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PAGE 4A —THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 18, 2010
Frankly
Speaking
frankgillispie671@msn.com
By Frank Gillispie
Anniversaries
one year away
Just one year to go before a couple of key anni
versaries get underway. 2011 marks the bicenten
nial of Madison County, Georgia, and the sesqui-
centennial of the Confederate States of America.
Committees are being formed and plans developed
to celebrate these anniversaries.
Madison County was created by the Georgia leg
islature on Dec. 5, 1811, from portions of Clarke,
Oglethorpe, Elbert, Franklin and Jackson counties.
The Henry Strickland home was used as the first
courthouse. The first formal meeting of the new
county government took place in January 1812.
In 1773, the Cherokee Indians ceded to the
Colonial Government of Georgia a large tract
of land, whose western border included what is
now Madison County. Early settlers were from
Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas. The
oldest known settlement was at Paoli, a site that
had previously been a Cherokee village. They
were mostly farmers who raised cattle, pigs and
vegetables.
The Confederate States of America was orga
nized in Birmingham, Alabama, when a provincial
congress met on February 4, 1811. Presiding was
Athens lawyer and politician Howell Cobb. The
move was made for several reasons, including a
dispute over exporting excess slaves into the west
ern territories, and the punishing Morrell Excise
Tax that fell heaviest on cotton producers in the
South and mostly benefited Northern business
interest.
Cobb was a five-term member of the United
States House of Representatives and Speaker of
the House from 1849 to 1851. He also served as
a Secretary of Treasury under President James
Buchanan (1857-1860) and the 40th Governor of
Georgia (1851-1853).
In Madison County, the Heritage Foundation and
commissioners office are working on plans and
gathering information for use in the celebration.
They are interested in documents, pictures and
stories about the history of Madison County. They
are working with the county library on a project to
identify and digitize as many old pictures as pos
sible. They are especially interested in information
on old schools, mills and other sites in the county.
If you have any material you think may be useful
please contact the Library, Heritage Foundation or
commissioners office.
The Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate
Veterans and other Southern heritage groups are
heading the Confederate sesquicentennial in our
state. You can find a web site dedicated to this
anniversary at http://150wbts.org. Again, the SCV
and other southern heritage organizations are look
ing for pictures, letters, diaries and other artifacts
of that era. If you have any material that might be
useful, you are urged to come to the next meeting
of the Madison County Greys on Monday night,
Feb. 22, at 7:30 in the community room of First
Madison Bank in Colbert, or contact Commander
Bill Sewell at tman@joimail.com.
These celebrations are an opportunity to learn
more about our county, state and region’s history
and culture. I urge you to take an active part in the
festivals over the next couple of years.
Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison
County Journal. His e-mail address is frank@
frankgillispie.com. His website can be accessed at
http.VAvww.frankgillispie.com/gillispieonline.
Making allegations requires stepping out of the shadows
If it was up to me. I’d pull the plug on
all anonymous comments on newspaper
sites. I think it hurts society much more
than it helps it. Too many folks aren't
really looking for news. No, they're
looking for a fight. It’s like roughneck
bar hopping — minus the risk of an
actual bar stool to the head.
Sorting through the ugliness expressed
anonymously has become my least
favorite part of this job, something that
is ultimately disheartening, not uplifting.
When I read the nastiest comments, I
sometimes feel sorry for the most ven
omous bloggers, because I’ve never met
a happy person who takes great joy in
belittling others.
But given that anonymous blogging
is now a part of newspaper culture, ours
included, it's worthwhile to establish
some sort of direction, at least on our
website. Remember this: You are enti
tled to your anonymous opinions, but
you ate not entitled to your anonymous
allegations. There is a big difference
between the two and many people don't
seem to understand that.
For instance, if you think a local pub
lic figure is inefficient, mde, a jerk, or
a heaven-sent angel — those are your
opinions. And beyond that, if you want
to detail why a public official's vote
was right or wrong, backing it up with
solid reasons, then you've performed
a service to the community by sharing
your opinion. It's a good deed to address
public matters in a constructive way.
But if you say specific people are
taking bribes, cheating on the job, hav
ing sex with so and so, etc. — those
ate allegations. And if you jump from
opinion to allegation, you've entered a
whole new realm — the arena of proof.
