Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 18, 2014

On June 18, 1807, commissioners from Georgia and North Carolina agreed to recognize the 35th parallel as the boundary between the two states. North Carolina conducted a survey that placed the boundary further South than the 35th parallel, though Georgia never accepted the survey and continues to argue that the 35th is the proper boundary against both North Carolina and Tennessee.

As of today, the dispute with Tennessee continues.

The War of 1812 began on June 18, 1812, as President James Madison signed a declaration of war against Great Britain passed by the House and Senate.

On June 18, 1873, Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for illegally voting in Rochester, New York. At the conclusion of her trial, the judge read a statement that, “The Fourteenth Amendment gives no right to a woman to vote, and the voting by Miss Anthony was in violation of the law,” and directed the jury to convict her. Anthony responded,

“Yes, your honor, I have many things to say; for in your ordered verdict of guilty, you have trampled underfoot every vital principle of our government,” Anthony said. “My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights, are all alike ignored. Robbed of the fundamental privilege of citizenship, I am degraded from the status of a citizen to that of a subject; and not only myself individually, but all of my sex, are, by your honor’s verdict, doomed to political subjection under this, so-called, form of government.”

http://youtu.be/RhfMvh6Em0M?t=42s

The Southern Railway Company was organized on June 18, 1894 and through predecessor railroads traces its heritage to the nation’s first regularly-scheduled railroad service, The Best Friend of Charleston. Samuel Spencer, of Columbus, Georgia, was the first President of the Southern. In the 1980s, the Southern merged with Norfolk & Western Railway to form Norfolk Southern.

In 2012, former Southern Railway steam locomotive number 630 visited Atlanta to pull excursion trains with the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.

A Tesla for Tuesday

I happened to run across this Tesla Roadster at Lenox Square yesterday while heading to lunch on the same day I read that Tesla Motors will open a second showroom in Metro Atlanta.

Tesla Motors, based in Palo Alto, California, is establishing itself as the world’s premier manufacturer of high-performance electric sports cars.

The long-term lease deal will be in Decatur, the county seat of DeKalb County.
Tesla is on a growth spurt, with its stock up double over the last 12 trailing months.

Tesla Motors is currently prohibited from selling more than 150 cars per year to Georgians due to a Depression era state law. Existing auto dealers typically say that the existing system, which outlaws manufacturer direct sales to consumers, benefits consumers.

While General Motors announced yesterday that it is recalling more than 3.3 million cars for a problem similar to another issue that has caused at least 13 consumer deaths and forced GM to recall 2.6 million cars.

Take a moment to look at this timeline of the GM recall problems and let me know how that “consumer protection” is working out for consumers.

And if you own a Tesla Roadster or Model S, by all means, please email me with an offer to take a ride.

The Alternative Fuel Vehicle Road Show kicked off yesterday in Atlanta, and Walter Jones of Morris News was there.

Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols organizes the annual tour. The commission doesn’t directly deal with transportation or environmental policy, but it does oversee electric utilities and natural-gas pipelines.
Commission Chairman Chuck Eaton, who like Echols drives an alternative-fuel vehicle, said the commission has an interest because the vehicles could add to the demands on the utility grid or take advantage of low-demand periods by recharging overnight.
“As a regulator, when you use electricity is just as important as how much you use,” he said, noting that the commission set rates for Georgia Power Co. with steep discounts for overnight charging.
The tour’s next stop is the Augusta area today (WEDNESDAY) at the Evans Government Center at 9 a.m., followed by Warner Robins on Thursday, Savannah Friday during a conference of the Georgia Municipal Association. Next week, it stops in Atlanta, Clayton, Gainesville and Columbus.

Click here to register and attend one of the Road Shows across Georgia. I’m planning on hitting the June 23d event at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

County Commissioners Gone Wild

County Commissioners in the Augusta area have been behaving like jackwagons suffered a couple of negative headlines recently. Former Richmond County Commissioner Bill Hiers has been sentenced to 20 days in jail after shoplifting some makeup and Aleve. Current Augusta Commissioner Donnie Smith is in trouble at his day job, having been suspended with pay from the Georgia State Patrol “pending the completion of an investigation into a possible policy violation.”

The Fulton County Commission didn’t have enough members present last week to pass a motion to advertise an upcoming tax hike, so they’ll try again tonight. To her credit, Commissioner Liz Hausmann said she will vote against the property tax hike.

Gwinnett County Commissioners Behaving Well

In Gwinnett County, Commissioners are considering rolling back the millage rate, though two Commissioner prefer to continue the exiting rate, which would be characterized by some as a tax increase because rising property values would bring in more revenue than the previous year.

The one thing that I can say with certainty is that I am not supportive of increasing the millage rate,” Commission Chairwoman Charlotte Nash said. “I believe that we will set the millage rate no higher than last year’s rate. I will be looking closely at the potential impacts between now and the date we are scheduled to adopt the millage rate in July. Of course, the opinion of each commissioner is important in this process.”

“We’ve got a lot of ground to make up,” Commissioner Lynette Howard said, adding that officials have to consider services and employees before deciding on the rate. “Rolling back would not be a wise decision for the county and the citizens.”

While Commissioner Tommy Hunter said he would like to roll back taxes, at least to some degree, John Heard said he is leaning toward keeping the millage rate the same.

“I’m glad property values are going up,” he said. “But it’s too early to try to make any adjustments, whether down or up.”

The City of Brookhaven appears headed down that path, signalling their intention to keep the same property tax rate, which will cause owners of homes with higher valuations to pay more in property taxes.

