Newspaper Page Text
THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY. TANUARY 21. 2009 - PAGE 5A
—Mayor Discusses
'State Of The City
Cont. from Page 1A
$302,000 reimbursement
from Jackson County for
a previous expenditure,
$112,000 in confiscated
drug money and $60,000
paid by Jackson County
toward the construction of
the library expansion.
“We were really doing
good," the mayor noted.
“There was no sign of a
recession, except for real
estate."
But things changed.
The state announced the
closing of the I.W. Davis
Probation Detention
Center, depriving the city
of several detainee work
ers, and Louisiana-Pacific
closed its oriented strand
board plant in Center. The
recession had arrived.
“Two hundred to
$250,000 per year was
gone," Hardy commented,
referring to the city’s prof
its off LP’s natural gas pur
chases.
The city instituted a
“budget freeze," essen
tially tabling all capital
projects.
But the mayor remained
upbeat.
“There have been no lay
offs and no hours cut,"
he said. “We feel like with
our reserves, we can make
it through this year. 2010
may be a whole different
story."
Other highlights of
2008 mentioned by the
mayor included the city’s
opposition to Rep. Glenn
Richardson’s GREAT Plan
to eliminate property
taxes (“If you think the
state’s in bad financial
shape now, imagine what
it would have been like if
that had passed," Hardy
suggested.), the opening
of a pair of downtown res
taurants, the construction
of the Walgreens, the com
mitment to purchase 5.86
megawatts of electricity
from the expansion of the
nuclear power generation
capacity at Plant Vogtle,
the tornado of Aug. 26
(which proved that “the
counties and cities can
cooperate when elected
officials aren’t involved"),
improvements to park
ing areas around the
Commerce Civic Center,
and the election of Hunter
Bicknell (chairman) and
Chas Hardy (the mayor’s
son) to the Jackson County
Board of Commissioners.
— Library Needs Help
Cont. from Page 4A
Benton. Determine an
area of the library from
one of the aforemen
tioned categories and
e-mail them about how
much the library means
to you and our commu
nity.
Through various meet
ings, Susan Harper and
I have learned that the
process is now up to our
representatives to make
the request for the fund
ing. The more people
they hear from, the
more likely they are to
move forward. We have
received news from the
Governor's Office that
our library will more
than likely be slated to
receive the grant for the
Fiscal Year 2011, so it is
important that we let
them know our request
is for now, not 2011.
The e-mail addresses
are as follows: Senator
Ralph Hudgens — ralph.
hudgens@senate.ga.gov
and Rep. Tommy Benton
— tommy. benton@
house.ga.gov.
Please take time to
e-mail them and remind
them of the importance
of our library expan
sion. Yes, we know the
state budget is being
cut. But we also know
from news reports that
the governor wants to
fund the construction of
schools and libraries as
these new construction
projects will help local
economies by providing
jobs. It's a win-win for
all, don't you think?
Tricia Massey is a
stay-at-home mom, a
member of the Commerce
Downtown Development
Authority and, yes, chair
of the Commerce Library's
capital campaign.
Benton: Legislature May Approve But Not
likely To Fund 4th Superior Court Judge
By Mark Beardsley
The Georgia General
Assembly may approve a
fourth Superior Court judge
for the Piedmont Judicial
Circuit, but it’s unlikely to
fund the position.
“There will be none (fund
ing) this year, but we’re eli
gible for a judge, so we’re
going to go ahead and put
in for one so that when
funds become available,
we’ll be at the top of the
list," explained Rep. Tommy
Benton.
Benton, along with Reps.
Terry England of the 108th
House District, Michael
Harden of the 28th and Tom
McCall of the 30th, intro
duced House Bill 77 call
ing for the creation of the
new judgeship for Jackson,
Banks and Barrow coun
ties.
But facing a budget short
fall of up to $2.3 billion, the
General Assembly is not
likely to fund the position,
noted Benton. In addition
to the cost of the judge’s
salary and benefits, the
state would have to pay for
the judge’s office, facilities,
equipment and support
staff.
That scenario — new
spending in a year of bud
get shortfalls — will be
played out repeatedly as the
General Assembly works
on its budget. Benton, for
example, was expecting the
Hall County delegation, of
which he is a part, to make
a similar request for another
judgeship.
