The Other Athens

Clarke Schools Come At High Cost

2012-01-21T22:32:00.000-05:00

Read the column here (22 January 29012).

All of the above percentage and percentile calculation are my own.

The Georgia Department of Education usually posts its per pupil expenditure information in December for the previous fiscal year (meaning, for example, in December 2010 for FY 2010, which ran from July 2009 through June 2010). For whatever reason, FY 2011 figures were not posted until either very late this past Tuesday or very early on this past Wednesday.

Those school districts smaller than the CCSD that have a higher per pupil expenditure range from the Taliaferro County School District, with a mere 199 students, to the Decatur City School District, tallying 2902 students.

Those interested can take a look at the Georgia Department of Education Revenue and Expenditure reports for FY 2011 for themselves:

http://app3.doe.k12.ga.us/ows-bin/owa/fin_pack_revenue.entry_form

Here is the current CCSD “Facts & Figures” web page that omits any ands all mention of per pupil expenditures:

http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/files/filesystem/factsfigures111.pdf

Here are my blog posts, letters to the editor, news articles, and opinion columns on this and related subjects. If one has nothing better to do, one can follow the various topics through time.

The Other Athens:

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-remain-unconvinced.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2008/10/toa-local-endorsements.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2008/12/ccsd-gets-couple-right.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2009/01/be-careful-for-what-one-wishes.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2009/02/ccsd-per-pupil-expenditures-for-fy-2008.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2009/03/tarpstimulus-debacle-writ-small.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2009/05/area-high-school-graduation-test.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2009/06/appointed-boards-of-education.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2009/08/what-do-they-know-that-we-do-not.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2009/12/fy-2009-per-pupil-expenditures.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2010/01/ccsd-fy-2009-per-pupil-expenditures.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2010/01/public-school-accreditation-follies-ii.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2010/02/quintet-of-interrelated-education-items.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2010/06/open-letter-concerning-ccsds-fy-2011.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2010/07/impertinent-observations_08.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2010/12/ccsd-fy-2010-per-pupil-expenditures.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2011/02/lies-damned-lies-statistics.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2011/07/aps-crct-scoring-scandal.html

http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2011/11/clarke-school-budget-lacking-details.html

Banner-Herald letters to the editor:

http://onlineathens.com/stories/053106/letters_20060531050.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/061306/letters_20060613029.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/010307/letters_20070103038.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/041807/letters_20070418032.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/061507/letters_20070615013.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/081908/letters_2008081900529.shtml

http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/102108/let_346476350.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/021110/let_561253574.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/101210/let_718975302.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/120910/let_753377736.shtml

Banner-Herald news articles:

http://onlineathens.com/stories/050409/new_436121703.shtml

Banner-Herald opinion columns:

http://onlineathens.com/stories/022011/opi_788143319.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/031311/opi_798765518.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/041711/opi_815880013.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/opinion/2011-10-30/garland-school-splost-new-tax

http://onlineathens.com/opinion/2011-11-13/garland-questions-about-clarke-esplost

Clowns To the Left Of Me, Jokers To The Right

2012-01-20T09:04:00.001-05:00

Doug McKillip, former Democrat and current Republican representing self'consciously progressive Athens in the Georgia House of Representatives, appears to be an unpopular sort. See here and here.

The Democrats are promising to exact revenge for his sudden shift to the GOP, just weeks after being named to the number two post in the Democrat's House leadership structure following the 2010 election. Also, the locals are upset with what they see as his "interference" in local redistricting by virtue of McKillip's sudden interest in the composition of the Athens-Clarke County Commission. He is sure to face spirited Democratic opposition in this year's general election.

If he makes it that far. Many of the GOP faithful are not the least bit impressed with McKillip either, and local attorney Regina Quick is throwing her hat into the ring as a Republican primary opponent to McKillip (they faced one another across the partisan divide back in 2006). If she wins, and I hope that she does, my only regret would be that serving in the House may take away from her time drubbing City Hall in the courts.

No one seems to be on McKillip's side, with the possible exception of the state's Republican establishment. I am a Republican, but I am less and less enamored of the "establishment" at both the state and national levels (more about which at a later date).

I penned this at the end of 2010 concerning the local GOP Christmas party:

Finally, Doug McKillip of the 115th, the GOP’s newest member of the Georgia House of Representatives, was in attendance. I had wondered if he would make an appearance, and sure enough he did. For his part, it was a good political move if nothing else. For my part, I welcomed him over to the Dark Side. I wrote some pretty harsh things about McKillip’s sudden political conversion over on the Banner-Herald comment boards and still think that it is up to McKillip to prove me wrong, but we shall see.

We shall, indeed.

More GOP Presidential Bye-ku

2012-01-20T00:01:00.001-05:00

Here is another installment of bye-ku for (former) Republican presidential hopefuls from WSJ online's James Taranto:

Jon Huntsman (16 January 2012)
Call me crazy, but
I think insulting voters
Will warm them to me

Rick Perry (20 January 2012)
Trounced in Iowa
New Hampshire and--the third one
I can't. Sorry. Oops

Impertinent Observations

2012-01-10T20:16:00.001-05:00

1) I saw, with some relief, that Whatever It Takes was denied any part of the $30 million Promise Neighborhood “implementation grant” up for grabs. A couple of years ago, WIT received a $500,000 “planning grant” from PN to develop a series of proposals to hopefully address the appalling academic underachievement that has characterized the Clarke County School District for so long.

The result was a 77-point program released just a month or so back. I read the proposal; many of the points seemed to simply duplicate existing services and many others seemed related only tangentially to the ostensible purpose of the program (kind of like the “stimulus” crap up in D.C., the WIT proposal read like a wet dream of every taxpayer-funded idea its members could imagine). So, in the end, we blew half a million dollars of grant money trying to secure yet more grant funding. It seems this is how so many of such efforts end – not with a bang, but with a whimper. To paraphrase Limbaugh, I’m glad they failed.

2) According to the Gainesville Times, the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, the lobbying organization for the state’s counties, is pushing for a change in the SPLOST law: “Currently, the voter-approved 1 percent sales tax can only be used to fund the construction of big-ticket items, such as parks, libraries, roads or sewer lines. Once those projects are built, their operation is largely funded through property taxes and user fees . . . The ACCG wants Georgia's law changed in 2012 to allow as much as 15 percent of SPLOST revenue to be used for operating costs.”

This would be such a bad idea. It seems that government has discovered a strategy to move things that used to be financed through the general budget into their own “dedicated revenue stream” funds (LOST, SPLOST, ELOST, TSPLOST, stormwater utility fee, septic tank fee, trash-hauler fee, etc.). That would be okay if general fund expenditures decreased accordingly, but they never do – the dedicated funds simply allow government to spend more while claiming that taxes (and/or fees) are not going up to cover the new spending which, of course, is sophistry.

3) I realize that I criticize local government quite a bit. Unfortunately, though, the folks down at City Hall keep serving up those hanging curve balls that beg to be smacked. A case in point is the local “public art” ordinance. Passed in December 2010, I noted at the time that I thought it was a bad idea because it mandated unnecessary spending and created and funded yet another bureaucracy.

Be that as it may, our betters down at City Hall claimed to not have understood the ordinance they passed and we ended up with the prospect of spending some $520,000 on public art at the new county jail. Faced with a tide of public outrage at this, the Commission backtracked and revised the ordinance. My reading of the revised ordinance, however, leaves us right back to where we were before we had any public art ordinance at all (City Hall can require some unspecified percentage of the overall construction budget of SPLOST projects be spent on public art – or not). A full year later we right back where we started, having accomplished nothing other than the recognition that some of the folks inside the rail do not pay attention to what they are doing (not once, mind you, but twice now on this same issue).

Just Call It 'Trestle to Nowhere'

2012-01-07T23:23:00.001-05:00

Read the column here (08 January 2012).

Bridgehunter.com (bills itself as “a database of historic or notable bridges in the United States, past and present”):
http://bridgehunter.com/ga/clarke/bh47212/

Banner-Herald coverage of the Murmur trestle:
http://onlineathens.com/stories/072100/new_0721000004.shtml
http://onlineathens.com/stories/100400/new_1004000060.shtml
http://onlineathens.com/stories/102903/opi_20031029025.shtml
http://onlineathens.com/stories/071909/new_465600405.shtml
http://onlineathens.com/stories/053111/new_837379446.shtml
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2011-12-22/rail-trail-project-will-by...

GOP Presidential Bye-Ku

2012-01-05T10:17:00.001-05:00

Here are the 2012 GOP presidential bye-ku, so far, as shamelessly lifted from James Taranto via WSJ online’s Best of the Web Today:

Tim Pawlenty (15 August 2011)

No match for the girl
He'd be dead if not for her

"Minnesota Nice"

Thaddeus McCotter (22 September 2011)
He plays the guitar
And yet he never managed
To strike any chord

Herman Cain (06 December 2011)
Cheater at haiku
Instead of 5-7-5
It was 9-9-9

Michele Bachmann (04 January 2012)
She of "crazy eyes"
May be crazy like a fox
News contributor

There will probaby be a few more in the not too distant future.

Remembering A Mother's Gift

2011-12-26T10:22:00.000-05:00

Read the column here (25 December 2011).

My mother’s papers gave me starting points for my research, but left many gaps. My thanks go out to those individuals with whom I spoke or corresponded concerning her at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School (since transformed into a prep school), Piedmont College, the University of Georgia, the Stephens County School District, the Franklin County School District, and the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia. Not much in the way of records survive from some six to seven decades ago and I thank them for taking the time to assist me in locating those that are still available.

As an aside, my mom taught me to shoot using a Winchester Model 1903 pump-action .22LR that had been handed down through her family. I sold it years ago; other than possessing some sentimental value, there was nothing particularly notable about it. Even so, sometimes I wish that I had it back.

Wal-Mart Isn't Evil

2011-12-11T13:01:00.001-05:00

Read the column here (11 December 2011).

The column I had originally intended to pen for the Sunday after Thanksgiving had to do with things for which we should be thankful – not the things folks typically think of, but rather those parts of our political culture that we usually take for granted: peaceful transfer of power, real opposition parties, a free press, etc. I don’t think that we fully appreciate how rare those have been throughout history, and the fact that in many places in the world are still so today.

But then this Wal-Mart thing came up – and it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Maybe I will get back to the political version of being thankful at some point.

Be that as it may, this is another of those times when I ended up with far too much research material to condense down to a Sunday opinion column. Listed first are the sources that I cited in the column, followed by others that I used for background and context. Note that I did not even broach the subjects of the “sustainability,” “local foods,” “express,” and “green” policies that Wal-Mart has initiated in recent years.

And how many of you caught the homage to Reagan?

Cited in the column:

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH "Consumer Benefits from Increased Competition in Shopping Outlets: Measuring the Effect of Wal-Mart"

NBER Working Paper (December 2005)
http://papers.nber.org/papers/w11809
Abstract – Consumers often benefit from increased competition in differentiated product settings. In this paper we consider consumer benefits from increased competition in a differentiated product setting: the spread of non-traditional retail outlets. In this paper we estimate consumer benefits from supercenter entry and expansion into markets for food. We estimate a discrete choice model for household shopping choice of supercenters and traditional outlets for food. We have panel data for households so we can follow their shopping patterns over time and allow for a fixed effect in their shopping behavior. We find the benefits to be substantial, both in terms of food expenditure and in terms of overall consumer expenditure. Low income households benefit the most.

Journal of Applied Econometrics (December 2007
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jae.994/abstract
Abstract – Non-traditional retail outlets, including supercenters, warehouse club stores, and mass merchandisers, have nearly doubled their share of consumer food-at-home expenditures in the U.S. from 1998 to 2003. Wal-Mart supercenters have had the biggest impact on food retailing as they compete most closely with traditional supermarkets and offer many identical food items at an average price about 15%–25% lower than traditional supermarkets. We consider consumer benefits from this market share growth and estimate the effect on consumer welfare of entry and expansion into new geographic markets. We calculate the compensating variation that arises from both the direct variety effect of the entry of supercenters and the indirect price effect that arises from the increased competition that supercenters create and find the average effect of the total compensating variation to be 25% of food expenditures. Since we find that lower income households tend to shop more at these lower priced outlets, a significant decrease in consumer surplus arises from restricting entry and expansion of supercenters into new geographic markets.

Journal of Applied Econometrics Data Archive (December 2007)
http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/jae/2007-v22.7/hausman-leibtag/

FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF MINNEAPOLIS (fedgazette)

"The Wal-Mart Effect: Poison or Antidote for Local Communities"
http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=3033

"The Research Literature on Wal-Mart: Some Frowns, Some Smiley Faces"
http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=1122

"Thomas J. Holmes on Wal-Mart’s Location Strategy"
http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=1382

"The Diffusion of Wal-Mart and the Economies of Density"
http://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/events/micro/diffusion_walmart_ju...

"Self-Styled Expert Travels the County to Prepare Towns for Wal-Mart Invasions"
http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=3942

RICHARD VEDDER and WENDELL COX
"The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy"
http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspxARTID=25543
http://www.aei.org/book/economics/the-wal-mart-revolution-book/

COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
"Wal-Mart and the Politics of American Retail"
http://cei.org/sites/default/files/Zachary%20Courser%20-%20Wal-Mart%20an...
Gives an overview of the history of American retail and department stores; says that the fear and loathing of Wal-Mart is just the latest is a long series of such directed toward companies that have revolutionized retail, such as Sears, Woolworth, and A&P.

Bckground and context:

ABC NEWS Wal-Mart Unveils Tiny Walmart Express in Arkansas"
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wirestory?id=13753201

ABOUT.COM FOOD & BEVERAGE
"Wal-Mart Plans to Open its First Wal-Mart express Stores"
http://foodbeverage.about.com/od/Market_Updates/a/Wal-Mart-Plans-To-Open...

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
"The Wal-Mart Revolution"
http://www.aei.org/print/the-wal-mart-revolution-book

THE ATLANTIC

"The Wal-Mart Effect"
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/theatlantic/access/785979451.html?FMT=ABS&FM...

"How Walmart is Changing China"
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2011/12/how-walmart-is-changin...

"The Great Grocery Smackdown"
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2010/03/the-great-grocery-smac...

"An Insider’s Account of Walmart’s Local Foods Program"
http:/www.theatlantic.com/life/print/2010/11/an-insiders-account-of-walmarts-local-foods-program/66659/

BUSINESS WEEK
"Wal-Mart: Making Its Suppliers Go Green"
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_21/b4132044814736.htm

CATO INSTITUTE "Is Wal-mart Good for America?"
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10989

CENTER FOR INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM
"Economist Explains Why Wal-Mart’s Business is Good for America"
http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/freedomline/current/in_our_opinion/wal-mart-i...

FORBES
"Wal-Mart is Good for You"
http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/09/walmart-retail-economy-biz-commerce-cx_...

"In Pictures: Ten Wal-Mart Myths"
http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/09/walmart-retail-economy-biz-commerce-cx_...

FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION "Wal-Mart is Good for the conomy"
http://www.fee.org/pdf/the-freeman/1005Semmens.pdf

HUFFINGTON POST
"Wal-Mart plans to Open 40 Scaled-Down Express Stores This ear"
htt p://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/10/wal-mart-express-stores_n_83415...

INDEPENDENT RETAILER
"Walmart Express Stores"
http://independentretailer.com/2011/08/01/walmart-express-stores/

MOODY’S ANALYTICS "Good or Bad? Wal-Mart’s Effects on Consumers"
http://www.economy.com/home/login/cnf_proLogin.asp?status=1&script_name=...

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
"Wal-Mart Pares Costs By Selling Local Produce"
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story/php?storyId=93956012

NEW YORK TIMES

"Wal-Mart to Buy More Local Produce"
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/business/15walmart.html?adxnnl=1&adxnn...

"Wal-Mart to Seek Savings in Energy"
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/business/25walmart.htm

REUTERS
"Wal-Mart pushing Chinese Suppliers to go Green"
http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USN1324792520080314

THE STREET
"Looking at the Wal-Mart of the Future"
http://www.thestreet.com/print/story/11331416.html

Well Just Damn

2011-12-06T09:47:00.002-05:00

I am somewhat ambivalent about Herman Cain "suspending" his presidential campaign.

On the one hand, he continues to deny the allegations of all of his accusers save one. Even with that one, he continues to deny any sexual impropriety. I fully realize that politics at the presidential level is a dirty business and would not be surprised to find that many of the people involved in this on the accusatory side were in it for their own gain: politics, money, fifteen minutes of fame, whatever.

On the other hand, this last accuser is troubling. What Cain admits to, namely maintaining a 13-year long relationship with a woman in which he gave her money while neglecting to tell his wife about it, does at the very least call his judgment into question. I am one of those political dinosaurs for whom character and integrity still matter, and though this episode still does not rise above the level of a he said/she said thing insofar as the most serious aspects of it go, it does send up some unmistakeable red flags.

Even if Cain's conduct was entirely above board, the fact that his campaign got caught so completely flatfooted about it is disturbing (and yes, I realize that different standards are applied to different candidates - but they still should have seen it coming and been prepared - remember that squad of the Clinton campaign tasked with dealing with "bimbo eruptions?").

Be that as is may: here is what I regard as the operative portion of the "Cain Commentary" released Sunday (click here to read it in its entirety):

And while I am disappointed, there are more than a few silver linings to doing this work outside the context of a presidential campaign. The process by which we choose our nation’s leader is ridiculous. There is little focus on policy substance and even less on candidates’ governing skills. If you’re not warding off some wild accusation, you’re explaining away a “gaffe,” which is usually the sort of slip of the tongue that anyone can make, but because some reporter heard it, it turns into a news-cycle narrative with a shelf life of six or seven days.

