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February 2009
Sorry, no morning jolt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My apologies, but family business has called me away today. George Galloway, a 94-year-old veteran of General Patton’s’ Red Ball Express, must be buried in Cleveland tomorrow.
The Legislature isn’t in session, but for doings in the state Capitol, please see Gold Dome Live, a relatively new AJC blog.
Back Monday, weather permitting.
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Reed lays claim to Obama campaign advisors
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last year, Councilwoman Mary Norwood said she’s the Barack Obama candidate in the race to succeed Shirley Franklin to become Atlanta’s next mayor.
But when it comes to Obama infrastructure, much of that has been snagged by state Sen. Kasim Reed, according to my AJC colleague Eric Stirgus.
Reed announced Thursday that AKPD Message & Media will serve as his camp’s media consultants. Some of the firm’s better known names include David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager; John Del Cecato, who produced many of the presidential candidate’s TV ads; and John Kupper, who helped the president-to-be as a message and advertising consultant.
Additionally, Reed said he has lined up Cornell Belcher, who was Obama’s pollster.
“I am proud that they have joined our team and will help us lay the foundation for victory in this election,” said Reed, a Democrat who represents portions of southwest Atlanta in the Georgia Senate.
Reed spokeswoman Goldie Taylor said she hadn’t seen details about the terms of the contracts, particularly how much they’ll be paid. She said Reed began negotiations with the teams in Denver during last summer’s Democratic National Convention.
Norwood, an at-large city councilwoman, currently has the lead in campaign donations and recently released a poll that showed her with a 30-point lead over Reed. Reed’s folks noted that Franklin was down early in the polls before besting Robb Pitts in the 2001 mayoral election.
Franklin, a two-term incumbent, is prohibited from running for a third consecutive term.
Governor vows to crush a transportation rebellion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Holy cow. Have you ever seen anything so….well, snafued.
While you sit in traffic, the state’s system for getting you there is erupting in a civil war that’s likely to end up before the Georgia Supreme Court.
Less than an hour ago, shortly after the board that governs the state Department of Transportation fired its commissioner, Gena Evans, Gov. Sonny Perdue made clear that he intends to use the incident to press the Legislature for his plan to gut the agency and create something new.
A majority of the DOT board, even without newly elected member Bobby Parham, decided that Evans showed excessive loyalty to the governor, who lobbied the board to hire her in late 2007. Read the details here.
In a press release, Perdue said:
“Sadly, today the State Transportation Board proved that a majority of its members are more concerned with personal vendettas and politics than delivering value to citizens in transportation.
While I am not privileged to the reasons behind their decision, I believe they have fired a competent Commissioner for no reason other than her commitment to put the needs of Georgia’s citizens ahead of board members’ personal agendas of spending taxpayer dollars on their individual projects.
The Lt. Governor, Speaker and I are committed to creating a transportation system that allows the citizens to hold us accountable for moving Georgia where we need to go in transportation.”
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On Sunday sales and the Senate’s playful sense of irony
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The joy of our state Capitol can be found in the twists and turns that lawmakers are prepared to take — sometimes, on behalf of the right people.
Late Wednesday, after an hour and 45-minute delay, a meeting of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee was canceled on account of lack of interest. Only two of 13 lawmakers showed up.
One cannot help but think that the absences were deliberate. The committee was scheduled to take up S.B.16, the bill that would allow communities across the state to decide whether their grocery and convenience stores should be allowed to sell beer and wine on Sundays.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle cleared the legislation for a floor vote before the session began, but that hasn’t stopped the hemming and hawing. A major quality-of-life issue with huge political impact, lawmakers argue in private. The Georgia Christian Coalition is attempting to reassert itself by opposing the measure — a source of great concern.
But it’s all about quality of life, of course. For some.
Today, the Senate voted 32-14 to pass S.B. 68, which apparently had no problem escaping the same group of concerned lawmakers on the regulated industries committee.
The bill allows local communities to decide whether to exempt themselves from a state law that prohibits the sale of alcohol within 100 yards of a public housing complex. My AJC colleague Mary Lou Pickel was in the chamber at the time.
“Are we sending the wrong message by making an exemption in the law?” asked Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur), who opposed the bill.
Sen. Jack Murphy (R-Cumming), the sponsor of S.B. 68, said local government should be allowed to decide for themselves where liquor stores set up shop. Murphy was one of those who didn’t show up at the committee meeting on Sunday sales.
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The topic of the day for conservatives: The “2% illusion”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This opinion piece in today’s Wall Street Journal is churning through right-handed web sites today, and providing much fodder for talk radio:
A tax policy that confiscated 100% of the taxable income of everyone in America earning over $500,000 in 2006 would only have given Congress an extra $1.3 trillion in revenue.
That’s less than half the 2006 federal budget of $2.7 trillion and looks tiny compared to the more than $4 trillion Congress will spend in fiscal 2010. Even taking every taxable “dime” of everyone earning more than $75,000 in 2006 would have barely yielded enough to cover that $4 trillion.
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January unemployment rate hits record high
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Department of Labor just released January unemployment figures, showing a preliminary but record-high rate of 8.6 percent.
This is the highest seasonal rate since 1976, when the U.S. Labor Department standardized unemployment rates among all states, said state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond.
“We are officially sailing in uncharted economic waters,” he said in a press release.
The previous record high was 8.3 percent, recorded in January of 1983.
Dalton again was the hardest hit, with a 7.6 percent loss of jobs over January 2008. Macon and Athens did the best, but barely held even. Click here for a city-by-city breakdown.
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Your morning jolt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning on ajc.com:
— Sonny Perdue says if he doesn’t take every last stimulus dollar, it won’t be out of protest.
— Georgia economy in the tank until 2011.
— Georgia Power’s nuke bill up for what could be a final vote, in the House.
— State senators decide not to show up for vote on Sunday sales of beer and wine.
— The $18.9 billion mid-year budget comes up for a House vote.
— A $1.75 trillion federal deficit.
— Salmonella outbreak could last two years.
— Atlanta finances ‘going down a dark hole.’
— Atlanta police chief denies widespread misconduct in the ranks.
From elsewhere:
— NYT: GM loses $9.6 billion.
— WSJ: Karl Rove on Obama’s straw men.
— WP: Majority of Americans back Obama on Afghanistan.
— WP: Kurtz asks “How bad was Bobby Jindal?”
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Bobby Jindal as the next ‘secret Muslim’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dan Gilgoff, who writes the God & Country blog for U.S. News and World Report, says that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is running up against the same “secret Muslim” allegations that dogged Barack Obama.
Gilgoff had posted earlier this week on Jindal’s role as chief responder to President Obama:
I’m surprised that a few comments on my post about Bobby Jindal as the new face of Christian conservatism allege that he’s got ancestral Muslim roots, in addition to the acknowledged Hinduism of his Indian-born parents. Remind you of any other recent rumor campaigns against promising young minority politicians?
What’s surprising is that some of the comments appear to be from pro-Sarah Palin conservatives. They’re a likely preview of what a Jindal primary faceoff with Palin or another Christian conservative might look like, with both vying for conservative Christian support.
I haven’t read any credible profiles of Jindal claiming Muslim roots. I’ve read several pieces that track the extraordinary depth of his early conversion from Hinduism to Catholicism, including his own account of participating in a Christian exorcism.
President Obama waged an intensive, nearly two-year effort to combat the false rumor campaign that he was secretly Muslim. If Jindal is to run for president in 2012—and he insists he won’t—he’ll have to start doing the same thing soon. That might also include debunking false rumors that he’s secretly still Hindu.
Hat tip to redstate.com on the above.
In today’s Washington Post, Howard Kurtz weighs in on the same topic, with a headline that shows his direction: “How bad was Jindal?”
Wrote Kurtz:
Whatever Jindal had to say—and I’m glad his immigrant father saved enough money to pay for his delivery—he was so oddly paced and awkward that he created an indelible image—and not a flattering one for a rising Republican star.
Following a presidential address to Congress by speaking from an empty room almost guarantees that you’ll fall flat. Tim Kaine was among the Democrats who belly-flopped in the Bush years. But Jindal risks becoming a punchline.
Many conservatives are cringing. Laura Ingraham, on her radio show, said Jindal gestured with only one hand and was “very off-putting … A wonderful human being, I like him very much, but he is a horrible speaker.”
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The speedy but rocky first vote on Gov. Sonny Perdue’s transportation bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Senate Transportation Committee late Wednesday passed out Gov. Sonny Perdue’s legislation to reorganize the state’s transportation agencies — which allowed S.B. 200 to keep moving at breakneck speed despite serious questions raised by both Democrats and Republicans.
The final vote was 8-3, with Democrats forming the opposition. But two Republicans expressed reservations and a fourth Democrat left before the vote. So the outcome wasn’t as certain as the final vote indicates.
“I think I’m speaking for many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, some of whom can’t really speak up on this issue and their concerns, that we’re rushing this bill through, very quickly,” said state Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna). “There are a lot of questions, and I think the proper way to do this would be by constitutional amendment.”
Though he won the day, bill sponsor Tommie Williams of Lyons, the Senate president pro tem, found himself on the defensive through much of the hour-long hearing — the second in two days.
Williams argued that the current state transportation system has utterly failed, and the resulting traffic congestion has cost jobs and increased costs. “I can’t explain to anyone that 16 years is necessary to plan a road,” he said.
But other testimony raised several points that could crop up later, complicating the greased track envisioned by S.B. 200’s powerful authors:
— Both the Georgia Municipal Association and the Association County Commissioners of Georgia pointed out that the measure created an “earmark” system — by permitting the General Assembly to determine the destination of one in every 10 transportation dollars, or about $200 million a year.
Tom Gehl of the Georgia Municipal Association didn’t use the “c” word — that’s “corruption,” for strangers to this page — but he sure hinted at it.
“We’re concerned that this does set up a potential new legislative earmark process similar to the congressional process, that would put into competition a local governments all over the state for trying to woo the favor of members of the General Assembly, rather than some competitive process or merit-based process,” Gehl said.
— Gehl also raised the matter of whether the legislation might require U.S. Justice Department clearance, since it guts the policy-making duties of the current board that governs the state Department of Transportation.
Membership on the DOT board is based on the state’s 13 congressional districts, six of which are controlled by Democrats. Three African-Americans sit on the board.
The governor’s measure would create a State Transportation Authority with an 11-member board appointed by the governor, House Speaker Glenn Richardson and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
Georgia is subject to the federal Voting Rights Act. Any state-passed statute that tinkers with minority ballot representation must pass muster with the feds. The governor’s office doesn’t think the Voting Rights Act applies, but with an Obama administration in place, someone’s likely to test that theory.
— Democrat Valencia Seay of Riverdale questioned whether the legislation cut the legs out from under state Transportation Commissioner Gena Evans, the first woman to head the department, who was appointed at the end of 2007.
“I personally don’t feel we’ve given the commissioner a chance to show that it can be done,” Seay said.
Replied Williams: “The commissioner has done all she can do at this point….“
— But the most intriguing portions of the transportation committee meeting were a series of exchanges about passages in S.B. 200 that would permit the State Transportation Authority, when it chose, to select someone other than the low-bidder on contracts.
Steve Thompson (D-Powder Springs) was the first to raise the topic.
Thompson: Is there any question that we’re doing away with competitive bidding?
Williams: Currently in the bill, there’s only competitive bidding. But the [authority] can, by rule, create other alternatives for construction.
Thompson: Why would we do that with the people’s money, if this low bid — subject to qualifications, which the way the law is now, they can decide who’s qualified — why would we do that with the public’s money?
Williams: Senator, there are lots of other ways to construction projects other than low bid. And low bid does not always mean the best job, it doesn’t always mean the job’s completed on time. There are other ways to hold managers accountable, to get the job completed….
Thompson: Why would we do this with the people’s money? They can actually, now, turn down the bids and re-bid it. …
Williams said he was open to changes in the bill, reminding the committee that S.B. 200 was not introduced “by one of the governor’s floor leaders.” (Thompson bowed out of the meeting early, declaring he knew how to count votes.)
Among the first to testify against the bill was Neil Herring, a Sierra Club lobbyist who agreed with Thompson’s assessment. “This bill actually authorizes the new agency to set up any rule they like on bidding for projects,” he said.
But Herring pointed out something else. The measure would create not only the State Transportation Authority, but a parallel organization called the State Transportation Agency controlled by the same 11-member board.
The authority would handle policy, the agency would handle the cash. But the agency would be exempted from the Georgia Administrative Procedures Act, Herring said. “I think we’ve got a transparency problem there that needs to be looked at very carefully.”
Just before the final vote, state Sen. Kasim Reed (D-Atlanta) — one of several candidates for mayor of Atlanta — again drilled Williams on the issue of competitive bidding.
Reed: Why do you want to move from a standard that I think works and that has prevented a substantial amount of fraud in the contracting process to a space that has greater risk?
Williams: Because I think there are other models out there that are also good for the taxpayer…..I just think the department ought to have the liberty to use some of these other construction techniques.
Specifically, Williams said the state could get better bargains by offering contracts that combine planning, engineering and construction — which would save on time and money.
S.B. 200 passed with only one amendment, offered by John Douglas (R-Social Circle), which demanded that the Senate approve appointments to the STA board by the governor and lieutenant governor.
But after the meeting, Reed declared what he thought to be at work in the governor’s bill — an attempt, by eliminating low-bid requirements, to create road construction packages big enough to attract multi-national companies. At the expense of local road-building companies — who’ve had a rocky relationship with Perdue.
“I’m not going to sit here and be a part of it, something that at the end of the day is going to be bad for Georgia-based companies,” Reed said.
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Reading material for your drive home
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The great fear among business types is that the push for a sales tax for transportation — whether regional or statewide — will be swamped by Gov. Sonny Perdue’s decision to propose a reorganization of Georgia’s transportation agencies.
So Get Georgia Moving, a coalition pushing the increased funding for roads and rail, is trying to make sure the need for more funding doesn’t get lost in the congestion — with green-and-white billboards posted above some of metro Atlanta’s most reliable traffic bottlenecks.
The high-rise advertisements will be going up at:
— I-285 at South Cobb Drive, northbound;
— I-75/85 on the Downtown Connector, north of Abernathy Boulevard across from Turner Field, southbound;
— I-75 at West Paces Ferry Road, northbound;
— I-75 at Delk Road, southbound;
— I-85 at Jimmy Carter Boulevard, northbound.
The advertisements are intended to create a tide of e-mails and phone calls to legislators. GetGeorgiaMoving.com will happily direct you to the proper one.
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Did Obama just call the F-22 a Cold War relic?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For a Republican, Rep. Phil Gingrey of Marietta was fairly complimentary of President Barack Obama’s big speech last night.
But there were a couple things the president said that make him worry, according to my AJC colleague Bob Keefe in Washington.
First was the mention of a carbon cap-and-trade plan, which Gingrey said would really hurt Georgia — since the state doesn’t produce much in the way of renewable fuels, but is home to big-time coal burning companies like Atlanta-based power company Southern Co.
But what really worries Gingrey was Obama’s line about reforming defense spending “so that we’re not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don’t use.”
Gingrey and other Georgia members of Congress are pushing hard for the president to keep funding the production of F-22 fighter jets that are assembled in Marietta. Obama is expected to make a decision on F-22 funding on March 1.
Asked if he thought Obama were referring to the F-22, Gingrey said:
“You just don’t know. But that made my stomach tighten up a bit.”
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Taking the fight over sexual academics to Facebook
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When he last appeared in the AJC two weeks ago, state Rep. Calvin Hill (R-Canton) had — before a House committee — backtracked a bit on his criticism of state universities that offer programs with a sexual emphasis.
Hill defended his interest in the issue but said he never specifically accused Georgia State University of doing anything wrong. He also said the media had blown the subject out of proportion.
“It’s been taken sideways by people who like the titillating words, ” he said.
Apparently, Hill’s interest has been revived. On his Facebook page yesterday afternoon, the lawmaker posted this:
Exposing the Obscene Classes in GA Universities: You are paying for it!
They just don’t get it! Those off the wall folks that think I am gay bashing when I exposed classes on “Queering The South” at Kennesaw State and “ Queer Theory” at UGA, not to mention Georgia State’s experts in Male Prostitution, Queer Theory and Oral Sex.
I am exposing what your taxes are paying for. I have checked other state’s major Universities and they do not offer such drivel.
Perhaps this is why the American Council of Trustees and Alumni have rated the University System of Georgia with a big F. This includes an F for “performance as a criterion for funding.”
Why are our Universities pandering to the sex crowd? Georgia State is holding programs like “SEX? What’s your Position”, an interactive game. Or how about “Sex in The Kitchen”[?]
Hill offered GSU links here and here to prove his point.
And damn that media for twisting his titillating words.
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Your morning jolt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning on ajc.com:
— President Barack Obama: We are not quitters.
— Stimulus money doled out before it gets here.
— State cuts few jobs, but furloughs 25,000.
— We don’t have sanctuary cities, but Senate would make them illegal anyway.
— Two bills to give legislative committees the power of subpoena. No lying allowed.
— Two PSC members want to get rid of geographical districts.
— Senate approves food and drink in MARTA stations.
— Judge threatens to sue watchdog suing him.
Elsewhere in Georgia:
— Lucid Idiocy: Speculation that state Sen. Robert Brown (D-Macon) might be contemplating a run for lieutenant governor.
— Tondee’s Tavern: The oddness of Jim Martin raising money for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
The rest of the nation:
— CNN: Transcript of Obama’s speech.
— CNN: Transcript of Republican response by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
— MarketWatch: Futures unmoved by Obama.
— NYT: Iran to Begin Tests at nuclear station.
— LAT: California legislator says taxing pot could solve state budget crisis.
— NYT: One Illinois senator tells another to step down.
— WP: Reporter loses job over altering Fox video.
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Proof that Obama is sending Republicans to the couch
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A friend ripped this from the pages of The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress:
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Perdue talks transportation with the man who controls the flow of dollars
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue wrapped up his four-day Washington trip on Tuesday talking about his new favorite subject — transportation.
Perdue met Tuesday with U.S. Transportation Department Secretary Ray LaHood to discuss transportation funding possibilities through the $787 billion economic stimulus program.
The governor told my AJC colleague Bob Keefe that he mentioned his controversial plan to overhaul Georgia’s transportation agencies in his conversation with the nation’s transportation chief.
