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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 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
Summer
decisions
important
for local
governments
I T’S the middle of the summer
and the usual pace of local
government is, on the surface,
slowed. Vacations and holidays tend
to temper government activity as var
ious councils and boards postpone
meetings and otherwise go into a
holding pattern.
But behind the scenes, the June-
July period is filled with financial
stress for many local governments.
The fiscal year for many agencies
ends in June and the new year starts
in July. And even for agencies that
run on a different calendar, the finan
cial decisions made by state agen
cies this time of year have a huge
impact.
In addition, the mid-summer is
when most counties begin to sort
out their tax digest projections. In
Jackson County, the overall tax
digest is likely to drop this year, an
event that will force most local gov
ernment to make a big decision this
fall to either raise their tax rate, or to
continue spending cuts.
In addition, the county is trying to
hammer out a SPLOST referendum
that it hopes to pass this fall.
For school systems, the summer
months are even more critical since
it is their brief planning period for
the upcoming school year. Class
schedules, last minute hirings and
school facility repairs have to be
done quickly to be ready for the
upcoming year.
So while the summer months often
appear to be a “slow” time for local
governments, behind the scenes, it is
a critical time for major decisions.
Stay tuned.
It’s our
birthday!
THIS week marks the 135th birth
day of The Jackson Herald.
That makes The Herald the old
est business in Jackson County
and one of the oldest continually
published newspapers in the state.
A lot has changed over the years,
especially in the area of technol
ogy.
But some things have not
changed. The Herald has been
under the same family ownership
for the last 45 years and prior to
that, was owned for 70 years by
another family.
We believe this stability and com
mitment to the local community is
important and we look forward to
many more years of covering the
important issues in Jackson County
and the surrounding area.
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
letters
Says illegals should go home
Dear Editor:
Your editorial, “Should illegals be booted from
college,’’ is a matter of black and white or better
put right or wrong. That at a time when most
Americans are struggling to make ends meet you
all want us to pay for the children of criminals
(check the crime rate among illegals) who have
no business being here to go to college.
Don’t spend this money on your own children
or your family member’s education (and all
American citizens are our family) spend it on
folks who have no regard for our laws or culture.
You seem to feel that for some reason these
criminals have more rights than do citizens of this
nation. What about the message we are sending
to both the illegals (and what part of the word
illegal don’t you understand) and our own kids
about the rule of law? That it is ok to break the
any law you don’t agree with?
What other laws would you like to see not
enforced, murder or rape or robbery etc? I feel
for these kids just as you do, but I also worry
about what future this nation has because without
borders there is no nation.
No. It is time to close that border close both
school and jobs to illegals and let them go back
to their own country, we don’t need any more
criminals, we have enough of our own.
I am a second generation American, my grand
parents came here at the turn of the century and
they obeyed the law and taught the kids to be
Americans. Taught their kids English, what was
right (legal) and what was wrong (illegal) and
tried very hard to be good Americans. According
to you they were fools, they should have not
waited in line at Ellis Island, not gone through
the rigor of a very difficult process of assimila
tion and not learned the history of this country
and definitely not tried to do the right thing.
They should skipped all that and just came here
took up residence and demanded all the rights of
a citizen, as these children and their parents are
now doing.
This nation is an immigrant nation but it is also
a nation of laws, we need both, without either
we will cease to be what we are and just become
another third world country (as a lot of these ille
gals seem to want).
Sincerely,
Fred Budin
Appreciates newspaper
coverage
Dear Editor:
I am an avid reader of your column and greatly
encouraged by the growing number of fair and
balanced news organizations in this country.
It is very encouraging to see this trend in the
media take hold and flourish.
Since I moved to Jackson County 12 years
ago, the local paper, under your leadership, has
been in the forefront of this national trend. In
column after column, including “Stop the ‘blame
America first’ games,” you have displayed your
love for this country and its people by communi
cating very strong and well balanced opinions on
most of the problems and opportunities facing us
locally and nationally.
Many thanks to you and your staff for all that
you do to keep us (the public) informed on things
that really matter, so that we can save this great
Republic from self-destruction.
Sincerely,
Tom Long
'Bo+h parties claim Perdue now...The Democrats claim he's a
Republican and the Republicans claim he's a Democrat!"
W
L
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Klh ii ) 11. /ji"
Perdue does the right thing
GOV. SONNY Perdue reached a significant mile
stone last week as he finished the process of sign
ing or vetoing the bills and resolutions passed by
legislators this year.
Barring an emergency that requires him to call a
special session of the General Assembly, those will
probably be the last pieces of legislation Perdue
signs during his two terms
as Georgia’s chief execu
tive.
Any governor will be
the target of complaints
because he signed or didn’t
sign some particular bill,
but Perdue deserves praise
for one of the measures
he decided not to sign into
law.
Perdue vetoed a bill spon
sored by Rep. Tom Graves
(R-Ranger), HB 1023, that
would have greatly reduced
the state’s capital gains
tax. A similar bill proposed by Sen. Chip Rogers
(R-Woodstock) was vetoed by the governor last
year.
Graves, who just won a special election to fill
Nathan Deal’s congressional seat, misleadingly
touted HB 1023 as a “jobs bill” because it would
have granted a few small tax and fee exemptions
for employers.
That’s nonsense. The bill would have really result
ed in a financial bonanza for Georgia’s wealthiest
citizens who have significant amounts of money
tied up in stocks, bonds and other investments.
The major provision in HB 1023 would have cut
in half the capital gains tax that is due when stocks
are sold. This capital gains tax break would have
amounted to more than $350 million a year - but
most of that $350 million in tax benefits would
have flowed to people in the state’s top income
brackets.
