Category Archives: politics

Jobs, jobs, jobs

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According to the Gallup polling group unemployment in the United States remains over 10%. The latest numbers from the federal government put the number closer to 9 %  but that lower number doesn’t include the 2.8 million people that have completely given up on the hope of finding a job.

Unemployment is a major cause of the ongoing real esate crisis and continues to impact families all over our nation and it is good to hear politicians repeating the phrase “jobs, jobs, jobs”. It is just a shame that government policies don’t seem to reflect the jobs mantra being espoused by politicians. 

President Obama has been on a charm offensive ever since the November elections trying to convince the American people that jobs are his number one priority now. Just last week he spoke to the same American Chamber of Commerce that he vilified a few months ago and he used the occasion to repeatedly emphasize the need for more job creation. Then less than three days later the director of the Congressional Budget testified before congress that the President Obama’s historic health care bill will cause the loss of 800,000 jobs.

800,000 jobs lost because of one stroke of the president’s pen?

It is nice to hear politicians finally talking about jobs. It’s just a shame that when it comes down to a choice between jobs and political goals they often make the wrong choice.

When your adversary is making a fool of himself, get out of the way

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Kyle Wingfield had another great column in the AJC this week about the unhealthy obsession many Georgians have with what is going on in North Carolina. It is a great article and it I have noticed the same phenomenom.

To put it simply there are a lot of liberals in Georgia that are constantly harping about the way Charlotte, NC is beating us to the punch in adopting liberal policies. Of course many of these policies are currently driving the states of California, Illinois and New York into bankruptcy but that doesn’t seem to worry them as much as the possibility of Atlanta without more trains.

You can read all of Kyle’s column here.

Lyndon Johnson once said “When your adversary is making a fool of himself, get out of the way”. I hope Georgia’s political leaders heed that thought.

Unions are destroying the Postal Service

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CNN reports that the United States Post office is admitting a $329 million dollar loss in the first quarter of the 2011 fiscal year. That means that the Post Office is on track to lose more than a billion dollars in 2011 and they will be looking for congress to bail them out.

“The Postal Service continues to seek changes in the law to enable a more flexible and sustainable business model,” Patrick Donahoe, the Postmaster General, said in a statement. “We are eager to work with Congress and the administration to resolve these issues prior to the end of the fiscal year.”

However a cursory review of the Post Office’s problem shows that it isn’t the economy or competition to blame. The reason the Post Office is destined for bankruptcy is that postal union  labor contracts are driving them out of business.

According to CNN the post office says they actually had a $226 million net income for the first quarter if you take out the costs related to retiree benefits and adjustments to workers’ compensation liability. So three months of retiree benefits and worker’s compensation charges cost the postal service $555 million. It would be kind of hard for any business to make a profit with that expense hanging over your head.

As a result of the enormous losses the Post Office is trying to eliminate Saturday delivery and cut 40 million hours of labor costs which could save them $2 billion. But of course that might not be possible because,

“the service is currently negotiating new contracts with the American Postal Workers Union and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, which will probably object to cutting hours.”

Object to cutting hours? Imagine how the unions will object when the Post Office is driven into bankruptcy altogether?

RTWTH

“Green ” Energy plant converts $162 million dollars into thin air

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There is a great column about Soperton, Georgia’s Range Fuels ethanol plant in the Washington Examiner. Apparently the company managed to convert $350,000 in political campaign contributions into $162 million dollars worth of government loan guarantees, grants and subsidies. Unfortunately the refinery closed down last month and never really produced much ethanol.

Of course it snowed again in Alpharetta last night and Georgia is experiencing one of our coldest winters on record so Range Fuels may actually have been onto something. Obviously global warming can be solved by the simple conversion of taxpayer dollars into thin air. 

Read the whole story here and weep. Thanks to Kyle Wingfield of the AJC for bringing the story to my attention.

Which way forward Georgia… Texas or California?

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The state of Georgia is in a good place. Yes we have tremendous challenges. Our billion dollar deficits, failed banks, double digit unemployment and rampant home foreclosures are huge problems but nearly every state in the nation is facing such difficulties.

The difference between most states and Georgia is that we are in a perfect position to capitalize on the economic challenges facing us. Georgia can choose to develop an economic climate that will not only survive a difficult environment but actually thrive in it. 

Texas is already doing it. For more than a year now I have watched as the state of Texas has become a magnet for jobs and growth in the worst economy of my lifetime. In fact, as stated by Rich Lowry on National Review Online:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 214,000 net new jobs were created in the United States from August 2009 to August 2010. Texas created 119,000 jobs during the same period. If every state in the country had performed as well, we’d have created about 1.5 million jobs nationally during the past year, and maybe “stimulus” wouldn’t be such a dirty word.

What does Austin know that Washington doesn’t? At its simplest: Don’t overtax and -spend, keep regulations to a minimum, avoid letting unions and trial lawyers run riot, and display an enormous neon sign saying, “Open for Business.”

