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School days bring memories
School begins tomorrow
for our children and many par¬
ents are breathing a sigh of
relief. They will not have to
plan activities for their chil¬
dren on a daily basis for a few
short months. Instead, the
children will be handed over
to teachers who will have to
re-program them to: sit and do
their work, hold their hand up
to speak or go to the restroom,
and to be polite and kind to
everyone.
Needless to say, some of
the habits that were learned
last year have been conve¬
niently forgotten over the
summer. Getting up early and
going to bed at a decent time
are both on the top of the list
of habits to be re-learned.
Kids will be grouchy in the
mornings from lack of “good
sleep.” Their brains will have
been active well into late night
hours for the past few months,
and sleep will not come easily
for them.
Eating breakfast will take
many minutes longer as moms
and dads get back into the
groove of insisting on the kids
“eating something.” Of course,
some families will have fuss-
Despite Perdue’s assurances,
state facing huge fiscal crisis
When Gov. Sonny Perdue
called in reporters a few
weeks ago to discuss the rev¬
enue numbers at the end of the
state’s fiscal year, he tried to
be as calm and reassuring as
possible.
The news, he admitted,
was not good. Georgia’s tax
collections had dropped off
sharply in the last few months
and the state found itself on
June 30 about $600 million
short of having enough money
to pay all the bills that accu¬
mulated over the previous 12
months.
Perdue said the $1.5 billion
in the state’s reserve funds
would provide enough money
to balance the books for fiscal
2008 and still leave about
$900 million for future short¬
falls that might develop.
“There is no emergency,”
Perdue said confidently.
He may have been a little
premature in that statement.
As the weeks have passed and
the fiscal experts have
crunched the numbers, the
financial picture for state gov¬
ernment is looking more
uncertain.
Perdue and the legislative
leadership were too optimistic
when they wrote the budget
for the current fiscal year.
They assumed that state rev¬
enues would grow by 7.4 per¬
cent a ludicrous assump
tion, it now appears, because
revenue collections actually
decreased during fiscal 2008
and have .
1 -• -■
m
7 j
Julianne
Boling ' 4f&
COLUMNIST
ing about and finding fault
with the lunchroom menus,
and others will endure the
complaints about what is
packed for lunches each day.
Kids will exit schools each
afternoon “starving to death,”
which will be a common
occurrence each day during
the year.
I can still recall the first
days of school for both of our
sons. I turned them over to
sweet talking teachers and
school personnel hoping they
would look after them with as
much care as 1 had done for
six years. Our son, Will,
walked happily and confident¬
ly into a big world where he
thrived. Many years later his
teachers still speak of his wit
and humor. I still think of my
nervousness about relinquish¬
ing my first born into the pub¬
lic school system.
The time soon arrived for
me to let our youngest son go
Tom
Crawford
COLUMNIST
shown no signs of turning up
during the current economic
troubles.
The Georgia Budget and
Policy Institute estimates that
the state could end up $2 bil¬
lion short of collecting enough
taxes this year to pay for all
the programs in the budget.
That’s nearly 10 percent of the
total budget and it could mean
that hospitals will be closed,
state employees dismissed,
Medicaid payments cut off,
and funding reduced to local
school systems.
As a result, the political
leadership now finds itself in a
perilous position. They are
trying every way possible to
avoid calling a special legisla¬
tive session during the fall
when all members of the
General Assembly will be
smack in the middle of re
election campaigns. Who
wants to admit to the folks
back home that they messed
up so badly on the budget they
have to spend thousands of
taxpayer dollars on a special
session to fix it?
Perdue initially told his
department heads to recom¬
mend 3.5 percent reductions in
their spending for this year.
He’s now upped that to 6
gai percent and is requiring
32*1 jgg* agencies to be ready to
cut their budgets by as
HgH •JAR much as 8 percent or 10
percent.
After a conference
call with legislative
leaders Aug. 1, all the
5jS* HI parties that they were could insisting
get
agsg&S . through this stormy
period without hav¬
m ing to call a special
session. We’ll see
how long they’re
1 able to stick to that
promise.
As bad as the state’s finan-
to school. He was somewhat
shy, unlike his older brother. I
feared he would be lost in the
shuffle and they might lose
him all together. I dreaded let
ting him grow up and leave
me for an entire school day. I
sat on the steps with other
moms that first day of school,
expecting someone to call us
to encourage our children to
stay until 3 p.m. No one came
and we silently walked to our
cars.