“Secretary (Ray) LaHood … was very encouraging of our effort to get value from both federal and state transportation dollars,” Perdue said.
Perdue said one specific area where Georgia might benefit from economic stimulus funding is to help pay for a $1.3 million study of Savannah Harbor as part of the huge port expansion project that would deepen the Savannah River channel to accommodate bigger cargo ships.
“We talked about … some of the stimulus money could go to finishing up that study,” Perdue said.
Overall, Perdue called his trip to Washington as part of the annual National Governors Association winter meeting a success. The staunch Republican, a former Democrat, said he was impressed by the new administration in D.C.
“I was very encouraged by the receptiveness and their willingness to work with the states,” he said.
Asked if he was going to stick around to hear President Barack Obama’s speech tonight, Perdue said nope. “I’ll watch it on TV from the road,” he said.
But the governor has scheduled a meeting with state department heads for 2 p.m. tomorrow to discuss the impact of the stimulus package.
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Kathy Cox’s turn to see what the stimulus offers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
First the mayor, then the governor, now the state school superintendent.
Kathy Cox is scheduled to be the latest Georgia official to road trip to Washington for a lecture on the downstream effects of the economic stimulus, says my AJC colleague Bob Keefe.
According to the White House, Cox is among school superintendents from around the country who are scheduled to meet Wednesday with Vice President Joe Biden — the new point man for economic stimulus programs — as well as his wife, former teacher Jill Biden, and U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
Last week, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and her colleagues from around the country came to Washington for economic stimulus details. Over the weekend Gov. Sonny Perdue and other governors were in town.
School superintendents apparently rank lower than mayors and governors. While Franklin and Perdue met with President Barack Obama at the White House, the superintendents meeting with the vice president is next door at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
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In Texas, Hutchinson leads Perry with ‘landslide’ numbers, says poll
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson would beat incumbent Republican Rick Perry “in a landslide” if a primary for governor of Texas were held today, according to a North Carolina polling firm.
Public Policy Polling currently has Hutchinson at 56 percent, and Perry at 31 percent.
Read the polling memo here. Says PPP:
That 27% of likely Republican voters who have a dim view of Perry is obviously part of his problem. Those voters support Hutchison 85-8.
But they’re not necessarily the biggest thing that could keep him from nomination for another term. That’s because 47% of those surveyed have a positive opinion of both Hutchison and Perry, but within that group the Senator leads 49-33. When you have higher negatives than your opponent and lose out among your mutual admirers, that’s a recipe for defeat.
Hutchison leads Perry within every demographic group by race, gender, and age.
“Rick Perry is in grave danger of losing in the primary,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “It’s partly because he’s worn out his welcome with a certain segment of the Republican electorate, but the even bigger reason is that Kay Bailey Hutchison is just a lot more popular than him. It would be hard for anyone to beat her in an election.”
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Perdue on the stimulus: He didn’t lobby House Republicans to oppose it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An interesting couple paragraphs appeared this morning on The Atlantic Monthly’s business blog.
The topic was the rift among Republican governors over the $787 million stimulus package:
Many Republican governors seemed more comfortable on the sidelines of their intraparty debate. “I’m sitting it out,” [Indiana Republican Mitch] Daniels said. He added, “I’m rooting for the bill to work. I’m trying to use its funds wisely.”
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said that while he would have voted against the stimulus bill had he been a member of Congress, he didn’t urge Republicans in Georgia’s congressional delegation to oppose the measure because he would have “felt a little uncomfortable lobbying against it knowing we would use some portion of it.”
So far, Perdue said, he and his staff haven’t decided to reject any of the stimulus money, but their review process isn’t over yet.
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The transportation push-back begins
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last Thursday, minutes after Gov. Sonny Perdue, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson unveiled a plan to reorganize the way Georgia makes road and rail policy, the rebellion started.
A series of three elections for membership on the state board that governs the Department of Transportation — which Perdue would like to see gutted — were held in the state Senate chamber.
Two of the races were uncontested were of no account. But in the 12th District race, state Rep. Bobby Parham (D-Milledgeville) — after several elimination rounds — beat Charles Tarbutton.
Tarbutton is not only close to Perdue, assistant vice president of the Sandersville Railroad Co., and former chairman of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. He’s the chairman of Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle’s campaign for governor.
Parham, a 34-year veteran of the House, is also dead-set against Perdue’s plan to gut the state DOT board by creating a State Transportation Authority to supercede it.
“He wants to take us back to the days of Talmadge,” Parham said — meaning the father Gene of the 1930s, not the son Herman of the 1950s. “He fired a bunch of the deans, and then started the same process in the Department of Transportation, saying they weren’t doing the roads where they needed to be done.”
Parham, a retired pharmacist, said he decided on the spur of the moment to enter the race, telling his wife only a few minutes before.
“I saw the candidates. And I saw some of them were lock, stock and barrel — they were supported heavily by the governor. I decided to run on that day. Democrats pieced it all together and pulled in a good amount of Republicans,” Parham said.
Parham, 67, was nominated by state Rep. Butch Parrish, a Swainsboro Democrat turned Republican who is vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
The interesting thing about the contest — which extended over several rounds of elimination votes — is that Richardson, the House speaker, was informed of the pending Democratic victory.
“The speaker knew about it,” Parham said. “It’s my understanding that [Tarbutton] went to talk to the speaker about putting the pressure on some of the Republicans that I had locked down. And he refused to get involved. Which I was proud of him for that.”
“It was an exhilarating feeling for not only me but all the Democrats,” Parham said, “Because according to Dubose [Porter, House minority leader], this was kind of a first after the big Republican revolution we had in this state.”
Parham’s election is significant on two levels. First, according to Porter, it creates a 7-6 split on the 13-member DOT board, giving the upper hand to those who favor legislative control of the body over those who think the governor ought to dominate.
“Bobby Parham brings a lot of historical perspective. He knows why the DOT was made an independent agency. He knows about the corruption of the past,” Porter said this morning.
Parham also concedes his election should worry DOT Commissioner Gena Evans, who is appointed by the board. “It doesn’t make her job any easier. She’s been in there for the governor,” he said.
Parham won’t take his seat on the DOT board until the Legislature goes home — and this is another reason why his election could be important. Parham, a rural white Democrat, is likely to become the rallying point for those against Perdue’s reorganization of the state’s transportation agencies.
“I plan to stay there to fight those bills as hard as I can. When sine die comes, I’m going to resign the next day,” Parham said. He’d then be eligible to take his seat on the DOT board.
“But it takes the governor to swear me in. And he’s gonna damn sure put it off a while,” Parham surmised.
In the meantime, the campaign to pass S.B. 200 and a House companion bill has already begun. Here is the bill summary, list of talking points, and FAQs being tossed about.
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Your morning jolt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning on ajc.com:
— Most fees for nuke plant would go to investors, not debt.
— Florida trying to undo nuclear plant financing
— Federal Medicaid funding arrives Wednesday, Perdue says.
— Hospitals, insurers, likely to avoid new fees.
—No Sunday booze sales in Snellville.
— DeKalb CEO sacks police chief.
— Cops escort Clayton County school board member off board.
And elsewhere:
— NYT: Helicopter Plan Is Excessive, Obama and McCain Agree.
— AP: Health care costs top $8,000 per person.
— WSJ: Home Depot swings to loss.
— NYT: Krugman on the case for nationalization of banks.
— WP: Bobby Jindal’s fast track to the spotlight.
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What’s Sonny Perdue thinking? Write your own caption here
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s hard to say what Gov. Sonny Perdue has on his mind here, but he appears to have more than a mild headache as he listens to President Barack Obama this morning in a session with the National Governors Association.
From left to right, those in the bipartisan picture are South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican; Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat; Perdue, a Republican; and Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, a Republican.
Much of the debate over the weekend was over whether Republican-governed states would reject part or all of the $787 billion economic recovery package approved by Congress this month.
Perdue, of course, appeared to agree with Bobby Jindal of Louisiana on the issue of increased funds for the unemployed.
In his address to the governors, Obama addressed that concern specifically, citing it as an example of the “cable chatter” that is picking apart his initiative.
Said Obama:
“I think there are some very legitimate concerns on the part of some about the sustainability of expanding unemployment insurance. What hasn’t been noted is that, that is $7 billion of a $787 billion program.
“And it’s not even the majority of the expansion of unemployment insurance. So it is possible for those who are concerned about sustaining a change that increases eligibility for part-time workers to still see the benefit of $30 billion plus that is going — even if you don’t make the change….
“I just want to make sure we’re having an honest debate…”
Here’s a raw 11-minute clip from MSNBC:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
After the White House meeting, in an interview with my AJC colleague Bob Keefe, Perdue praised the new president for his candor.
“It was a very candid, forthright discussion,” Perdue said. ” I thought he was very amenable in understanding the differences in our states and (our) different challenges and I was very encouraged that we’ve got an administration that states like Georgia are going to be able to work.”
When George W. Bush hosted governors during their annual winter meetings in Washington, the get-together was very structured. Bush typically only took one or two questions from the state leaders. In contrast, Monday’s meeting with members of the National Governors Association was much more open, Perdue and others said.
“It was more open-mike,” Perdue said. “We had a very forthright discussion in a variety of areas and the president was very gracious in taking many of our questions and acknowledging very upfront that there are some differences.”
Monday’s meeting came after the White House hosted what by some reports was a relatively raucous reception for the governors and their spouses on Sunday night. Legendary R&B band Earth, Wind and Fire performed at the reception, where a conga line apparently broke out.
Asked Monday whether he participated in the dance train, Perdue laughed and shook his head. “I’m an early to bed guy,” he said.
Photo credit: Charles Dharapak/Associated Press
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Radio ads target two Republican senators for school voucher vote
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Speaking of religious conservatives reasserting their clout.
The Georgia Christian Alliance launched radio ads this morning in Gainesville and Augusta, in an attempt to pressure two Republicans to vote a school voucher bill out of a Senate committee this week.
Listen here to the ad aimed at Bill Jackson (R-Appling). And here to the ad aimed at Jim Butterworth (R-Cornelia.
The legislation is S.B. 90, which state Sen. Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) is using as a cornerstone for his campaign for lieutenant governor. The voucher bill is scheduled for a vote by the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday.
The bill would allow parents to shift their children to the public school of their choice, with the receiving school having the authority to refuse, or to any private school.
Say both radio ads:
“I’m Jason Fields. I want the best education for my children, and one that does not conflict with our family’s values. The Georgia Legislature’s now considering Senate Bill 90, that will give parents like us vouchers to send our children to the school of our choice.”
The narrator is the son of Sadie Fields, chairman of the Georgia Christian Alliance. He has three sons, ages 8, 6 and 5.
Said Sadie Fields:
“We’re just trying to encourage them to pass the vote out of committee and see what happens on the floor.”
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Your morning jolt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On ajc.com this morning:”
— Governor balks at some stimulus money.
— Perdue defends overhaul of transportation agencies.
— Georgia transportation plan a power shift of big funds.
— Growth screeches to halt. Last fall saw an increase of only 6,000 public school students.
— Is ag chief too close to businesses he regulates?
— The fight between state government and local governments.
— George W. Bush, in search of WD-40, is offered a job at a hardware store.
And from elsewhere
— AP: Owner of Philadelphia’s two major newspapers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
— Reuters: Feds question Burris in Blagojevich case.
— Louisville Courier-Journal: Ky. senator says S.C. justice will be dead of cancer by year’s end.
— NYT: U.S. military specialists secretly lend Pakistan support to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
— WP: Legal experts propose limiting power of U.S. Supreme Court justice.
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Get your bookmarks ready
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the next few days, thanks to a new blog format, Political Insider will move to a new URL. We’re told that posts will appear more quickly, as will comments — a great improvement over this current system.
The new site is still under construction — stay out of the way of the guys in hardhats, and be careful of the power tools on the floor. Nonetheless, go HERE to visit, then by all means BOOKMARK it.
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A rebuilding year for Christian conservatives
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One cold morning last week, 10 religious conservative groups gathered at the front steps of the state Capitol to list what they wanted from the 236 lawmakers inside.
Restrictions on fertility clinics. Defeat of a bill to permit Sunday sales of beer and wine in grocery stores. Say no to casinos. Provide help to young girls forced into prostitution.
No organization’s agenda was the same, and attendance was far from complete. The Georgia Family Council was missing. So was the Catholic Archdiocese.
Sadie Fields, head of the Georgia Christian Alliance, had chosen to do her lobbying a day earlier, testifying in favor of school vouchers and against academics who explore topics such as oral sex and male prostitution.
But two close friends of Fields, activists Kay Godwin and Pat Tippett from south Georgia, were at the morning event. They’re forming yet another group: Georgia Conservatives in Action.
Five years past the height of their power, when they persuaded two-thirds of the state Legislature to endorse a constitutional ban on gay marriage, conservative Christian groups find themselves splintered and their clout much diminished.
Certainly, they still matter. Once Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss decided to vote against the stimulus package in Washington, the senators arranged Saturday morning calls to Fields for her approval.
But internal dissent, a confrontation last year with state lawmakers, and Barack Obama’s election — not to mention a spiraling economy that shifts attention away from social issues — all have taken their toll.
Last year, Georgia Right to Life pushed hard for H.R. 536, a proposed constitutional amendment to declare fertilized eggs to be human beings. The archdiocese declined to support it. Other groups declared themselves neutral. Hardball tactics offended lawmakers. The measure died.
“Last year was a huge learning curve for us. Maybe we overplayed our hand with the human life amendment,” said Tim Echols, one of those who organized last week’s gathering. “We got such a push-back from the General Assembly. We were all marginalized as a result.”
But Echols said the results of the 2008 presidential race, which shattered hopes of a U.S. Supreme Court that would overturn Roe v. Wade, has also caused disarray.
“The Obama election was sobering for us, because it’s almost like the death of a vision. Losing this election meant losing that thing at the very top of our wish list,” said Echols, who sits on the board of the Georgia Christian Coalition. “Now what do we want? That means everybody comes back to the table. Now, we’ve got to hash it out.”
Though he recognizes that not all conservative Christian groups oppose it, Echols puts great stock in the defeat of S.B. 16 as a way to restore the movement’s stature in the Capitol. The bill would permit Sunday sales of beer and wine in grocery and convenience stores.
“We’re itching for a win,” he said.
Echols is the founder of TeenPact, an organization that introduces kids — often home-schooled — to the workings of government. A day earlier, he’d led 40 teenagers inside to pack a Senate committee meeting on the Sunday sales bill.
But reassessments are never one-sided. And there are those who question the very nature of the working relationship that many conservative Christians seek to rebuild with politicians.
Jenny Hodges is a 33-year-old mother of six from Acworth, the type of true believer who makes appointments with abortion clinics to check their compliance with regulations — sonograms and such — imposed by Republican lawmakers at the behest of conservative Christian groups.
The regulations are mostly window-dressing, Hodges has decided.
“I came to the conclusion that Republicans in Georgia were not really pro-life,” she said. “That they were using [the issue] to get votes, and that the pro-life groups are letting them get away with it by being satisfied with incremental legislation that does not actually impact abortion numbers, but is effective for fund-raising.”
Hodges now wears her own lobbying badge. And she has founded her own group, called Pro-Life Unity.
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The Roland Burris controversy could spill into Johnny Isakson’s lap
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Congressional Quarterly reports that U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, because of his membership on the Senate Ethics Committee, could find himself drawn into the dispute over whether Roland Burris of Illinois should keep his seat.
Reports CQ:
The Senate Ethics Committee could complete its inquiry of Roland W. Burris within weeks and without waiting for any possible criminal case about discrepancies in statements about his appointment, lawyers familiar with the panel said Friday.
Committee investigations sometimes last months and often defer to criminal cases, such as in last year’s trial of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. But because Burris, an Illinois Democrat, has offered multiple explanations about how he was appointed, the committee could focus on how he was seated rather than results of a potential criminal charge of perjury.
Then there’s this paragraph:
The inquiry is typically conducted by committee staffers who collect evidence and depositions, and reporting back to lawmakers. Chairman Barbara Boxer , D-Calif., and Vice Chairman Johnny Isakson , R-Ga., could agree to issue subpoenas….
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Your first look at the legislation behind Sonny Perdue’s transportation reorg
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue’s 100-page bill to remake the state transportation system and emasculate the state Department of Transportation is now available for view online.
You can read S.B. 200 here. We’d be happy to see some armchair analyses.
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In preparation for the fight over the F-22
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A must-read tutorial on the Marietta-made F-22 and its place in U.S. air defense, has been posted at The Atlantic Monthly.
Here’s a sampling:
The next great fighter, the F‑22 Raptor, is every bit as much a marvel today as the F‑15 was 25 years ago, and if we produced the F-22 in sufficient numbers we could move the goalposts out of reach again. But we are building fewer than a third of the number needed to replace the older fighters in service.
After losing hope of upgrading the whole F‑15 fleet, the Air Force requested 381 F‑22s, the minimum number that independent analysts said it needs to retain its current edge. Congress is buying 183, and has authorized the manufacture of parts for 20 more at the front end of the production line, enough to at least keep it working until President Obama decides whether or not to continue building F-22s.
Like so many presidential dilemmas, it’s a Scylla-and-Charybdis choice: a decision to save money and not build more would deliver a severe blow to a sprawling and vital U.S. industry at a time when the nation is mired in recession. And once the production line for the F-22 begins to shut down, restarting it will not be easy or cheap, even in reaction to a new threat.
Each plane consists of about 1,000 parts, manufactured in 44 states, and because of the elaborate network of highly specialized subcontractors needed to fashion its unique airframe and avionics, assembling one F-22 can take as long as three years. Modern aerial wars are usually over in days, if not hours.
Photo credit: Associated Press
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Clyburn, the stimulus and Southern governors
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The debate over the economic stimulus package has gotten peculiarly Southern.
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) raised eyebrows this morning with this Associated Press article:
The highest-ranking black congressman said Thursday that opposition to the federal stimulus package by southern GOP governors is “a slap in the face of African-Americans.”
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., said he was insulted when the governors of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and his home state, which have large black populations, said they might not accept some of the money from the $787 billion stimulus package.
