Benjamin Franklin became Georgia’s agent in England on June 1, 1768, making him also Georgia’s first lobbyist.
On June 1, 1775, Georgia patriots sent a care package to their brethren in Massachusetts comprising 63 barrels of rice and £122 after the battles at Lexington and Concord.
The court martial of Benedict Arnold convened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 1, 1779.
Arnold negotiated his defection to the British and the subversion of West Point over several months. The British already held control of New York City and believed that by taking West Point they could effectively cut off the American’s New England forces from the rest of the fledgling nation.
In August 1780, Sir Henry Clinton offered Arnold £20,000 for delivering West Point and 3,000 troops. Arnold told General Washington that West Point was adequately prepared for an attack even though he was busy making sure that that it really wasn’t. He even tried to set up General Washington’s capture as a bonus. His plan might have been successful but his message was delivered too late and Washington escaped. The West Point surrender was also foiled when an American colonel ignored Arnold’s order not to fire on an approaching British ship.
Arnold’s defection was revealed to the Americans when British officer John André, acting as a messenger, was robbed by AWOL Americans working as pirates in the woods north of New York City. The notes revealing Arnold’s traitorous agreement were stashed in his boots.
On June 1, 1942, a Polish newspaper first published information about the gassing of Jews at Nazi concentration camps in Poland.
The Beatles released Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on June 1, 1967. The album is listed as #1 on the Rolling Stone top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is the most important rock & roll album ever made, an unsurpassed adventure in concept, sound, songwriting, cover art and studio technology by the greatest rock & roll group of all time. From the title song’s regal blasts of brass and fuzz guitar to the orchestral seizure and long, dying piano chord at the end of “A Day in the Life,” the 13 tracks on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band are the pinnacle of the Beatles’ eight years as recording artists. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were never more fearless and unified in their pursuit of magic and transcendence.
Issued in Britain on June 1st, 1967, and a day later in America, Sgt. Pepper is also rock’s ultimate declaration of change. For the Beatles, it was a decisive goodbye to matching suits, world tours and assembly-line record-making. “We were fed up with being Beatles,” McCartney said decades later, in Many Years From Now, Barry Miles’ McCartney biography. “We were not boys, we were men… artists rather than performers.
A summit between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev ended on May 31, 1988. Four years later, in 1992, Gorbachev was dancing for dollars in the United States, including the keynote address at Emory University’s graduation.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Governor Nathan Deal announced the creation of a Teacher Advisory Committee that will review recommendations from the 2015 Education Reform Commission.
The committee is chaired by Rep. Amy Carter, a practicing teacher in Lowndes County, and is comprised of 90 educators throughout the state. These teachers have experience from kindergarten through high school across a wide range of subject areas including STEM fields, fine arts and special and gifted education. Deal announced his intention to create the Teacher Advisory Committee earlier this year.
“Last year, I charged the Education Reform Commission with studying the state’s education system and making recommendations on how it can more effectively prepare our students for postsecondary programs and the workforce,” said Deal. “The responsibility of the commission was to think beyond the confines of the current system, look into the future and recommend changes that will make that level of educational preparation possible in Georgia. They fulfilled that responsibility and I’m grateful for their hard work and diligent efforts. Now I would like to hear from those on the front lines.”
“Georgia’s teachers educate, train, mentor and encourage our children each and every day, and they are dedicated to providing a quality education and shaping the minds of Georgia’s future leaders. I have tasked the Teacher Advisory Committee with reviewing these recommendations and providing input and feedback. Their experience in the classroom will help guide our efforts as we seek to improve educational outcomes for students, retain the best and brightest teachers and address critical needs in Georgia’s K-12 system. I look forward to meeting with them to discuss how we can continue to improve outcomes for Georgia’s educators,” said Deal.
Governor and Mrs. Deal will also work to increase awareness of the danger of leaving children in cars.
Meanwhile, the Governor won’t be at the weekend’s GAGOP Convention, instead scheduling a reception for high school students at the Governor’s Mansion.
Computer glitches will cause delays in reporting end-of-course test results from the Georgia Department of Education.
State Representative Ron Stephens (R-Savannah) will pay a fine for a paperwork error in his personal financial disclosure, according to the Savannah Morning News.
The Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission began investigating the matter this winter after Stephens himself filed amendments to correct the reporting issue — something the Savannah Republican says he realized during estate planning.
“Nobody complained that I wasn’t reporting it,” Stephens said Tuesday. “I just did it on my own to be transparent. If I had done nothing at all, nobody would have ever known.”
