Newspaper Page Text
OpEd
Population explosion is
Outpacing road capacity
By Laura Creasy
Georgia Public Policy Foundation
- The Metropolitan Atlanta area
continues to display one of the
strongest and most diversified
economies among major urban cen
ters in the United States. Over the past
few years, the Atlanta area has bene
fited from the growth of manufactur
ing headquarters, as well as the
growth of technology-based indus
tries. Indeed, metro Atlanta’s high
tech workforce is one of the largest in
the southeastern United States, which
includes locally based companies as
BellSouth, Mind Spring and Scientific
Atlanta, as well as internationally
known firms such as Lucent
Technologies.
However, the area’s vibrant econ
omy has also come at a cost a popula
tion explosion that outpaces roadway
capacity. During the past decade, the
13-county Atlanta metro area has
- Nonattainment Area: Population
growth and work commute
i
Population Work outside
; Growth: County of
County 1990-1996 residence
i
i Cherokee 34.7 percent 68.5 percent
> Clayton 11.6 54.3
: “Cobb 203 483
, Coweta 41.7 42.5
i
i Douglas 18.8 67.2
i
i DeKalb 8.0 52.9
i Fayette 31.2 67.0
; Forsyth 56.8 60.5
I Fulton 107 293
I
i Gwinnett 35.4 52.7
: Henry 54.9 704
•
Paulding 54.0 75.3
Rockdale 20.6 60.9
’ ; f
grown significantly.
More importantly,
this population
explosion has been
cbupled with an
increasing percent
age of workers living
and working in dif
ferent counties. In
Fact, metro Atlanta
Citizens average
more than 34 miles
driven daily, the
highest value in the
nation.
Unfortunately,
our population
growth has led to
increased congestion
a key player in metro
Atlanta’s air quality
conundrum. Cities
throughout our
nation are struggling
to meet federal air
quality standards and
metro Atlanta is no
exception. Although
there are stationary
end mobile-source
contributors to metro
'Atlanta’s current
ozone nonattainment
Status, our dependen
cy on the automobile
Why is marriage a ‘sin tax?’
“Sin taxes” on cigarettes or liquor
"discourage the harmful behavior of
'smoking and drinking. Some states
recently increased cigarette taxes by 25
cents a pack to reduce teensmoking.
But why is there a federal “sin tax”
-on marriage?
Is this a harmful behavior that we
want to discourage? Os course not.
'• j People who are married live longer, earn more, and are
twee as likely as single people to be “very happy.”
And children of married parents are only half as likely
to drop out of school or become delinquent compared to
children of single parents. Kids from broken homes are
three times as likely as those from intact homes to become
pregnant as teenagers and are six times more likely to
commit suicide or to be in poverty.
Yet 21 million married working couples pay an extra
£51,400 in federal income taxes, on average, for being mar
ried compared to couples who have the same income, but
Cohabit rather than marry. This is what is called the “mar
riage penalty” in tax law. Marriage is a sin to be taxed.
Sam is a machinist who earns $31,500 and lives with
'Susan, a teacher who also earns $31,500. After claiming a
* standard deduction and a personal exemption, each of their
’“dtkable incomes are $24,550. So each pays a federal tax of
$3,682.50, or $7,365 total.
However, if they marry, their federal tax bite jumps to
1 $8,635. That's a $1,270 sin tax. Why are married people
’ taxed more?
1 ' A single person pays als percent tax on income up to
’ $25,350. So a cohabiting couple can earn up to $50,700
4nd remain in the 15 percent bracket. But a married cou
ple is in the 15 percent bracket only if their combined
income is under $42,350. They must pay a 28 percent tax
on all earnings above that amount. Also, the standard
deduction of a single person is $4,250, but a joint return
'.'can claim only $7,100, rather than double the $4,250, or
'58,500.
Sharon Mallory, a 41-year-old factory worker from
Indiana told the House Ways and Means Committee that if
•she were to many her live-in companion, Darryl Pierce,
they would have to pay $3,700 more in taxes. “Darryl and
I love each other very much and want to be married," she <
i' testified. 'The IRS won’t let us. We’re victims of the mar
‘ rtage penalty.” This is evidence that in “the tax code dis
courages marriage,” as Leslie Carbone of the Family
Research Council puts it. Economists James Alm and i
Leslie Whittington have reported that the probability of
is the one mobile-source contributor
with which we are all familiar. As a
result, the state of Georgia has dedi
i cated millions of dollars to the cre
: ation of HOV lanes, mass transit and
I park and ride programs among others
in hopes of luring people to altema
t tive modes of transportation.
However, the cost-effectiveness of
such programs is a real concern.
: Overall, rideshare programs and
mass transit expansion efforts do not
represent viable alternatives to the car
i for the majority of Atlantans. A feasi
i ble alternative to solo commuting is
; an extensive network of private shut
tle-van services flowing over a sys-
1 tern of HOV/HOT lanes. This
t approach is nearly equal to solo com
muting in flexibility, safety, conve
nience, cost and travel time.
Moreover, many government agen
' cies and businesses already take
: advantage of the convenience offered
; by shuttle-vans.
