New transportation bill makes a good start at least
In impassioned remarks Wednesday night, House Speaker David Ralston told colleagues that it was time to stop thinking and talking about “the two Georgias” — metro Atlanta and the rest of the state —and refocus on one Georgia.
A proposed new transportation bill then awaiting a House vote did just that, Ralston said. In fact, he said, he had specifically instructed House negotiators on the bill to “make sure this plan helps MARTA, helps Atlanta, because in doing so we help Georgia.”
After Ralston spoke, House members quickly approved the bill by a vote of 141-29. A few minutes later, the Senate followed suit, 43-8. However, many of those voting had very little idea what the bill did, because it had been revealed publicly just a few hours earlier.
So does the plan accomplish the goals set by Ralston?
No.
And yes.
For years, metro Atlanta political and business leaders have begged the state Legislature for a means to finance badly needed transportation projects in the region, but to no avail. The plan now awaiting the signature of Gov. Sonny Perdue does go a long way toward meeting that need.
It gives metro Atlanta and 11 other regions in Georgia the right — with voter approval — to impose a 1 percent sales tax on themselves to finance transportation projects. From the beginning, the goal of such a system was to ensure that money raised within the region was spent within the region, on projects and priorities that are established by the region.
House Bill 277 does not do that, or at least not all of that. All money raised in the metro region will stay in the region, but the region’s authority to decide its own transportation future is significantly restricted.
Under the bill, a “regional roundtable” of county commissioners and mayors will compile a list of transportation projects to submit to voters for their approval. However, the roundtable’s list can include only those projects previously approved by the state transportation planning director, who is an appointee of the governor.
In other words, metro Atlanta and other regions can pick only projects that the next governor will allow us to pick.
The bill also forbids metro Atlanta from using even a dime of revenue from its regional transportation tax to help MARTA, the financially distressed core of regional public transit, meet its operating needs.
The Augusta region is free to use regional funds to help Augusta Public Transit; the Savannah region can support Chatham Area Transit financially. The Atlanta metro region can even use regional dollars to help Gwinnett County Transit or Cobb Community Transit.
But it cannot help MARTA.
There’s no rationale for such a provision except the purely political. It exists solely because legislators needed a certain degree of MARTA-bashing in the bill if it was to win legislative approval, and that’s a sad commentary on the state of affairs in Georgia.
That said, however, MARTA does get some help in the bill. It suspends for three years a state law that requires MARTA to spend at least 50 percent of its tax revenue on capital expenses rather than operations, a step that will at least give the agency some flexibility in dealing with its financial crisis.
And while the funding option is critical, in the long run another provision of the bill may prove to be equally important. It calls for creation of a Transit Governance Study Commission for metro Atlanta to analyze “the feasibility of combining all of the regional public transportation entities into an integrated regional transit body.”
That commission, comprising suburban and urban metro transit officials, officials from the Atlanta Regional Commission and eight metro-area legislators, is tasked to produce a preliminary report by the end of this year with recommendations for the “methodical development of legislative proposals for a regional transit governing authority in Georgia.”
The legislation also explicitly endorses “Concept 3,” the regional transit system proposed by the metro region’s Transit Planning Board in 2008, after a two-year planning process.
That plan calls for an ambitious — and expensive — network of transit options linking all parts of metro Atlanta, from Canton south to Griffin and Lawrenceville west to Dallas. Building that network would be the work of two generations, but it has to start somewhere.
Maybe, just maybe, that process started this week.
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182 comments Add your comment
Gale
April 23rd, 2010
9:23 am
Power from the people, and as devices continue to be more energy efficient, that becomes more realistic. Imagine telling your kids they can have as much TV as they can pedal the power to it? Think it would get them outside more?
Southern Comfort
April 23rd, 2010
9:24 am
Gale
It might work. I came across vertical axis turbines while doing some research to upgrade my home. I’ve been debating between solar or wind. My ultimate goal is to convert to almost 100% electricity (can’t imagine getting rid of my gas range for cooking), and then generate as much of my own power as I can.
Bosch
April 23rd, 2010
9:25 am
USinUK,
OhmyGOD! That was hysterical. That looks like me and my homies playing soccer. I loved the dude who goes up for a header and his necklace whacks him in the face. I’m typing through tears.
Bosch
April 23rd, 2010
9:27 am
Paul sfd,
Please watch that clip that USinUK just posted. I promise, it will brighten your day.
HDB
April 23rd, 2010
9:27 am
Soothsayer April 23rd, 2010
8:36 am
April 23 (Bloomberg) — General Electric Co., the world’s second-biggest maker of wind turbines, plans to introduce a 4 megawatt gearless wind turbine for offshore use in 2012 in a challenge to market leader Siemens AG of Germany.
Government incentives and pricing pressure for onshore models amid the economic slowdown make the offshore market more attractive, Mete Maltepe, global sales leader for wind energy at GE, said in a telephone interview on April 20.
