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FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
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JLU
160 TRACY STREET
WWW.ATHICA.ORG
INGEST CLOSING WEEKEND EVENT II:
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
SYMPOSIUM
A public forum organized by Beth Sale
Saturday, March 22 • 11 A.M. - 5 P.M.
11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Slow Food Spring Fling Brunch
The public is invited to brunch at Ingest with Slow Food Athens
$10 payable at the door, but advance reservations required; contact Ms Leventry by Wed.
March 19th - 706-206-7490 or MELeventry@aol.com (please do not contact the gallery).
Food for Thought Panel Discussions
2 p.m. Diet and Health: The Pros and Cons of Vegetarian and Vegan Diets
3 p.m. Local Farming and Backyard Vegetable Gardening in the Drought
4p.m. Food for Thought Rain Barrel Building Demonstration
With a Raffle for the Rain Barrel! (Tickets $10)
The Panels are Free!
Exhibition curated by Beth Sale with assistant curator Jacob Cawthon,
and runs through the end of the day March 22nd at 6 p.m.
all you can eat catfish
ASK ABOUT OUR
NOW OPEN!
SEAFOOD BURGERS STEAKS
WsSsesa£3& 3 t a •GSSfife’WY BBbSSmSNBSsMkmu&i&hI
BRING IN THIS AD AND
BUY ONE LUNCH ITEM AND
OPEN
FOR ^
LUNCH ^
•2nd ITEM MUST BE EQUAL OR LESSER VALUE, BEVERAGES NOT INCLUDED.
TUESDAYS
ALL YOU CAN EAT CRAB NIGHT
mm
a?,
Open Tuesday-Sunday 11am-Until
r (Kitchen Closes at lOpm)
480 Macon Hwy. • 706~208~1105
THE SHOE DROPS
Georgia lawmakers had waited the whole
session for the other shop to drop, and last
week it finally did. The shoe, of course, was
House Speaker Glenn Richardson's proposal to
radically revise the state's tax system by elimi
nating property taxes and requiring Georgians
to pay sales taxes on groceries, lottery tickets
and consumer services. He finally dropped it
on the House floor for consideration last week,
only to see it fall 10 votes short of the neces
sary two-thirds majority because of concerted
opposition from Democrats.
Richardson once had dreams that his leg
islation, which he modestly called the "Great
Tax Plan," would pass the General Assembly
and be so wildly popular with property own
ers that he would ride their gratitude
straight into the governor's mansion
in the 2010 election. But, by the
time his plan actually emerged for
a vote, it was almost completely
different from what Richardson
had originally drafted. Gone was
the elimination of property taxes
paid to local county commissions
and city councils. Gone was the
elimination of property taxes paid
to local school boards.
Instead, Richardson cobbled together
three or four ideas from other lawmakers into
what could only be called a "Somewhat Pretty
Good Tax Plan." His final version included the
elimination of the yearly license tag tax, a
freeze on homeowners' property tax assess
ments, a prohibition on local governments and
school boards raising taxes in the future, and
a SICf yearly fee for auto tags to provide funds
for a trauma care network. That's a lot of dif
ferent things to cover in one piece of legisla
tion, and Richardson's measure ultimately
collapsed of its own weight.
The elimination of auto tag taxes was an
idea that would have been popular across
party lines. But, when Richardson piled on the
property tax freezes and the prohibitions on
local tax increases, he ensured that local gov
ernment officials would continue to oppose it.
"I've got six counties in my district, which
means I have six county commissions, six
school boards and 26 city councils," said a
lawmaker from a rural district. "And every one
of them was opposed to the bill."
"There was a lot of sentiment in our caucus
for taking the tax off car tags, but the other
parts of this bill really had disastrous effects
for local government," House Minority Leader
DuBose Porter said.
The Republican leadership said the defeat
of the tax plan will come back to haunt
Democrats in November, as the GOP hammers
them for voting to retain the car tag tax.
"It's probably the greatest issue ever to run
on," House Majority Leader Jerry Keen said.
The Republicans' optimism may be a
little misplaced. The fact is, there just
aren't that many Democrats who
represent competitive districts any
more—they've all either switched
parties or been ousted by
Republican opponents. Democrats
are now down to about 40 per
cent of the seats in both the
House and Senate. The Democrats
still in office, for the most part,
represent districts that are Democratic
leaning and have a healthy percentage
of African-American voters. It's hard to see
Republicans picking off many more Democratic
incumbents.
If there is any benefit to Republicans from
the tax vote, it probably will be in protecting
GOP incumbents in shaky districts that might
be trending slowly to the Democratic column
because of an influx of black and Latino resi
dents. We will have a better idea of how that
plays out after the general election. Then we'll
have to see which new tax plan emerges in
next year's legislative session.
Tom Crawford
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact s Georgia
Report, an Internet news site at www.gareport.com
that covers government and politics in Georgia
THIS M*»fcRU WtRLB
AN EARLY ESTIMATE Of $50
BILLION WAS SCOfFED AT...LARRY
LINDSEY WAS FORCED TO RESIGN
AFTER PUTTING THE NUMBER AT
AN UNHEARD OF. $200 BILLION.,.
CLEARLY NO ONE HAS INFORMED
HIM THAT WE CREATE OUR OWN
REALITY--
by TOM TOMORROW
•GIVE c« TAK£--£STmAl£J VARY.
AT FIRST THEY TOLD US THE WAR
WOULD PAY FOR ITSELF.
THE ONLY PROBLEM IRAQIS WILL
have is Figuring out what to
00 WITH ALL THEIR OIL REVENUES
AFTER THEY HAVE FULLY FINANCED
RECONSTRUCTION Of THElR COUNTRY. 1
PERHAPS THEY CAN PUR
CHASE ADDITIONAL ROSE
PETALS WITH WHICH TO
SHOWER VISITING AMERICANS
SUCH AS OURSELVES'
NOflEL-WINNING ECONOMIST JOSEPH
STIGLITZ ESTIMATES THE TOTAL
COST Of THE WAR WILL BE MORE
THAN THREE TRILLION DOLLARS.
IF YOU TAPED THREE TRILLION
$1 BILLS END to END, THEY'D
REACH THE MOON AND BACK.
A FEW OTHER THINGS WE COULD
HAVE DONE WITH AN EXTRA THREE
TRILLION DOLLARS:
Funded social
SECURITY FOR
THE NEXT
/IFTT YEARS.
pgan »iq
PAID FOR HEALTH
CARE FOR 530
MILLION CHILDREN
FOR A YEAR.
NOT FLUSHED
OUR ENTIRE
ECONOMY DOWN
THE CRAPPER.
BUT HEY, SADDAM DID HAVE THOSE
VERY THREATENING DRONE PLANES
AND STUFF.
AND THERE'S NOTHING SCARIER THAN
A DICTATOR WITH A FLEET of R£-\
\MoTE CONTROL MODEL PLANES'.
UNTIL MY HOME WAS
FORECLOSED, I SLEPT
MUCH MORE SOUNDLY]
AT NIGHT KNOWING IT
WAS SAFE FROM THE
THREAT THEY POSED.'
8 FLAGPOLE.COM • MARCH 12, 2008
NEWS & FEATURES I CALENDAR I MOVIES I A&E I MUSIC I COMICS & ADVICE I CLASSIF!
W01008-.. www.lhlsmodernworld.com