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Beware, beware of tax "cuts"
with may really be "hikes"
By
Jeannie M. (Sis) Henry
Executive Director
Georgia School Boards Association
Special to GwinnettForum.com
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., Dec. 28, 2007 -- This legislative year, there
will be numerous tax plans proposed in the Georgia General Assembly
promising tax reform. Be leery of the six second sound bite, which
may be enticing, but at a closer look may be seriously and fatally
flawed.
Henry |
In some instances, what may appear as a tax cut is actually a tax
shift. For some elderly who are already exempt from school taxes,
some proposals would actually mean a tax increase.
The Georgia School Boards Association (GSBA) is on record as supporting
comprehensive tax reform. GSBA supports the creation of a commission
to truly study tax reform done right - thoughtfully and openly.
Recommendations from the commission must be made with a clear and
unbiased understanding of the economic and governance impact new
or revised taxes could have on local communities.
We have made suggestions on tax reform to legislative study committees,
including but not limited to, creating a sunset committee to review
tax exemptions and freezing any new exemptions. We have met frequently
with those state leaders who would listen and have attempted to
meet with those who would not.
The 1.6 million children of Georgia currently enrolled in our public
schools cannot vote but their voices must be heard. If we all remain
silent or passive, then surely they will be short changed and we
will be negligent in our responsibility to provide them with the
best education possible.
For years, school systems have been faced with cuts in state funding,
unfunded mandates at the State and Federal level, and under-funding
of basic education program expenses.
To cite just a very few:
- Since local school systems have received no state funding for
technology since 2002, local property taxes have paid for any
local technology initiatives.
- The State has provided 28 percent of the cost of textbooks.
Local property taxes pay for 72 percent of all textbooks used
by students in our school systems. Some systems have delayed the
purchase of textbooks because of lack of funds.
- The cost of purchasing buses, the fuel, drivers, etc., is funded
primarily by local property taxes. Again, the State pays only
28 percent of these expenses; local communities pay 72 percent.
Many of the proposed tax initiatives aggravate an already dire
situation where the proportion of State funds is shrinking and local
dollars must make up the shortfall, or pay for needed programs.
Some of these initiatives also threaten the way local dollars are
used. For example, local dollars help pay for programs such as elementary
art, music, foreign language and physical education and all teacher
salary supplements and local professional development.
Finally, several years ago, Governor Perdue established a Task
Force (IE2) under the capable leadership of businessman Dean Alford
to define what excellence in public education looks like and how
much it should cost. The Task Force is in the process of completing
its work. How can there be serious discussion concerning funding
public education and taxation until the General Assembly receives
the funding recommendations from the Task Force?
If the ability to fund schools at the local level did not exist,
and state and federal unfunded mandates continue as well as under-funding
of programs, what course of action would local officials face when
shortfalls in funding occur?
It is critical that you pay attention to what is being said and
seriously study the issues. It is also important that you encourage
your legislators to make wise decisions that could impact the education
of Georgia's children for years to come.
We're saddened by the death of jazz pianist
Oscar Peterson
By
Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
DEC. 28, 2007 -- With any death, something of you dies, too. This
week we feel a little less whole, after hearing of the death on
December 23 of Pianist Oscar Peterson near Toronto. He was a giant
of a man, physically, a giant of the world of pianists, and to us,
the best jazz pianist we have ever heard.
Brack |
Listening to him tinkling the keys was pure joy. He could play
amazingly fast, making you wonder how on earth a person could hit
all those keys so rapidly, and make sense of the piano. Yet, he
could just as easily caress the piano so gingerly, effortlessly,
it seemed, and give you an entirely another dimension to his talent.
He performed with such obvious pleasure, and so easily. Yet every
now and then, especially when into his more lively recorded arrangements
which often employed his amazingly fast fingers, you would hear
him put his all into it, with grunts and moans, like an athlete
exerting his whole body into a race.
He was an improvisationist from the get-go. Peterson would take
a familiar song, and provide you with a standard playing of it,
making you quite content. But he seldom stopped there. Usually he
would embark on using that song as the basis for a journey into
all sorts of variations on that theme, going into vast orbits of
action, yet eventually returning to the sedate piece that he started
out with. Meanwhile, you thought to yourself of the old favorite:
"I've never heard it played this way."
Peterson was a large figure, weighing in at 250 pounds on his 6'3"
frame, and had enormous hands, someone once writing that his hands
spanned 17 or 18 keys. Though large, once his hands started moving,
somehow he fit his fingers exactly onto the right keys one after
another so very beautifully.