Mik©
McManus
Easter is the promise of the resurrection
Love is a strange combination of
feelings, making us happy but also
making us sad like no other emotion
can do. Love has the power to make
us doubtful, angry, stressful or
depressed. Likewise, the powers of
love can give us strength, encourage
ment, excitement, joy, fulfillment and
the ability to do many things we
believed were impossible.
Love can make us better than we
ever imagined we could be, more tol
erant than we thought was possible
and more determined to succeed than
we could ever have been without it.
The stories of Palm Sunday and
Easter are stories of love, confusing to
the unbeliever, depressing to those
who know not the meaning, and are
unnoticed and unknown by many.
These stories are about disloyalty,
betrayal and sacrifice, but they are also
about the remarkable and unbelievable
Restricting competition, choice not wise policy for elderly f
By Kelly McCutchen
Georgia Public Policy Foundation
My great-grandfather lived
through the Depression and like many
of his peers, was fiercely independent.
At the age of 92 he decided that, due
to his age, living by himself in the
home where he had spent the previous
25 years was no longer realistic.
However, a nursing home was not
only a threat to his independence, he
simply did not need the level of care
provided by a nursing home. Luckily,
one of the first assisted-living homes
in the nation had recently opened in
his neighborhood, and he became one
of its first residents.
Fbr him, assisted living was very
similar to moving into a condomini
um. He could use his own furniture,
he had his own entrance, he could
have overnight guests and he had
complete control over his daily
Board is focused on comprehensive system of care
The Northeast Georgia Regional
Board is empowered with the responsi
bility of developing and maintaining a
comprehensive system of care for con
sumers of mental health, mental retar
dation and substance abuse services
based on a core set of consumer orient
ed, community-based values and prin
ciples. There are 13 Regional Boards
across the state and consist by law of
50 percent consumers or family mem
bers. The Northeast Georgia Region is
made up of 23 counties, with a volun
teer representative from each county.
marriage falls as the marriage tax rises.
Federal tax law is one reason mar
riage rates have fallen 41 percent since
1960, and the number of cohabiting cou
ples has soared TEN-FOLD from
430,000 to 4,236,000 in the same time.
Cohabitants are saving money, but
they will lead shorter lives. The odds of
a cohabiting man who is aged 48 living
till age 65 is only 61 percent. But a married man has an
85% chance of being alive at age 65, according to Linda
Waite of the University of Chicago.
Fortunately, there is a new bipartisan push to remove
much of this marriage penalty. A bill, the “Marriage Tax
Elimination Act, has been proposed by Reps. David
Mclntosh (R-IN) Jerry Weller, (R-IL), and Pat Danner (D.
MO). It would double the current standard deduction of
$4,150 for singles, to $8,300 for married couples, up from
the current $6,900 for married couples.
And the Marriage Tax Elimination Act would also
extend a married couple’s 15 percent tax bracket to
$49,300, up from the current maximum of $42,350. That
would protect nearly $7,000 from the higher 28 percent
tax rate.
A similar bill passed the House last year, but was
defeated in the Senate. The odds look better this year for
passage, partly because House Speaker J. Dennis Hasten,
(R-IL), has made the bill a top priority.
“It’s ridiculous that our onerous tax code makes it
more expensive to be married than to be single,” Hasten
says. “The government should not punish married working
couples by taking more of their hard-earned money in
taxes than an identical couple living outside of marriage.”
Will the Marriage Tax Elimination Act eliminate mar
riage taxes?
No. It will knock off only 55.6 percent of them.
The Earned Income Tax Credit, which reduces income
taxes of low income workers, accounts for another 19 per
cent Denise is a single mom with one child, with an
adjusted gross income of $20,000. So she gets a $1,038
refundable tax credit Bill, who lost his wife to cancer, and
earns $22,000, is eligible for a EITC of $771. But if they
marry, they will lose their EITCs, with a combined income
of $42,000. They will pay an added $1,749 in marriage sin
taxes.
There are still 61 other smaller marriage taxes.
Clinton opposes the marital reforms. But then he
doesn’t believe much in marriage.
Do you? Will you write your Congressman?
expressions of love demonstrated by
one man, for the sake of mankind.
Can you imagine betraying your
best friend, the one you love, the one
you can depend upon in a crisis?
Would you sell information about a
member of your family? Would you
fail to identify a friend knowing your
word would save his life? Could you
find yourself caught up in the emo
tions of a crowd of people to the point
where you would scream for the death
of a person you had respected and
loved the day before? Others have
done these very things!
Palm Sunday is a day of joy and
excitement. A young colt, never rid
den, has been acquired for bearing a
special visitor into the town of
Jerusalem. The crowd is excited and
even though a person’s cloak was a
symbol of wealth, and an important
article of clothing for the cold nights
lifestyle. In addition, he could eat in
the dining room rather than cooking
for himself, the management con
stantly checked up on him, and he had
an emergency call button in every
room in case he needed it. I know it
made him happier, and I firmly
believe it added several years to his
life.