That’s behind us. All I need to do now is advocate for solutions that work, under the auspices of TheCainSolutions.com, and that will have two essential elements.

One is to better educate the American people about the nature of the problems we face. There is still too little understanding of the severity of our debt and fiscal crisis. That is why members of Congress lack the political will to solve the problem. They perceive that they will pay a steeper price for taking action than they will pay for doing nothing. That is no excuse for such poor leadership, but the fact remains that if we can change the political dynamic – so that the people are demanding action rather than rewarding inaction – we will be able to change the results.

The second element is to advocate for solutions that actually work. I was amused by the criticism I received for frequently mentioning my 9-9-9 tax reform, particularly by those who referred to it as a “catch phrase” and so forth, clearly demonstrating that they didn’t grasp what it’s all about. The 9-9-9 plan is the biggest transfer of power from government back to the people since the beginning of this nation. That’s what they are afraid of.

I talked about 9-9-9 so often during the campaign because it’s a major reform that would completely change the way we pay taxes, the way we do business and the way people manage their personal budgets. We need reform like that. Political consultants are forever telling candidates to “stay on message,” but I guess that doesn’t apply when the message is a substantive reform that would actually solve problems. Be that as it may, I am far from finished staying on message. The Cain Solutions effort will relentlessly push for an understanding of the real stakes our nation faces, and for a groundswell that demands real solutions.

As I said during my announcement on Saturday, becoming president was Plan A. Anyone with a big goal needs to recognize that you might need a Plan B, and our Plan B has a lot going for it.

Six months ago, most of you had never heard of me. You have now. A lot of what you’ve heard is not true, but I’ve got your attention. Keep listening, and if you care about the future of our country like I do, get involved. Unlike a presidential campaign, what we’re doing now can’t be stopped by scandal-mongering or polls. We’ll only be defeated if we give up.

And we’re not going to do that.

So, we shall see. Regardless of the particulars of Cain and his campaign, I think that there is much truth in this statement. And note the obvious similarities between elements of Cain's 9-9-9 Plan and the FairTax of which I have been a supporter for years.

"9-9-9 - The Movie"

2011-11-28T14:43:00.001-05:00

Herman Cain's "9-9-9" tax plan:

Taxonomics - Episode 1

2011-11-28T10:34:00.000-05:00

From our friends at the National Taxpayers Union, see Taxonomics, Episode 1, A Discriminatory Tax Targets Small Businesses & Jobs.

Review of Selig Tract Raises Questions

2011-11-28T10:11:00.000-05:00

Read the column here (27 November 2011).

I always ask my wife to proofread my columns (so if an error slips through, I can blame her, right?). Upon reading this one, she said that I sounded angry.

And you know what, she is correct; quite apart from the self-righteous sanctimony of asking Selig to "negotiate," when its proposal is exactly the kind of mixed use development we say we want and the company is asking for no incentives whatsoever in connection with the project, this "hold" – kind of like moratorium lite – and "negotiation" strategy is a terrible one to pursue if we are serious about economic development. The community of folks who are involved in economic development around the state is a pretty small one and they all know what the others are doing, so don't think for a minute that they all do not know how things play out in Clarke County – i.e. a developer adhering to existing ordinances and design guidelines is not enough - as do the companies they are trying to recruit.

When we demand that the Commission adopt more stringent environmental regulations than what the state EPD and the federal EPA requires (not that the locals have the authority to do so, but that is another matter), like we did when Certainteed investigated asking for industrial development bond funding to expand its Athens location a few years back, every business or industry thinking about expanding in or relocating to Athens hears about it.

When we toy with the idea of making economic development bond issues a political football by having the full Commission vote on them, rather than simply having the mayor sign off on them as traditionally been the case (as was also mentioned in connection with the proposed Certainteed expansion), every business or industry thinking about expanding in or relocating to Athens hears about it.

When we demand that a developer (in this case Selig Enterprises) that is acting in full accord with our existing zoning ordinances and downtown design guidelines, “negotiate” to make its project smaller just to pacify local elected officials, every business or industry thinking about expanding in or relocating to Athens hears about it.

When we simply suspend entire sections of our existing zoning ordinances (we are up to how many development moratoria now?), typically with little to no public notice whatsoever, so as to prevent developers from doing precisely what those zoning ordinances say they should do, every business or industry thinking about expanding in or relocating to Athens hears about it.

When we mount a fullscale wand well-funded PR campaign (complete with billboards and a web site) to convince a high-end biotechnology facility (NBAF), precisely the kind of industry that we say that we want, not to come here, every business or industry thinking about expanding inn or relocating to Athens hears about it (of course, I think that there was qute a bit of Bush Derangement Syndrome evident in this episode, but the principle still applies).

I keep making the argument that what we do locally has repercussions beyond whatever issue with which we may be dealing at the moment, and those repercussions are stifling our meager attempts at meaningful economic development.

Okay, now that I’ve got that out of my system, here is some source material.

Unified Government Code of Ordinances. See Section 9-4-15(c)(4):
http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientId=12400&stateId=10&stateNa...

Commission Minutes (March 2010). See pages 11-12:
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/archives/42/March%202,%202010%20minute...

Commission Minutes (September 2011). See pages 2-3:
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/archives/42/September%2022,%202011.min...

Finally, even on the company’s own web site both “Walmart” and Wal-Mart” are used, so take your pick.

SCHS Pigskin Recap

2011-11-25T18:35:00.000-05:00

The season for my alma mater Indians (the second seed out of Region 8AAA) drew to a close last Friday night, as SCHS lost a 40-14 road decision to Cairo (the first seed out of Region 1AAA). The trip down to Grady County was some 300+ miles - one way!

It was a disappointing end to a pretty good 9-3 season: all three teams to which the Indians lost are still alive in the state playoffs, Elbert County in Class AA and Gainesville and Cairo in Class AAA.

Wait till next year.

'Sausage' Is Part Of Recipe For Tax Reform Bill

2011-11-25T18:15:00.000-05:00

Read the column here (03 April 2011).
Everyone and his brother has been/will be commenting on the specific policy proposals put forth by the Special Council and passed by the Special Joint Committee; I though it a good idea to get people up to speed on the mechanics of how we got to where we are with regard to that proposal - because most people have not a clue about it. Apparently, not everyone agrees.

The short answer is yes. TSPLOST will be an additional 1% sales tax, on top of the 4% that goes to the State of Georgia, Clarke County's 1% LOST, the Unified Government's 1% SPLOST, and the Clarke County School District's 1% SPLOST.

For anyone interested, the Special Council's web site has scads of information: (http://fiscalresearch.gsu.edu/taxcouncil/index.htm).

Clarke School Budget Lacking Details

2011-11-25T17:59:00.000-05:00

Read the column here (17 April 2011).

For those who may want to view source material for themselves, here are the links. Also, the percentage calculations noted are my own; if you want to double check them (which means that you are really, really hard up for something to do), by all means have at it.
FY 2010 per pupil expenditures for the 181 local school systems reporting and the State of Georgia average:
http://app3.doe.k12.ga.us/ows-bin/owa/fin_pack_revenue.entry_form
That $11,900 current per pupil expenditure claimed by the CCSD:
http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/district.cfm?subpage=11
CCSD FY 2012 Budget Overview:
http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/files/14/ccsdbudgetoverviewfy2012.pdf
CCSD Proposed FY 2012 Tentative Budget:
http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/files/14/tentative%20budget%20to%20boe%2004-...
CCSD Budget Hearing Notes for FY 2012 Presentations:
http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/files/14/tentative%20budget%20presentation%2...
posted @

Local Programs Give Practical Emergency Preparedness

2011-11-25T17:56:00.000-05:00

Read the column here (01 May 2011).

Here are some links that readers may find useful. Note that the contact information given in the column is current, but that given on some web pages that are floating around out there may not be.

Athens-Clarke County Citizen Police Academy (not much of a site, but it does have the full curriculum):
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/index.aspx?NID=906

Athens-Clarke County CERT:http://www.citizencorps.gov/cc/showCert.do?cert&id=43955
http://eastgeorgia.redcross.org/CERT/about.html

The Unified Government’s CERT program has not offered classes for a while, as it has proven problematic getting the requisite number of folks together at the same time to make conducting one worthwhile. Even so, Mr. Gulley informs me that a retooling of the program is underway and he hopes to offer classes again in the not too distant future. The East Georgia chapter of the American Red Cross may (or may not) be involved going forward depending on circumstances.

University of Georgia CERT:http://www.osep.uga.edu/CERT

I would like to thank Lt. Soriano, Mr. Gulley, and Mr. Golden for their kind assistance in the preparation of this column.

Here's Primer For 'Beloved' Rite Of Spring

2011-11-21T20:00:00.000-05:00

Read the column here (15 May 2011).

A chart detailing the various millage rates charged in each of Athens-Clarke County’s five tax districts used to be posted on the Tax Commissioner’s web site; I could not find the chart on City Hall’s new and improved (and expensive) web site. Upon speaking with the staff at the Tax Commissioner’s office so as to verify my information, I was told that they will try to get that chart reposted. In the interim, see page 7 of this from the Georgia Department of Revenue for the current breakdown of millage rates here in Athens-Clarke County (does not have the rates for Bogart and Winterville):https://etax.dor.ga.gov/ptd/cds/csheets/LGS_Georgia_County_Ad_Valorem_Ta...

For a listing of exemptions, see these from the State of Georgia:https://etax.dor.ga.gov/ptd/adm/taxguide/exempt/homestead.aspx
and these from Athens-Clarke County:http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/index.aspx?NID=1687https://etax.dor.ga...

For a discussion of assessments, see these from the State of Georgia:https://etax.dor.ga.gov/PTD/adm/taxguide/gen/assessment.aspx

and these from Athens-Clarke County:http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/index.aspx?NID=2315

While they do not apply to most cases, there are a couple of “preferential” assessment categories (rehabilitated historic property or landmark historic property) and several “special” assessment categories (preferential agricultural property, conservation use property, environmentally sensitive property, farm land property, brownfield property, residential transitional property), a category for timberland (standing), and one for equipment, machinery, and fixtures.

For the provisions of SB 346 that mandate annual assessment and estimated tax notices, see O.C.G.A. §48-5-306:http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/gacode/default.asp

Then there is this from a blog posting over at TOA from June 2008 (http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2008/06/questions-about-those-splost-...): Back in 2007, the Clarke County School District’s SPLOST 3 bond resolution included a provision that, should the limited duration sales tax be insufficient to repay said bonds, any shortfall would be added to the CCSD’s portion of the local property tax millage rate. Longtime readers may remember that I had two specific concerns with regard to any such transfer of bonded indebtedness to property taxes.
My first concern dealt with the 20 mills limit imposed by the state Constitution. The CCSD’s portion of the local property tax millage rate has been at the 20 mills limit for years; to exceed that limit would normally require the voters’ approval to do so via a referendum. So how could that line be administratively traversed so as to make up a SPLOST revenue shortfall without a referendum?
After a (very) long and circuitous journey through a variety of local and state government bureaucracies, the Attorney General’s office provided me with the relevant Georgia Supreme Court case law, Seaboard Air-Line Railway Company v. Wright, comptroller-general, et al., from way back in 1927, that exempted bond debt service from any constitutional limit. I do not agree with the reasoning embodied in that decision, as it would seem to render the rationale for the 20 mills limit moot, but the case law is what it is.

Satisfying my second concern has proven somewhat more vexing. The CCSD’s bond resolution cited a provision contained in the Constitution as expressly permitting the transfer of bonded indebtedness from SPLOST sales taxes to property taxes. That resolution read in part (see the second paragraph on page 5 of the PDF):

"WHEREAS, Article IX, Section V, Paragraph VI of the Constitution of the State of Georgia requires that prior to the issuance of general obligation bonds, a tax must be levied in amounts sufficient to pay the principal of and the interest on the Bonds as the same become due and payable, to the extent that the revenues from the Sales Tax are not sufficient thereof;"

The resolution was littered throughout with similar language. Being a nerdy type reasonably familiar with the verbiage in the Constitution, this immediately struck me as odd. Sure enough, when I went to the document itself, no such provision was anywhere to be found. The actual text of Article IX, Section V, Paragraph VI of the Constitution reads (see page 81, http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/constitution_2007.pdf):
"Levy of taxes to pay bonds; sinking fund required. Any county, municipality, or other political subdivision of this state shall at or before the time of incurring bonded indebtedness provide for the assessment and collection of an annual tax sufficient in amount to pay the principal and interest of said debt within 30 years from the incurring of such bonded indebtedness. The proceeds of this tax, together with any other moneys collected for this purpose, shall be placed in a sinking fund to be used exclusively for paying the principal and interest on such bonded debt. Such moneys shall be held and kept separate and apart from all other revenues collected and may be invested and reinvested as provided by law."

There is no mention whatsoever of transferring bonded indebtedness from a sales tax to property tax, just a general provision that a sinking fund to repay bonds be in place before such bonds are issued. Explicitly contrary to my reading of the CCSD’s resolution, the Constitution is mute on the subject of transferring any shortfall in sales tax collections to property tax “to the extent that revenues from the Sales Tax are not sufficient therefore.”

After an even longer and more circuitous journey through a variety of local and state government bureaucracies – the Attorney General’s office clammed up on me this time – I eventually discovered, after speaking with a bond attorney over in Atlanta, that the answer can be found in O.C.G.A. §48-1-121(c):

"No general obligation debt shall be issued in conjunction with the imposition of the tax unless the governing authority of the county or qualified municipalities within special district issuing the debt determines that, and if the debt is to be validated it is demonstrated in the validation proceedings that, during each year in which any payment of principal or interest on the debt comes due the county or qualified municipalities within special district issuing such debt will receive from the tax authorized by this part net proceeds sufficient to fully satisfy such liability. General obligation debt issued under this part shall be payable first from the separate account in which are placed the proceeds received by the county or qualified municipalities within the special district issuing such debt from the tax authorized by this part. Such debt, however, shall constitute a pledge of the full faith, credit, and taxing power of the county or qualified municipalities within the special district issuing such debt; and any liability on said debt which is not satisfied from the proceeds of the tax authorized by this part shall be satisfied from the general funds of the county or qualified municipalities within the special district issuing such debt."

Okay, that answers the question as to on what legal basis a shortfall in SPLOST sales taxes may be transferred to property taxes, though it is not explicitly stated in that manner.

But the question remains: why did not the CCSD’s bond resolution cite this section of state law? Why make language up out of whole cloth and claim that it is in the Constitution, when a few seconds on the Internet reveals that claim to be patently false?

Finally, consider the games that can be played with millage rates when they are considered irrespective of the “rollback rate“. This from another TOA post from May of 2009 (http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2009/05/concerning-property-tax-milla...): The 0.3 mills reduction in 2004 was due solely to the work of members of the Clarke County Republican Party, who analyzed the budget and presented a list of potential reductions to the folks down at City Hall. To their credit, the Mayor and Commission did adopt many of our recommendations, thereby “freeing up” funds for a millage rate reduction. It should never be forgotten, though, that the original plan was simply to spend the new revenue generated by growth in the tax digest (this last part always seems to get left out of the discussion).

The 0.6 mills reduction in 2005 was a sham, pure and simple. The millage rate reduction was offset by the institution of the stormwater utility fee (even the Unified Government’s budget documents acknowledged this) which, by design, also hit those property owners such as churches and schools who are exempt from property tax. Now, we will have the situation where the millage rate is back to within 0.2 mills of where it was prior to the imposition of the fee – a fee that will be with us forever regardless of future millage rate hikes. Because of increases in assessments the “rollback” rate in any given year may well be lower that the millage rate - so property taxes can actually go up if the millage rate stays constant or, in some cases, even goes down.

For what it is worth, my assessment and estimated tax notice arrived in the mail on Friday; after increasing in 2008 and remaining the same in 2009 and 2010, this years fair market value dropped (finally) by 11.61% - as well it should have.

Father's War Stories Were Told Sparingly

2011-11-21T19:04:00.000-05:00

Read the column here (30 May 2011),

I have striven for accuracy in reconstructing my father’s military service, but readers are advised that records are not always available and that sources do not always agree. Also, based on my further research, it appears that my dad received his training as a cook at Camp Butner, after returning from Europe, not at Fort McClellan as part of his basic training as I had originally supposed in my initial column back in January.

I would like to thank Rodney Davis for responding to that column about my father’s decorations with some helpful links to information on the Internet concerning the 4th ID.

Some of the resources I used in addition to my father’s papers were:

National Personnel Records Center - Family members of a deceased veteran can order copies of services records, which I did. In the event, the NPRC was not able to provide me with anything useful that I did not already have. Said its response to my request, “The [July 12, 1973] fire destroyed the major portion of records of Army military personnel who separated from the service between 1912 through 1959 . . . Fortunately, there were alternate records sources that contained information which was used to reconstruct some service record data lost in the fire. However, complete records could not be reconstructed.”

To order such records, see:
http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/

for replacing lost or damaged decorations, see:
http://www.archives.gov/veterans/replace-medals.html

U.S. Army Center of Military History - For organizational information concerning the 4th ID’s participation in the European Theater of Operations, consisting of wartime command and staff officers, statistics (chronology, casualties, individual awards), composition (constituent units), attachments, detachments, and command posts, see:
http://www.history.army.mil/documents/eto-ob/4id-eto.htm.

For the Combat Chronicle of the 4th ID, see:
http://www.history.army.mil/html/forcestruc/cbtchron/cc/004id.htm.