When this legislation was passed last year, a
fiscal analysis determined that 77 percent of the
benefits from the tax cut would go to the wealthiest
1 percent of Georgians (in terms of income) while
92 percent of the benefits would go to the top 5
percent of income earners.
The bottom 80 percent of Georgians - which
includes middle-class workers and families - would
have received about 1 percent of the total benefits
from the tax cut.
Tax cuts can be a good thing. I’d certainly appre
ciate having a few more of them myself. If lawmak
ers are going to pass a tax break, however, they
should adopt one that provides benefits for more
than just the wealthiest 5 percent of Georgians.
Enacting a tax break that reduces state revenues
by $350 million annually would have hurt in other
ways. The state sells about $1 billion in bonds
every year to raise money for such things as the
construction of highways and school classrooms.
The financial rating agencies, when considering
the impact of HB 1023 on future revenues, may well
have lowered Georgia’s AAA bond rating. That
would have cost the state millions of dollars more
in higher interest rates.
When Perdue vetoed this tax break last year, he
noted that it was not a good idea to be cutting rev
enues when state government was trying to cope
with the worst recession in more than 70 years.
“During a period of growth in our economy, the
budget may be able to absorb tax cuts that result
in short-term revenue reductions but provide long
term economic benefits,” Perdue said in his veto
message. “We are not, however, experiencing a
growing economy at this point... the short-term
revenue reduction resulting from large tax cuts
cannot be sustained in a manner consistent with
the budgets passed by the General Assembly.”
The situation for state government has only got
ten worse since Perdue wrote those words last
year. State and local governments are still strug
gling to find the money to pay for basic services
like schools, healthcare, and public safety. Ripping
another $350 million out of state revenues by giv
ing a tax cut to the rich just blows a bigger hole in
the budget.
In vetoing the tax cut this year, Perdue referred to
another bill he signed that creates a special com
mission to review all of Georgia’s tax policies later
this year and recommend changes in them.
Rather than sign a tax break that would have such
a major impact on state revenues, let’s give the
study commission a chance to look at the entire
tax structure and see where it can be improved.
Perdue had the wisdom to recognize this when
he vetoed HB 1023. He did the right thing.
Tom Crawford is the editor of The Georgia
Report. He can be reached at tcrawford@capito-
limpact.net.
Blame government,
not individuals
for immigration,
problems
L AST week, we ran an editorial about
the current effort in Georgia to
remove illegal aliens from state col
leges. The question
was asked if that
should be done.
The online
response to that
issue on our
website was over
whelming. A vast
majority of the
comments we got
were vehemently
opposed to illegal
immigrants; some
were vimlent in
their denuncia
tion.
This issue is
long and complex,
far too much so for this column. But I’m
troubled by two things that often come up in
this discussion.
First, the sense that many in the public are
misplacing their anger at the illegal immi
grants as people rather than the real prob
lem, which is our own federal government.
A vast majority of illegals come to this
country to better their own lives. While some
are involved in the drug trade or other illegal
pursuits, most just want to work.
There’s nothing morally or ethically wrong
with that. Indeed, many illegals have taken
on jobs that few people born in this nation
choose to do, especially in the service, con
struction and agriculture industries.
No one can blame these people for want
ing a better life for themselves. Given the
same circumstances, many of us would do
the same thing.
The real blame for the flood of illegals is
our own federal government, which has for
years not only turned a blind eye to the mat
ter, but also subtly encouraged it. The U.S.
government has failed to close the border
and it has encouraged illegal immigration by
making the process of legal immigration and
obtaining work visas slow, cumbersome and
unworkable.
This problem will never be fixed until our
own government finds a way to control the
border and to make the work visa process
quicker and easier. (A lot of bloggers have
called for “rounding up” illegals and deport
ing them. But what’s the point of doing that if
the border continues to be an open sieve?)
The second comment that often comes up
in this debate is the idea that “illegal means
illegal.” One blogger even suggested that the
18-year-old student in Georgia who came
here as a lOyear-old with her family should
have uprooted herself and moved back to
Mexico when she turned 18 because she
should know the law by that age.
But just because something’s “illegal”
doesn’t make it morally wrong. For decades,
states had Jim Crow laws that made the mix
ing of blacks and whites illegal. That was the
law, but it wasn’t morally or ethically right. In
Georgia at one time, it was illegal for blacks
and whites to eat in the same restaurant. It
was a common refrain that it was “the law,”
and had to be enforced.
So while that 18-year-old student who came
here as a child may technically be “illegal,”
is it morally right to boot her out of the
country for just being here? It is not her fault
that she’s an illegal alien; that was not of her
choosing.
So why are we taking out our anger over
illegal immigration by mining her life when
in reality, it’s our own government’s fault that
she’s here?
A lot of people see this issue in black-and-
white terms. Boot’em all out. Get rid of the
wetbacks. Kick’em out of school. Don’t allow
them health care. They’re all criminals.
But rather than taking out this frustration on
those who are seeking a better life, why don’t
we instead take our anger out on the politi
cians who have created this system?
Both political parties are to blame.
Republicans and Democrats have both
encouraged illegal immigration and both
have failed to deal with the resulting conse
quences.
Americans are very angry over illegal
immigration. But let’s not let that anger warp
our sense of decency and create xenopho
bic diatribes against those who have come
here legal or not. Just because they didn’t,
or couldn’t, get the paperwork doesn’t make
them any less human.
But for the grace of God....
Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson
Herald. He can be reached at mike@mainstreet-
news.com.