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TODAY'S
ISSUE
Georgia is first tobacco
state to enact public smoking ban
By June Deen
Vice President, Public Affairs
American Lung Association of Georgia
Special to GwinnettForum.com
MAY 20, 2005 -- On May 9, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed
landmark legislation making Georgia the first major tobacco state
in the nation to enact a statewide ban on public smoking. The Smoke-Free
Air Act of Georgia passed by an overwhelming bi-partisan majority
of both houses of the State Legislature.
According to a Zogby poll commissioned by the Atlanta Journal Constitution,
the Smoke Free Air Act is supported by 64 percent of voters.
SB 90, authored by Sen. Don Thomas, Republican of Dalton, and shepherded
through the House by Rep. Stacey Reese, Republican of Gainesville,
bans indoor smoking in publicly accessible buildings, workplaces
with some exceptions and restaurants that serve or employ anyone
under the age of 18 years.
A wide majority of voters and legislators supported the Smoke Free
Air Act. Over 450 organizations, groups and businesses across Georgia
signed resolutions of support for the measure. Editorials from nearly
every daily newspaper across the state called for passage of the
Smoke Free Air Act.
Over 22 of Georgia's local governments, including Gwinnett County,
already moved to make their community healthier and cleaner by passing
local smoke free air laws. Georgia is recognized as America's new
leader in local smoke free laws by the Americans for Nonsmokers'
Rights, passing more local smoke free air ordinances than any other
state in 2004.
Smoke free air policies clear thousands of chemicals from indoor
air, leading to reductions in heart attacks, cancer, and asthma,
previously caused by smoke. Sixty of the 4,000 chemicals in secondhand
smoke are known to cause cancer in humans. The Smoke Free Air Act
will make Georgia a more healthy and pleasant place to work and
live.
Georgia's lawmakers took a step in the right direction by supporting
the Smoke Free Air Act. The Governor did the right thing in signing
the measure. It was an honor to have Senator Don Thomas and Representative
Stacey Reece guiding this Bill.
Gwinnett's Senator Don Balfour is to be commended for his leadership
on the measure. Credit for passage of the Bill goes to the many
organizations, individuals and legislators who worked tirelessly
throughout this process.
Georgia shows great leadership in standing for the health of its
citizens. The Smoke Free Air Act provides a great opportunity to
improve the health of our citizenry, especially our children. Now
we can all breathe a little easier.
ELLIOTT
BRACK
Sandy
Springs status causing Gwinnett areas to think
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com
MAY 20, 2005 -- Many residents of Hamilton Mill, Mountain Park
and Peachtree Corners may be hoping for "self rule" of
creating their own city, after seeing Sandy Springs finally get
a chance to determine if it wants to be a city later on this year.
After eons of lobbying for a chance to vote on the issue, now Sandy
Springs residents get a voice in the matter.
We don't want to sour the Sandy Springs residents on their vote:
however, not everything is positive in such a decision. Sandy Springs
residents may end up paying considerably more in property taxes
should it incorporate. Coupled with what residents say are a low
quality of service from Fulton County, some feel that incorporation
may be worth it. It's another case of at least being part of your
own destiny, proponents feel.
The Sandy Springs effort to change the Georgia Constitution to
eliminate the three-mile distance between cities has given rise
to talk about creation of more cities---no doubt across the state.
Yet one of the driving factors in the Sandy Springs effort was
the feeling that the area was contributing significantly in taxation,
and not getting the quality of county services they needed.
In general, that's not the case in Gwinnett. The county provides
such services as garbage collection, fire and police protection,
water, zoning, etc., and in general, does this at a high quality
of service.
What most residents in unincorporated Gwinnett considering municipal
status want most is to control how tax monies are spent, and zoning
around them. Yet to have your own control of these and other municipal
services, you must tax yourself. All the while, of course, you must
continue to pay for certain county services, including ad valorem
taxes. Yes, when you lived in a "city", you must pay double
taxation, though you opt to do so for many of your own reasons.
It's ironic that with the effort for incorporation into a city,
in about any area of Gwinnett, the way the voting has gone in previous
years would mean that the area would be considered a Republican
area. And in general, Republicans often are opposed to more taxation.
The effort for incorporation, therefore, must get past the urge
by Republicans in those areas, to curtail or eliminate taxes. Should
they vote incorporation, for sure, they will pay more taxes, depending
on how many services they will want their city to pay.
Three more thoughts:
- When Peachtree Corners was originally conceived, it was located
west of the City of Norcross, so that it would be in the county,
and therefore, exempt from city taxes. With office parks like
Technology Park not wanting to be included in the municipal area
because of higher taxes, it could result in few commercial districts
within the boundaries, meaning a lower tax digest for the city.
- Back in the late 60's, Mountain Park considered becoming a city,
only to be thwarted in finding a city by that name already existed
in Fulton County. For some reason, this took the wind out of the
sails, and this municipal-looking area never sough city status.
- One way to identify a city is with a post office. Tucker, for
instance, is a postal address, but is not incorporated as a city.
Could areas seeking a higher level of recognition achieve the
same result by getting a postal designation? It would cost far
less than recurring city taxes.
You might call the period from now until Sandy Springs votes this
fall a "gestation period" for Gwinnett areas considering
incorporation. The results for the Sandy Spring vote could propel
additional consideration all across Georgia of the idea of added
cities.