When you enter that arena, you are no
longer entitled to the safety of shadows.
By posting such things anonymously.
In the
Meantime
zach@
mainstreet
news.com
By Zach
you're trying to put someone else’s char
acter on the line, without risking any part
of yourself. Even if you’re right about
your allegation, you’re ultimately a cow
ard unless you’re willing to step up and
risk something of yourself, too.
Think about it this way: If you came to
meet with me, I may or may not fomi an
opinion on you. But after you go away,
do I have the right to anonymously
express in a public forum that you're
a drunk driver, or that you're cheating
your employer, or that you are physi
cally abusive? These ate my opinions,
right? I believe these things are true, or
at least I could say someone — whom
I won't name — told me they were.
“Word on the street is ..." In fact, I could
say some really bad things and perhaps
I’d be dead on the money about you or
someone you love. But I would be reck
less and wrong in my method.
If we believe in common decency and
standards of proof, we need a process for
airing such matters, don't we? If I want
to allege something about you, I ought to
put myself on the line, too, right? I ought
to recognize the importance of present
ing evidence to support my assertions.
This is one place where newspapers
across America have totally fallen apart.
The industry ought to be ashamed of
what’s allowed in their name online.
But it's not. Too many publications are
too scared of financial failure to do the
responsible things online. The post-first,
ask-questions later policy of many sites
opens the door for unchecked libel.
Many news sites allow any comment,
then wait for someone to flag an inap
propriate remark. So, you could go on
one of these sites and declare the pub
lisher a child molester and it would
hit the public forum, at least for a little
while. Of course, they’d flag you and
remove you as a commenter, but real
damage can be done in short time with
unchecked comments. America’s libel
law has not caught up with the Web. You
can get away with most anything online
—at least temporarily. And newspapers
have been complicit in a cultural deg
radation that accompanies such lack of
accountability. Some publisher is going
to get sued in a big way one of these
days. And sadly, it’s an industry wake-up
call that needs to happen.
So, what's my point? Well, if you
believe in maintaining any standards
online, then moderating comments
requites a number of judgment calls. Is
this an opinion, or is it more of an alle
gation? For instance, “Our government
is corrupt" is generic enough to be an
opinion. But, “Commissioner or council
member (John Doe) is corrupt” is an
allegation. You better back it up.
Likewise, if an anonymous poster
is trying to introduce new information
into a public forum, then they are essen
tially trying to serve as an anonymous
reporting source. News organizations
that rely heavily on anonymous-source
reporting inevitably get burned and risk
their credibility with each anonymous
source they quote. But at least those
organizations know who they are quot
ing, even if the audience doesn't. But
in online forums, newspapers have no
idea who is introducing information on
the blogs. The papers give up editorial
authority to faceless strangers, many
of whom have an agenda to present
misinformation. Many call this “citizen
journalism," but if you can't I.D. the
citizen. I'm sony, it's not journalism.
Ultimately, if you have something
you want to publicize through our site
and you're upset that it wasn’t posted,
contact me about running a letter to
the editor in print. If you’re willing to
stand by your word with your name,
the chance that you’ll get your words
in print is veiy good. Sensitive subjects
often need to be brought to public atten
tion. But there's an appropriate way to
do this. Much more leeway should be
afforded to the person who is willing to
be accountable for their words.
This is also sound business on our
part. Because it demeans our product
and journalism as a whole to maintain
a site where faceless people can hurl
allegations against real people without
offering any identification, without any
standard of proof.
Before anyone brings up the First
Amendment. Remember, it's our First
Amendment right to manage our paper
and our own site how we see fit, just as
it's your right to create your own publi
cations and sites and do the same.
No doubt, I'll get the “who are you
trying to protect comments.” That’s
the nature of this. But, honestly, I don’t
care one way or another if you agree
with me or not.
There is no one to protect, but there
certainly is something to protect —
common decency. In a decent world,
people get to know their accuser. Online
should be no exception.
Zach Mitcham is editor of The
Madison County Journal.
Mitcham
Supplemental budget: $281 million school tax shift
By Rep. Alan Powell
A majority of the House of
Representatives voted Feb. 11 to
approve an amended state budget for
the remainder of fiscal year 2010.