Clyburn has rephrased himself since then. The Hill, a D.C. newspaper and web site, has this:
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said on Friday that his remark that Republican governors declining to take stimulus funds was a “slap in the face” to blacks was not an attempt to play the race card.
In an interview on MSNBC, Clyburn, the highest ranking African-American in Congress, framed his remarks in the context of Attorney General Eric Holder’s speech earlier in the week. Holder called America a “nation of cowards” when it came to discussing racial inequalities that continue to exist.
“I know that these underserved communities, these communities that have been chronically unemployed, the communities that have the biggest health problems, the communities that really need attention — or African-American communities in some places, Hispanic communities in other places — and that is in South Carolina,” Clyburn said.
“This is not playing the race card; this is discussing what the actual facts are and what we ought to do to address those facts. And avoiding it, pretending it doesn’t exist, will not serve anybody’s useful purpose.”
So far as we can tell, MSNBC hasn’t posted the video yet.
Meanwhile, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin was among 70 or so mayors who met with President Barack Obama on Friday. She told my AJC colleague Bob Keefe that money from the $787 billion recovery package could start flowing to Atlanta within weeks,
Franklin said one of her biggest worries is over money for roads, and the state’s Republican-controlled agency in charge. “I remain concerned that 70 percent of transportation money could get stuck in state government - in Georgia DOT,” she said. “That’s a lot of money.”
For some mayors, the Friday meeting represented a new openness they haven’t seen in years. Franklin, for instance, has been to the White House twice in the last two weeks. Before that, she said, she had not been there since Bill Clinton was president.
“I would’ve come if I had been invited,” she said. But the Bush administration offered no such invitation, she told Keefe.
Another Georgia mayor attending the White House session was Robert Reichert, whom Franklin described as “her brother from Macon.”
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Bringing Jesus into the stimulus debate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The American Issues Project, a conservative group in Washington, announced today that it had launched a cable TV campaign “spotlighting the excessive spending and pet projects within the far-reaching stimulus legislation.”
AIP said it was spending nearly $1 million on the ad, which will air mostly on news networks — FOX News, CNN, CNN Headline News, CNBC and FOX Business Network.
The key phrase: “Suppose you spend $1 million every single day, starting from the day Jesus was born….”
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Illinois governor demands Roland Burris’ resignation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Up in Illinois, Rod Blagojevich’s successor wants the ex-governor’s U.S. Senate appointment gone. This from the Chicago Tribune a few minutes ago:
Gov. Patrick Quinn today called on U.S. Sen. Roland Burris to resign amid the furor of questions over his contacts with former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Burris should “act as quickly as possible for the best interests of Illinois,” Quinn said at a late morning news conference. “This should not be a matter that takes weeks.”
Quinn called on lawmakers to give him the power to appoint a temporary successor to the Senate until a special election could be held. Many Republican lawmakers argued Quinn has the constitutional authority to order a special election, which could have the effect of forcing Burris from office. But Quinn said today he doesn’t feel he has the constitutional authority to order a special election.
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Clinton tells Obama to keep his chin up. And Carter says this ain’t no Depression
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
President Barack Obama has a right to feel a bit double-teamed by two Democratic predecessors.
On one hand, the new president has Bill Clinton advising — in an interview broadcast this morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America” — advising him to “put on a more positive face when speaking to the American people about the economy.”
But Obama also has Jimmy Carter recommending that young whipper-snappers keep things in perspective.
At a Thursday press conference announcing a $10 million renovation of his presidential library, Carter wandered into the topic of the economy.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle captured these remarks:
”There is no comparison to the Great Depression and where we are now,” he said. “The Great Depression was much more severe. Right now, we have 7 percent unemployment. In the Great Depression, it was four times that. Back then, there was no money.”
He described how a grown man whom he described as “wise and capable of handling mules and horses” could earn $1 a day for working 16 to 18 hours a day. A woman with similar skills would earn 75 cents and an able-bodied teenager, he said, would earn 50 cents a day.
“There was practically no way to control unemployment,” he said. “Millions were laid off.”
Photo credit: Elissa Eubanks/AJC
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White House time for Franklin, Perdue
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Up in Washington, my AJC colleague Bob Keefe says that both Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Gov. Sonny Perdue will get some face time — however distant — with President Barack Obama over the next few days.
This morning, Franklin and about 60 other mayors are scheduled to have a 45-minute meeting with Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden and top cabinet members to discuss the stimulus package and what it means to their cities.
The visit has been organized by the United States Conference of Mayors.
On Monday, Perdue will meet with the president and his staff as part of the National Governors Association’s winter meetings being held in Washington.
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Your morning jolt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On ajc.com this morning:
— Bill Clinton tells President Obama to keep his chin up.
— Bill to strip public defender board passes state Senate.
— Sanford Bishop says stimulus written to avoid GOP tampering.
And elsewhere:
— CNET: Republicans call for a new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users. for two years to aid police investigations.
— LAT: New York Post says sorry — sort of — about that dead monkey cartoon.
— NYT: The stimulus and high-speed rail.
— WSJ: A note from Rush Limbaugh to President Obama.
— WP: Steep drop in oil prices causes trouble.
— WP: Hard-line Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu chosen to form a new Israeli government.
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Perdue on new transportation authority: No more reliance on ‘13 gerrymandered districts’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson in tow, Gov. Sonny Perdue this afternoon unveiled, not the details, but the theory behind his proposed creation of a State Transportation Authority.
Copies of the bill are still hard to come by, but here’s a copy of the flow chart. This time, because it’s authorized, we can provide a color version.
The membership of the authority has changed to 11 members, up from seven, with five appointments going to the governor, who also gets to name the Secretary of Transportation.
The constitutionally created state Department of Transportation would be reduced to a hand-servant.
The governor spoke for some 20 minutes, but two things quickly became apparent. First, Perdue felt personally burned by this experience with the DOT and his “Fast Forward” program meant to expedite backlogged road projects. Instead, the initiative went billions of dollars over budget and fell years behind schedule.
Said Perdue:
“There’s a long-held belief that the solution to that transportation need is simply to spend more money. And I probably fell into that trap early on…I believe we have been funneling money into a poorly devised system, process, with a broken delivery system.”
But the most provocative thing Perdue said touched on the divvying up of road cash. As stated before, the fight over this measure is likely to be based on geography — metro Atlanta versus every other part of Georgia.
The 13 members of the DOT board are chosen by congressional district, which guarantees some spreading of the sugar. Said Perdue:
“This [new] system is geared toward maximizing the transportation network as a whole, not divided up into 13 gerrymandered districts that change every 10 years.”
Here’s GPB’s “The Lawmakers” on Perdue’s press conference:
Not long afterwards, elections for three DOT board seats were held in the state Capitol. State Sen. Eric Johnson had this concise evaluation in a Twitter he posted this afternoon: “3 DOT elections (but will they matter?)”
Photo credit: Elissa Eubanks/AJC
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Sanford on the stimulus: ‘Being against it doesn’t preclude taking the money’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
South Carolina’s Mark Sanford, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, is still bashing President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.
But now he’s saying he might accept at least some of the funds.
Sanford was on CBS’ “The Early Show” this morning:
“I think the problem that was created with too much debt will never be solved by adding yet more debt,” he said. “I think there are a number of wrinkles that have caused a number of us to say ‘Wait a minute, let’s take a look — a long look — at whether or not this really makes sense for our state.’”
That said…..
“Being against it doesn’t preclude taking the money,” Sanford explained. “So again, we’re going to look at it, but what you find when you actually begin to look under the hood is that some of those strings attached means you’ve got to go spend a lot more money that you don’t have to be able to eligible for the funds.”
Sanford was slightly more oblique about whether or not his state would accept the cash in a CNN interview 10 days or so ago, when he warned that we’re headed for a “savior-based” economy.
At a breakfast meeting in Atlanta attended by my AJC colleague Aaron Sheinin, U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), one of the architects of the stimulus package, said the language of the 1,000-page legislation was written to ensure that Republican governors of states — particularly in the South — didn’t hijack the funds for other purposes, or simply block the funds.
Title 1 funds, for instance, go toward K-12 programs.
“You won’t believe the fight we had with the other side of the aisle on how the funds will be distributed,” Bishop said. “Title 1, that was suggested as the guideline as the criteria for targeting many of the resources in the stimulus package so we wouldn’t have to trust state governments and governors to distribute those funds — make sure we had formulas in place that would ensure the funds got places where they are needed most.”
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Now for the conservative argument against the Georgia Power bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you are a Georgia Power lobbyist, or represent some other utility, you can often offset criticism of your cause by characterizing it as the carping of left-wing enviros or misguided consumer heroes.
Witness Clark Howard.
This mode of defense goes down well with a Republican-minded Legislature that is willing, often eager, to give business the benefit of the doubt.
But when your legislation is attacked from the right — that’s when you need to worry.
Late Wednesday, Erick Erickson of the Macon-based but nationally read Redstate.com sent out a missive, urging his Georgia followers to ring up their state lawmakers and shoot down S.B. 31, the Georgia Power bill that would permit the utility to bill ratepayers in advance of the construction of two new nuclear units.
Wrote Erickson:
“We should all be fans of nuclear energy. I am for sure.
“But I am deeply concerned that our state legislature is so committed to nuclear energy that they are willing to advance terrible legislation to make it happen.
“Right now, Senate Bill 31 is before the State House. The bill would destroy every incentive Georgia Power has to keep costs down on new nuclear power plant construction and would end all incentives to mitigate problems related to the construction.
“It would do this by requiring Georgia Power customers to pay for the plant now, instead of the company fronting the money. In effect, Georgia Power customers would be forced into buying a car we had no say in choosing before it’s even put together, and would have to pay all the extra charges for overruns too. ”
Erickson linked readers to a site on Human Events, the national conservative web site, and a ZIP code sorting program that will refer the curious to their proper state lawmaker.
The bill has passed the Senate and had its first House subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.
Small tutorial on Erickson: He has ambitions of employing the Internet on the conservative side as the Daily Kos does for liberals — by urging his readers to put down their keyboards and pick up their telephones.
So S.B. 31 could make an interesting test case for the web site.
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Your morning jolt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On ajc.com this morning:
— U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, the Georgian with the closest connections to the stimulus package and President Barack Obama, will speak this evening at what once was known as the Soul Food Supper, but is no more.
— Republican state lawmakers propose stimulating tax cuts.
— For the love of peanuts — state Senate weakens a food testing bill.
— MARTA officials will keep them afloat, but no more.
— The Sunday sales fight begins its umpteenth round.
— New AG says Americans are cowards when it comes to talking about race.
And elsewhere:
— Politico: When it comes to stimulus, Florida’s Charlie Crist and S.C.’s Mark Sanford are two sides of the GOP coin.
— PeachPundit: Good post on the coming 2010 census and its impact.
— NYT: That Swiss bank account you opened isn’t so secret anymore.
— NYT: Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius emerging as President Obama’s choice for HHS.
— LAT: Senate not likely to oust Burriss anytime soon.
— WP: FBI was interested in whether top LBJ aide was gay
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Of condoms, the Catholic League, and the University of Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nothing, apparently, is more volatile than a mixture of sex, universities and a state budget crisis.
You know that Georgia State University took a great deal of heat this month for possessing academics who claim bookish expertise about such forbidden topics as oral sex and male prostitution.
So when the Catholic League in New York objected today to an STD/birth control poster issued by the University of Georgia, the institution folded like a genuine Barlow. The reason? The poster featured Michelangelo’s image of the hand of God giving life to Adam — except that between the two fingers, one mortal and one not, was a condom.
“Carefully open condom wrappers with your fingers — don’t use a sharp object,” advised the poster, which was placed in dorms by the university health service as part of Sexual Health Awareness Week, which ended last Friday. As all of you know.
The Catholic League, in a complaint filed today with UGA vice president for student affairs, Rodney Bennett, said the university had “hijacked” an icon of Christianity.
“I hasten to add that the University of Georgia would never choose a depiction of Muhammad to hawk condoms. Indeed, only a few years ago an inoffensive depiction of this Islamic figure in a Danish cartoon led to murder and churches being burned to the ground. One can only imagine what would have happened had he been portrayed pushing condoms to youth,” wrote League president Bill Donahue.
CNN had already aired a morning spot about the GSU controversy and threats from state lawmakers. The piece included mention of a UGA course in “queer theory.”
The League filed its complaint about the condom poster at noon today. Bennett apologized by 2 p.m. Tom Jackson, UGA vice president for dealing with reporters on sensitive topics, emphasized his institution’s sincere regrets for the poster.
“[Bennett] understands that some in the Christian community might be offended by it, and he apologized to the Catholic League,” Jackson said. The UGA spokesman also pointed out that the posters had disappeared five days before the complaint was received.
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An effort to draft Borders back into the Atlanta mayoral race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An effort to draft Lisa Borders back into this year’s race for mayor of Atlanta has begun in earnest.
Borders, now president of the Atlanta City council, dropped out of the contest last summer to spend more time with her ailing parents. A host of candidates, including state Sen. Kasim Reed and city councilwoman Mary Norwood, have gotten a six-month jump on her in the meantime.
My AJC colleague Eric Stirgus, who haunts City Hall, has passed on an e-mail he received this afternoon from David Todd Jr., a business and civic leader who is a long-time friend of Borders:
“I am sure that by now you have heard rumors that Lisa Borders maybe stepping back into the race for mayor of Atlanta. I really think that she would be the very best for our city and I am urging her to her ‘dive back in’ now!!
“She has had thousands of requests from folks all over the city in many cases offering to help her fix what she needs to fix with getting her parents the proper care and then …..get back in to ‘fix this City.’ If you agree and are so inclined to do so: I would ask that you send her a note encouraging her consider this (somewhat of an informal petition).
“Her email is: lisa@bordersforatlanta.com.”
Borders has said in recent weeks, Stirgus said, that she hasn’t decided whether to reconsider. Which does indicate that she’s been thinking about it. We’re trying to get in touch with her now.
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The Tribune’s devastating summary paragraph on Roland Burris
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Chicago Tribune has called for U.S. Sen. Roland Burris to resign his Illinois senate seat. Here’s the stunning gist of the piece, which leads the newspaper’s home page:
Let’s see if we have it right: Burris had zero contact with any of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s cronies about his interest in the Senate seat being vacated by President Barack Obama—unless you count that conversation with former chief of staff Lon Monk, and, on further reflection, the ones with insiders John Harris, Doug Scofield and John Wyma and, oh yeah, the governor’s brother and fundraising chief, Robert Blagojevich. But Burris didn’t raise a single dollar for the now ex-governor as a result of those contacts because that could be construed as a quid pro quo and besides, everyone he asked refused to donate.
“The story gets worse with every telling.”
Photo credit: WCT
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Georgia benefits of stimulus package greatest in Republican north metro Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The White House this week passed out some stats this week indicating what parts of the country will benefit most from the $787 billion stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama.
My AJC colleague Bob Keefe passed on the Georgia-centric numbers.
Not surprisingly, according to the White House, the stimulus will be the greatest boon in north metro Atlanta congressional districts whose Republican representatives opposed it.
The package will create or save about 9,900 jobs in Georgia’s 7th congressional district, represented by John Linder of Duluth.
Another 9,200 jobs will be created or saved in Georgia’s 6th District, which is represented by Republican Tom Price of Roswell.
Price, as chairman of the Republican Study Committee, has been among the most ardent opponents of the package — damning the package last week by dangling a dead mouse (all right, a cat toy) from the House floor.
Linder hasn’t minced words, either. He says the high costs of the package would start America down the road to “a more pervasive welfare state, the burden of which will be carried by our children and grandchildren.”
In all, the White House estimates the package will create or save 107,000 jobs in Georgia. Republicans, of course, dispute those job numbers.
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Pat Robertson says Rush Limbaugh ‘not exactly thinking rationally’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Rev. Pat Robertson of Virginia, the former presidential candidate and founder of the once-great Christian Coalition, has had his slips of the tongue.
See: Hurricanes, praying them away.
Still, the religious broadcasting pioneer thinks that fellow on the radio went too far when he said he hoped to see President Barack Obama fail.
U.S. News and World Report has this snippet from an interview with Robertson:
Q: So you don’t subscribe to Rush Limbaugh’s “I hope he fails” school of thought?
A: That was a terrible thing to say. I mean, he’s the president of all the country. If he succeeds, the country succeeds. And if he doesn’t, it hurts us all. Anybody who would pull against our president is not exactly thinking rationally.
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Your morning jolt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
From this morning’s AJC:
— Perdue agrees to back homeowner relief grants.
— Obama signs stimulus bill, readies homeowner plan.
— Illinois’ newest senator “welcomes” chance to explain contacts with Blagojevich.
And elsewhere:
— CBS: Bobby Jindal signals Louisiana may not take stimulus cash.
— WP: The world economy takes a steep downturn.
— NYT: Automakers seek $14 billion more in aid.
— NYT: Late night GOP coup in California could derail budget talks.
— WSJ: What went wrong with last week’s Continental Connection crash.
— WP: Sarah Palin’s rough homecoming.
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Octuplets give birth to legislation that would put controls on fertility clinics
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Remember Nadya Suleman and her octuplets? Everyone was quite excited until it was discovered that the single mother had six other children through in vitro fertilization, and was living on the dole.
You had to expect this would generate a backlash in state legislatures across the country, and Georgia is not one to disappoint.
State Sen. Ralph Hudgens (R-Hull) will be sponsoring legislation aimed at putting fertility clinics under governmental oversight, according to Georgia Right to Life.
In a press release, the organization provided a taste of the coming measure:
“In the interest of reducing the risk of complications for both the mother and the transferred embryos, including the risk of pre-term birth associated with higher-order multiple gestations, a person or entity performing in vitro fertilization shall limit the number of embryos created in a single cycle to the number to be transferred in that cycle, thereby preventing what has recently occurred in California with the woman who bore octuplets.”
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Call it a focus group on the governor’s plan to reorganize transportation in Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Monday, state Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur) and state Rep. Keith Heard (D-Athens) had a 30-minute sit-down with Gov. Sonny Perdue in the state Capitol.
The two lawmakers are chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, of the Legislative Black Caucus. Both wanted to talk about H.B. 291, which bears the title Georgia’s Antidiscrimination Act of 2009 — but which they fear would do just the opposite.
