Update: Governor to release new, lower budget numbers

Very shortly we will find out if the republican majority in the General Assembly is a majority that consists of fiscal conservatives or if they are republican politicians who simply get elected by promising fiscal restraint AND a reduction in taxes (fees, revenue enhancers, etc).

• Link
• Report this comment

“optional fees that people have a choice of whether they receive it or not.” That is almost identical to the quote Grover Norquist gave after the “no tax” rally. Kinda scary that Casey is quoting him in these dire times

• Link
• Report this comment

Heck, why not do what Oblah-blah, Pelosi and Reid do with our Federal budget – just borrow money from China, continue to tax and spend, and let our children and grand-children worry about the weakened country they will inherit.

• Link
• Report this comment

Why can’t the folks raise the state sales tax – a very fair and equitable way to fight the shortfalls – at 4% we have one of the lowest in the nation – even with SPLOST pennies added it would make sense to raise the sales tax rather than busting the property owners next year – that’s when local entities have to look at ways to provide minimal services (you know, like education) – Why not do the obvious and double the sales tax.

Before all the shoppers fuss – a few pennies is much better than thousands that will be assessed with property tax increases – plus everyone that shops in our great state will share the burden.

Maybe it’s too simplistic, but why not – it’s better than having the whole state go belly up because our fearless leaders can’t get over the fact that they are elephants and donkeys – time for our elected folks to do what they are supposed to do and stop this party politics garbage – get us out of this mess and quit using Sonny’s smoke and mirrors – please – the whole state is waiting for y’all to get together and do what’s right –

Do the right thing for a change ——– PLEASE

• Link
• Report this comment

Raise the gasoline tax to support transportation infrastructure. Raise licensing fees to cover the actual cost.

• Link
• Report this comment

Cigarette tax is low hanging fruit. If people quit smoking and it doesn’t raise as much as projected, you likely save the remainder in the health care costs.

• Link
• Report this comment

DO THE MATH….WIZARDs of SMART—–HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT….less REVENUES collected…But MATH is not taught in Georgia schools…only football & band are taught..

• Link
• Report this comment

No more tax holidays before school begins. Nice idea, but we just can’t afford it. The average family doesn’t save that much anyway. Also, bring back tax on groceries. That should never have been eliminated. All purchases should be taxed.

• Link
• Report this comment

WHY NOT LOWER THE RETIREMENT EXEMPTION TO
12,000 A YEAR ON STATE INCOME TAXES.
SALES TAX INCREASES ONLY HURT THE POOR WHO
HAVE TO BUY MORE FOOD AND SPEND ALL THEY MAKE.
GUESS MOST OF OUR GA LAWMAKERS WANNA KEEP THAT
BECAUSE MOST GET THAT OR MORE WHEN THEY RETIRE.

• Link
• Report this comment

No more property tax hikes! I live in Fulton & already pay it out the nose.

• Link
• Report this comment

Raise sales tax so the burden is shared by everyone. Reduce all governmental benefits paid out by 5-10%. Why should only employed people have less money to spend?

• Link
• Report this comment

Put a $5 tax on every chicken sandwich sold. Oh hell, why not $10 and raise some real money.

• Link
• Report this comment

cut back on the giveaways to societies parasites, less food stamps,less money for section 8 housing,less free everything to them. Everyone else has had to cut back why not them? Note twice this week saw EBT users loading up their cart with pies ice cream and chips, why the hell do we have to pay for them to munch out out on this bad food and turn around and pay for their medical care on top of it? Fruits ,veggies and meat products are all that EBT should cover, everything is barcoded seems simple enough to keep extra items from being purchased

• Link
• Report this comment

It is time to raise taxes. There is no other way around it. Why even when times are hard this is the political kiss of death. No one wants to be a man about the situation and do what needs to be done. I mean how high can they go. They problem is the the repubs are more concerned about getting reelected that what is best for the average citizen.

