Top Stories

1. Nancy Jester for State School Superintendent?
2. LEST already LOST?
3.Vernon Jones on the cost of Obamacare
4. Doug Everett on the cost of Obamaphones
5. Are the media helping Karen Handel?

Restoring my faith in humanity and the internet

On Wednesday, the juvenile and mildly-NSFW website TheChive.com posted a fundraiser hoping to double-down the $50k they had already given a young woman. It quickly took off and raised more than $350,000 in a day, and also restoring my faith in humanity and the internet. A bunch of people giving $5, $10, $50 and occasionally more have changed the world for one person. Congratulations.

Fundraising Friday

I mentioned in August that “My House,” a group foster home for medically-fragile infants and children in DFCS custody was in financial distress and in danger of shutting its doors.

This place has my highest personal loyalty because they are in the business of saving children whom the state is not equipped to care for and they do it with love.

“My House” provides 24/7 medical care to these children at no additional cost to the state or local taxpayers, and I can testify that they are doing God’s work here in Georgia.

One of the problems that My House faced was an outdated fundraising infrastructure that didn’t allow them to take online donations. A GaPundit reader who will remain nameless for the time being helped setup an online donation portal, and for that I am truly thankful.

To my readers, I’m asking you to do me a favor today. Skip that extra-tall Frappalatte and give $5 to save children in need. For the record, I don’t receive anything from donations to My House and the donor who setup the online donation portal also offered to pay the processing fees so that 100% of your donation goes directly to providing medical care and a loving home for children in need.

So grab your credit or debit card, click one of those links and give today. I promise the world will be a better place.

Another Fundraiser for Friday

I inadvertantly gave the wrong date for the fundraiser for Bruce Thomspon’s campaign for Georgia State Senate. It’s Thursday, October 24th and I hope you will join us to help the next Senator from the 14th District.

Bruce will be the second member of the 2014 class of Republican Leadership for Georgia to be elected after graduating. Brandon Hembree was the first, taking office as a member of the Sugar Hill City Council.

Galloway’s bold prediction

Yesterday, I mentioned an Op-Ed by former DeKalb County Board of Education member Nancy Jester on why Common Core’s a problem, and Georgia’s own educational standards may be a problem too.

Jim Galloway, writing in the AJC Political Insider, made this prediction.

Consider the above to be evidence that she’ll be part of the GOP field in next year’s race for state school superintendent.

And this morning, she told Tim Bryant and Martha Zoller that she will announce whether or not she’s running for Georgia State School Superintendent.

Nancy Jester blogs about educational issues, and specifically often discusses school finance. If the topic interests you, Nancy’s blog is good reading.

Why are the media helping Karen Handel?

Rachel Dodsworth writes that the Atlanta media have either purposely assisted Karen Handel or been duped into giving her free ink:

Twice in the last month, Karen Handel has rolled out radio ads attacking her opponents. The media have reported these developments and her message without much scrutiny.

They have left a couple key questions, why would she run radio ads eight months before a primary? How big is the buy?

Lets start with the last questions, first. Through publically available documents the answers are easy.

Handel’s radio buy the week of September 6th – $718. On September 13th – $368. On September 23d – $368.

At those spending levels, Handel would have at best a handful of radio spots per week. A decent statewide radio buy in Georgia would cost around $50,000 per week.

So why do it? Because an unwitting media is giving her thousands of dollars in free airtime by trumpeting her latest ads without checking all the facts.

Then this happened on Twitter:

LEST already LOST?

A couple folks in Cobb County have come up with an uninventive way of raising more money for education – yet another layer of local sales taxes, this one called the LEST for Local Education Sales Tax. Because for the kids. But it doesn’t appear to be gaining traction among the Cobb County Board of Education members. From the MDJ coverage:

The Cobb Board of Education refused to stamp its approval on a newly proposed education tax Wednesday, deferring the action until its next board meeting.

A heated debate ensued, with board member Kathleen Angelucci and Tim Stultz strongly opposing the measure, and board members Brad Wheeler, Scott Sweeney and Banks in support of signing the letter. Scamihorn served as a moderator, repeatedly stopping board members from interrupting each other. Board member David Morgan left the meeting, citing a familial obligation.
Superintendent Michael Hinojosa strongly supported the tax proposal, calling it, “a creative way to access some more revenue for our students, if the community votes to do so.”
Sweeney said the proposal, which would require a constitutional amendment, could potentially be used to reverse the increasing classroom sizes in Cobb, and restore the school system’s ability to comfortably balance its budget without using furlough days.

But the real spanking of this idea comes from the editors of the MDJ who opined:

The first challenge for the LEST proponents is to round up a two-thirds affirmative vote by both houses of the General Assembly. If that should unexpectedly succeed, the proposal still would need approval by voters in a statewide referendum. Then finally, county voters would have to approve a new 1-cent sales tax.

All in all, the LEST plan is unlikely to get off the ground, and clearly, a tax increase is not an idea whose time has come in Cobb, in Georgia or in America.

Governing Principles

Another story in the MDJ nicely illustrates a fundamental principle of democratic governance: that a legislative body cannot bind the future acts of the body.

Here’s the MDJ’s money quote, “In a unanimous vote, the council bound itself to this stipulation, with the hope that the future council would enact the same policy next year.”