But Perdue wanted to talk about his legislation to create a new State Transportation Authority. In fact, Jones and Heard may have been the first Democrats to hear the governor’s sales pitch for what may be the most important power-shifting reorganization of state government in more than 45 years.
“I was quite surprised, by the way,” Jones said Tuesday.
In fact, Jones and Heard ended up linking the two issues.
H.B. 291 would prohibit all discrimination on the basis of race and gender, but would also prohibit the use of race- or gender-based recruiting for admission to university or technical schools. The bill also removes most set-asides in the state code for minority-owned businesses — such as for state lottery business.
Under a bill likely to be dropped this week, Perdue’s new State Transportation Authority would be controlled by the governor, the House speaker, and the lieutenant governor. The 13-member, constitutionally mandated board that governs the state Department of Transportation board be downsized. Policy would be made at the STA level.
“[Perdue] said that it would be better if the Legislature had better control of the funding,” Jones said. “He didn’t mind if it were Republican or Democrat.”
Here’s the thing: Because membership is now based on the state’s 13 congressional districts, three African-Americans sit on the DOT board. “Those are three seats that we influence hand provide swing votes with,” the black caucus chairman said.
When the governor asked for their suggestions, Jones said he and Heard recommended an amendment in the legislation, guaranteeing that the seven members of the State Transportation Authority would include members of the Legislative Black Caucus.
H.B. 291 and the reorganization of the state’s transportation agencies should be viewed as a piece, Jones said. “See that train coming? You don’t have to be a scientist to figure out what they’re trying to do.”
“It’s really going to be a hard sell for us,” the Decatur senator said.
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Lobbyist alert: The governor’s revenue reduction letter
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue this afternoon reduce ’09 revenue expectations by another $450 million. You can see his specific recommendations for cuts in this letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate appropriations committees.
Among state agencies, the Department of Education absorbs the largest dollar cut, followed by the university system.
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Isakson, stimulus cash, and property tax relief
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday was a day to celebrate peanut butter and U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson at the state Capitol.
Legislators and lobbyists handed out free doses of disease-free peanut butter. Isakson, officially there to kick off his re-election campaign, handed out free advice on what to do with the billions in stimulus money.
Even though Gov. Sonny Perdue and state lawmakers had already decided what to do with $428 million of the cash — that it was just the thing to get them out of a nasty political clash.
Isakson first addressed the state Senate:
“Regardless of people’s position on [the stimulus], the reality is the money will be flowing, over time, to the states. And there will be significant money coming to Georgia. My one admonition to all of you is, this is a one-time purpose. Don’t get used to it, and don’t get dependent on it.
“I know you will spend it wisely.”
Isakson elaborated before the state House:
“This is a one-time occurrence. It may allow us kick the can down the road for another year but reform of how we raised money for highways, reform of Medicaid, reform of all types are going to have to take place for us to continue to be a very strong state.”
At the main event, off the Capitol rotunda, Isakson was joined by U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, House Speaker Glenn Richardson, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, and the governor — who lauded Isakson as “bigger than peanuts in Georgia.”
But Perdue had money on his mind, too. He said this about Isakson and Chambliss:
“The only problem is they didn’t bring the check directly. They say it’s coming.”
The governor is about to hold a press conference with the House speaker and the lieutenant governor. He’ll shorten the budget by a significant amount, to account for declining tax revenues.
But Perdue will also sign H.B. 143, acceding to state lawmakers’ wishes and guaranteeing $428 million in home property taxes for one more year — worth $200 to $300 to you and me.
They’ll use money from President Barack Obama’s stimulus package to fund it.
So what did Isakson think of this use of recovery money?
“The stimulus we passed last May in Congress sent $300 per family back to families making $75,000 or less, so I think it would fall in the definition of being a stimulus. A lot more so than paying for a study of [socially transmitted diseases] or global warming or some of the other stuff that’s in there.” Isakson said.
On the other hand, Isakson also said that the tax refunds last spring didn’t work. “Consumers paid debt down and sat on the money. So things got worse,” he said.
Photo credit: Kim Smith/AJC
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When political correctness makes sense: Renters of kilts told to wear undies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This from the Scotsman newspaper:
It may be a tradition, but Scottish men’s habit of “going commando” in a kilt is increasingly disgusting firms hiring Highland dress.
Several companies are now requesting that customers keep their pants on when they hire a kilt to protect staff and future customers from unhygienic tartan.
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Isakson on stimulus: ‘It was a rush to judgment’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson will declare his bid for re-election today at the state Capitol, but already he’s been all over the radio this morning.
Tim Bryant at WGAU (1340AM) in Athens was kind enough to send us a clip of Isakson talking points.
On his homebuyer credit plan, which was stripped from last week’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill, Isakson said:
“There’s a lot of interest in reviving it. I think a lot of people will understand that it will really be exactly what everybody is looking for, and that is a real stimulus to address the heart and soul of the problem, which is the housing market.
“So I don’t think the idea’s dead at all.”
On the fact that no one has yet figured out what’s in the 1,000-plus page stimulus document:
”Even if you look at this morning’s newspapers, the details are not yet out. The Legislature’s waiting to see what’s going to come from Washington to find out exactly where that money is.
“It was a rush to judgment. And there’s no question we need stimulation for the economy, but it needs to be done in a way that causes people to make the kind of decisions that will help the economy — buy houses, extend credit, make investments, do value-added work.
“Not just to throw money at the problem by giving money to various programs, which about 75 percent of this stimulus really does.”
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Your morning jolt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning on ajc.com:
— The feud between the new DeKalb CEO and the county police chief.
— Kennesaw OKs surcharge for unhealthy employees.
— Georgia Young Democrats and Georgia Young Republicans to endorse Sunday sales bill today.
— Isakson announces for re-elect today, but there’s no opponent out there.
— Stimulus means $530M boost for Medicaid in Georgia.
— Obama to sign stimulus bill in Denver today.
And elsewhere:
— Kansas may delay refunds, paychecks.
— GM, Chrysler finalize comeback plans. From WP. And from WSJ.
— Islamic law instituted in Pakistan valley.
— The new journalism. A Dallas Morning News investigative reporter now runs a strip club.
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Perdue’s transportation reorg goes public
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Updated at 4:40 p.m.
In a press conference that just finished, Senate President pro tem Tommie Williams of Lyons, the ranking member of the chamber, announced he would be carrying Gov. Sonny Perdue’s legislation to reorganize the state’s transportation agencies.
Legislation with details — the measure now stands at 100 pages — could be out as soon as Wednesday. Williams, Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) and state Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) all described the current, constitutionally created Department of Transportation to be dysfunctional.
“This is truly a transportation revolution that we’re embarking on,” said Mullis, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. Rail as well as roads would be under the new organization’s jurisdiction.
In numbers, the reorganization wouldn’t be a record-breaker. About 6,100 state employees are involved at one of the state’s several agencies. But in terms of power and money, the reorganization sparked by Perdue would be one of the most influential to hit state government in decades.
Under the plan, which Perdue drew up with Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson, two agencies — the State Road and Tollway Authority and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority — would disappear.
In their place would be a State Transportation Authority, whose board would be appointed by the governor, House speaker, and lieutenant governor.
The governor would appoint the board chairman, and the executive director, who would be known as the Secretary of Transportation.
“We’re actually doing away with two agencies, SRTA and GRTA, and creating one. So we’re having one less agency, but with more power. And we’re downsizing the power of the [Department of Transportation],” Williams said.
The DOT, which for decades has determined road policy for the state, would be required to bid for work from the State Transportation Authority — which would also have the power to contract with private entities.
“At the current time, we know [the DOT will] still do maintenance and supervision of state routes that they’re doing currently. I don’t anticipate the regional offices changing a lot,” Williams said. “It’s primarily the funding and planning that would go to STA. And I’m assuming they’ll take some of those planning engineers and financial folks from the department, to the new department.”
Many members of the business community have been critical of the Perdue administration for ignoring transportation during most of his two terms as governor. Williams conceded that the reorganization under consideration could cost more time.
“It’s going to take a couple of years to get all those projects moved from one agency to another agency,” Williams said.
The ranking member of the Senate said he didn’t know whom the governor had in mind to become the first Secretary of Transportation.
Passage would concentrate a great deal of power into the hands of the governor and two legislative leaders — power that’s now dispersed among 13 members of the State Transportation Board of Commissioners, who are by turn chosen by state lawmakers in each of Georgia’s 13 congressional districts.
Said Williams:
”The [new] agency also has the power to propose 90 percent of the projects that qualify based on what we think is good sound science and economics and the need for capacity.
“We’ll have the power over part of the purse. We’re giving up power to elect the board. One of our frustrations with the department now is we have no power over the purse, so we can’t control their agency like we do others, saying these are the programs that we think are most important.”
Much of this has to do with private-public partnerships on giant road construction projects, which Williams has pushed for over five years - and which Perdue explored on a recent trip to Europe.
“Many have done concession agreements that have been very beneficial to states and cities and we can’t get one out the door. We don’t have the best track record there. It’s time to move on and let some of these projects,” Williams said.
The Senate president pro tem said he was currently tinkering with the bill to make sure that rural legislators wouldn’t feel left out of a system that would shift from geographical inclusion to domination by elected officials, two of three of whom are elected statewide.
Two SPLOST initiatives for increased transportation spending — one regional and the other statewide — are now before the legislature.
The initiative unveiled by Williams eliminates Democratic participation in transportation policy-making, which some fear could deep-six both SPLOST proposal. Democrats would be required for the two-thirds majority necessary for passage.
Said Williams:
“I’m not anxious to proceed without some support by the Democrats. And frankly, You can ask any Democrat in the metro area. You’ve had your board members, you’ve had that influence, and you even had the power some years ago. How did that improve transit in Atlanta? The answer, is hasn’t.
“Why not try this new approach? They’re listening. And we want them on board. They’re thinking, and we’re listening to their recommendations.”
My AJC colleague Ariel Hart talked to DOT board chairman Bill Kuhlke, who didn’t quite no what to say — there not being anything on paper yet.
“We work for the legislators,” said Kuhlke. “Whatever they present to us we’re going to have to live with.”
However, the DOT board chairman rejected criticism that the board and DOT are currently dysfunctional.
“I think we’re doing an exceptional job,” Kuhlke said, noting that the quality of Georgia’s roads consistently ranks among the highest in the nation. “Our problem right now is funding,” he said. “The state is growing rapidly. It’s almost impossible to keep up with new roads and the increase in population of the state on an annual basis.”
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A surprisingly disciplined message on lobbyists, tax hikes from Roy Barnes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When former Gov. Roy Barnes penned an op-ed piece for the AJC earlier this month, not a few eyebrows rose several inches at the state Capitol.
Barnes’ populist tone was almost campaign-like:
Just since 2005, the special interest lobbyists have persuaded the General Assembly and the governor to approve at least $337 million in special-interest tax breaks and giveaways, including a multiyear $140 million tax break just for insurance companies in 2008.
Barnes has now appeared in a pair of columns by Don McKee in the Marietta Daily Journal. As with the AJC piece, Barnes focused on three points: The Georgia Power bill, the homestead tax relief program he started, and what he called the increased influence of lobbyists at the state Capitol.
In last Friday’s MDJ, Barnes said:
“I can’t believe legislators are so naïve to accept this,” Barnes said. “They say we need to let them go ahead and collect this money so they don’t have to pay interest on the money they borrow. … They want to take the right of the private individual to collect interest on his own money and give it to Georgia Power. … It’s just nothing but a shift in money from the ratepayer. He’s not going get to keep his money and earn interest on it.
And in today’s MDJ, Barnes said:
“The failure to fund this large, broad-based property tax relief is a tax increase,” the Democrat from Mableton said in an interview. “I don’t care whatever you argue about it. If you fail to fund it, then it’s a tax increase.”
That is a great deal of talking — and message discipline — for someone who’s not running for governor in 2010.
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Your morning jolt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On ajc.com today:
— Could Sunday booze sales boost Georgia’s economy?
— Logjam at crime labs slows solutions to deaths
— Despite peanut crisis, PB&J Day still a go at Capitol
— Atlanta’s firefighter shortage improves from Saturday’s numbers
— Who’ll get the money? Stimulus funds in Georgia
— Obama faces next big goal, new hurdles
Elsewhere:
— From NYT: Obama set to drop plan for ‘car czar.’
— From WashPost: Moderate Republican senators give little Maine a big voice
— From Chicago ST: Perjury or not, Burris at least shows he’s not telling the truth.
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A Cobb County cop dies, 21 years later
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Note: Former Cobb County police officer Freddie Norman died this weekend, 21 years after an encounter with a drunk driver. Below is a sketch, from 1998, of what life handed him:
Freddie Norman was a cop a few years back, and he knows not to trust a reporter with a quote. He typed his answer with the index finger of his right hand. Slowly.
“My….”
Ten years ago, he was Officer Norman-to-the-Rescue with blue lights flashing, a 24-year-old bundle of muscle and energy wrapped in a Cobb County uniform, on his way to a domestic call.
That particular Sunday night was cool but dry, and early leaves rustled with a yellow-green promise of an April rain. He was rolling down Pat Mell Road, through the Sandtown Road intersection, when a drunk 16-year-old ran a red light and plowed into the driver’s door of the patrol car.
“…..wife annnnn….” Backspace. “My wife and all…”
Freddie was comatose, or nearly so, when they brought him home to Austell seven months later. Nothing moved but the little finger of his right hand and a toe. His eyes were mostly empty and stared unfocused at a point down and to the side.
Billie Galbreath wasn’t sure what, if anything, was happening in her son’s head. But a doctor had told her that comatose people don’t have a sense of humor. So one day she cut out strips of paper, wrote some simple commands, and put them in Freddie’s line of sight.
Wiggle your pinkie. The pinkie moved, which meant he could read.
Wiggle your toe. He did.
Pick your boogers. The right corner of Freddie’s mouth stretched. “We wondered if that was his smile, ” his mother said. She’d found her son in a bit of inelegant humor.
“….three my children…..”
His injury was to the brain stem —- which meant not an absence of feeling, but a lack of muscle control. Freddie Norman was facing life as a Corvette mounted on cinderblocks. The V-8 was running, the radio thumped with rock ‘n’ roll, but there was nowhere to go, and no way to get there.
Still, time will move on. And over 10 years, Freddie Norman has achieved the outline of a normal life. He was a married man with two young kids when it happened. He and his wife quietly divorced. Freddie remarried in 1994, and now has three kids: Kim is 15, an age that has set him worrying just like any other father. Christi is 13. Hope is almost 2. She’s lovely, but her diapers do stink.
“….are also…” Another backspace. “….are always….”
Since Ronald Reagan was president, Freddie Norman has graduated from an alphabet board to a Pentium chip. His laptop is nearly e-mail ready. A wiggle of his pinkie has come to mean “yes.” And “no” is a rubbing of the right thumb and forefinger. It’s the same motion you make to signify the world’s smallest phonograph playing “My Heart Bleeds for You.”
“…..in..” Backspace. “…..on….”
The wheelchair ramp is weathered and worn at his mother’s small house, where Freddie lives. It’s a blue-collar neighborhood off Thornton Road, the kind of place where self-pity doesn’t sell. Too many people here have seen too many hard knocks.
The house was alive this day with the routine sound of chores. The dryer rasped, the washer answered. “The Maury Povich Show” blared a Mother’s Day program with a tap-dancing granny.
Billie Galbreath said the county has done well by her son. Worker’s comp paid for an addition to the house for Freddie, and two nurses come each day to keep his body toned. Her husband’s stroke six years ago has complicated life. He’s in the room next to Freddie, and Mrs. Galbreath, 59, now knows nearly enough medicine to start her own practice. That’s not whining —- just a fact.
Some weeks ago, Mrs. Galbreath stood with her son when the county made Freddie Norman the first recipient of its Blue Star award for officers injured in the line of duty. It’s a lovely medal of gold and royal blue ribbon.
“…..my minnnn….” Backspace. “…..my mind.”
“My wife and all three my children are always on my mind.”
Before I left, I asked Freddie if he’d ever heard from the young man who’d sent him down this path. A letter? A phone call? Freddie, who will turn 35 next month, replied with the world’s smallest phonograph, playing “My Heart Bleeds for You.”
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Gov. Sonny Perdue and an urge to clean house
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the seventh season of his eight-year tenure as governor, Sonny Perdue has decided to reorganize two of state government’s largest bureaucracies — the Department of Human Resources, which offers succor to the disadvantaged, and Georgia’s sad tangle of transportation agencies.
Together, they make up only 12 percent of the state budget and 17 percent of its payroll. But the federal dollars they control make them far more important.
In an age when getting there or getting help has become a dire need for many Georgians, the hazard of making a misstep while rearranging lines of command has rarely been greater.
No one argues that the streamlining is unnecessary. Both bureaucracies seem magnetically attracted to the word “dysfunctional.”
But timing is a concern. Jimmy Carter was the last governor to put DHR on the couch. Yet he did so at the outset of his single term as governor, not at the two-minute warning.
Style, too, is a worry. The remaking of DHR has followed a traditional, relatively public route, with a task force or two to hold hearings that allowed all those concerned a say in the matter.
However, the attempt to gut the constitutionally created state Department of Transportation and the construction of a new State Transportation Authority has been conducted in almost complete secrecy.
And the 2009 session of the Legislature is at the halfway mark.
A schematic chart, outlining the proposed new flow of power and money, leaked out last week, forcing Perdue’s partners — House Speaker Glenn Richardson and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle — to acknowledge that something large is in the works.
The governor has run hot and cold on the issue of “governance” — his phrasing for whether the state’s transportation bureaucracy is up to handling the money entrusted to it.
Perdue raised the competency issue last year, when the Legislature first debated — and rejected — a sales tax for transportation. But last June, the governor appeared to reconcile with the DOT board, celebrating with a press conference in which he recognized the DOT as “the quarterback of this team.”
A report concluded that Georgia’s failure to spend enough money to combat traffic congestion had cost jobs — and Perdue promised a massive state transportation plan by January.
But now we are back to “governance.” Perdue appears ready to sack his own quarterback. “In transportation, the only diagnosis has been a lack of money and the only prescription has been to spend more of it,” said Perdue spokesman Chris Schrimpf. “The governor believes transportation must be transformed [into] a system that can take funding and provide value.”