For the 4th ID’s designation as a “liberating unit” by the U.S. Army’s Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, see:
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006134.

For the use of the Cunard Line’s Queen Mary as a troop transport, see:
http://ww2troopships.com/ships/q/queenmary/default.htm

Democrat Will Face Tough Odds In House Race

2011-11-18T11:20:00.000-05:00

Read the column here (12 June 2011),

For the inquiring minds out there, here is my documentation. As always, the percentage calculations are my own.

Maps of House District 113

Georgia:
http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/pdf/2006house.pdf

Athens-Clarke County:
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1330

2004 election returns

Georgia:
http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/election_results/2004_1102/house.htm

Athens-Clarke County:
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/archives/36/2004-11-02%20General.pdf

2006 election returns

Georgia:
http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/election_results/2006_1107/swgahouse.htm

Athens-Clarke County:
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/archives/36/2006-11-07%20General.pdf

2008 election returns:

Georgia:
http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/election_results/2008_1104/swgahouse.htm

Athens-Clarke County:
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/archives/36/2008-11-05%20General.pdf

2010 election returns

Georgia:
http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/election_results/2008_1104/swgahouse.htm

Athens-Clarke County:
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/archives/36/2010-11-02%20General%20Sum...

County Insists On Fighting No-win Battles

2011-11-18T11:16:00.000-05:00

Read the column here (26 June 2011).

For those who may want to read the source documents for themselves.

Order Granting Partial Interlocutory Injunction; see page 5 for county attorney’s threat to have Mr. Stiles arrested and to personally prevent him from getting any construction variances, as well as City Hall’s plan to contract with the ADDA in an area that “. . . does not lie within the confines of downtown Athens as defined by the legislative act that created the ADDA. These efforts to induce the ADDA to engage in unauthorized conduct continue at the present moment . . .,’ see pages 19-20 for the ADDA being regarded as trespassers on the property in question:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BwYXo...

Downtown Development Authority Facts; see for information about how Downtown Development Authorities were/are created and their powers:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B3QDO...

Downtown Athens Development Authority - Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (1975):
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B3QDO...

Downtown Athens Development Authority Created (1977); see Section 2, pages 2-3 of the .pdf, for the strict and precise delimiting of “Downtown Athens area:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B3QDO...

Downtown Athens Development Authority Act Amended (1980):
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B3QDO...

Downtown Athens Development Authority - Local Constitutional Amendment Continued (1987):
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B3QDO...

Marsh Open Records - Produced; response to an records request by John Marsh, see pages 7-13 of the .pdf for January through March billing of $13,215.56 (and note, again, that more bills will be forthcoming, as the hearing was not until April and the Order was not issued until late May - and now we get to pay for an appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court):
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B3QDO...

Political Consensus Isn't Meant To Be Easy Goal

2011-11-18T11:07:00.000-05:00

Read the column here (10 July 2011).
For the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution, Bill of Rights, and other Amemdments, see here:
http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html

Redistricting Work Should Give Voice To Students

2011-11-18T10:59:00.000-05:00

Read the column here (24 July 2011).

If readers think that these proposals sound familiar, they are correct. I advocated both as good government measures when I ran for the District 1 seat on the Athens-Clarke County Commission back in 2006. Other than the passage of time, absolutely nothing has changed and I still think that both would be a worthwhile endeavors. Of course, they were both ignored them back then. I don’t have high hopes for this time around, either.

Georgia General Assembly Joint Reapportionment Office:
http://www.legis.ga.gov/Joint/reapportionment/en-US/default.aspx

Georgia Secretary of State Redistricting/Reapportionment Archives:
http://sos.georgia.gov/archives/how_may_we_help_you/Current_Issues/Reapp...

NSCL Redistricting Commissions and Alternatives to the Legislature Conducting Redistricting:
http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=16644

NCSL Redistricting Commissions: Legislative Plans:
http://www.ncsl.org/Default.aspx?TabId=16617

Media coverage of my 2006 campaign regarding local redistricting:
http://www.redandblack.com/2006/09/14/student-district-possible-in-acc/
http://www.redandblack.com/2006/09/14/our-take-503/
http://www.redandblack.com/2006/09/15/opinion-meter-230/
http://onlineathens.com/stories/090506/letters_20060905034.shtml
http://onlineathens.com/stories/102906/election_20061029123.shtml

No Guarantees On Getting Social Security

2011-11-15T09:14:00.001-05:00

Read the column here (06 August 2011).

This column proved to be something of a trial to write. Not in a conceptual sense, mind you, as I am familiar with the argument and sources and have written on this topic in earlier letters to the editor and blog posts.

The problem was one of having too much to say. What started out as a relatively simple 750-word Sunday column took on a life of its own as I delved deeper into the details of the argument – at one point I was even considering a four-part series: 1) an analysis of and commentary on the provisions of the Social Security Act; 2) an analysis of and commentary on Helvering v. Davis; 3) an analysis of and commentary on Flemming v. Nestor; and 4) an analysis of and commentary on the details of the Social Security Trust Fund (on which I still may pen something).

Such an extensive undertaking may well have been intellectually satisfying, but would involved far more time and effort than I really have to devote to it. Besides, seeing as how my columns are published on a bi-weekly basis, I fear that readers’ eyes would simply glaze over long before two months of this topic made it to print.

Thus, a retrenchment was in order. Be that as it may, though, readers are invited to review some of the source material for themselves and take it from there:

United States Code, Title 42 Chapter 7 - Social Security; see specifically Section 1304:
http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/42/7

Helvering v. Davis:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=301&invol=619

Flemming v. Nestor:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=363&invol=603

And just for fun, see Social Security Retirement Benefits by Date of Birth (full retirement age is already 67 for anyone born after 01 January 1960 - and is just going to increase from there so get ready for it):
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/retire2/agereduction.htm

Face Hard Truths About Social Security

2011-11-15T09:08:00.000-05:00

Read the column here (21 August 2011).

These two letters to the editor from back in 2005 formed the starting point for my recent forays into the murky world of Social Security:

Social Security provides no guarantee of income
http://onlineathens.com/stories/053005/let_20050530046.shtml

Social Security Trust Funs is merely a fiscal fiction
http://onlineathens.com/stories/012005/let_20050120025.shtml

The federal bureaucracy sources used in the column:

Social Security Administration Trust Fund Operations
http://www.ssa.gov/history/tftable.html

Social Security Trustees 2011 Annual Report Summary
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/index.html

OMB Analytical Perspective FY 2000 Budget
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy00/pdf/spec.pdf

Some additional thoughts in no particular order:

From 1937 through 1958, Social Security ran surpluses every year. Form 1959 through 1981, it ran deficits in eleven years (1959, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, and 1981). It ran surpluses every year from 1982 through 2009 (it technically ran a surplus in 1982 but borrowed from Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, repaying the money in 1985 and 1986 - see below). Those surpluses peaked in 2007 and dropped in 2008 and 2009. The system began running what in all probability will be permanent deficits in 2010.

Just to muddy the waters, be aware that there are several trust funds: Social Security trust funds include the Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund (OASI) and the Disability Insurance Fund (DI); the term “Social Security Trust Fund” usually refers to a combination of the OASI and DI funds (OASDI). Medicare trust funds include the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund (HI; Medicare Part A) and the Supplementary Medical Insurance trust Fund (SMI; Medicare Part B and Part D).

Social Security benefits were exempt from the federal government’s taxation of income from the inception of the system in 1935 until a 1983 amendment to the Social Security Act specified that taxpayers who had income above a specified threshold would be subject to income tax on 50% of their Social Security benefits. The amount of Social Security benefit subject to income tax rose to 85% under the 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act.

From what I could piece together from various sources, it appears that from the time federal accounting practices changed under the Johnson administration until some time during the Reagan presidency, the Trust Fund contained real bonds; from that time during the Reagan administration until some time in the Clinton administration the Trust Fund contained a mixture of real and “special issue” bonds; since that time during the Clinton administration, the Trust Fund has contained nothing but the “special issue bonds. I could not independently verify this timeline so I did not include it in the column but, given my knowledge of what happened and when with regard to the Trust Fund, it seems reasonable.

Even the amount of money ostensibly in the Social Security Trust Fund is nothing more than an educated guess (perhaps a better word term be “balance,” as there is no actual “money” involved). Each month, the Treasury estimates how much of the government’s aggregate revenue is derived from Social Security payroll taxes and “credits” that amount to the Trust Fund, then subtracts the amount of benefits paid out for the month to arrive at a figure.

Approximately 42% of federal government spending these days is done on the basis of borrowed money. Of that borrowed money, something like 70% of all of the bonds sold by the Treasury this year have been bought by the Federal Reserve. I can’t see any good is going to come of this practice.
The manner in which the term “national debt” is typically used includes intergovernmental debt, which is what one part of the government owes another; the more useful term “publicly held debt” does not. To those outside of the government, what it owes to itself is irrelevant. The important figure is what does government owe to others.

This discussion does not touch on the matter of the “net-present value” calculations that the Social Security Board of Trustees must by law consider annually for the upcoming 75 year period. This is where the discussion of “unfunded” Social Security benefits begins. When the special issue bonds in the Trust Fund are projected to be totally depleted in 2036 (even that year is suspect, as stagnant economic growth and a shrinking base of taxpayer will further hamstring the system), projections are that the system will be lacking funds to pay the full amount of promised benefits to the tune of trillions upon trillions of dollars (projections vary widely, but all involve an absolutely tremendous amount of money). Regardless of the specific amount involved, a projected 27% across the board decrease in benefits will have to occur to keep the system creaking along. Note that this is money that, were it deposited into the system today, would be needed to cover projected benefits over and above the payroll taxed collected over the period and is irrespective of the mythical solvency of the Trust Fund.

And finally, as bad as the finances for Social Security are, those for Medicare are far, far, far worse. For just how bad, see the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees report for 2011.

By the way, the Social Security Trust Fund is currently "credited" with approximately $2.6 trillion in those "special issue" bonds.

Economic Studies Bode Ill for River District Plan

2011-11-15T08:56:00.000-05:00

Read the column here (04 September 2011).

“Review of: The Athens-Clarke County Unified Government,” prepared by the 2010 Overview Commission (January 2011). This document used to appear on the old version of the Auditor’s page of the Unified Government’s web site; it did not make the transition to the newer, expensive version:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BwYXo...

“Community and Economic Development Assessment of Athens-Clarke County,” funded by Georgia Power Company and prepared by Janus Economics (August 2011):
http://www.georgiaresourcecenter.com/Athens-Assessment/PDFS/Athens%20Cla...

“Evaluation of the Feasibility of Creating an Oconee Riverfront Economic Development District,” prepared by Pathfinder Consulting/Bleakley Advisory Group (June 2011):
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/DocumentView.aspx?DID=3653

Georgia Department of Community Affairs 2011 Directory of Registered Local Government Authorities (enter “Athens-Clarke” as city/county and “development” as type to see the various development authorities):
http://www.dca.state.ga.us/development/research/programs/RASearch.asp?Se...

Economic Development Foundation:
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/index.aspx?nid=140

Athens Area Chamber of Commerce:
http://www.athenschamber.net/index.php

Unified Government’s Human and Economic Development Department:
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/index.aspx?NID=413

Development Work Done In Many Ways

2011-11-15T08:50:00.001-05:00

Read the column here (18 September 2011).

Though I am gratified to see that Project Blue Heron is dead, I still think that the various departments, authorities, and nonprofits mentioned above need to develop a coordinated economic development strategy - insofar as they can, that is. I realize that their objectives and approaches vary and, to a certain extent, therein lies one of the many problems that we face.

Be that as it may, this column got whittled down a bit in the editing process (not a complaint, merely an observation), so here is some additional information:

Athens Clarke-County Human & Economic Development Department:
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/index.aspx?NID=413

Georgia Department of Community Affairs:

Local Government Authorities
http://www.dca.state.ga.us/development/research/programs/lga.asp

Definition of Authority Terms
http://www.dca.ga.gov/development/research/programs/RADefinitions.asp

2011 Directory of Registered Local Government Authorities
http://www.dca.state.ga.us/development/research/programs/RASearch.asp

Athens Downtown Development Authority:
http://www.downtownathensga.com/about-us.php

Joint Development Authority of Northeast Georgia:
http://www.northeastgeorgiaworks.com/Home_Page.php

Athens-Clarke County Economic Development Foundation:
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/index.aspx?NID=1086

Follow the links above to differentiate between "constitutional" and "legislative" authorities and among the three "single-jurisdictional” authorities, operating only in Athens-Clarke County, and the two “multi-jurisdictional” ones that include other counties.

The Athens-Clarke County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) is the traditional development authority that most think of when they hear the term “development authority.” This authority is often, though incorrectly, referred to as the “Economic Development Authority.”

The Economic Development Foundation was formed as an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

SCHS Pigskin Update

2011-11-14T10:50:00.000-05:00

Since we last checked in with my alma mater Indians, the team has experienced both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat (he says in his best Jim McKay voice).

The team finished up the regular season with a 39-14 win at North Hall, thereby ending the season with an unblemished Region 8AAA mark and a Region 8AAA Division A championship.

The next week, it was back to Hall County to face perennial power and Region 8AAA Division B champion Gainesville in the “play-in” game. The Red Elephants soundly thumped the Indians 62-7 (ouch!). Even with the loss, though, SCHS secured the second seed in Region 8AAA.

In the first round if the state playoffs, the Indians hosted the Cedartown Bulldogs, the third seed from Region 7AAA, and posted a 21-14 win at The Reservation.

In this week’s second round of the state playoffs, SCHS (9-2) makes the very long road trip to Grady County to face Cairo. The Syrupmakers (9-2), the number seed out of Region 1AAA, knocked off Perry in the first round.

My Comments On My Columns

2011-11-14T09:09:00.001-05:00

I see that online comments are no longer being archived with their corresponding Banner-Herald articles. That being the case, I have started posting my "comments" to my columns here, as I frequently use the comment board to supply readers with additional information, citations, etc. (a process that will take a while and which I will undertake in reverse chronological order).

I will provide links to the columns, which remain on the OnlineAthens web site. The copyrights on the columns themselves are held by Morris Communications for two weeks after they run, at which point they to devolve me.

Moratoria Aren't Good Government

2011-11-14T08:38:00.002-05:00

Read the column here (02 October 2011).

The column that I had originally planned ran very much along the same lines of Myra Blackmon’s most recent one. After all, pointing out that we need a shared vision of what constituted “historic” for the purposes of historic preservation is an obvious corollary to my point that we need a shared vision for the purpose of economic development. Anyway, Myra beat me to the punch.

As a fallback, I was preparing one of my “informational” efforts concerning the Athens-Clarke County Historic Preservation Commission. Then, in last Tuesday’s edition there appeared the story about our betters down at City Hall enacting yet another development moratorium – naturally with no public notice of which to speak – and the current column pretty much wrote itself. Perhaps I will revisit the one about the A-CCHPC later on.

For the “moratorium on moratoriums” comment, see:

http://onlineathens.com/stories/012403/opi_20030124014.shtml

I’ve been carping about this development moratoria business, which I regard as quite serious, for a long time. As evidence, see these letters to the editor:
http://onlineathens.com/stories/071305/let_20050713014.shtml
http://onlineathens.com/stories/030906/letters_20060309028.shtml

These news articles:
http://onlineathens.com/stories/022202/let_letter3.shtml
http://onlineathens.com/stories/103102/new_20021031094.shtml
http://onlineathens.com/stories/102606/election_20061026095.shtml

And these blog posts:
http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2007/10/and-hits-just-keep-on-coming....
http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2008/06/damned-if-they-didnt-do-it-ag...
http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2010/05/fire-station-no-6-update.html
http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2010/05/both-witty-and-wise.html
http://theotherathens.blogspot.com/2010/11/impertinet-observations-local...

'Historic' Is Subjective Judgment

2011-11-14T08:17:00.004-05:00

Read the column here (16 October 2011).

For the details governing City Hall’s local historic preservation efforts, see Chapter 8-5 of the Unified Government’s code:
http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientId=12400&stateId=10&stateNa...

For the Athens Clarke-County Historic Preservation Commission web site and links to various design guidelines, maps, reference material, etc., see:
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/index.aspx?NID=208

School SPLOST Is New Tax

2011-11-14T08:12:00.001-05:00

Read the column here (30 October 29011).

O.C.G.A. really doesn’t make a distinction between county SPLOSTs and school district SPLOSTs insofar as terminology is concerned, and whatever terminology is used by others is frequently used inconsistently. For the sake of clarity, I have used the term “ESPLOST-4”. That is the term used by Charlie Maddox in his earlier opinion piece, short for Education SPLOST 4, which appears to be the preferred term of the CCSD.

When I cast my “early” vote down at the Board of Elections office on Tuesday, 18 October, no sample ballot had been posted on the Board’s web site. I do not know when the sample ballot was posted, but it can now be found here:
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/DocumentView.aspx?DID=4159

Here is the resolution approved by the Board of Education back during its called meeting of 27 June, 2011 on which the above ballot resolution is based. I got it from the Clarke County School District’s PR office, as the attachment was not included in either the online agenda or minutes archived on the CCSD web site for the meeting (it was the first item under New Business). Note that it is just as vague and unspecific as the ballot resolution (county governments and school districts having learned the utility of vagueness insofar as their SPLOST project descriptions are concerned – can you say “Tennis Center?”):
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BwYXo...