As 1 recall those first days
of school I remember the boys
were watched carefully by
very good teachers and had
wonderful experiences in
school. When I look up at
them now in their 6’3-4”
heights, I wonder how the
years could have moved so
rapidly by me. I also recall
how my mother always called
my brothers “boys” and I
thought, “how silly, they are
grown!” Now, Mom, I realize,
they are always little boys to
us, aren’t they?
Have a good school year
kids!
Cumming resident Julianne
Boling’s column appears each
Sunday.
cial situation is, it would have
been much worse if the leg¬
islative leadership had not
been so bitterly divided last
session over tax cut proposals.
During the session’s final
hours, Speaker Glenn
Richardson and his House col¬
leagues were trying to push
through a bill that would have
eliminated the annual ad val¬
orem tax on auto license tags.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and his
Senate negotiators, who had
proposed a cut in state income
tax rates, never could reach
agreement with the House on
the issue and ultimately no tax
cut bill was passed.
Richardson went ballistic
and delivered an angry speech
to House members on that
final night, laying all the
blame for the failure of the tag
tax bill on Cagle and demand¬
ing that Georgians replace
Cagle as lieutenant governor.
I’m sure Cagle had his own
political reasons for not going
along with Richardson and the
House on eliminating the auto
tag tax, but it is fortunate for
Georgians that he took that
stand.
If the tag tax had been
eliminated, it would have cut
annual state revenues by
another $700 million or more.
That could have pushed the
shortfall for the coming year
to more than $2.5 billion,
rather than the $2 billion that
is now being predicted. Then
you would have really seen a
crisis in state government
worse than anything since the
Great Depression.
As much as all taxpayers
like them, there’s no time to
think about tax cuts right now
— the state is going to strug¬
gle just to keep its budget bal¬
anced. We have a tough year
ahead of us.
Tom Crawford is the editor
of Capitol Impact’s Georgia
Report, an Internet news serv¬
ice at www.gareport.com that
covers government and poli¬
tics in Georgia. He can be
reached via e-mail at tcraw
ford@capitolimpact.net.
Obama pandering to masses
with promise of energy cheek
Earlier in the presidential
campaign, when John McCain
and Hillary Rodham Clinton
called for a summer holiday
on the 18.4-cent-per-gallon
federal gasoline tax, Barack
Obama dismissed the tax
vacation as an election-year
gimmick that offered finan¬
cially squeezed families “just
pennies.” I wrote that, unlike
Clinton and McCain, Obama
“stood tall in opposing the
gas-tax holiday.”
Now we know why.
Obama must have seen the
gas-tax holiday as chump
change in the wondrous store
of campaign gimmicks. When
Obama panders, he panders
big-time.
Witness his proposed
“emergency energy rebate”
that — on the heels of this
year’s $600 per taxpayer stim¬
ulus package rebate sent to
taxpayers this year — promis¬
es additional $500 checks for
American workers or $1,000
per family “as soon as this
fall.” (Is there an income cap
for how Obama defines eligi¬
ble “working families”? The
campaign did not get back to
me on that by my deadline.)
To hear Obama, the check
is practically in the mail.
Obama argues that his plan is
fiscally responsible because he
would pay for it by levying a
“reasonable” tax on oil com¬
panies’ windfall profits. The
candidate has pointed to
Exxon Mobil’s record profits
— $22.6 billion in the first
half of this year — to justify
his raid on its earnings.
Less reported, Investors
Business Daily editorialized,
are the record taxes Exxon
Mobil paid in the same period
— $61.7 billion. Also, “Exxon
made a dime on a dollar in
2007. The oil and gas industry
as a whole made 8.3 percent,
compared with 8.9 percent of
all U.S. manufacturing.” So
why whack Big Oil?
According to Stanford
FORSYTH COUNTY SCHOOLS
CHILD FIND
What is Child Find?
The purpose of Child Find is to identify, locate, and evaluate children
and youth who are suspected of or have a diagnosed disability or
developmental delay in order to provide free and appropriate Special
Education, services. Forsyth County Schools serve children from three
through twenty-one years of age.
How can children be referred? V % *
A referral may be made by anyone who has a concern about a child's
development. All referrals are considered confidential. The parent
retains the right to refuse services. Children may be referred by any 6fv
the following:
Parents / legal guardians / foster parents
Other family members
Physicians / health care providers
Preschool programs
School system personnel -.
