Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A
THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010
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
SPLOST is
in danger
W ITH another vote to
renew the Special
Purpose Local Option
Sales Tax looming in the next year,
Jackson County officials are gearing
up to make their sales pitch.
But this SPLOST vote will be a dif
ficult sale to citizens who are fed up
with high taxes, broken government
and the outright abuse of previous
SPLOST funds. An informal on-line
poll on this newspaper’s website,
www.JacksonHeraldToday. com,
shows that 51 percent of respon
dents don’t support the renewal of a
local SPLOST for any reason.
When it first became an option,
SPLOST was a good idea — levy
a sales tax to fund specific capi
tal projects. But local governments
soon got addicted to the money
and began depending on it not as
“extra” funds as intended, but as an
on-going integral part of their yearly
budgets. Many governments, includ
ing Jackson County, gambled on pay
ing long-term debt in anticipation of
SPLOST being renewed each year.
But that may not happen this time.
For one thing, local SPLOST
projects have become vague and
non-specific, which is not what the
law calls for. Saying SPLOST will
be used for “recreation,” or “roads”
or “water” isn’t specific enough,
although the county has gotten away
with that for years. From now on,
voters are going to demand SPLOST
projects be extremely specific, not
some vague category that allows
public officials to use the money as
they want to.
The widespread abuse of SPLOST
has angered many Jackson County
voters. For example, the City of
Jefferson used “recreation” SPLOST
funds to start a city radio station, a
$150,000 waste that had nothing to
do with recreation.
In the City of Hoschton, officials
“borrowed” city SPLOST funds and
put it in their General Fund to cover
financial mismanagement problems.
That wasn’t what voters wanted
when they approved SPLOST for
capital projects in the town.
And of course, there’s the City of
Pendergrass where the town’s city
manager openly bragged about how
he used city SPLOST money to pay
an illegal immigrant to mow grass in
the town — not a legal use of those
dollars.
In addition to the open abuse of
SPLOST funds, voters in Jackson
County are angry about other parts
of the local tax system. Citizens living
in the West Jackson Area are livid
that their property tax assessments
have not gone down much despite
the housing bust which has virtually
shut down the real estate market and
depressed prices. Asking those folks
to approve a SPLOST is like spitting
in their eye.
And voters are upset with how
some of the funds have been used
in the past, such as the fire training
facility that grew into a multi-million
dollar project from what was to have
been a simple burn building.
Not all SPLOST projects have been
bad. The economic development
roads will, in the long run, pay off;
the new jail had to be built or the
county faced possible court-ordered
construction; and some of the water
and sewer extension has helped
around the county.
But for every worthy project, there
have been several suspect projects,
or outright abuse of SPLOST dollars.
Voters are angry. They’re in no
mood to renew a SPLOST given this
recent history of local abuse.
Selling a SPLOST renewal will be
an uphill fight. Local governments
have nobody but themselves to
blame.
Nicholson resident upset with councilman’s actions
Dear Editor:
I am one of the citizens who lives within the city
limits of “The Nicholson Time Machine,” so graciously
named by The Jackson Herald editor (January 20, 2010
editorial), in reference to the motion made by Nicholson
council member Chuck Wheeler to add $10,000 to travel
and education expense in our 2010 city budget.
In case any citizen of Nicholson or Jackson County
hasn’t heard of what happened during the last Nicholson
City Council meeting, then let me bring you up-to-date.
During the council meeting, council member Chuck
Wheeler stated, “I think we need to add $10,000 to
travel, we are going places.” With that said, Mr. Wheeler
made a motion to add $10,000 to travel and education.
Council members Howard Wilbanks and Lamar Watkins
voted in favor of the motion, but council member Bobby
Crawford voted against the motion.
Where is this additional money coming from? Now,
here’s where I think you really want to pay attention.
Mr. Wheeler believes we spend too much money on
the Nicholson Public Library, which for the city’s 2010
budget is $26,000. “I think that is a little high, $26,000 for
books and periodicals,” Wheeler said.
Mr. Lamar Watkins’ answer of where to get the addi
tional funding was, “I think we need to cut back on what
we spend on fireworks, $5,000 is a lot to blow up in the
air.”
As for Mr. Howard Wilbanks, I didn’t see any com
ments listed. He really didn’t need comments because
his vote in favor speaks for itself.