Overall state spending is reduced by
$1.2 billion to reflect the fact that state
revenues have declined for 14 consecu
tive months.
In HB 947, the $17.4 billion budget
plan includes spending cuts of eight
percent in most state agencies and
three more unpaid furlough days for
public school teachers and other state
employees between now and June 30.
Earlier this week, it was reported that
state revenue collections fell by another
$137 million in January, bringing the
total decline for the first seven months
of this fiscal year to $1.28 billion,
nearly 13 percent off from last year.
The few areas of the House version of
the budget where spending is increased
include $5.9 million to the Department
of Community Health for the Indigent
Care Trust Fund for disproportionate
share hospitals and $169,000 for the
Department of Revenue to hire six
investigative agents and four finan
cial analysts for the agency's fraud
detection group. These new employees
would start work April 1 in an effort to
bring in more uncollected tax revenue.
The House budget also excludes
Gov. Perdue's effort to take $33 mil
lion in lottery revenues away from the
HOPE Scholarship program and use
that money for other scholarships that
are presently funded out of the general
treasury. The measure also puts back
$17.4 million for equalization grants
to low-wealth school districts that the
governor proposed to cut.
Unfortunately, HB 947 shifts an
additional $281 million in Quality
Basic Education funding to school sys
tems from the state level to local prop
erty owners, bringing the total shift
in local education funding under the
Perdue administration to nearly $2.5
billion. This not only shortchanges our
students, it forces local boards of edu
cation to raise local property taxes in
order to make up the difference.
While overall spending cuts ate nec
essary, this budget again reflects the
wrong priorities.
Instead of taking the time and doing
the work needed to address the sys
temic problems in our budget process,
once again the practice of subjecting
basic government responsibilities such
as education, transportation and public
safety to arbitrary percentage cuts and
furloughs, while shifting the burden to
the local level has won out.
The amended 2010 budget now
goes to the Senate for its consider
ation, while the attention of the House
Appropriations Committee turns to the
annual budget for FY 2011, which
begins July 1. With state revenues in
a continued free-fall, the governor’s
projection of 4.2 percent growth for the
next fiscal year seems more and more
unrealistic.
It is imperative for legislative budget
writers to take a pause during this ses
sion and start over on the 2011 budget,
taking a serious look at eveiy line item
from a zero-based approach. We need
to disregard pie-in-the-sky projections
of revenue growth and draft a budget
from a flat-lined revenue picture, to
avoid even more severe cuts and tax
shifts when Georgia's share of federal
stimulus/bailout money has run out in
2012, creating a hole of $2.65 billion.
This governor will be out of office by
January 2011, leaving the new gover
nor and the General Assembly to deal
with the problem. With eveiy budget
that is passed under the cuirent process,
the next budget is more unbalanced. If
the FY 2010 and 2011 budgets are not
balanced, it will create devastation for
the next governor and legislators when
they take office next January. This is all
about fiscal responsibility as mandated
by the state Constitution.
Selling GEFA Loans: Another major
source of concern in the budget process
is the governor's proposal to sell a
portion of the Georgia Environmental
Facilities Authority (GEFA) loans to
private entities in order to raise some
$300 million to help balance next
year’s budget. The GEFA loans are
made by the state to local governments
to finance infrastructure projects across
the state. Many lawmakers and local
government officials are concerned
that selling off a revolving revenue
source could destroy the program, min
Georgia’s AAA bond rating and force
more expensive borrowing by local
governments.
Sales Tax Collections: Legislation
introduced last week is aimed at recov
ering sales revenues that consumers are
paying but are not being collected by
the state. HB 1137 would require cities
and counties to collect information that
identifies local businesses and turn that
data over to the state revenue depart
ment, which in turn would provide
local governments a fist of all business
es that have been assigned a sales tax
identification number. The matching
of data would enable the state to zero in
on businesses that are not turning over
sales tax money - generating revenues
without raising tax rates. HB 1137 is
under consideration in the House Ways
and Means Committee.