Community agencies *
Private school personnel
Others who are concerned about a child’s development
When should a child be referred to Child Find?
A child should be referred when:
• A health or medical disorder interferes with development or
learning.
• A child seems to have difficulty seeing or hearing. */•»
• A child appears to have social, emotional or behavioral difficulties
that affect his/her ability to leam.
• A child has a diagnosed progressive or degenerative condition
that will eventually impair or impede the child’s ability to leam.
• A child seems to have difficulty understanding directions like oth- !
ers that are his/her age, •. ■
• A child’s speech is not understandable to family or friends.
• A child has difficulty with reading, math, or other school subjects.
What is Special Education and who is eligible for services?
Special Education is instruction designed to meet the unique learning
strengths aud needs of individual students with disabilities from age
three through twenty-one. A child must be evaluated and identified as
having a disability to be eligible for Special Education arid/or related
services. Disability categories are: speech / language Impairment, specif¬
ic ^earning disability traumatic brain injury, mental retardation, emotion¬
al disturbance, visual impairment, hearing impairment, orthopedic
impairment, autism spectrum disorders and other health impairments,
Where can I find out more about Child Find?
Call Forsyth County Schools at 770-887-2(161 ext. 202324 for additional
information or a referral packet.
T
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS — Sunday. Augu»t 10,2008
Saunders Debra \ 1
COLUMNIST f
economist John Taylor, who is
a McCain adviser, raising
taxes on oil companies likely*
“will raise the price of gaso¬
line.”
If critics are right, and a
windfall profits tax raises gas
prices or leads to a drop in
domestic oil output, which
only worsens America’s
chronic dependence on foreign
oil, then what? Another emer¬
gency energy rebate check?
In a clever effort to dress
up his big-time pander as a
high-minded position, Obama
has suggested that McCain is
“in the pocket of Big Oil.”
Obama points out that McCain
wants to lower Exxon Mobil’s
tax bill — which is true,
because McCain wants to
lower all the corporate tax
rates to 25 percent to create
jobs.
McCainiacs respond by
noting that Obama voted for
the 2005 omnibus energy bill
— signed by President Bush
— which gave oil companies
specific tax breaks.
For that very reason,
McCain voted no.
Many in the press have
faulted Camp McCain for
being too cute in taking on
Obama’s energy plans. Hence
the stories about McCain aides
handing out tire gauges
labeled “Obama Energy Plan”
in response to Obama’s stump
Letter policy
The Forsyth County News welcomes your opinions on issues of pub¬
lic concern. Letters must be signed and include hill address and a phone
number for verification. Letters should be limited to 350 words and may
be edited. Letters should be submitted by noon Thursday for Sunday pub¬
lication. Mail letters to the Forsyth County News, P.O. Box 210, * ’
Cumming, GA 30028, hand deliver to 302 Veterans Memorial Blvd., fax
to (770) 889-6017 or e-mail to editor@forsythnews.com.
PAQ€ 11A
statement, “We could;stive all
the oil that they’re talkirig.
about getting off drilling, if
everybody was just inflating
their tires.”
I’ll take the tire gauges
over Obama’s $1,000 pander.
Ditto Obama’s huge flip-flop
on the 70 million barrel
Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
In July, when other Democrats
were clamoring for a release
of the oil, Obama had the for¬
titude to argue that the reserve
should be saved for “a genuine
emergency,” like a terrorist
attack. Now he says he wants
to free the oil. y'
Slick. Mayhap, instead of
tire gauges, McCain’s Navy 3
should be handing out $500
bills in Monopoly money. Or a
pair of earrings.
Last month, Michelle
Obama said of the $600 stimu¬
lus rebate checks: “You’re get¬
ting $600 — what can you do
with that? Not to be ungrateful
or anything, but maybe it pays
down a bill, but it doesn!t pay
down every bill every month.
The short-term quick fix kinda
stuff sounds good, and it may
even feel good that first month
when you get that check, and
then you go out and you buy a
pair of earrings." > t
Now, I’ve never spent $600
for a pair of earrings. But in
the event of an emergency —
which requires the releasing of
petroleum and mailing $1,000
checks to working families —
I could learn to sacrifice.
Debra J. Saunders is a
nationally syndicated colum¬
nist. You may e-mail her at
dsaunders@sfchronicle.com.