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CATCHING UP ON THE NEWS
Lawmakers will be back in Atlanta on Aug.
15 for a special session on redistricting, but
before the fun begins, let's catch up on a few
developments in state politics.
Last week we received confirmation—
again—that Georgia taxpayers are getting
snookered by some of their elected representa
tives. This one involves "Joshua's Law," a bill
passed by the legislature several years ago
that imposes a 5 percent surcharge on traffic
fines.
The proceeds from this surcharge are sup
posed to pay for high school driver education
classes to help teenagers learn how to handle
our roads and highways. A new report
from state auditors, however, shows
that less than 20 percent of the
traffic fine surcharges collected
under "Joshua's Law" have actu
ally been used for driver's edu
cation. The money instead was
used to plug holes in the budget.
This is not the only time this
has happened. For more than a
decade, you have been paying a
fee of SI per tire each time you buy
a new tire. The money is supposed to
go to a solid waste trust fund to help pay
for the cleanup of millions of discarded tires
around the state.
In reality, most of the tire-fee funds are
diverted to pay for unrelated programs in the
budget, instead of being used to get rid of old
tires, which continue to pile up.
In other news, Gov. Nathan Deal said the
state is getting a $1 million grant from the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fund
some pilot programs that could help boost
the percentage of college students who get a
degree.
"It really doesn't-do us a lot of good get
ting people into our universities and technical
colleges if they don't get a degree," Deal said.
Deal did not mention that one of the main
roadblocks to getting a college degree is the
high cost involved, especially for students
from middle- and low-income families. The
Board of Regents has had to jack up tuition
and fees in recent years because of budget
cutbacks.
Earlier this year, legislation was passed
that will reduce the amount of money paid to
students through HOPE scholarships, making
it more difficult for many of them to stay in
college and get that degree. The governor who
signed that bill into law was Nathan Deal.
Here's a helpful hint to the governor: if
you'll stop cutting HOPE grants and reducing
budget allocations for the University System, a
college education might become a little more
affordable. That will do more to increase col
lege graduation rates than a puny foun
dation grant.
Finally, the members of the state
ethics commission announced they
will implement a new plan to
privatize a large portion of the
agency's watchdog responsibili
ties. This is a response to cut
backs in the commission's budget
that have resulted in the dismissal
of most of the staff.
Many of the commission's func
tions will be farmed out to a private
attorney who will be paid a maximum of
$25,000 a year. If you pay a low-ball fee of
$50 per hour for a private attorney's services,
that will amount to 500 hours of legal work.
That's a little more than 12 weeks of work, if
you figure the attorney will be billing for a
40-hour week.
In other words, the state would be able
to enforce its campaign disclosure laws for
about three months out of the year. Politicians
would be able to ignore the law's requirements
the rest of the year, because the ethics com
mission probably wouldn't have the resources
to investigate violations. The ethics commis
sion would become useless.
Is there a way you din take a state agency
outside and shoot it to put it out of its
misery?
Tom Crawford tcrawford@gareport.com
THIS MtlliN WtILi
by TOM TOMORROW
OUR HERO AND HIS ESTEEMED
ARCH-RIWL HAVE JUST SURVIVED
A BRUISING BATTLE...
I HAD HOP£D TO USE THIS OC
CASION to REACH A GRAND BAR-
GAIN— BUT YOUR SlDE-S RELUCTANCE
TO ACCEPT MY PRE-EMPTIVE COM
PROMISES PROVED MOST VEXING.'
TRUE ENOUGH.' BUT IN THE END,
WE ARRIVED AT A VERY REA
SONABLE Solution-
Id I IH1 dfch" till
--A BIPARTISAN SUPER-COM-
MtTTEE which MUST Achieve
COMPROMISE--LEST THEY TRIGGER
DRACONIAN CUTS IN BOTH DEFENSE
AND DOMESTIC SPENDING.*
SUDDENLY—IN BURSTS THE ONE
VILLAIN WITH WHOM MIDDLE-MAN
WILL NEVER COMPROMISE—THE
DISSATISFIED LEFTIST:
SERIOUSLY, MIDDLE-MAN? THE
G.O.P. WAS READY TO DRIVE THE
ECONOMY INTO A DITCH RATHER
THAN MAKE THE SLIGHTEST
CONCESSION ON REVENUE —
--AND NOW YOU'RE BETTING EVERY
THING ON THEIR WILLINGNESS TO
COMPROMISE NEXT TIME? ARE
You KIDDING ME??
DO YOU HEAR A VAGUE WHINING
SOUND, AS IF AN UNSEEN INSECT
HAS SOMEHOW GAINED ACCESS TO
THE ROOM?
■I ELI
RIGHT. ME
NEITHER.
NO. NO, I REALLY
DO NOT.
NEXT time: SUPER-COMMITTEE
STALEMATE!
No one I r 1
COULD \A,
HAVE—
-on
YOU
KNOW.
6 FLAGPOLE.COM-AUGUST 10. 2011
i»M 1«MoRR»W©20II ...www.thismodomworld.com...twittar.com/tomtomorrow
