Back in December I opened the floor for a debate over whether or not Georgia should require online retailed like Amazon to collect sales taxes. The debate was lively. Recently Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform weighed in and he didn’t like it. Nevertheless some in the House appear ready to move forward with a bill:

Taxing the Internet is a complicated chore. According to current federal law, a company is obliged to pay a sales tax only if it has an actual presence in that state – a “physical nexus.” Amazon.com has no facility in Georgia.

A bill in the works will attempt to tax Amazon.com’s advertisers – “affiliates” that have a physical presence in the state, said state Rep. Matt Ramsey, R-Peachtree City, who is drawing up the measure.

He has small shop owners in Fayette County who complain that they now serve as showrooms for their Internet competitors. Shoppers will come to their stores to get a feel for the item – a grill, a drill, a toaster – and then place their order, via their smart phones, with an Internet store for the tax-free discount.

“That’s just not fair to me. I think that is tantamount to corporate welfare,” Ramsey said. The lawmaker said the bill will include an offset so that the state posts no revenue gain from the bill. Perhaps, Ramsey said, the state will reinstate those sales tax holidays that disappeared at the start of the recession.

I should point out that current Georgia law requires people who purchase items online to remit the sales tax themselves.

This week, the Speaker Ralston instructed the House Special Committee on Small Business to undertake serious regulation reform in order to help spur our state economy. The project is called “Red Tape Watch.”

The Special Committee on Small Business will spend this legislative session reviewing and evaluating Georgia’s current regulatory environment. They will also be meeting with small business people at the Capitol to hear directly from them about the regulations they find most burdensome. And then the Committee will seek to eliminate these needless, burdensome regulations.

If you know of a regulation that is a needless burden on your business, visit www.house.ga.gov/redtapewatch and fill out the form.

The Associated Press reports that a power plant in Georgia emits more greenhouse gases than any other source in the United States. From the WMAZ-TV website:

The most detailed data yet on emissions of heat-trapping gases show that U.S. power plants are responsible for the bulk of

Aerial view of Plant Scherer - Image via Wikipedia

the emissions blamed for global warming.

And the power plant that emits the most greenhouse gases in the U.S. is Plant Scherer in Juliette. The plant is operated by Southern Company .

The coal-fired plant reported releasing nearly 23 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, in 2010.

This should not be a surprise. Plant Scherer is the largest coal-fired power plant in the Western Hemisphere, the fifth largest power plant in the US of all types, and produces 3,500 megawatts of power. It takes three train-loads of coal per day to fuel the the coal-fired power plant which has a turbine room approximately a mile long.

Southern Company operates the plant through its subsidiary Georgia Power. Georgia Power employess about 9,000 people throughout Georgia, servicing 2.25 million customers with electricity.

Almost exactly two-thirds of Georgia’s electricity is generated by coal-fired power plants and the attention brought to Plant Scherer cannot be considered good for the state. The reconstituted idiocy of carbon tax credits may yet raise its insider-enriching head again. If so, Georgia is in deep trouble. Removing the energy tax from manufacturing is great, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the state’s potential damages if carbon-tax credits, by any name, become federal law.

Remember that Georgia sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) back in October over the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule which is the Return of the Son of Carbon Tax Credits done on a state scale. Under the EPA plan, Georgia would be forced to buy “emission allowances” from other states.

It’s past time for some additional nuclear-powered energy plants, don’t you think?

At an event the other night, the Governor opened the floor to questions and someone asked him about repealing the sales tax on energy used in manufacturing. The Gov. said that the “cost” of the tax cut was roughly $170 million, but that he thought they could identify enough savings to make it feasible.

“I read that we’ve lost $1 billion worth of jobs,” asked the gentleman who offered the original question. “Don’t we make enough in taxes on those jobs to pay for the tax cut.” That sounds like a no brainer but it’s a bit more complicated than that.

“Dynamic scoring” is a budgetary concept over which Congress has been fighting for years. Dynamic scoring includes changes in behavior that are expected from proposed tax cuts. For example, if we exempt the sales tax on Porsche automobiles, we expect more to be sold, and we might anticipate additional income tax from new salesroom jobs.

So in the example of the sales tax on energy used in manufacturing, a dynamic scoring model would include additional income tax revenues from jobs attracted to Georgia, or less income tax lost to jobs moving to other states.