• Link
• Report this comment

Hey with all the people arrested everyday ( I see at least three a day on my local mugshot site)
for driving without a license or on a suspended license -two strike law, caught the second time -you lose the car you are driving and it’s auctioned off to put money towards police and fireman

• Link
• Report this comment

Hey Yoder, It is not a Republican/Democrat issue…back when the Dems had a majority people complained about them trying to get benefits for their districts. Any representative is going to try to benefit his/her own district where possible. That does not mean the rep isn’t fiscally conservative. Our current budget woes in GA are bigger than one party. The bottom line is: the money is not there; we either cut programs or we raise the money; we have already cut about as much as we can. Now it is time to raise the money. What is the most fair way to do that??? How about that 1% sales tax? When GA IS one of the lower sales taxes in the nation.

• Link
• Report this comment

I’ll support raising taxes once the bloatedGwinnett BOE starts to seriously look at waste.here’s two quick examples
1 Explain to me why the school”cops” catching truants and cigarette smokers make more than Gwinnett county police? They don’t even patrol the crowds at games ,who would better know students likely to cause trouble? and they get school benefits on top. Dangerous job they have LOL
2.Why do school buses make a thousand stops to pick up kids? They say they need new garbage collection rules because of the truck traffic. Four buses come thru my neighborhood 2x a day to pick up and drop off kids near their houses. Why not one bus stop at the begining of the subdivision get the fat little porkers some excercise. I have a bus that goes up Killian Hill in the afternoon lot’s of traffic -it stops three times in the space of 75 yards to let each kid out in their driveway -why not one and let the kids walk the twenty yards to their house? Save gas, wear and tear on the bus, and give the kids a tiny bit of exercise!

• Link
• Report this comment

a) Retirement incentive for state employees to retire, rather than more furloughs and layoffs. The state is top heavy with us old folks.
b) Do away with lottery employees’ bonuses.
c) Casinos

• Link
• Report this comment

I don’t think education is the place to cut. Georgia lags nationally in the education department….too much “dumbing down” and as the infamous “genius” Palin would put it “back-asswardness”!. A moderate and temporary tax increase to meet the state’s fiscal need is probably the best solution currently.

• Link
• Report this comment

seems like they need a new economist to forecast revenues……

• Link
• Report this comment

whose been in charge nationally and locally for the majority of last decade? yea let’s keep following their advice

• Link
• Report this comment

FLAT TAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

Keep Cutting. It is about time they face the music like our households have been doing. Cut.. Cut…Cut.

• Link
• Report this comment

“50th in revenue per capita, 50th in revenue growth per capita, 49th in spending”

Pure blarney.

• Link
• Report this comment

JC, do you think we state employees are not feeling it? My husband has been unable to find a job in over a year. My health insurance premium went up and they raised the co-pays. My mortgage insurance and taxes went up. Just like you, I’m paying more for groceries and gasoline. My newest car is 11 years old. And I’ve taken my furlough days in 2009 and have some to look forward to in the coming months.

• Link
• Report this comment

I believe that your Tax Commisioners aren’t doing there jobs if you have homes in those areas and you pay property taxes every year just like the rest of us then nobody should be having a problem. However, if you have recently had your house foreclosed on then it is up to the banks and also the new home buyers responsibility to pay for the property tax which should not have a problem with any kind of budgetting issues. Someone is not doing there job and they need to re-think there job status because there are a lot of great workers out there that need a job and would love for that job position and are more qualified than who we have in there now.

• Link
• Report this comment

I can’t believe so many on here are callig to tax increases which can only mean 1 of 2 things. Either you don’t pay any taxes now or you work for the government.

The government doesn’t make any money. We, in the private sector do. So therefore we should get to decide who and what it gets spent on. My vote…cut, cut ,cut. Go out and produce revenue!!

Also, for the idiots who can’t get over the wars I would like to ask…if you had a sibling, spouse, child in the World Trade Center or Pentagon, do you think your views may be diffent. I bet they would and if it is all Bush’s fault, why did Obama just send 30,000 more troops. My guess is he has the information we don’t have that sees just what a threat the terroists really are…man, democrats are stupid

• Link
• Report this comment

There are many good ideas in the comments here, but in isolation none of them will even come close to solving this problem, which will only get worse in FY 2012 when the state will have about $1 billion less in stimulus money available. To balance the budget, we need a whole series of ways of increasing revenue AND we need a whole series of cuts. If we simply keep cutting, we’ll gut education, health and transportation funding to the point that no company will ever want to put down roots here.

