Newspaper Page Text
THE ISLANDER, JULY 7, 2008, PAGE 19
Back Talk
Continued from Page 24
The band played for free and the
bar did a lot of business they would
not have done otherwise, a proverbial
win-win.
Having learned from past experi
ence, the band stopped playing right at
10:00 p.m.
The police showed up at 10:05 p.m.
anyway and cited the owners of the
bar for violating the noise ordinance
or something. I’m not sure what the
charge was, but they were charged and
had to appear in Magistrate Court.
There’s a lot of things I ain’t never
done, but I ain’t never had too much
fun.
Enough sidetracking, back to the
candidates.
Another example of their naivety
was about the LOST - the Local Option
Sales Tax, not to be confused with the
SPLOST - the Special Purpose Local
Option Sales Tax.
Both are local taxes voted into exis
tence by the public. The main difference
is the SPLOST can only be used for des
ignated capital projects. It can’t be used
to supplement the General Fund.
Also, the city/comity division of LOST
funds is renegotiated every 10 years
after the federal census is taken.
LOST used to be split according to
population, but at some point the state
changed their mind and decided to
leave the actual division of the tax up to
local governments with the intent that
they base the split on their needs. The
split can be based on population, but it
is not required.
The SPLOST is required to be split
based on an intergovernmental agree
ment between the city and county. If no
agreement is reached, the tax is split
based on population.
Listening to the candidates two
weeks ago I’m not sure they all under
stood the differences.
The LOST question was asked
because with the census coming up in
2010, some of these county commission
candidates will be in office for the next
round of LOST negotiations with the
city.
In response to the question, all the
candidates stated that the city should
get their fair share.
I don’t think the candidates realized
that the city is certainly getting their
fair share now based on the 65/35%
split that was negotiated in 2000.
Based on the 2000 census numbers
more than 65% of the local population
lives in the unincorporated area of the
county and less than 35% lives within
the city limits.
So a 65/35% split is indeed fair.
Finally...
The question was asked, “What are
you doing to educate yourself to become
a commissioner?”
While an array of answers were
proffered, no one said, “I’m attending
commission meetings.”
That would have been a very good
answer.
The main thing the candidates need
to do is learn how government works,
the process, how motions are made
and passed, who speaks when, how do
things get put on the agenda, what do
the finance, personnel and other com
mittees do, what can and cannot be dis
cussed in closed session, there’s a mil
lion little details they can learn simply
by attending the meetings regularly.
If nothing else, attending the meet
ing will give them a feel for what to
expect. It may be that after attending
the meetings they may decide politics
isn’t for them after all.
One of the candidates said they
expected to be on a learning curve if
elected to office.
Attending the meetings might suf
fice to get them a little ahead of the
curve.
In past elections I’ve seen candidates
who attended meetings long before the
ballots were cast.
But no so this year. □
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Elect David Dowdy
Georgia House of Representatives District 167
Republican Primary July 15, 2008
912.261.8200 DowdyTech@comcast.net
Common Sense Government • Shrimping Industry Issues • Property Rights Protection
Lower Taxes - Abolishing the Georgia Income Tax • Public Safety Funding • Education Funding
"I was never one to go along just to
get along."
David Dowdy has been in public
service since he was 21 years old. He
will be 56 in July and he enjoys help
ing people.
David is running for the Georgia
House of Representatives District 167
as a Republican.
His platform includes...
• Shrimping Industry Issues:
"This is a historic industry for coastal
Georgia and it is going by the wayside.
I want to protect our shrimpers. Our
local market is flooded by imports. I
would like to see the imports stopped
and more marketing of Wild Georgia
Shrimp."
• Abolish the Georgia Income
Tax: "Our state government has a
$1.7 billion surplus. I do agree that
we need a rainy day fund. I think
if we add one cent on to the current
state sales tax we can do away with
the state income tax."
• Education: "I want higher com
pensation for competent teachers. I
also think teachers need to meet
accountability standards."
• Public Safety Funding: "I want
better training for our police. I was in
charge of training while I was on the
Glynn County Police Department and
training means a lot to me. The state
already mandates arms training and
driver training. I am talking about
general training. "
• Common Sense Government:
"What I mean by 'common sense gov
ernment' is that I will look at issues
as if they were my problems and
decide how I would want the problem
handled. I would work closely with
local governments as well as local
constituents."
Raised in Glynn County and a
1970 Glynn Academy graduate,
David joined the Army and served in
Europe. After fulfilling his military
commitment, he moved to Atlanta
with his parents and at 21 joined the
Atlanta Police Department.
Two years later he returned to
Glynn County and joined the Glynn
County Police Department. He retired
from the department after 22 years,
won the Post 2 At Large seat on the
Glynn County Commission and took
office in January 1997.
During his time on the commission
he pushed for and got two stop lights
installed at both truck stops on U.S.
Highway 17 South. He also served as
Vice Chairman of the Commission.
As Chairman of the IT (Information
Technology) Committee, he helped
move the county from a main frame
computer set up to modern Microsoft
products.
SPLOST road paving, the St.
Simons Island north end fire depart
ment, and the new County Public
Safety Building were begun during
his tenure on the commission.
David now owns and operates
Computer Solutions. The company
started as a repair business but has
grown into a subcontracting busi
ness to larger companies needing net
works installed. Computer Solutions
has installed all the WiFi hot spots
in all the McDonald Restaurants in
Georgia north to Mableton and in
South Carolina and north Florida.
David is married to the former
Susan Ratliff and they have four
children. Katherine is a senior at
Kennesaw State University. Lee
works for CSX Railroad and lives
in Brunswick. Daniel works in the
construction industry and lives in
Jacksonville. Josh lives in Brunswick
and works with his father at Computer
Solutions.
David and Susan have four grand
children.
Paid for by the Committee to Elect David Dowdy