Brookhaven Mayor J. Max Davis said at the June 10 City Council meeting that as long as he is mayor, he will not let the millage rate go up from its current 2.85 level.

Brookhaven Finance Director Bonnie Kline said all of the tax digest is up 14 percent. However, she added that the city won’t get the official numbers until July 1, which is a day after the City Council must vote on the millage rate by state law.

“This increase in valuation shows that Brookhaven is a good investment that is paying off for the residents. Our city is growing, improving and getting better every day,” said Mayor J. Max Davis. “And we’ll keep the millage a half mill below the cap and continue delivering high levels of service.”

Brookhaven will hold three public hearings on DeKalb County’s recent revaluation of real property tax assessments as it prepares to set the 2014 millage rate….

A so-called taxpayer advocacy group that isn’t based in Brookhaven has been emailing me constantly calling for the head of Mayor Max Davis.

Despite your calls for fiscal responsibility, Mayor J. Max Davis and the City Council members are refusing to listen to concerned taxpayers.

They’ve dug their heels in and are still demanding that you pay for their $704,000.00 property tax hike.

One concerned taxpayer asked Mayor Davis why he would not support holding taxes to last year’s level (by adopting the roll-back rate).

Can you believe Mayor J. Max Davis arrogantly suggested that raising taxes was the only “responsible” thing to do?

This is transparently a ploy by self-appointed Republicans to gain a foothold and elect some of their own to public office. How do I know? They spent much of this year attacking a local state house member who is responsible for more taxpayer-friendly legislation than anyone else in DeKalb County, while remaining mum on Fulton County’s proposed 17% property tax hike. They also only attack Republicans, never Democrats.

In Houston County, the Commission is taking credit for “scraping and scratching” to present a budget that keeps the existing property tax rate.

The Houston County Commission unveiled a $52.2 million general fund budget Tuesday that keeps the property tax rate unchanged and spending about the same as the past year.

At the end of Tuesday’s regular meeting, Commission Chairman Tommy Stalnaker outlined the budget, which he said is little changed from last year’s, which was $51.6 million. He said it has been the toughest budget process since he took office in 2010.

Why aren’t Georgia Taxpayers United up in arms about that?

This does, however, illustrate a conundrum for local elected officials: under current Georgia law, they must advertise as a tax increase the act of simply keeping the same property tax rate as the previous year.

The Macon-Bibb Commission passed a resolution opposing the new “guns everywhere” bill.

[T]he measure’s sponsor, said the law, which goes into effect July 1, would greatly increase security expenses in government buildings and cost business to public venues from performers who don’t want guns at their shows.

One of the events you may someday be able to tote your pistol into will be hockey games in Macon, as the Macon-Bibb Commission voted to bring the minor league hockey team currently called the Augusta RiverHawks, which will become the Macon Mayhem.

Awkward

It’s bad enough when you’re called into court to testify in a dispute between your bosses over whether you should have been hired, but add to that admissions that you’ve serially lied on your resume and it gets really awkward, really fast. Snellville City Manager Butch Sanders had just that kind of day.

Snellville City Manager Butch Sanders took the stand Tuesday in the city’s mayor vs. council case, admitting to lying on his resume.

Sanders, who is a defendant in the suit filed by Mayor Kelly Kautz after the council approved a new employment contract with him over her objections, was questioned about claims that he had received a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics and a master’s in public administration, both from the University of Georgia.

“That was a terrible personal mistake, and I apologize for that,” he said of the false claims of the economics degree, as well as previous erroneous claims that he had attended the University of Southern California on a football scholarship, as stated on his resume when he applied to become city manager of Dalton earlier in his career.

Sex and Drugs?

Georgia has consistently deleted questions about sexual activity from the federal Youth Risk Behavior Survey, but will likely have to include some in the future.

Though the effort is federally sponsored, each state decides which questions can be asked within its jurisdiction. Besides Georgia, other states prohibiting the sex questions last year included Louisiana, Utah and Virginia.

The YRBS is sent at random to high schools. The process is anonymous, with no recording of students’ identities.

Asked about the absence of sex questions, a spokesman for the Department of Education on Friday referred a reporter to the Department of Public Health.

The latter agency said through a spokesman that the state must include questions related to sexual behavior by 2017 in order to comply with federal requirements.

“Georgia is permitted some level of choice in which questions are included,’’ said the Public Health spokesman Ryan Deal. “In the coming months, DPH will work with its partners to evaluate and determine the best questions for Georgia.

A year ago, GHN reported that the decision not to include questions about sexual behavior would cost the state a shot at federal money for HIV/STD prevention.

In a letter from a Department of Education official to the CDC, the state said it would not apply for a round of federal funding for HIV/STD education because “it will not be able to comply with the new requirements.’’

A London-based pharmaceutical company that may begin clinical trials at Georgia Regent University has released results from trials of a cannabidiol oil medication.

London-based GW Pharmaceuticals said its Epidiolex cannabidiol drug showed “promising” results in 27 patients with more difficult seizures after at least 12 weeks of treatment. Almost half – 48 percent – had seizures reduced by at least 50 percent; 41 percent had a 70 percent reduction; 22 percent had a 90 percent reduction and 15 percent were seizure-free by the end of the treatment period, the company announced.

All but one of the patients were children, average age 10.5 years, whose seizures are not controlled by current medications.

GW Pharmaceuticals has a Mem­or­andum of Understanding with Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal’s office and GRU to explore opening a clinical trial in Augusta. Company officials are scheduled to visit the campus next month.