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DEL.ICIO.USPlains welcome center will remain open, state officials say
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the last episode, the welcome center in Jimmy Carter’s home town of Plains was tied to the railroad track by Gov. Sonny Perdue, in order to eliminate $186,00 from the crumbling state budget.
In hard times, foreigners from Japan or Britain or Wisconsin must live off the land like the rest of us.
But suddenly, in a budget hearing, George Hooks (D-Americus) who holds Carter’s old seat in the state Senate, unearthed a 1977 state law that mandated a “tourist center” in the “vicinity” of the home of any Georgian elected president.
Apparently, Hooks has won the day. This from a New York Times piece on the topic:
The Georgia Department of Economic Development said it would find a way to keep the center open, although it might reduce its hours or rely on volunteers to run it.
“That’s the law,” said Alison Tyrer, a spokeswoman for the department. “We’re definitely keeping the center open.”
But Bert Brantley, a spokesman for the governor, said legal experts must still decide whether the 1977 law allowed the state to scale back the center’s hours or to reach another compromise with Plains.
Roll credits.
NYT photo: Cardboard cutouts of former President Jimmy Carter, and his wife, Rosalynn, in a shop on Main Street in Plains, Ga.
Comments
By Mouth of the South
February 3, 2009 1:01 PM | Link to this
Way to get scooped by the NYT on a story about the Georgia Legislature.