For the legalese that covers these matters, see O.C.G.A. Title 48, Chapter 8, Article 3, Part 1 (County Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) and Part 2 (Sales Tax for Educational Purposes):
http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/gacode/default.asp

Clarke County School District Education SPLOST FAQs (I also have a separate 2-page PDF specifically on Education SPLOST-4 that was on the CCSD web site, but I cannot find that link now):
http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/files/4393/splost-faq.pdf

A trio of further thoughts:

Years ago, I asked some questions as the result of the approval of ESPLOST-3 and its associated bond issue. The CCSD’s portion of the local property tax millage rate has been at the 20 mills limit for years; to exceed that limit would normally require the voters’ approval to do so via a referendum. So how could that limit be administratively traversed so as to make up a SPLOST revenue shortfall without a referendum? After a long and circuitous journey through a variety of local and state government bureaucracies, the Attorney General’s office provided me with the relevant Georgia Supreme Court case law, Seaboard Air-Line Railway Company v. Wright, comptroller-general, et al., from way back in 1927, that exempted bond debt service from any constitutional limit. I do not agree with the reasoning embodied in that decision, as it would seem to render the rationale for the 20 mills limit moot, but the case law is what it is.

In order to raise ESPLOST-4's hoped-for $24 million per year in sales tax revenue rather than the expected $21 million per year, the purchase of an additional $300 million per year of taxable goods and services would have to occur in Athens-Clarke County. That works out to a $1.5 billion increase in taxable purchases over the five-year duration of ESPLOST-4. Any such increase is highly unlikely – and how – so why word the referendum that way? Because the CCSD is greedy and wants to hedge its bets just in case, that is why. And if $105 million is expected to pay for the projects included in ESPLOST-4, for what would the additional $15 be used?

Ostensibly, the idea is that by issuing bonds, thereby getting a significant portion of the levy’s anticipated revenue immediately, any construction costs increases that occur over ESPLOST-4's five-year duration can be avoided (this practice is typically referred to as “forward funding”). “Ostensibly,” I say, because when I quizzed the powers that be over how much money the CCSD was going to save by employing this strategy with the bonds issued as a part of ESPLOST-3, none of them could even hazard a guess as to how much would be saved, or even how such a figure may be calculated. I, like they, was just supposed to accept the reasoning as a matter of unverifiable faith. Besides which, I would argue the assumption that construction costs must invariably rise has been disproven in recent years.

Questions About Clarke ESPLOST

2011-11-13T20:14:00.005-05:00

Read the column here (13 November 2011).

The eighth paragraph should read, with a close quotation mark: . . . indebtedness of the school system." If no such debt exists . . .

As I noted in the comments for my previous column:

“O.C.G.A. really doesn’t make a distinction between county SPLOSTs and school district SPLOSTs insofar as terminology is concerned, and whatever terminology is used by others is frequently used inconsistently. For the sake of clarity, I have used the term 'ESPLOST-4.' That is the term used by Charlie Maddox in his earlier opinion piece, short for Education SPLOST 4, which appears to be the preferred term of the CCSD.”

Even so, the preferred terminology seems to have changed over time; note that ESPLOST-4 and SPLOST 4 are the same thing (as are ESPLOST-3 and SPLOST 3).

I must confess that the folks over at the Department or Revenue get high marks insofar as helping me out is concerned. When I first called in with my questions, I got transferred/referred hither and yon which, of course, is par for the course. I finally ended up in the telephone of an attorney in the Office of Tax Policy who could not have been nicer or more helpful. Over the course of several conversations, we reviewed with the applicable provisions of the Constitution, O.C.G.A., and the Department of Revenue regulations (with which I am familiar and had right in front of me before I made any calls). Additionally, the good fellow searched case law and opinions issued by the Attorney General’s office. He then referred me to another fellow in the Local Government Services Division (formerly the Property Tax Division) with whom he had discussed my questions and I covered the same ground with him. Although they would not tell me that I was legally correct, not being in the business of providing “legal advice” to folks on the telephone, neither could they, on the basis of whatever material to which they had access, point out were I was incorrect. In fact, both indicated that mine would seem to be a “reasonable interpretation” of the issues involved.

Be that as it may, here is the source material for you to read for yourselves:

State of Georgia Constitution Article VIII, Section VI, Paragraph IV

(a) . . . This tax shall be at the rate of 1 percent and shall be imposed for a period of time not to exceed five years, but in all other respects, except as otherwise provided in this Paragraph, shall correspond to and be levied in the same manner as the tax provided for by Article 3 of Chapter 8 of Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the special county 1 percent sales and use tax, as now or hereafter amended. . .

(b) The purpose or purposes for which the proceeds of the tax are to be used and may be expended include:(1) Capital outlay projects for educational purposes;(2) The retirement of previously incurred general obligation debt with respect only to capital outlay projects of the school system; provided, however, that the tax authorized under this Paragraph shall only be expended for the purpose authorized under this subparagraph (b)(2) if all ad valorem property taxes levied or scheduled to be levied prior to the maturity of any such then outstanding general obligation debt to be retired by the proceeds of the tax imposed under this Paragraph shall be reduced by a total amount equal to the total amount of proceeds of the tax imposed under this Paragraph to be applied to retire such bonded indebtedness. In the event of failure to comply with the requirements of this subparagraph (b)(2), as certified by the Department of Revenue, no further funds shall be expended under this subparagraph (b)(2) by such county or independent board of education and all such funds shall be maintained in a separate, restricted account and held solely for the expenditure for future capital outlay projects for educational purposes; or(3) A combination of the foregoing.

(h) Excess proceeds of the tax which remain following expenditure of proceeds for authorized projects or purposes for education shall be used solely for the purpose of reducing any indebtedness of the school system. In the event there is no indebtedness, such excess proceeds shall be used by such school system for the purpose of reducing its millage rate in an amount equivalent to the amount of such excess proceeds.

http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/GAConstitution.pdf

O.C.G.A. Title 48, Chapter 8, Article 3

Part 1 County Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax

§48-8-110. Definitions(1) "Capital outlay project" means major, permanent, or long-lived improvements or betterments, such as land and structures, such as would be properly chargeable to a capital asset account and as distinguished from current expenditures and ordinary maintenance expenses. Such term shall include, but not be limited to, roads, streets, bridges, police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, garbage trucks, and other major equipment.

§48-8-111. Procedure for imposition of tax; resolution or ordinance; notice to county election superintendent; election

This section gives lots of examples of permissible “capital outlay projects” for a variety of different categories, none of which even remotely sounds like the study the CCSD is wanting to retroactive fund using SPLOST-4 revenue.

Part 2 Sales Tax for Educational Purposes

§48-8-140. Authority for and legislative intent of articleThis part is enacted pursuant to the authority of Article VIII, Section VI, Paragraph IV of the Constitution of Georgia and it is the intent of the General Assembly in the enactment of this part to further define and implement such provision of the Constitution.

http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/gacode/default.asp

Department of Revenue Regulations - Sale and Use Tax Division

Chapter 506-12-7 Educational Local Option Tax560-12-7-.01 Definitions.(1) The term “Educational Local Option Tax” as used in these regulations shall mean the1% sales and use tax for use by the School Board of such counties and/or independent school boards as authorized under provisions and conditions of Article VIII, Section VI, Paragraph IV of the Georgia Constitution.(2) The term “Educational Local Option Tax Act” as used in these regulations shall mean Act No. 19 (Resolution No. 728) set forth in the Georgia Constitution authorizing a 1% sales and use tax for such School Board or School Boards of Education located within a county.(3) The term “School Board” as used in these regulations shall include any Board of Education of such school district in a county or the Board of Education of any independent school district authorized to levy an Educational Local Option Tax under the authority of Article VIII, Section VI, Paragraph IV of the Georgia Constitution.(4) The term “State Sales and Use Tax Act” as used in these regulations, shall mean the Georgia Retailers’ and Consumers’ Sales and Use Tax Act, approved February 20, 1951(Ga. L. 1951, p. 360) as amended.

http://rules.sos.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/page.cgi?g=DEPARTMENT_OF_REVENUE%2F...

Clarke County Board of Education - Minutes of September 2010

Board approval was requested for a contract to complete a district-wide building and site condition assessment related to planning for SPLOST 4 needs and priorities. A Request for Proposals was advertised in the local newspaper and posted on the School District website. Twenty-four firms attended the mandatory pre-proposal meeting and nine firms responded. Guaranteed maximum prices for the scope of work ranged from $37,500 to $391,000. All submittals included commitments to meet the completion deadline of November 12, 2010.

The costs shall be forward funded and included as a reimbursable amount in the referendum for SPLOST 4.

Superintendent’s recommendation: Approve a contract with SP Design Group at a Guaranteed Maximum Price of $37,500 and establishment of a $10,000 contingency for owner-requested additional services.

See pages 3-4 for the agenda item, which was passed by unanimous vote as part of the New Business Consent Agenda

http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/files/35355/minutes%209-9-10%20regular%20mtg...

Clarke County Board of Education – Minutes of June 2011

Memorandum: Funding for Architectural Services (Maxine P. Easom Elementary)

The maximum design phase expenditure will be four percent (4%) of the construction budget of $9.1M (total design cost $364,000).

The proposed construction schedule for this new school, if approved by the voters in the November 2011 SPLOST 4 referendum, requires commencement of the project in early 2012. Thus, the design work must begin very soon to meet this accelerated schedule.

Funding for the design costs will be provided in the SPLOST 3 budget for general contingencies.

On both the agenda (page 44) and the minutes (page 2), the item is the second one under New Business. It passed by unanimous vote.

http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/files/filesystem/062711BOEPacket.pdf
http://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/files/35355/june%2027%20-%20called%20meeting...

SCHS Pigskin Update

2011-10-27T13:22:00.003-04:00

After falling behind by a touchdown early in the contest, my alma mater Indians posted a slew of unanswered points on a turnover-plagued Lumpkin County squad en route to a 40-7 victory last week at The Reservation.

This week, the Indians (7-1, 4-0) travel to Gainesville to take on North Hall in the regular season finale for both teams. The Trojans (4-4, 3-1) are coming off of a 54-37 home loss to Franklin County.

Raising Cain

2011-10-19T13:49:00.002-04:00

Okay, so the title of this post is not very original. As readers can plainly see by glancing to either side, though, I am indeed supporting Herman Cain for the GOP presidential nomination. I shared a table with Mr. Cain and one of his friends/campaign advisers when he was running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate against Johnny Isakson back in 2004. He was in town for a fundraiser at Outback Steakhouse and, after the function, graciously let me visit with him for a bit as he partook of the fare. I still have the "Cain Crusader" pin I got at the time.

I may not agree with Herman on every issue, but then I will not agree with any candidate on every issue. I do, however, agree with him on the ones that are important to me and think that someone from outside the Wasington establishment is needed to address the problems that seem to be endemic there. I think that the more real folks meet and hear Cain, the stronger his candidacy will become. Certainly, the amount of attention directed his way by media and pundit types has increased dramatically in recent weeks (not all of it positive, naturally).

Speaking of the "establishment," I remain skeptical about the GOP's national insiders. While I think that Mitt Romney would be a vast improvement over the current occupant of the White House, I do not like the idea that Romney, as the establishment candidate whose turn has come, should be annointed just yet. We tried that with Bob Dole and John McCain (both of whom for which I have great personal respect) and we see how that turned out. I understand that establishment Republicans may be annoyed with the TEA partiers and their seemingly strident attitudes, but if the GOP had been doing what it should have for the past several years, such would not be an issue now.

SCHS Pigskin Update

2011-10-19T12:56:00.000-04:00

Since last we checked in with my alma mater Indians, SCHS has recorded two more victories, a 28-0 road win over Chestatee and a 25-14 home win over White County.

The Reservation will be awash with Indians this coming Friday evening, as the Toccoa variety (6-1, 3-0) hosts to the Lumpkin County variety (4-3, 1-2) making the trip down from Dahlonega. A couple of facts that may auger well for the home team is that Lumpkin County has yet to win on the road this season and has been pounded in its last two games.

SCHS Pigskin Update

2011-10-01T18:35:00.002-04:00

My alma mater Indians defeated the Franklin County Lions by the score of 24-7, the team’s fourth consecutive victory. Stephens County and neighboring Franklin County have been rivals since way, way, way back when both were AA schools.

This coming week, the Indians (4-1, 1-0) travel to Gainesville to face Chestatee. The War Eagles (3-2, 0-1) are coming off of two straight defeats. It will be the second 8AAA Division A game for both schools.

Impertinent Observations (Guineas & Gunny edition)

2011-10-01T18:18:00.002-04:00

Our flock of free-range, wandering guineas, and by that I mean the ones that have adopted our neighborhood, has grown. Instead of the original three (two males and one female – we think based on their plumages), we now have five (three males and two females – again, we think). They can be kind of noisy, but their social antics are quite endearing. And yes, I took the picture.

Missus TOA accompanied me to the GSSF match down below Conyers last weekend. I was very pleased with my scores for the first two stages that I shot. On the third, however, I incurred 19 penalty seconds on the 20- and 25-yard targets. Even so, the preliminary scores have me 90th in the Amateur Civilian category out of 402 entries. Placing in the 77-78th percentile is not so bad considering I never practice.

The big news, though, was meeting R. Lee Ermy in the flesh (for those not in the know, Gunny is a spokesman for GLOCK in addition to his other endeavors). We were just leaving the armorers tent when "the Gunny" came by in a golf cart with a plate of food in hand. As he alit, my wife wanted to meet him. She greeted him with a big "Hoorah!," to which he responded with an equally big "Hello, darlin'!" and an even bigger hug. She said that the meeting made her day, so I was doubly glad that she went with me. And yes, he looks just like he does on TV, only taller.

SCHS Pigskin Update (belated)

2011-09-19T14:18:00.000-04:00

Since last we checked in on high school football, my alma mater Indians posted a couple of impressive victories over teams from 8AAA Division B. First came a 38-10 win over the Oconee County Warriors at The Reservation on 09 September, followed by a 44-14 decision over the West Hall Spartans at Oakwood on 16 September.

After an open date this week, the Indians (3-1, 0-0) face long-time rival Franklin County (1-2, 0-0) at The Reservation for their first region 8AAA Division A game of the year on 30 September. In the meantime, the Lions will play host to the mighty Gainesville Red Elephants this week.

GOP Presidential Contenders Duel Over Social Security

2011-09-12T09:26:00.000-04:00

In today's edition of the WSJ, the editorial board contrasts the position of Texas governor Rick Perry with that of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. They criticize Perry for being correct but engaging in rhetoric that is too harsh, while Romney is too Obama-like in his defense of the status quo.

Be that as it may, for my money this is the best part of the editorial:

Even a pyramid system such as this could be solvent if it took advantage of compound interest. But the overriding problem is that not a dime of the payroll contributions the government collects over a lifetime is saved and invested for a worker's retirement. Social Security's pay-as-you-go financing model means that 12.4% of all wages are transferred to current beneficiaries, the surplus dollars are spent by Congress on other things, and Social Security gets an IOU from the Treasury.

In other words, the program is building up debt even as benefits become less sustainable as the baby boomers begin to retire and the ratio of workers to seniors shrinks. The feds will then have to pay out of other tax revenue to meet Social Security's obligations.

The key point is that, unlike a Ponzi scheme, Social Security can be reformed and it will have to be if current workers are to receive any return on their current taxes. Everyone serious knows what the reform options are—from changing the benefits schedule, to "progressive indexing," to raising the retirement age. We'd prefer private accounts so that young people could build wealth as a property right and not depend on the promises of politicians, while the money would be put to productive economic use in the meantime. Herman Cain mentioned it in last week's debate. But if that's too politically adventurous for the two Governors, maybe they can meet somewhere in between their rhetorical positions.

To me, this is just one more reason to like Herman Cain.

SCHS Pigskin Update

2011-09-08T12:52:00.000-04:00

My alma mater Indians posted a 39-0 blowout win in their home opener over the Hart County Bulldogs last Friday. This week, the Indians (1-1, 0-0) will host 8AAA Division B foe Oconee County (1-0, 0-0) at The Reservation in Toccoa. The Warriors are coming off of a 35-0 road win over East Jackson.

Social Security Financial Follies

2011-09-08T12:33:00.002-04:00

Just for fun, compare and contrast Things Social Security Won't Tell You, written by Jonelle Marte of Smart Money and posted on Yahoo Finance, with the points I made in a couple of my recent columns for the Banner-Herald (a.k.a. the Social Security diatribe, parts 1 and 2), No guarantees on getting Social Security check and Face hard truths about Social Security.

She does a pretty good job for a “mainstream media” type, except for continuing the fiction that the Social Security Trust Fund actually has any money in it. On the positive side, though, she also discusses the structural imbalances in the system favoring older workers.

SCHS Pigskin Update

2011-08-29T11:54:00.001-04:00

My alma mater Indians opened the season with a 29-28 road loss to Elbert County, as the Blue Devils scored a late touchdown and completed a two-point conversion for the win.

This week, the Indians (0-1, 0-0) will take on their second 8AA South opponent when they host the Hart County Bulldogs (1-0, 0-0) at The Reservation. Hart County is coming off of a 31-0 blowout of Franklin County.

I ♥ Mark Stein

2011-08-29T11:34:00.002-04:00

Writes America’s self-professed "undocumented anchorman" in “The Desperation-of-Depravation Myth,” from the current issue of National Review Online:

“The problem for the Western world is that it has incentivized non-productivity on an industrial scale.”

Filling in for Rush last week, Stein commented on the three classes that make up Western society these days, the government class, the dependency class, and the productive class. The first two are growing by leaps and bounds and the third is shrinking – while simultaneously being on the hook to fund the other two ever more lavishly.

To my mind, that pretty much sums up what the problem is. And all of the solutions proffered by the political class simply advocate more of the same.