According to Benton,
Gov. Sonny Perdue’s bud
get, introduced last week,
*
has $600 million
in new spending
even the governor
warns of cuts up
to 10 percent.
How that shakes
out will shape the
2009 legislative
session. This week
representatives of
virtually every
state agency will
testify before the
House and Senate
priations committee
ing for the funds they see
necessary to their missions.
As for the governor’s bud
get, while Benton said he
had not yet had the oppor
tunity to study it, he found
some troubling aspects.
“I saw where he’s wanting
to cut out the school nurs
es," he remarked. “This was
something (originally) that
the state wanted to do, now
he wants to cut the funding
altogether."
Because it is part of the
governor’s budget, Benton
said the only way to restore
the positions is for the House
to cut funds elsewhere and
reinstate the nurses, after
which the Senate could
keep or eliminate the posi
tions.
Benton points out that
the nurses have become
integral parts of schools. In
some cases, because they
can administer students’
medications on campus,
some students who would
otherwise not be able to
attend public schools are
now enrolled.
“I spent two and a half
hours Saturday afternoon
answering e-mails from
I
a
*
Rep. Benton
appro-
, lobby-
people concerned
about eliminating
the school nurses,"
Benton said.
The governor
also proposes to
do away with the
taxpayer relief
grant started dur
ing the Roy Barnes
administration
that is attached
to homestead
exemptions. On every prop
erty tax bill is a note of how
much “relief" was granted
by the state.
Benton predicts the
General Assembly will
break with the governor on
that point.
“I think they are going to
try to fund it," he said. “I
don’t know of any represen
tatives who will vote to do
away with it this year. I think
what may be being looked
at is the gradual phase-out
like it was gradually phased
in."
The General Assembly,
however, will have to find
some substantial cuts.
“It was originally a $1.5
billion deficit, then it went
up to $2 billion, now it’s
up to $2.3 billion," Benton
commented. “That’s 10 per
cent."
Perdue had asked depart
ment heads in all areas
except medical (four per
cent) and education (two
percent) to cut six percent
from their budgets. Since
education and Medicaid
account for so much of
the budget, balancing the
budget without slashing
spending in those areas
will be extremely chal-
Contact Rep. Benton
Rep. District 31 Rep.
Tommy Benton can be
reached by phone at
706-367-5891 (home)
or at 404-6560177
(office); or by e-mail at
tommy. benton@house.
ga.gov.
For information, and
links to Georgia rep
resentatives, U.S.
Congressmen, Senators
and other officials, visit
Bentons Web site at
www. tom my ben to n.
com.
lenging.
“It could be that education
has got to be cut more,"
Benton said. “Education is
$10 billion. Two percent of
that is a lot of money. You
cut any more than two per
cent, it’s all going to come
back on the local taxpay
ers."
Past generosity in terms of
tax breaks is coming back
to haunt budget writers.
“We’ve given tax breaks
to a lot of different people,"
Benton acknowledged.
“You can’t continue to give
tax breaks and continue to
increase the budget."
Freeze Assessments?
Benton said that House
Resolution 1, which pro
poses to cap property tax
assessment increases at
three percent per year, “is
going to see a great deal of
support." He indicated he’d
received 50-75 e-mails on
the subject already, most of
them supporting the con
cept.
Number Of Industrial Prospects Declining
By Mark Beardsley
The number of potential
industrial prospects look
ing at Jackson County has
slowed to a trickle.
“Activity is real slow right
now," commented Shane
Short, president of the
Jackson County Chamber
of Commerce, at last week’s
meeting of the Industrial
Development Authority.
While there are still more
than a dozen unresolved
projects, they’re all at a
standstill. However, one
new project that visited the
county a month ago “came
back" for more information,
Short said.
The company, with head
quarters in Germany, would
invest $18 million and hire
40 people for an assem
bly operation, said Short.
He added that eventually
the company could expand
into manufacturing locally.
The authority also agreed
to talk to a developer inter
ested in IDA financing for
building a cold storage facil
ity.
In other business, the
authority voted to re-elect
all of its officers. They
include Martin, chairman;
Buchanan, vice chairman;
Jim Shaw, secretary-treasur
er; and Jon Milford, assis
tant secretary-treasurer.
Martin, who began his third
five-year term on the author
ity during the meeting, has
been its chairman for the
last nine years.
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