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Friday, February 22, 2008
A few questions about the Gator tag bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We may have just found a University of Florida grad to speak against H.B. 1165 at the hearing we know Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson will want to put together.
Kurt Raulin is an Atlanta attorney who just happens to be a graduate of the University of Florida — a Republican who on occasion has donated to a campaign here and there.
On Thursday, he sent an e-mail to Carla Klepper, president-elect of the Atlanta Gator Club, offering advice on what to say about the measure sponsored by state Rep. Barry Fleming. His bill would ultimately do away with prestige auto tags for the alumni of out-of-state universities - unless neighboring states offer similar opportunities for grads of the University of Georgia or Georgia Tech.
The House passed H.B. 1165 on Thursday. Johnson, a Savannah Republican and the ranking member of the Senate, has already endorsed it.
In his e-mail, which he copied to us, Raulin posed the following questions:
Q: Have Sen. Johnson or Rep. Fleming contacted the legislative leadership in the adjoining states to address the “reciprocity” issue in a productive manner that is likely to produce results?
Q: Doesn’t changing the specialty rules after the fact seem unfair to those Georgia citizens who followed the existing application process and got approved?
Q: Do the adjoining states not have similar administrative and/or legislative processes for the approval of new specialty tags? Are those procedures any more or less fair than Georgia’s specialty tag application process?
Q: Shouldn’t members of the Georgia Assembly be more concerned with the rights of Georgia taxpayers and voters rather than fans of Georgia universities who live in adjoining states?
The Atlanta Gator Club just finished jumping through state-required hoops for its plates. Graduates of Auburn University already have theirs.
In a separate e-mail to us, Raulin added this:
“Members of the General Assembly are supposed to be adults and voices of mature reason; their job descriptions do not include launching rhetorical broadsides against their fellow Georgia citizens, residents, taxpayers and voters who happened to attend out-of-state universities, nor do their job descriptions include attempting to deny their fellow Georgia taxpayers and voters due process and the equal protection of the laws of Georgia.
“These may be members of my own political party, but it is apparent (to anyone who has considered the underlying legal issues) that these young gentlemen have not thoroughly considered where they are taking the State of Georgia and their fellow citizens in this matter. I can only express my sincere disappointment in them.”
Perdue PAC spent $35,500 on polling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last year, Gov. Sonny Perdue shifted $787,000 in leftover funds from his re-election campaign into Perdue PAC, a political action committee formed as a 527 — capable of accepting cash gifts of any amount.
In his complaint to the State Ethics Commission filed on Thursday, Bobby Kahn said the group should have filed an end-of-year report showing what contributions have been accepted in 2007.
Perdue attorney Robert Highsmith said Perdue PAC has filed all the required paperwork, including an 8872 IRS form, which we’re happy to bring to your attention. Click here to see it.
In the federal form, you’ll note that Perdue’s biggest expenditure was $35,500 in mid-October for a poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies. For what, we’re not sure. It was a non-election year.
Perhaps to see what Americans were looking for in a vice president? Certainly not to see how Georgians felt about the GREAT plan.
When Black History Month meets Confederate History Month
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Since today’s AJC is chockfull of stories about the Confederate flag and the paper trail of slavery, we thought we’d help develop the day’s theme.
Next month, Gov. Sonny Perdue is to sign a proclamation honoring Bill Yopp, a black slave born in 1846 near Dublin who served as a soldier in the Confederate army. He died in 1936, and is the only African-American buried in the Confederate cemetery in Marietta.
Yopp will be a focus of Confederate History Month in April. Several of Yopp’s descendants are to attend the March 5 signing ceremony.
Say what you will about Southern history, but it is never, ever dull.