Two proposals for a transportation sales tax, one regional and another statewide, sit before the Legislature. Both could be swamped by legislation from the governor to change the way billions of dollars are guided toward projects. Some argue that this is a partial motive for Perdue.
The leaked chart indicates that Democrats, necessary to the approval of either sales tax measure, would be shut out of decision-making.
But geography rather than partisanship may pose a larger hurdle for Perdue. As dysfunctional — there’s that word again — as the current 13-member DOT board is, power is divided among 13 congressional districts. Every section of the state a voice.
Perdue’s plan would concentrate transportation policy in the hands of the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker — with the governor holding the edge.
Neither metro Atlanta nor rural Georgia would be assured of a seat at the table.
As a GOP candidate in 2002, Perdue condemned Gov. Roy Barnes, the incumbent Democrat, for his push to create a transportation super-agency. But Perdue’s version, though much larger than Barnes dreamed, shouldn’t be characterized as a personal power grab, the Republican governor’s supporters say.
With reform of the state’s transportation system coming so late in his administration, Perdue would be able to take little advantage of any new authority granted him. In other words, the governor’s lack of emphasis on the topic of Georgia’s traffic woes has made him a more disinterested and thus more trustworthy actor.
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Tom Price and the $30 million mouse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) has become something of a YouTube guerilla lately, using video posted on the Internet to make his case against President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan.
But he became a genuine cable TV star on Friday by waving what looked to be a small, dead ball of fur on the floor of the U.S. House. (The prop was reportedly from a pet store.)
Price’s topic was the $787 billion stimulus bill.
“What’s in it? Have you read it? We found 30 million for mice. Got 30 million for mice. You can’t be serious. What a joke. $30 million for mice. Does that create jobs?” Price intoned. Some say he even looked a little cat-like, but you can judge for yourself.
Here’s a clip grabbed by Talking Points Memo:
But apparently the mouse funding is very much overblown, according to the Republican who first set the tale moving.
This from the San Jose Mercury News:
The tale began Wednesday, when Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, sent an e-mail to reporters and political leaders that noted Republican staff members have been asking federal agencies how they would spend the stimulus money.
“One response? Thirty million dollars for wetland restoration in the San Francisco Bay Area — including work to protect the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse,” wrote Steel.
The Washington Times then wrote a story citing Steel and claiming that $30 million for the mouse project is contained in the bill. The paper suggested the money was put there by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. Blogger Matt Drudge, whose Web site receives 26 million hits a day, posted a link to that story.
News of the mouse roared through the cable TV news cycle. And Boehner’s spokesman was forced to clarify matters. The newspaper reported:
“There is no language in the bill that says this money will go to this project,” Steel told the Mercury News. “There are large pots of money in the bill that go to various agencies. One of those agencies said the salt marsh harvest mouse project is something we’d do if you gave us the money.”
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hamill agreed that funding for the mouse is not in the bill, and said she did not lobby for it to be on any list.
Then where did the $30 million figure come from, if it’s not in the bill? It turns out that $30 million is the total amount that the California Coastal Conservancy, a state agency, recommended more than a month ago to numerous federal agencies looking for lists of “shovel ready” projects as part of the stimulus bill planning.
The conservancy’s wish list included five major ongoing wetlands restoration projects totaling nearly 4,000 acres, said civil engineer Steve Ritchie, a Coastal Conservancy staff member who helped draw it up. And the federal Army Corps of Engineers included all five projects on its own list of possible ways to spend stimulus money.
The projects, which range from Napa County to Silicon Valley, involve moving levees, creating islands and converting former industrial salt ponds back to marshes. Each could begin by year’s end and would benefit dozens of species, including salmon, steelhead trout, ducks, egrets, and yes, the endangered mouse, Ritchie said.
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Isakson to announce 2010 re-election bid
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fresh off his vote against President Obama’s stimulus package, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson will kick off his 2010 bid for re-election with a Tuesday rally at the state Capitol.
Isakson’s to be joined by his Senate colleague Saxby Chambliss, Gov. Sonny Perdue, House Speaker Glenn Richardson, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, and anyone else who can squeeze into the camera frame.
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Utah’s Republican, Mormon governor backs civil unions for gay couples
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here’s something different on the Republican front, from the Salt Lake Tribune:
Gay-rights proponents and opponents ramped up their rhetoric for and against Jon Huntsman Jr. on Wednesday — two days after Utah’s Republican governor revealed that he backs civil unions and other rights for same-sex couples.
“After that initial shock, I was incredibly impressed with him,” said gay-rights advocate Jacob Whipple, who staged a candlelight vigil outside of the Governor’s Mansion on Wednesday night to show support for Huntsman.
But earlier in the day, at the Capitol, opponents criticized the governor’s stance, which includes support for traditional marriage but also rights for same-sex couples.
“He is simply dead wrong on this issue,” said Frank Mylar, an attorney who belongs to the Utah Coalition for Traditional Families.
Photo credit: Associated Press
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The other three GOP candidates for governor on the Georgia Power bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you want to gauge how uneasy some Republicans are about S.B. 31, the Georgia Power bill, consider the spectrum covered by the 2010 candidates for governor.
As passed by the Senate this week, the bill would permit the utility to pass financing costs for two new nuclear units on to ratepayers in 2011, although the extra generating capacity wouldn’t be available until 2017.
Though he said little publicly about the measure, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle was one of the forces pushing S.B. 31 through the chamber.
But three other GOP candidates for governor — the ones who hold public office — have yet to gather behind it.
To summarize, Secretary of State Karen Handel remains cautiously neutral. State Rep. Austin Scott (R-Tifton) says the timing is wrong. And state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine says the whole deal “stinks.”
Says Matt Carrothers, a spokesman for Handel:
“Secretary Handel is a strong proponent of nuclear energy, but also has some questions about the bill she hopes will be addressed by the legislative process. She plans to have talks with both opponents and proponents of the legislation.”
Said Scott, the only gubernatorial candidate who will have to cast a vote on the bill:
“I’m not going to support it. It’s not that I’m opposed to the concept as much as it is I’m opposed to the timing. The American household, certainly the Georgia household, has less disposable income today than it has had in a long time.
“The idea of voting to raise people’s power bills in this economic time is just — I’m not voting for it. This is not the time to be taking what little disposable income people have left.”
Scott also pointed out that higher power bills would also apply to school systems and local governments that are already stretched.
As for the concept of advance payment for high-ticket nuclear power, Scott said he approved “as long as there’s absolute transparency in the handling of the money. It should not in any way, shape or form to increase their margin.”
Oxendine clearly was the most vociferous. Said the insurance commissioner:
“I’ve got two concerns. One issue is the legislative involvement. And that bothers me. We have the mechanism under the [state] Constitution of where there are people with expertise that are elected by the citizens to review issues like this.
“You don’t change the rules — it almost smells like you’re making special rules because you want to be able to guarantee what the outcome is. It really smells of Georgia Power saying, ‘I want a specific outcome.’
“That is just wrong. That’s what’s wrong with government. That process on its own stinks. I’m not disputing the Legislature’s right to intervene, but I am strongly disputing the appropriateness. And I’m saying it smells of politics.
“What to me that is out-and-out reprehensible is Georgia Power and the Senate — and I would throw in the presiding officer there, as well — playing games.”
As for ratepayers making advance payments, Oxendine said he could support the approach “if there were no other way to come up with the financing. My understanding is that it was not necessary.”
Oxendine said he couldn’t imagine granting an insurance company a rate hike to pay for a computer upgrade in advance. “I would probably throw an insurance executive out of my office if he said that,” he said.
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The cost of economic stimulus is down to $791 million a page
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Late last night, OpenCongress posted the full text of the 999-page, $789.5 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
That’s $791 million a page.
The U.S. House could vote as early as today. You’ll be able to spot the proofreaders — their lips will be a blur of bilabial fricative.
U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell), now a member of House GOP leadership, has been producing some interesting YouTube clips on the topic. Below is something he posted this morning. You’ll note that he has 74 more pages than the OpenCongress site. Not sure what that’s about.
One of the casualties of the House-Senate conference committee was U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s $15,000 homebuyer tax credit, designed to juice the U.S. housing market.
Elsewhere in today’s AJC:
Isakson said Thursday he will continue to push for the tax credit in a separate, stand-alone bill, and hinted that the idea may be gaining support among Democrats, too.
“Quite frankly there is so much outward support for what we did … that I wouldn’t at all be surprised if you didn’t see it come back in some form with a Democrat’s name on it,” he said.
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss was less sanguine.
“That’s the kind of thing that really makes you angry about politics, because that was a bipartisan effort, something that Democrats stood up and really supported. Then it gets into the conference committee that’s controlled by the Democrats and they pulled it out,” Chambliss said this morning, on WGAU (1340AM) in Athens.
Listen here to the entire sound clip kindly sent by radio host Tim Bryant.
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Cobb County GOP chairman ‘violated’ election law by listing false home address in 2006
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
According to an investigator with Secretary of State Karen Handel’s office, the chairman of the Cobb County GOP “violated” state election law by listing a false home address when requesting an absentee ballot for the November 2006 general election.
Anthony-Scott Hobbs, who served as chairman of the Cobb Republican party from 2003 to 2007, also “may have violated” state law by indicating a false address on his voter certificate for the July primary that year, the investigator concluded.
That sigh you just heard was the breath escaping from dozens of Democrats, who wish they’d been aware of this during debate over the state Capitol debate over voter ID. Cobb County is one of the most treasured sources of Republican votes in the state.
Read the investigation summary here.
Hobbs has agreed to a $100 fine that will be made official at the April meeting of the State Election Board, his attorney, Douglas Chalmers, confirmed.
Chalmers described the fine as “minimal,” and said it reflected the fact that Hobbs was acting on bad advice from the Cobb County Board of Elections.
According to the investigation summary, Hobbs:
….claimed that between Jan. 1, 2006 and Jan. 24, 2007, he lived with friends and in extended-stay hotels to save money to purchase a home.
Mr. Hobbs claimed that prior to the elections in question, Mr. Hobbs contacted an unknown person at the Cobb County elections board to question what he should indicate as his address when he voted. He stated that this unknown representative of the board advised him to use his previous address….
Apparently, this has been kicking around for some time. According to the report: “Identical allegations were brought forth in June 2007, and the charges were investigated by the GBI.”
A Cobb County jury refused to indict Hobbs in December, 2007. The current complaint was filed anonymously to the State Elections Board shortly afterwards.
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The power of stimulus: Senate Democrats hold hearing, and officialdom takes it seriously
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Friday, an ad hoc committee of Senate Democrats will hold a hearing in the state Capitol to discuss what money might be available for Georgia from the federal stimulus package just consummated in Washington.
The committee is a formalized version of a system that House Democrats have established.
Speaking at the Senate hearing will be the chancellor of the university system, the head of the state Department of Human Resources, the state labor commissioner. Gov. Sonny Perdue has indicated he will send a representative, said Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown (D-Macon).
There was a time such an event would have been ignored. Department heads whose administrations fall under Republican control would have been barred from participating.
But this is what happens when power trickles down via the $789 billion economic recovery package. Democrats are eager to establish themselves as point men in the hunt for federal dollars.
“We want to try to position ourselves for a smart recovery,” Brown said.
Earlier this week, state Sen. David Adelman (D-Decatur) one of Barack Obama’s key supporters in Georgia during the presidential campaign, introduced legislation that would require the state’s energy providers to increase — over the next 20 years — their reliance on renewable sources, such as biomass and solar.
Adelman cited $70 billion that the federal stimulus package contained for energy initiatives.
Next Thursday, a dinner hosted by the Legislative Black Caucus will feature U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, the southwest Democrat who has emerged as the Georgian closest to both Obama and the federal stimulus package.
Bishop is also to speak before both the House and the Senate. “He’ll have to address the stimulus, because that’s what’s on everybody’s mind,” said state Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur), chairman of the black caucus.
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Thurmond: ‘We’re witnessing the emergence of a Darwinian job market’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Department of Labor announced today that 120,139 laid-off workers filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance benefits in January, an 81 percent increase over January ‘08.
“We are witnessing the emergence of a Darwinian job market,” said State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond in the press release announcing the barren statistics. This afternoon, Thurmond will address a joint meeting of House and Senate committees charged with overseeing employment in Georgia.
“The growing number of layoffs has created a surplus of jobseekers who are talented, experienced, educated, and well-trained. In this challenging environment, the most successful jobseekers will be those who demonstrate the highest levels of persistence, determination, and above all, flexibility when looking for work,” Thurmond said.
Thurmond did not say if it made any difference whether, in a Darwinian job market, an unemployed person disputed evolution theory.
The worst places in Georgia to find a job are now Dalton, where unemployment claims were up 165 percent; Brunswick, up 164 percent; and Rome, up 153 percent.
Cities doing the best, within the new definition of the word: Columbus, up 21 percent; Valdosta, up 35 percent; and Savannah, up 39 percent.
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Bob Barr’s next life: Let him get his feet wet, then send him to the Middle East
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After an unsuccessful presidential campaign, there is always the question of what to do with one’s life.
The once-famously judgmental Bob Barr, who as a Georgia congressman pushed the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, has decided to become a peacemaker. As in “blessed are the….”
A local lawyer sends us a copy of this solicitation from the former Libertarian candidate for president, who operates out of Cobb County.
The letter reads, in part:
I am keenly aware of the high cost of litigation in terms of both time and money. This realization, and a desire to be part of trying to resolve this problem, led me to explore the value of mediation to assist in resolving disputes.
As a result, I have recently been certified as a Mediator, and plan shortly to be certified as an Arbitrator. Given the experiences I have had in my life— especially in politics and the law — I respectfully invite you to consider allowing me to serve you and your clients as a Certified Mediator….
Updated at 8:55 a.m. Thursday: The following e-mail just arrived from Barr: “By coincidence, I am now in Egypt. I gave a speech this past Sunday to an Economic Forum in Cairo. You are most insightful!”
Topic of his speech? “A World in Turmoil - Can President Obama Meet the Challenge?”
Photo credit: Associated Press
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A first look at the flow chart for Sonny Perdue’s new State Transportation Authority
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’ve got a copy of the organizational chart of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s plan, made in consultation with House Speaker Glenn Richardson and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, to reorganize the state’s many transportation agencies under a single authority.
Click here to take a look at it. There’s a color PDF of this floating around somewhere. We’d be obliged if someone would take the initiative and send it in.
According to the chart, the governing board of a State Transportation Authority would be comprised of seven members: three appointed by the governor, two by the lieutenant governor, and two by the House speaker.
Board members’ terms would coincide with the terms of their appointers, which means there would be a direct line of influence to the state Capitol triumvirate — and a significant increase money and power placed in the hands of the trio.
The governor would appoint the chairman of the authority and its chief executive, who would be known as the Secretary of Transportation.
At the very bottom of the reorganization chart is the notation of “GDOT or other entity.”
More to come.
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Isakson’s homebuyer tax credit already gone?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This was posted a few minutes ago on The Caucus, the political blog operated by the New York Times:
…We’re told that the homebuyers’ amendment approved by a bipartisan voice vote last week may be out already. Republican Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia proposed a $15,000 tax credit for buyers of new homes within a year or so of the bill taking effect. Initially, the cost was estimated at $18.5 billion, but has now been recalculated by the Congressional Budget Office at about $35.5 billion.
That’s far more than the estimated $2.6 billion estimate for a provision in the House bill that would provide a $7,500 refundable tax credit for first-time homebuyers through July 1, 2009. Under the House plan, individual homebuyers earning up $75,000 and couples earning up to $150,000 would qualify. A reduced credit would be available for those individuals earning up to $95,000 and couples up to $170,000.
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For states, stimulus is a debate over $40 billion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Though many Republicans in the state Capitol may not permit themselves to admit it, the tussle that begins today in Washington over the economic stimulus bill will have great bearing on what happens in Atlanta through the spring.
State governments and their budgets are treated much more kindly under the recovery bill passed by the U.S. House than the (slightly) smaller one passed Monday by the U.S. Senate.
Today’s Washington Post has a synopsis:
…For states, the differences are potentially enormous. The House included $79 billion in direct aid to states, $40 billion more than the Senate, and governors are counting on that money to help balance budgets that are billions in the red.
“If the Senate version holds, there will be very deep cuts,” said Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D), who added that the cost to the state and its 5.3 million residents would be $600 million. “We’re going to see teachers and firefighters and police officers lose their jobs.”
In Maryland, a legislative staff analysis found that the state would lose nearly $1 billion under the Senate version, including $454 million in discretionary funding, nearly $200 million in school construction money and nearly $100 million more for higher education projects.
Virginia lawmakers are counting on stimulus funding to help close a $3 billion budget gap. “If the Senate will just move a little closer to the House version, that will provide some very significant tax relief, funding of Medicaid and an extension of unemployment insurance,” Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) told reporters yesterday.
The Senate halved the $79 billion as part of a deal to win the support of centrists in both parties who doubted the value and necessity of untargeted aid to states. Some Republicans also had ideological objections, based on a belief in tax cuts and skepticism about expanding the federal government’s role in local projects such as school construction.
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Georgia Power bill headed for Senate vote
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
S.B. 31, the bill to permit Georgia Power to charge ratepayers in advance for the cost of financing two new nuclear power units, goes to the Senate floor this morning.
On his Lucid Idiocy blog, Travis Fain of the Macon Telegraph includes this thought:
There’s a new argument floating around against Senate Bill 31…
Namely: The state can’t afford it. The state of Georgia is one of Georgia Power’s biggest customers, and it’s not clear how much its power bills would get jacked up if this measure passes.
A lot of bills like this would have a fiscal note attached to them, which tells legislators how a bill would affect the state’s bottom line. This one does not, and apparently the issue was raised relatively late in the process.
“We would have considered (the lack of a fiscal note) had it been timely raised,” Regulated Industries and Utilities Chairman and state Sen. David Shafer said [Tuesday] morning.
All bets have the Georgia Power bill passing the Senate, with Democrats providing most of the opposition — thanks to some significant arm-twisting from a certain lieutenant governor.
House Republican sources indicated — at least initially — a friendly reception for the measure, which is in essence an end-run around the state Public Service Commission.
But one wonders if any House Republicans — those discomfitted by S.B. 31 — might be tempted to pull out their calculators.
