President Jimmy Carter was nominated for reelection as President by the Democratic National Convention in New York City on August 13, 1980.
President Ronald Reagan signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act on August 13, 1981.
The ERTA included a 25 percent reduction in marginal tax rates for individuals, phased in over three years, and indexed for inflation from that point on. The marginal tax rate, or the tax rate on the last dollar earned, was considered more important to economic activity than the average tax rate (total tax paid as a percentage of income earned), as it affected income earned through “extra” activities such as education, entrepreneurship or investment. Reducing marginal tax rates, the theory went, would help the economy grow faster through such extra efforts by individuals and businesses. The 1981 act, combined with another major tax reform act in 1986, cut marginal tax rates on high-income taxpayers from 70 percent to around 30 percent, and would be the defining economic legacy of Reagan’s presidency.
Reagan’s tax cuts were designed to put maximum emphasis on encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship and creating incentives for the development of venture capital and greater investment in human capital through training and education. The cuts particularly benefited “idea” industries such as software or financial services; fittingly, Reagan’s first term saw the advent of the information revolution, including IBM’s introduction of its first personal computer (PC) and the rise or launch of such tech companies as Intel, Microsoft, Dell, Sun Microsystems, Compaq and Cisco Systems.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High was released on August 13, 1982.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
From Governor Nathan Deal’s office:
“Smart on crime is not the same as soft on crime, which our results bear out,” said Deal. “In Georgia, we are addressing barriers to successful reentry through job training programs, ban-the-box legislation and operating a charter school in our prison system. We have implemented such initiatives while making our communities safer, with a 10 percent decrease in the violent crime rate and a 20 percent decrease in overall crime, all while saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. We have also seen the African-American percentage of our prison system drop significantly since 2009, as incarceration rates for black males have dropped almost 30 percent and incarceration rates for black females have dropped 38.2 percent. Overall African-American commitments to our prisons are at the lowest level since 1987. I am pleased to share any information that might be helpful for a national model of reforming criminal justice.”
Additional results of Georgia’s criminal justice reform initiatives include:
- The recidivism rate for an individual who graduates from an accountability court is just 2 percent.
- There has been a 24 percent decrease in recidivism for those who complete vocational training programs while incarcerated.
- Recidivism rates for those who earn a GED while incarcerated have decreased by 19 percent.
- Total commitments to the Department of Juvenile Justice are down 46 percent since 2014.
“Our first duty is to our citizens, including those who have taken the wrong path but are seeking redemption and a new beginning,” said President Trump. “We’ve passed the First Step Act through the House, and we’re working very hard in the Senate to refine it and pass it into law. We think we’ll be successful in that regard. The bill expands vocational educational programs to eligible federal inmates so that more of them can learn a trade. And that’s what we’re doing. We’re teaching them trades. We’re teaching them different things that they can put into good use, and put into use to get jobs.”
The Georgia Department of Community Health Board approved no insurance cost increases for the State Health Benefit Plan, according to AccessWDUN.
The White County Board of Commissioners voted to allow fishing in the lake at Yonah Preserve, according to AccessWDUN.
The Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County appointed Bill Forbes as interim CEO for the South Georgia Medical Center, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.
Whitfield County Schools Superintendent Judy Gilreath has a new contract through 2021, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen.
The Newnan Times-Herald looks at the impact of methamphetamine on the community.
In Coweta County, meth still ranks supreme over all other drugs tested by the GBI forensic science lab. In the last calendar year, its lab tested 91 cases of suspected meth. A distant second was cocaine, 26, followed by oxycodone at 10.
Byung Jin “BJay” Pak, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said a community like Coweta is primed to be on the receiving end of a meth resurgence thanks to cartels hoping to flood the market with methamphetamine that’s cheaper and more pure than ever.
A 2011 survey by The Georgia Meth Project showed that one in five Georgia teens report meth is easy to get, and 28 percent of Georgia teens see little or no risk in trying meth. Pak estimated the stats have only increased since then.
Because of Atlanta’s reputation as a transportation hub, the distribution of Mexican meth across the entire country is originating out of local labs that convert liquid methamphetamine into crystal product.
“With Newnan so close to the interstate, the area is now a benefactor to the high level of trafficking happening in Atlanta,” Pak said.
Democratic Strategist Tharon Johnson spoke to the Coweta County Democratic Party, according to the Newnan Times-Herald.
Democratic candidates attending the dinner were [former Congressman John] Barrow, who is running for Georgia secretary of state; Janice Laws, Georgia insurance commissioner; Chuck Enderlin, U.S. House District 3; Tom Thomason, Georgia House District 71; Georgia House Minority Leader Bob Trammell, District 132 and County Commission Chairman Al Smith.
“Can an African-American woman become governor of Georgia?” Johnson asked, drawing applause.
“That’s exactly the conversation the Republicans want us to be having,” Johnson warned. He said the Democrats are in trouble “if this conversation is about gender and about race.”
He said Democrats instead need to focus on transit, jobs, the availability of health care and “making sure our children get a first-rate education.”
He talked about gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and her issue-based approach to campaigning.
“We’ve got to buy in to what the next governor of Georgia is telling us,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to put all this dissension and all this disappointment behind us.”
That article is worth reading in its entirety.
Democratic candidate for Governor Stacey Abrams spoke to the Congressional Black Caucus in Mississippi, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.
Abrams returned to her state of birth Friday and regaled attendees of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute’s annual policy conference in Tunica with stories of her upbringing in Gulfport and Mississippi’s Gulf Coast region, using the vignettes to explain why she’s vying to become the nation’s first African American woman governor.