Note this: the government incentives were returned under Obama…were the similar incentives REMOVED under Ronald Reagan….else GE would’ve been the number ONE manufactrer of wind turbines!!
M Percy April 23rd, 2010
9:05 am
December 5, 2005
Democrats said Monday that President George W. Bush’s economic policy is partly responsible for a staggering 10.6 percent unemployment rate among black Americans, which is more than twice the national unemployment rate of whites and the largest one-month increase on record.
The federal government’s November figures show the unemployment rate among whites is holding steady at 4.3 percent, while the black unemployment rate continues to climb to record levels, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
[Hand raised HIGH as one affected!!] …and you wonder why black people aren’t enamored about the GOP???
ty webb
April 23rd, 2010
9:27 am
Shocker, a legislative body hastily passes a bill that doesn’t really entirely help the situation. Being the optimist that I am. There is a silver lining…going back to one of jay’s posts a couple of days ago. Many on here once again injected race as to a reason why the republicans don’t want to help Marta. If that’s the case, those republicans who passed a bill that only partially helps marta, should now be considered only partially racist…right?
zeke
April 23rd, 2010
9:29 am
Do not allow the wimpy whinning wealth re-distribution socialists force marta on the counties THAT DO NOT WANT IT! Marta is a failure! If it cannot pay for operations with fares, sell it or close it! We will all be better off! I recall that in a previous press release it was said marta had a $12 million surplus, but, got $144 million in the 1% tax! WRONG! That means marta actually LOST $132 MILLION! IT IS A USELESS, NOT EFFICIENT, UNSAFE, NOT CONVENIENT WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION SCHEME THAT NEEDS TO BE PRIVATIZED OR SHUT DOWN! WE NEED TO BUILD THE OUTER LOOP 15 TO 20 MILES BEYOND 285, ENFORCE RESTICTIONS ON TRAFFIC THAT SIMPLY DRIVES THROUGH INSTEAD OF AROUND THE CITY, ESPECIALLY TRUCKS! ALSO, DIRECT, STRAIGHT SHOT CONNECTORS ABOUT 50 MILES FROM DOWNTOWN CONNECTING THE VARIOUS INTERSTATES WITH NO INTERCHANGES EXCEPT AT THE INTERSTATES! THAT WOULD TAKE A LOT OF TRAFFIC AWAY FROM THE CITY THAT NEEDS NOT COME HERE! IF YOU JUST LOOK AT THE TRAFFIC LIKE 75 NORTH OR SOUTH THAT ONLY NEEDS TO BYPASS THE CITY, HOW MANY HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF CARS OR TRUCKS WOULD BE DIVERTED AWAY FROM THE CITY? HOW MANY WORKERS GOING FROM NORCROSS TO MARIETTA WOULD NOT HAVE TO GO INTO THE CITY OR TO 285 TO GET WHERE THEY NEED TO GO? MULTIPLY THESE TWO EXAMPLES BY THE FACTORS OF 3 INTERSTATES IN AND OUT, CONGESTION SOLVED!
Gale
April 23rd, 2010
9:29 am
SoCo, I used to think in terms of personal power generation for rural areas, but you are absolutely right. Why should it not be a project for every household? The one Obama “promise” I would most like to see move forward is green technologies; power sources and storage efficiencies. Our battery technology has a long way to go. Solar and wind are helpful, as long as the sun is shining and the wind blowing. And of course, they are expensive to purchase and install.
Power from the People
April 23rd, 2010
9:30 am
Think it would get them outside more?
If not, then we should try dangling a twinkie from a string tied to a stick that is tied to the body such that the twinkie is just out of reach. Hey! They might just go for it. I know they would if it were a cell phone tied to the string.
Bosch
April 23rd, 2010
9:32 am
SoCo,
Just so you know – today is Steve Austin’s birthday. 71 – the equipment held up well.
Paul
April 23rd, 2010
9:33 am
Bosch – USinUK
That was great – people having fun.
Off to fight the rising tide of passing years and gravity and metabolism.
Later -
Gale
April 23rd, 2010
9:34 am
must go, work calls. Nice chatting with y’all.
stands for decibels
April 23rd, 2010
9:37 am
Please watch that clip that USinUK just posted. I promise, it will brighten your day.
While I didn’t think it was all THAT funny, at least it got me to stop obsessing about giving T. Boone Pickens 39 lashes, scourging him, and nailing him to a wind turbine.
ken
April 23rd, 2010
9:39 am
MARTA will always be MARTA.
Southern Comfort
April 23rd, 2010
9:39 am
Bosch
Happy Birthday indeed!!
M Percy
April 23rd, 2010
9:40 am
USinUK: not fighting in anyone’s corner. I just recall personally hearing complaints about how Bush was hurting the economy when unemployment rose from 4.something to 4.something+0.1%.
The first article I mentioned did come from somone with an agenda (but doesn’t everyone). Nevertheless, in its meta-analysis of the media’s analysis, it highlighted that unemployment under Bush was reported critically (more so than same levels under Clinton).