But Georgia uses a static model for budgeting that doesn’t account for anticipated changes that ramify from tax cuts. So we must find a way to “pay for” tax cuts in a down economy like we currently experience.

I recognize that we may have gotten into the weeds on a technical budgeting issue, but I hope there are enough policy wonks among our readership that this little segment was worth producing.

This year ends the 14-year production run of Gulfstream’s mid-size business jet, the G200. The mid-sized cabin jet will be replaced by the large-cabin G280 in 2012. Savannah Now has the complete story. Below is an excerpt:

The G200 set the standard for the new super mid-size category and quickly established an important market niche. It

Gulfstream's Savannah Location - Image via Wikipedia

became a mainstay aircraft for NetJets and many corporate operators. It also opened new markets for Gulfstream in China, Brazil and other emerging economies.

“The G200 took the basic cabin dimensions of a large-cabin aircraft and made them available to a broader market by offering a shortened, eight- to 10-place, two-seating-area layout with solid transcontinental U.S. range,” said Stan Dixon, vice president of mid-cabin programs for Gulfstream.

“It led the category for its time, as will the G280 going into the future.”

The G280 offers the largest cabin and the longest range at the fastest speed in its class. The business jet is capable of traveling 3,600 nautical miles at Mach 0.80 and has a maximum operating speed of Mach 0.85.

Two hundred fifty of the G200s were manufactured. The planes have had a dispatch reliability rate of over 99 percent.

Gulfstream Aerospace is headquartered in Savannah and has eight other US locations, including Brunswick, Georgia, along with locations in London, England, and Mexicali, Mexico.

H/T to Baker at That’s Just Peachy.

Burke County, Georgia is home to the AAA State Champion Burke County High School Bears, who overcame not only opponents on the field, but crushing poverty and physical hunger. Coach Eric Parker attributes much of the team’s success to the federally-funded Healthy Hunger-Free Kids program, which helps feeds 500 students at the cost of $3 per meal.

Burke County’s trailed by two touchdowns at the half, but took over in the third quarter.

Burke took control of the game midway through the third period, moving 79 yards in eight plays and scoring the equalizer on Green’s 35-yard run and Mayton’s two-point run.

The Bears pulled ahead on Mayton’s 1-yard run with 21 seconds left in the third period, and Green’s 13-yarder put the game away at the 2:48 mark in the fourth.

Before Burke County instituted the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids program, such a victory would have been unthinkable for a team whose players were weakened by chronic malnutrition.

Seventeen-year-old defensive lineman Jessie Bush remembers how different things were just four years ago. “A lot of people – they was hungry, tired, and sleepy sometimes.”

Those were signs that his coach Eric Parker recognized as the dangerous symptoms of dehydration and malnutrition.

“We had kids who literally by Tuesday had to be removed from practice because of the intensity and the amount of energy they were having to expend,” Parker said.

The idea that some students might be going to school or practice hungry probably wouldn’t surprise anyone who knows Burke County, Georgia – one of the poorest counties in the country – where 48 percent of kids live below the poverty line.

Coach Parker knew the school needed to do something. So he met with Donna Martin – the school nutritionist. Martin said Parker told her, “Our kids need more calories – they’re falling out by the end of the fourth quarter and we need more calories – what can we do? Wouldn’t it be great if we could feed them supper?”

“I’m not going to cut the nutrition program and what it did for us short at all,” Parker said. “I thought it was a big part of our success.” He added there’s “no doubt” the nutrition program played a part in the big win. It gave them a sweet victory on and off the field.

Good people can disagree over the role of the federal government in feeding the poor, but I believe we each have a personal duty to help our neighbor.

“Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” Matthew 25:34-40

Whether you agree or disagree that this is a role to be performed by government, this is a time of year to consider how you can help feed someone else.

On any given subject, we have real live experts among our readership. Hence, it would be interesting and valuable to offer for discussion issues that may (or may not) make their way to the Capitol for consideration. I’ll be posting topics for debate from time to time and I hope these posts will lead to a vigorous and informative discussion.

Today I want to offer for discussion the idea of requiring online retailers such as Amazon, to charge state and local sales taxes on their sales. As I understand it, current Georgia law requires individuals who purchase items online to pay Georgia sales tax. However, the online retailer does not collect the tax, it’s up to the purchaser to calculate and remit payment on their own. That’s simply not going to happen very often and it’s difficult to enforce that law.

