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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 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
Jefferson
should be
careful on grant
A PROPOSAL by a
Jefferson church for
the city government to
secure a $500,000 stimulus grant
that would be administered by
the church needs some careful
scrutiny
While on the surface the idea
behind the grant appears to be
worthy the details of the plan raise
some questions.
The idea behind the grant is
to create jobs for 50 people in
the community. But it appears the
main jobs to be created would
be for consultants and top grant
officials.
For example, the project direc
tor would make $70,000; the office
manager (secretary) would make
$52,000; three proposed social
workers would make $50,000 each;
and $100,000 would be given away
in forgivable business loans.
Sounds to us like this grant is just
a way for those proposing the idea
to make some money for them
selves and their friends by tapping
into federal funds.
The kicker for the city is that it
would be responsible for account
ing for how the grant money is
spent. Any problems in the financ
es would fall back on the city’s
shoulders.
Something doesn’t appear
kosher with this grant idea. The
city should proceed with caution.
Don’t shoot the
messenger
AFTER LAST week’s arti
cle from Jackson County Tax
Commissioner Don Elrod alerting
taxpayers that the state’s abandon
ing of the homestead tax rebate
could cause taxes to rise, several
people posted flaming comments
on our website about Mr. Elrod,
blaming him for the situation.
But Mr. Elrod has nothing to
do with the county’s tax asses
sor’s office, nor does he have any
power to set the tax rates — that’s
the responsibility of the board of
commissioners. The tax commis
sioner only collects taxes.
Nobody likes high taxes. If you
want to complain about it, go to
the board of commissioners and
demand a cut in spending and
lower tax rates.
But don’t shoot Mr. Elrod; he
is just the messenger trying to
warn people to get their escrow
accounts in order before they get
slammed later this year.
The Jackson Herald
Founded 1875 • The Official Legal
Organ of Jackson County, Ga.
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher & Editor
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher &
Advertising Manager
News Department
Angela Gary Associate Editor
Jana Adams Mitcham Features Editor
Brandon Reed Sports Editor
Kerri Testement Reporter
Sharon Hogan Reporter
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letters
A Jefferson speed trap on Hwy. 335?
Dear Editor:
On June 1, I went to Jefferson to take care of some
business and on the way home I decided to go see a
friend. I turned on to Hwy. 335 and a little way down
a Jefferson police officer had someone pulled over. I
continued on to my friend’s house.
My friend was not there so I started home the same
way I had come in knowing that the police officer
was sitting there. I set my cruise control to 35 mph.
As I entered the curve and started down the incline I
applied my brakes to turn the cruise off and continued
past where the officer was parked. He pulled out and
turned his blue lights on.
After giving him my license he returned with a ticket
for me to sign, 58 in a 35. I told him I was not doing
58 mph that I had my cruise set on 35 mph and he
said “I don’t have time to argue with you, just sign the
ticket and you can go to court. The court date is on
the ticket.”
I’m 68-years-old and I am not a stupid person. Why
would I be speeding in an area I just came by less than
10 minutes ago knowing there was an officer there.
The next day, I was on Hwy. 335 again and saw the
same officer with another person pulled over in the
same area. I don’t know what is going on, but it seems
like entrapment to me. This road goes from 55 mph to
45 mph to 35 mph. I don’t know at what point the radar
picks up, but I can tell you now I was not doing 58 mph
in that 35 mph area.
Sincerely,
Eugen RH. Eckstein
Maysville
“I'm really glad Barnes decided to run again...
I thought we'd never get another chance to vote against him!"
Are the voters ready for some action
IN ROY BARNES’ announcement that he had decid
ed to run for governor again, he tried to say all the
right things he thought voters would want to hear.
He was conciliatory, a little apologetic, and tried to
give the appearance that he really understands why
he and his sidekick Bobby Kahn enraged so many vot
ers in 2002 that they booted him from the governor’s
office and elected Republican Sonny Perdue instead.
He didn’t listen to others enough when he was gov
ernor, Barnes conceded. He told the cute anecdote
of how his mother used to say he was “the hardest-
headed kid God put on the face of the Earth.”
“I realize I was impatient and I had an aggres
sive agenda,” Barnes said.
“Listening is something I didn’t
do enough of when I was gover
nor. I tried to do too much, too
fast. My heart was in the right
place but I was impatient and
didn’t consult enough different
people outside the Capitol.”
I’ve known Barnes since he
was a young attorney in Cobb
County getting ready to run his
first race for the legislature. I
can’t really decide if he was
sincere about those lessons he
supposedly learned from the
disaster of 2002.
Deep down, I would guess that Barnes still thinks
he took the correct course when he aggressively tried
to resolve Georgia’s longstanding problems with high
ways, education, healthcare, and the state flag - an
approach that made a lot of voters mad and cost him
the governor’s office.
The passage of time shows that Barnes was correct
about the need to address those issues. Perdue has
done little to address the state’s problems, which
means that our roads are more crowded, our schools
still rank in the bottom 10 percent of the states, and
the number of people without health insurance now
approaches two million.
