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DEL.ICIO.USPerdue will remake government
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My conservative credentials are in danger of being revoked after I declared publicly last week before the Rotary Club of Marietta that, by one definition, the three greatest governors of my lifetime are Ellis Arnall, Jimmy Carter and Roy Barnes.
In this narrow sense: All exhausted their political capital to bring about bold change in government as they found it —rendering themselves unelectable.
Arnall, governor from 1943-47, is easily the best of the lot. As his biographer, Harold P. Henderson, wrote in his chapter of “Georgia Governors in an Age of Change,” Arnall was an ambitious reformer. Those reforms included a new state constitution, a constitutional Board of Regents, state Board of Education and state Board of Pardons and Paroles. He abolished the poll tax, lowered the voting age to 18, created the Georgia Ports Authority, instituted a state merit system and liquidated state debt without raising taxes.
Carter’s accomplishments are less sweeping, but his reorganization of state government in an effort to make it more coherent and efficient was a high-risk, high-cost effort that consumed all of his political capital. Though governors then were limited to one term, it was just as well. He could not have been re-elected.
Barnes, on regional transportation, education and water, thought big — not on most in ways that would appeal to conservatives. But the standard for me for any mayor, county commission chairman, governor or key legislator is this:
What did the leader do to use the power and money available to fix the problems he inherited?
For Arnall, it was creating modern government. For Carter, it was tackling the special-interest protected fiefdoms. For Barnes, it was configuring government regionally.
Comes now Sonny Perdue.
In ways that have the dramatic potential of Georgia’s most ambitious governors, Perdue’s New Georgia Commission promises to revolutionize state government.
What Arnall and Carter did was to look at the Rube Goldberg contraption that state government had become, recognize its inherent unsuitability for the demands to come and retool it. That is Perdue’s New Georgia Commission.
The commission, headed by Joe W. Rogers Jr., the Waffle House CEO, and Robert Hatcher, the Georgia chairman of BB&T bank, is a group of business folks who meet periodically to look at how state government does business. Their recommendations are handed over to veteran department head Lonice Barrett for research and implementation.
It’s not uncommon for governors to appoint commissions to look at government redundancies and inefficiencies, have them write reports and then shelve them. They are typically launched in a down economy and discarded when the good times roll again.
Not so with this one. A couple of examples:
The state’s construction manual, which informs engineers, builders, architects and others how to proceed, hasn’t been updated since 1954. During that time, various contracting agencies wrote their own rules. “Literally, every state agency was running their construction projects a little bit differently,” says Gena Abraham, director of the Georgia Building Authority.
The state builds to the tune of about $1.1 billion a year. She estimates that standardization of procedures will save taxpayers 1-2 percent per year.
Another example, from her domain, is identifying and managing state property. Just as the state had no idea how many cars it owned, it had no precise inventory of its buildings and property or of its leases. State officials thought we owned 12,000 facilities. As of Thursday, 16,000 had been identified. Abraham’s guess is that we’ll end up with 17,000 — all of them compiled and listed for public inspection on a state database (www.realpropropertiesgeorgia.org) .
Now it’s tracking down, county by county, every piece of property the state owns.
Leases have been consolidated, too. On Friday, Perdue dedicated a “one-stop shop” of consolidated offices in Douglasville, the first of others to come that take separate leases and combine them into one.
This particular office, combining child support recovery, probation and paroles in one facility, is expected to save $150,000 per year in rental and maintenance fees. Consolidating them statewide is estimated to save up to $875 million over 10 years.
Arnall modernized the structure. Carter modernized the boxes. Perdue is modernizing management.
Dull, yes. But absolutely essential for the future.
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Comments
By JoeRob
July 29, 2006 09:11 AM | Link to this
For once, an article I can respect from Wooten. You didn’t go too far with this Perdue campaign speech, and provided some useful info.
Now if Perdue & Cagle ever met, we would have such a fowl campaign.
By getalife
July 29, 2006 11:02 AM | Link to this
State government is starting to work with issues the federal government will not deal with. Health care, immigration and here in Louisiana, offshore drilling (lots of revenue with this issue.)
I think Sonny’s plan is a good thing. The more oversight the better. Lord knows, Louisiana could use more oversight.
By PastorPrime
July 29, 2006 11:27 AM | Link to this
Wooten sits in his office and thinks he knows state government. I’ve spent the better part of two decades working in state government in Atlanta and have never seen Wooten anywhere that the real work of policy implementation was going on.
Truth be known, Perdue has put in place a bunch of self-important “business” types to decide the shape of state government and who think that holding frequent luncheon meetings is the meaning of hard work.