The second part of the 2nd posting I made came from the WaPo, and highlights how Democrats complained about Bush’s policies were not creating a strong *enough* growth, even when unemployment had dropped to a 5-year low of 4.4%.
Plenty more complaints are out there, too:
[sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=72465214-efc0-4bb7-9b60-3a920cef4aa0]
Jobs and Unemployment
President Bush Is Tied for the Worst Jobs Creation Record of Any President in the Past 70 years. President Bush is in a statistical dead heat with his father for the worst job creation record of any President since Herbert Hoover, with just 5.7 million more total jobs (nonfarm private sector and government payrolls) than there were when he took office in January 2001. That is a paltry job creation pace of just 72,000 total jobs per month.
Manufacturing Payrolls Have Declined By Over 3 Million Jobs Since President Bush Took Office. Manufacturing has been particularly hard hit, with payrolls declining by over 3.1 million jobs between January 2001 and July 2007.
Unemployment Rate Remains Higher than When President Bush Took Office. July’s unemployment rate of 4.6 percent, though down from its peak of 6.3 percent in June 2003, is higher than the historic lows achieved in the late 1990s.
Long-term Unemployment Remains High. The number of people unemployed for more than 26 weeks is 93 percent higher than it was when President Bush took office. In July 2007, nearly one in five of the unemployed (18.4 percent) has been unemployed for more than 26 weeks.
Daedalus
April 23rd, 2010
9:41 am
Its about time that the MARTA 50/50 restriction was lifted — if only for 3 years. It would be nice if MARTA would use that time to figure out how it can rely on less $$$ in the future as cuts are inevitable.
But as for voting for the regional sales tax — forget it. Mayors and County Commissioners to decide on the projects? The state to control the $$$$?
First — Mayors and County Commissioners only want immediate results. Absolutely the wrong group to make long-term decisions (Mayors Hartsfield and maybe Sam Massell the only exception to that rule).
And the funds sitting in state control? Given GDOTs accounting problems and the fact that the Geogia legislature could “borrow”
(or just take) those funds at any time? Forget it.
Don’t think that will happen? Each year the Georgia General Assembly raids the Solid Waste Trust Fund that is derived from a $1 fee charged to consumers each time they buy new tires and the old ones are discarded. That money is never used to pay to address illegal solid waste dumps.
If metro Atlanta was to pass the regional sales tax it would be impossible for the General Assembly to resist raiding that fund. There would be no downside for the Assembly — their rural constituents already hate Atlanta.
If the bill provided that the money was not controlled by the state –but rather the Metropolitan Planning Organization — I might vote it for.
But letting the state control it and GDOT account for it? No way.
Sunny Daze
April 23rd, 2010
9:41 am
Transportation is important. So is security. We have one of the finest higher learning institutions in the U.S. located right here in Atlanta. Georgia Tech has been an academic leader for many, many years and we Georgians have reason to be proud of that fact. However, it unfortunately happens to be surrounded by pimps, pushers and predators who are laying in wait for their prey. Once an oasis in the midst of a dangerous desert, it is no longer safe and secure. Young folks by nature are adventurous and are going to venture outside the Oasis but also run the risk of being the next victim. Reports of robberies, assaults, carjackings, and thefts of students are now the norm. What can be done? Likely nothing at this point. Our leaders tend to be reactionary and it will take a death or two before they say enough is enough. I can only imagine the media headline as a deceased students grieving parent states: ‘She/ He did not die in vain. Now our leaders have vowed to secure the Georgia Tech campus area so a senseless crime like this doesn’t happen again.’ Wake up leaders. We owe it to the young vulnerable students of this fine institution to feel safe and secure as they strive to simply get an education.
Soothsayer
April 23rd, 2010
9:41 am
Every year, each square kilometre of desert receives solar energy equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of oil. Multiplying by the area of deserts worldwide, this is several hundred times as much energy as the world uses in a year.
Less than 1% of the world’s deserts, if covered with concentrating solar power plants, could produce as much electricity as the world now uses.
On this site there is a color map of the Sahara with red squares on it. Click on this map for a revelation.
USinUK
April 23rd, 2010
9:42 am
MPercy – 9:20 – are you trying to quote blog as “evidence” or the AP article cited within which actually puts Bush in a positive light as being engaged in trying to do something bout it … ???
USinUK
April 23rd, 2010
9:43 am
Bosch – 9:25 – I live to serve!
ty webb
April 23rd, 2010
9:43 am
Bosch,
Happy birthday Col. Steve Austin. Don’t forget it’s also Colt Seavers b-day.
Paul
April 23rd, 2010
9:44 am
Bosch
On my way out the door – thinking of keeping things in perspective –
You you realize, it to less time to pass health care legislation, and less time to pass financial reform
than it did to even finish investigating all the charges against Rangel?!!?
Woo-hoo!
Later!