Advocates of taxing internet sales will point to what they say amounts to a competitive advantage for a company that sells their merchandise only online. If you are a small retailer, doing business in Georgia with Georgians, you collect state and local sales taxes while your internet only competitor doesn’t have to. In a competitive market, small differences in price can have a huge impact on people’s purchasing decisions.

Opponents would say that since they have no retail location and may in fact have no physical presence in Georgia they should not be required to collect these taxes. In addition, collecting sales taxes in all fifty states, and being required to deal with the variations of local law could be expensive.

This issue is not going away. As more people purchase items online, many brick and motar retailers will face increasing competition from their online only retailers. Thusfar this holiday season, online sales are approaching $27 billion.

For the first 42 days of the November to December 2011 holiday shopping season, online spending (through Dec. 12) online spending has reached $26.8 billion, up 15 percent from the same time period last year.

Where do you stand on this issue?

UPDATE: I received an email from a reader telling me I better pay my taxes or he was going to report me for tax evasion. He helpfully provided a link to the form I need to fill out. Thanks for contributing to the discussion sir.

UPDATE 2 11Alive: State reminds consumers to pay tax on online purchases

There’s a rule of thumb that says if there is no organized opposition to a local tax or project then it will pass. If there is any organized opposition to Georgia’s one percent regional transportation sales tax, then I’m unaware of it and so are those polled.

While not a surprise that a majority approve, the margin was impressive.

Image via Wikipedia

The poll of 1176 registered Georgia voters was an 11Alive News Survey that showed approval across the state with the exception of the area defined as North / West Georgia, where the survey shows a 47/47 tie with six percent undecided.

This region may have been influenced by the self-identified party breakdown among voters. While Democrats favored the poll by a wide margin 70/24 with six percent undecided, Republicans opposed it 41/53 with, again, six percent undecided.

I do not have the tabs on the poll or the margin of error, but it appears to me that this is a significant margin. Overall, those polled favored passage of the tax by a 55/38 margin with seven percent undecided.

Somewhat surprisingly to me was that the highest level of approval was for the region listed as South / East Georgia where the margin was 60/35 with (you guessed it) six percent undecided. Who are these six percent anyway? This was slightly higher than the Metro region though the margin was one percent less.

So, will the transportation tax pass? Do Georgia voters understand what they will and will not get from passage or do they see it as a panacea for all that ails Georgia’s transportation ills. If so, will there be a backlash when they learn that there is a projects list already in existence? Discuss among yourselves and try to make it interesting, the legislature might be reading.

More details of the survey results on the 11Alive site.

While we are still working on sending coals to Newcastle and on selling ice to Eskimos, an Americus, Georgia, business is happily selling chopsticks to China and Japan. China has a shortage of trees and the southeastern United States has always had those. All that was required was an entrepreneur and a chopstick manufacturing plant. CNN Money has the story:

Sumter County, GA Image via Wikipedia

Jae Lee, a U.S. citizen originally from South Korea, says his company is America’s only chopsticks manufacturer and exports them to China and Japan.

Lee started Georgia Chopsticks earlier this year in a town called Americus, population 17,000. He said that his 102 employees can’t keep up with demand from hungry Asians. As a result, he has plans to expand dramatically, hiring an additional 800 workers next year.

Thank Vladimir Putin’s Russia for the opportunity. Russia increased its timber export tax from five percent to 25 percent, creating a profitable opening for Lee, who exports 100% of his product.

In 1997, China declared a moratorium on logging its dwindling supply of domestic trees. When Lee learned of this and Russia’s increased export tax, he decided to launch Georgia Chopsticks to meet China’s demand for the disposable eating utensils. The company, only in business since April, produces four million sets of chopsticks per week.

Lee has plans to increase his product line to related niche products such as tongue depressors and toothpicks. Current demand is so strong that Lee is already considering five additional plants.

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We had the biggest decline in house prices of all major U.S. cities, according to Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. While the rest of the country saw slightly increased house prices, Atlanta set a new low.

Atlanta’s index fell to 95.99 for September, which means the average home sale price is 4 percent lower than it was in 2000. It was the largest decline for a major U.S. city and came at a time when the national index climbed 0.1 percent.