We had the pleasure of seeing Peterson three or four times. The
first time was in New Orleans, at a warehouse on Tchoupitoulas Street,
about 20 years ago. We were in New Orleans at a newspaper meeting,
and happened to hear he would be playing at a club. During his first
set that night, playing some familiar tune, this writer, no keen
ear himself, thought he heard Peterson hit a sour note. This was
during one of Peterson's innovations of a theme, taking off into
an unchartered territory. For about five minutes more he gyrated
on the piano…..then came back and hit that sour note again,
as if saying, "Yeah, I missed one earlier, but wanted you to
know that I realized it, and here it is again." It fit into
the musical framework so well.
We also saw Peterson at least once, if not twice, in Atlanta, still
the master musician on stage. And finally, just 10 years ago, after
Peterson's left side was left near incapacitated by a stroke, he
taught himself to use his right hand much more. Seeing him on stage
in Chicago, we could detect a slight difference. But what was amazing
was that the by-then 73 year old Peterson had successfully adapted
his playing style to more right-handed interpretations, while using
the left hand for the slower style bass elements. A first timer
might never have recognized what the massive change in his playing
style. He was still far above many pianists.
Thank you, Oscar Peterson, for sharing your talent with us.
Oscar Peterson: (1925-2007): may you rest in peace.
 The
public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com
to you at no cost to readers. Today's sponsor is E.R. Snell Contractor,
Inc. of Snellville. Founded in the 1920s, ERS was built on Christian
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Monopoly enterprises
have a way about their operations
Editor, the Forum:
To think that garbage haulers can virtually pick up garbage wherever
they find customers! It seems like capitalism gone amuck!
Why should the people have the right to pick a garbage hauler based
upon price and pick up on the day of the week that works for them?
Several companies competing to provide the same service in any
one area leading to cut-throat competition? Shameful! After all,
the county commissioners are smarter than I and are much better
informed to manage and control the details of my life such as garbage
pick up.
Surely a monopoly garbage service will provide both a more efficient
system of garbage hauling and even better service just as the cable
TV companies do and the old Bell telephone monopoly did. …and
if for some reason my monopoly garbage collector fails to pick up
my garbage, I can call the Gwinnett County Garbage Czar for same
day remedial pick up, right?
I think that something is rotten in Gwinnett and it is not the
garbage. Garbage monopolies smell like dirty money to corrupt commissioners.
-- Wayne Buchheit, Dacula
Dear Wayne: A tongue in your cheek may be dangerous
to your understanding of the situation? -eeb
Parents: Stop all
this whining about school redistricting
Editor, the Forum:
I couldn't help but watch in dismay as local parents mugged for
the TV cameras to express their disapproval of the Gwinnett school
re-districting plan. Schools are for educating our young and not
a social club or more appropriately a babysitting service, for little
Johnny and Mary.
If you really care about your child's education, get them out of
government schools. Next you will say "I can't afford it."
Stay out of the local McGarbage and Starbucks and you will be surprised
at what you can afford.
Be glad that your child only has to change schools within your
community and not moved to another state or country, as the children
of our military have to do on a regular basis. During my military
service of eight years, I spent five of those years in foreign lands
and would gladly do it again.
Good grief, complaining parents, stop your whining!
-- Larry Partain, Norcross
Just what is it?
Another great cartoon from Bill McLemore:
State-of-county
address to be Jan. 24 at Duluth Marriott
Bannister |
With the start of the new year come new beginnings, new predictions,
and new outlooks for 2008. Chairman Charles Bannister will review
Gwinnett County's 2007 achievements and present his view for 2008
and beyond on Thursday, January 24 at 11:30 at the Atlanta Marriott
at Gwinnett Place in Duluth.
Those in attendance will get an overview on the county's efforts
in economic development, revitalization, public safety, and transportation,
and find out how the county is working to improve the overall quality
of life for Gwinnett citizens.
The annual "State of the County Address" will be hosted
by the Gwinnett Chamber and the Council for Quality Growth
Cost is $35 for chamber/council members and $55 for non-members.
Reservations are required by January 18.
Gwinnett
Perimeter's Website offers national Forum Network
Georgia Perimeter College is leading the way in an initiative to
make lectures and symposia available to the general public via the
Internet. Soon, the GPC internet page will feature a reading by
Khaled Husseini, renowned author of "The Kite Runner"
and "A Thousand Splendid Suns."
The Atlanta Forum Network (AFN) is an online service of Public
Broadcasting Atlanta and an offshoot of the National Forum Network.
AFN was launched on Boston's public broadcasting station, WGBH.
GPC is the first educational institution in Georgia to join AFN.
GPC's page on the Web site, http://www.atlantaforumnetwork.org/,
features webcasts of Jill McCorkle giving the keynote speech at
the award ceremony for the 2006 Townsend Prize; a discussion by
Morris Dees Jr. on founding the Southern Poverty Law Center; and
Leonard Pitts Jrs.' talk on the current state of the American news
media.
