So, in your world, you want whoever says something to be instantly agreed with by all and no dissent?

Sieg Heil, indeed.

With regards to the property “taxcut”Perude vetoed, it turns out that he was correct in doing so.

Quite underreported is the fact that our state’s county commissions would have been the ones required to return that money…and, they had several MAJOR obstacles to perfomring that duty:

1) they do not have the IT infrastructure in place to simply issue a “refund check.” So, it would cost upwards of 3 times the amount of the refund to reporgram the system to kick-out refund checks.

2) But, the major problem is if someone who paid property taxes last year from House A, and in the interim, sold House A and moved to another county, OR even in the same county, how the f*** is the county commission going to be able to FIND that taxpayer and refund the money to them?

NO, the House and Earl were WRONG on the issue and the Governor was right. Because…why? Like MANY things these folks try to do, they are completely IGNORANT
on how things must be implemented in the actual context of their “legislation.”

I thought I inferred pretty well as to my “personal issue” with Earl, but, perhaps you are as big of a Bubba-Gump as he is, so, I’ll ‘splain it to you:

For years, the Democratically-controlled House spent tons of taxpayer dollars on proposing and passing inane legislation for their egoes.

What happens when the GOP gains control of the House? Why, Bubba-Gump Earl Ehrhart proposes (with a press release announcement to the world) that the state legislature approve a bill to change the name of sanford Stadsium at UGA to “Vince Dooley Stadium.”

What a complete waste of freakin’ time for Earl to exercise his petty power march to (mostly) get back at President Adams for not hiring Dooley back as head coach.

What a complete demonstration that the GOP is no smarter or wiser than the Dems we just beat to gain control by that one act of ego-enhancement by Earl Ehrhart.

Yeah…that’s what we should have our “esteemed” legislature spend their time on…renaming football stadiums…wow…what’s next? How about if we get the legislature to re-name I-285 to the Earl Ehrhart Highway of Going Nowhere Fast?

Revenue is measured month to month. If the Governor had CARED, he would have simply asked the children he has hired “Hey, is this a shortfall, or is this a problem with getting the checks deposited because of the date that taxes are due this year?”

He either never asked, was too stupid to know this was a potential issue, or was corrupt enough to know that a bad revenue report supported his false contention that revenue was down and he could not support a tax cut.

Either way, the legislature and their leaders are right. The governor vetoed a TAX CUT (and Bill, I thought conservatives and Republicans are for those) because he said revenue was down. He either lied or is a moron. You pick. Either way, Ehrhart and the legislative leadership is right on this issue.

Bill, I don’t know what your personal issue with Earl Ehrhart is. But if you want to support a Governor who has advocated tax INCREASES, vetoed tax cuts, and signed budgets that have increased spending by huge amounts, then go right ahead.

Bill, as for the fight with the Cobb School Board last year. Earl did what his district wanted him to do. He fought against race based programs. If you want government making decisions based on race, then you go right ahead and support quotas and affirmative action. Those of us who believe in a color blind society will move forward.

Just don’t bother pretending to care about those issues ever again. In the mean time, why don’t you just leave alone those of us, like Chairman Ehrhart, who actually care about these issues alone. We’ll continue the fight against a dictatorial Governor.

Where do I “get my information?”

BOTH the AJC AND the MDJ followed Earl’s pursuits regarding the school board crap last year. What hole were you in?

AND, Earl’s actions on his whining about changing the name of Sanford Stadium were well publicized up and down this state.

But, I guess you’re one of those folks who can just “look in the eyes of someone and know their soul” types, eh?

Apparently, you’ve never worked in business and understood this arcane, whacked-out concept known as SEASONALITY of cashflow.

Revenue CAN and DOES change from month-to-month based on the seasonality of the particular month and/or season.

If you and brainiac Earl Ehrhart will recall, the DUE date for payments was actually 2 days beyond the nomal April 15 date this year. Which meant that for anyone who mailed in their taxes on the due date, the Revenue Department didn’t physically get the checks until later than normal.

Apply that concept to a million returns being shoved through the system at once, and, yes, I can easily see why checks did not get deposited in the “usual time” required for them to show-up in monthly reports.

Sonny, can’t have it both ways.

I say do a special or sue. Those seem the likely choices. My preference is for the legislature, as the representatives of the people, should work their will before we bring in the judiciary.

Also, if there is a suit, I think it has to be filed in Fulton County Superior Court which is a crap shoot at best.

During the special session, there should be a resolution introduced to express ‘no confidence’ in the executive branch with Sonny in charge.