“I think what has happened is that we have a combination of the investors buying, coupled with short sales and foreclosures, coupled with a hugely disproportionate number of sales that are under $125,000,” said Daniel Forsman, the president and CEO of Prudential Georgia Realty.

Close to 30 percent of sales in metro Atlanta are foreclosures, Forsman said. Another significant share involves short sales, when a lender agrees to take less for a property than the value of its loan, and about 25 percent of sales are to investors, he said.

The short sales and foreclosures are putting downward pressure on the price of resales as well as new homes, said Brad Horner, the president of NRT Development Advisors in Atlanta, a residential brokerage company specializing in new homes sales.

The average sale price in 2010 was $188,524. So far in 2011, it has dropped to $156,922, his figures say.

If there is good news, it is that the number of homes sold are rising in the 56 counties of North Georgia, according to Horner’s numbers.

Good thing the recession ended!

Sidenote: SunTrust dropped one spot to the 12th largest bank in the U.S.

Waco businessman Bill Looman, owner of U.S. Cranes, LLC, has made a new company policy: A hiring freeze has been established until Barack Obama is no longer the President of the Unitted States. In the 11Alive news story by Jon Shirek, the former US Marine makes it clear that it’s not a political decision, but a business decision caused by the policies of the Obama Administration.

About six months ago, Looman put signs on his company vehicles that read, “New Company Policy: We are not hiring until Obama is gone.” A picture of one of those signs from his Facebook page went viral earlier this week. Now, with the 11Alive report and a headline on the Drudge Report, Looman is suddenly receiving a lot of attention. Shirek reports that Looman has unplugged his phone due to the amount and timing of the phone calls.

I know some people won’t like it, but it’s Mr. Looman’s business and his opinion places the continued economic disaster with the policies of the current administration. There is much evidence to suggest that he is either right or, at the very least, not entirely wrong.

The reactions have been mixed. As for me, I sent him a Facebook friend request.

Following up on Charlie’s article on Monday, Congressmen Kingston and Westmoreland are pushing reform of the H-2A visa. The H2A visa allows laborers to legally enter the U.S. to work in the agricultural industry. The current rules governing H-2A simply don’t work, increasing the incentive for laborers to come here illegally and farmers to employ them. Let me join those praising Kingston and Westmoreland for pushing this bill.

The BARN Act would:

• shift a portion of regulatory responsibility for the H2A program from the Department of Labor to the Department of Agriculture;

• expand the definition of agricultural worker to include the dairy and ranching industries;

• allow farmers to attach an experience requirement to job postings to allow farmers to be matched with more qualified workers;

• remove requirement for farmers to hire domestic workers during a contract period when there is no existing need for additional workers;

• establish a fair, new farm wage methodology, setting a wage minimum at 115% of whichever is higher of federal, state or local minimum wage;

• allow employers to apply for H-2A workers 30 days in advance of need, reducing it from the current 45 day requirement to give farmers more flexibility in managing their labor supplies and expedites the Department of Labor’s review process;

• make H-2A visas a one year visa which may be renewed once before the worker is required to return to their home country, between renewals an employer must re-test the domestic labor market as if the worker was a first-time applicant;

• shift existing housing requirements to a voucher system, allowing the option of using existing housing rather than requiring farmers build permanent worker housing;

• establish reasonable reforms on the Legal Services Corporation; and

o prohibits legal activism unless the alien is present
o prohibits bringing civil action unless the counterparties have attempted mediation
o prohibits entering H-2A employer property without pre-arranged appointments
o requires respect of existing arbitration process and outcome if employer and employee have an existing arbitration arrangement

• place new restrictions on H-2A participants.

o makes worker who overstays his or her H-2A visa ineligible to reapply for 5 years
o makes any applicant who commits fraudulent activity in connection with obtaining an H-2A visa permanently ineligible
o makes any worker found committing a deportable offense while in the U.S. permanently ineligible
o makes any employer who knowingly hires a worker with an expired H-2A visa or who knowingly facilitates fraudulent activity in connection with the H-2A process permanently ineligible from participation in the H-2A program and other work visa programs

The AJC has more.

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control reversed a September denial by its staff of a Corps of Engineers proposal to dredge the Savannah River and deepen the river channel to the Port of Savannah.

