Bannister noted during the meeting that the county’s revenue is running about 15 percent down from last year, and that the county government has begun studying its departments to find ways to cut costs.
“It’s not a joyous time,” he said. “There is no answer.”
But Bannister said he would be more inclined to find ways to cut taxes than raise them, saying that county government needed a Reagan-esque answer to the shortfall. Bannister said he has a plan to reduce property taxes, but asked to reveal the plan’s details later.
Green took issue with Bannister’s approach, noting that the county’s reserve account had fallen from $133 million in 2005 at the start of his term to about $75 million now - the minimum amount necessary to maintain a triple-A favorable bond rating.
County staff told the commission that it needs to raise taxes or cut services, she said. Cutting taxes isn’t an option, because county government can’t run a deficit, Green said.
The only negative comments - when Green accused incumbent Chairman Charles Bannister of missing the majority of Transit Planning Board meetings - came in a moment where many complained they couldn’t understand the speakers.
Green said she wants to see more police officers on the street and even more focus on illegal immigration, a topic on which she has sparred with Bannister for months.
“The reason illegals flock to Gwinnett is because of jobs. We need to cut off that life line,” she said, adding that she wanted help from the Legislature to impose a rental ordinance to also attack housing issues.
Bannister, who said hiring illegals should be a reason to take away business licenses, had ideas to improve the zoning process by forcing people to register as lobbyists to relieve political pressure and to consider changes to the county’s land use map before taking up a potential rezoning.
Glenn Pirkle, an electrical contractor from Buford running for chairman, distinguished himself as the only candidate opposed to the use of tax allocation districts to fund redevelopment. The issue will also be on July ballots.
Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr will hold a press conference on Monday May 12 to discuss his future plans and the 2008 election. Rep. Barr launched an exploratory committee last month to determine whether he should file as a candidate for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination.
Who: Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr
What: press conference
When: 11:00am ET on Monday May 12, 2008
Where: Zenger Room at the National Press Club, 529 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC
On the heels of the resignation several weeks ago of Chief Judge Brooks Blitch III of Homerville, comes news that State Court and Juvenile Court Judge Berrien Sutton has also resigned from that South Georgia circuit, as reported by the Clinch County News.
Sutton was the subject of charges of unethical conduct by the state Judicial Qualifications Commission. According to Sutton’s attorney, Thomas Withers of Savannah, the JQC has agreed to drop the charges against Sutton. Sutton was set to go before a JQC panel on those charges on May 8 in Adel before the agreement was reached.
Bill Hargrove, the world’s oldest league bowler, has rolled his last game. The 106-year-old Clermont, Ga. resident died of congestive heart failure Monday at the Northeast Georgia Medical Center, just four days before his 107th birthday. In May 2007 he was officially declared the World’s Oldest League Bowler during a game in Decatur. Since then Hargrove bowled just about every Monday in Cleveland, Ga. with his team, Billy and the Kids.
BTW, the crazy girl would be more likely to carry a gun than the grandmother she went schizophrenic on — so Thomas is probably right about keeping guns off MARTA. But then, well, judge for yourself.
BTW2: Yeah, I know and appreciate that the crazy one probably would have gun regardless of the law. That’s why I didn’t change the title of this post.
Is Newt the only Republican who senses those pesky ‘ole winds ‘o change ‘a blowin’? Of course it all could be backdraft from his own hot air, but The Newtster has his pulse right on America, again, in his wicked-clever, backhanded way.
For instance, he’s running around TV Land wagging his finger in the faces of fellow Republicans, saying essentially that Repugs will not get McCain into the White House by trotting out that same ‘ole, same ‘ole Attwater Rovian-based Stupid White Southerners People Strategy.
That bellowing those two toxic words (Jeremiah Wright) will not only make the bellowee look like a lard-butt drooler, the whole Rev. Wright stuff simply doesn’t have the legs Republicans seem to imagine it has… in political advertising andin what passes for political analysis on Media Farms such as Fox News.
