PolitiFact Georgia and the AJC Truth-O-Meter investigated a variety of claims by and about Georgia’s leaders last week.
We ran the numbers on how many jobs the Georgia ports provide directly to the state. We reviewed U.S. Rep. John Barrow’s record on the Affordable Care Act known as “Obamacare.” And we went back in time to determine how a former governor fared on his education priorities and spending.
We also checked out a claim by the state Chamber of Commerce leader, who lobbied for an overhaul of Georgia’s tort law with a questionable claim about the state’s legal climate.
Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below, and full versions can be found at: www.politifact.com/georgia/.
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U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson: “The port provides more than 297,000 jobs directly to the state of Georgia.”
Before President Barack Obama released the details of his budget, Isakson made his case for why more federal funding is necessary for the deepening of the Port of Savannah
Isakson used an April 2010 report on Georgia’s ports that was completed by the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth. The report says there were 295,422 full- and part-time jobs in Georgia supported by the ports during the state’s fiscal year 2009, which began July 1, 2008, and ended June 30, 2009.
But Isakson didn’t mention other ports in his comments, and some of the jobs produced are attributable to the Port of Brunswick and other private ports along the Georgia coast.
The senator would have been more accurate if he had said “port industry” or simply said “ports.” Isakson underestimated the jobs impact in his argument. His estimate was based on a 2010 report, although the most recent report estimated the total at 352,000 jobs.
We rated Isakson’s claim Mostly True.
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Chris Clark: In just six years, Georgia has dropped from first in the nation for a business-friendly legal climate to 24th.
Clark, president of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, made this claim last month during a meeting with business leaders at Berry College.
Clark was lobbying for additional measures to ensure businesses get a fair shake in Georgia courtrooms. Implementing those would help improve Georgia’s economy, he said.
Clark’s intentions were good, but the claim he made was off base, and he admitted it. U.S. Chamber of Commerce research on the lawsuit climate in states showed that Georgia ranked no higher than 24th in the nation in any year since 2002.
Georgia was most recently ranked 24th, as Clark said. But it has been nowhere near first, based on the study he used for his claim.
Clark was right about the most recent ranking, but he was way off about Georgia previously being first.
We rated Clark’s claim Mostly False.
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Former Gov. Zell Miller: Then-Gov. Carl Sanders put 56 percent of the state budget into education, a figure that has not been achieved since.
Miller, a former governor-turned-U.S.senator from far North Georgia, made this claim in a newspaper article about the Georgia Legislature’s class of 1963. That year saw the state’s first black senator and the beginning of then-Gov. Carl Sanders’ term.
Historical accounts and actual state education and budget data confirmed Sanders’ allocation levels. The data also showed a few years since Sanders was in office when the levels have reached that amount, but those years included funding — such as lottery and tobacco settlement dollars — that were not available to Sanders.
It is important to note that over the past 50 years, methods for funding education in the state, the available revenue streams and the definition of what constitutes education have changed numerous times. Still, data showed that education has always accounted for more than half of the budget in each of those years.
We rated Miller’s claim Mostly True.
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National Republican Senatorial Committee: U.S. Rep. John Barrow of Georgia has helped support the implementation of “Obamacare.”
The NRSC drew Barrow, an Augusta Democrat, into the health care fray along with other congressional Democrats who voted against repeal of the costly plan, the group said in a news release last month.
An argument can be made that Barrow’s votes in January 2011 and July 2012 against repeal of “Obamacare” are tantamount to indirect support of its implementation. In other words, the NRSC said, Barrow owns it.
Barrow, however, voted against the original Obamacare legislation in 2010 and wants to repeal various parts of the law, such as the individual mandate requiring all Americans to have health insurance. The GOP cherry-picked a few votes to stretch a point here on a lawmaker it wants to defeat.
We rated the NRSC’s claim Mostly False.