Impertinent Observations

2011-08-24T10:41:00.001-04:00

After asking some questions on the Winterville yahoo group about the “wandering guineas” that started showing up in our yard a while back, I got a call from Erin France of the Banner-Herald. I, in turn, referred her to my sweet wife, with the result being this story that appeared in Monday’s edition.

Speaking of my sweet life, who works at Coile Middle School (located between Winterville and Hull), she called me yesterday afternoon to tell me that her desk had shook and to see if I had noticed any untoward vibrations. Within a few minutes, word came out that there had been an earthquake up in the Old Dominion.

On the national scene, the various mouthpieces for the Obama Administration are pushing the idea that government transfer payments (food stamps, unemployment payments, etc.) in reality constitute economic stimulus and job creation. Of course, any such contention is utter crap – but it is precisely the kind of newspeak crap that we have come to expect.

Speaking of Obama & Co., they are laying the groundwork for “Stimulus Mark II” in the form of a “bank” for “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects. Haven’t we seen this one before? Wasn’t that one of the main selling point for the original version? It didn’t work then, just as many of us predicted at that time. There is absolutely no reason to think that it will work this time, either.

And now we find out that the Fed bailed out banks, both American and foreign, to the tune of another $1.2 trillion that it didn’t see fit to tell anyone about.

Finally, I am angry with the GOP leadership (or establishment or whatever term one may choose to use). I realize that the deal they got with regard to raising the federal debt limit was probably the best they were going to get, given that Democrats control the Senate and the White House. On the other hand, signing off on baseline budget increases of $7-9 trillion and calling it a $2-4 trillion cut in spending is an absolute crock. My anger stems from the fact that Republicans had the opportunity to make some structural changes just a few short years ago when they ran everything up in Washington – and they did not do so. As a result, they are now facing a well deserved challenge from fiscally conservative, small government Republicans, not to mention the Tea Party, on their right. I hope that the GOP powers that be have learned their lesson – but we shall see.

SCHS Pigskin Update

2011-08-13T20:04:00.001-04:00

Threatening weather postponed the preseason tilt between the Habersham Central Raiders (8AAAA) and the host SCHS Indians from 7:30 p.m. on Friday until 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.

The Raiders emerged from the “Battle of Currahee Mountain” scrimmage with a 21-7 win. The first half of the game was played under controlled conditions, with each team alternating sets of ten plays regardless of down-and-distance. The game's second half was played under regular game conditions.

Regular season play begins in two weeks, with the Indians traveling to Elberton to take on the Elbert County Blue Devils (8AA South) in the Granite Bowl.

Impertinent Observations (economic development edition)

2011-08-11T10:17:00.001-04:00

The recent dust-up between City Hall and the Economic Development Foundation is not the first time that a potential politicization of local business recruitment efforts has been in the offing – and I remain convinced that was precisely the issue both then and now.

From 2003 to 2009, I sat on the Development Authority of the Unified Government of Athens-Clarke County. That is the comparatively recent statutory one, as opposed to the traditional Industrial Development Authority created by a constitutional amendment some decades ago, and about which there is no need to delve into minutiae of the two. Suffice it to say that the one of which I was a part was developed specifically to handle bond issues for the University’s Real Estate Foundation and Athletic Association, though it exercised most of the same powers as did the traditional IDA.

With that in mind, I have the legally-required economic development training and a few years of practical experience in the area. Based on that training and experience, I maintain that, rather than being overtly “anti-business,” the powers that be effectively hamstring the Classic City’s efforts to lure expanding and/or relocating businesses as a matter of their ideology.

On the one hand, City Hall has no sway over some local ills, such as the horribly expensive (and yet chronically underperforming) local school system and the lack of direct access to an interstate highway. On the other hand, though, it does have influence over others, such as a permitting process that is notoriously difficult (and expensive) to navigate* and the decades-long lack of an agreement with Oconee County as to the infrastructure and tax particulars of the Orkin tract (apart from the apparent difficulty of dealing with the Orkin family).

Be that as it may, contrary to what seems to be popular opinion business and industries and not looking for a reason to come to Athens. Instead, they are looking for reasons to strike as many communities as possible, ours included, off of their long lists of potential expansion sites – and that is where local politics enter the picture.

For an example of this, let’s take a ride in the way-back machine to 2005. CertainTeed, located on Athena Drive, was contemplating an expansion of its operations, either in Athens or a couple of its other locations. A local pressure group sought to have the Commission alter its usual bond approval process, namely that of having the mayor sign off on the matter, and instead insert itself into the issuance of bonds for the project by having the full Commission vote on it. Additionally, and more importantly, the group also petitioned the Commission to place environmental restrictions on CertainTeed as a requirement for approving the bonds.

Such an approach would have failed on two counts: 1) it would have subjected bond issues to political intrigue, ripe with the expectation that the Commission would seek to further mandate its progressive world view** and 2) in any event, the Commission had no authority to impose any restrictions in excess of those mandated by the federal EPA and the state EPD – which made the exercise purely political (see #1 above). It is fair to observe that City Hall did not go this route, but it is also fair to observe that once word got out about the potential political meddling in the Unified Government’s economic development efforts, as it most assuredly did, it gave pause to those on the receiving end of those efforts.

For whatever reason, CertainTeed ultimately opted to expand elsewhere (surprise, surprise) and the local pressure group claimed “victory” – quite literally. Those interested may review the particulars of the CertainTeed affair for themselves:

http://onlineathens.com/stories/112705/opinion_20051127008.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/110305/letters_20051103035.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/041106/news_20060411059.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/042506/opinion_20060425019.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/042606_20060426027.shtml

http://onlineathens.com/stories/042906/letters_20060429003.shtml

http://www.cleanairathens.org/certainteed.php

Had I been a business owner considering expanding or re-locating here, such would have summarily ended any flirtations with Athens. I keep saying that the problem with local economic development efforts is not to be found in those relatively few instances in which the Classic City makes it to a company’s short list and looses out in the end, but is in those vastly more instances in which our fair burgh is not considered in the first place.

This is not so say that local officials do not have a legitimate interest in overseeing bond issues, quite the contrary. But anyone who does not recognize the obvious political implications of having the Commission, always up for a bit of political posturing, vote on them, not to mention the resulting dampening of economic recruitment efforts, to my mind is simply not being honest.

Then we had the related spectacle of NBAF, just the kind of economic development our community ostensibly wants, being fought by another highly organized and well-funded pressure group (granted, I think that there was a strong tinge of Bush Derangement Syndrome in the opposition, but even so). Doc succinctly phrased the question thus, “If not this, what?” No useful answer has been forthcoming.

Now we have this latest sordid episode in which members of the Commission effectively held the EDF’s funding hostage in an attempt to force themselves onto the latter’s board.

And folks wonder why business and industries avoid Athens-Clarke County like the proverbial plague?

*For problems with the permitting and approval process, see the Overview Commission’s report. Unfortunately, that report seems to have disappeared from the Unified Government’s new (and very expensive) web site.

**If one doesn’t think that, when considering economic development bonds, City Hall would not display the same rigidly ideological approach that it has employed with regard to a variety of other issues (rental registration, definition of family, conservation subdivisions, stream buffers, property tax appeals, condemnation of land for the eastside park, three-lane roads, the Stiles parking lot case, etc.), then I think on is sadly mistaken.

Raise the Debt Ceiling Rap

2011-07-29T23:19:00.000-04:00

From the folks at ReasonTV, it is the Raise the Debt Ceiling rap.

Impertinent Observations (Debt Ceiling Edition)

2011-07-28T12:57:00.001-04:00

The current jockeying by either side of the aisle up in DC over this debt ceiling business seems to bear out the old saying that politics is the art of the possible – and to a certain extent, therein lies the problem.

Rather than go down any number of potential rabbit holes – the arbitrary date set for raising the debt ceiling (just the latest of many such arbitrary deadlines), the fact that not raising the debt ceiling is not the same thing as default on the debt, the fact that even if the debt ceiling is not raised the feds would have plenty of income to meet their debt service obligations (paying off bonds and interest as they come due), the fact that the federal government has avoided the hard choices that would be imposed by a budget (by operating without one for years now), and the fact that all of the new spending approved over the last couple of years (Obamacare, unspent stimulus money, etc) is off of the table – I want to comment on the bigger picture.

I feel quite strongly that one’s policies and votes need to be grounded in a defensible political philosophy. That is why I went to such great lengths to articulate my political philosophy when I ran for the District 1 seat on the Athens-Clarke County Commission in both 2002 and 2006.

On the other hand, political philosophy does not properly operate as an abstraction only; one of the reasons I hold Raymond Aron in such high regard, though his was much to the left of my own thinking, is his recognition that while political theory is all well and good, politics must be brought down to a concrete level if anything is to be accomplished. That is the reason that I abandoned the Libertarian Party back in the late 1990s; far too many in the LP regarded compromise as a sell-out of principles, irrespective of the fact that success in politics is predicated on the give-and-take of competing interests. And now I fear that conservative in the GOP, with whom I agree, may make the same mistake.

I fully believe that not raising the debt ceiling would, in the long run after much political wailing and gnashing of teeth, be a net plus for the country in that it should force the powers that be to rethink their spending policies. Unfortunately, though, that is not going to happen. The debt ceiling is going to be raised - the only real questions concern the particulars.

That is where compromise comes in. While I fully agree with the philosophical position that raising the debt ceiling is not the best course of action to take, the political realities are that it is going to be raised. Republicans on the Hill may be excused for crafting the best practical policy out of it that they can.

Thus, we are left to consider the Boehner plan. Those on the Right may have to hold their collective nose in order to vote for it - an amalgam of $1 trillion in new debt, $1.2 trillion in budget cuts over the coming decade (I know, I know), and a promise of $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction later this year - but it is a damned site better than Harry Reid’s Senate alternative or anything likely to come out of the Obama White House. As this WSJ editorial explains (much better than could I), the ball is in the GOP’s court; I pray that they don’t blow it and get blamed for whatever may follow as they surely would, irrespective of where the fault really lay.

Another aspect of this debt ceiling business is the absurdity associated with the credit rating assigned to US Treasury bonds. As a measure of how government involvement creates perverse incentives, we are presented with the prospect that the credit rating of the United States government may get downgraded . . . if it refuses to incur even more debt that it cannot hope to pay off? That, of course, is precisely the opposite of what should be happening.

Besides, as Holman Jenkins points out in this WSJ column, any downgrade of the bonds is an essentially pointless exercise. Unlike many claims on the US Treasury (discretionary spending, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, etc.), the feds are legally obligated to pay off the bonds – so those are the last things to go to the chopping block. Even that does not matter, though, because the Treasury can (and will) pay off the bonds using dollars that have been devalued by inflation. From a certain and limited perspective, the government cannot lose (though the rest of us will not be so lucky).

To borrow a line from Glenn Beck, it makes your head feel like it is going to explode.

SCHS Pigskin Preview

2011-07-28T08:33:00.000-04:00

After a mightily disappointing 2009 season, my alma mater Indians returned to their usual winning ways in 2010, going 8-3 overall, 4-1 in conference play, 3-1 at home, 4-1 on the road, and 1-1 on neutral fields. SCHS finished the season by losing in first round of state playoffs to eventual AAA runner-up Carrollton.

Here is the warpath for this season:

12 August - Habersham Central (8AAAA) at The Reservation for a “Battle of Currahee Mountain” scrimmage

26 August - Elbert County (8AA South) at Elberton

02 September - Hart County (8AA South) at The Reservation

09 September - Oconee County (8AAA Division B) at The Reservation

16 September - West Hall (8AAA Division B) at Oakwood

23 September - Open

30 September - Franklin County (8AAA Division A) at The Reservation

07 October - Chestatee (8AAA Division A) at Gainesville

14 October - White County (8AAA Division A) at The Reservation

21 October - Lumpkin County (8AAA Division A) at The Reservation

28 October - North Hall (8AAA Division A) at Gainesville

04 November - Play in game

See information on the 2011 Indians at the SCHS football web site, MaxPreps, and Home Teams Online.

Athens-Clarke County Redistricting

2011-07-14T10:44:00.001-04:00

Blake’s story from yesterday about local redistricting certainly proved timely, as I was just putting the finishing touches on my next column about state and local redistricting (scheduled to run on 24 July).

To recap the local doings, the redistricting committee named by Mayor Denson is in the process of drawing new maps for the Athens-Clarke County Commission and the Clarke County Board of Education. Public hearings will be held on those maps in August. They will go to the Commission in September and be voted on in October. They will be forwarded to the Clarke County’s legislative delegation in the General Assembly in November, with passage by the full legislature to follow during the 2012 session. Then, it is on to the Department of Justice for sign-off pursuant to the Voting Rights Act.

APS - Making A Difference, Indeed

2011-07-06T11:17:00.003-04:00

Atlanta Public Schools, the system with the third highest per pupil expenditure in the state, has been found to be guilty of “widespread cheating” with regard to 2009 CRCT scoring. Also, the report noted that “a culture of fear, intimidation, and retaliation existed in APS, which created a conspiracy of silence and deniability with respect to standardized test misconduct.”

Some specifics of note:

Cheating was found in 44 of the 56 schools examined

38 of 56 principals were found to be either responsible for or directly involved in cheating

178 teachers and principals cheated, of whom 82 confessed

6 principals cited the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering any questions

Cheating occurred as early as 2001

“Significant and clear” warnings of cheating were sounded as early as 2005 but were ignored

APS was guilty of “a major failure of leadership . . . with regard to the ethical administration of the 2009 CRCT”

Other improper conduct included several open records act violations, instance of false statements, and instances of document destruction

These findings will be turned over to local district attorneys for possible criminal prosecution.

No, this is not an indictment of all public education - but it sure as hell illustrates the potential for administrative misconduct on the part of those entrusted with our children's educations and our tax dollars.

As an aside, the two school systems that had higher per pupil expenditures for FY 2010 were Baker County (357 students) and Clay County (294 students). Naturally, school systems of such a miniscule size have little opportunities to employ economies of scale insofar as fixed administrative and capital costs are concerned, thereby driving their per pupil expenditures up. By contrast, Atlanta Public Schools (47,947 students) has approximately 74 times as many students as Baker and Clay Counties combined.

Addendum – Read the full report here:

Volume 1 - Overview, School Summaries

Volume 2 - School Summaries, Continued

Volume 3 - "Targets," Culture of Fear, Allegations of a Cover-up, etc.

District 113 Update

2011-07-06T10:31:00.001-04:00

The race for Georgia House District 113 has shaken our pretty much as anticipated. The three Republican candidates split 73.3% of the vote, with Chuck Williams polling 38.8%, Sarah Bell polling 18.3%, and Alan Alexander polling 16.1%. Dan Matthews, the lone democrat in the contest, garnered the totality of the blue vote by polling 26.7%.

In Oconee County, which forms the bulk of the district, Williams’ racked up 1271 votes to Matthews tally of 505 votes , Bell’s 504 votes and Alexander’s 421 votes.

As expected, Matthews’ strength lay in Clarke County, where he lead with 442 votes to Williams’ 128 votes, Alexander’s 119 votes and Bell’s 117 votes.

In Oglethorpe County, Alexander lead with 75 votes to Matthews’ 66 votes, Williams’ 61 votes, and Bell’s 51 votes.

Finally, Williams place first in Morgan County with 62 votes to Bell’s 41 votes, Matthews’ 36 votes and Alexander’s 18 votes.

The overall turnout was an appallingly low 11%; the turnout for the run-off will probably be even less. Be that as it may, now that the contest is down to one Republican to one Democrat, the advantage obviously belongs to Williams. The only way he can lose is if his supporters, along with those who voted for Bell and Alexander stay home – which, of course, is entirely possible.

District 113 Campaign Web Sites

2011-06-10T18:01:00.001-04:00

Here are the campaign web sites for each of the candidates for Georgia House of Representatives District 113:

Alan Alexander (R)

Sarah Bell (R)

Dan Matthews (D)

Chuck Williams (R)

District 113 Special Election

2011-06-09T08:36:00.006-04:00

As I point out in my upcoming column for the Banner-Herald, which I think will run on Sunday, 12 June, the partisan voting patterns revealed in the four elections held in Georgia House of Representatives District 113 as it is currently configured do not bode well for any Democrat. Yes, the special election is “non-partisan," but that means that it will not be preceded by party primaries – not that candidates’ party affiliations will not appear on the ballot.

That being the case, Dan Matthews may have already started hedging his bets. I see that his blog, formerly known as “Oconee Democrat,” as the URL still plainly indicates, has been recast as “Oconee County, GA Politics.” I don’t know when that transformation took place – but I find it of note, nonetheless. Also, I heard an early round of Matthews’ campaign spots on WGAU in which he was noted to be a former “Oconee County Committee Chair.” Pointedly absent from the terminology, however, was the operative word “Democratic.”

On 09 May, before announcing his own candidacy, Matthews wrote on his blog (and what functions as his pseudo campaign web site), “I would be happy to support her [Bell] in the seemingly inevitable run off but only if she announces as soon as possible.”

I find Matthews' candidacy interesting, as Bell did just that as noted in this article in the following day's edition of the Banner-Herald. Also, according to the Secretary of State’s web site, Bell qualified for the election the day before Matthews did: Alan Alexander and Chuck Williams qualified on Monday, 16 May, and Sarah Bell followed on Tuesday, 17 May. Matthews was the last to qualify on Wednesday, 18 May.