Sadly, the State of Georgia has
now decided that some Georgians
who wish to make the same decision
that my grandfather made may not
have that option. The State Health
Planning Agency (SHPA) has imple
mented a temporary statewide mora
torium on new certificates of need that
are required for the construction of
assisted living facilities for the elderly.
It should shock the average citizen
that our state government has the
power to arbitrarily prohibit the
expansion of a private industry.
The Regional Board System was
established under HB 100 by the
General Assembly in 1993 and has
pursued the strategy of cost-effective
ness and accountability, successfully
guiding programs in all areas of
Georgia.
This has included:
• Privatization: Until the passage of
HB 100 and the establishment of
Regional Boards, services were pri
marily delivered by the public mental
health system. (Public Health) and the
Department of Human Resources.
When possible, private providers have
been tapped to provide services.
Privatization has brought much need
ed competition, resulting in improve
ment of services, both private and pub
lic, and reduction of costs.
• Accountability: Regional Boards
have required both fiscal and quality
of care accountability. There is no
doubt that this emphasis on account
ability has improved services. Also,
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FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sunday, March 28, 198#
in the deserts, people shed them, to lay
on the ground for the colt to walk
upon. Amid the cheers and joy of a
crowd, with expressions of unsur
passed love and affection, the man
called Jesus, rode into town on a bor
rowed donkey.
But love suddenly became hate,
anger, resentment, jealousy, criticism,
betrayal, deceit and greed. Within a
few short days the destiny of this man
was in the hands of a cruel mob. Here
was a man, so popular that people had
abandoned their work and their lives
to follow him, but they denied and
betrayed him. Here was a man whose
miracles of love had healed the ills of
many people but their presence was
invisible when crying out for his life
would have been an expression of
their love for him.
Our own lives can be expressions
of love or examples of hate, jealousy
Evidently, SHPA believes that too
many of these facilities are being
built. However, there is no more justi
fication for the state to interfere in this
industry than there would be to limit
the number of hotels, day-care cen
ters, condominiums or coffee shops. If
the state can place a moratorium on
this industry, which industry is next?
Although Medicaid funding is often
used as an excuse to regulate medical
facilities such as nursing homes,
assisted-living facilities are not eligi
ble to receive such binding.
The free market has a time-tested
method for regulating the supply of
services: prices. If the market is over
supplied, prices go down, which ben
efits customers. If prices decline far
enough, developers lose money or go
bankrupt. This sounds harsh, but it
happens every day in the business
world. In order to achieve progress,
numerous serious problems have been
uncovered and rectified.
In fact by strict application of
accountability standards, the Northeast
Georgia Regional Board was in the
position to help uncover criminal
fraud and abuse in programs for the
mentally retarded in Elberton. This
fraud had persisted for over 12 years
while the Elberton program was oper
ating under the old system of state and
public provider system with no safe
guards in place. As a result, a contract
for monitoring was entered into with
Georgia Evaluation Satisfaction Team
that monitors consumers’ residences
and day treatment facilities. The
Regional Board put in place the safe
guards that have been missing for so
many years.
• Participation: The Regional
Board system is unique m that it
affords consumers and family mem
bers the maximum opportunity for full
participation and inclusion in their
I
t Julianne
Boling
and greed. In this world where every
success is judged by dollar marks and
with the tangible displays of wealth
and fine clothes, may miss the impor
tance of Palm Sunday and Easter. We
may not think about the man on the
donkey riding into town in trium|ih;
we may ignore the screams frorfi (he
cruel crowd of onlookers who want
ed him crucified; we may stand at
the foot of the cross and not see The
man, but we should not fail to
remember the love and promise of
the resurrection?
’’ T
businesses must be allowed to fail,
That is one of the most fundamental
principles of the free-market system.
In fact, through trial and error, failure
often leads to innovation and
progress. j '
Restricting competition and dori
sumer choice is not a wise public poli
cy. In addition to limiting the choices
of future customers, it also artificially
raises prices and unfairly benefits (W
few developers lucky enough to be
left in the market. Elderly Georgians
who are priced out of the assisted-liv
ing market will be forced to choose
between using services they do-not
need in a nursing home (funded by
Medicaid/taxpayer dollars) or contin
uing to run the risk of living by them
selves. A moratorium on assisted-liv
ing facilities will mean that everyone
loses: business, taxpayers, and most
importantly, our senior citizens. ,
chosen community. Programi ire
designed, contracted for and imple
mented to best serve peoples needs in
the most cost-effective manner. ’ z '
• Accomplishments: Mental
Health: For the last three years ser
vices to adults with mental illness
greatly increased within the regidn.
Funds were used to establish and/or
expand community-based services to
divert admissions to the state hospitals.
Services initiated during this time
include: supported employment ser
vices, assertive community treatment,
support housing and other residential
alternatives, increased access to the
newer, more effective medications,
and the expansion of crises interven
tion services. These are all services for
which the Regional Board contracts.
In Nov. 1, 1998, a peer center opened
in Cleveland serving the northern {3
counties. Hospital reinvestment funds
were used to increase supported
employment for 50 individuals.
PAGE 13A