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Thursday, May 22, 2008
Justice done in rogue cops case
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A jury of his peers found former Atlanta cop Arthur Tesler innocent on two counts but guilty of lying to federal investigators regarding the tragic killing of Kathryn Johnston in her home. Tesler has now been sentenced to four and a half years in prison. The two cops who actually fired at Johnston and were more directly involved in obtaining a false search warrant await sentencing on the more serious charge of involuntary manslaughter.
Justice was done. I agree with community activist Markel Hutchins: The greater culprit in this case was the permissive culture within the Atlanta Police Department; the department now has an obligation to the public and to those good cops in its ranks to punish those in supervisory roles responsbile for establishing and tolerating that cowboy culture.
FairTax debate, live this AM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning, I’m going live on the Martha Zoller show — starting around 9:30 — to discuss the so-called FairTax. Martha’s a supporter of the FairTax, so we’ll bat it back and forth for a while and then take calls from listeners. The show is broadcast on 550 AM, and can also be heard via the station’s website at www.wdun.com.
If you want to listen and discuss what you’re hearing, comment below.
Voters seeing purple because of traffic
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If Georgia Republicans don’t find a way to address metro Atlanta’s transportation problems, they will find themselves replaced by someone who will.
In fact, if GOP legislators in the Atlanta area want a peek into their future, they should cast their eyes northward to Virginia, a state where until recently Republicans held a firm grip on power. Virginia was solidly red, with Republicans in control of statewide offices and the General Assembly.
That’s no longer the case. The number of Republicans in the 100-member state House has fallen from 67 in 2003 to 55 in 2007. Last fall, the GOP also lost four seats in the state Senate, which gave Democrats control of the upper chamber for the first time in a decade. In addition, Democrats have won two consecutive races for governor and a U.S. Senate race, and are favored to win a second Senate seat come November.
There are a lot of reasons for Virginia’s transformation from a solid red state to a state now decidedly purple, including demographics. But the GOP’s biggest problems have come in northern Virginia and the Hampton Roads area, fast-growing regions where traffic is a critical quality-of-life issue.
Virginia Republicans, handcuffed by pledges to never ever raise taxes at any time ever under any conditions ever ever, have failed to respond to that problem. So voters in those fast-growing areas, desperate for a solution, slowly began to abandon the Republicans.
“This is not a blip,” said GOP state Sen. Russ Potts, who retired after the ‘07 elections. “This is a change in the face of Virginia politics for the next 20 years. This business of no-tax pledges and no abortions, no exceptions, is not going to fly. The party desperately needs to widen the circle.”
Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, intends to drive that point home. In a special session of the General Assembly called for June 23, Kaine will seek passage of a $1.1 billion statewide tax increase to fund transportation projects in congested areas and cover a deficit in road-maintenance funding.
“We are going to make something happen or let the public see who is obstructing, and frankly, that is one of the reasons why Democrats have won elections in Virginia,” Kaine said.
Interestingly, Virginia Republicans did try a variety of ways to fund transportation without raising taxes. For example, they championed the idea of raising fines for traffic violations as high as $3,000, hoping to raise around $65 million a year. Kaine signed that measure into law last year as part of a larger transportation bill, but it was quickly repealed after public outrage.
The Virginia General Assembly also passed legislation that would create regional transportation agencies in northern Virginia and the Hampton Roads area and allow those agencies to raise taxes for transportation. That attempt to duck responsibility was shut down by the Virginia Supreme Court, which ruled that the Legislature could not delegate its taxation powers to unelected agencies.
If all that sounds familiar, it should. Georgia Republicans are traveling down that same road. Gov. Sonny Perdue, for example, has proposed a milder version of the speeding-fine approach, and earlier this year the Georgia Senate came within three votes of letting metro regions tax themselves for transportation needs.
As in Virginia, Georgia legislators hoped the regional approach would be a way to generate funds for transportation while shoving the responsibility off on someone else. However, Georgia’s approach was much smarter than that of Virginia, for two reasons.
First, it was designed as a constitutional amendment, to pre-empt legal challenges. And before a tax could take effect, it would have to be approved by a majority of voters in a metro area.
But in the end it didn’t matter, because Georgia legislators lacked the guts to pass the measure. Once again, legislators told constituents stuck in traffic that there’s nothing the state can do to help them, and you have to wonder how long voters will tolerate that.