As noted above, Matthews appears to be using his blog as a pseudo campaign site. Alan Alexander has a dedicated campaign web site. To the best of my knowledge, neither Bell nor Williams have campaign web sites, but the former distributed this handout at a recent meeting of the Clarke County Republican Party. Speaking of which, all four candidates are expected to be at the next meeting of the CCRC, scheduled for Monday, 13 June.

I’m not picking on Matthews, it is just that I know little about the other candidates. Alexander appears to have the political connections, but has some issues; Bell has lots of community service experience; Williams is an unknown to me, other than what I’ve read in the newspaper about the bank failure.

Addendum - Here is the campaign web site for cCuck Williams (thanks to Shawn): http://www.votechuckwilliams.com/. Also, sorry for the weird formatting of this post; I used a word processing progam other that WORD and it appears that Blogger doesn;t like it very much.

Sunday Sales & SPLOST 4 Referenda

2011-06-07T10:30:00.002-04:00

Here is an excerpt from a Banner-Herald story about Athens-Clarke County’s anticipated Sunday sales referendum from about ten days ago:

Commissioners had considered placing Sunday sales on the ballot in November but opted not to because of a conflict with a November vote on continuing a 1 percent sales tax for local schools.

"We don't want to clutter up the ELOST vote," Commissioner Alice Kinman said. "I don't think it's good to have those two hitched together."

Commissioners say they are concerned that Sunday sales could draw opponents to the polls who also would vote against the Education Local Option Sales Tax, which will fund school construction.

County elections are on an even-year schedule, and Athens-Clarke County would have to pick up the $54,000 tab for a special election this year, an expense the Clarke County School District budgeted for but Athens-Clarke County did not.

"I just don't see how you could justify the cost," Commissioner Doug Lowry said.

A couple of thoughts come to mind.

The first is that the scheduling of referenda, either directly on SPLOST questions or other matters, by the Unified Government and/or Clarke County School District so as to rig the turnout to get a preferred outcome is yet another reason that Georgia's SPLOST law needs to be rewritten. The idea of splitting the Unified Government’s Sunday sales referenda from the CCSD’s SPLOST 4 referenda so that our betters can prevent the wrong people from voting on both issues simultaneously is inappropriate and condescending.

The second is that City Hall’s preference for a March vote out of monetary concerns rings hollow. Both November 2011 and March 2012 fall within the Unified Government’s FY 2012 budget, which has already passed. If funds for a vote in November were not in the budget, were funds for a vote in March? If so, why? And if so, could not the funds be used just as easily in November? If not, the supposed preference for the latter date due to fiscal concerns is specious.

Besides which, if the Commission wanted the vote in November, it would find the money for it, just money has been "found" over the years for all manner of expenditures. As Kinman makes quite clear, the concern of our betters in government is political, not fiscal.

In the event, I will vote for Sunday sales and against the CCSD's SPLOST 4. The fact that it will take two trips to the poll separated by months will have no effect whatsoever on my positions.

As an aside, Georgia’s presidential preference primary is scheduled as part of Super Tuesday in February 2012, but that is not one of the opportunities for ballot questions specified by state law.

Property Tax Primer Followup

2011-05-19T10:31:00.002-04:00

I posted what appears below on AthenTalks as a follow up to my most recent column about how property tax is determined.

A chart detailing the various millage rates charged in each of Athens-Clarke County’s five tax districts used to be posted on the Tax Commissioner’s web site; I could not find the chart on City Hall’s new and improved (and expensive) web site. Upon speaking with the staff at the Tax Commissioner’s office so as to verify my information, I was told that they will try to get that chart reposted. In the interim, see page 7 of this from the Georgia Department of Revenue for the current breakdown of millage rates here in Athens-Clarke County (does not have the rates for Bogart and Winterville).

For listings of exemptions, see these from the State of Georgia and these from Athens-Clarke County.

For discussions of assessments, see these from the State of Georgia and these from Athens-Clarke County.

While they do not apply to most cases, there are a couple of “preferential” assessment categories (rehabilitated historic property or landmark historic property) and several “special” assessment categories (preferential agricultural property, conservation use property, environmentally sensitive property, farm land property, brownfield property, residential transitional property), a category for timberland (standing), and one for equipment, machinery, and fixtures.

For the provisions of SB 346 that mandate annual assessment and estimated tax notices, see O.C.G.A. §48-5-306.

Then there is this from a blog posting over at TOA from June 2008:

Back in 2007, the Clarke County School District’s SPLOST 3 bond resolution included a provision that, should the limited duration sales tax be insufficient to repay said bonds, any shortfall would be added to the CCSD’s portion of the local property tax millage rate. Longtime readers may remember that I had two specific concerns with regard to any such transfer of bonded indebtedness to property taxes.

My first concern dealt with the 20 mills limit imposed by the state Constitution. The CCSD’s portion of the local property tax millage rate has been at the 20 mills limit for years; to exceed that limit would normally require the voters’ approval to do so via a referendum. So how could that line be administratively traversed so as to make up a SPLOST revenue shortfall without a referendum?

After a (very) long and circuitous journey through a variety of local and state government bureaucracies, the Attorney General’s office provided me with the relevant Georgia Supreme Court case law, Seaboard Air-Line Railway Company v. Wright, comptroller-general, et al., from way back in 1927, that exempted bond debt service from any constitutional limit. I do not agree with the reasoning embodied in that decision, as it would seem to render the rationale for the 20 mills limit moot, but the case law is what it is.

Satisfying my second concern has proven somewhat more vexing. The CCSD’s bond resolution cited a provision contained in the Constitution as expressly permitting the transfer of bonded indebtedness from SPLOST sales taxes to property taxes. That resolution read in part (see the second paragraph on page 5 of the PDF):

WHEREAS, Article IX, Section V, Paragraph VI of the Constitution of the State of Georgia requires that prior to the issuance of general obligation bonds, a tax must be levied in amounts sufficient to pay the principal of and the interest on the Bonds as the same become due and payable, to the extent that the revenues from the Sales Tax are not sufficient thereof;

The resolution was littered throughout with similar language. Being a nerdy type reasonably familiar with the verbiage in the Constitution, this immediately struck me as odd. Sure enough, when I went to the document itself, no such provision was anywhere to be found. The actual text of Article IX, Section V, Paragraph VI of the Constitution reads (see page 81):

"Levy of taxes to pay bonds; sinking fund required. Any county, municipality, or other political subdivision of this state shall at or before the time of incurring bonded indebtedness provide for the assessment and collection of an annual tax sufficient in amount to pay the principal and interest of said debt within 30 years from the incurring of such bonded indebtedness. The proceeds of this tax, together with any other moneys collected for this purpose, shall be placed in a sinking fund to be used exclusively for paying the principal and interest on such bonded debt. Such moneys shall be held and kept separate and apart from all other revenues collected and may be invested and reinvested as provided by law."

There is no mention whatsoever of transferring bonded indebtedness from a sales tax to property tax, just a general provision that a sinking fund to repay bonds be in place before such bonds are issued. Explicitly contrary to my reading of the CCSD’s resolution, the Constitution is mute on the subject of transferring any shortfall in sales tax collections to property tax “to the extent that revenues from the Sales Tax are not sufficient therefore.”

After an even longer and more circuitous journey through a variety of local and state government bureaucracies – the Attorney General’s office clammed up on me this time – I eventually discovered, after speaking with a bond attorney over in Atlanta, that the answer can be found in O.C.G.A. §48-1-121(c):

"No general obligation debt shall be issued in conjunction with the imposition of the tax unless the governing authority of the county or qualified municipalities within special district issuing the debt determines that, and if the debt is to be validated it is demonstrated in the validation proceedings that, during each year in which any payment of principal or interest on the debt comes due the county or qualified municipalities within special district issuing such debt will receive from the tax authorized by this part net proceeds sufficient to fully satisfy such liability. General obligation debt issued under this part shall be payable first from the separate account in which are placed the proceeds received by the county or qualified municipalities within the special district issuing such debt from the tax authorized by this part. Such debt, however, shall constitute a pledge of the full faith, credit, and taxing power of the county or qualified municipalities within the special district issuing such debt; and any liability on said debt which is not satisfied from the proceeds of the tax authorized by this part shall be satisfied from the general funds of the county or qualified municipalities within the special district issuing such debt."

Okay, that answers the question as to on what legal basis a shortfall in SPLOST sales taxes may be transferred to property taxes, though it is not explicitly stated in that manner.

But the question remains: why did not the CCSD’s bond resolution cite this section of state law? Why make language up out of whole cloth and claim that it is in the Constitution, when a few seconds on the Internet reveals that claim to be patently false?

Finally, consider the games that can be played with millage rates when they are considered irrespective of the “rollback rate“. This from another TOA post from May of 2009:

The 0.3 mills reduction in 2004 was due solely to the work of members of the Clarke County Republican Party, who analyzed the budget and presented a list of potential reductions to the folks down at City Hall. To their credit, the Mayor and Commission did adopt many of our recommendations, thereby “freeing up” funds for a millage rate reduction. It should never be forgotten, though, that the original plan was simply to spend the new revenue generated by growth in the tax digest (this last part always seems to get left out of the discussion).

The 0.6 mills reduction in 2005 was a sham, pure and simple. The millage rate reduction was offset by the institution of the stormwater utility fee (even the Unified Government’s budget documents acknowledged this) which, by design, also hit those property owners such as churches and schools who are exempt from property tax. Now, we will have the situation where the millage rate is back to within 0.2 mills of where it was prior to the imposition of the fee – a fee that will be with us forever regardless of future millage rate hikes. Because of increases in assessments the “rollback” rate in any given year may well be lower that the millage rate - so property taxes can actually go up if the millage rate stays constant or, in some cases, even goes down.

For what it is worth, my assessment and estimated tax notice arrived in the mail on Friday; after increasing in 2008 and remaining the same in 2009 and 2010, this years fair market value dropped (finally) by 11.61% - as well it should have.

Local FY 2012 Budget Hearings

2011-05-02T11:51:00.001-04:00

Here is the FY 2012 budget adoption schedule for the Clarke County School District:

Tuesday, 17 May: Public hearing at Gaines Elementary School (900 Gaines School Road)

Tuesday, 24 May: Public hearing at Alps Road Elementary School (205 Alps Road)

Thursday, 26 May: Public hearing at CCSD administrative offices (240 Mitchell Bridge Road)

Thursday, 02 June: Board of Education agenda-setting meeting at CCSD administrative offices (240 Mitchell Bridge Road)

Thursday, 09 June: Board of Education regular monthly meeting and final adoption at CCSD administrative offices (240 Mitchell Bridge Road)

All three public hearings are scheduled for 6:00 p.m.; both Board of Education meetings are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. You can review the CCSD’s “budget overview” (2 pages), “tentative budget” (3 pages), and “tentative budget presentation” (16 slides) – but not the budget in its entirety.

Here is the same information for the Unified Government of Athens-Clarke County:

Thursday, 05 May: Budget review at Bob M. Snipes Water Resource Center (780 Barber Street)

Monday, 09 May: Budget review and public hearing at the Government Building auditorium (120 Dougherty Street)

Wednesday, 11 May: Budget review at Bob M. Snipes Water Resource Center (780 Barber Street) – noted to be “if needed”

Tuesday, 07 June: Regular monthly meeting and final adoption at City Hall Commission Chamber (301 College Avenue)

All three budget review sessions are scheduled for 5:30 p.m.; the Commission’s regular monthly meeting is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Note that public comment will not be taken at all of these meetings (I assume that since the proposed budget does not include a millage rate increase and that the value of the property tax digest is expected to be down the “rollback rate” for FY 2012 is lower than for FY 2011 thereby obviating TBOR requirements). You can review the mayor's recommended budget in its entirety (355 pages).

You Can Check Out Anytime You Like . . .

2011-04-20T09:12:00.002-04:00

. . . but you can never leave.* Such was the thought that came to me late last Saturday afternoon. After Mrs. TOA and I spend a pleasant couple of hours at the State Botanical Garden it came time to leave, as the temperature started to drop (and high school prom folks started to arrive). But we could not leave. A rather large tree had fallen across the road leading to the lower parking lot, the one in front of the visitors center, thereby keeping us confined.

We were in about the fourth car in line to get out, and quite a few more stacked up behind us. After a while a couple of female employees appeared with a chain saw. I must confess that I did not have much faith in the woman wielding the implement (it was my understanding that liability considerations prevented any of us mere civilians from operating it) - but, in fact, she did just fine with the thing. We onlookers hauled and pushed limbs and logs off of the road and had the obstacle removed in about 10 to 15 minutes.

All in all, in was not a bad experience. A group of strangers teamed together to achieve a needed, common goal - and then went their separate ways.

*Apologies to Don Felder, Don Henley, and Glen Frey.

CCSD Finally Posts FY 2011 Budget (no, not the proposed one for FY 2012)

2011-04-19T12:38:00.001-04:00

The Clarke County School District has modified its “Our Budget” web page in response to my latest opinion column in the Banner-Herald. This was entirely predictable and, quite frankly, has become old hat.

The web page still provides links to the various, though cursory, materials pertaining to the “tentative” budget proposed for FY 2012. Gone is the older, outdated material. Added this week (finally) is the FY 2011 Budget, meaning the one for the current fiscal year that is almost over.

Note though, that the CCSD’s $118,481,353 FY 2011 budget only comes to 64 pages. By contrast, the Unified Government’s $106,793,709 FY 2011 budget runs some 338 pages.

That being the case, it seems entirely reasonable to assume that City Hall’s budget is far more specific than that of the CCSD - and it has been posted on its web site since last spring when it was unveiled.

Impertinent Observations (fiscal edition)

2011-04-13T11:53:00.002-04:00

I cannot help but think that last week’s federal “budget” negotiations were a complete sham (actually the horse trading concerned yet another continuing resolution – the budget should have been passed last year but was not). I fear that in the long run, as Macbeth may have noted, they were “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” substantive insofar as actually cutting spending in a meaningful way. The upcoming talks on the next fiscal year’s budget and increasing the federal debt ceiling will, in all likelihood, simply constitute more of the same.

The Clarke County School District is out with its budget for FY 2012. Despite the claim that it is an “austerity" budget, the folks over on Mitchell Bridge Road actually intend to increase spending over the current fiscal year. For some commentary, see my column in next Sunday’s Banner-Herald.

The folks down at City Hall have been talking about their FY 2012 budget in work sessions, but have yet to release it or the proposed millage rate.

Finally, while I agreed in principle with the Special Council’s quest to broaden the tax base for the State of Georgia while simultaneously reducing rates, there was quite a lot not to like about the specific proposals, especially those that would have injected the government into “casual” transactions. Oh well, perhaps the exercise may lead to something productive in the next session of the General Assembly.

Disingenuous Sophistry

2011-03-09T16:00:00.004-05:00

This article concerning population growth in the Athens area turned up in yesterday’s Banner-Herald. According to the Census Bureau, the estimated 2010 population of Clarke County was 116,842. This constitutes an increase of 15,353 (15.13%) from the tally of 101,489 back in 2000.

If I remember correctly from past population counts, those figures include UGA students who live here. Predictably, local officials are more than happy to have such folks claim local residence – the more your population the more state and federal goodies to which you can lay claim.

But, insofar as I could get any specificity out of them, the supporters of the SPLOST 2011 ballot resolution counted those same residents as “visitors” to our fair burgh, because doing so allowed them to make the claim that half of the revenue generated by such taxes will be paid by folks who do not live here.

And so it goes.

Impertinent Observations

2011-03-09T08:58:00.001-05:00

I expected my column on the Clarke County School District’s proposed SPLOST 4 to be in last Sunday’s Banner-Herald. Alas, it was not; perhaps it will appear this coming Sunday.

This Project Blue Heron concept strikes me as a horrible idea for a variety of reasons (and I do have several years of economic development experience, so my concerns are not merely me carping about something by virtue of my prejudices, which I freely admit by the way). The concept strikes me as precisely what we do not need, specifically that of having even more property under the expensive and regulatory thumb of City Hall. And anyone who believes the exceptionally rosy projections as to tax revenue and employment that will be generated by the development is a damned fool.

So now the push is on for yet another type of special purpose local option sales tax, on top of LOST, the Unified Government’s SPLOST, and the Clarke County School District’s SPLOST. This time it is TSPLOST, ostensibly dedicated to regional transportation projects. I hope that this gets voted down, but expect county governments to run out the full court press by predicting all manner of tragedy and mayhem should the ballot resolution fail.

The incessant lamentations about potential HOPE scholarship cutbacks are getting really tiresome. Imagine the horrors of having to pay for some of your own education. The HOPE issue presents a microcosm of government: start out with a reasonable idea that is limited in scope and expense (a scholarship program for high achieving students of limited means); then others exert pressure to get included in the gravy train (prompting politicians to expand the program to cover vastly more students, thereby buying votes from students and parents); unintended, though entirely predictable, consequences ensue (rampant grade inflation prompting an explosion of remedial classes in colleges and universities); the economy goes south so the bloated budget of the program must take a hit (much political posturing ensues); students and parents man the barricades so as to protect what its owed to them (needed reforms are substantially watered down). That which started out as a scholarship program morphs into an entitlement program. Like I said – a microcosm of government.

Perceptive readers will have noticed a theme, namely that of governments’ use of my money, running through all of the matters noted.

Lies. Damned Lies. Statistics.

2011-02-22T09:05:00.001-05:00

For the second time is less than two and a half years, the "Facts & Figures" page on the CCSD web site has been extensively revised due to me bringing the use of outdated, not to mention un-sourced and mathematically problematic, figures to the public in the pages of the Banner-Herald.