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McLEMORE'S
WORLD
5/20: More
about filibustering
Another great cartoon by Bill McLemore:
FEEDBACK
5/20: Doesn't
see voice of reason in main-line media
Editor, the Forum:
Thank you, Mr. Greene, for your voice of reason (Commentary,
5/17). Many of us agree with your sentiments but the media
is not interested in pursuing these points of view.
-- Margaret Thurman, Lawrenceville
5/20: Says writer failed
to mention historic cultivation
Editor, the Forum:
Ralph Greene makes good sense when he talks about extremists mixing
politics and religion. The Pat Robertsons and Jerry Falwells have
every right as Americans to express their political opinion and
encourage others to hold the same point of view. Anything beyond
that crosses the line.
We are fortunate that the majority of American voters see through
the extremists on most views.
What is truly unfortunate is that Ralph Greene neglected to mention
the Democrats' historic co-opting of church pulpits to insure the
voters of their traditional voting blocs. I find that practice to
be just as outrageous as the Republican extremists. Just once it
might be nice if we dealt with the extremist problem outside the
contest of a Democrat or Republican problem.
-- Patrick Malone, Snellville
5/20: Agrees South
Dakota base closings are devastating
Editor, the Forum:
You're right about the devastating effort of the base closing in
South Dakota. What amazes me is the way the foreign aid (unconstitutional)
continues unchallenged and grows each year. What good does it do?
When I last checked it was $41 million a day! That's big bucks.
Even wasted money in the United States re-circulates here and provides
jobs. Foreign aid pads the pockets of international despots and
is gone forever with no benefit to us and no controls once it leaves
your pockets. The amount saved with base closings will hardly begin
to fund the foreign adventurism.
As conservative Republican. Rep. John Duncan of Tennessee says,
there is nothing conservative about being in Iraq. Don Rumsfeld,
Colin Powell and Tom Ridge are all Rockefeller-type liberal Republicans.
Would you want to follow those guys into anything?
George W. Bush, when running in 2000, claimed to be a Reagan Republican.
He's not that at all. He's a Bush Republican, just another liberal,
who says the right things while spending it like the Democrats used
to do, except more so.
Bush is lucky: Nader sent him to the White House, just as Perot
intentionally helped Clinton. (I'm glad I voted for Steve Forbes
in the primary both times.) Where are the Reagan Republicans in
the Bush Administration? There aren't any.
-- Marshall Miller, Lilburn
(Dear Marshall: You will have a hard time convincing
some people that Rockefeller type Republicans are much different
from any other garden-variety Republican. They might have used
the "quack like a duck" theory. You may also be right
about Perot and Nader. And where is Perot these days, anyway?-eeb)
RECOMMENDED
READ
- An invitation: What Web sites or books have you enjoyed?
Send us your best recent read along with a short paragraph as
to why you liked it, plus what book you plan to read next. --eeb
ENCYCLOPEDIA
TIDBIT
5/20: Coca Cola formulas,
merchandixe 7X, heavily kept secret
The registered trademark of the Coca Cola Company, a multinational
soft drink firm, represents arguably the most widely recognized
consumer product on the face of the earth. From "The Pause
That Refreshes" to "The Real Thing," the company's
advertising slogans have become as much a part of Americana as has
our visual perception of the fat and jolly Santa Claus which first
appeared in 1931.
 As
the company expanded its business to global markets, particularly
after World War II, many people in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin
America have come to associate the taste of this carbonated cola
drink with American culture.
When John Stith Pemberton sold the first glass of his newly concocted
drink in Atlanta's Jacobs Pharmacy in 1886, he was entering an already
established but localized market for soda fountain tonics that promised
health benefits of one kind or another along with refreshment.
Born in tiny Knoxville, Ga. in 1831, John Stith Pemberton had trained
at a college of herbal medicine before graduating from pharmacy
school in Philadelphia. He first practiced his trade in Oglethorpe
before moving to Columbus, where he operated as a druggist for 14
years with various partners.
After relocating to Atlanta in 1869, Pemberton began to experiment
extensively with extracts of the coca leaf and kola nut, initially
marketing a moderately successful health drink called "French
Wine Coca." One of Pemberton's four partners, Frank M. Robinson,
coined and trademarked the name Coca-Cola, derived from its central
ingredients. He also registered the product's famous script logo,
and a marketing phenomenon was born.
From that moment a mystique over the supposed "secret formula"
of Coca-Cola embodied in the aptly named "Merchandise 7X"
has remained. Folklore has it that the original beverage contained
cocaine from the coca leaf, at least until the passage of the Pure
Food and Drugs Act in 1906. The official position of the firm, however,
is that the drink does not and has never contained the drug. Meanwhile,
company attorneys have fought aggressively in the courts to protect
trademarks and ensure Coke's identity.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Warm Springs given
credit for being inspiration for REA
"Franklin Delano Roosevelt had noticed during his rural travels
to the Little White House at Warm Springs, Georgia, what life was
like without electricity. He later noted, 'So it can be said that
a little cottage at Warm Springs, Georgia, was the birthplace of
the Rural Electrification Administration.'"
-- Via Rogers Wade, from Georgia Public Policy Forum.
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