He has placed in positions of authority people—such as the one you quoted—whose blind ambition would lead them to trample their own mothers to get more power. Not surprising for Perdue. Remember, Sonny was a good ol’ boy democrat who saw his power endangered, so he switched parties to hold on to it.
By rednecks - America's Al Qaeda
July 29, 2006 11:59 AM | Link to this
Greetings, y’all. Back in the ATL. Sigh.
Anyhow, that brilliant bizness man Guvnuh Sonny Perdue is going to change gummint in Georgia? Sort of like how that brilliant bizness exec George Dumbya Bush has changed the federal gummint??
Hold on to your wallets!
By the sweet by and by
July 29, 2006 12:11 PM | Link to this
“Wooten sits in his office….”
Wooten is standing in his office, sir.
And stand he must…For it has devolved upon him alone to carry forward the founding blogger’s intent and print it in the AJC so that this blog, “of the trolls, by the fools, for the polls”, shall not publish from the mirth.
I guess everybody’s a journalist now. Everybody gets their 25 words or less….if only, eh?
By The Short Hairs
July 29, 2006 12:22 PM | Link to this
.
Well, I guess we’ve seen the “end-of-the-beginning” in The Hezbollah Crisis.
I’m worried about the future jokes using the irony that exists about American citizens suing over having to pay for their evacuation from Vacation Lebanon. (Do they still put little umbrellas in the drinks?
The timing post 911 is right here for some new era. Israel is the canary in our mine, our first alert system. They really cant stand the jews I guess, it’s all just too much for them…I think we will learn to live with tactical nuclear exchanges occuring on an irregular basis.
I’m Guessing that Hezbollah’s orders From Iran via Syria were to instigate a high level incident, and fire at will.
The way Hezbollah’s attack evolved implies that they have more than just 10 thousand rockets in place. (WMDs)
It doesn’t make sense that they would co-incidently have an international incident over captured soldiers and have rockets in place ready to go. This is part of a larger scheme that is in play concerning WMDs on Israel.
We’ve got to give the Hezbollah a reason to stand down… That’s right, Hezbollah, fall apart……Walk softly boys…. Por Favor.
There’s 1.4 million Hezbollah in Lebanon. The demographic is young Shia Radical male and his prayer-group/family.
The problem here is that televised Israeli Soldiers are praying and nodding as they lob tank-fire into Lebanon. Allah only knows what the Hezbollah Soldiers are chanting. (“No Rain?”)
This must be the first tactical WMD showdown.
We are now facing a geo-political creature that we created with Cheney-level clown acts and foreign policy blunders that go back decades. Cheney’s been the face of the Military Industrial Complex for twenty five years now.
China is a “one country, two system” type player. They published a magazine here in the USA (1990’s) which constantly chanted about what a cool one-country two-system type superstar they really were. I thought the phrase was peculiar back then, but it’s only with Hezbollah’s sucker punch on Israel that I understand what they meant: 1) The economic face of China is the People’s face. 2) The military face of China is the Communist’s face.
JFK said it best. “Any missile launched from Cuber to the United States will be considered an attack - by Communism on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response”. (sung to the tune of “Ask Not”)
The only vestiges of pure communism playing out in China are it’s complex military ideologies.
The Chinese are learning fast about finance. Wait till they figure out Insurance, and then we are really going to be vulnerable to their ideology.
If there ever was a weakness in this marriage of Communist China and the global economy it’s that without insurance underwriters, nothing can happen at all…..
Why chinese cant play fair with commerce: We bring a fourth witch to fridays; chinese commies bring the bubbling cauldron.
China and Iran have tribal ties that are over 10K years old. Google the Kurds and read all about it.
By Dusty
July 29, 2006 02:45 PM | Link to this
Well, RedNeck the Al-Qaeda,
It is almost Saturday night. BATH TIME. Maybe you could get back with us after that. We’d appreciate it.
Our state is rocking along just fine under Sonny. Wooten has mentioned his good points. Our governor is a winner.
We always hang on to our wallets. Thrifty! You hang on to your tin cup and pencils. Wouldn’t want you to lose your income. But, please drop that phony outdated dialect. Sounds like the Red Green Show. He tries to be funny too.
By John Genins
July 30, 2006 09:11 AM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten: Thanks again for your opinion and article.
I should appreciate your advising the correct URL for what is denominated in this article as: “www.realpropropertiesgeorgia.org”
Thank you, John Genins
By Voter who cares
July 30, 2006 09:17 AM | Link to this
Cynthia McKinney’s new campaign ad
July 29, 2006 Stop Throwing Stones, Hank! From http://campaignwindow.com/talkissues, see the Dekalb Ethics Complaint and the Complaint Update mentioned in Cynthia’s Glass House campaign ad.