What I thought was missing from The Jackson Herald
article was the proposed 2010 travel/training plan that
I’m sure the members voting in favor of the additional
funding provided to the council prior to asking for the
$10,000 motion. You did present a plan, didn’t you?
Surely, the “trekking trio” didn’t vote on funding their
own travels without first wanting to provide justification
to the citizens of Nicholson? If you haven’t put together
your proposal for the citizens of Nicholson, then here are
my thoughts on what you may want to include:
What training/travel is so critical in order for you to do
your job as a council member in 2010.
Why are you (or any other member) the one most
qualified to go on the trip/training? Who makes that
determination?
What will be the benefits to this city and/or citizens?
What travel/training did council members take in 2009
and how did the city and citizens of Nicholson benefit
from those travels and training?
As I close, I do offer other ideas in helping the
“Nicholson Time Machine” get the most out of their
planned travels. But my ideas won’t take money away
from our library and/or Independence Day celebration.
Once you know what travel or education is needed to
accomplish your duties in 2010, make your way over to
our great library and check out one of the many books
and periodicals they have on the subject. But before you
begin your studies, may I also suggest spreading open
pages of a National Geographic or Travel magazine that
have your favorite travel destinations. See, now you’re
“going places!”
Sincerely,
Randall A. Bennett
Nicholson
Gloomy times under the Gold Dome
THIS is not a fun time to be a state legislator in
Georgia. You can see it in all the long faces in the
House and Senate chambers. You can hear it in the
committee rooms as lawmakers fret over the difficulty
of dealing with constituents who
keep complaining about servic
es being cut.
With state government on the
brink of a billion-dollar budget
deficit, there’s no money for law
makers to pass around for those
projects back home.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the
party atmosphere that had been
so prevalent in past sessions has
been dialed back. Now that a
scandal involving a female lob
byist has swept out the top lead
ership in the House, everybody
has to be on their best behavior
- at least for a while.
The line you now hear about some of the lobbyists
goes like this: the skirts are longer and the heels are
shorter, and the blouses are buttoned all the way up.
The result of all this is that the people at the capitol
are unhappier than they’ve been in a long time.
Rep. Butch Parrish (R-Swainsboro), who has been
a legislator long enough to have served as both a
Democrat and a Republican, observed: “It’s kind of
like Obama going to Washington: he looks around
and sees all the problems and says, ‘I got elected to
WHAT?”’
“I don’t think it’s unhappiness as much as I think
it’s concern about the budget,” said Rep. Austin Scott
(R-Tifton). “You’ve still got to keep people in jail, you’ve
still got to educate kids, no matter how low the budget
is. There’s a lot of worry not just about the budget for
2011, but the budget for 2012 and the budget for 2013.”
Sen. George Hooks (D-Americus), one of the longest-
serving lawmakers, was around in 1991 when a similar
financial crisis compelled then-governor Zell Miller
to call a special legislative session to cut $600 million
from the budget and lay off state employees.
“I think it’s rougher (than in 1991),” Hooks said. “We
cut from the high to the middle when Zell brought us
back here. Now, we’re cutting from the low to the very
low.”
You could get an idea of how serious the situation
is becoming at the legislative budget hearings where
department heads testified about the impact of the
recession and the dropoff in state revenues.
State school Supt. Kathy Cox always went along like
a good team player and didn’t protest all those times
when the governor and the legislature cut hundreds
of millions of dollars in state funding to local school
systems. Even Cox is speaking out about the damage
that’s been done to public education.
“System by system, we have a lot of them teetering on
the edge,” Cox told the House and Senate appropria
tions committees. “We’ve had a lot of systems go into
the red this year.”
“We could have as many as 35 school systems that
have come to the point of hitting the wall,” Rep. Alan
Powell (D-Hartwell) said. “They’ve got to make the
choice of meeting a payroll or making their bond pay
ments. That’s a scary, scary situation.”
Cox did not dispute Powell’s estimate.
As bad as it is now, it certainly gets even worse next
year. The General Assembly was only able to balance
the last couple of budgets with the help of federal
stimulus funds from Washington.
“As much as people cuss the stimulus program, it’s
saved our taxpayers a lot of money,” Hooks said. “It’s
propped up education, Medicaid, DOT and kept them
going.”