The first time was in October 2008, leading up to elections for spots on the Clarke County Board of Education. I will not cover that episode again, as I have done so any number of times previously (just enter “Worthy” as a search term at the top of the page if you desire to read more about it). Wrote I at the time:

It is amazing what a little negative publicity can do. Within hours of my letter to the editor appearing in yesterday’s Banner-Herald, the HTML version of the CCSD’s “Facts & Figures” had been extensively revised and the PDF version had vanished altogether . . .

That quote is from a blog post of 28 months ago.

My latest column, printed Sunday, similarly noted that “the information given on the ‘Facts & Figures’ handout included in participants' folders is different in almost every respect from that given on the analogous page of the district's website.” This, predictably, prompted a wholesale revamp of the web page in question on Monday.

Yesterday morning, the web page included a notation that it was last updated in August of 2010. Some information on it may well have been. Most, however, had not and some was years out of date. And yesterday afternoon, the information appearing thereon changed dramatically.

Why is it left to me to prompt these revisions? The updated page notes that the CCSD has 2848 employees (an increase of about 700 in one day, mind you), but the information on its web site gets to be years out of date (for example, the per pupil expenditure figure on the site earlier today dates from FY 2008, which began almost 4 years ago).

Does not any of this multitude of employees ever review or update the information presented on the CCSD web site?

By the same token, does not the local news media ever review or ask questions about such information?

Apparently not.

These are questions that someone besides me needs to be asking. If the data presented by the CCSD is consistently inaccurate, how is the public to make reasoned decisions as to local education policy?

Impertinent Observations

2011-02-09T09:04:00.003-05:00

Now that I have the new gig over at the Banner-Herald, posting may be somewhat sporadic here at TOA. Even so, I am not technically a shill for the corporate masters at Morris Communications. I am, instead, a freelancer writing under contract to the folks at One Press Place about whatever attracts my interest. And we all know what that usually is.

New mayor Nancy Denson has named new chairs to the commission’s two standing committees. Says Blake’s article:

Under former Mayor Heidi Davison, the two super-district commissioners - most recently Hamby and Girtz - chaired the committees because they each represent half the county and, at least theoretically, have broader interests and larger constituencies than the eight regular commissioners.

Davison organized the two committees in 2003. Government Operations vets internal government policies like sidewalk construction and fees for recreation programs, while Legislative Review considers proposed laws. Each has five members and, while the chairmen run the meetings, the mayor assigns the issues the committees tackle.

As the article makes clear, chairmanship of either committee is an administrative task, not necessarily a policy-making one. Even so, I appreciate former mayor Davison’s rationale for naming chairmen. On the other hand, if Denson was intending to send a message that her administration was going to be more centrist, just as her campaigned promised, this was a good place to start.

On another matter, once again I was ahead of the curve. Close on the heels of this column from last Sunday in which I lament the land acquisition practices of the Unified Government, we discover that City Hall is going to buy even more land for the SPLOST-funded “tennis center,” which has turned into nothing but a money pit.

I posted what appears below over on the Banner-Herald comment board, quoting from the article:

Although county officials had said they did not have money to buy land for the tennis center, they said Tuesday that the deal is too good to pass up. Cornerstone is asking $240,000 for the property, well below its $362,000 assessed value and the $2.2 million the YWCO wanted for 9 acres off Research Drive.

And:

Still, the purchase will push the tennis center's cost to $3.1 million, and only $2.3 million in sales tax revenue is budgeted. Other funding will include $240,000 from a contingency fund and $430,000 in interest from the SPLOST program, Reddish and Leisure Services Director Pam Reidy said.

So we don’t have the money within the existing tennis center budget to build it on land the Unified Government already owns, but we have money to purchase additional land on which to build it?

So if City Hall buys the property for “well below” its assessed value, will the assessments of neighboring property owners be reduced to reflect this new market value?

So, given the years of angst that has accompanied the design and placement of the tennis center, we will overcome legitimate concerns as to the desirability and utility of whatever is built by simply throwing more money at the damned thing?

Go ahead, keep telling me how frugal City Hall is with my tax money.

Addendum - see the Banner-Herald article for scads of comments

Review of Overview Review Reviews

2011-01-27T09:43:00.002-05:00

Despite the temptation, I will refrain from rattling on about what I see as the problems vis-à-vis the Unified Government of Athens Clarke County and the implementation of the Charter – I have done so ad nauseam for a long time and have virtually nothing to show for it, so why bother. Suffice it to say that I was disappointed, but not surprised, that the Overview Commission did not take up what I regard as its rightful mantle and severely chastise City Hall over its manifest failures to adhere to our local government’s foundational document.

Be that as it may, the 2010 Overview Commission’s Review may be downloaded from the Auditor’s web site. Response to the document has been rather muted. I think that the Review made its inaugural appearance at a Federation of Neighborhoods meeting on 10 January. John Huie had a write-up in Flagpole on 12 January. This was followed by a TOA blog post on 18 January and a Banner-Herald opinion column on 23 January by yours truly. Blake Aued followed with a Banner-Herald news article on 24 January. Finally Myra Blackmon weighed in with a opinion piece of her own in the 26 January edition of the Banner-Herald.

And, to date, that has been it. Even though I was disappointed with the results of their deliberations (it is a committee process after all), I thank the members of the Overview Commission for their time and efforts.

2010 Overview Commission Review

2011-01-18T11:19:00.001-05:00

The Overview Commission’s review is finally in. Doubtlessly, it will provide grist for the public comment mill for quite a while (or at least I hope so). That is because in my two runs for the District 1 seat on the Athens-Clarke County Commission, I made the Unified Government’s manifest failure to implement the provisions of its Charter a central focus of both campaigns.

This past year, I similarly hoped to influence the Overview Commission with a series of letters to the editor of the Banner-Herald concerning what the Charter has to say about extending sewer line into the peripheral area of the county (Sections 8-115 and 9-103), enacting differing millage rates in the county's various tax districts (Section 1-105), and turning control of Ben Epps Airport over to the Clarke County Airport Authority (Part II, Chapter 4, Section 23).

My letter concerning sewer lines prompted this editorial (note the obvious similarities), which in turn prompted this response form District 9's Kelly Girtz about altering the language of the Charter, not to mention my response to that idea.

In the event, the Overview Commission chose not to delve into my cornucopia of issues, save that of extending sewer lines. For the Overview Commission’s recommendations on the matter, see the Public Utilities section of its review (pages 16-17 of the document, pages 20-21 of the .pdf) and Appendix 5 (page 71 of the document, page 75 of the .pdf, which includes one of those letters to the editor mentioned above).

This is what John Huie over at Flagpole has to say about the Overview Commission’s take on matter:

The government's charter should be amended to "clarify" whether sewer service must be provided "to all residents of the county" as it appears to say. The issue has become "divisive" since ACC commissioners have supported extending water lines throughout the county, but not sewer lines, which they view as driving sprawl development. "The citizens need and deserve a clear statement of [ACC's] position and plan."

Indeed. My next column for the Banner-Herald will develop this point.

Finally, thanks to those individuals who commented on and sent email messages concerning my inaugural column that used my late father’s military decorations as a lead-in to the point that we frequently do not know people nearly as well as we may think (would-be pundits included). I discovered that my journey of discovery is hardly unique.

The Mendoza Line

2010-12-17T08:53:00.001-05:00

With yesterday’s decision by the Georgia Supreme Court not to reconsider its recent Nuçi’s Space verdict, the years-long ordeal was finally laid to rest. For the coverage of the decision in the Banner-Herald, see here and here (and for my superb complete history of the issue from last month, see here). The online commentary to the local newspaper’s stories reveals two separate issues.

The first issue, the one of the most concern to me, deals with the law as it is currently written. I always thought that the legal aspects of this case were a slam dunk. The Board of Tax Assessors lost at the level of the Board of Equalization, lost at the level of the Clarke County Superior Court, and lost at the level of the Georgia Supreme Court (twice, once by a verdict and once by a refusal to reconsider). Its only victory came at the level of the Georgia Appeals Court. Thus, the Unified Government went 1 for 5 in this case, thereby achieving baseball’s storied Mendoza Line for futility.

This is just the latest in long series of legal debacles for which we local taxpayers have footed the bill: the rental registration/rental regulation case; the attempted Hospital Authority takeover case; the eastside park land condemnation case; the “empty chair” property tax assessment case, the stoplight camera case; etc. I trust that the incoming administration down at City Hall has taken note.

The second issue, the one that seems to have generated the most online commentary, is whether the law as written is a good one. Perhaps it is and perhaps it is not. Regardless, the proper venue for that debate is under the Gold Dome, not in the courts.

Clarke County GOP Christmas Party Wrap

2010-12-14T08:37:00.002-05:00

Many of the local Republican faithful – and there may well be more of us that you think in the Classic City – braved the cold and gathered at the Country Inn & Suites last night for our annual Christmas Party.

Newly elected Georgia Secretary of State Brain Kemp pressed the flesh. No surprise there; Brian is an all-around good guy who attends whatever local functions that his schedule allows.

Mayor-elect Nancy Denson made the rounds. No surprise there, either; Denson reached out to us GOP types during her campaign (not to mention those increasingly few moderate, centrist Democrats who remain in Athens). I chatted briefly with her. For her part, she complemented my recent letter to the editor about the CCSD’s per pupil expenditures. For my part, I told here that while we (and by that I meant both me individually and the local GOP generally) would agree on some issues and disagree on others, we Republicans would be happy just to have someone down at City Hall who listened to what we have to say, as that has not been the case for the past several years.

Finally, Doug McKillip of the 115th, the GOP’s newest member of the Georgia House of Representatives, was in attendance. I had wondered if he would make an appearance, and sure enough he did. For his part, it was a good political move if nothing else. For my part, I welcomed him over to the Dark Side. I wrote some pretty harsh things about McKillip’s sudden political conversion over on the Banner-Herald comment boards and still think that it is up to McKillip to prove me wrong, but we shall see.

Fire Station No. 6 Update (yes, again)

2010-12-08T13:31:00.000-05:00

Seems that yesterday's announcement of the reopening of Fire Station No. 6 may have been a bit premature. Said the Banner-Herald's article:

Station 6 now is fully staffed, with five firefighters per shift, and Engine 26 and a tanker truck in the bay.

The A shift was the first to move into the station Friday, with the B and C shifts following on subsequent days.

I happened to drive through the intersection of Olympic and Athena Drives about noon today; there were no signs of life whatsoever at the station, no engine or tanker truck anywhere to be seen, and only two vehicles in the parking lot where one would expect on-duty firefighters to park (a sedan and a pickup truck).

But, after some twenty-one months, what is a couple of days more?

CCSD FY 2010 Per Pupil Expenditures

2010-12-08T10:19:00.003-05:00

Per pupil expenditure figures are now available from the Georgia Department of Education for FY 2010.* According to those figures, the State of Georgia average for per pupil expenditures this past fiscal year was $8759.77, a decrease of 1.66% from the FY 2009 figure of $8907.82. Conversely, the corresponding FY 2010 figure for the Clarke County School District was $11,360.09, slightly more than a 0.99% increase over the FY 2009 figure of $11,248.22. Thus, our local average per pupil expenditures rose from 26.27% above the state average in FY 2009 to 29.68% above the state average in FY 2010. And note that the per pupil expenditure figure indicated on the CCSD web site is now two full fiscal years out of date.

A look inside the FY 2010 figures reveals the following per pupil expenditures for the Clarke County School District in the seven categories tracked by the Georgia Department of Education:

Instruction $7522.51 (plus 27.27% of the state average of $5910.84)

Pupil Services $368.19 (plus 22.25% of the state average of $301.18)

Staff Services $771.83 (plus 65.77% of the state average of $465.60)

General Administration $461.18 (plus 1.72% of the state average of $453.38)

School Administration $624.40 (plus 13.18% of the state average of $551.70)

Transportation $657.63 (plus 66.71% of the state average of $394.48)

Maintenance & Operations $954.36 (plus 39.81% of the state average of $682.61)

The category of General Administration is pretty much a wash, but in every other category the CCSD outspends the state average by considerable, and in couple of cases astonishing, margins.

According to my reckoning, this high level of per pupil expenditures places the District in the 94th percentile (93.89) among school systems statewide, eleventh highest of the 180 school systems reporting, a ranking that has not varied appreciably over the last several years. Of the ten school districts that had higher per pupil spending in FY 2010, nine are much smaller districts that have to spread fixed capital and administrative costs over far fewer students, thereby driving their per pupil expenditures up due to a lack of economies of scale. As in the past, the only school district with more students that outspends Clarke County on a per pupil basis is that of the City of Atlanta.

By way of comparison, FY 2010 per pupil expenditures of the school districts that surround Clarke County were:

Barrow County $7804.32

Commerce City $8687.39

Jackson County $8878.20

Jefferson City $7169.85

Madison County $8803.75

Oconee County $8547.30

Oglethorpe County $8555.99

So, even as our neighboring school systems, and those around the state, are managing to hold the line on spending, here in Clarke County our spending increases continue apace. Not by much, perhaps, by any increase over the already stratospheric level of expenditures to which we are accustomed gives lie to the incessant claims of paucity made by the CCSD.

Let the dissembling begin.

*As an aside, I contacted the Financial Review folks over at the DOE in early October to ask politely when the figures for FY 2010 would be posted on their web site (a query to which I never received any response); I again contacted them in early November with the same question (another query to which I never received any response). And so it goes. All percentage and percentile calculations are my own.

Fire Station No. 6 Update

2010-12-07T08:44:00.002-05:00

More than twenty-one months after its closure due to damage caused by a snowstorm, Fire Station No. 6 is operational again. Yes, it is a nice station and I am glad that it has finally reopened

However, the fact remains that the Unified Government wasted 15 months trying to get an ARRA "economic stimulus" grant so as to rebuild the station (in its entirety) to a standard comparable to its newest elaborately overbuilt "suburban" stations. In the event, the station was rebuilt with the same funds City Hall could have used 15 months earlier without the grant.

I did not support the ARRA. But for anyone who did, the denial of this grant reveals just what a scam it was; you would be hard pressed to find a more "shovel-ready" project than this one, as City Hall already had the land (the present location of Fire Station No. 6), the plans (from Fire Station No. 9), and an immediate need.

Of course, getting the grant would not have constituted "economic stimulus" in any meaningful manner - but that is an argument for another day.

Also, of course, my argument was never with the rank and file firefighters who staffed Fire Station No. 6, but with the higher-ups who determined policy.

Impertinent Observations (post election edition)

2010-12-03T09:41:00.001-05:00

I cast an unenthusiastic vote for Nancy Denson in the mayoral runoff, having voted for Charlie Maddox in the general election. Back when John March and I caught the Clarke County School District blatantly breaking the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, Denson buried her head in the sand – just like everyone else – and denied that any problem existed (even though she was presented with chapter and verse of how and why what the CCSD did was in obvious violation of state law and Department of Revenue regulations; it was her responsibility as tax commissioner to verify that all of the legalities were observed before signing off on the property tax digest for the year). Even so, I found the prospect of a Denson administration preferable to that of another four years of Gwen O’Looney. We who live in the “general services” district knew exactly what to expect from the former mayor from her two previous terms. As an aside, Denson is the first winning candidate for mayor or commission that I have voted for in this century (and may well be the last).

Now the Athens Downtown Development Authority wants funding to come up with a “master plan” for downtown. Apparently, the exiting planning department, zoning ordinances, (much hallowed) land use plan, and historical district regulations are insufficient to guide the development of the downtown area. It seems that we need even more bureaucracy, regulation, and expense to get anything done. And people wonder why businesses are reluctant to expand or locate here?

Wednesday marked twenty one full months since the closing of Fire Station No. 6, about which I have commented regularly and at great length. Though construction appears to be finished, we residents in District 1 still have no word from the Unified Government as to when we may expect the station to be operational again.

Impertinent Observations

2010-11-18T09:14:00.001-05:00

On the agenda for next month’s Commission voting session is a measure creating an Athens Cultural Affairs Commission. A couple of provisions that will have the net effect of driving up costs for the taxpayer are of particular interest to me:

Sec. 1-25-5. Funding for Public Art Program

Upon adoption of the annual General Capital Budget, the Mayor and Commission of the Unified Government shall appropriate one percent of the value of all approved projects in the Capital Budget excluding land purchases, leases, finance cost, and projects categorized as “Equipment”, to the Public Art Project Account. This account shall be a multi-year account used for the design, fabrication, installation, maintenance and implementation of community public art projects recommended by the ACAC and approved by the Mayor and Commission. In addition to the above noted capital funding for public art, the ACAC may submit to the Unified Government an annual operating budget request to further support its ongoing efforts to promote a public art program and other cultural community initiatives.

Sec. 1-25-6. Additional Funding for Public Art.

The Mayor and Commission shall identify projects within all Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax programs, beginning with the SPLOST 2011 program, that are appropriate for the inclusion of public art elements as integral parts of the project construction and appropriate not less than one percent of the project’s actual construction contract for the purpose of funding public art elements for those specific projects. The public art appropriation shall be maintained as a separate item in the project budget. The ACAC shall assist the Unified Government in the selection, development and implementation of these art projects as noted in Sec. 1-25-4.

Congratulations to the Western Circuit’s Steve Jones on his appointment to a Northern Circuit of Georgia federal judgeship. Though we have met a few times, I really do not know him in any meaningful sense – but his reputation is an enviable one. I wish him well.

I still think that the overriding consideration in anything John Barrow does is staying in office – period – no matter to whom he has to sell his soul.

Judicial and Legislative Aspects of the Nuçi’s Space Case (and why it is important)

2010-11-17T08:37:00.002-05:00

The recent Georgia Supreme Court decision confirming the tax exempt status of the Nuçi’s Space property is but the latest chapter in a story that stretches back almost four decades. Interestingly, most of the judicial and legislative action over that period originated right here in Athens-Clarke County, a point to which I will return later.