[The compromise] includes Georgia’s promise to pay for upkeep on devices the Corps will install to inject oxygen into the river, and agreeing to preserve an additional 1,500 acres of marsh.

The board rejected the Southern Environmental Law Center’s request that three environmental groups be allowed to intervene.

All is not peachy, however, between the two states:

S.C. State Sen. Larry Grooms said he’ll push the quasi-governmental Savannah River Maritime Commission, which represents South Carolina’s interests on the river, to challenge the permit at the group’s December meeting. Grooms will also request that the S.C. Department of Natural Resources challenge DHEC’s decision.

Grooms said a proposed port at Jasper, S.C. — not due on line for at least two decades — would be jeopardized by the deepening, even though Jasper lies between Savannah and the ocean. Environmentalists fear any dredging would irreparably harm the river and its ecosystem. The Southern Environmental Law Center and other environmental groups will likely appeal Thursday’s ruling to an S.C. administrative law judge.

Additionally, “[t]he Coastal Conservation League… plans to appeal the agreement to the S.C. Administrative Law Court, arguing in part that the the proposed oxygenation system has not been proved to be effective.”

I hate to tell the Occupy Wall Street group (OWS) this, but not only do they not understand capitalism, they aren’t even the trendsetters of anti-capitalism. For years, American culture and tax policy have been at odds with the values of capitalism. It’s a pity, but it’s true and one can trace the majority of our current economic problems to that fact.

The basis of capitalism is self-denial; the intentional delay of gratification for the chance of a greater reward later. If you think this is still the core of our country’s values, then you haven’t been paying attention.

In order to generate capital, individuals have to consume fewer resources than they have available, meaning that they save rather than consume. Then those individuals must be willing to risk those savings to acquire the tools necessary to provide desired goods. If the individuals make poor decisions, or as our Commander-in-Chief calls them “bets”, then they will lose their investments. This means that their sacrifices were in vain, except for some new knowledge of what fails.

Capitalism is what people do when left alone. Anything other than capitalism is because of a government that restricts what people freely do. Even simple barter requires a saving of resources and an investment to obtain other goods. Simple farming was also capitalism long before tractors and center-pivot irrigation systems. Early farmers sacrificed the consumption of seeds in order to invest them in next year’s crop.

Is capitalism good? It rewards innovation and efficiency. It creates job opportunities and allows families to climb the ranks and through savings and investing to become capitalists and potentially wealthy. Compare the lives of the poor in the early 21st century with the lives of the wealthy in the 17th century. Decide for yourself who had a better quality of life and more choices.

If capitalism were outlawed, what type of economy would we have? Without capitalism, individuals would no longer make the decisions. Government would choose what to produce and in what quantities. Productivity would decline because there would be no incentive for workers to be more efficient or to earn more income by working overtime. They could not invest the additional money and there would be limited products from which to choose.

For those who hate capitalism and love government social programs, remember that without capitalism and its taxed profits, governments could not afford to fund those programs. All wealth derives from the creation of goods and services and that cannot happen without rewarding people who have ideas and take risks. It’s also something that government bureaucrats cannot do, but can only make more difficult.

In its overwhelming arrogance, government seeks to tell business how to operate, mandating behavior that is expensive and interferes with the function of business – to make a profit. The US tax code is at the heart of many of our economic problems.

Government has long sought to use tax policy to force businesses to follow its whims. It also uses tax policy to help favored businesses or industries and to harm those it does not like. That is the main reason we need to scrap the tax dinosaur, the real T. Rex. It’s time to free the economy and put the chains on a tax policy that is America’s biggest economic threat.

Last night’s debate on Bloomberg TV focused on the US economy. This was a good choice by debate sponsors, because the American people are focused on the economy out of self-defense. The abject failure of President Obama and his gaggle of academic charlatans and Wall Street Wonderboys to grasp even the basics of business, is no surprise to economic conservatives. If one is overly kind, one could call the state of our current economy “iffy”. For that reason alone, people are ready to hear Republican ideas to repair the economy.

The debate was an opportunity for Republican presidential candidates to discuss their thoughts on the economy in more detail than other formats have allowed. Many of them, including Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney made good use of the format. Others did not do as well.

Texas Governor Rick Perry didn’t lose the economics debate last night, but it may eventually cost him the nomination anyway. Perry needed a reversal in direction for his campaign and his lackluster performance did not do that. He will continue to slide in the polls because he gave no reason for the slide to stop.