There are many Georgia voters who are quite happy
with a low-energy governor who avoids the major
issues. After all, Perdue was comfortably reelected
with 58 percent of the vote in 2006. Barnes is betting
that a majority of the voters want to try a more activist
approach.
That’s really the pivotal question for the governor’s
race: Are voters ready to wake up from the big
sleep of the past eight years, or do they want to con
tinue with the muddling approach exemplified by the
Perdue administration?
At this point in the campaign, the Republican nomi
nee (whoever that turns out to be) would seem to
have the numbers running in his or her favor.
There are people who cite the results of last
November’s general election as a good omen for
Democrats, when a record turnout of black voters
helped Barack Obama run a competitive race against
John McCain for the state’s electoral votes and
enabled Jim Martin to push Republican Sen. Saxby
Chambliss into a runoff.
The high turnout in 2008 - 3.9 million voters - was
during a presidential year, however. Voter turnout
always drops off sharply in non-presidential election
years. The turnout in the 2010 general election will
probably be closer to the 2.1 million voters who cast
ballots in the December runoff last year - a smaller
slice of the electorate where the Republican vote
tends to be heavier.
By way of comparison, Chambliss led Martin by
about 109,000 votes in the general election, but
expanded that winning margin to more than 318,000
votes in the Dec. 2 runoff. Those numbers should
be a concern for any Democrat who plans to run for
statewide office next year.
Barnes does give Democrats at least a shot at being
competitive. Any of the other Democratic candidates
would get, at best, 45 percent of the general election
vote against the Republican nominee. One thing that
Barnes can do very well is raise money, so he would
have more of a fighting chance.
Early polls, which mean very little right now, show
that Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine is run
ning a couple of points ahead of Barnes, while
Secretary of State Karen Handel runs a couple of
points behind him. That’s a sign that we could have a
very close election next year.
I don’t think there’s any question that Barnes will
win the Democratic nomination. Can he convince
enough people that he’s really learned his lesson to
win a general election?
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s
Georgia Report. He can be reached at tcrawford@
caDitolimDact.net.
An economic
crystal ball
W HERE is the economy
headed and when will we
come out of this recession?
Don’t ask the “experts” that question
— query 100 economists and you’ll get
250 different answers.
The truth is, nobody has a crystal ball
that can predict our economic future.
The people that thought they had the
answers have discovered they didn’t
even know the
questions to
ask.
That’s one
reason the
economy
collapsed
— the “smart
est guys in
the room”
all turned
out not to
be so smart
after all.
Their risky
and greedy
behavior
and an over
reliance on complex formulas caused
this mess.
But we all have “gut” feelings about
the economy and where things are
going. Here’s my two cents from gazing
into my own crystal ball:
• The downturn began in the
Northeast Georgia area in the fall of
2007; it’s just now hitting some other
parts of the state. The hardest hit areas
initially were the high-growth mar
kets that had become so dependent
on constmction. Now, the downturn
appears to be trickling down to some
South Georgia markets that weren’t in
that boom cycle. This tells me that the
economic recovery will come in a series
of small waves, not all at once and not
quickly.
• What are the most important num
bers to watch? There are literally thou
sands of statistics that you could moni
tor in an attempt to gauge where the
economy is headed. (Forget the Stock
Market, it’s a bad indicator of local eco
nomic activity.) For my money, the main
three numbers to watch locally are:
Unemployment rate, foreclosure rate
and sales tax returns to county govern
ments. Until unemployment and foreclo
sure rates show a sustained downturn
and sales taxes show a sustained up
tick, we will be in a recession.
• From what I can see, recovery from
this recession won’t be a quick bounce
as has happened in the past. While
there is some pent up demand in the
market, too many people are already
overextended and have no money to
finance a strong comeback.
• The longer the recession lingers,
the more the pain will spread. People
and businesses can survive for a short
time on savings and other assets, but
as the recession lingers, those fallback
assets will be used up. That leads to
more business failures and more fore
closures as the money simply runs out.
Stopping that slide is very difficult.
• The impact of the federal “stimulus”
spending has not, so far, done very
much for the economy. Perhaps it’s too
soon to call what will happen with that
since the money hasn’t fully flushed
through the economy. But more likely,
the stimulus won’t have much impact
because much of it was just government
bailing out other governments.
• It appears there’s more pain to
come in the area as both the banking
and automotive industries continue to
undergo failures and restructuring. It will
take time for both of those large sectors
to shake out and stabilize; until they do,
uncertainty will rule.
• PREDICTION: The economy will
continue to be sluggish in this area for
the rest of 2009, but may see a slow
upturn in the spring of 2010 as unem
ployment and foreclosures begin to
improve. However, by 2011, fears of
inflation because of the massive federal
spending could raise interest rates and
choke-off any kind of sustained recov
ery. On the upside for Jackson County,
growing problems in Gwinnett County
with increasing crime and higher taxes
may push more people out to Jackson
County if people in Gwinnett can sell
their homes. That may give a brief bump
to the local economy this time next year.
But then, I may be all wrong. Rising
gas prices could derail everything.
Mike Buffington is editor of The
Jackson Herald. He can be reached at
mike@mainstreetnews. com.
mike
buffington