When he presented his proposed budget to the appro
priations committees, Gov. Sonny Perdue reminded
them that the federal stimulus funds, which amounted
to $1.4 billion this year, won’t be there next year when
they start working on the spending plan for fiscal year
2012.
The disappearance of stimulus dollars, combined
with the costs of increased demand for Medicaid
services and growing school enrollment, means that
lawmakers could be dealing with a revenue shortfall of
as much as $2.6 billion next year, Perdue estimated.
The governor noted that he’ll be out of office by the
time that particular bomb hits.
The members of the General Assembly won’t be
so lucky. They will have even more reason to be
unhappy.
Tom Crawford is the editor of The Georgia Report.
He can be reached at tcrawford@capitolimpact.net
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
Postmaster: Send Address Changes To:
MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
PO Box 908
Jefferson, Georgia 30549-0908
Web Site: www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com
Email: mike@mainstreetnews.com
Voice: 706.367.5233
Fax: 706.367.9355 (news)
Periodical Postage paid at Jefferson, GA 30549 (SCED 271980)
Yearly Subscriptions: $19.75 in-county; $38.85 in state; $44.50 out-
of-state; Sr. Citizens’ and college students $2 off; Military $42.50
SBRC is TMI
O VER the last few years,
Standards Based Report
Cards have become a big
fad in many schools. But they are con
troversial and not everyone, including
many educators, believe SBRCs are
worthwhile.
That was to be the subject this
week at a meeting of Jackson County
School System middle school teach
ers and leaders. The school system is
reportedly
planning
to put
SBRCs in
its middle
schools, a
move that
is drawing
some stiff
resistance
from teach
ers.
For the
uninitiated,
SBRCs are
extremely
detailed
report cards
about a student’s progress. But in
some cases, schools have done away
with the traditional letter grades and
now only use a numerical scale of 1-4
on the various aspects of an SBRC.
Supporters of the SBRC system
say the more detailed report cards is
better and gives parents much more
information than traditional letter
grades. For example, in the subject of
“Reading,” an SBRC report can break
it down into several categories, such
as speed, fluency, accuracy, etc. And
an SBRC reporting allows for other
non-academic grading, such as effort,
behavior, motivation, etc.
Currently used in many local
elementary schools, many from both
inside and outside the school system
don’t think it should be expanded into
middle schools.
This issue brings to the fore one
of the biggest problems in the public
education system — an inability to
communicate clearly. For a profession
that is so focused on teaching — com
municating information to students
— education leaders fare poorly in
general communications.
Educrats tend to spin information
they report to the public and to lace it
with obtuse jargon. At the state level,
standardized test results are always
phrased to sound good even when
those results are, in reality, bad. But
this educrat spin is so transparent and
clumsy, it undermines public confi
dence in the entire system.
One of the worst tendencies in all
this is that education leaders tend to
believe there is no such thing as too
much data. School leaders are heavily
addicted to numerical evaluations, as
if numbers have the power to answer
all questions and clear up all assump
tions.
What education leaders fail to real
ize, however, is that there is such a
thing as “too much information.” More
data doesn’t equate better communi
cation; often, it just obscures the truth.
Many parents don’t want a 25-point
detailed summary of their child’s read
ing ability; they want to know if he is
an A, B or C student. They understand
that. It’s part of the American educa
tion culture, ingrained from decades
of use.
Getting a “B” may not detail specific
strengths or weaknesses about a child,
but most parents instinctively under
stand what a “B” grade is. It’s a short
hand way to say a lot of things without
having to decipher foggy data points.
(Even if a parent knows his child lacks
reading “fluency,” what is he supposed
to do about it?)
There are some limited uses of
SBRC reporting. Students who have
developmental delays or other prob
lems might benefit from a detailed
analysis that acts as a guide for outside
tutors, psychologists, etc. And for
internal use at a school, it’s helpful for
teachers to know a student’s strengths
and weaknesses from the past.
But for 90 percent of parents, SBRC
reporting is TMI.
And for the life of me, I don’t under
stand why the school system, amid
its financial problems, would want to
pursue this expensive idea anyway.
Mike Buffington is editor of The
Jackson Herald. He can be reached at
mike@mainstreetnews. com.