Soothsayer
April 23rd, 2010
9:50 am
In search for efficiency, hydrogen is not lost
Berlin — Hydrogen, one of Earth’s most abundant elements, once was seen as green energy’s answer to the petroleum-driven car: easy to produce, available everywhere and nonpolluting when burned.
Hydrogen boasts zero emissions. It can be produced from water through electrolysis, or harvested as the waste product of nuclear reactors and chemical plants.
AmVet
April 23rd, 2010
9:51 am
Pickens helped fund the Swift Boat Veterans for Slime?
Man, I miss the days of Dickhead and Sleazebag Karl pulling the strings for their marionette – King George. You know when the combat tested heroes like them and Susxtobeus and assorted other neo-cons could identify the *real* cowards like Cleland and Kerry and McCain and Hagel.
Support the Troops…
Soothsayer
April 23rd, 2010
9:52 am
“However, it unfortunately happens to be surrounded by pimps, pushers and predators who are laying in wait for their prey.”
We need some “sting” operations with decoy students being played by the police.
NRB2
April 23rd, 2010
9:53 am
“House Speaker David Ralston told colleagues that it was time to stop thinking and talking about “the two Georgias” — metro Atlanta and the rest of the state”
——————————-
Translation: metro Atlanta wants the rest of the state to fund thier liberal crap. If metro Atlanta wants transportation, let THEM fund it. Leave the rest of us the hell alone.
USinUK
April 23rd, 2010
9:55 am
MPercy – 9:40 –
“Nevertheless, in its meta-analysis of the media’s analysis, it highlighted that unemployment under Bush was reported critically ”
again, relying on “meta-analysis” is unreliable at best due to the reasons I cited about what they use for their methodology
as for the WaPo article, again – even in the quotes you posted – the Dems were criticizing the unemployment rate of the black population vs. the white population, not criticizing the unemployment rate overall.
lastly – do you not think that net job creation is a legitmate subject??? job creation over a 12-18 month period may be “record-breaking”, but if that’s recovering from a huge deficit created during the previous 12-18 months, bringing you back to where you started, then is that not something worth discussing???
M Percy
April 23rd, 2010
9:55 am
My family is from upstate NY, where wind farms are being constructed. There is a huge fight against building them, largely from NIMBY and environmentalists. The offshore wind farm planned off Nantucket faces huge NIMBY and environmentalist backlash. The NIMBY is understandable, although I find the sight of the windmills to be not distracting or unsightly.
What I find ironic is the environmentalist backlash. Here are real efforts to stop polluting, and now you have people complaining about damage to birds, and even how subsonic noise from the turbines will damage humans. Try to build solar farms in th edesert, and you’re hauled into court to stop you from killing desert tortises and kangaroo rats. When Toronto wanted to use the 4-degree lake water from deep Lake Ontario to cool some city buildings, environmentalists complained about how this would damage the lake and cause thermal inversion–even though the city was already drawing the water for drinking purposes, and simply had the good idea to dump waste heat into the *incoming* water (before it went into purification plants).
It seems that there’s a pile of environmentalists that will not be happy until we’re all living a stone-age lifestyle–as long as we’re vegetarian cave men.
iRun
April 23rd, 2010
9:57 am
zeke is cray-cray.
Northern Songs, LTD
April 23rd, 2010
9:59 am
zeke – the pharmacy called, your meds are ready.
Soothsayer
April 23rd, 2010
9:59 am
This a great reference piece. Save it to your favorites. While you’re at it, get out your pocket calculator and add up the reserves in the fields in Kazakhstan. If you don’t know where Kazakhstan is, Google it.
The U.S. has previously been getting a considerable percentage of its oil from the Cantarell field in Mexico.
Southern Comfort
April 23rd, 2010
10:00 am
NRB2
The problem with your translation is that the metro Atlanta area actually helps fund their rural counterparts. The rural communities would die a slow death if Atlanta were able to separate themselves. The best-case scenario would be to let the metro Atlanta area plan and implement smart growth and attract more businesses to the area. That would only help rural Georgia and not hurt it at all.
USinUK
April 23rd, 2010
10:01 am
Northern and iRun … one word: DECAF.
AmVet
April 23rd, 2010
10:01 am
“It seems that there’s a pile of environmentalists that will not be happy until we’re all living a stone-age lifestyle–as long as we’re vegetarian cave men.”
Which is of course good reason to denigrate the entire environmental movement. Or better yet eradicate it.
After all, it has been proven that – just like with the “free market” gangs for Wall Street – allowing the polluters and poison dumpers to police themselves is the best approach…
NRB2
April 23rd, 2010
10:01 am
Is rural Ga. in Fulton county?
stands for decibels
April 23rd, 2010
10:02 am
It seems that there’s a pile of environmentalists that will not be happy until we’re all living a stone-age lifestyle
Sure, it seems that way if you’re willing to take a few anecdotes about NIMBY hypocrisy and conflate it to describe how most self-identified environmentalists actually feel about these things.
Not that I’m picking on you–the usually reasonable Paul’s been guilty of it, himself.