Considering how convenient
the revenue ‘shortfall’ was for this corrupt Governor, I think it is obvious that it was b) or c).

And Bill, not depositing those checks is EXACTLY how the staff would have ‘cooked the books’! The IRS clearly gets more checks than the state, and my check to the feds got deposited quickly.

I want to thank Chairman Ehrhart and our legislative leadership for standing up to the Governor on the budget issue. It is incredibly brave for Ehrhart to not only confront the Governor, but to come on an open forum like this and be attacked by no-nothings with an agenda. Governor Perdue is morphing into Hugo Chavez. He is not a dictator, he is a mediocrity, and this state will be better off when he is gone and we have someone, anyone, competent in that position.

I make no representation about who misrepresented the numbers for convenience only that it came from the executive branch to justify the veto of a legislative enactment.

The facts are simple and the obvious spike in revenues is impossibly convenient. I also think outrageous is apt to describe what was done. We will just have to wait and see what further investigation turns up.

I would be interested to see what the lawyers and citizens on this site actually think of the Attorney General memo use by the Gov to back up his authority to be the sole appropriator in state government. I link to a copy here:

http://insideradvantagegeorgia.com/MEMO.pdf

It seems to me that if he takes one postion on vetoes he cannot redirect funds from line items, but if if takes another he can redirect but not veto some items. I think he may have boxed himself. Anyone care to comment?

The special isn’t “because” the books were cooked. It is because of the gov’s naked power play.

We all know you don’t like elected officials over reaching for more power. Esentially the governor has taken the position that the legislature gives departments big pots of cash, but they can’t tell them how to spend it.

For years the legislature has directed how money is to be spent. The governor’s position is that the legislature doesn’t have the power or authority to direct spending.

If that’s the case, what’s the point of the legislative budget process. Sonny’s position is that all the money is his to spend as “he” sees fit.

That is obviously a naked power grab.

BTW, according to the State Constitution, all local government entities are creatures of the Legislature. Therefore it was well within Ehrhart’s sphere to require the Cobb School Board to redraw lines.

Finally, your point about the Revenue Commissioner is true, but they knew they were slow in depositing the checks. Go back and read Sonny’s statement, his concern was continued slowing in tax collections. He and his staff were aware of the backlog in deposits,as he had “consulted with” the Revenue Commissioner, yet he chose to pretend we were in a tight budget to add legitimacy to his veto.

I’m not surprised you’ve hijacked yet another thread to turn it into one of your misguided Whitehead rants. And you’re still too much of a coward to indicate your candidate of choice (you seem crazy enough, so I’m thinking it’s Broun). Your digs are growing old and tired and no one gives a damn about what you have to say, so give it a rest. Or at least save your invective for a Whitehead or 10th District thread.

We’ll save a seat for you at the Whitehead victory party, you smug piece of shit.

But, Earl is an ignorant buffoon when he claims that the “Governor had to have cooked the books”, when, in order for THAT to happen, it would mean Revenue Commissioner Bart Graham would have been in on the book-cooking.

Had the Idiot Named Earl Ehrhart actually followed the story, he would have read the part from Graham where he said that checks weren’t deposited in time to be reflected in the timeframe of cashflow they were originally looking at.

If personnel not depositing checks on time constitutes “book cooking,” then Earl Ehrhart is a flaming moron who should go back and re-take lessons from his hero Anthony-Scott Hobbs on Better Bullshi**ing advanced coursework.

And, just in case people have forgotten about the inane acts of sheer stupidity from Earl, let me list them:

1) Upon the day of the GOP taking over complete control of the Georgia House, what is Earl Ehrhart’s FIRST act of demonstrating that the GOP is going to be an agent of change? Why, he drops a bill that changes the name of Sanford Stadium to “Vince Dooley Stadium” and, fights for said bill with the gusto Mark Burkhalter showed when he tried to cram the AGL Resources free pipeline cost down the taxpayers’ throats.

2) THEN, not satisfied with demonstrating how big of an idiot he is, Earl took to intruding (in what would be described as standard operating procedure from a DEMOCRATICALLY-CONTROLLED House) into the operation of the Cobb County School Board (a separatedly elected, autonomous government entity) by insisting they redraw school districts.

3) And now, we have Earl jumping on the hysterical bandwagon of shouting “Na-na-na, the Governor cooked the books! We’re going to have a special session to fix him!”

What an idiot.

The “relevant to the budget process” has to do with the gov essentially saying to the legislature, you can put money into departments, but you can’t tell “my executive branch” how to spend it.