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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Senate researcher: Contract guarantees that “Grady is perpetually indebted to Emory”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An attorney within the research arm of the state Senate has gone through the contract between Grady Memorial Hospital and the Emory University School of Medicine.
He didn’t like what he saw, and said so in a five-page memo to the top Republicans within the Senate, including Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and President pro tem Eric Johnson of Savannah.
See it here.
The examination was made at the request of state Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth), who’s been advocating scrutiny of the relationship between the two venerated Atlanta institutions — before any state money goes toward a rescue of the indebted hospital.
“It could be argued that the practical effect of this agreement is to create a situation in which Grady is perpetually indebted to Emory in such a manner and at a level that is unilaterally determined by Emory,” writes attorney Brian Scott Johnson.
Here are bits and pieces of his summary:
“Grady is bound into an unusually long contractual relationship in which medical services are performed at the downtown hospital but the benefits flow back to Druid Hills. Emory obtains the use and benefit of a large, urban teaching hospital providing a large array of teaching opportunities.
“Grady’s medical leadership either originates from Emory or is subject to a practical veto; its spokesman is required to make joint statements with and approved by Emory whenever possible.
“It is Grady’s lone burden to assume malpractice liability of Emory’s physicians and indemnify Emory against all liability. Grady is required to pay Emory for the cost of Emory faculty physicians at rates that both parties agree that Grady cannot afford….”
A strange new habit for Sang-Ni Pu-Du
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At the state Capitol on Wednesday, Gov. Sonny Perdue hosted an extraordinarily elaborate ceremony announcing the decision by Sanyi, a Chinese firm that builds concrete pouring equipment, to start a new plant in Fayette County.
The event was pure Chinese in style. Red carpet was spread across the front of the Capitol. A long white table was garnished with flowers. Lilies, possibly. Each dignitary had his or her name on a placard, in English and Chinese.
We’ll let the business section fill you in on the details. The company is owned by the province of Hunan.
It’s always interesting to see how the Chinese translate English names. They try to come as close as they can, phonetically.
The governor of Georgia’s name came across as “Sang-Ni Pu-Du.”
Usually, those doing the translating pick a series of Chinese words at random, signifying nothing.
For instance, “Perdue” can be translated as “Universal Degree.”
But Sonny. That’s another matter. It means the “Mulberry Nun.”
Sounds like a new security handle.
Newt still a great, big maybe
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is still playing the guessing game: Will he or won’t he run for president?
The Washington Times reported this morning here that Gingrich, a Republican, would decide in early October whether to turn his pseudo-campaign into a real one.
“I will decide based on whether I have about $30 million in committed campaign contributions and whether I think it is possible to run a campaign based on ideas rather than 30-second sound bites,” Gingrich, a reporter’s dream sound-bite machine, told the Times.
That $30 million is what Gingrich believes is needed to run TV ads in the first primary and caucus states, New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina, the Times said. He’s likely to decide before Oct. 15, the deadline for official candidates to pay $500 to Utah to get on the state’s ballot.
Gingrich has been traveling for well over a year, delivering policy speeches outlining his agenda on healthcare, national defense and virtually any other issued that pops into his mind. He is speaking Thursday on Capitol Hill about programs that provide health insurance to poor children, including Georgia’s PeachCare.
“I will conduct workshops around the country through Sept. 30,” Gingrich told the Times, “after which I will make a decision.”
McKinney said to be bowing out of ‘08 presidential run
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Blogger Jason Pye pointed us to what could be a decision by former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney to skip the ‘08 presidential race. She had been flirting with the Green Party.
On Ron Gunzburger’s Politics, McKinney is said to have written a Monday letter to the Greens with these lines:
“After careful consideration about the political conditions facing our nation, the level of development within the [Green] Party, my own readiness to take on such a daunting task and my own long postponed personal priorities, I write to inform the Party that I must at this time withdraw my name from consideration for the Party’s 2008 Presidential Nominating contest.”
The Gunzburger blog notes that this would leave McKinney free to challenge Hank Johnson for her old seat. But we’ve no independent information that this is the case.
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Eggs, grits and issues: Perdue on the Speaker’s tax plan, and negotiations over the budget start
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue reached out to the state Capitol press corps this morning for the first time in more than a year, hosting a breakfast of eggs, grits and conversation at the Silver Skillet diner on 14th Street.
Topics included his recent overnight, underwater stay on a nuclear sub, the shift from property taxes to a sales tax proposed by House Speaker Glenn Richardson, and negotiations with legislators over control of the state budget.
The good news: The governor said he sat down with House Speaker Glenn Richardson on Tuesday, after a long silence between the two. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and several other budget-writing lawmakers were witnesses.
Richardson’s tax plan would eliminate property taxes at both the state and local level, and would funnel all sales taxes through the central state government. While Perdue expressed empathy with some of Richardson’s aims, the governor said the loss of local control by counties and cities was a serious issue.
Said Perdue: “If President Bush and [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid and [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi called up today and said, ‘Governor we know you’ve got a sales tax and income down there, and Georgia’s doing pretty well. Florida’s in trouble, Michigan’s in trouble, California’s in trouble. If you’ll just send us your sales tax and income tax, we’ll make sure you get back what you need.’ I wouldn’t be very comfortable with that.”
On the political side of things, Perdue said he might not make a public pick in the Republican race for president, although the end of his term as chairman of the Republican Governors Association in December could give him more leeway.
But the governor did say that he’d talked to Newt Gingrich, who is to announce within the next few weeks whether he’ll enter the fray. “I think he’s essentially dismissed the idea, although I don’t want to speak for him,” Perdue said.
More to come.
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