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Thursday, November 22, 2007
Water guzzlers; the lottery scheme
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:
• Progressive Corp. of Mayfield, Ohio, starts paying up to $500 if a customer’s dog or cat dies in a car accident. It’s “free” in that the cost of it is built into the existing rate structure. Set the timer. Start the clock. Within five years, some Democrat will insist that it be an entitlement for all, including goldfish and guppies, subsidized by a tax on “the rich.” If it can be imagined, it can be entitled.
• The only way to achieve the goal of keeping “affordable” housing in gentrifying intown neighborhoods is for government to buy them at market rates, subsidize them down to “affordable” levels and obligate buyers to sell them back at a predetermined price, irrespective of market prices. Government then can repeat the process. Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall wants to make certain that houses in the Old Fourth Ward stay “affordable.” Such programs usually mean bond lawyers get rich, some well-connected political friend gets a cheap house to sell for windfall profits — and taxpayers get whacked.
• DeKalb school officials are right to question creation of tax allocation districts that could cost the system — and other taxpayers — $126 million. For every child a new TAD brings into DeKalb, some taxpayer elsewhere in the county has to foot the bill. The study didn’t include the largest of the proposed districts, the 685-acre Sembler project at North Druid Hills and Briarcliff. That one would add 3,700 condos, apartments and townhomes.
• The only capital punishment many Georgians will support is the public execution of some homeowner or businessman who takes an “unfair” share of water or who runs power plants that “guzzle water.” Hate crimes are said to be up 8 percent. Wonder when using too much water will become a hate crime.
• Surely members of the Georgia General Assembly do not begrudge the state’s gambling enterprise, its tax-by-ticket lottery scheme for fleecing the poor and ignorant, from increasing the payout to “winners” from the 45 percent planned when the lottery was created to 62 percent last year.
Good gawd, man, the poor paid a lottery tax of $853 million last year, up from $822 million the year before to subsidize college for the middle class. If they ever learn that the lottery’s a real loser’s game, they could go back to playing the bug on the streets, and the middle class would have to actually start saving again for their kid’s tuition.
• Right-winger Phil Kent, author of “The Dark Side of Liberalism” and “Foundations of Betrayal,” follows in the footsteps of conservative author and activist David Horowitz in speaking to campus Republicans at Emory next Thursday. Horowitz was hooted off the stage last month. School bigwigs assure Kent he’ll be in loving arms.
• It’s not courage for 250 physicians and ministers to call on “community and state leaders” to save Grady and to “restore it to financial health.” Courage would be proposing a remedy that imposes some burden on the pleaders. Issuing a call for one government to bail out another is elevator music.
• Where’s my tax cut? If you can’t get it in Georgia from the party of smaller government, it’s certainly not coming from Congress. Here’s the picture from Congress, as tabulated by the Washington-based Heritage Foundation:
So far this year, Congress has “enacted $98 billion in tax increases while also passing a budget resolution that assumes approximately $2.7 trillion in tax increases over the next decade.” And increased entitlement spending by $179 billion over 10 years. And added $300 billion in deficit spending over the coming decade.
• So where’s my tax cut? Georgia’s pegged reserves and unallocated cash, at $1.6 billion as of June 30, is approaching 10 percent of the state’s budget. It’s up $912.8 million over the year, setting the stage for a contentious legislative session. There’s not a liberal do-gooder or interest group from Rabun Gap to Tybee Light that won’t be pounding on the General Assembly for more money. And there’s not a Republican who won’t be stereotyped as Ebenezer Scrooge for not whipping out the checkbook. See Congress. See Grady.
• Jim Wooten is the associate editorial page editor. His column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays.
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Judicial activism? Not this time.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Conservatives often are not of like mind — and on a decision handed down Wednesday by the Georgia Supreme Court, my conservative bretheren and I disagree.
The case involved a registered sex offender, Anthony Mann, who owned a home with is wife in Hampton. When they bought it, there were no child care facilities, schools, churches or other areas where children congregate located within 1,000 feet of the house. Under Georgia law — parts of which the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional Wednesday — offenders cannot live or work within 1,000 feet of those facilities and areas. Mann also owned half interest in a barbecue restaurant in Lovejoy that, at acquision, was not within that distance of prohibited places.
Later, however, two different day care centers were constructed within a thousand feet of his home and his business. Mann was told by his probation officer to move or face arrest. Mann sued.
The decision written by Presiding Justice Carol Hunstein affirmed the provision related to employment, but struck down the provision related to an offender’s home. Offenders would be forced to move repeatedly from property they own to stay in compliance when churches, day care centers or other facilities locate within a thousand feet of them.
It does, as the court found, permit the taking of an offender’s property without just and adequate compensation. The court did not choose to apply that principle to Mann’s business because he had not shown that his income depended on his physical presence there.
The bill’s author, State Rep. Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons), who is majority leader of the Georgia House, took issue with the decision. Said Keen: “The Georgia Supreme Court has superseded both the legislative and executive branches of government, and therefore the will of the people of Georgia. Any opportunity to address this issue will not come until January when the General Assembly reconvenes. In the meantime, convicted felony sex offenders will be allowed to live next door to day care centers, school bus stops, or anywhere else they choose.”
Superseding the will of both the legislative and executive branches is not judicial activism if what they’ve done violates the Constitution. In this instance, much as legislators might want to punish sex offenders, they can’t take their property without due process. Forcing them to abandon their own property because a third party took an action over which the sex offenders have no control or influence — locating within a thousand feet of their homes — is taking. The court’s right on this one.