Cynthia McKinney Campaign Ad Transcript
Cynthia McKinney for Congress 60-sec. radio “Glass House” #CM-102-60 Draft 5
(FX: glass shattering)
(Music)
(Voice on police radio)
GOT AN APB ON A GUY, HANK JOHNSON, 51 YEARS OLD, LAWYER, CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS. REPORTED TO BE THROWING STONES AT HIS OPPONENT, CYNTHIA MCKINNEY.
(FX: police siren)
(Announcer, dramatic music under)
PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN GLASS HOUSES SHOULDN’T THROW STONES.
AS A COUNTY COMMISSIONER, HANK JOHNSON HAD AN ETHICS COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST HIM FOR ILLEGAL USE OF CAMPAIGN FUNDS. HE HAD A CONFLICT OF INTEREST WHEN HE TOOK MONEY FROM LANDFILL DEVELOPERS AT A TIME WHEN LANDFILL ISSUES WERE BEFORE HIS COMMISSION.
HE HAD SEVERAL LAWSUITS AND GARNISHMENTS FILED AGAINST HIM FOR UNPAID DEBTS.
HE DIDN’T EVEN PAY HIS TAXES, RESULTING IN FEDERAL TAX LIENS AGAINST HIM AND HIS BUSINESS. HE FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY AND WAS SUSPENDED FROM THAT FOR FAILURE TO PAY WHAT HE HAD PROMISED.
ETHICS VIOLATIONS, CONFLICT OF INTEREST, LAWSUITS, TAX LIENS, GARNISHMENTS
(FX: glass shattering)
IT KIND OF SHATTERS YOUR IMAGE OF HANK JOHNSON.
(Rep. McKinney)
THIS IS CYNTHIA MCKINNEY. I’M NOT PERFECT, BUT I’VE WORKED HARD, TOLD YOU THE TRUTH, AND I’M NOT AFRAID TO SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER. PLEASE VOTE FOR ME ON AUGUST 8TH.
(Police officer on bullhorn)
MR. JOHNSON, PLEASE PUT THE STONE DOWN!
(FX: glass shattering)
(Announcer)
PAID FOR BY THE CYNTHIA MCKINNEY FOR CONGRESS CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE.
(FX: several police sirens)
(Rep. McKinney) I’M CYNTHIA MCKINNEY AND I APPROVED THIS MESSAGE.
By Lee
July 30, 2006 09:59 AM | Link to this
Two out of three of the best governors in Georgia were Jimmy Carter and Roy Barnes???
Who’s writing this column - Dave Barry? I kept reading and looking for the punch line, but no, Wooten is serious.
Barnes didn’t get re-elected for two reasons; he p1ssed the teachers off and he changed the state flag. Purdue got elected because of this backlash against Barnes and he promised a vote on the state flag (which, by the way, he manipulated in a typical politician’s manner).
At least Lester Maddox could sit on the handlebars and ride a bicycle backwards. Now that’s something.
By Corey
July 30, 2006 10:44 AM | Link to this
“Barnes didn’t get re-elected for two reasons; he p1ssed the teachers off and he changed the state flag. Purdue got elected because of this backlash against Barnes and he promised a vote on the state flag (which, by the way, he manipulated in a typical politician’s manner).”
Ditto, Lee
By The Short Hairs
July 30, 2006 11:12 AM | Link to this
WWHD?
Hitler would gladly give away all of Israel to Hezbolah for Baghdad. I guess Ransacking Jerusalem is just too much fun for Babylonians to resist. The Kurds have an identical history with the Jews: squatters being herded and driven.
There’s always someone living in the promised land before the Jews show up. The Kurds have always been persectuted for geo-political reasons. The Jews, for religious reasons. There is no Jihad against the Kurds.
Hezbollah’s point: God felt that the Jews were entitled to the promised land even if there were people already there.
This was Jesus’s insight, too, but unfortunately, the reason he was crucified: The ancient claims to a holy land are false, and arbitrary way of worshipping God. God really doesn’t care about the temple/mosque you built one wit.
There is no Jihad against the Kurds. If you blame Hezbollah for the Jihad, then in the aftermath of the Jihad, you have to reconstruct the Jew’s complicity.
The Shia insist that Jesus was and is a Jew. So did the Romans. So assumed the Babylonians. So do the Jews.
Ralph Reed’s Point: The prophesy now is for this Hezbollah Crisis to resolve peacefully by the efforts of one man: antichrist
My message to Ralph: “Now simmer down, now. Simmer….Down…..now. Simmah……Dow….Neh…….LADY!”