Perry is right, of course, on his statements about the necessity to utilize our natural resources to save the economy. He mentioned it several times but never ventured beyond the painfully obvious. Simply put, Perry never connected the dots. There was no analysis; no linking of job production outside of the energy sector; and most importantly to his campaign, no burning reason why voters should stick with the Perry bandwagon.

Perry could have easily pointed out that we need relatively inexpensive energy to increase production of both goods and jobs. Less expensive goods – and lower transportation costs – means more exports in all sectors, which means more jobs. Less expensive products are more affordable to America’s middle class. Common sense, increased energy production lowers fuel prices; a large benefit to rural families devastated by this stubborn recession. All of this could have easily been tied to the Texas Governor’s ideas on energy and jobs. Perry failed to explain how that would work.

A good staff would have updated Governor Perry on the cost of energy in New Hampshire and the estimated cost increase due to the EPA’s recent regulation change that affects coal-fired energy plants. Perry could have pointed out that, under his leadership, Texas has sued the EPA because of that changed regulation. Not only would this have offered a specific example of how a Perry presidency would differ from the Obama Administration, it would have allowed Perry to rise above the other participants by targeting President Obama and the Democrats.

Resurrecting the energy sector is a conservative and a populist position that will attract many independents. Strategically, it’s a good position for Perry if he can articulate it with passion. But beyond energy policy, Perry appeared without ideas; only able to point out the many jobs that were created in Texas during his administration. The problem for Perry is that he doesn’t tie that job creation to his policies as governor.

Perry did say that his economic plan would be available within three days, but that may be three days too late to save his chances for the nomination. Arriving on the GOP scene late allowed Perry to shoot to the top of the polls, because many Republicans were not satisfied with the announced candidates. Arriving on the GOP scene late without a plan caused Perry to fall in the polls because many Republicans were not satisfied with his answers. Last night did not resolve that problem.

When all was said and done, Perry did not do badly, but he also did not do enough to prop up his campaign. He, along with the rest of the field, have a few short months before the first primary. In the meantime, Governor Perry’s campaign may not be on life-support, but it’s in serious condition. First, he must first stop the bleeding and then his campaign must make a dramatic recovery. Like the state of our current economy; though, it certainly looks iffy.

The Savannah Morning News reports that the Savannah Economic Development Authority has been awarded a license to form a World Trade Center. The announcement was made Sunday in Sao Paulo, Brazil, by the World Trade Center Association. From the story:

Representing the new World Trade Center Savannah in Sao Paulo were SEDA board chairman Tommy Hester, board member Eric Johnson, SEDA vice president Brynn Grant and consultant Kevin Werntz.

“This was just approved (Sunday) and the connections we are already making are amazing,” Hester said Monday. “The World Trade Center people are so open and anxious to establish relationships. We’re developing new Asian and South American contacts — Brazil alone is a booming economy.

“This affiliation will be so good for us. It really puts Savannah on the world stage.”

As a World Trade Center, Savannah is now one of more than 330 such centers in nearly 100 countries, all working to help businesses conduct profitable international trade.

This designation is a good development for the entire state. Savannah’s new foreign connections should help bring many additional business opportunities, particularly in job-deprived South Georgia.

Congratulations to Savannah. Now, if we can just gain access to the port of Savannah for the larger freighters.

It’s come to my attention that some may have taken my post yesterday about Lowe’s opening a distribution center in Georgia as a swipe at Home Depot. Nothing could be further from the truth. I love Home Depot. I was just trying to say I’m happy about jobs coming to Georgia.

On a related note: Bill Evelyn, known in these parts as SOGTP, took me and my fellow Legislators to task this morning on my Facebook page:

This falls squarely on the head of the state legislature. You failed to nullify Obamacare, the EPA, and rid our state of federal mandates that cause debt. All state legislators need to be chastized.

Bill is referring to this article from GPB which pivots from the Lowe’s announcement of more jobs to the high unemployment rate in Georgia.

State officials said Wednesday that the Lowe’s retail chain will open a distribution center in Rome that will employ 600 people. But it’ll do little to help 350,000 Georgians who have given up looking for full-time work.