Sunny Daze
April 23rd, 2010
10:02 am
Good thought Soothsayer. Or to somewhat quote Ray Nagin, They just need to get off their duff.
M Percy
April 23rd, 2010
10:04 am
USinUK “as for the WaPo article, again – even in the quotes you posted – the Dems were criticizing the unemployment rate of the black population vs. the white population, not criticizing the unemployment rate overall.”
No, it wasn’t. The quote I posted from the WaPo didn’t mention black unemployment at all. The only mention of black unemployment in the entire article was: “The unemployment rate fell three months in a row to a low point for the current economic expansion, and the benefits were shared broadly. Unemployment fell in October for women, teenagers, whites, blacks, Latinos and workers at all education levels.”
You asked for evidence that there was criticism of Bush on unemployment when unemployment was 5%. I provided at least one mainstream reference where Democrats criticized Bush.
I agree about the weakness of meta-analysis, and that’s why I tried to find more mainstream references. And again, I’m not defending Bush, I didn’t vote for him either time. But I remember these sorts of comments circa 2006 and 2007.
USinUK
April 23rd, 2010
10:08 am
MPercy –
ahem:
Democrats said Monday that President George W. Bush’s economic policy is partly responsible for a staggering 10.6 percent unemployment rate among black Americans, which is more than twice the national unemployment rate of whites and the largest one-month increase on record.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin....
April 23rd, 2010
10:11 am
UStink- You should look up the phrase “unhinged from reality,” just sayin…
stands for decibels
April 23rd, 2010
10:12 am
Not that I have a dog in the UnU/Whiner dustup, but mostly what I recall about criticism from center-left economists during Bush’s middle years was that job growth was disturbingly low, and that it seemed to be under-reported amidst a lot of happy-clappy stuff about how swell the DJ/S&P/NASDAQ indexes were doing.
USinUK
April 23rd, 2010
10:12 am
whiner – 10:11 – I did … it mentioned you by name.
stands for decibels
April 23rd, 2010
10:17 am
NRB2, perhaps we could fund some of MARTA by putting Little Timmy McVeigh’s taking-the-needle video on pay per view? just a thought.
Union
April 23rd, 2010
10:19 am
“Driver John E. Nelson, who could not be reached through Metro or the union, earned $159,258 in 2009, including $109,892 in overtime and other pay, the highest earnings of any city employee, city records show. Seven drivers earned more than $100,000, and 23 others between $70,000 and $100,000 last year. Of those 30 drivers, 11 earned more than $25,000 in overtime pay”
Dang.. should have been a bus driver..
stands for decibels
April 23rd, 2010
10:23 am
Of those 30 drivers, 11 earned more than $25,000 in overtime pay”
If that whopping total of 11 whole individuals legitimately earned it, then so what?
(I know, I know–it’s not wealth jealousy when you do it.)
M Percy
April 23rd, 2010
10:24 am
USinUK:
On the heels of record oil prices and a devastating housing crisis, today’s news that unemployment has hit a two-year high of 5 percent is just the latest casualty of the Bush Administration’s failed economic policies. The same President who lectures about fiscal responsibility has a shameful history of losing American jobs, turning record surpluses into record deficits and increasing the national debt by $3 trillion. [Press release from Harry Reid democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=290135&]
“Today’s anemic jobs numbers confirm that President Bush has still failed to create a single new private-sector job since he became President. He continues to be the first President to lose jobs on his watch since Herbert Hoover.
“Yet Republicans remain in denial. On Tuesday, the President declared that he is satisfied with our economy and that ‘our economy is strong.’ But Democrats are not satisfied. And more importantly, Americans are not satisfied…And long-term unemployment is historic and widespread — recent studies have shown that long-term unemployment has stayed above 20 percent for 31 consecutive months. [Press relase from Nancy Pelosi, Jun 2005, http://www.house.gov/pelosi/press/releases/June05/jobs.html
Unemployment in Jun 2005 was…5%.
In September, 2006, Ms. Pelosi provided a litany of purported Bush failures, as if Bush was personally responsible for health insurance & college costs rising, then goes on to promise a Democrat plan to fix all this and to “drive the unemployment rate to record lows”.
“We must move in a new direction for everyone – not just the privileged few. Just as we did under President Clinton, we can ensure economic growth that benefits every segment of our society, create enough jobs to meet the growing labor force, drive the unemployment rate to record lows, turn federal budget deficits into budget surpluses, and at the same time strengthen Social Security. [Press release from Ms. Pelosi, http://www.house.gov/pelosi/press/releases/Sept06/EconomicSecurity.html
Unemployment in Sept 2006 was 4.5%.
professional skeptic
April 23rd, 2010
10:25 am
I took the opportunity to read the bill word for word. I was dismayed to see the specific anti-MARTA restrictions, which apply ONLY to MARTA and to no other transit agency in the state.
However, the bill appears to allow some of these funds to support MARTA operations relating to new expansion, which may help persuade other counties to join in with MARTA. Speaking of other counties, it appears that counties that do not participate in MARTA will no longer have a seat on the MARTA board, which is good. You’ve got to pay to have a say.