By Florine Wilson
July 30, 2006 11:22 AM | Link to this
I ask you, what is Perdue doing to the disabled children of this State? Why don’t you investigate that issue? His office is not complying with Federal guidelines, and we are losing funds because of it. Further, even tho there is an estimated $580 million surplus, why is DCH (Dept. of Community Health) trying to add more paperwork when children have already demonstrated the need for services, OR have set up more stringent eligibility criteria implemented last year, for kids that previously qualified? These kids do not “out grow” their severe disabilities. Due to the increased paperwork, more providers are NOT accepting services for these disabled Children….It is obvious that these children are not on any priority list by the current Governor. Governor Perdue must hate Children not “Perfect” in his eyes. As a voting Republican, I could never vote for anyone with obviously confused priorities. If not for the burdens that these families must deal with day in and day out, and then must worry, every year if they will pass the qualifications for help with the Katie Beckett Program. These qualified children do not get better, but with proper therapy, their lifes can be made easier, with simple things like going to the bathroom. Think about it, Sir. Let’s work on this, for if not for the children of the State in need, what else would be more worth while?
By PA
July 30, 2006 11:28 AM | Link to this
Duh!!! Do you think you are living in Chicago or New York? Your in Georgia man!
By The Way
July 30, 2006 11:39 AM | Link to this
New Show Idea:
Title: “MY THREE GOVERNORS”
Starring, Jim Wooten as himself, and two of the three governors.
They offered me the role of third governor but nobody can share a stage with Jim: He writes over most of your heads. Few of you seem to get Jim’s point on any given blog.
Your comments totally give you away. The way I figure it, the average blogger reads at about a ninth grade level.
To follow Jim you must know he’s interested in the big picture of communication itself: How does zeitgeist form? If you stand back from his words, you can see the relective nuances from which he speaks.
Example: One serial moron didn’t get Jim’s caustic remarks about gay candidates for office. When I tried to point that out, the blogger went medieval on my a*s. Yet the rest of the bloggers cheered this guy. So I stood up and blogged, “This isn’t what happened in Jim’s Blog. You’re being cheated of the real meaning. Have you all got amnesia? Get out of Jim’s Cockadoodie Blog!!!”
(Misery)
By rednecks - America's Al Qaeda
July 30, 2006 11:41 AM | Link to this
Governor Sonny Perdue is a man of principle - that principle being: government of the hillbilly, by the hillbilly, for the hillbilly, will never perish from the State of Georgia.
By Dusty
July 30, 2006 12:42 PM | Link to this
Good grief!! Is rednecks-America’s Al Qaeda writing Cynthia McKinney’s political ads? They both have that certain “quality” about them, i.e. mudslinging.
Oh well, we shall all be uplifted when “The Way” writes his great play full of nuance and nonsense.
Maybe Jim will tell us if he is interested in being governor. Seems to me he’d rather write about the charming antics of our politicians than be one himself.
By the balls
July 30, 2006 02:28 PM | Link to this
That one hurt, sir, and I just think it’s a shame that your mother didn’t raise you to be a nicer girl!
By Dusty
July 30, 2006 04:57 PM | Link to this
Indeed, I had a mother AND a father. I can tell you were left in a basket by the dumpster. My condolences.
By the balls
July 30, 2006 05:46 PM | Link to this
Well I never!
By the sweet by and by
July 30, 2006 05:59 PM | Link to this
This 48 hour suspension of Israeli airstrikes is a cool trick and a diplomatically opportune disinformation coup by Rice. The Israelis had done as much as they could from the air anyway.
Now the Israelis are throwing around different plans for a real face to face w/hezbollah.
However, coming away with sessation of air raids has a poison pill in it. When Hezbollah takes obvious advantage of the cease fire, and some escape or some regroup and resume the rocket attacks, Rice has given Israel CARTE BLANCHE to search and destroy suspected hezbollah hideouts. (read: the rest of the country)
The west will be able to point out that they did everything they could with the cease fire, and thus they can only conclude that Israel must escalate.
If there is an antichrist with a peace plan, uh, about now would be really good timing, sir. (But I kid the host of the hoary netherworld!)
By GLC
August 1, 2006 09:29 AM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten:
The latter part of your column seem to suggest that Sonny should be given an additional four years. Why should he be given eight years to accomplish what it took Arnall, Carter, and Barnes four to do?
An objective examination of Sonny Perdue’s record of service as our Governor shows that his actions have not matched his bold rhetoric and big promises. Further, the record shows that when real leadership was needed, his actions fell short.
Confronted with a dismal performance record, Sonny Perdue, now the candidate for re-election, recently tried to redirect our attention from his poor performance by resurrecting an old proven successful issue (gay marriage) with voters. The State Supreme Court settled the matter by a unanimous vote. What red herring will this venal, hypocritical, and non performing politician try to feed us next?
Had Enough? Vote for a change!