Of course since our state has the opportunity to make good choices we also face the chance of making a bad choice. Fortunately California provides a glimpse into the future of what Georgia would become if we choose our economic model poorly. To illustrate I suggest you read Mark Hemigway’s piece titled “Texas booms while California busts” in the Washington Examiner. The first installment of the five part series outlines the two contrasting business models:

Broadly speaking, the two states have many similarities. They have diverse economies, large urban areas, a border with Mexico and similar demographic make-up, with Hispanics a third of the population. Yet one state is failing and one state is succeeding.

California is facing budget shortfalls in excess of $20 billion each year for the next five years, and acquires $25 million in new debt each day. “We’ve been living in fantasy land. It is much worse than I thought. I’m shocked,” then California Gov.-elect Jerry Brown, D, told the Los Angeles Times.

By contrast, when Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, campaigned successfully for a third term this year, he ran ads touting the fact that his state has billions in surplus. In fact, Texas was one of only six states that did not run a budget deficit in 2009.

******

Perhaps the most dramatic illustration of Texas’ superiority is that Americans have been stating their preference for the Lone Star State with their feet.

Between 2000 and 2009, California had a domestic outflow of 1.5 million people, while Texas had 850,000 move in from other states. From 2008 to 2009, Texas’ population inflow was double that of any other state.

So how have two similar states ended up in such radically different situations? The answer is smaller government.

The economic climates of Texas and California could not be more different and the results could not be more evident. Texas is a model for success and California is a model for failure.

The people of Georgia hold our destiny in the palm of our hands. Let’s just hope that the state’s extension of the GA 400 toll and Transportation Tax Increase aren’t indicative of the path our government intends to follow.

You can read all of  Mr. Hemingway’s article and follow the future installments here.

MARTA and the future of Alpharetta

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In 2007 I had a conversation with an employee of Alpharetta’s Community Development Department about the future of our city. At the time the city was planning to approve a 13 story condominium building in my children’s school district and there was a lot of opposition from my neighbors. At one point in that discussion I told her,”The only reason you are trying to force this down people’s throat is so you can justify bringing MARTA up to Windward. Now people can disagree whether that is a good thing or not but it will completely change the city of Alpharetta and the people who live here should know what you are doing and have some say in it. We should be holding hearings or something.” Stunned silence was her only response.

I was reminded of that conversation when I read Hatcher Hurd’s column “Future transportation still keys off Ga. 400” in the Alpharetta Revue Thursday. In the column Mr. Hurd recalls his own epiphany about MARTA and how Alpharetta would be forced to change in order to accommodate heavy rail expansion.

 “Like a patient father, the MARTA exec told me that the Beltline would have the density of development that would make the MARTA service fiscally tenable. Windward or Roswell just don’t have the numbers – yet.”

I find it very peculiar that Mr. Hurd would liken a MARTA bureaucrat to a father figure but I do appreciate him pointing out what has been going on behind the scenes in Alpharetta for years now. It is about time that a local media outlet shed some light on the transformation that is taking place in the shadows while Alpharettans are too busy raising their families and struggling to keep their heads above water to notice. The timing of Mr. Hurd’s revelation is also fortunate that because it comes as the city is looking to choose a new mayor that will to guide us in this process.

If you doubt that this transformation is actually taking place I refer you to the MARTA North Line Transit Oriented Development Study which was developed in 2006 with the cooperation of Diana Wheeler, the director of Alpharetta’s Community Development Department. You can find the report online and I suggest you start by reading the 22 page appendix here. I’d like to point out a few of the highlights:

“This is just a concept to help the local jurisdictions create more transit-friendly development. The density has to happen before transit service can be extended. The next step is for the local jurisdictions to create the environment to support the MARTA expansion.”

“We know that higher density development leads to traffic and most officials won’t zone for higher density in order to prevent more traffic.”

“More than just carrots; developers should be incentivised to concentrate development and create higher densities.”

So as the fatherly MARTA exec said, Alpharetta may not “have the numbers-yet” but the city has been trying to change that for 5 years now. Too bad they didn’t include the citizens of Alpharetta in the conversation. Neither the mayor nor a single city councilperson has dared tell us what they are doing.

It is time for the residents of Alpharetta to finally join that conversation and there could be no better time to get their attention than during this year’s mayoral race.

The decentralization of power is a good thing

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Jim Galloway has another insightful column up at the AJC’s Political Insider blog. He uses the recent advance of the Sunday Alcohol Sales bill to point out how the Tea Party movement has caused a decentralization of political power in Georgia.

“Republicans often talk of the chill that last November’s tea party-driven vote sent up President Barack Obama’s spine. Only rarely do they acknowledge that those same ballots signaled a shift to a more libertarian brand of conservatism within the GOP.”

“It’s a bill about local control,” Bulloch said. And we’re all about limited government these days, because the pitchforks – once held by followers of Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson — are now in the hands of tea partyers.”

