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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 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
Finances strong
now, but future
uncertain
S O FAR, the Jackson County
government has avoided the
kind of massive financial
squeeze that has hit many other local
governments.
Part of that is due to fairly good
management of the county’s money.
On a department-by-department
basis, the county has pared expenses
and as reported last week, managed
to add over $900,000 to its reserve
funds in 2009.
But part of the county’s financial
success has also been due to a mas
sive growth in revenues in recent
years.
In the year 2000, the county’s tax
income was $23 million; last year
it was $37.8 million, a 61 percent
increase over the decade. Of those
dollars, in 2000 just $7.2 million was
generated by property taxes. That
tripled over the years and in 2009,
property taxes accounted for $23.9
million of the county’s revenue.
That means that in 2000, property
taxes were 42 percent of the county’s
tax income while last year it was 57
percent.
That was due to growth in the
county that added to the county’s
tax digest. From 2000 to 2009, the
county’s tax digest grew a whopping
140 percent. Most of that was due
to residential projects that tripled in
value during the last decade, but also
due to more commercial and busi
ness development.
So while the county has managed
its money well overall, part of that
financial success was due to a wind
fall of more revenues.
Now, however, there are some dark
clouds gathering that could dramati
cally change the county’s financial
picture.
First is an anticipated drop in the
county tax digest. During the boom
years, property values were inflat
ed because of all the speculation.
Now, those values have fallen and
the county is finally starting to make
adjustments (funny how they were
so quick to hike property values, but
have been dragging their feet to lower
them.) And while new growth will
offset that some, this year officials
expect the tax digest to actually go
down for the first time in decades.
Second, the recession has hit sales
tax revenues hard. The county last
year was down $1.2 million in sales
taxes from its peak, a 19 percent
decline.
Finally, the biggest problem the
county faces is its long-term debt.
Starting with the new courthouse, the
county’s debt has exploded in the
last decade. At the end of 2009, the
county had debt of over $131 million.
To put it in perspective, the county’s
2009 audit said that debt amounted
to over seven percent of personal
income and over $2,100 per capita in
the county (and that doesn’t count
city or school system debt.)
Making that even worse is that local
taxpayers didn’t approve most of that
debt, yet are obligated to pay it.
Officials hope voters will approve
a SPLOST renewal in November and
that those funds can be used to pay
some of that debt; but approval of
SPLOST is not assured given the mis
use of those dollars in the past and
the likelihood that not all of that
money will be used for debt reduc
tion.
The bottom line is this: The county
has so far weathered a tough finan
cial storm, but if the economy stays
stagnant and revenues continue to
fall while debt obligations continue
to climb, a major crisis will follow.
And if the SPLOST vote fails, county
leaders will be forced to do major
cost cutting, perhaps having to curtail
services, or have a major property
tax hike.
Jackson County is better off than
many of its peers across the nation,
but the really tough part is just now
hitting.
You drink,
Coming soon to a location near you: Guns
tom
crawford
IT’S BEEN a very difficult year for politicians trying to
raise money for their campaigns, but state Rep. Sean
Jerguson (R-Holly Springs) seems to have come up
with an idea that’s right on
target.
Jerguson is a stocky, ami
able person who operates a
combination gun shop and
shooting range in Cherokee
County called “Hi-Caliber.”
The two-term legislator,
like everyone else running
for public office in Georgia,
knows that the recession has
dried up many of the usual
sources for campaign con
tributions. People who have
had their homes foreclosed
or lost their businesses to
bankruptcy don’t generally have spare money to give
to a political candidate - and there are a lot of people
in that condition these days.
Jerguson tried something different last week. He
held a fundraising event at his shooting range that
combined elements of a raffle and a marksmanship
competition.
Entrants paid $50 to shoot at targets denoting the
various playing cards in a 52-card deck. Whichever
five cards a shooter hit were the five cards that made
up his poker hand. The shooter who ended up
with the best poker hand won the grand prize: an
AR-15 semi-automatic rifle (the weapon upon which
the military based the M16 that is standard issue for
infantrymen).
The event was clearly a success. “We raised a
little over $10,000,” Jerguson said, which is not a bad
amount for a House race.
Among those who paid the entry fee for Jerguson’s
shooting match were House Speaker David Ralston
(R-Blue Ridge) and Senate Majority Leader Chip
Rogers (R-Woodstock). Neither Rogers nor Ralston
won the assault weapon, which Jerguson said was
awarded to a Cherokee County resident.
Coincidentally, Jerguson’s shooting match was held
on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court handed
down its landmark “McDonald v. Chicago” decision,
which holds that a person’s constitutional right to
keep and bear arms applies to states as well as to
federal jurisdictions.
Just three days after Jerguson’s event, a new state
law (SB 308) took effect that did away with most
of Georgia’s provisions that previously determined
where firearms could or could not legally be carried
in public.
Under the new law, Georgia still bans the carrying
of guns in churches, school property, nuclear power
plants, bars without the owner’s permission, govern
ment buildings, and mental health facilities, but the
Supreme Court ruling could eventually knock out all
of those restrictions as well.
