Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A
THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 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
Send us your
school news
A S THE school year
begins, we want
to remind parents,
teachers and school adminis
trators to feel free to send us
your school news.
We sometimes get calls or
emails from parents want
ing to know why their child’s
photo or name wasn’t pub
lished in the newspaper after
some event. The truth is, we
don’t know about those items
because nobody at the school
sent the information to us.
We don’t gather news
through osmosis. Somebody
has to let us know.
Some individual schools
are very good at sending in
school news and photos. But
other schools seldom send us
any information.
We recommend all schools
designate a school employee
with making photos and send
ing us relevant school infor
mation.
Our policy is to use virtually
everything a school sends to
us if it’s student or general
school news. And sometimes,
for large special events, we
may even send a reporter to
cover a story at the school.
So to all teachers, parents
and administrators, we ask
that you email school news
to:
anme@mainstreetnews. com
For photos, send as an
attachment, not embedded
into another file. Remember
also to send high quality pho
tos that are not blurry or out-
of-focus.
Please identify the people in
the photo by row left-to-right
order.
And include basic infor
mation and a contact phone
number so we can call if we
have questions.
We welcome all news from
every school in Jackson
County. We will publish it as
soon as we can during the
school 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
Ben Muro 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
"I missed a bit. Could you repeat that last insult?"
Running away from the president
WHEN Sarah Palin endorsed Karen Handel prior to
the Republican primary, Handel embraced that support
and has been attached at the hip to Palin - figuratively
speaking - ever since.
Getting that endorsement from
the “mama grizzly” obviously
was a factor in Handel taking
the number one position among
the GOP candidates for governor
in the primary. She will try to
close the sale when Palin flies to
Atlanta on Aug. 9, the day before
the runoff election, to appear at a
campaign rally with Handel.
Contrast Handel’s behavior to
the reaction of the Democratic
nominee, Roy Barnes, to a
Georgia visit by a nationally
known political figure.
As President Barack Obama prepared to make a quick
stopover in Atlanta this week, Barnes was making sure
everyone knew he would be as far away from the capital
city as you could be while still remaining with the geo
graphical confines of Georgia.
Barnes’ campaign manager said the former governor
had a prior commitment to be in south Georgia while
Obama was here to give a speech and appear at a
fundraiser. In other words, there was no way Barnes
was going to be anywhere within camera range of the
president during this important election year.
Handel ran to Palin, the most popular figure in her
party and will be by her side while Palin is in Georgia.
Barnes ran away from Obama, the dominant political
figure in his party and planned to be at least a hundred
miles away while the president was in Atlanta.
Which strategy is smarter? Time may prove that
Barnes is making the better decision here.
While Obama would obviously help motivate black
voters to turn out at the polls this fall, he also is very
unpopular in Georgia among moderate and conserva
tive white voters whose support Barnes is trying to
get. To have any hopes of hanging on to the votes of
Georgia-style independents, Barnes can’t afford to be
seen anywhere near Obama.
There is growing evidence that Palin, the former
governor of Alaska, has that same kind of polarizing
influence on independent voters who are not diehard
members of her own party.
Public Policy Polling conducted a survey recently in
New Hampshire after Palin endorsed Republican can
didate Kelly Ayotte in the U.S. Senate race and found
that Ayotte’s support among independent voters was
collapsing.
The poll results indicated that among moderate vot
ers, 65 percent said a Palin endorsement would turn
them off compared to 14 percent who said it would
make them more supportive.
A recent Gallup poll found a similar response to Palin
on the national level. Gallup’s survey showed that
while Palin enjoyed a 76 percent favorable rating among
Republicans, her approval numbers dropped dramati
cally when independents were added to the mix.
This would suggest that while Palin’s endorsement
helps Handel among Republicans voting in her party
primary it might not be such a good thing in a general
election where a candidate needs to draw support from
independent voters in the middle.