Tom Baxter in Southern Political Report today echoes a similar albeit Newt-Lite sentiment:
Coupled with Obama’s sweeping victory in the Democratic primary Tuesday in North Carolina, where the state GOP ran an ad linking him (Obama) to both leading Democratic candidates for governor, the Louisiana election last weekend suggests that Obama won’t be so toxic for down-ticket Democratic candidates in the South this fall. A better way to say that might be: no more toxic than the average Democratic presidential candidate is for the party’s candidates in Southern races.
Full story here. Other than The Newtster and a very few assorted other party operatives, Republicans aren’t exactly known for their cultural intuition. In these here times of mind-boggling connectivity, cultural intuitiveness applied to political strategy has never been more critical. (And given how portly Newt has become, he’d better lay-off the carbs and exercise more if he wants to keep firing on all his most relevant cylinders, but I diverge…)
Then again, November isa’ways away. Plenty of time for some fresh party mischief making, eh?!
Scooby Doo can get behind the wheel again in Florida.
Not in real life, of course. The talking dog doesn’t exist. But opponents of a bill to let Georgia’s habitual traffic violators take court-ordered driving classes online signed the cartoon canine up for an Internet course in Florida, which has a similar law.
Ruh-roh. Not only did he pass, Doo got a certificate.
The stunt was pulled by Driving Educators of Georgia, a statewide association of driving schools trying to persuade Gov. Sonny Perdue to veto the legislation known as House Bill 1027. The group argues such a system would make it easier for reckless drivers to get their licenses back. It also would be prone to fraud, the group says.
Fulton County officials praised county water users Wednesday for their success at conservation —- then socked them with a 15 percent rate increase for their effort.
The conservation penalty the County Commission adopted Wednesday 6-0 matches the increase Atlanta utility officials asked to impose earlier this year but which the City Council so far has resisted. The average water/sewer bill should increase nearly $9 per month to about $68 per month, water officials said.
I remember the Macon Water Authority telling me that the less water you use, the more they have to charge.
So congrats Atlanta. You’re getting punished for conserving water!
Georgia Power said on Wednesday that its customers’ bills would rise $12 a month starting in 2018 if the utility gains state and federal approvals to build two new 1,100 megawatt nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro.
You know, only France has a lower increase in greenhouse gas emissions than the U.S. From 1997 to 2004 the signers of the Kyoto Protocol excluding France increased their greenhouse gas emissions by 21.1%, the non-signors excluding the U.S. increased by 10%, the U.S. increased by 6.6%, and France by 5%.
I’ll note the irony that the non-signatories increased less than the signatories, though to be fair that’s mostly because those countries are crap holes in the deserts and jungles of the world without running water or regular electricity anyway.
In any event, France was lower than the U.S. due in large part to nuclear energy. We really need to get back to the atom in this country for power.
Stone registered to vote in the adjacent 10th Congressional District in March, about four months after he filed to run.
Since 1997, he had been registered to vote in Warrenton, Va., where he lived when he was a congressional aide.
Ray McKinney of all people is the one to bring this up. Ray too, having abandoned his hopes to be the GOP nominee for President, is running against Stone and Ben Crystal.
Stone purchased his Augusta home in April 2006, while he was registered to vote in Warrenton. A federal income disclosure form he filed in July 2007 said he was renting the house out.
Stone was issued an absentee ballot to vote in Virginia’s November 2006 election.
The AJC is reporting that the Clayton County School Board is denying that they illegally met in closed session after an explanation was demanded by the Attorney General’s office for why they, in fact, did exactly that.
On Tuesday, Clayton board attorney Dorsey Hopson sent a letter to the attorney general saying the board did not “knowingly and willingly” violate the law when it met privately with SACS. […] In his letter Tuesday, Hopson did not address the other allegations raised by the state, including why the board has conducted all its business behind closed doors on several occasions during the past few months. The board also did not respond to questions about missing sworn affidavits stating the reason for closing meetings. The law requires the board chair to sign an affidavit after every closed session.