“I’m not running for me,” Abrams told a conference luncheon Friday. “I’m running for my family, I’m running for my community, I’m running for the South. And when we win the South, we win America.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., a Congressional Black Caucus member, said he invited Abrams, a former Georgia House minority leader, to Tunica because of her Mississippi roots and her potential history-making run.
“On election night, when she’s victorious, we’ll claim her and we’ll say ‘We won,’” Thompson said.
Thompson said Abrams’ candidacy, along with former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy’s Democratic bid to fill Thad Cochran’s Senate seat in November, could potentially change the 2020 electoral map in the South if they win.
The Augusta Judicial Circuit‘s drug court program notched its 10th anniversary, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
“It’s been a team effort,” Superior Court James G. Blanchard Jr. said of drug court. He credits the other judges for supporting his efforts to get the court started a decade ago. Augusta-area defense attorney Tanya Jeffords has been with the court from the beginning, when she worked for free, he said. Blanchard also credits the Rev. Sam Davis at Beulah Grove Baptist Church, where graduations are held.
Ten years ago, the participants were mainly using marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine, Blanchard said. Now the drug of choice is often heroin and opiates. At first, participants often said they started with smoking marijuana with friends at 16. Now it’s age 5 to 7 with marijuana or cocaine, Blanchard said.
The opiate crisis has hit the area hard. People are dying, including a drug court graduate who tried a new drug from China that causes what’s called the gray death, Blanchard said. The extent of the epidemic has prompted police to carry Narcan, medication to counter the effects of opiates when someone is going into respiratory failure.
Since the drug court program began, 524 people have participated and 180 graduated – maintained sobriety for at least 365 days, said Elaina Ashley, the program’s coordinator.
Columbus Clerk of Council Tiny Washington has been placed on paid leave ahead of an audit report, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.
Macon-Bibb County Commissioner Joe Allen drafted a resolution to eliminate the Planning & Zoning Commission, according to the Macon Telegraph.
It proposes the creation of a planning and zoning department under the control of the county commission. Four other county commissioners signed on as sponsors of the resolution, but one is already backing out.
“I keep hearing over the years how planning and zoning has put restrictions on people and putting a lot of hardships on a lot of people,” Allen said Wednesday. “And the costs. … My problem with P&Z is I don’t think they look after the people the way they should. There are too many tight restrictions. A lot of people don’t want to come to Bibb County.”
The resolution says the decisions of the zoning board have a significant impact on the community, and the “Macon-Bibb County Commission has further determined that the members of the (county commission) should have the responsibility for making planning and zoning decisions as they are elected to serve by the voters (of Bibb County).”
The Bulloch County Commission will set the property tax millage rate for FY 2019 in its Friday meeting, according to the Statesboro Herald.
The Bulloch County Board of Education is slated to set its property tax millage rate, with a quarter-mill rollback, during a called meeting at noon Friday, Aug. 17, at the board’s central offices, 150 Williams Road.
With a rollback from last year’s rate of 9.685 mills to 9.427 mills, the school board avoids a requirement of a tax increase notice and hearings that would have been triggered by an increased in appraised values.
Superintendent Charles Wilson had recommended the rollback in July. It was not on the agenda for their regular meeting Thursday, but board members had indicated support, and staff issued a notice Tuesday of next Friday’s called meeting.
Newnan City Council will vote on whether to buy a trolley funded from the 2013 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, according to the Newnan Times-Herald.
Coweta County Commissioners are considering raising the impact fee to preserve rural areas from it’s current level of $0, according to the Newnan Times-Herald.
Technically, Coweta County still has impact fees, but the fees are set at $0, and have been since Jan. 1, 2014.
Impact fees are set fees that are charged on all new development and are designed to pay for specific projects. The county first implemented impact fees in 2006, to help fund recreation, fire services, the jail and the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office. Fees for transportation projects were added in 2007.
Commissioner Tim Lassetter asked if impact fees would discourage industry from coming to Coweta. He said the company he works for likely would have been happy to pay impact fees to locate in Coweta with its talented workers.
“But on the other hand, the last thing I want to do is deter investment and increasing the tax base,” Lassetter said.
Savannah‘s smoke-free ordinance could become a model for other communities, according to the Savannah Morning News.
Savannah bars and restaurants have been smoke free since Jan. 1, 2011. The county passed a similar ordinance for the unincorporated area in 2012.
After Savannah’s ordinance passed, the state Department of Public Health used funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the results. A qualitative study of bar and restaurant owners on Bay and River Streets concluded patrons were going out more frequently and restaurants weren’t having to wash smoke residue off their walls and furniture. A look at health outcomes showed a decrease in hospital admissions for heart attacks.
But the most convincing study for other cities had to do with revenue. Receipt data from the Georgia Department of Revenue showed businesses’ bottom lines were unharmed by going smoke-free.
For Augusta, those results took away a big fear and led to Augusta adopting a similar ordinance in June after twice rejecting the idea.
Virginia could provide a model for switching to paper ballots, according to WABE.
Liz Howard, a former deputy commissioner with Virginia’s Department of Elections, said that state pulled off very quick transitions across dozens of counties, twice.
“We have hands on experience with ‘this is doable,’ how it’s doable, the partners that we worked with and working with local election officials while they’re making the transition,” Howard said.
“We had multiple election officials who said ‘Look, the transition to paper ballots, away from the touchscreens, was much more intuitive, certainly for the poll workers – whose age skews older – and it also seemed to be intuitive for the voters,” she said.
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp has called the idea of implementing a change before November an “absolute disaster.”
Comments ( 0 )