• Link
• Report this comment

JV has brought up what I believe is a big part of our problem. Too many purchases have been lost to internet sales and taxes aren’t being paid on them. We lose millions every year. Why buy that $600 camera down at the local Walmart when you can buy it from a NY store and not pay the sales tax, and usually get it a little cheaper too. That(the interstate commerce) has to be regulated somehow.

• Link
• Report this comment

What’s putting such a huge drain on the system is the fact that there are too many people having kids! In most cases they don’t have health insurance and are living off the system. They put too many kids in the school system. Why should someone pay the same amount in taxes for no children, one child or many children? There should be a flat tax for education, used exclusively for education.
Also, Sunday alcohol sells. Why do bars have to sell food on Sunday in order to sell Alcohol?
On Sunday, alcohol sells equal frenchfrys.

• Link
• Report this comment

Turn off ALL toll free numbers to state government offices. If someone needs telephone assistance, let it be on their dime, not the taxpayers dime. Most calls are to find out the hours they are open.

• Link
• Report this comment

Michael Foster, can you say “campaign contributions” by mustachioed, Jewish, Buckhead billionaire?

• Link
• Report this comment

More taxes equals more money for the crooked politicians!

• Link
• Report this comment

Ummmm…whatsay we re-visit the ‘tax-exempt’ status of churches and universities. They’s enough a them brazillion-dollar megachurches in the metro region to provide lots and lots of revenoo. They should either take over all of the state-funded social programs or pay their fair share of taxes…

• Link
• Report this comment

@ busox

The solution? Sell off the state jobs to private industry and reduce our taxes.

The is exactly the issue now. They do award many contracts to private industry and the service turns out to be poor and more costly than actually cultivating state employees to do their jobs better. Many of the contracts are truly not needed, poorly maintained and we continously spend millions on these services that are not doing what they were intended to do. So your solutions has been going on for the longest and has acutally added to the problem…

• Link
• Report this comment

John at 1:31 – I didn’t have a relative in either of the two places but here is the problem with what you said. I have a son who has now seen his 4th tour – two in Iraq, 2 in Afghanistan. I have and still fully support the Afghanistan war because there was a direct link to 9/11, NOT with Iraq. The problem I now have is while we are seeing Dekalb close 12 schools, every other county force furlough days, teachers jobs being terminated, we are PAINTING schools in Iraq. Possibly what we can’t afford is the war in Iraq. Ever thought about that? Maybe we can’t afford the war in Afghanistan either. MAYBE, we should get the “H” out of there and stop spending our dollars on countries who never wanted us there in the first place. Maybe Obama sent 30,000 more troops so we CAN get out – man, republicans sure are stupid.

• Link
• Report this comment

RayStantz, but many of the state gov’t contracts are to the great private industry folks who might know someone of influence in ga politics, probably a fiscal conservative. Funny how it works.

• Link
• Report this comment

Cut the school year, cut the work week, cut the funding for this and that…At this rate we’ll have to sell the state name just to get by! If you cut the school year or cut the work week you just cost your constituents a minimum of 15% more money for child care. Just a reminder, that person you just added the additional cost to their bottom line has already taken a cut in pay, had their insurance premium increase, and is struggling just to get by. The same four day work week or school year reduction decreases the income of the employee by 20%. Oh but it will save the state…Really? Property values are down, costs are up, and unemployment is rising…I am sure all the cuts in the schools will help with those unemployment figures. How about a 1 or 2 percent increase in the sales tax? What’s one or two pennies on the dollar that is carried by everyone in and coming through the state? I still might not spend as much because money is tight but it would be less of a hit to my bottom line than the other options. Oh, let’s go ahead and make sure that we never get above 50th in the nation by cutting education. In reality, education is not a priority period. But the Falcons will get a new dome!

• Link
• Report this comment

sorry, Casey D, you lost me… Do what?