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Isakson and Chambliss explain their votes against the Obama stimulus package
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No doubt you’ve noticed that the U.S. Senate has passed a stimulus package on a vote of 61 to 37, with three Republicans supporting $838 billion measure.
As they indicated over the weekend, U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss voted against it, and issued a joint press release in explanation:
“This legislation is yet another example of Congress throwing money at the symptoms but not getting to the root of the problem,” Isakson said. “While there are some good provisions in this bill, it is primarily spending money on programs that should not be categorized as stimulus and will not do anything to help our economy. Funding studies of global warming or re-seeding the Capitol lawn aren’t going to stimulate anything.”
“Instead of focusing on three major issues - job creation, housing and compassion for Americans who have lost jobs through no fault of their own - to boost the economy, this bill has morphed into a bloated government giveaway,” said Chambliss. “The majority in Congress has been in runaway mode when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars. This legislation is yet another sign that Washington is more concerned with pet projects than with the welfare of taxpayers.”
In an interview with my AJC colleague Bob Keefe, Chambliss said he wished Obama well. “I hope it works. But if we get six to eight months down the road into this fall and we don’t see a major improvement in the economic conditions in this country,” he said, “we’re going to have all this money obligated out there.”
In their press release, the senators cited Isakson’s proposal for a $15,000 homebuyer credit, which remains in the bill. The Wall Street Journal has a short but intelligent analysis of the tax credit’s prospects:
It’s far from certain that the House will accept the Senate version, which includes far more generous credits. The House version would modify an existing $7,500 credit so that it wouldn’t have to be repaid, while the Senate goes much further by doubling the credit, removing income limits, and extending it to existing homeowners, from just first-time buyers.
The Senate version would also benefit more upper-middle income buyers. The current credit is refundable, which means that even those who pay little to no income tax could receive a government check, while the Senate credit is nonrefundable, so that buyers only stand to gain if they pay federal income taxes.
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Hard times ahead for Marietta’s F-22?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is a few days old, but the Hill, a D.C. newspaper/web site, has posted this bit of intelligence:
President Obama tried to tamp down expectations for the fervent supporters of Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor fighter jet as an overwhelming number of lawmakers are urging the White House to continue production of the aircraft.
Obama told Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) at the Democrats’ retreat in Williamsburg, Va. that he will make the decision of whether to continue buying the stealthy fighter jet with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and always consider how the decisions affect the security of the country, according to presidential press pool reports….
Obama said he would always take into account local economies. However, he said: “We also have to deal with the debt and it is unsustainable. We have to make tough decisions.”
Scott’s 13th District includes Marietta, home to the F-22 plant.
Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) on Tuesday was gathering signatures on the state Senate floor for a resolution asking Obama to preserve funding for the F-22.
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Southern Voice in receivership
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Scott Henry of Creative Loafing has pointed one and all to a report from New York that the Southern Voice, an Atlanta weekly aimed at gays and lesbians, is in serious trouble:
The investment fund that owns the Washington Blade, the Southern Voice, Genre magazine, and other gay publications has been forced into receivership by the federal Small Business Administration (SBA), which will sell the fund’s assets and distribute the proceeds to investors.
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Senate decides against a veto fight with Gov. Sonny Perdue
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Senate on Tuesday nixed a veto fight with Gov. Sonny Perdue.
The vehicle was to be H.B. 143, a bill to block repeal of a state-paid property tax break that would cost the average homeowner about $200 to $300.
Repealing the tax break immediately would save the state $428 million. Perdue has vowed to eliminate the tax break. House and Senate Republicans have sworn they’ll preserve it.
Earlier, the House not only had passed H.B. 143, but agreed by a two-thirds vote to transmit it immediately to the governor, to force Perdue to sign it into law or veto it while the Legislature remains in session.
The threat of an override was kindly, but clearly stated by House Speaker Glenn Richardson.
This morning, the Senate gave final passage to H.B. 143, but declined to transmit it immediately to Perdue. Which means the governor won’t have to make a decision on the bill until after the Legislature leaves town. Which is expected sometime this year.
Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) said the decision to avoid a veto fight was made at the request of Perdue. “The governor’s concerned about having the bill get to him while he’s having to revise revenue estimates,” Rogers said. “We’d rather work with the governor and the House rather than create a scenario where people are defensive.”
H.B. 143 passed the Senate with 32 yea votes — a majority, but not close to the two-thirds needed in the 56-seat chamber. A Republican contact on the House side said that, when passing the news, senators did not cite the maintenance of relations with the governor as a motivation.
Rather, this Republican was told that Senate Democrats had decided to lock down on the measure, and that Senate Republican caucus couldn’t muster the votes.
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Oxendine: He’d be ‘hard-pressed’ to describe benefits of GOP rule
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After seven years of Republican rule in the state Capitol, the GOP — at least the top layer — has become something to run away from, if state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine is any measure.
The Thomasville Times-Enterprise has this account of a trip the 2010 candidate for governor made to south Georgia:
The 46-year-old Republican told a small gathering at The Plaza that he has grown disenchanted with his party and its lack of accomplishments.
“If I had to articulate why Republicans are doing a better job of running the state than the Democrats did, I’d be hard-pressed to find the words,” he said.
Oxendine, a lifelong conservative, swept into office in 1994, becoming the first Republican to head a major state agency in Georgia. He was the leading Republican vote-getter in his last two elections.
“What I liked about the Republican Party is that I believed it was more democratic than the Democratic Party,” Oxendine said. “It was truly run by everyday Georgians. It was the grassroots.
“The people ran the party.”
Oxendine, however, said too many Republicans changed their philosophy while currying favor with corporations and lobbyists.
“Large corporations and lobbyists — not all of them, but most of them — go with the power,” he said. “If the Republicans are in power, they’ll be with the Republicans. If Democrats are in power, they’ll be with the Democrats. So why should we change our party just to make them happy?
“We need to stay with the people who brought us to power.”
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Talk of reviving the Northern Arc is premature, says activist
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Anyone who’s taken the trouble to run a thumb down the length of H.B. 277, House Transportation Chairman Vance Smith’s bill proposing a statewide sales tax, would find Project No. 12 to be noteworthy:
A program for the negotiation and granting of a concession for the construction, improvement, and operation of a tolled roadway connection between Interstate 75 and Interstate 85 not less than 15 miles north of the northernmost point of Interstate 285.
It is, in fact, the Northern Arc, the road project that helped topple Gov. Roy Barnes in 2002, by stampeding homeowners and not a few environmentalists into the arms of the Republican party and Sonny Perdue — who promised to kill it.
One of the leaders of the Northern Arc Task Force was Jeff Anderson of Forsyth County.
Anderson looks at any talk of a revival of the project, even if certified by a state Legislature, with a high degree of skepticism. “Something may happen after Sonny’s out of office,” said Anderson, a consultant by occupation. “But the way the funding rules are these days, I don’t see it as a priority.”
Cost of the project was about $3.1 billion back in the day, a figure that’s probably doubled.
Anderson dissolved the NATF several years ago, toward the end of Perdue’s first term. “Can we get it activated again? You bet,” he said.
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NYT’s Krugman: Isakson proposal would be a bonus to rich house-flippers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s proposal to give tax credits to homebuyers is taking some heat today from Paul Krugman, the New York times columnist and Nobel Prize winner:
What do you call someone who eliminates hundreds of thousands of American jobs, deprives millions of adequate health care and nutrition, undermines schools, but offers a $15,000 bonus to affluent people who flip their houses?
A proud centrist. For that is what the senators who ended up calling the tune on the stimulus bill just accomplished.
There’s been some talk about the $15,000 limit being trimmed as the stimulus bill goes to a House-Senate conference committee. Isakson, despite successfully adding his amendment, has declined to support the measure.
But the junior senator all but named his ace-in-the-hole last week: Susan Collins of Maine was the primary Republican negotiator in the deal cut Friday night.
Very likely, Democrats can’t tinker with the Isakson amendment too much without the deal falling apart.
Updated: Isakson spokeswoman Joan Kirchner had this to say about the “flipping” charge:
Johnny believes our economic crisis starts and ends with the housing market, and that if we don’t fix housing first, we won’t fix anything else. The last time our nation’s housing market was this bad was in the 1970s, and Congress at that time passed a $2,000 homebuyer tax credit that turned around the housing market and turned around the economy. It worked then and it will work today.
As to Krugman’s point about giving a tax credit for “flipping houses,” Johnny’s amendment specifically prohibits flipping houses because it requires the homebuyer to live in the home as their primary residence for at least two years to get the credit. The amendment further safeguards against flipping by banning purchases of homes from family members.
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Georgia Power bill delayed to allow Senate Republicans to become ‘more comfortable’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) says the bill to permit Georgia Power to charge ratepayers in advance for the financing costs associated with two new nuclear units will be delayed at least until mid-week, to permit Republicans to become “more comfortable” with the measure.
Rogers said a GOP caucus meeting will be held Tuesday, when the Legislature reconvenes after a three-day break, to discuss S.B. 31.
“I don’t think it’s going to come up tomorrow, but we may see it in the near future. This is a very difficult bill to understand. I think when you just simply hear the theory — of let’s pay the interest up front instead of waiting for it to compound seven years down the road — most people can grasp that,” Rogers said.
“In reality this is a very difficult measure to deal with, because there’s a lot of complexities that go on in determining what is the interest on that loan and how does that fit into the whole rate-making scheme that the Public Service Commission determines,” Rogers said.
“I can’t say whether we have the votes or don’t have the votes. I imagine it’s rather close. But I do think whether you’re for it or against it, all of us would like to feel more comfortable about it,” he said.
“I don’t think there’s a conceptual problem if we can prove that it saves money.”
The bill would set terms that would allow Georgia Power to recoup from ratepayers the interest charges on billion-dollar construction loans — a negotiating task normally assigned to the Public Service Commission.
Rogers said the utility feared that the PSC might change aspects of the deal once it’s been agreed to. But the Senate majority leader conceded that a future General Assembly, too, could “undo” the terms contained in the current legislation.
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Mark Sanford: We’re closing in on a ‘savior-based economy’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In an interview with CNN on Sunday about the federal stimulus package, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina succeeded in uniting economics and sacrilege.
“We’re moving precipitously close to what I would call a savior-based economy,” Sanford said.
See the clip below.
More from Sanford:
“A savior-based economy sort of is definitial of what you see in Russia or Venezuela or Zimbabwe or places like that where it matters not how good your product is to the consumer but what your political connection is to those in power.
“”And if you think about the power that’s been granted to the fed of the Treasury, it has savior-like qualities. Everybody knows that we’re in an economic slowdown. But the consideration now is, if I can just get my word, if I can be the plaintiff to the right person in Washington D.C., I can get these things fixed.
“That is quite different than a market-based economy where some rise and some fall but there’s a consequence to making a stupid decision.”
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Politics and a maglev train: Where they connect, and where they don’t
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of the more curious spots where science intersects with politics in Georgia can be found at the end of a red dirt road in west Cobb County, amid the scrubland of U.S. 278.
A series of concrete pylons support a 2,000-foot rail of aluminum and steel. A sleek fiberglass shell — converted from the white, upside-down hull of a seagoing yacht — occasionally glides along the track’s length, levitating on a force field of electromagnets.
Tony Morris, a civil engineer from Georgia Tech, has been selling a poor man’s maglev train as a cure for metro Atlanta’s transportation ills.
Over the last several months, a parade of politicians have made the pilgrimage to see the showpiece of American Maglev Technology and its president — U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, a handful of state lawmakers and local elected officials, even a delegation from the state Department of Transportation.
For each visitor, Morris or an assistant flicks a switch, and the former yacht rises a half-inch or so, floating nearly friction-free. Morris puts his 51-year-old shoulder to the hovering mass of steel and plastic, and pushes it a few inches up the line, all by himself.
“Impressive,” said Isakson. “Intriguing,” said state Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock).
Most VIPs are treated to brief, near-soundless ride in the cabin, controlled by a joystick hooked up to a laptop computer. Morris said he’s reached speeds of 35 mph on the short track. Computer modeling indicates he might reach 120 mph on a longer stretch.
But a maglev train in Shanghai, built with German technology, zips across an 18-mile strip of China at 260 mph. And that’s what Georgia rail enthusiasts want between Atlanta and Chattanooga.
“If we’re talking about a greater plan that goes from Chicago one day, to Miami one day, a 120-mile-per-hour vehicle — it’s pointless,” said Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.
But high-speed maglev in the United States is the pipedream, says Morris. At $200 million a mile, no government is likely to come up with the money in the near future. And the straight lines required by such speeds would create a “moral” nightmare of land acquisition, he says.
The engineer says his low-speed maglev train, by using unoccupied interstate right-of-way, could be had for a tenth of the cost. But more than thrift, Morris sells impatience — frustration with all the talk, and nothing but talk, when it comes to moving people by rail.
Morris and his company have been angling for $45 million offered up by the Federal Railroad Administration. Hence the demonstrations for local politicians, who were offered the possibility of immediate action.
”The whole world is study-weary right now,” Morris said. “Rather than do another environmental study to figure out what flora and fauna will be rendered extinct in Calhoun as a result of this system, let’s build something.”
Morris proposed an experimental, $57 million maglev line between Kennesaw State University and Town Center mall in Cobb. His company would front any matching funds. “Since we need to put people to work, this summer, we could be putting in columns,” Morris said.
But one of the state’s several transportation agencies must make the application, due this week, for the federal money. And none will agree to a partnership with Morris and AMT.
This isn’t the story about a man with vision frustrated by a reluctant bureaucracy. There’s more to it than that.
Seven years ago, Morris and AMT began an effort to build an experimental, one-mile line across the campus Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. Technical glitches and funding shortfalls buried the project.
Morris shrugs it off as a learning experience. Trial-and-error that resulted in a better, current creation. “It’s a messy business to create technology,” he said.
But this is exactly where science and politics fail to connect.
Politics, especially in hard times, is all about the sure thing. “The whole problem is, [Morris] wants you to be the pilot,” said Sam Olens, chairman of the Cobb County Commission. “If it doesn’t work, you’re a goat. It’d be great if he’s right.”
Morris is on to other projects. His best prospect, right now, is a maglev line moving freight out of the port of Los Angeles.
In the meantime, he offers this thought to ponder while you sit in traffic: “Sometimes, people have to give politicians the permission to take a well-calculated risk.”
Photo credits: Sean Drakes, Calvin Cruce/AJC
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Chambliss, Isakson will vote against Obama stimulus package
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson will vote against the economic stimulus package now taking shape in the Senate, staffers for both senators confirmed this morning.
Current reports indicate enough Republicans in the Senate have joined in a reduced stimulus package, engineered by a coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats, to assure passage.
Word of the decision by Chambliss and Isakson began leaking out this morning, hours after a final deal had been reached.
In a note sent out to followers, Georgia Christian Alliance leader Sadie Fields, said Chris Carr, Isakson’s chief of staff, informed her of the decision late last night. Charlie Harmon, Chambliss’ chief of staff, called her this morning.
Previously, Fields had sent a note to her followers, arguing that under no terms should the senators vote for the package.
Earlier this week, Isakson successfully argued to include a $15,000 homebuyer tax credit into the package, but said he had made no commitment to vote for it. Isakson is up for re-election in 2010.
Wrote Fields to members of the Georgia Christian Alliance:
“Please call Monday to thank them for standing up for the people. While it is not over, we can be proud of our senators for doing the right thing.”
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The Legislature reverts to slo-mo, waiting for stimulus package — and any more bad news
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Legislature today all but conceded the need to wait to see what President Barack Obama’s stimulus package will look like before lawmakers take a cleaver to the state budget.
The House and Senate agreed to stretch out the 40-day session by meeting three days a week, with the plan of finishing up on March 25 with five days to spare. Theoretically, the session could stretch until June.
We’re told that the Senate and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle were the ones who needed to be brought to the table and agree to the slowdown.
So far, we’ve spotted three motivations at work:
— Cagle points to the dismal revenue figures that Gov. Sonny Perdue unveiled this week, first privately to state lawmakers — and publicly just a few minutes ago. State revenue for January is down 14 percent. (Even more frightening is the 117 percent drop in corporate income tax revenue.)
The figures raise the possibility that Perdue could lower revenue estimates again this spring, forcing more budget cuts. Pocketing a few days so that lawmakers can return to address those cuts makes sense, Cagle said.
— But the lieutenant governor refused to acknowledge that, with revenue dropping so drastically, the state may be dependent on cash contained in the stimulus package now under consideration in Congress.
Republicans in the House were less reluctant to draw the connection. “This will allow us enough flexibility to respond to what will or will not come from Washington,” House Majority Leader Jerry Keen said today, according to a blog maintained by Georgia Public Broadcasting.
The agreement was bipartisan, with Democrats in the House and Senate endorsing the slow-down. State Rep. Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) was among those who advised Republicans to put the brakes on.
Smyre said that, even with his connections in Washington, he couldn’t say what might be contained in the still-amorphous stimulus package in Washington. But state lawmakers know that a harsh public reaction to cuts lies ahead of them. “You’re going to start seeing the faces of those you’re cutting,” the House Democratic caucus chairman said.
— A third reason for the slow-down is H.B. 143, which passed the Senate today — though it’s up for reconsideration on Tuesday.
The bill would preserve $428 million in property tax grants this year, but almost assuredly eliminate them the next. It takes a purely budget issue and gives it the status of law. And Perdue has demanded that the property tax grants end this year, not next.
Dick Pettys of InsiderAdvantage captured this exchange on the House floor last week, when H.B. 143 was being debated:
Glenn Richardson: “I have one little question I don’t think you addressed and so I want to ask it if this body approves this bill and if the Senate approves this bill, is there a mechanism we can sort of prompt and ask the governor to either veto or sign this bill while we’re still in Atlanta.”
Larry O’Neal: “I plan, Mr. Speaker, if it’s okay with the chair, to ask for immediate transmittal of this legislation to the governor. And he has then five days, as I understand it, to either veto or sign the bill.”
Richardson: “And while I’m sure we’ll ask for cooperation and I expect to get it, if we needed to we could immediately transmit this bill and the governor, if he were to decide not to sign it, would we have time to further act while we’re here?”
O’Neal: “Absolutely.”
The House passed the measure with a two-thirds, veto-proof vote.
Slowing down the pace of the session ensures that the House would have time to attempt an override of any gubernatorial veto — which would add significantly to the light and cheery atmosphere currently permeating the Capitol.