Here’s a good statement of that principle:

In its analysis, the [Nebraska Supreme [C]ourt cites 82 C.J.S. Statutes s 9 at 24-25 (1953), setting out the general rule as:

One legislature cannot bind a succeeding legislature or restrict or limit the power of its successors to enact legislation, except as to valid contracts entered into by it, and as to rights which have actually vested under its acts, and no action by one branch of the legislature can bind a subsequent session of the same branch. 544 N.W.2d @ 348.

The court cited supporting cases from Iowa, Michigan, and Georgia, all of which in effect said the legislature derives its power from the constitution, and one legislature cannot bind, restrict or limit a future or succeeding legislature.

The reason for this is that the 2013 Georgia General Assembly has the same authority as the 2014 General Assembly, and allowing the legislature to bind itself would put its own current authority above that of the next iteration. And City Councils are legislative in function.

Despite having been a principle of Western governance since at least 65 B.C. (See, e.g., Cicero’s Letters to Atticus, 65 BCE; Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Law of England (1765); Newton v. Commissioners – 100 U.S. 548 (1879)) legislatures are constantly trying to violate this because it is little known. One example is the agency sunset legislation from the 2012 Session of the Georgia legislature.

Another fundamental principle is separation of powers. That’s causing a problem for Peach County, after the Georgia Supreme Court struck down legislation permitting arbitration to decide the division of funds between a county and municipalities under a Local Option Sales Tax. From the Macon Telegraph,

Peach County — and its cities within — may lose its 1 cent local option sales tax, which is used to roll back the millage rate, after the court ruled a new process the legislature enacted is unconstitutional. For now, there are more questions than answers about whether the tax will stop immediately, when it could be reimposed and how the governments would function without it.

All but three of Georgia’s 159 counties have such a tax, called a LOST, and most were approved by voters years ago. The funds from that sales tax go to cities and counties’ general fund, so taxpayers pay a lower millage rate than if the tax did not exist.

Every 10 years, state law requires a county and cities within to renegotiate how the LOST revenue would be split among the governments. The legislature added a final step that went into effect last year that allowed the governments to ask a judge to make the decision in arbitration if they could not agree by year-end.

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that arbitration is unconstitutional because it’s a judicial process making a decision on taxes — a legislative function. In short, arbitration violates the constitution’s separation of powers.

Peach is one of 17 counties in the arbitration phase. Others have already had judges decide their taxes split. Neither Liipfert nor Amy Henderson of the Georgia Municipal Association could say whether both or just one of those groups is affected by the court’s ruling.

For great analysis of Georgia Supreme Court opinions and convenient links, SCOGblog, by Bryan Tyson of Strickland Brockington Lewis is the best resource in the state.

David Perdue the $1.8 million man

David Perdue is reporting raising $810,000 from other people and $1 million from his own checkbook in the campaign for United States Senate. Of that million dollars, half of it was a contribution and half a loan.

Intercontinental Exchange to close deal

Intercontinental Exchange expects to close it’s nearly $11 billion purchase of the New York Stock Exchange EuroNext on November 4th. For those of you (primarily consultants without a Senate candidate) holding your breath to see if Kelly Loeffler becomes a candidate for US Senate, I’d guess her day job will keep her too busy to do anything on that front until at least November 5th.

On Monday, October 21st, Loeffler’s husband and ICE Founder/Chairman/CEO Jeffrey Sprecher will discuss the acquisition of NYSE EuroNext at the Atlanta Press Club Newsmaker Luncheon.

Not what you want to see as an incumbent

Especially if you came to the GOP as a recent party switcher. Georgia State Rep. Greg Morris is being challenged in the Republican Primary by Lee Burton. Burton’s resume is pretty impressive on its own:

A former Navy SEAL and U.S. Army Warrant Officer says he’s planning to run in next year’s Republican primary to represent the 156th District in the Georgia House of Representatives.

Since graduating from Vidalia High School in 1988, Lee Burton spent more than 20 years in the military with Navy deployments in support of the first gulf war in Iraq, SEAL operations in Yugoslavia, the Middle East and Africa, and Army deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq and duty in Israel.

Burton is a former Navy SEAL sniper instructor who says he’s now taking aim at welfare fraud and job creation in rural Georgia.

But what would worry me if I were the incumbent is this: Pat Tippett, one of the hardest-working and most-effective conservatives in South Georgia has endorsed Lee Burton.

Vernon Jones and the cost of Obamacare

This.

Obama Phones to cost $5/month?

Public Service Commissioner Doug Everett (disclaimer: a client of mine) continues to press for a $5 monthly fee for the currently-free “ObamaPhone”. The measure is intended to reduce fraud that occurs when individuals obtain multiple “ObamaPhones”.

Liberals, of course, are attacking Everett, claiming that the $5 fee, which doesn’t sound like much for a cell phone and monthly service, would nonetheless have a great impact on the financially-insecure for whom the Obamaphone is touted as a “LifeLine.”

“Five dollars may not sound like much,” she said. “But to some people in Georgia, it’s a lot of money.”

Commissioner Doug Everett said such arguments ignore another group of Georgians being hurt by abuse of the Lifeline program: taxpayers.

Everett and commission Chairman Chuck Eaton said wireless companies ­hawking the free phones – not low-income phone customers ­­­– are responsible for the program’s excesses.

“A good bit of this was brought on because there were bad apples out there getting way too aggressive with this program,” Eaton said.

The PSC is expected to vote on the proposed fee next week.