• Link
• Report this comment

Tax honey, tax…you know, money for honey…

• Link
• Report this comment

If that was the case, Rosco, then why have the fastest growing metros and economies been in states that have very little government spending (GA, NC, FL, TX, OK, etc.). I know this recession has changed that a little (bc almost no one has a growing economy now) but the trend holds true for the last two decades and even now the most successful large state in the country is a bare bones government state (Texas).

• Link
• Report this comment

Delia,

State agencies have already seen cuts, including layoffs in a few cases. And this at the time when their workloads are increasing. For example, the USG enrollment is through the roof. Class sizes for teachers aren’t exactly on the decline either. Also, state workers have had furloughs and seen their health insurance rates jacked up. Your idea that state workers “continue to live as though nothing is going on” simply isn’t based on the facts of “the real world.”

• Link
• Report this comment

busox…let me guess…you are drawing a retirement check…you are all for change as long as that means you don’t have to do anything different from the way you have always done it. all of those ‘rights’ that you think you have are not ‘rights’ either. you sound like my grandfather.

• Link
• Report this comment

i like how everybody’s solution is to cut teacher’s & gov’t employees. I agree that some trimming could go at the administrative level but most teachers don’t make very much. And no teachers aren’t paid for “holidays.” Teachers are contracted for 190 days of work and we get paid based on 190 days of work. That’s 180 day school year + 10 days planning (which before you suggest – those have already been eliminated via furloughs even though the state is technically contracted to pay them for 190- they’re not and the teachers aren’t challenging the “breach of contract” because they’re willing to do what’s necessary)

Anyway – I guess the point of my rant here is that the problem is 1) Property taxes revenues collapsing because of forclosures 2) Income tax revenues collapsing because of unemployment and 3) increased demand on gov’t services (unemployment, EBT, etc…) because of unemployment. If these are the problems how in the world does canning a bunch of workers fix it? It seems to me that canning teachers & other gov’t employees would simply add to the problem. More people would be on the unemployment rolls, more people couldn’t afford their homes then, and it becomes a snowball effect. And please stop waving around the battle cry of “we pay your salary with our tax dollars!” to gov’t workers like they don’t pay any taxes.

I agree that there should be some cutting done, but this can’t be the only solution. It has to be a creative combination of decreases in expenses and increases in income.

• Link
• Report this comment

YOU LIE!! and you don’t know what you’re talking about. If you think state employees have “premium plan” health insurance, you are completely misguided. During the same time premiums have been going up, so have deductibles and copays and coverage is decreasing. I don’t know what you call “a few days” of furlough, but I’ve been taking furlough days since the beginning of last year. So now, not only haven’t I gotten a decent raise in YEARS, now my gross pay has decreased by 5 percent. And since they quit filling vacant positions around here a while ago, but job responsibility has increased.

And I don’t whine about it until I hear from some creep like you.

• Link
• Report this comment

I am a state employee also; why do you folks think we should bare the burden of balancing the budget on our shoulders? Increase taxes on groceries, cut the benefits of those just as able to work as I am, but would rather sit on their fat asses and let us (working folks) support them. I am currently being furloughed one day per month, my insurance premiums and copays have increased, I work 2 jobs totaling 70 hours per week and my wife also works a fulltime job just so we can make ends meet. Quit sitting around waiting on a handout and start supporting yourself. Also, there are about 8000 state employees at or near retirement; if the state would just go ahead and let us retire with what we have been working for all these years, just look how much money would be saved in salaries, because our retirement money comes from a different source than the salaries.

• Link
• Report this comment

YOU LIE!!!,

Your name is appropriate. I’m not telling the unemployed to feel sorry for anyone. My point is that the idea that state workers haven’t felt this recession is utter bunk. As Chris points out, the facts (reduced pay, higher workloads, higher insurance premiums) simply don’t bear this out.

You seem to hate the government and think no government workers work hard. Why don’t you boycott it then? Just stop using the roads built by the DOT. Stop sending your children to public schools, colleges and universities. And don’t call 911 if your house is on fire or someone is breaking in on you. Don’t go to court if you have a business contract and the other party broke it. After all, these are all just run by government “leeches” that you don’t need right?

I’m for limited government and low taxes. But limited government doesn’t mean no government and no taxes. That is simply unrealistic. You extreme anti-government types whine about taxes and government waste, yet you use government services on a daily basis. Hypocrites! Please, grow up and face reality. These things are necessary. And they must be paid for through taxes.