The college will continue to make available its webcasts of lectures
and discussions by outstanding regional, national and international
visiting speakers.
Gwinnett Place CID
gets funds for street improvements
The Gwinnett Place CID will have the cash available to implement
much-needed improvements along Pleasant Hill Road and Satellite
Boulevard thanks to recently awarded grant funding.
The CID is set to receive $350,000 for its Pleasant Hill Road pedestrian
mobility project (Phase 2), from Breckinridge Boulevard to Club
Drive. The project calls for new streetscape enhancements, traffic
calming measures as well as pedestrian safety improvements throughout
the corridor.
Another $350,000 is coming to fund the Satellite Boulevard pedestrian
and transit connector, improving the area between Tandy Key Lane
and the Gwinnett County Transit Center. Sidewalks and streetscape
enhancements will be installed during the project.
The grant funding is joining existing CID funds, which will raise
the total project investment to more than $1.5 million.
The first phase of the Pleasant Hill Road pedestrian mobility project,
from I-85 to Satellite Boulevard, is now under review with the GDOT
and should be implemented beginning in summer 2008. Similar grant
funds were secured for the project, which will cost more than $1
million.
Wireless technology
allows Suwanee quicker ticket-writing
Along with 2007, the Suwanee Police Department is saying goodbye
to hand-written traffic citations. The department recently upgraded
its computer software and earlier this month began issuing electronically
generated tickets. Suwanee officers can now generate a citation
in less than one minute. Previously it took experienced officers
about five minutes to issue hand-written citations.
Lt. Cass Mooney explains: "With our old system, an officer
wrote a ticket, then our records clerk entered the information into
the police system and a court clerk entered the data into that system.
The electronic tickets require only the officer in the field to
enter the data-and much of that is self-populated-and the system
automatically transfers that information to the records and court
systems. We've cut out two steps and saved a whole lot of staff
time."
The new software allows officers to run vehicle tag information
through a wireless connection to the Georgia Criminal Information
Center (GCIC), and drivers licenses can be scanned in the field.
The information from these sources automatically populates on the
citation; the only information the officer needs to key in is offense,
location, and court date.
- An invitation: What
Web sites, books or restaurants have you enjoyed? Send us your
best recent visit to a restaurant or most recent book you have
read along with a short paragraph as to why you liked it, plus
what book you plan to read next. --eeb
Oglethorpe
Power largest electric co-op in United States
Oglethorpe
Power Corporation is the largest electric power cooperative
in the United States, with $1.2 billion in revenues, $4.8 billion
in assets, and 3.7 million customers, as of 2005. It supplies wholesale
electric power to 38 of Georgia's 42 electric membership corporations
(EMCs), with a service area that covers 65 percent of the state,
in 150 out of 159 counties.
Oglethorpe
Power Corp. |
The cooperative has 160 employees, and its headquarters are in
Tucker.
The roots of the company lie with the Rural Electrification Administration
(REA), established by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935.
The REA provided loans for building transmission lines in rural
areas, which commercial power companies had found uneconomical to
serve. Customers in rural counties formed EMCs to purchase power
from commercial and governmental sources.
Thirty-nine Georgia EMCs incorporated Oglethorpe Power Corporation
in August 1974 to acquire generating capacity and transmission lines.
In the 1970s Oglethorpe Power purchased co-ownership of four plants
either under construction or planned by the Georgia Power Company.
Since then, Oglethorpe Power has acquired or built plants financed
primarily through loans from the REA and its successor agency, the
Rural Utilities Service.
In 1997 Oglethorpe Power restructured into three separate, interrelated
cooperatives. Oglethorpe Power retained control of power generation,
Georgia Transmission Corporation owns and operates the transmission
lines and substations, and Georgia System Operations Corporation
provides system and administrative support.
Currently the plants owned wholly or in part by Oglethorpe Power
supply it with 4,744 megawatts of capacity. Its fuel mix is 32 percent
coal, 30 percent gas, 25 percent nuclear, and 13 percent hydroelectric.
The cooperative also purchases 550 megawatts of power.
Changing demographics have affected Oglethorpe Power's development.
Georgia's rapid population growth has been reflected in the increase
of megawatt-hour sales, which rose from 6.75 million in 1979, to
about 32 million in 2005.
Best writing is done
with nouns and verbs, say experts
"Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs.
The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate
noun out of a tight place."
-- William Strunk and E.B. White, in their highly-regarded
book, The Elements of Style.
Send your thoughts, 55-word short stories, pet peeves
or comments on any issue to Gwinnett
Forum for future publication.
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is an online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible
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