phone call to nationaliy-syndi
cated columnist Ben Wattenberg,
wljo recently released a book criti
cal of the president, Clinton admit
ted his presidency had drifted to the
left and that his welfare reform and
education initiatives had been fail-
Letter policy
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Letters should be mailed to: Forsyth County News, P. O. Box 210, Cumming,
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of control can be very high. For example, in
Jacksonville, no zoning request can even be
submitted if it does not conform with the
county’s master plan. There is intensive
control over what is developed where in the
county.
In the Atlanta area, growth was man
aged less intensively, allowing the market
to dictate much of the development that
occurred. However, today, counties like
Cobb find they need more intensive growth
management to prevent or deal with prob
lems from strip development, excessive
density and poor development planning.
How much “guidance” is THE decision
citizens of Forsyth County must make
today.
At their meeting on November 13,
1995, the Board of Commissioners unani
mously accepted the Strategic Planning
document from the Vision 20/20 Quality
Growth Task Force. They also will have a
presentation from a professional planning
firm on updating the county’s plans and
suggesting new zoning, codes and ordi
nances. The music has started and the
Commissioners have felt the tap on their
shoulders. They now have to get the “beat”
and decide if they want to lead. Concerned
citizens can and should participate in the
process by letting their political representa
tives know what they want. Call, write and
attend the commission meetings.
Anyone who has a specific question
about Forsyth County growth is invited to
submit it to Coenen and Dekle at the
Forsyth County News, P. O. Box 210,
Cumming, Georgia 30130. Citizens will not
be identified in any article, but are asked to
identify themselves so the authors can get
in touch if they have questions or want
more information.
ures.
The following are excerpts from
Wattenberg’s interview with our
nation’s leader, as published in The
Washington Times on November 2:
“I [Wattenberg] said I had not
been pleased with his welfare bill,
which I thought was soft and weak.
He [Clinton] agreed, saying, ‘I
wasn’t pleased with it either.’ “
“He agreed with my analysis in
the book that his education plan,
‘Goals 2000,’ started out as a fine
piece of work, but didn’t end up
that way.”
“He [Clinton] says that in 1993
and 1994 he was too interested in
the ‘legislative scorecard rather
than in philosophy.’ He was ‘so
anxious to fix the economy’ that he
‘changed philosophically and
missed the boat.’ He ‘lost the lan
guage’ ... After the 1994 election,
he realized he had created ‘a card
board cutout’ of himself.”
These apologies are classic
Clinton. Throughout his political
career, whenever he gets in trouble,
he thinks if he just apologizes, vot
ers will forgive and forget. In 1982,
former Gov. Bill Clinton, beaten by
a dark horse candidate in 1980,
began his bid to retake the office
with a public apology to the people
of Arkansas. In a TV commercial,
Clinton said he wished he hadn’t
raised their tag and transfer fees.
Doesn’t that sound familiar?
Clinton describes himself in his
own words as a president who
down th^ —jL
f government was a bad idea, jlpj
( It's got folks thinking they
Rep. Deal applauds Clinton administration
for agreeing with Republicans ’ demands
Congressman Nathan Deal on Tuesday applauded President
Clinton for agreeing with Republicans to two non-negotiable
demands in their proposed Continuing Resolution a balanced
federal budget in seven years using Congressional Budget Office
(CBO) economic and government revenue forecasts.
‘This is a total victory for Congressional Republicans,” Deal
said. “In light of this nation’s continued annual deficits and enor
mous debt, agreeing to the goal of balancing the budget in seven
years based on (CBO) forecasts is a step in the right direction,
both in this process and for the American people,” Deal said.
Deal added that Republicans scored a larger victory this week
for the nation’s elderly. “Medicare is going bankrupt. President
Clinton recognized that by joining Republicans in our effort to
protect and preserve Medicare we are ensuring the health security
of our elderly population. It is good to see our politicians get
beyond demagoguery and begin doing the hard work of preserving
Medicare.”
The agreement between Republicans and President Clinton
ended a week-long standoff between Congress and the
doesn’t know what he stands for or
where he wants to lead the country.
No wonder The Wall Street Journal
characterized recent polling results
as a “Crisis of Confidence” in his
presidency. On November 2, a Wall
Street Journal/NBC News poll
found that 70 percent were “not
very confident” that Clinton “has
the right set of personal characteris
tics to be president.”
Clinton’s waffling, back-track
ing and uncertain leadership stand
in stark contrast to Republicans in
Congress who ran on a positive,
specific agenda for change and have
done exactly what they said they
would do and what the country
voted for.
Republicans have not wavered
from the fundamental principles our
party believes in smaller govern
ment, lower taxes, more personal
responsibility. Shortly, Republicans
will send to the president’s desk
without apologies or excuses the
first balanced budget in 26 years; a
plan to preserve, protect and
strengthen Medicare which still
allows Medicare spending to
increase for every senior, every
year; genuine welfare reform that
emphasizes work, families, and
hope for the future; and tax cuts for
families and for economic growth
and job creation.
It would be the height of
hypocrisy for Clinton to veto these
measures since he now admits
Republicans have been right all
along: We can balance the budget in
seven years; we can allow Medicare
spending to increase, but at a slower
rate; we can have tough work
requirements for able-bodied wel
fare recipients; and we can lower
taxes on hard-working American
families.
If President Clinton is really sin
cere in his new-found views on
taxes, the budget, and welfare
reform, he should sign the
Republican bill and let us bring
about the change American voted
for before he changes his mind,
again.
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FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS - Friday, November 24, 1995
Administration. The CR allows
continued funding for federal
agencies and programs through
December 15, 1995 or until the
necessary appropriations bills are
signed into law.
Additionally, House and Senate
Republicans have passed a detailed
seven-year plan to balance the
budget by the year 2002 which is
scored by CBO which will protect
Medicare, reform welfare and pro
vide much needed tax-relief to
America’s families.
In light of Sunday’s agreement, Deal and 27 of his colleagues
in the House requested that President Clinton submit to Congress a
detailed budget of his own reflecting the President’s priorities.
“We understand that President Clinton is committed to his priori
ties, but we must have a detailed budget from the Administration
in order to identify and resolve differences,” Deal explained.
PAGE 15A
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Rep. Deal