I for one would welcome this decentralization of power. One of the consequences of concentrating money and power in a central location is that it makes it much easier for lobbyists to influence where that money ends up being spent. The farther the decision making process gets from the taxpayer the less chance there is that the money will actually be spent to benefit that taxpayer. The supporters of turning North Fulton into Milton County are using this same justification for local control.

With that in mind my favorite quote from Galloway’s column is by the head of the Georgia Christian Coalition, Jerry Luquire, as he explained why he didn’t bother to attend the hearings on Sunday alcohol sales,

“I don’t show up at the Capitol much anymore because that’s not where the power is anymore. The power is among the people”.

I don’t care if you support the Tea Party or not, I would hope we can agree that the power being back with the people is a good thing.

If you are interested in Georgia politics then the Political Insider is a must read and you can find the whole article here.

The Beacon’s first salvo in Alpharetta’s mayoral election

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, this year’s Alpharetta mayoral race kicked off when perennial politico, David Belle Isle, officially announced that he was running for that office. That announcement last week served as the starters bell for the race to begin and I knew it wouldn’t take long for candidates to come out of their corners and take a few swings at each other. This week’s first round begins with a few salvos courtesy of the local weekly The Beacon.

If you are unfamiliar with the Beacon it might help to view the weekly as the New York Post of the North Fulton area. The Beacon typically focuses on local sports and politics with incendiary headlines and aggressive verbiage like, “Current Alpharetta Councilman Jim Paine, fresh off an Election Day pummeling of Belle Isle’s political ally Monson”. The Beacon offers political reportage based on large doses of pure gossip and is often more humorous than accurate but it is always good for a chuckle. Unfortunately much of their content is only for subscribers so it doesn’t get much web exposure but this week’s political article is an exception to that rule so I recommend you check it out.

All three of the assumed candidates: David Belle Isle, Jim Paine and  Doug Derito are quoted. In the article Mr. Belle Isle makes typical statements about his platform and support but councilmen Derito and Paine do seize the opportunity to take a few shots at Mr. Belle Isle. Here are a couple of money quotes:

“He ran his last campaign [for state senate] for 18 months and finished third – or last – however you want to classify it. So long-winded losing campaigns is what he’s used to”

and

“this is the same guy who campaigned for a taxpayer funded $26 million plus city center boondoggle for a year, until the majority of the city council reigned him in with simple facts”

That is just a couple of highlights so if you are a hopeless political geek (like me) you really need to read the whole thing here. I know I shouldn’t get such a kick out of this silly stuff but it does help relieve the frustration of watching all three of these guys support another  high density mixed use project in our little town.

Georgia’s Senator Isakson speaks out

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Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson has been noticeably vocal this week.

Wednesday Senator Isakson once again proposed that the federal budgeting process should be done on a 2 year basis instead of the annual process which is the norm. It is not the first time he has raised this issue but given the current political climate it may actually get some traction now and I think it should.

There are several good reasons to go to biennial budgeting but the most significant is that it could reduce the pressure on congress to provide pork spending during election years. An article in the AJC explains it this way:

“under Isakson’s plan, lawmakers would work on spending bills on odd-numbered years — when they’re not up for reelection — and work on government oversight in even-numbered years, when they are up for reelection.

 “It changes the paradigm,” he said. “Instead of telling reporters about all the bacon you’re going to bring home, you’re telling them about all the savings you’re going to find so you can pay for things in the future.”

Of course the federal budgeting bears no resemblance to the type of financial planning that takes place in the private sector. In 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007 congress failed to agree on a budget and for 2011 the Democrats in control avoided even the appearance of drawing up a budget. So the reform of a budgeting process which is largely ignored may not have much of an impact but any semblance of fiscal sanity would be welcome.

There is also another statement from Senator Isakson on the website accessnorthga.com today. The headline says that the Georgia called on President Obama to respect the will of the people as expressed in the 2010 congressional elections. 

“They spoke loud and clear that they want congress to rein in spending, get control of spending, they didn’t want us to mortgage their children’s future,” Isakson said

I used to work for Northside Realty back when Johnny Isakson ran the place and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the man and the way he handles his business. His initial position on immigration reform and then his support for the bailout bill disappointed me but I am encouraged to see that he is stepping up his pressure on government spending.

Go get ’em Senator!

Abolish the State Roadway and Toll Authority?

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Now that is change I can believe in!

Apparently Georgia State Representative Bobby Franklin has introduced a bill, HB 18, which would eliminate the State Roadway and Toll Authority this summer. If you aren’t familiar with SRTA, it is the organization that recently extended the tolls on GA 400 to the chagrin of many North Fulton residents and elected officials.

I have no idea if this bill can pass in this session or if this would actually remove the tolls which were extended but it’s introduction is one of the first signs of sanity to come out of the gold dome this year.

You can read the bill here.