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DEL.ICIO.USFor Democrats, some drought relief in the offing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At long last, the drought is over. If, that is, you’re a Democrat in the state Legislature.
For six years, the party has struggled to prove its relevance in the state Capitol. With a few noteworthy exceptions, it has been steamrolled time and time again by Georgia’s new crop of Republican rulers.
For three election cycles, invitations to lunch have been lost in the mail. Campaign contributions for Democratic lawmakers have dried up like Lake Lanier with a federal bureaucrat at the spigot.
The math of constitutional politics says all of this will come to an end in January.
Democrats in the Legislature have successfully offered themselves up as a stabilizing force to a Georgia business community unnerved by House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s plan to end property taxes, and frustrated over a lack of progress when it comes to transportation.
Water and metro Atlanta’s thirst for it works into the Democratic revival, too — but in a more complicated, roundabout fashion.
“We’re now hearing from business people,” said House Minority Leader DuBose Porter of Dublin. “They see that we’re a safety valve that can keep [Republicans] from going too radical.”
Porter told of sitting down recently with a top business executive just back from overseas. The message offered was that Richardson’s plan to end all property taxes by shifting and expanding a statewide sales tax hasn’t gone down well with service-oriented companies eyeing expansion into Georgia.
But the speaker’s plan to remake the tax code requires an amendment to the state constitution. Which in turn requires a two-thirds vote of both the 180-member House and the 56-member Senate.
To pull off this tax revolution, Republicans will need all of their own membership, plus 14 of 73 Democrats. And there lies the Democratic advantage.
The margin is similar in the state Senate, where David Adelman of Atlanta — another Democrat — said machinations should be no surprise. Republicans were in the same position in the 1990s, when Gov. Zell Miller decided to start a state lottery.
As with the House, Adelman said the message of Senate Democrats was moderation. “The state is being governed through the prism of a Republican primary,” he said. “When that happens, some of the more radical ideas become viable.”
Now, if you happen to catch the odd chamber of commerce member, he will deny that any shift in the wind is afoot. Business has always been non-partisan, he will say. And it is important to remember, he will emphasize, that the business community has never been a wing of the Republican party.
This is mostly, though not entirely, true. Last session, business types relied on Senate Democrats to help block legislation to permit employees to store their guns in cars parked on company lots. And this fall, state Democratic party chairman Jane Kidd addressed the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, on equal footing with her Republican peer, Sue Everhart.
More importantly, the new Democratic leverage translates into campaign contributions, which translates into some sort of rough parity in next November’s general elections.
“My first fund-raiser in September was as good as I had back when I was speaker pro tem,” said Porter, the House minority leader.
Transportation, perhaps the top priority to the business communities of Georgia and metro Atlanta, is another issue where the Democratic minority is likely to wield some clout. Chambers of commerce want more tax funds diverted to roads and rail, which could require new tax districts, or a special statewide tax. Again, a constitutional amendment would be required.
But in this case, Democrats — rather than being asked to be the “safety valve” to block legislation — would be asked to become part of a winning, bipartisan coalition.
Water is yet another issue in which Democrats could take advantage of what could be a chaotic legislative session.
The most important bit of aquatic decision-making will be a fight over interbasin transfers — the ability to transfer water from one watershed to another, to keep the metro Atlanta growth machine going.
This won’t be a Democratic versus Republican fight. It will be upstream versus downstream. But we’re hearing that one wrinkle could be Mayor Shirley Franklin of Atlanta, who has been responsible for remaking her city’s water systems in a way unmatched by suburbia.
This could make for one development not altogether pleasing to Georgia business — a coalition of core-city Democrats, environmentalists and rural Georgians against suburban and exurban Atlanta.
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Comments
By Time Magazine coming down hard on Sonny & the Gold Domers
November 26, 2007 12:52 AM | Link to this
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1684513,00.html
Did Georgia Bring the Drought on Itself?
But now Georgia’s politicians are fighting to protect their culture of consumption and development by suspending the Endangered Species Act…Anyway, stiffing them won’t save Atlanta. That’s going to require serious water management and long-term thinking. In other words, a miracle.
By It's Not Evil to Consume Water
November 26, 2007 12:45 PM | Link to this
I’m always amused when people use phrases such as “culture of consumption” when referring to the current Atlanta water shortage.
I’ve consumed water all my life. Haven’t you? If each household reduced water consumption by 40%, our area would still fall short of its water needs eventually.
Funny how these critics never cite additional means of producing potable water as part of their “solutions.” It’s the same with oil—some folks want to cram people in Yugo-sized automobiles but never talk about drilling for new sources of oil.
America is great, in part, because we embrace growth. We always find solutions to problems. Atlanta’ s water consumption is no exception, but we need political leadership which, to date, has been lacking.
We can’t conserve our way to success. You can spend $10,000 on low-flush toilets, tankless water heaters, low-flow shower heads, and xeriscaping, but ultimately we need more drinking water.
It’s not evil to drink water, bathe, or flush your commode. Attempting to make people feel guilty about using water won’t solve the problem. The Time article posed no solutions either. What a waste of space.
By Wackolibhack
November 26, 2007 1:10 PM | Link to this
It is Bush’s fault that Time magazine offered no solutions. If Bush would turn on the weather machine, the one that caused Katrina, it could rain and ATL would be spared.
By Aaron Burr V. Mexico
November 26, 2007 4:31 PM | Link to this
If corporate ethos means Finding new areas of sales growth While paying for weekly massages for the employees Having birthday parties with bathtubs full of champagne And having 400 employees where 40 will do Then they mean Rephuklycan ethos Because no CEO worth his salt Would trade growth for waste. Both are needed in business. Both are needed in America. Wackoconversativehack is bad for america. It’s Not Evil To Waste Water is bad for america. Conservation is part of the strategy. So are reseviors.
By Wackolibhack
November 26, 2007 4:53 PM | Link to this
It is Bush’s fault that Americans waste water. Bush is ground zero for all the evils in the World.