Education Spending Waiver: The
— See “Powell” on 5A
The Madison
County Journal
(Merged with The Danielsville Monitor
and The Comer News, January 2006)
P.O. Box 658
Hwy. 29 South
Danielsville, Georgia 30633
Phone: 706-795-2567
Fax: 706-795-2765
Email: zach@mainstreetnews.com
ZACH MITCHAM, Editor
MARGIE RICHARDS, Reporter/Office Manager
BEN MUNRO, Reporter/Sports Editor
MIKE BUFFINGTON, Co-publisher
SCOTT BUFFINGTON, Co-publisher
FRANK GILLISPIE, Founder of The Journal.
Jere Ayers (deceased) former owner
of The Danielsville Monitor and The Comer News
Periodical postage paid at Danielsville, Georgia 30633
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
Madison & surrounding counties $19.75/year
State of Georgia $38.85/year
Out-of-state $44.50/year
Military personnel with APO address $42.50/year
Senior rate $2 off all above rates
College student discount rate $2 off all above
rates
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
THE MADISON COUNTY JOURNAL
P.O. Box 658, Danielsville, GA 30633
A publication of MainStreet Newspapers Inc.
Many difficult decisions under the Gold Dome
By Rep. Tom McCall
This week marked another busy
time at the State Capitol. The House
voted on the amended fiscal year
2010 state budget and passed leg
islation to give local school sys
tems more flexibility. I also received
some helpful information that hope
fully will provide you with savings
on the purchase of Energy Star
appliances.
As you are aware, the cur
rent economic downturn has led
to many difficult decisions under
the Gold Dome in Atlanta. Over
the last several weeks, the House
Appropriations Committee has con
fronted these difficulties. As a result
of their hard work, the House voted
on House Bill 947, the amend
ed 2010 fiscal year budget, which
totaled $17.4 billion. This amended
budget sets state spending through
the end of June and startlingly mir
rors state spending from five years
ago, a reflection of the tough eco
nomic situation we all face. Though
smaller, this budget seeks to do
more with less while making the
necessary budget cuts as painless
as possible.
Keeping in mind that our children
should be a top priority, the House
worked to ensure vital education
programs were saved in HB 947. We
specifically made sure to preserve
$17.4 million for Equalization
Grant funding, which affects 134
Georgia school systems. There is
also $93 million to pay for enroll
ment growth in our K-12 schools
and another $4 million for programs
that assist with direct instruction to
students. We also made sure not to
use any funds from the lottery pro
gram, which protects the funding
for Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship
and Pre-K program.
HB 947 also increased fund
ing for other state programs, such
as mental hospitals and disaster
assistance. It includes $6 million
to help hospitals cover uncom
pensated healthcare, a necessary
step to maintain quality healthcare
throughout the state. It also con
tains funding for additional agents
and auditors in the Department of
Revenue (DOR). These new DOR
employees will help ensure prompt
delivery of your state income tax
returns and pursue delinquent taxes
owed to the state.
Although we were able to fund
these programs despite the state’s
declining revenues, there were
some difficult cuts that had to be
made. First, many state agency’s
budgets were reduced by an addi
tional eight percent. Additionally,
because a large majority of the
state’s budget is allocated to person
nel salaries for teachers and other
state employees, furlough days are
a part of the cuts needed to balance
our state budget. This means that all
state employees, including teachers,
will be asked to take an additional
six furlough days.
In an effort to work through this
difficult economic period, the House
has worked with local officials, like
our school systems, to give them
the flexibility they need to manage
their budgets. With this in mind, we
passed HB 908 to give local school
systems this flexibility and lift cer
tain expenditure requirements that
control how education funds can
be spent.
While my colleagues and I have
been discussing the state’s budget,
I know that your family is gathering
around the kitchen table to discuss
ways to cut expenses. With this in
mind, I wanted to let you know
about the State Energy Efficient
Appliance Rebate Program.
Beginning February 12, 2010, this
program provides Georgians with
rebates ranging from $25 to $199
on Energy Star rated appliances.
Appliances eligible for the program
include clothes washers, dishwash
ers, air conditioners, heat pumps,
furnaces, water heaters, refrigera
tors and freezers. For more informa
tion about this program, please visit
www.GeorgiaRebate.com.
It’s always good to see folks from
home. This week 4-H students
from Elbert County, Elbert County
Leadership, Young Farmers from
Wilkes and Franklin counties all
visited the Capitol. Also, Daniel
Vaughn from Hull attended Youth
Equine Day at the Capitol. Elbert
— See “McCall” on 5A