Jerguson is a guy who really believes that people
should carry guns. When his daughter had her fourth
birthday, he gave her a pink, .22-caliber firearm. He
said he would give the same weapon, only in blue, to
his son when the boy turns four.
Even Jerguson, however, says it’s probably not a
bad idea to retain the restriction on carrying weapons
in public buildings such as jails, courthouses, and the
state capitol.
“Most would agree that’s a reasonable restriction,”
he said. “I don’t foresee that being changed.”
Time may prove him to be wrong about that.
Attorneys for the progun group Georgia Carry have
already indicated they’ll go to court to challenge the
restriction on bringing firearms to churches. Once
they’ve knocked down that restriction, as they surely
will, they’ll go after the other few restrictions that are
still on the books.
Within two or three years, I believe you will see
people legally carrying handguns into school build
ings where there are kindergarten classrooms, into
jailhouses where dangerous criminals are being
detained, and even into the Fulton County courthouse
where just five years ago a Superior Court judge and
his court reporter were gunned down and killed.
Laws that prohibit mentally deranged individuals
and people with criminal records from buying hand
guns will most likely be swept off the books as well.
If a court does not rule against the restrictions, then
someone in the General Assembly will probably
introduce a bill to do away with them.
Why stop there? One day if you don’t like the way
your legislator voted on a particular bill, you may
even be able to walk into the capitol fully armed and
discuss the matter with him.
I’m not sure it’s such a great idea to allow firearms
in so many public places, but that is obviously where
we are headed.
Tom Crawford is the editor of The Georgia Report,
an Internet news service at www.gareport.com that
covers government and politics in Georgia. 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 col
lege students $2 off; Military $42.50
Technology changing
news delivery mode
T ECHNOLOGY has revolutionized
every industry, but perhaps none
more so than in communications,
including newspapers.
From a production standpoint, nothing much
changed from the time Gutenberg invented
movable type in the mid-1400s until the 1950s
and 1960s. As a kid working in the family busi
ness, I still setup
headlines one let
ter at a time from
letters affixed to
wooden blocks in
the mid-1960s.
Today, all of that
is digital. Photos are
digital; typesetting is
digital; layout is digi
tal. And now, even
the form newspa
pers appear in are
moving toward digi
tal distribution.
For over a
decade, we have
had a website (mainstreetnews.com) that has
put some local news online for free. A couple
years ago, we expanded that to have a series of
sub-websites attached to the various individual
newspapers in our publishing group, along with
sports, obits and public notice sites.
All of that has been very successful. We get
hundreds of thousands of hits each month. But
we only put up part of our news on the web
sites, not every article or advertisement that we
publish in print.
That’s about to change. For a small addi
tional fee to a regular subscription (or a stand
alone subscription fee), readers can now sub
scribe to the full digital edition of The Jackson
Herald or its sister paper, the Barrow Journal.
Called an “e-Edition,” this new service allows
online readers to see the full newspaper on
their computer screen just like it’s printed.
Why are we doing this?
There are several distinct advantages to mak
ing a full digital copy of The Herald available.
First, people from the area who now live
outside the state often have difficulties getting
a printed copy in a timely manner. USPS distri
bution tends to be slow in sending out-of-state
newspapers; printed copies often take over a
week to show up.
With an online electronic edition, that is no
longer an issue as it’s available on Thursday
right after Wednesday night’s press mn.
But even for local readers, access to our
online e-edition has several neat advantages
that supplement the printed edition:
• You will be able to click on a story and
email that to other people. For example, you
can send the photo and story of your child’s
sports events immediately, just as it appeared
in print, to Grandma in Oregon and Aunt Suzie
in Florida.
• You can print stories for yourself just as
they appear, or in a text version. You can also
see articles online either in graphic mode as
they appeared in print, or in text mode.
• You will have access to back issues so that
if you want to re-read something from a month
ago or six months ago, you can do that without
having to find an older print copy. All articles
will be at your fingertips.
• You will be able to do a search of all edi
tions by keyword. For example, you can search
for your name by the current issue, or all the
past issues.
• Taking that one step further, you can set
up an “e-notify” notice that will send you an
email anytime a keyword you enter appears in
the newspaper. If you’re in the public eye (or
you want to follow someone in the public eye),
you can set the name or a business name to
track. (For business people, this feature can
also track local industry news. If you are a
banker, for example, you could put the word
“bank” in the notice and you would be notified
every week of any article that had the word
“bank” in it.)
• For the seeing impaired, the website can
read stories verbally through the computer
speaker.
• Articles can be translated into several dif
ferent languages.
• The e-edition will be available via com
puter, iPad and smartphones.
In addition to those features, there are sever
al ways you can view articles on line and scroll
through all the pages in the newspaper.
This new e-edition doesn’t replace our regu
lar websites where you can go for breaking
news and to make comments on key stories.
Until July 13, you can try the new e-edition
for free atwww.jacksonheraldtoday.com/eedi-
tion.
Give it a try to see how newspaper technol
ogy is evolving in this new digital age.
Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson
Herald. He can be reached at mike@main-
streetnews.com.
mike
buffington