An override in the House would also pose an interesting situation for the lieutenant governor and the Senate. H.B. 143 passed the upper chamber today by a vote of 29-24-3. That’s not a veto-proof margin.
Cagle was against a series of vetoes pushed by the House last year. But that was then, and there is talk that Cagle and Perdue aren’t as close as they once were.
As the session stretching as far as June: Remember that fund-raising is barred while the Legislature is in session. This morning, the lieutenant governor said such talk has no place in the current economic climate.
But it wouldn’t be the first collision between public interest and self-interest — on behalf of not just Cagle, but several Republicans and Democrats looking at 2010 races.
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One bill would raise taxes, the other one would lower them
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Within the next few minutes, the state Senate will convene to take up two tax bills.
S.B. 83, sponsored by Majority Leader Chip Rogers of Woodstock, would double the statewide homestead exemption to $4,000.
H.B. 143 is double-edged. It would endorse immediate continuation of a homestead relief grant worth $200 to $300 to the average homeowner. But it also virtually assures that the grant disappears when property tax bills are handed out next August, resulting in an increase. This one has already passed the House.
The two are packaged to permit the argument that one cancels out the other. But the Association County Commissioners of Georgia offered up some math last night, after the bills were placed on the Friday calendar.
Says the ACCG:
Homeowners would see an increase of $200 to $300 because of the loss of the homestead grants. The homestead exemption doubling will result in a decrease of $50 to $75. So come August, 2009 property tax bills still will be $150 to $225 higher this year, the group argues.
“We understand that state legislators are trying to make up for not being able to fund the HTRG credit this year,” said ACCG Executive Director Jerry Griffin. “But, the savings that they are offering to homeowners will come directly out of local government budgets by increasing the property tax exemption. That shifts the financial burden of a state funded benefit to local governments who are also dealing with declining revenues.”
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Clark Howard, Georgia Power, and the ‘C’ word
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week, in a brief and local cutaway, WSB consumer specialist Clark Howard went ballistic on a bill to permit Georgia Power to charge ratepayers upfront for the cost of financing two new nuclear units not scheduled to come online until 2017.
A Senate vote on S.B. 31 could come as early as Monday.
On the broadcast, while Howard twice called the utility an upstanding corporate citizen, Howard noted the influence being brought to bear on behalf of the utility, and dropped the biggest, baddest “C” word in politics.
“It’s one of those times, one of those symbols, where the actual, real effects of corruption are borne by you and me, not indirectly, but immediately and directly,” the radio host said.
In political terms, the original broadcast had a small, insignificant audience. But the Internet gives everyone a permanent shelf life, and that four-minute Howard spot is now breezing around the state Capitol via YouTube and an e-mailed mp3 file, giving utility lobbyists heartburn.
We’ve been slow to post it, simply because the bosses insist on following federal copyright law. Howard had to give his permission — and now he has. (Hat tip to Jason Pye for making the YouTube clip.)
“Georgia Power went berserk,” Howard said. He’s got an off-air sit-down with them next week, to hear out the utility. The above spiel was impromptu, Howard said.
And there are some inaccuracies.
For instance, Howard, 53, says he’ll never use a kilowatt hour from the plants in his lifetime. The plants are scheduled to fire up in 2017. We wish him a longer stay here than that.
Howard also says that average Joes will be required to shoulder the entire load. Not quite true.
But a report by the staff of the Public Service Commission said the load is, in fact, skewed:
Limiting the allocation of financing costs to rates designed to recover embedded capacity costs means that approximately 37.7% of all kWh sold and 20.9% of base revenues are exempt from the allocation. Costs that could have been allocated to certain large industrial and commercial customers, would have to be allocated to remaining customers, thus increasing their rates even more.
Georgia Power has challenged that assessment in this document. Christy Heiser, a spokeswoman for the utility, expressed “surprise” at Howard’s opposition. One of her points: S.B. 31 would “help preserve the company’s credit ratings, which will save literally hundreds of millions of dollars for consumers.”
Complicated issues like this often turn on simplified, even simplistic representations. And given Howard’s standing as a trusted voice for consumers, his digitally preserved remarks are likely to become an important factor at the state Capitol next week.
We offer a partial transcript of Howard’s remarks on the jump, along with Georgia Power’s response.
Photo credit: Joey Ivansco/AJC
From Jan. 29 broadcast of “The Clark Howard Show” on WSB Radio (750AM):
”There’s something that a good corporate citizen, Georgia Power, is doing right now that I think just absolutely stinks.
“They have 70 lobbyists — 70 — at the Georgia State Capitol. Seventy. And they are down there, working the halls like you can’t believe, trying to pick your and my pocket in a way that is absolutely disgusting.
“Georgia Power has an initiative to build new nuclear capacity in Georgia. They do not want to shoulder the financial risk of it upfront. They want the Legislature to put the risk on you and me upfront, for power that you and I would not benefit from for — well, gosh, I’m 53. If I live a normal lifespan, I might not get a single kilowatt from it, but I’ll have to pay for it the rest of my life.
“And what’s worse, the big commercial users of power in Georgia were opposed to Georgia Power getting this plant pre-funded by the ratepayers. And so Georgia Power didn’t think they could get the bill through as result, so they then exempted the big industrial and commercial users like shopping centers retailers factories and all that, so 100 percent of the cost of building this plant now gets passed on to you and me — upfront.
“And even worse, the way the bill is structured, in the Legislature, the greater Georgia Power’s cost overruns are on the new nuke plant, the more profit they end up making from charging us money up front. In other words, we take all the risk. Georgia Power gets full reward for not being cost-efficient in building the plant. Don’t check your hearing. That’s what’s going on….
“It’s one of those times, one of those symbols, where the actual, real effects of corruption are borne by you and me, not indirectly, but immediately and directly.”
Georgia Power’s response on Feb. 6.
Georgia Power is surprised that Clark Howard opposes a bill that will:
— Provide Georgia Power customers the same benefits of reduced interest expenses that customers of other utilities* in the Southeast and in Georgia can receive.
— Reduce total increases required to recover the cost of the plant from 12 percent to 9 percent.
— Help preserve the company’s credit ratings, which will save literally hundreds of millions of dollars for consumers.
— Help put the plant in rates in a way that does not cause “rate shock” - by phasing in the cost over seven years versus putting all of the cost in two years.
— Reduce financing costs by $300 million, directly benefiting consumers.
— Reduce the in-service cost of the plant by nearly $2 billion, which will save money for customers over the remaining life of the plant.
*Other utilities in Georgia have the ability to recover financing costs during construction - and have done so previously. Additionally, other states around Georgia have passed legislation that allows recovery of financing costs during construction, particularly utilities that are considering new nuclear power plant projects. States that have passed legislation include Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana, Virginia, and Mississippi.
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Oxendine chides Cagle on Sunday sales, but there’s this Gwinnett County stadium bill…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine this morning announced his opposition to another attempt in the state Legislature to permit Sunday sales of beer and wine.
“Republicans are supposed to be the party of family values. Where is the value in selling alcohol on the Lord’s Day?” asked the 2010 candidate for governor.
Oxendine took a shot at Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who has said he won’t stop S.B. 16, which would permit individual communities to vote on the matter, from reaching the Senate floor for a vote.
“I share the disappointment of many in the faith movement in Georgia that certain elected officials have moved away from the position they promised to support during their campaigns once they were in office,” Oxendine said.
“Unlike certain elected officials, I will keep my promise on this important issue of safety and faith.”
Last year, this same issue was tied to a Gwinnett County effort to permit the new minor league Braves stadium to sell beer and such on the Christian Sabbath. The pairing presented an uncomfortable ethical dilemma for many Republican lawmakers, torn between business interests and conservative Christians.
What most people don’t know is that the same Gwinnett County bill is back again, reportedly for housekeeping issues. Oxendine is from Gwinnett County. It’s his geographic political base.
What is his position on H.B. 104?
Said Oxendine:
“I strongly support the ability to sell alcoholic beverages at the Gwinnett Braves stadium. As for the details of H.B. 104, it has been suggested by some that there might exist the possibility for unintended consequences. It is my hope that the Legislature will, in its wisdom, seek to avoid any unintended consequences that are not the intent of the authors.”
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Isakson on stimulus: ‘I didn’t trade my vote’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Even though the Senate unanimously approved his $15,000 tax credit for homebuyers, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson said he will wait until he sees the final bill before deciding whether to vote for it.
“I didn’t trade my vote for the amendment,” he told my AJC colleague Thomas Oliver this afternoon.
Republicans led by Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, considered a moderate, are attempting to pare down the House-passed stimulus bill. She has said her aim is $700 billion or less, well below the $819 billion House version — and even further below the $900 billion now in a Senate version pumped up with amendments. Now, including Isakson’s.
The Georgia senator said Collins is talking about eliminating the spending provisions that have little to do with job creation, like the millions for smoking cessation programs and community swimming pools.
Isakson said he felt his amendment would make the final cut. Collins, the one leading the effort to slash the stimulus package, voted for it, he said.
Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images
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Learning from the Taliban
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s worth noting that President Obama isn’t the only one who screwed up this week.
The Hotline, a subscription news service, this morning posted an interview with U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, who said House Republicans might have to adopt Taliban-style insurgency tactics to cope with Speaker Nancy Pelosi:
“Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban,” Sessions said during a meeting yesterday with Hotline editors. “And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person’s entire processes.
And these Taliban — I’m not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. No, that’s not what we’re saying. I’m saying an example of how you go about [sic] is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with.”
He continues:
“If they do not give us those options or opportunities then we will then become insurgency of a nature to where we do those things that are necessary to making sure the American public knows what we think the correct answer is.”
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Scott on the governor’s race: Too much GOP coziness with the people who write the checks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last month, state Rep. Austin Scott of Tifton, who has spent 14 years in the Legislature but is not yet 40, told his Republican colleagues that he intended to join the 2010 contest for governor.
Scott becomes the fourth Republican elected official to announce. And the fifth GOP candidate, if you count states’ rightist Ray McBerry.
In an interview, Scott described a campaign that would emphasize morality and management style. His description: “Good ethical-based government that we hope will get rid of some of the cynicism that’s out there.”
Scott was the only Republican to join Gov. Roy Barnes’ effort to remove the ’56 state flag and its Confederate battle emblem. He supported Sonny Perdue and his request for a tobacco tax increase during the new governor’s first session.
“People will truly see that I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,” he said. “It’s not going to be politics as usual.”
Given Scott’s past record, it’s a safe bet that, while he may remain deficient in fund-raising, he injects a great deal of unpredictability into the race.
Among his basic points:
— Scott intends to fund his campaign with contributions of “$100 from 100 people in the state’s 159 counties.”
— He also intends to come out against monied interests.
“”We will not appoint anybody to the Board of Regents who contributes more than $1,000 to our campaign,” he said. “This perception that these board seats are bought and paid for before a candidate ever takes office is something that we as Republicans can’t afford to have as an issue in the November race.”
Have Republicans cozied up too closely to the people who fund their campaigns? “Yes, I think we have. I think both at the national [and state] level. That would be a fair criticism. I think that would be a fair criticism of both parties,” Scott said.
As chairman of the House governmental affairs committee, Scott is part of the leadership. But he admits he is not a member of House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s “inner circle.”
Said Scott:
“He has not given me a commitment. But I have not asked him for a commitment, either. I like Glenn. He’s a friend of mine. I want, and I need, the House leadership’s and our members’ support. I need Glenn, I need Jerry [Keen], I need Mark [Burkhalter]. And I need the other 104 members in the House.”
On the same day that Scott announced his decision to Republican caucus members, he dropped a bill to put a $10 tag fee on all vehicles, to fund a statewide trauma care network.
The question was obvious. “How is it that a Republican running for governor drops a tax increase?” he asked himself. “I don’t have any shame about my belief that the trauma care system needs to be funded. The $10 car tag [fee] to me makes the most sense. So much of the cost of the trauma network comes from automobile accidents.
“I believe in limited government, not no government. And I do believe there are certain things that people expect out of their government. One of them is access to the health care they need in the event of an accident,” Scott said.
On the other hand, Scott said he’s leaning against a House proposal for a statewide sales tax for transportation needs. He fears it would burden retailers already under siege from untaxed Internet sales.
If the state’s transportation agencies can get their act together, and voters agree, he’d prefer to see an increase in the gasoline tax. “It’s more of a user fee and encourages people to buy more efficient vehicles,” Scott said.
The Tifton legislator also said he intends to emphasize a shift in management style, presumably away from the current governor.
“It’s a big state. I am going to surround myself with people who I have enough respect for to listen to when they tell me I’m wrong. And who have enough respect for me to tell me when I’m wrong,” he said.
“If someone thinks I’m always right, they’re not going to be on our leadership team.”
Photo credit: Ben Gray/AJC
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Senate folds Isakson’s tax break for homebuyers into stimulus package
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Associated Press just filed this:
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Wednesday night to give a tax break of up to $15,000 to homebuyers in hopes of revitalizing the housing industry, a victory for Republicans eager to leave their mark on a mammoth economic stimulus bill at the heart of President Barack Obama’s recovery plan.
The tax break was adopted without dissent, and came on a day in which Obama pushed back pointedly against Republican critics of the legislation even as he reached across party lines to consider scaling back spending.
“Let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the essential,” Obama said as Senate Republicans stepped up their criticism of the bill’s spending and pressed for additional tax cuts and relief for homeowners. He warned that failure to act quickly “will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession.”
Democratic leaders have pledged to have legislation ready for Obama’s signature by the end of next week, and they concede privately they will have to accept some spending reductions along the way.
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who advanced the homebuyers tax break, said it was intended to help revive the housing industry, which has virtually collapsed in the wake of a credit crisis that began last fall.
The proposal would allow a tax credit of 10 percent of the value of new or existing residences, up to a $15,000 limit. Current law provides for a $7,500 tax break for the purchase of new homes only.
Isakson’s office said the proposal would cost the government an estimated $19 billion.
It’s not clear how permanent this union is. The AP report says the Isakson’s proposal may be changed or even deleted as the stimulus measure makes its way through Congress over the next 10 days or so.
A press release from the Georgia senator’s office on Wednesday evening included this final line:
“Isakson has not made a decision regarding his vote on the overall economic stimulus legislation.”
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Georgia Power bill cruises past Senate committee
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Senate committee just gave 8-2 approval to a Georgia Power bill that would permit the utility to charge ratepayers for the cost of financing two new nuclear units for seven years before they go on-line in 2017.
The measure is the most heavily lobbied of the session and lobbyists for and against packed the room.
A Senate floor vote won’t come before Monday.
While in the end passage was assured, signs of nervousness among Senate Republicans were clear.
Bart Gobeil, chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, monitored the 90-minute committee hearing.
Senate Rules Chairman Don Balfour, who controls the flow of legislation in that chamber, is the bill’s primary sponsor. He implored his colleagues to approve the committee substitute to keep up with economic development challenges posed by neighboring states.
Revisions included assurances that the Public Service Commission could adjust the portion of the nuclear plant tariff on the elderly and the poor. But no one was sure how many people might be covered by the new language.
Georgia Power officials denied that any favors had been cut to large industrial users and maintained that most of their customers would pay proportionately the same rate, though a PSC staff report had indicated otherwise.
Eric Johnson of Savannah, a 2010 candidate for lieutenant governor, made the motion for passage. He sat next to David Shafer of Duluth, also a GOP candidate for the position — who by virtue of his position as chairman of the Senate regulated industries committee did not participate in the vote.
The bill has the strong support of the lieutenant governor, but some of the toughest questions posed Georgia Power officials came from Tommie Williams of Lyons, the Senate president pro tem and the ranking member of the chamber.
Williams pointed out what he considered complicated and fuzzy language in the legislation, and that the utility was likely to win federally guaranteed loans for the project, at extremely favorable rates. The benefit of those low interest rates would be passed on to consumers after several years, Williams noted — after the utility enjoyed a substantial “float.”
Williams supported a substitute version authored by Democrat Doug Stoner of Smyrna, who complained about the rush-order placed on the legislation — and confusing language in the bill.
“I’m not saying it’s doubletalk, but it seems that way to me,” Stoner said.
Williams eventually voted for Balfour’s measure — but his questioning indicated some resistance to the bill within the Senate GOP caucus. Democrats Stoner and Gloria Butler of Stone Mountain cast the only dissenting votes.
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Mag-lev must be served straight, no chaser
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Senate Transportation Committee this afternoon took up a resolution in support of a high-speed, mag-lev train between Atlanta and Chattanooga. S.R. 117 dubs the line “the Plane Train.”
During discussion, the irascible John Douglas of (R-Social Circle), advocate of a still-unbuilt commuter rail line headed south, wondered out loud why Atlanta would ever send a new train to the Tennessee border.
“They won’t even give us a drink of water,” he said.
After the transportation committee passed S.R. 117, chairman Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), the sponsor of the measure, made sure that reporters understood that trains and disputes over access to the Tennessee River don’t mix.
“That’s not part of this,” Mullis said.
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Hard times in the newspaper biz just touched the ‘12 presidential race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The New York Times political blog, The Caucus, has this:
David Yepsen, the long-time chief political columnist for the Des Moines Register, is taking a job as director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute in Southern Illinois. His decision to leave his perch comes at a time when the Gannett Company, which owns the Register, has been forcing reporters to take unpaid furloughs, as it, like other newspapers, struggle to adjust to an economic crisis.
Every fourth year, when Iowa becomes the most important state in the union, Yepsen became most important journalist in the country, tracking down presidential wannabes through cornfields and coffee shops.
The NYT added this:
There was a reason that that Hillary Rodham Clinton, when she was running for president, made a point of having dinner with Mr. Yepsen at a Des Moines restaurant at a time when he was writing columns that - presciently - questioned whether she understood the politics of the state.
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Twittering the session away
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now, some of you Twitter, and some of you don’t.
The idea is to send personal thoughts to a group of friends or associates in short, 140-character bursts. Barack Obama converted it into a powerful campaign tool.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle has just started Twittering. According to his last three posts, covering some 20 hours, he’s very much into recruiting day.
This last one was from 10 minutes ago, with the state Senate about to convene, and a previous reference to Tech:
Back to work. Counting on my fellow football fans throughout GA to keep me up to date today. Looking forward to seeing UGA’s results too.
