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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 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
Time to
consider unified
fire system
A RECENT online poll of
this newspaper’s website,
indicated strong support
for the merging of the county’s mul
tiple fire districts under one umbrel
la ([JacksonHeraIdTODAY.com).
Some 64 percent of those who
responded said they would support
a unified county fire department
while 27 percent were opposed.
That’s something of a major shift
in opinion for Jackson County.
Traditionally citizens have been
very protective of maintaining sepa
rate small departments.
In theory that sounds good.
Under Jackson County’s system
(with the exception of West Jackson,
Jefferson and Commerce), local
fire departments are governed by
a local fire board. The fire board
levies a property tax and from that,
funds the department it oversees.
The problem is that in reality there
is little separation of fire depart
ments and fire boards; they are
often on in the same. In addition,
fire board elections have become
an insider game with little real pub
lic input.
That has created a few “king
doms” around the county where
one or two people set local fire tax
rates and competition for the new
est “toys” has departments spend
ing tax dollars without any real over
sight.
This mix of some 10 separate fire
districts also makes local elections
and the local tax structure extreme
ly complex. Jackson County has
the most tax districts of any county
in Georgia because of the variety of
fire taxes.
But the biggest problem is the
lack of equal and cohesive fire ser
vices across the county. Some fire
districts are wealthier than others
because their local tax digest is
larger.
A better system would be for the
county government to levy one
county-wide fire tax rate under a
unified fire structure. Departments
would make budget requests to the
county and the elected board of
commissioners would determine
where the most pressing needs for
fire protection are in the county.
Such a system would create great
er oversight and accountability than
the current structure and in the long
run, provide more uniform fire ser
vices countywide.
This is a touchy issue, one politi
cally charged. For that reason, the
county government has been reluc
tant to discuss changing the status
quo.
Perhaps with this recent show of
support for a countywide system,
it’s time for the BOC to have that
discussion.
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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PO Box 908
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"It doesn't bother me that
so many lawmakers are
leaving office. What
worries me is who
might replace them!"
Georgia voters will have a real Senate race
JUST when it looked like Sen. Johnny Isakson could
take a casual stroll to another six-year term in office,
along came Michael Thurmond to ruin it.
Thurmond, who had always been reluctant to leave
his job as Georgia’s labor commissioner, jumped
off the fence last week and
Isakson in the general election.
Thurmond’s late entry into the
race - he made the announce
ment less than a week before
the start of qualifying - means
that Isakson won’t be able
to walk away with victory in
November. He will have to
run hard if he wants to keep
his seat.
This is not to suggest that
Isakson is in any dire jeop
ardy. The GOP incumbent has
always been a very popular fig
ure among both Republicans
and Democrats, and he had
more than $4.4 million in his bank account as of
March 31. Thurmond has never been a fundraising
juggernaut, so he will be at a financial disadvantage
in this race.
Isakson finds himself in a very similar position
as his Senate colleague, Saxby Chambliss, in 2008.
Chambliss also had the advantages of incumbency in
a Republican-leaning state and a financial edge over
his Democratic opponent. Jim Martin, who was not
nearly as dynamic a campaigner as Thurmond, still
held Chambliss below the 50 percent mark and forced
him into a general election runoff.
With that history in mind, it was interesting to see
the results of the first poll taken after Thurmond
jumped into the race. Rasmussen had Isakson with
a 51-35 percent lead over Thurmond. While Isakson
was 16 points ahead of Thurmond in that poll, he was
also uncomfortably close to dropping below the 50
percent support level that can be hazardous for an
incumbent.
Isakson also is dealing with some medical issues
that could have an impact on this race. He has been
hospitalized twice in recent weeks, including a stay in
the intensive care unit, for a bacterial infection, a blood
clot in his leg, and an irregular heartbeat.
The senator’s office issued a statement after
Thurmond’s announcement that quoted Isakson,
who’ll be 66 this year, as saying, “I am energized and
ready to run a vigorous campaign that will give Georgia
voters a clear choice.”
Thurmond said Isakson’s medical condition was not
a factor in his decision to get into the race. “I have great
respect for Johnny Isakson, his health is excellent, and
I look forward to engaging him in an open and honest
debate,” Thurmond said.
Assuming that Isakson is healthy enough to run a
normal reelection campaign, there are some issues
at the congressional level that can help him and hurt
him.