Oh no, Rosco! Furloughs!!!!! The unemployment rate – if you include discouraged workers and underemployed workers – for the state is ~17% and you are going to tell them to feel sorry for state workers that have been furloughed a few days?!? And your health insurance rates are going up? OH NO!?!?! You mean your premium plan funded with the taxdollars of the private sectors hard work might be a little more expensive? You do realize that those 17% don’t have healthy insurance, right? Oh please. I wanna puke every time I hear a politician or government worker talk about how they know the hardships of the plebes. leeches

• Link
• Report this comment

My son works for the state, too and with his furloughs and not being able to get cost of living raise, there are many months we supplement their groceries (or buy gas for his car so he can get to work) and we are retired – on a fixed income – so that hurts us too.

• Link
• Report this comment

Please! I don’t care what it’s called; user fee, sales tax, etc. No more taxes. You’ve already taken enough. Stop giving away the store to the teachers, state and town employees. Why do they get to retire in their ealry 50’s while we work until 66 to get social security. Let them wait like us.

• Link
• Report this comment

People don’t trust the government to do what is right. That is the main problem

• Link
• Report this comment

Decriminalize marijuana and tax it. Let’s not kid ourselves – it’s being grown, bought, sold and used every day in our state, and is a multi-billion dollar industry. We shouldn’t have to pay for food and shelter for those caught with it. We shouldn’t sit back and let our schools wither while marijuana taxes would provide hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

It’s time to re-think our priorities.

• Link
• Report this comment

Church tax. Football Ticket tax. Stars & Bars on the Flag.

• Link
• Report this comment

Dear, Dick:
Your name fits.

• Link
• Report this comment

Sunday liquor sales? Well, of course…but only after 12PM.. Church crowd does not want us heathens getting in line at the liquor stores ahead of them. It’s just not right…here we are having fun and they are still sitting in church. (Adapted from a routine by stand up comedian Costaki Economopoulos)

• Link
• Report this comment

There is so much waist in the government that if they took only 1/16 of it they could run a valid budget. Get the illegals off the welfare system, get the illegals out of the schools, get the illegals out of our hospital system and you will save billions each year. Of course those are the same people that have our jobs and dont pay one single cent in taxes. No wonder we are having such a crisis. Over 8 million illegals in this country and none of them pay taxes but they accept free services that the government gives freely via our tax money.

Now, its time for the following

social security should be private and taken away from federal government

government but out of our healthcare system

fair tax should be implemented immediately. Illegals will have to pay this and will increase revenue to the state but because they are illegal and should not be here anyway, they have no rights to programs alloted to the american people. IE assistance programs.

All children should have the right to be educated here but it should not be free for illegals kids. Their parents are here illegal and they should pay monthly fees for their childrens education. They want to get benefits, go home and apply to come back over. Otherwise they pay.

There, our problems are fixed and its not painful either except for the corruption and that needs term limits and the ability to throw politicians out of office with a special vote.

• Link
• Report this comment

Just Because.
I agree with you 100%. Fair Tax is the way to go.

• Link
• Report this comment

Pdiddy – Problem is, they already tax the working citizens of GA like crazy. Our neighboring states to the north and south don’t even have income taxes, but we sure do. Between federal, state, property, sales, fees, etc. over half of a typical middle class persons money goes right back to the government. You think half isn’t enough?

Just Because – I agree 100% that illegal immigrants are the largest drain on our budget that nobody’s doing anything about. Overcrowded classroom issue? Not as big an issue once illegals are sold a seat or sent home.

• Link
• Report this comment

Legalize weed and tax it. And if one more person tries to tell me, a pothead of 6 years, that weed is gateway drug, I might snap. I have never done anything harder and my friends haven’t either.

