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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2009
Named the best weekly editorial page in the nation for 2007, 2008
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
- Henry Ward Beecher ~
Mike Buffington, editor • Email: Mike@mainstreetnews.com
our views
County good
now, but clouds
are gathering
T HE GOOD news is that
the Jackson County
government was in the
black for 2008 and the county has
around $7 million in reserves on
hand.
The bad news is that 2008 may
be the last time the county govern
ment is in such good financial con
dition for several years to come.
Compared to a lot of local gov
ernments, Jackson County is in
fairly good shape. While county
leaders have made some bone
headed financial decisions from
time to time, the county’s financial
gums have managed to keep the
ship afloat and solvent — at least
so far.
But even the smartest of financial
advisors can’t control the interna
tional economic contraction that
is hammering local government
revenues.
That’s why it is imperative lead
ers manage the county’s limited
financial resources with extreme
caution in the coming months. In
the current environment, any mis
take could lead to serious finan
cial problems and toss Jackson
County into the kind of financial
crisis other nearby counties are
struggling with.
Jackson County is facing several
issues as it looks at the remainder
of 2009 and the start of the 2010
fiscal year:
• Revenues are likely to remain
flat or down. Sales taxes are below
budget and trending down by dou
ble-digits. The property tax digest
could decline for the first time in
decades. Construction and real
estate related fees are down. No
new sources of revenue are in the
cards.
• The county has already bud
geted to use up $2 million of its
reserves this year. That’s because
county leaders weren’t willing to
make difficult choices in the 2009
budget to cut expenses further. But
such a dip into the bank account
can only be a one-time thing; the
county cannot afford to go into its
reserves again in 2010. Unless the
economy makes a dramatic turn
around, the county will have to
make some major cuts in its 2010
spending to stay within its income
— or, God forbid, raise taxes.
• Long-term debt is weighing
heavily on the county’s books,
having exploded in recent years
with a rash of building projects.
Some of that debt will, in the long
run, probably pay off. The various
economic development roads will
eventually generate new business
es and tax base. The key word
here is “eventually.” The county
has to survive through this eco
nomic crisis before it can get back
into any kind of growth mode.
Other county debt — the court
house, fire training facility jail, etc.
is just added cost with little direct
tangible return on investment. In
fact, the county can’t afford to
fully staff the new jail during the
economic downturn.
All of these things are on the
table as the county starts to look
at its budget for 2010. It’s likely the
county will have to make some
very critical decisions this fall and
make far deeper cuts than it’s had
to do so far.
Jackson County is in fairly good
shape to survive this economic
storm, as long as its leaders are
willing to make some difficult
choices in the coming months.
letters
Concerned with
child’s behavior
at choral program
Dear Editor:
I have been a resident of Jefferson for 12 years.
I have attended many music programs and
plays in both the Jefferson City Schools and the
Jackson County Schools. Many of these events
have been outstanding.
On Friday May 15, the JCCHS choral students,
under the direction of Todd Chandler, present
ed an impromptu program of solos and small
groups, and were accompanied by excellent
musicians. It seems that the students chose the
music they wanted to present and decided how
they wanted to perform it. They were excellent.
So, why am I writing a letter to the editor? In the
audience there was a small child that continued
to scream, cry and shriek throughout the entire
concert. The adult in charge did not remove the
child from the audience — not once. They seem
ingly did not realize how disruptive the child
was to the audience, but most especially to the
performers.
Hopefully, this letter will help parents of small
children to consider whether or not to leave a
small child at home, or if they choose to take the
child to a concert, that they would take the child
outside if the child is unhappy.
Sincerely,
Sara Harris
Jefferson
Thanks to
public defender
Dear Editor:
I had to write a brief note thanking Carol
Flemming of the Jackson County Public
Defender’s Office for her outstanding perfor
mance against the prosecutor, The District
Attorney’s office.
I must admit, I was a little leery having a
defender in a case as delicate as mine (for the
second time) in Jackson County. This time, jus
tice was served and we WON our case against
the Soliciter’s office (unlike when the office was
run by the previous staff).