Back in the early 1970s, tax officials up in Rabun County sought to tax the property of a private school that generated revenue through its ancillary dairy operations. Generally speaking, property owned by educational institutions is exempt from property taxes, but in its November, 1971 decision, Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School v. Thomas et al; and vice versa, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that if the property was used to generate revenue, even if such revenue was used entirely for charitable purposes, the property was subject to taxation. Note, though, that collection of the tax by the county government was optional, not mandatory.

Fast forward to 2003, the year in which tax officials here in the Classic City discovered the Supreme Court’s decision from decades earlier. Upon reapplying for its previously held tax exemption after moving the location of its thrift store, Habitat for Humanity subsequently received a property tax bill on the new location. Property tax bills for the Salvation Army on its thrift store and Athens Christian School on a couple of houses that it rented to faculty members quickly followed (in the event, property tax was eventually collected on church parking lots, concession stands at Sanford Stadium and Stegemen Coliseum, and the UGA Bookstore according to their income producing activities). Needless to say, the property tax bills concerning the two thrift stores prompted appeals to the Board of Assessors and then the Board of Equalization. Both bodies denied the appeals, being perfectly justified in so doing under existing case law.

During the following year, 2004, the matter shifted from the judicial arena to the legislative one. Louise McBee, a longtime member of the Georgia House of Representatives from Athens, got the ball rolling by asking the House’s legislative counsel to draft legislation that would exempt the kind of property in question from property taxes. McBee retired from office before such a bill could be introduced into the House.

Upon succeeding McBee in the 2005-2006 legislative session, Jane Kidd introduced HB 370. This measure, which had five cosponsors (including local GOP pariah Bob Smith but notably absent local Democrat Keith Heard), “relating to property exempt from ad valorem taxation, so as to provide for an exemption for certain charitable institutions” and further “to provide for a referendum” on the matter. Kidd’s bill began the legislative and committee processes in the House in February, 2005 but never emerged from the Ways and Means Committee.

Undaunted, Kidd revisited the matter in the form of HB1388 in February, 2006. This time, the bill had two cosponsors (again including Bob Smith but not Keith Heard). The bill emerged from the legislative process on this second attempt and resulted in Referendum C, a constitutional amendment item on the general election ballot of November, 2006. The statewide measure passed by an electoral margin of 68.5% to 31.5%.

It is only at this point that Nuçi’s Space enters the discussion, as under the 2006 amendment to the Constitution of the State of Georgia its location would have been exempt form property taxes. The Nuçi Phillips Memorial Foundation, Inc., owner of the property, applied for the exemption at its first opportunity in 2007. However, the Athens-Clarke County Board of Tax Assessors claimed that, since the Foundation sold alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises, rented out space for private functions, rented out rehearsal space, and sold musical supplies it forfeited any claim to an exemption from property taxes.

Needless to say, the Foundation claimed that the location was, in fact, exempt from property taxes and appealed the matter to the Athens-Clarke County Board of Tax Equalization, a citizen panel appointed to resolve such disputes. In the event, the Board of Tax Equalization ruled in favor of the Foundation.

The Board of Tax Assessors in turn appealed this ruling to the Superior Court of Athens-Clarke County. Both parties stipulated a non-jury trial and Chief Judge Lawton Stephens heard the case in October, 2008. In December of that year, Stephens issued his ruling in the case Athens-Clarke County Board of Tax Assessors v. Nuçi Philips Memorial Foundation, Inc. in favor of the latter, noting that:

By a preponderance of the evidence presented at the trial the Court finds that the Foundation has met the test for exemption as articulated by the Supreme Court of Georgia . . . The Foundation has proven by a preponderance of evidence that it is an institution devoted entirely to charitable pursuits, that the charitable pursuits of the Foundation are for the benefit of the public, and that the use of the property is exclusively devoted to those charitable pursuits.

And:

All funds collected by the Foundation directly support the programs, services, and mission of the Foundation.

And:

The Court finds that Nuçi Phillips Memorial Foundation, Inc. continues to operate as a purely public charity and has not deviated from the original purpose and vision of its founder Linda Phillips to honor the memory of her late son.

Not content with that outcome, the Board of Tax Assessors pursued matter up the judicial ladder. In November, 2009 a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of Georgia reversed the Superior Court’s decision in Athens-Clarke County Board of Tax Assessors vs. Nuçi Phillips Memorial Foundation, Inc., noting that:

In support of its argument, the board points to undisputed record evidence demonstrating that the foundation rented space to individuals hosting birthday parties and wedding receptions. The foundation also rented rehearsal space. Based upon this undisputed evidence, the foundation cannot demonstrate that its property was “exclusively devoted to conduct that benefits the public by furthering the charitable pursuits of its owner.” (Emphasis supplied.) . . . An organization does not dispense purely public charity when a person obtains its services by paying a fee.

The Court based its opinion on the contention that even if the revenue generated by Nuçi’s Space went toward fulfilling its charitable purpose, the mere act of generating such revenue disqualified it from a property tax exemption, citing the requirements of O.C.G.A. 48-5-41(d)(2).

Unsurprisingly, the Foundation differed with the logic used in the appellate ruling and took the matter to the Georgia Supreme Court. Earlier this month, the high court overturned the appellate court, saying in the case of Nuçi Phillips Memorial Foundation v. Athens-Clarke County Board of Tax Assessors that:

The Foundation is not disqualified from the tax exemption under the restrictions in OCGA § 48-5-41(c) and (d) (1). The institution issues no stock, makes no profit, does not distribute any dividends or any income to members, accumulates no retained earnings, and has a Board of Directors whose members serve without compensation. Although the organization periodically rents out part of its building to third parties, the primary purpose of the building is not to raise income but to provide services for those seeking mental health assistance. Any income raised is incidental to the primary use of the property, and the purpose of raising the income is to help fund the organization’s charitable services, including the payment for direct professional therapy for those who cannot afford it.

So there you have it. Where we may go from here has yet to be determined. The Board of Tax Assessors, and by that I mean the Unified Government of Athens-Clarke County because the mayor and commission can bring this process to a halt at any time of their choosing, continue to debate the wisdom of further beating this dead horse.

So, other than as an academic exercise into the history and specifics of the Nuçi’s Space case, why does this matter? It matters because this expensive and drawn out process demonstrates the lengths to which government – and in fairness, I do not mean just the folks down at City Hall – will go to generate revenue. Since Athens-Clarke County officials discovered the case from Rabun County, this entire matter, be it in the state legislature or in the courts, has hinged on nothing but the fact that the Unified Government has consistently sought more revenue, going a mere one for four in the appeals and judicial proceedings assiocited with its quest.

I have maintained for years, in print, in person, and in the blogosphere that government, be it local, state, or national, suffers not from a revenue problem; it instead suffers from a spending problem.

The Unified Government of Athens-Clarke County will be desperate for revenue going forward, revenue to offset its spending problem. The Feds have already shot their stimulus bolt, failing miserably (and predictably), so don’t look to Washington for more financial largess. Similarly, the folks under the Gold Dome are not in a position to bail local governments out anymore, as evidenced by the discontinuance of Homeowner Tax Relief Grant back in 2009.

Instead, it will be up to the folks down at City Hall to fund their own spending. They will do so through increased property tax assessments (remember the claim that every piece of property in the county is reevaluated every year), millage rate increases, never-ending LOST, never-ending SPLOST, increased water fees, increased sewer fees, increased trash pickup fees, increased landfill fees, imposition of the stormwater utility fee, a proposed increase in the hotel/motel tax, a proposed plastic shopping bag tax, a proposed trash hauler fee, a proposed septic tank inspection fee, a hoped-for tax on Internet sales, a hoped-for expansion of the existing sales tax to more items, etcetera, etcetera. That – and that alone – is what the Nuçi’s Space brouhaha is all about.

For those interested, coverage of these matters over the years in the Banner-Herald, can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

SPLOST 2011 Claim Busted

2010-11-15T11:46:00.002-05:00

Some of my many concerns about the recent SPLOST 2011 ballot resolution revolved around the claim that half of the levy’s revenue would be paid by visitors to our fair community. Conspicuously absent from this claim, as I and others pointed out, was any documentation or citation as to the origin of the claim, in what manner it was determined, or the definition of “visitors.”

Interestingly, rather than actually provide any documentation for the claim, supporters of SPLOST 2011 usually retorted, insofar as any attribution was made at all, that the source of the claim was John Culpepper, Director of the Unified Government’s Finance Department. I write “interestingly” because none of the material supporting passage of the ballot resolution (direct mailings, web site, news articles, etc.) made any such reference. Critics of the claim only had the word of its supporters that this was the case. In fact, those supporters went so far as to declare validation of the claim due to the fact that critics could not disprove it. This, of course, constituted logical nonsense (and, in my opinion, tacit acknowledgment that the claim was fundamentally unverifiable – whether supporters realized it or not); how can a claim be disproved if no documentation or source is given for it and why should the responsibility of validating such a claim fall to its critics rather than to its supporters? Of course, it cannot and it should not.

A few days before the election, I threw down the newsprint equivalent of a gauntlet to supporters of the SPLOST 2011 ballot resolution, in which I stated bluntly:

Whether it is in news articles, letters to the editor, on the SPLOST 2011 website or in the printed campaign material delivered to my door, absolutely no corroboration or documentation is given to substantiate the claim that half of the tax will be paid by those who do not live here - none whatsoever. The claim is simply presented as axiomatic and beyond question. I have serious doubts.

By way of response, no one from the SPLOST 2011 citizens committee, no one from the ACC SPLOST 2011 ballot committee, and no one from the Unified Government’s Finance Department offered any rebuttal whatsoever (not that I expected any from the latter, for the simple fact that I had no belief that it was involved in the calim). The only “proof” offered was vague, secondhand (or third-hand or fourth-hand) references to Mr. Culpepper on the comment boards of the Banner-Herald.

So, even though it was not incumbent on me as a critic of the claim to validate anything, on 05 November I went above and beyond my due diligence and posted the letter below to Mr. Culpepper:

Mr. Culpepper

Though I realize this exercise may seem a bit tedious I ask your forbearance, as I think that my request serves a legitimate public policy interest.

The ACC SLOST 2011 ballot committee, in radio advertisements, in direct mail literature, and on its web site, made the claim that “visitors will pay for half of SPLOST 2011.” This claim was similarly repeated by supporters of the resolution in various news articles, letters to the editor, online comment boards, and blog posts.

My concern stems from the fact that no documentation as to the source or accuracy of this claim was cited. I did hear from a member of the SPLOST 2011 citizens committee on WGAU 1340’s Newsmakers that the claim that half of the levy’s revenue will be paid by those who do not live here came from “estimates we got from city-county government” – a verbatim quote – with the estimate given that 45-50% of the levy would be paid by “visitors.”

It stands to reason that the Unified Government’s Finance Department is the source of these estimates. That being the case, I would appreciate your responses to the following questions.

What statistics (population figures, sales tax revenue, etc.) were used to generate the estimates?

What is the source(s) of these statistics?

What method(s) of calculation were used?

What assumptions were used in these calculations?

How is the term “visitors” defined?

In other words, I am asking that you walk me through the process of how the 45-50% estimate was determined, with as much specificity as is reasonably possible.

Please understand that I am attaching no opprobrium to anyone and am not calling the integrity of either you or your Department into question. I am merely seeking this information for my own edification and for whatever contribution I may make to the discussion of local public policy.

Besides which, the issue will continue to be of interest, as the same question will undoubtedly arise next year when the Clarke County School District begins the process of renewing its own SPLOST program.

Your assistance in this matter is greatly appreciated.

Cordially

James Garland

Mr. Culpepper’s response, the promptness, succinctness, and honesty of which earn him high marks, arrived in my mailbox on 13 November. The body of the letter read, in its entirety:

Dear Mr. Garland

The Finance department did not generate this information. The Chair of the SPLOST 2011 Committee should be contacted about referendum campaign issues.

Sincerely

John Culpepper

Finance Director

So there you have it . . . in writing . . . on Finance Department letterhead . . . over the signature of Mr. Culpepper himself. The claims that he or the Finance Department provided the basis of the claim, ubiquitous in the materials and advertisements in support of the SPLOST 2011 ballot resolution, that half of the levy’s revenue would be provided by “visitors” – however that term may be defined – is totally and completely specious. Just as many of we critics believed it to be from the outset.

Thus, it is time for the proponents of SPLOST 2011 – and their myriad anonymous and pseudonymous sycophants – to come clean and admit that the claim has no justification. And please note that my intent is not merely to re-fight the last war, as the Clarke County School District has already begun its push to extend the collection of its own version of SPLOST, and it will undoubtedly employ this same unfounded argument.

SCHS Pigskin Finale

2010-11-15T09:59:00.001-05:00

The season for my alma mater Indians came to a close last Friday with a 63-20 loss to the Carrollton Trojans in the first round of the AAA state playoffs at The Reservation in Toccoa. With the defeat, SCHS finished the season at 8-3, a decided improvement over last year’s uncharacteristically poor 3-7 mark.

Up next for Carrollton (11-0) is the St. Pius X Golden Lions (9-2), the third seed from 5AAA.

SCHS Pigskin Update

2010-11-08T08:40:00.000-05:00

My alma mater Indians ran their record to 8-2 with a 56-0 thumping of the Johnson Knights last Friday evening at The Reservation.

Thus, SCHS emerges as the fourth seed from 8AAA. Next up for the Indians in the first round of the state playoffs are the Carrollton Trojans. With a perfect record of 10-0, Carrollton comes into the contest as the first seed from 6AAA, having outscored their opponents by a margin of 485 points to a mere 55 points. The Trojans are ranked #4 in the AJC poll.

SPLOST 2011 Final Thoughts

2010-11-04T11:09:00.002-04:00

I fully expected the SPLOST 2011 ballot resolution to pass, though I had hoped by a smaller margin than such measures typically have in the past. In the event, voters approved the resolution by about a 3 to 2 margin. Those who know this to be a bad idea did their valiant best to derail the damned thing, so that a leaner and better project list could be put forward next year – but this is the bluest of blue counties and is full of folks who worship at the alter of government (especially those who do so with hands extended). So, we will be legally bound to this monstrosity for the next decade – and it will not be pretty (see ‘tennis center, “parking deck,” etc.).

When the Unified Government of Athens-Clarke County raises taxes next year (and remember that any millage rate over and above the “rollback” rate is by definition a tax increase, even if the millage rate remains static – not that I expect City Hall’s portion of the millage rate to remain so), think back to all of those promises about SPLOST keeping property taxes low. City Hall’s budget for FY 2012 will be tight in the extreme. But unlike the current fiscal year, however, the Obama Administration cannot ride in and sprinkle “stimulus” dollars around, either directly or through the apparatus of state government; that bolt has been shot already, failing miserably. Nor will the State of Georgia ride to the rescue, as its budget must be balanced just as is that of cities and counties, evidenced by the state’s recent canceling of that property tax grant thing. The local fiscal outlook will be grim, indeed. I fully expect property taxes are going up next year – just like this year . . . and last year . . . and the year before that.

I finally did hear from a member of the SPLOST 2011 citizens committee (on Tim Bryant’s Newsmakers) that the claim that half of the levy’s revenue will be paid by those who do not live here came from “estimates we got from city-county government,” the actual estimate being that 45-50% of the levy would be paid by “visitors.” Even so, just how that “estimate” was determined remained conspicuously unstated and “visitors” includes UGA students who may well be fulltime residents, own property, and be registered to vote here. In other words, the claim remains fundamentally unsubstantiated.

Funny how all of those “quality of life” projects, meaning stuff we may want as opposed to stuff we actually need, suddenly morphed into economic development projects (you know, just like the ill-fated “tennis center” from SPLOST 2005 did). If you really want to bring jobs and economic development to Athens, developing a trained and competent workforce, shedding the very real anti-business attitude that permeates local government, and maintaining predictable zoning ordinances, rather than throwing dollars at “green space” and nebulous concepts such as “public art” would seem a far better strategy to me.

Spending tax revenue to take more property off of the tax digest is a concept that I have fought against for years (according to the pro-SPLOST folks, 47% of the county’s land area is already exempt from property taxes). In so doing, the Unified Government is voluntarily shrinking the amount of land liable for property taxes, while simultaneously increasing the general fund obligation to cover operating and maintenance expenses for its new holdings. This strikes me as fiscal insanity.

The project list approved by the Mayor and Commission calls for additional operating and maintenance expenses of over $3 million per year, which, of course, cannot be paid out of SPLOST funds. Seeing as how property taxes remain the single largest revenue source for county governments, it should not be unanticipated that the majority of those new operating and maintenance expenses will come rely on increases in the general fund budget (meaning, in all probability, property tax hikes). Yes, yes, I know that we are supposed to make revenue off of the new jail but, quite frankly, given the way government promises have worked out in the past, I may be forgiven my doubts. Besides which, critics may also be forgiven if they note that estimating the operating and maintenance expenses of projects, the details of which will not be determined for years, is a dubious proposition at best.

Remember these arguments, as you will hear variations of them next year when the Clarke County School District, incessantly claiming paucity as it does, presents hat in hand to the taxpayer yet again to extend its version of SPLOST (or ELOST if you prefer)

Fear The Boom And Bust

2010-11-03T16:18:00.002-04:00

As a follow up my rant below about the conduct of the folks up in D.C., see this video sent to me months ago by John Marsh. You can view a full screen version here. Hayek rules.