• Link
• Report this comment

I would like to present a more sensible approach to solving Georgia’s budget problem, based on putting a halt to the perpetual cycle of job loss and the downward economic spiral that results. I don’t think a lot of people realize this: The largest employer in the State of Georgia is, by far, the state itself. In one capacity or another, more than 150,000 people are employed by Georgia (according to the state’s web site). I am not about to debate whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. I am just stating a fact. By and large, that population lives in daily fear of their position being eliminated. As a result, they behave in a manner that makes the situation much worse, even self-fulfilling. People in fear of income loss don’t spend as much, and don’t contribute as much back to the economy. They don’t purchase the new home they could otherwise afford, even though rates are at all-time lows. They don’t replace the aging auto in their driveway as frequently. They don’t travel on Delta as much. They don’t purchase as much from Georgia-based companies like Home Depot. Consumer spending is at the core of ALL economic growth. Granted – many in the private sector also live with the same level of anxiety – but – when a single employer the size of the state announces its intent to make massive cuts involving the existing workforce, the aggregate impact causes behavioral changes on a large scale that ripple through the economic fiber of society and stifle recovery. People stop spending. More businesses fail, causing more job loss, less consumer spending, less tax revenue, etc.

To break this cycle, one has to think beyond the need for an immediate fix, and avoid hitting the panic button. Cutting jobs, any jobs, is *not going to help* now. Rather than cutting state positions, I would propose that a temporary multi-year moratorium on the elimination of state positions be put in place, in conjunction with a temporary hiring freeze, periodic global furloughs, deep spending cuts, and postponement, or even elimination of non-essential projects. Temporary increases in taxes and fees can help make up for any remaining deficiency during the time this initiative is in place.

To clarify – I am in no way suggesting that people can’t be terminated. Where there is cause, they can and should be. It simply means that their position won’t be eliminated for reasons related to budgetary constraints over a reasonable period of time. I am also not suggesting that the State should be a jobs program. This is an interim solution meant to balance the budget, stimulate the economy and cut spending in a sensible manner. One year isn’t going to be sufficient. Three to five is probably more along the lines of what will be required for any meaningful recovery because the effect of a shift in the economy takes about 2 years to be realized in the state’s coffers.

The goal is simple. Give people the confidence that it’s safe to start to do the things they would be doing in a more stable environment, and it will turn this economy around – quickly. People will start to spend again. Once recovery takes hold, this program can be phased out, and the state can go back and re-assess the situation as appropriate.

One politician with a GED-level education (Karen Handel) has proposed massive job elimination. That’s an over-simplified solution and a formula for disaster over the long run. It only feeds the beast. The best analogy that I can think of is how a pilot recovers from a stall. The natural reaction is to pull the nose of the plane up, but that’s exactly what you don’t want to do. Despite the fact that the nose of the plane is down, the pilot has to push the stick forward to regain control. Just as recovering from an aerodynamic stall takes training and prowess, recovery from an economic stall requires insight and careful planning. But it can be done.

• Link
• Report this comment

Alcohol is far worse than weed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

Roscoe,

Your statement alone about boycotting government like using the roads built by the DOT is so typical of Government thinking…Lets get to the Facts.

The GDOT did NOT build that road….the tax payers built that road. It was the GDOT’s responsibility to get it built with money that came from private citizens who purchased gasoline, bought appliances, purchased airline tickets, and paid their state and federal taxes. The roads were built using money created from PRIVATE Businesses that paid corporate taxes…those same people and businesses paid your salary and provide you with those benefits you are complaining about.

Before ANY Government Employee complains about not making enough money, a furlough, losing benefits, or now the GOOD possiblity of being laid off, think about who afforded you the PRIVILEDGE to take home a check twice a month and who pays for you to go out and so call inspect or direct a Business owner and their employees in how to do a job that more than likely you have never done.

Government Employeee always say : Do you want to do without Police, Fire or Teachers? Lets get this straight…those are the only persons who are under paid and underappreciated on the state level.
Do not go there….that has nothing to do with the GDOT or any of the other agencies who grew to massive levels from 1982- to present.

Not all, but many State Employees never have to worry about a budget or delivery of goods, they never have to go out and find work for their employees, or fill out thousands of pages of documents to insure the licenses and fees are correct and prove they are to some state employee.

The mentality of State Employees is do whatever we can do to save our jobs.