Later on, I nearly jumped out of my seat when I read the language focusing on Concept 3. Can it be, our esteemed state legislators are finally seeing the value in adopting a regional transportation strategy for Metro Atlanta?
Do they mean to say that they’re NOT going to commission yet another multi-year transportation study just to make it seem like they’re taking action? They’re actually going to go with the study that made sense??
Amazing.
No, it’s not a perfect bill, but as Mayor Reed wisely said, “We couldn’t let the perfect get in the way of the good.” Looking forward to reading it in more detail this weekend.
M Percy
April 23rd, 2010
10:27 am
USinUK: ahem, indeed. That quote is from a different reference, which is not the WaPo article, and which was clearly marked (at least I tried to mark it) as being from [www.jobbankusa.com/News/Unemployment/unemploy120505a.html]
My 9:05 posting had *two* separate quotes from two separate sources.
USinUK
April 23rd, 2010
10:27 am
MPercy – THAT’S the best you could come up with??? partisan rhetoric???
Union
April 23rd, 2010
10:28 am
sfd.. ignorance is bliss.. they are not just earning overtime for the year.. they are working the system to get overtime for life.
thomas
April 23rd, 2010
10:31 am
USinUK
April 23rd, 2010
10:27 am
I don’t mean to butt in, but, what EXACTLY are you looking for in the form of proof of people being critical of Bush for a 5% unemployment?
Seems as if people have indeed given you examples but you just give an excuse as to why that is not good enough for you.
So then what type of proof would be acceptable for you as it is getting harder to keep reading along?
Jamesr1991
April 23rd, 2010
10:32 am
“The bill also forbids metro Atlanta from using even a dime of revenue from its regional transportation tax to help MARTA, the financially distressed core of regional public transit, meet its operating needs.
The Augusta region is free to use regional funds to help Augusta Public Transit; the Savannah region can support Chatham Area Transit financially. The Atlanta metro region can even use regional dollars to help Gwinnett County Transit or Cobb Community Transit.
But it cannot help MARTA.
There’s no rationale for such a provision except the purely political. It exists solely because legislators needed a certain degree of MARTA-bashing in the bill if it was to win legislative approval, and that’s a sad commentary on the state of affairs in Georgia.”
As bad as I want this bill I can not support it because of the anti-MARTA stance. I expect it will receive no Support from FULTON and DEKALB Counties residence, so this measure is DOA!!!!
pat
April 23rd, 2010
10:33 am
oh looky, The healthcare scam will RAISE healthcare costs, not lower them…Exately what I have been saying the whole time…
Congradulations on your obtuseness….
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34382286
stands for decibels
April 23rd, 2010
10:33 am
sfd.. ignorance is bliss.. they are not just earning overtime for the year.. they are working the system to get overtime for life.
I’m sorry your job sucks, and that you resent the deals other people have managed to negotiate for themselves as a result.
USinUK
April 23rd, 2010
10:35 am
mpercy – if you go back and reread the WaPo article, you’ll see it is fairly GLOWING with praise of economic growth – even to the point of raising the 5% full employment being a cause for concern over increased inflation. the ONLY thing the Dems criticized was that the job growth wasn’t strong ENOUGH … and, again – that’s what partisan rhetoric DOES when it’s at home.
thomas
April 23rd, 2010
10:36 am
stands for decibels
April 23rd, 2010
10:33 am
“I’m sorry your job sucks, and that you resent the deals other people have managed to negotiate for themselves as a result.”
I assume this is your take on Wall Street as well?
USinUK
April 23rd, 2010
10:38 am
thomas – good morning
well, this all started when whiner started with his usual “Bush had it so haaaaaard, no one was happy with 5% unemployment when he was around”
other than typical partisan rhetoric (which, even then, was that 1- job growth wasn’t strong ENOUGH and 2- there should be a distinction between job growth and net job growth), neither he nor his new bff mpercy have shown any economists or other analysts who have supported that point.
Union
April 23rd, 2010
10:40 am
sfd.
“I’m sorry your job sucks, and that you resent the deals other people have managed to negotiate for themselves as a result”
nah.. my job doesn’t suck. I enjoy it.. I prefer not to leech of the hard work of others by scamming a system.. guess its OK if your union and you do it. Maybe thats why Obama likes the unions so much as he is a scammer too?
pat
April 23rd, 2010
10:40 am
Sorry I posted the wrong link earlier….
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100423/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_law_costs
USinUK
April 23rd, 2010
10:44 am
“I prefer not to leech of the hard work of others by scamming a system”
how is working overtime “leeching” or scamming the system?
last time I checked, overtime was legal
Union
April 23rd, 2010
10:44 am
sfd.. I know you like this..
“They put it off. They debated it at length and watered it down. And in the end, the Los Angeles Unified school trustees barely passed a resolution asking the Legislature to make it a little easier to fire teachers accused of serious crimes. Mind you, not the ineffective teachers. … Just the ones who stand accused of abusing or molesting students.”