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On Gov. Sonny Perdue and hometown curiosity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Travis Fain has this up on Lucid Idiocy, the Macon Telegraph’s political blog:
A bunch of folks from Gov. Sonny Perdue’s home of Houston County were in Atlanta [Tuesday] for a luncheon.
I spoke to several of them, and no matter how many questions there are this year about state government, there’s one question everyone wants an answer to.
What did Gov. Sonny Perdue spend that $21 million loan on?
I used to work in Houston County, covering government there. And when Alan Judd at the AJC broke the story on Gov. Perdue’s loan I shook a lot of the trees I knew of down there.
And no one knows anything. But they all want to know. And they want to know how he managed to get the loan on significantly more generous terms than they could get for themselves. And these are his friends.
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Sadie Fields on stimulus plan: No how, no way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson made something of a local splash, lobbying for an expansion of tax credits for home purchases as part of President Obama’s stimulus package.
Isakson didn’t commit to it, but he held out the possibility of supporting it. He has terms that need to be met — the first being the home purchase credit, to start rebuilding the nation’s housing industry.
But last night, Sadie Fields of the influential Georgia Christian Alliance sent a message to followers, basically declaring that no terms would be acceptable:
Please contact Senators Isakson and Chambliss and ask them to vote against any version of this bill. Conservative principles do not change based on the language of a bill. What Bush did - and Obama is trying to expand upon - is nothing less than a government out of control - taking over the economy - then it is Katy bar the door.
“Once the government controls the economic well-being of the people the will to resist other government controls wanes. To whatever extent the state controls our economy ultimately directs every other aspect of our lives as well.”
It’s not an easy time to be a Republican.
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A bill ‘relating to the distribution of unclaimed cadavers’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of the bulletin boards in the state Capitol announced a ghoulish topic on Tuesday.
The Senate Public Safety Committee would meet to discuss a bill “relating to the distribution of unclaimed cadavers.”
First thought: This fight between state Sens. Eric Johnson and David Shafer to become the next lieutenant governor has turned into a gory, 3-D date movie.
Second thought: We had zombie legislators long, long before we had zombie banks.
But no.
Evidently, the funereal laws of Georgia will not allow the average Joe to keep spare — let’s say discarded — body parts. For most people, this is not an inconvenience. Dr. Frankenstein aside, they have all they need, even if such appendages are wrinkled, creaky or pocked like cottage cheese.
But down in Columbus, two organizations train dogs to sniff out the corpses of those killed in disasters. Two trainers asked Sen. Seth Harp (R-Midland) — hasn’t he been in the news enough lately? — to submit S.B. 38.
“You have to have an actual human body part to train the dog. Their noses are very, very sensitive. And having a human body part that is decaying, that gives off the smell — that’s how they train the dogs. Unless you do that, it doesn’t work. There’s no substitute,” Harp said.
S.B. 38 would permit certified groups to possess body parts and, presumably, hide them places far away from you and me. It was given the go-ahead by the Senate Public Safety Committee.
Photo credit: Richard Watkins/AJC
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Because real life isn’t like talk radio
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Every now and then, the state Capitol reaches out to remind you that life is not talk radio.
You are not allowed to speak your peace and walk away, or cut off reply with the press of a button. In fact, lawmakers are required — for the most part — to face down those colleagues they criticize and who criticize them.
The elaborate decorum of the Legislature, often stilting and frustrating, was invented, very practically, to avoid the name-calling that leads to fistfights, duels and bloodshed.
This morning, Robert Brown (D-Macon), the Senate minority leader and an African-American, took the well in defense of Seth Harp (R-Midland), a white senator who has introduced legislation urging the Board of Regents to merge black and predominantly white universities in Savannah and Albany.
Harp, who represents the 29th District, has said his only motive is economic. But clearly Harp has had other impulses ascribed to him.
Brown said:
“In addressing this issue that has been brought to us, I want us to be very careful not to get into a situation of where we are questioning the motives, the intent, the racial politics of the person who is bringing this — and in this case, specifically the senator from the 29th.
“I know that there has been a lot of discussion about what his motives may be. I also know that a lot of people haven’t even read the resolution. Because a lot of the things that are being attributed to the resolution in fact are not there.
“So I want this to get a fair hearing.”
The minority leader announced that Harp and state Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur), who is also African-American, were putting their heads together to redraft the bill.
This isn’t the first time this has happened. Two years ago, Brown — otherwise known for his hardball tactics on the floor — spoke up for state Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), who had introduced a bill to establish Confederate History Month.
Brown cited Mullis’ budgetary support for such things as the Harriet Tubman Museum in Macon.
That said, the Senate minority leader is no Pollyanna. Only a day earlier, Brown had called out state Sen. Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) — though not by name — on a school voucher bill introduced by the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.
“This is the worst education bill since the 1950s. a similar bill was introduced in the 1950s that was a response to Brown v. Board of Education. It was rejected at that point, and I think we’d do well to reject this one now,” said Brown in an interview on GPB’s “The Lawmakers.”
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A letter before the Daschle fall: ‘Is tax dodging only acceptable for Congress and Cabinet?’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No doubt you’ve heard that former U.S. senator Tom Daschle has withdrawn his name as President Obama’s nominee for secretary of health and human services.
Nancy Killefer quickly followed, politely declining the chance to be the federal government’s first chief performance officer.
All because of tax problems, which almost sunk Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
Now, he’s not claiming cause-and-effect here, but U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) became part of the discussion with a Monday letter to Obama requesting Daschle’s removal from consideration.
Westmoreland passed out copies of the missive to his colleagues. It part, he wrote:
“Leadership follows from example. When do one or two ‘innocent’ tax mistakes become an example to the nation that our tax laws are to be willingly discarded?
“Are we in danger of sending a message that tax avoidance is only acceptable if you are a member of Congress or the cabinet?
In the future, how can your administration decry tax shelters and the numerous other methods people use to avoid paying their taxes if members of your own cabinet are guilty of failing to pay theirs?”
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Gingrich on Limbaugh, Palin and the other woman in a 2012 race for president
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The word from Newt Gingrich, courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor:
— On President Obama’s decision last month to invoke the name of Rush Limbaugh into a conversation with congressional Republicans:
“I can’t imagine the net advantage of the newly elected president of the United States - with 70 percent approval - picking a fight with a guy who will absolutely profit from the fight.”
— On Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin:
John McCain’s running mate in 2008,…could be “very formidable” as a presidential candidate in 2012, Gingrich said. But he stipulated that would be the case only if she “seeks out a group of sophisticated policy advisers” and “spends time developing a series of fairly sophisticated positions.” He noted that “Palin starts in Iowa with a substantial advantage. I think she has a very big base among the fundamentalist wing of the party.”
— Gingrich also said that, should U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison win a 2010 race for governor of Texas, she would become an “instantly formidable” presidential candidate.
Which could be one more reason why Palin just endorsed incumbent Gov. Rick Perry in the GOP primary, according to the Dallas Morning News.
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Bite by bite, state DOT is looking a mite skeletal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To approach the issue as Barbara Walters might, if the state Department of Transportation could be any kind of animal, what would it be?
Probably a cow cooling off in a nice stream down in South America. A cow that feels something fishy taking one bite out of its flank, then another, and another, and another.
In the state Capitol, the piranha-fest continued on Monday.
House Transportation Chairman Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain) introduced his proposal for a statewide sales tax devoted to transportation.
Smith has a laundry list of projects intended to lure supporters, but he also says that all revenue collected under such a tax would be lodged with the State Road and Tollway Authority, not the more-than-slightly-dysfunctional state DOT.
So chances are that Gov. Sonny Perdue, too, when he announces his reorganization of the state’s transitory transit agencies, will award new administrative focus to a refashioned SRTA.
Also Monday, state Sen. Bill Heath (R-Bremen) and other Republicans dropped S.B. 85.
My AJC colleague Mary Lou Pickel gave the measure this description:
Senate Bill 85 would move authority for all state aviation assets from the Department of Transportation to [a] new authority, except for defense aircraft. The authority would have the power to charge for use of state aircraft and dispose of and buy, new aircraft and buy property.
The authority would be dominated by the governor, lieutenant governor, and the House speaker.
Mostly by the governor, it looks. He’ll decide who gets the window seats.
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Plains 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.
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Obama’s economic stimulus package and the Atlanta Rotary Club
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bargaining over a new economic stimulus bill, now in the hands of the U.S. Senate, began in Washington over the weekend.
And continued over lunch at the Atlanta Rotary Club.
The featured speaker was Johnny Isakson, who has made a $15,000 home purchase tax credit as his first requirement for his support — and Democrats do want a bipartisan showing this round.
“There are not any votes to pass the House stimulus. We’re starting over,” Isakson told reporters who cornered him before his speech. “It has some of the House stuff in it, but not much. It’s totally different.”
Georgia’s junior senator said inclusion of his plan in the stimulus — currently there’s only a $7,500 tax credit that applies only to the purchase of homes that have been foreclosed or are in default — would be “a step in the right direction.
“But I haven’t offered that to be leverage in terms of what I’ll do,” Isakson said. “There are other things that need to be changed as well. But no housing tax credit — under no circumstances would I be supporting it.”
Fortunately, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer of New York had said only 24 hours before that he was enthralled with Isakson’s idea. “That’s something that we look favorably upon,” said Schumer in this clip from CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
From the Rotary rostrum, Isakson pronounced himself “delighted” by the mention. But he continued a sales pitch that — if he could control a nagging cough — was to be repeated this evening on the U.S. Senate floor.
“The housing market led us into this. It will lead us out of it,” he said. “One in five houses in America is underwater, meaning more is owed on it than it is worth. One in 10 houses in America is either in foreclosure or in default, possibly becoming a foreclosure. Those are historic numbers.”
Isakson said reviving the housing industry isn’t the only answer. “But it’s the principal foundation,” he said.
Other things the senator wants to see: A change in the mark-to-market accounting for banks as demanded by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and spending only for items likely to benefit the economy.
Here’s a hint to his friends at the state Capitol: He doesn’t want any big increase in Medicaid funding, even though it might plug a very large hole in the Georgia state budget.
Isakson also made his pitch for an independent, bipartisan investigation into the ’08 Crash — and added his own confession:
“We’ve got to have a non-partisan, honest — patently honest — forensic audit of the financial system of the United States of America and those who regulate it. What we are dealing with is in part self-inflicted.
“I’ll be the first to volunteer [to take] some of the blame. In 1999, I voted for the repeal of Glass Steagall and the [Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act].
“I did so because I thought it was the right thing to do. But it allowed an awful lot of vertical integration in financial services. It allowed banks to do things they couldn’t do before, and insurance companies to do things they couldn’t do before. And I think it could have been the precursor of some of the difficulties we have on Wall Street.”
After his speech, a fresh set of eyes wondered at something Isakson said during the Q&A session — about the nasty little fight that sprang up last week over a stretch of Norfolk Southern rail line that Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin had long had her eye on for the Beltline.
The state Department of Transportation had put a hold on it, saying that — some day — the line might be needed for a larger project.
The Rotary questioner asked Isakson if he planned to get involved. The senator replied that he already had.
“Shirley’s office called me on Thursday. And I called Norfolk Southern, I talked to the National Transportation Board, I talked to the state DOT, and said, ‘Look, a U.S. senator should not pick up the phone and tell you want to do. However…..”
A meeting of all parties has been scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Fresh Eyes noted how strange it was, to call upon a U.S. senator to intervene in a backyard squabble. But it’s not, not really.
In some states, this type of negotiation might indeed occur at the gubernatorial level, or elsewhere. But in Georgia, and especially in metro Atlanta, Isakson has always served as the interlocutor for Democrats trying to get into Republican heads, and vice versa.
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More rumor-killing, this time in the 2010 governor’s race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Not a few Republican web sites have passed on rumors that the 2010 field for governor was not yet complete, and that House Speaker pro tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Johns Creek) was ready to jump in.
The story was particularly intriguing because Burkhalter and Secretary of State Karen Handel, who is already in the GOP primary race, share north Fulton County roots.
Alas, Burkhalter remains on the sidelines. The speaker pro tem breezed by my AJC colleague James Salzer in the Capitol this morning.
“I’m not running for governor,” he said.
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Papers, please: Handel wants new voters to prove citizenship
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New consumer tip: If you don’t have a notarized copy of your birth certificate handy, get one — and keep it in your bureau drawer.
Secretary of State Karen Handel today announced she would support legislation requiring new voters to provide proof of citizenship.
Current law, said Handel, only requires those registering to vote to “swear or affirm” that they are a U.S. citizen by checking a box on the application.
Under the proposed measure, a driver’s license would do, but so would a passport, birth certificate or tribal registration. Arizona has something similar. It would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2010, just in time for a governor’s race in which Handel intends to participate.
Handel gave no indication of the size of the problem addressed by her solution.
But she heaped praise on the two sponsors of the measure, state Rep. Roger Williams (R-Dalton) and state Sen. Cecil Staton (R-Macon). Staton was the original author of the controversial voter ID law.
“I want to thank Representative Williams and Senator Staton for working with me on this important issue and for sponsoring this common sense measure. This law will prevent non-citizens from registering to vote and ultimately voting in Georgia’s elections,” Handel said.
This should make for interesting conversation in the Senate, which is ruled by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle. Who is also running in the Republican primary for governor.
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Michael Steele’s strongest endorsement yet, in a backhanded fashion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It came after his election, but the new chairman of the Republican National Committee has picked up the most important endorsement of his campaign.
It comes from the infamous David Duke of Louisiana, the former grand wizard who embarrassed the GOP with his 1992 presidential run:
The Republican Party leadership in its latest act of self-immolation appointed, Michael Steele, a radical Black racist as the leader of the Party.
Steele is a passionate supporter of affirmative action programs that racially discriminate against tens of millions of White Americans.
Photo credit: Associated Press
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Yes, it’ll pass the Senate, but afterwards TSPLOST could be headed for backburner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Senate President pro tem Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) and Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) just finished meeting with reporters for a Monday morning briefing.
One of the most important nuggets: The TSPLOST initiative that will be passed by the Senate this week could thereafter be headed for the backburner.
S.R. 44 and S.B. 39 are to come up for a vote on Tuesday. The Senate measure would permit counties to band together to levy a one-cent sales tax aimed at local traffic congestion.
In a press release, sponsor Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) called his proposal “the most sweeping form of transportation legislation in Georgia history.”
But Williams said two things that one couldn’t help take into account. First, the Senate leader said the governor’s pending legislation to rearrange the state’s alphabet soup of transportation agencies “will probably dwarf the funding issue.”
Secondly, House Transportation Chairman Vance Smith will unveil another approached to increased funding today, this one based on a statewide sales tax. Fitting, since this is Groundhog Day, and this is exactly where we were last year.
But Williams said this about cutting a deal with House Republicans on the transportation sales tax: “We’d like to, but it’s not our focus.”
Piped up Rogers, the majority leader:
“It’s a 2010 ballot issue. While we would love to pass it out this session so we could go around the state and explain what’s in the measure, we also recognize that we’re not under any hard deadline until the next session.
“We would rather get the measure right before we go to the ballot.”
Shhh. Now, be quiet. If you listen closely, uou can hear metro Atlanta’s business community stewing.
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River of billions could change flow of power
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When it comes to the $819 billion economic stimulus package working its way through Congress, Georgia Republicans find themselves in an awkward position.
Their formal representatives in Washington, most particularly in the U.S. House, have washed their hands of such spending.
It is a matter of philosophy that Republican leaders in the state Capitol are obliged to follow, even as they acknowledge that the money President Obama intends to send Georgia’s way would ease a serious budget crisis.
One state away, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen declared the stimulus package would “substantially” mitigate his state’s need to wield the cleaver. As a Democrat, he is allowed to say such things.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is a Republican, and wants to replace Gov. Sonny Perdue after 2010. “There are no Santa Clauses for grown folks,” Cagle said. “The reality is, Georgia does not need to be dependent upon the federal government for filling our budget deficit.”
That said, if Cagle finds a few presents under his tree, he will not give them back, acknowledging the “huge bump” that could come from an increase in federal Medicaid spending.
Yet for Republicans in Georgia, the stimulus package represents more than a mild case of ideological dissonance. Obama’s river of billions could significantly enhance Democratic clout in the Capitol, and diminish that of our GOP governor.
This week, House Democrats intend to press Speaker Glenn Richardson to stretch out the current session of the Legislature out, to give federal stimulus dollars a chance to reach the state.
“We’re supposed to get with the Speaker and talk about slowing it down,” said House Minority Leader Dubose Porter of Dublin, another likely candidate for governor.
State Rep. Calvin Smyre of Columbus, the House caucus chairman, is suggesting that Perdue call a bipartisan “summit” to determine where increased federal spending might overlap with holes in the state budget — and help avoid indirect property tax increases recommended by the governor, as well as fee increases for hospitals and health insurers.
Whether GOP leaders will entertain either invitation isn’t the point. Democrats are declaring that they have a better sense of where and when stimulus cash will flow.
In Washington, above any other Democrat from Georgia, U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop has become the go-to guy — because of his ties to Obama and his seat on the House Appropriations Committee.
When the GOP-dominated state transportation board makes its visit to Washington next week, to see what goodies might be available, it will make a show of meeting with the entire Georgia congressional delegation.
But the sessions with Bishop — and Democratic colleagues Hank Johnson, John Lewis and David Scott — will be the ones that count.
Bishop is among those working hard to make sure that a large chunk of the stimulus money — perhaps as much as half — is kept out of the hands of certain Republican governors.
Democrats like Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis want no middle-man.
“There was a concern. How do we make sure that the stimulus money gets to our constituents and is not peeled off by the governors of another party for their own agenda?” Bishop said. “We’re concerned that the distribution be done fairly and in places where there’s the greatest need.”
So local governments and school boards could have direct access to much of the federal money, at times competing with state governments.
Democrats in Washington have even dangled serious temptation in front of Georgia’s Republican-controlled Legislature, at Perdue’s expense.
Bishop said the stimulus version passed by the U.S. House has a provision that would permit state lawmakers to independently seek some of the federal largess, if a governor decides he doesn’t want what Santa Claus offers.
In Georgia’s case, that could weaken one of the governor’s crucial powers. Right now, he’s the only one who can determine how much money will flow into state coffers — and thus how much can be spent.