Many Posters on this blog continually write to eliminate the Administration jobs and others..that is fine ..however…if a State is down 5 billion dollars in revenue from 2 years ago….I have one question…and I know the answer so the B.S meter is “ON” . What are the employees doing with about 45 percent less work being serviced? I can tell you …..nothing ….employees are still managing the same staffs and doing about 2/3 of the work from previous years.

No Buisness or Enterprise can survive without cutting staffing from top to bottom.

Do not even go into the argument that those LAYOFF people will not pay taxes, or any other Pseudo argument that does not hold water.

When government employees too many as the State does now and as D.C does now it soon becomes a socialist government……taking more from the producers by force and giving it to others who were not smart enough, educated enough, or did not think out their life plan well enough and now are pigeon holed into a dead end government career…

• Link
• Report this comment

Basic Fact Checking:
Your post simply rails about government employees of which you know little I am afraid. Government employees are convenient whipping boys for frustrated taxpayers and have been for years the butt of many jokes. I have done my share of it. However, a lot of the services that you depend on to keep your operations running are performed by state and local government employees. I am afraid that often times we just take for granted that these things will be in place when we come in in the mornings and open for business.

• Link
• Report this comment

Sorry, hit “enter” by mistake. Correction below:

Reducing the number of counties in this state makes more sense than anything else mentioned. But, do you actually think that will happen. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That would be political suicide because of the “cut someone else, not me” attitude. However, to me the legislators that voted for this would ALWAYS get my vote. The majority of elected officials don’t have the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing for the people knowing they would not be re-elected. To me, the true test of leadership is the will and action to do the right thing for the people when it is not in one’s best political interest.

I just saw candidate for Governor John Oxendine on TV supposedly promoting changing the batteries in your smoke alarm when the time changes. All he is doing is campaigning on our tax dollars. Enough of this. Pray that competent leaders will actually qualify to run for offices next month…and for God’s sake, please vote for them.

• Link
• Report this comment

Jeff Yoder, please learn the proper use of there and their.

• Link
• Report this comment

the copy and paste resume from Fact Checker

• Link
• Report this comment

To basic fact checking… You say that GDOT grew to high employee levels from 1982 on. For the record GDOT had 5078 employees as of Thursday afternoon. GDOT had over 9000 employees in the 1970’s and has been reducing that number since then. Know your facts before spewing your mouth.

• Link
• Report this comment

I left the University of Georgia after 15 years of tenured faculty status. By the time I left, no raises (not automatic for faculty; dean takes 2% of the total raise pool for his expenses and remainder, if any, is left to distribute among faculty; all staff get the full raise) had been the norm for the last 4 years. My health insurance premiums were increased 30% a year, and increases were twice per year the last two years. I made less, in real $, than the newest hires in my department, by about $15000 per year. I had earned more than $1 million in grants, was internationally known for my research, taught hundreds of Georgia undergrads, had graduate students winning national research awards and getting prestigious jobs. When I had another offer, I was told that anyone could do my job. I now work for $45,000 more than the university would pay me, have better benefits, and better retirement, and don’t have to listen to anti-intellectual bean-heads like Georgia’s legislators because I moved to a state known for its top public K-12 education (yep, have to pay taxes to get this!), and three of the top 20 public universities in the nation. I can’t see how Georgia’s education can go anywhere but down. All of you will suffer because uneducated populace = more crime + less industry + more welfare + more of every social problem you can think of that costs taxpayer money. I have traveled extensively in developing countries, and Georgia’s K-12 education ranks below every place I’ve ever lived or visited.

• Link
• Report this comment

“What are the employees doing with about 45 percent less work being serviced? I can tell you …..nothing ….employees are still managing the same staffs and doing about 2/3 of the work from previous years.” FALSE

“For the record GDOT had 5078 employees as of Thursday afternoon.” TRUE

• Link
• Report this comment

I’d like to know why Bubba was holding on to $350 million in federal stimulus funds that were intended to spent NOW to help the economy. I wonder how many Repub Gov’s are doing the same? Repubs have been saying the stimulus didn’t work? Hide the money until after the elections so it will look like stimulus didn’t help the economy.
These people are dirty lying B*stards!

• Link
• Report this comment

retired You can KISS

• Link
• Report this comment