I mean… after all.. they managed to negotiate that..
M Percy
April 23rd, 2010
10:45 am
USinUK: “show us where Bush was criticized for unemployment at 5% …”
So I gave you: a WaPo article; some press releases from high-ranking members of Congress; an article from a jobs website that complained that even though overall unemployment was low, Bush should be held up as a failure because black unemployment was higher; a meta-analysis we both agree may have been weak supporting evidence (even though it was an analysis of how Bush was treated different in the press than Clinton for the same unemployment rates).
You’ve misread what I posted, and subsequently found reason to pooh-pooh everything,
Just what would constitute a valid (in your mind) example of someone publicly criticizing Bush for his policies regarding employment when unemployment was 5% (or even less)?
professional skeptic
April 23rd, 2010
10:45 am
Union
April 23rd, 2010
10:19 am
Please specify: are these persons employees of MARTA, or some other agency?
I also hear NY City sewer workers can get paid six figures. (I saw it on some cable show about messy jobs a few years back… Sorry I can’t give a link.). Blast those WORKING individuals for being compensated for doing necessary WORK that no one else is willing to do!
stands for decibels
April 23rd, 2010
10:46 am
I assume this is your take on Wall Street as well?
In principle, sure. And when a city’s transit system winds up melting down a state’s economy we might have a fairly useful analogy to work with here; last I checked though that was hardly the case.
thomas
April 23rd, 2010
10:47 am
USinUK
April 23rd, 2010
7:08 am
“okay … we’ll try this a third time:
whiner – I’d like for you to show me where anyone criticized Bush for having a 5% unemployment rate … and do, please, include links.”
Notice you asked for ANYONE, remember who you are dealing with. To be fair there have been post that showed where anyone (even bloggers) criticized bush for the 5% unemployment rate.
And thats the thing with partisan comments like pelosi’s and many republicans before and after her the comment always comes back to apply to you or your party, as i have not witnessed her claim the same type of things about the economy now as she did in ‘06.
Anyway new topic upstairs and my eyes needed it.
stands for decibels
April 23rd, 2010
10:48 am
I know you like this..
what, smelly, uncited, off-topic crap you’ve dumped in this thread? Not especially.
Must leave the time-suck awhile. Be back later, kids.
M Percy
April 23rd, 2010
10:48 am
I see now, so partisan rhetoric is not really criticism. Got it. Thanks for clearing that up. I’ll keep that in mind when someone criticizes Pres. Obama using partisan rhetoric, we’ll know it’s not *real* criticism.
USinUK
April 23rd, 2010
10:49 am
mpercy – see my reply to thomas, above.
partisan attacks are expected – no matter who is in office (GOP on a Dem president and vice-versa) – that’s their job.
however, nowhere in the articles you cited were there any economic or business analysts who said that 5% unemployment – in and of itself, not as compared to the black unemployment rate – was bad.
thomas
April 23rd, 2010
10:49 am
stands for decibels
April 23rd, 2010
10:46 am
Got it so its not about what is right and what is wrong. Its only the outcome of it.
Hypocricy much?
USinUK
April 23rd, 2010
10:50 am
thomas – “Notice you asked for ANYONE, remember who you are dealing with”
well noted and you’re right. I did say ANYone – I should have been more specific.
Base
April 23rd, 2010
10:55 am
Too little,too late. $4.00 gas is coming!
HDB
April 23rd, 2010
11:13 am
Base
April 23rd, 2010
10:55 am
Too little,too late. $4.00 gas is coming!
You mean coming BACK…it’s been here before…or have you forgotten??
Power from the People
April 23rd, 2010
11:29 am
If Republicans just talked more, we could also feed the world. SQUIRREL meat for everyone.
Legislature passes transportation bill - Atlanta - Georgia (GA) - Page 2 - City-Data Forum
April 23rd, 2010
11:33 am
[...] New transportation bill make a good start at least | Jay Bookman House Bill 277 does not do that, or at least not all of that. All money raised in the metro region will stay in the region, but the region’s authority to decide its own transportation future is significantly restricted. Under the bill, a “regional roundtable” of county commissioners and mayors will compile a list of transportation projects to submit to voters for their approval. However, the roundtable’s list can include only those projects previously approved by the state transportation planning director, who is an appointee of the governor. In other words, metro Atlanta and other regions can pick only projects that the next governor will allow us to pick. The bill also forbids metro Atlanta from using even a dime of revenue from its regional transportation tax to help MARTA, the financially distressed core of regional public transit, meet its operating needs. [...]
Legislature passes transportation bill - Atlanta - Georgia (GA) - Page 3 - City-Data Forum
April 23rd, 2010
11:41 am
[...] Posted by noah New transportation bill make a good start at least | Jay Bookman House Bill 277 does not do that, or at least not all of that. All money raised in the metro region [...]