I have never seen anything like it. I was
impressed and more so delighted at Ms.
Flemming’s constant argument. I am thankful for
her. She believed in me and my circumstance,
which led to an arrest last year.
I would like to tell the arresting officer with only
respect and courtesy, I know you were just doing
your job.
Thank you Carol for not giving up on me, for
believing that I was worth the fight! You have truly
given me a blessing. I will never forget what you
have done for me. Thank you for your dedica
tion and excellent work. It was a great pleasure
working with you.
Sincerely,
Monica Fotner
Snellville
Proud of EJCHS
graduation events
Dear Editor:
We want to commend the faculty, staff, and stu
dents, under the direction of Dr. Pat Stueck, for
the 2009 graduation ceremony held at the East
Jackson Comprehensive High School Stadium
on Thursday, May 21.
The ceremony flowed smoothly, the sound
system was magnificent, and it was a very profes
sional production that spotlighted the students
and their many accomplishments. We hosted
a large crowd of out of town guests and each
remarked that it was by far the best and most
meaningful ceremony they had attended to
date.
Thank you Dr. Stueck, Julie Bruce, Ashley
Ware, and EJCHS faculty and staff for a superb
job and congratulations to the Class of 2009 from
Jefferson, Commerce, Jackson County, and East
Jackson where we have many friends. We are
proud of you.
Sincerely,
Nancy and Jim Dove
Nicholson
(Letters may be submitted via email to mike@
mainstreetnews. com.)
Goodbye to some friends
ONE OF THE basic rules of daily journalism is
that the reporter isn’t the story - what’s important
is the news that is being reported.
I’m going to ignore that rule to talk about three
people in the news business who are all retir
ing after long years of writing
about Georgia politics. They
have each performed a valu
able service in their careers
by pointing out the misdeeds
and mistakes made by the
people running this state. I
also consider each of them
to be a friend, although that
really isn’t the point here.
Bill Shipp let the word out
last week that he will stop
writing his political column,
which still appeared in doz
ens of Georgia newspapers,
and hang it up after more than
50 years in the business.
Shipp was a pugnacious journalist from the very
first. As an editor at the University of Georgia’s
student newspaper in the 1950s, he criticized the
racist activities of the people who ran state govern
ment - and was kicked off the newspaper staff by
university officials.
He made his professional reputation as first a
political reporter and then as city editor and col
umnist for the Atlanta Constitution. Bill could be
a wild man in those days, but when he was on the
trail of a story there were few people who had more
tenacity or energy.
Shipp went after Republicans and Democrats
alike and had enemies in both parties. He car
ried on a long, bitterly personal feud with the late
House speaker, Tom Murphy, over the drunken
driving issue. He is still loathed and despised by
Gov. Sonny Perdue because he looked into some
of Perdue’s personal business dealings in Houston
County.
Bill was also one of the first people to see how
the internet might be used as a medium for get
ting information to the reader, moving his political
newsletter online several years ago. He was, in
effect, one of the pioneers of political blogging
in the days before anyone had ever heard of the
concept.
Dick Pettys is another political reporter who prob
ably covered his last legislative session this year. If
things work out according to plan, he and his wife
will retire to the mountains of North Georgia.
Pettys was the Associated Press’ man at the
capital for nearly 35 years before retiring from the
AP in 2005. He remained at the capital for several
years after that first retirement, covering politics for
Insider Advantage.
Dick was just as tough and thorough a reporter
as Shipp, although he was able to avoid the kinds
of personal battles that Shipp tended to stir up. His
presence at the capital for nearly 40 years gave him
unprecedented access to the folks who really knew
what was happening. Pettys was always scrupu
lously fair in his reporting and did not take cheap
shots at the scoundrels who populated his articles.
If Pettys had the facts on you, that was it. End of
story.