If Handel wins the Republican nomination, she may
find that the Palin endorsement has become not a life
preserver, but a cement block around her neck.
This scenario assumes that Handel is going to win the
Republican runoff, a result that Nathan Deal is working
hard to prevent.
Deal does not have the endorsement of Palin in the
runoff, but he does have the support of most Republican
legislators in the General Assembly. Legislators tend to
have a wide network of supporters in their districts, so
it can be very helpful to have those networks getting the
word out to vote for a particular candidate in an upcom
ing election.
That was the case in the 1982 Democratic primary
where Congressman Bo Ginn was the early favorite to
win. A lawmaker from Bartow County named Joe Frank
Harris had House Speaker Tom Murphy and dozens of
legislators beating the bushes for him - and it worked.
Harris won the Democratic nomination over Ginn.
The upcoming runoff and general elections could well
hinge on all of these trends. Can a bunch of Georgia
legislators overcome the star power of a Republican
celebrity like Sarah Palin? And was it better for Roy
Barnes to avoid celebrities like Barack Obama com
pletely?
Tom Crawford is the editor of The Georgia Report. He
can be reached at tcrawford@sareDort. com.
tom
crawford
Smith wrong
on employees
‘milked’
T HIS year’s drop in the
Jackson County tax digest
is a big deal. For decades,
county leaders have been used to the
tax digest going up every year, thus
bringing in more money even if the
millage
rate stayed
the same.
No
longer.
Reality
has finally
hit home.
In
truth, the
county’s
tax digest
should
have
shrunk
last year.
The real
estate bubble burst in 2008, but coun
ty officials were VERY slow to make
adjustments to the digest. Many other
counties took a big loss last year with
lower values.
For the county government, the
lower tax digest is expected to lower
revenues by $1.4 million. For the
county school system, that number
will be even larger.
The combination of lower property
taxes, lower sales taxes and declining
fees has hit local governments hard.
That’s not always a bad thing, how
ever. Public officials run for office say
ing they’ll streamline government.
OK, here’s your chance.
Alas, what candidates say on the
campaign trail is often not what they
really mean. When it comes right
down to it, government officials are
loath to make hard choices. No gov
ernment official really wants to cut
government spending. That makes
people mad.
But government at every level —
local, state, national — is too big and
too intrusive. When you hear a gov
ernment official say all the “fat” has
been cut, then you know he’s lying.
Government is obese from years of
gorging from hapless taxpayers.
So it wasn’t too much of a shock
when commissioner Dwain Smith
called for the county to stop furlough
ing employees. The county has
“milked” employees enough, he said.
No, Mr. Smith, the only people
being “milked” are the taxpayers.
Instead of laying off county employ
ees, Jackson County decided to use
furlough days. If you do away with fur
lough days, how would you propose
to pay for those employees? How do
you propose to make up the loom
ing $1.4 million shortfall in property
taxes?
Smith is a former county employee
himself so has little perspective for
what’s going on in the real world out
side of government. Out here in the
private sector, furlough days, layoffs
and pay cuts are the norm. Far fewer
government employees have been
affected by the recession than in the
private sector.
So why should the private sector
be expected to continue funding for
public employees? The recession has
devastated many families. They’ve
lost jobs. They’ve lost homes.
They’ve seen their equity drop dra
matically.
But you want to tax those people
more so government employees will
be shielded from the economic real
ity?
This is why so many people are
angry at government today. There is
a huge lack of spending discipline in
the public sphere.
More cuts in government may be
needed. Layoffs, cuts in services, etc.
are possible.
Mr. Smith is wrong. County
employees are lucky to still have a
job. That they are expected to sacri
fice as much as the private sector is
only fair. They are not being “milked”
as Mr. Smith suggests.
This is the real world. Smith and
other government oligarchs need to
get used to it.
Mike Buffington is editor of The
Jackson Herald. He can be reached
at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
mike
buffington