M Percy
April 23rd, 2010
11:45 am
My last attempt to satisfy UsinUK’s “proof”
Paul Krugman, Nobel prize-winning economist roundly criticized Bush when unemployment was 5.6%. When unemployemt dropped to 5.2%, Krugman complained about slow jobs growth. When unemployment was at 5.1%, Krugman complained about how bad it was that it was taking longer than ever for people to find jobs. When unemployment fell below 5%, Krugman started talking about stagflation and a jobless recovery. [google is easy to use for these]
The Popular Economist
Spring 2006 Newsletter
M Percy
April 23rd, 2010
11:46 am
The Popular Economist
Spring 2006 Newsletter Center for Popular Economics
The standard unemployment statistics obscure a basic fact about employment conditions under Bush—that job growth has been essentially stagnant through the Bush presidency, including up to the month of January 2006 when Bush gave his State of the Union speech. Between Bush’s inauguration in January 2001 and January 2006, annual job growth has been 0.3 percent per year—i.e. virtually nonexistent.
But if jobs are growing so slowly, how has the unemployment rate fallen to 4.7 percent as of January 2006? The big story here has been the large number of people who have dropped out of the labor market during Bush’s presidency. These are largely people who have given up trying to land decent employment.
And while job opportunities have been stagnant, job quality has also deteriorated. Considering just the period of economic expansion under Bush from 2003-05, the median real wage has not risen at all, but has actually fallen by 0.6 percent. More generally, under Bush, there is no evidence of a reversal of the longterm decline in the average real wage for non-supervisory workers. As the Financial Times reported in May 2005, “With wages across the nation failing to keep pace with inflation, a number of workers are justified in feeling that they have been treading water, or worse.” Inequality has also continued to grow under Bush. Among other factors, business owners are capturing the gains from productivity growth as workers wages stagnate.
[www.populareconomics.org/newsletter_archive/Spring%202006%20Newsletter.pdf]
chuck
April 23rd, 2010
12:04 pm
m Percy, don’t try to confuse USinUK with FACTS. Once she makes up her mind that it didn’t happen, that’s IT. No amount of proof is sufficient to get her to admit that she was wrong. Obviously your “facts” must be wrong.
SoCom,
Not sure what your point about wind energy was with the map. The reason the southeast doesn’t generate much from wind power is 2-fold. First, we don’t need to. We have a great sytem of production using hydroelectric turbines as well as long standing nuclear production. Second, States in the southeast don’t have as much open UNFORESTED land as out west and the winds are not reliable enough to produce electricity as efficiently as can be done out west.
Tiger Woods + Jesse James = SuperBAD meets SuperEVIL in "SuperUGLY!"
April 23rd, 2010
1:30 pm
“New transportation bill make a good start at least
7:04 am April 23, 2010, by Jay”
At least a good start? Are you kidding me? With this bill, the Georgia General Assembly has done more work and gotten more accomplished in this session than it had done in the previous seven sessions…COMBINED! Even if this bill doesn’t go far enough, which it doesn’t, this is an amount of constructive energy that were just not used to seeing out of so-called governing body. Help for MARTA, the creation of a “Transit Governance Study Commission” to analyze combining all transit agencies into one regional transit authority and the explicit endorsement of “Concept 3″? I didn’t even know that the General Assembly was even capable of this much real work and effort, much less work and effort of this kind of intelligence!
Has hell frozen over? Have our state legislators been abducted and replaced by a much higher-functioning alien life form that is merely using their likenesses as temporary hosts and if so, why in Georgia at the Gold Dome during the 2010 Session of the Georgia General Assembly? Then again, with the history of that governing body, why not?
This bill is one hell of a recognition of reality and real-life issues and quite a far-sighted accomplishment for a governing body with a recent history of being very shortsighted and far-removed from reality! Add the passing of this bill to saving the arts council and passing tough new conservation standards and you get a Georgia General Assembly that has been usually based in reality this session. I still don’t believe it. Is this a sick joke or something? Have they really gotten THIS MUCH work done? If so, somebody pinch me so that I can make sure that I’m awake and not having some kind of weird dream or psychotic hallucination or something!
Union
April 23rd, 2010
1:37 pm
We gotta do something with mass transit.. I like the idea of setting up tolls for $5 each way going into or through downtown Atlanta.. that would help subsidize the cost of mass transit and get some of the old cars off the road.
professional skeptic
April 23rd, 2010
4:41 pm
Tiger Woods + Jesse James = SuperBAD meets SuperEVIL in “SuperUGLY!”
April 23rd, 2010
1:30 pm
Has hell frozen over? Have our state legislators been abducted and replaced by a much higher-functioning alien life form …?
Personally, I’d like to think that the GA General Assembly finally approved a transit bill as a direct result of my constant, unrelenting, incessant complaining for the last few years about our region’s transit woes– on these forums and others, and in multiple emails to our elected officials. Yep, that’s right. Things eventually get better if you just set yourself to complaining loud enough and long enough.
Realistically, though, it’s more likely that hell froze over.