Staff for the commission began a formal complaint in February after Stephens amended disclosures to include business interests not previously reported. After an audit, staff determined that Stephens had violated [ethics laws] by not listing four businesses — Branch Investors LLC, Citizens Investors LLC, Tybee Condo Investors LLC and Wilmington Island Partners LLC — in disclosures for 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Georgia law requires that public officials or those running for office disclose businesses in which they have direct or ownership interests. Stephens, a pharmacist who is involved in several business ventures, said he just lost track.
“Although (Stephens) did amend his calendar year 2012, 2013 and 2014 personal financial disclosure statements, said amendments do not excuse (his) failure to properly report his business and investment interests as required,” reads a complaint filed by commission staff on Feb. 5.
In Effingham County, incumbent Commission Chair Wendall Kessler is on his way out due to a Republican Primary loss to Wesley Corbitt, who previously served as City Manager for Rincon.
A seat on the Superior Court for the Ogeechee Circuit, comprising Bulloch, Effingham, Jenkins, and Screven Counties, will be decided in a Runoff Election between Assistant District Attorney Michael Muldrew, who took 41% of votes on May 24 and Springfield lawyer Martha Hall, who earned 39 percent.
Other Peoples’ Money
The Hall County Board of Education will increase the millage rate by about one percent over the rollback rate. The AccessWDUN story on this has a great explanation of how property tax assessment increases and the “rollback rate” work.
Each year, the board of tax assessors is required to review the assessed value for property tax purposes of taxable property in the county. When the trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the county indicate there has been an increase in the fair market value of any specific property, the board of tax assessors is required by law to re-determine the value of such property and adjust the assessment.
When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires that a rollback millage rate must be computed that will produce the same total revenue on the current year’s digest that last year’s millage rate would have produced had no reassessments occurred. The rollback rate for this year is 18.599 mills, according to a press release from the Hall County School System. The Board of Education is proposing a rate of 18.80 mills which is an increase of .201 mills. The current millage rate is 18.80 mills.
Whether or not the taxes of an individual property increases or decreases depends on the amount of reassessment, if any, that property receives. The budget tentatively adopted by the school board requires a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rate, therefore, before the board may finalize the budget and set a final millage rate, Georgia law requires three public hearings before the board can act.
The board tentatively approved the new budget, which includes an across-the-board pay hike for employees, Monday night. More information about the proposed budget and tax increase and timeline for adopting both is on the Hall County Schools website.
The passage of E-SPLOST referenda in Fulton and DeKalb Counties will likely have a positive impact on the bond ratings of each school system, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
In its new credit outlook publication, Moody’s Investors Service called the two May 24 referendum votes “credit positive” for Atlanta Public Schools (APS), the Fulton County School System, the DeKalb County School District and the Decatur City School District.
“The renewals are credit positive for all four districts because, without the extension, the districts would have had to find alternative methods to fund extensive capital programs,” Moody’s stated in the report.
Meanwhile, the DeKalb County Board of Education continues to hem and haw about being included in a Tax Allocation District for the former GM Plant in Doraville.
The board so far is standing firm in a majority decision not to participate, with many saying any tax dollars generated should go to funding education, their main goal.
“We want to make sure we make a rational decision,” school board Chairman Melvin Johnson said. “We did send a list of questions to (the developer). We’re awaiting response so we can make a final decision.
In a letter to Atlanta-based Integral Group CEO Egbert Perry, whose firm is behind the development, school officials seek answers on funding the project without a tax district, the cost schedule for infrastructure needs and whether private funding had been secured for the project, among other things.
The school board would control 56 percent of the expected [TAD] funding.
The Bibb County Board of Education is considering a millage rate increase to provide 3 percent raises, according to the Macon Telegraph.
The board held another budget work session for the 2016-17 school year Tuesday. The initial budget that was presented met other goals but did not include an increase in salary for teachers and other employees.
“Me personally, I think we need to give the 3-percent raise,” said board President Lester Miller.
That led Miller to suggest that the board look at raising the millage rate, which Collier said would be set in August. He estimated that, to cover a continuing pay increase of 3 percent for all school employees, a 2-mill increase would be needed. That would raise property taxes about $80 per year on a $100,000 home, but it could take that deficit in 2019 and turn it into a positive balance of $18.4 million.
“I never thought I’d come to a day I was advocating that,” Miller said.
Hall County officials and department heads are making the case to the County Commission for their 2017 budgets, according to the Gainesville Times.
The Darlington School in Rome, a private institution will lease land to Inman Solar for 25 years for a solar installation that will sell power to Georgia Power.
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