Isakson opposed the healthcare reform legislation
signed by President Barack Obama, a position that
should put him in good standing with a majority of
Georgia’s voters. He is already making statements
that link Thurmond to the Democratic leadership in
Washington: “Georgians will get to choose whether
they want someone who represents their conservative
values or someone who will push the Obama-Reid-
Pelosi agenda of government health care.”
On the other hand, Isakson and his Republican
colleagues have been opposing the Obama admin
istration’s proposal to regulate Wall Street investors,
which might not play so well in a year where many
Americans are unhappy about the excesses of the
financial community.
Thurmond touched upon this in his announcement
speech: “Because Washington and Wall Street con
spired against them, working men and women are in a
very desperate situation.”
The odds are in Isakson’s favor, but Thurmond still
serves a useful purpose for Georgia Democrats. He
provides a credible candidate at the top of the ticket
and should prevent Isakson from getting the 65 or 70
percent of the vote he would have received against
a fringe opponent. Keeping Democratic support in
line for this race will help the party’s nominee for
governor.
As an eloquent, African-American politician who has
won three statewide campaigns for labor commission
er, Thurmond can generate an increase in turnout by
black voters - a factor that also helps the Democratic
nominee for governor.
Thurmond is “taking a bullet for the team” by
agreeing to run against Isakson. There’s only a small
chance that he could actually win it. But even if he
loses, Thurmond helps Democrats in other races.
Tom Crawford is the editor of The Georgia Report.
He can be reached at tcrawford@caDitolimDact. net.
said he run against
tom
crawford
Myths of
education funding
F ROM all the outcry over cuts
in school funding during the
economic crisis, you’d think
government officials were dismantling
education.
Not true. A sober, non-self-serving
analysis of education funding over the
last decade shows that most of the
outcry over
funding
cuts has
nothing
to do with
quality of
education,
but is rather
the result of
the system
trying to
protect the
status quo.
The
problem
in Georgia
isn’t the lack
of money; it’s the systemic mismanage
ment of the dollars taxpayers already
pay.
This is a combination of both state
and local officials having made poor
decisions over the last two decades.
The main problem is that education
salaries have grown too fast to be sus
tainable while at the same time, pres
sure for smaller classes has increased
the overall number of people required
in the system.
In some states, teacher unions have
distorted the pay scales to such a
degree that it’s impossible for schools
to now make payroll.
In Georgia, there are no collective
bargaining unions, but political pres
sures from educator organizations
has created a distorted compensation
structure. The system is based on a
combination of tenure and degrees;
the result is that some very skilled
teaching positions are underpaid while
others are vastly overpaid. Georgia’s
system doesn’t reward success, only
longevity and academic credits.
Add to that too many bloated admin
istrative positions and it’s no wonder
that many school systems are broke.
But, you say, cutting spending will
hurt “the children.”
Not so. There is little evidence of
a correlation between spending and
education quality. The top states with
highest SAT scores often spend less
per student than states that spend a lot,
but have lower SAT results.
And across the globe, some coun
tries spend a far higher percentage of
their GNP than the U.S. on education,
but have a far weaker system. Cuba, for
example, leads the world in education
spending as a percentage of GDP; do
we see people flocking to Cuba for
high quality education? Nope.
In Georgia, education spending has
skyrocketed over the last two decades.
Local taxes statewide for education
grew three times faster than inflation
between 1995 and 2005.
In Jackson County in the county
school system, the student population
between 2000 and 2009 grew 31 per
cent, but the school system’s budget
grew from $32 million to $89 million
over the same period, a whopping 178
percent jump.
The reason for that wasn’t a growth
in students — it was a growth in admin
istrative and teacher salaries and in
debt expense.
Georgia and the local school sys
tems cannot deal with their funding
crisis because it really isn’t a lack of
funds that is the problem; it’s the bal
looning cost of payroll that has created
the current problem. And with 85-90
percent of education costs in salaries,
the spending problem can’t be fixed
without fundamentally changing how
the state compensates educators.
But that will never happen. Politics
dictates that the status quo will be
maintained because political leaders
don’t have the courage to restmcture
this broken system.
The result will be years of financial
problems in Georgia’s schools as edu
cation leaders act to protect their own
salaries and pay structures while at the
same time whining about the lack of
funds for copy paper.
Mike Buffington is editor of The
Jackson Herald. He can be reached at
mike@mainstreetnews. com.
mike
buffington