While I agree with Bill that Obamacare and many other federal mandates are a drag on our economy, I simply cannot support the doctrine of nullification. State Legislators do not have the final say as to the Constitutionality of federal law. And while I’m not a lawyer I’m pretty sure history backs me up on this.

Feel free to discuss this and/or talk about how awesome Home Depot is.

Lowe’s is expanding in Georgia, breaking ground today on a large distribution facility in Floyd County. From Governor Deal’s press release:

Gov. Nathan Deal today joined representatives of Lowe’s to break ground in Floyd County for a new regional distribution center. Lowe’s will create 600 jobs within three years and invest $125 million in the project, slated for completion in 2013.

“Georgia’s logistics and workforce advantages help make us exactly the right place for Lowe’s to be,” said Deal. “Companies draw from their past experiences when deciding where to locate, so I’m pleased Lowe’s experiences with its other facilities here have been positive and helped contribute to its success throughout the Southeast.”

The 1.4-million-square-foot facility will be located on 140 acres in the North Floyd Industrial Park. The new distribution center, which will service Lowe’s stores in western Georgia, northern Florida and Alabama, joins Lowe’s three other warehousing/distribution facilities in Georgia, one in Valdosta, one in Palmetto and one in Savannah. The distribution center expects to begin operating in early 2013, and the company will announce hiring plans in the near future. Georgia QuickStart, one of the nation’s top workforce training programs, will help Lowe’s prepare its workers to begin operations the day the center opens.

“We chose Floyd County because of the talented workforce, accessibility to major transportation corridors and the commitment of local and state leaders to make this a win-win project,” said Mike Mabry, Lowe’s executive vice president. “Not only will there be construction jobs and initial investment, there will be salaries going back into the local community and ongoing benefits for Floyd County and the state of Georgia for many years to come.”

One of my favorite aspects of Governor Deal’s FY2012 budget was the reduced amount of bonded debt. Deal only asked for (and got) $563 million, almost half the amount of Governor Perdue’s final year borrowing. Amazingly, Alan Essig of the Georgia Policy and Budget Institute and Richard Ray of the AFL-CIO don’t share my pleasure in Georgia’s smaller levels of borrowing. These two gentlemen subscribe to the theory that Georgia needs to borrow lots of money, spend it on building things in order to stimulate the economy.

Essig says:

“One of the only things the state can do to directly stimulate the economy is bonding projects…”

Ray says:

“I look out my window in Atlanta and I don’t see cranes on the skyline, there used to be so many cranes, so much construction,” Ray said. “Our building industries are really hurting.”

Of course Essig and Ray are mirroring other left-leaning folks who think government spending is stimulative. As J.D. Foster points out, demand side government stimulus programs just don’t work. Thus, if the State of Georgia is going to borrow money to build things it should be because they are needed not in an attempt to stimulate the economy.

There is another problem with borrowing more money: By law, Georgia cannot devote more than 10% of it’s annual budget to debt service (Ga. Const. Art. VII, § IV, Para. II).

Currently about 7% of Georgia’s budget goes to debt service. I don’t think we need to get much closer to that cap unless it’s for something big like the deepening of the Savannah port.

A better approach to stimulating Georgia’s economy would be to lower personal and corporate tax rates and reducing needless regulation.

Feeling pinched? Get ready to be pinched again, and harder this time.

Homeowners on tight budgets should prepare for another financial strain: higher insurance bills.

A year after most Georgia insurers increased homeowners premiums 9 to 23 percent, a new wave of hikes is pending at the Georgia Department of Insurance.

Blaming our unusual spate of bad weather (but not including this year’s batch of tornadoes) and the resulting claims filed, the major state insurers are asking for premium increases, some in the double digits:

State Farm – 7% (combined with two previous increases equaling 20% since early 2010)
Travelers Group – 18% (combined with a 10% increase just last year)
Auto Owners Group – 22%

Allstate raised its homeowners rates 23% at the beginning of this year. They wanted increases over 49%.

The old saying goes, “You can’t get blood out of a turnip.” At what point will the insurers price the average homeowner out of the market, period? Owning (and keeping) a home in this tough economy is challenging enough. Storms will always happen, there will always be damages and people will always file claims.

Georgians have had no choice but to tighten their belts to survive this economy. Can these insurers say the same? Do you remember seeing articles about major insurance company’s cost-cutting to save customers money? I didn’t think so.