Another veteran observer of the political scene
who will be retiring in June is Jim Wooten, the
conservative columnist for the Atlanta Journal-
Constitution’s editorial page.
I first met Jim in the early 1970s when he was a
metro beat reporter at the Atlanta Journal. He was
first-rate when it came to digging up the facts but
also had a flair for writing a clever lead that could
draw in the reader.
Wooten was always quite conservative in his
political views and gravitated naturally to writing
editorial page columns that reflected that point of
view. Fortunately, Wooten retained his interest in
exposing the dubious financing schemes that got
proposed every year in the General Assembly.
One of his favorite topics as an editorialist was
the tendency of politicians to pass legislation that
would personally enrich them while ripping off the
taxpayers, usually through a questionable bond or
pension proposal.
Jim was rightly outraged at these blatant attempts
to raid the public treasury and did his best to bring
them to the reader’s attention.
In their own way, Shipp, Pettys and Wooten
played an important role in our democracy by
keeping people informed about what their elected
representatives were doing for them - or to them.
It’s a good thing for us that they were around for so
long to do their jobs.
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s
Georgia Report. He can be reached at tcrawford@
capitoIimpact.net.
Major shift
happening in
government
A LONG-TERM shift is taking
place in local government, one
that will have profound implica
tions for many years to come.
The shift is that local governments are
shrinking as the economy continues its
downward spiral. As revenues decline,
local governments are cutting staff sizes,
reducing
benefits to
employees
and altering
or reducing
services.
This is
monumental.
Historically
local govern
ments have
only grown
in size. That
was espe
cially true
during the
boom years
of 2003-2008
when the size of local governments often
grew even faster than the communities
they serve.
Our newspapers cover a lot of com
munities in Northeast Georgia and here’s
just a snapshot of what’s happening in
some local governments:
• Barrow County has laid-off staff, cut
wages and is still facing a $7 million defi
cit in its 2010 budget. Barrow officials are
in true crisis mode.
• The City of Hoschton is standing at
the edge of bankruptcy following several
years of fiscal mismanagement. The
town lost a court case two weeks ago
and the fine and legal fees of that may
prove to be the tipping point.
• Banks County missed much of the
housing boom excesses, but it still faces
a $2 million deficit in its 2010 budget.
• The City of Winder laid off a large
number of employees last winter and
continues to face financial woes.
• The City of Baldwin in northern
Banks County is in a fiscal crisis, owing
in large part to excessive debt the city
took on over the past few years.
• The City of Statham in Barrow
County has cut its work week hours to
conserve funds.
• The Jackson County School System
has cut staff. Other local schools are
also looking at furloughs or not replacing
retiring staff members, thus shrinking by
attrition.
These are just some of the problems
local government have been dealing with
over the last few months. There are sev
eral reasons for these problems:
1. Local governments added too much
payroll during the boom years, offering
salaries and benefits that are in many
cases much better than those of taxpay
ers working in the private sector. Local
governments gave themselves the best of
the best and dumped the cost onto the
backs of local taxpayers.
2. Local governments took on too
much debt during the boom years, build
ing new courthouses, new jails, and a
slew of other projects.
3. The economic boom had money
falling out of the sky into local govern
ment accounts, but that short-term boom
fooled governments into thinking the
money flow would last forever. It didn’t.
So where are local governments head
ed from here?
1. More government cuts are coming.
Taxes will remain down for the next year
or two; the funds aren’t there.
2. Government fees for user services
will increase. Recreation, senior citizens
and other user-specific programs will see
fees go up to help offset lower general
funds.
3. Cuts in benefits to government staff
by having employees pay a greater share
of health care and other benefits.
4. Compromises in services.
Government agencies have gotten used
to having the best of the best in equip
ment and staffing; those days are over..
No doubt, times are tough for local
governments. But government cannot be
exempt from the reality of the economic
downturn. Like businesses and individu
als, governments will also have to make
sacrifices.
Mike Buffington is editor of The
Jackson Herald. He can be reached at
mike@mainstreetnews. com.
mike
buffington