The Judges of the Court of Appeals have entered Chambers alongside the Supreme Court Members.

Great update by the Governor.

Glad to hear he supports our charter schools!

Dear Deal: grow a pair and support new passenger train lines. Sincerely, everyone stuck in traffic.

He will create a legacy similar to his record in Washington - he will be known for nothing. Four years wasted.

1. "And yet, we worked together to pass structurally balanced budgets that fund the essential services upon which Georgians depend." We did pass a balance budget, Georgia passed an unbalanced budget subsidized by federal money. Any wonder why the federal debt is $16 trillion.

2. "While there were many reasons for doing so, one of the most important ones is that I was, am, and will be opposed to contracting away Georgia’s sovereignty for a period of 60 to 70 years over a transportation corridor that is so vital to our future." Nathan is a closet Tenther.

3. " Investment in transportation infrastructure is an investment in our future. " T-SPLOST will destroy Forsyth County. Listen to the Martha Zoller Show today at 1100 am Wed, Jan 11th to hear the facts.

Get rid of the State Income Tax .. if you want to attract families and retirees those with some cash..to live in our State then get rid of this tax. Fl and Tenn do not have the tax and that's where families and retirees go.

Rid of the income tax, replace with sales taxes would be good for taxpayers because they can control their taxes by not spending anything. (Can you imagine looking at recepts showing a 10-12% tax? You wouldn't even remember your paycheck went up with no income taxes taken out).
Obviously a train wreck for the economy and employment, unless you favor a totally free market (Black Market), which of course would be statistically impossible to track (therefore shows up smaller). The Black Market then is approached like the war on drugs by "revenewers"--enforcement and bureaucracy would expand--more govt expense--until it blows up. Then you have the Libertarian wet dream--the wild wild west.
I say its worth a shot because it'll be a game and a badge of honor to see how little I spend at the register. I'll be the first to be paying in cash and telling my contractor/barber and piano teacher to hide the revenue.

Bill Evelyn--why would T-SPLOST destroy Forsyth in particular? Interesting.
As an aside--the main reason I wouldn't vote for it is that road projects have no multiplicative effect unless compressed into dense areas. Frankly, there isn't enuf money that can be raised by the entire state, much less the Atlanta region, to support the living arrangements (sprawl) we have developed in this 10-county area. Never was a good idea to develop that way. Now, people in the exurbs will have to gather a bit closer in their towns. The gated communities will just become multi-family "projects". Give it ten years.
"Got Busses"?

Bill--many thanks for your research. Your arguments can be generalized to all jurisdictions. Here is one of your posts that I would recommend to all--
http://cumming.patch.com/blog_posts/rich-county-poor-county

However, the "now is not the time" position based on the condition of the economy and "ability to pay" is really secondary. You make the case for "no T-SPLOST ever" well enough, being a question of the inherent unfairness and waste in any regional funding mechanism.

Would you also suggest the same for the statewide portion of our sales taxes? Its the muthuh of all regions afterall. (Actually, the nation is the granddaddy of all regions--and we can make the same arguments for our gas taxes not being returned to Georgia proportionately--maybe even our income taxes.)

Bill (and anyone picking up this thread)--
(1) The growth of an umbrella regional bureaucracy seems ironic (and contradictory) in the face of the "new city" movement, which provides government CLOSER to the people--where final taxing, budget and outlay are only an elected official away?
(2) Isn't a regional SERVICE AUTHORITY for one particular service or another (transportation or water or...) the first step toward a regional government?

The prospect of a METRO regional government, promises of efficiency notwithsatnding should scare the pants of of people. What would be left for your local reps to do, but be "wowed" and coerced by the weight of officials beyond their control--or possiblky worse--have your commissioner or mayor get corrupted by the new system.
(note: Federal regional distribution of funds is the only reason state and local officials go along with federal mandates--the effect has been to wreck any semblance of states rights.)

Irony abounds! Georgia Gold Dome has foisted regionalization on counties and cities--while the clarion call for "separating" from Federal control (federal regional control) is growing louder (immigration, health care...)

Explain the "tyranny," please. It seems egregious. Why hyperbole? Do you have a non jargon filled explanation? Do you really think these regionalists are tyrants? If so, you might want to point us all to the fairy land where there is no government and everyone there takes everything you say as reasonable.

How lucky we are to have both an income and sales tax in Georgia. While I certainly favor the elimination of the income tax, you'll never get the support you need for reform to a straight sales tax so long as politicians, CIDs, local chamber of commerces, etc. continue to demand SPLOST financing for their pork projects. Plain and simple.

Bill,
Calling Americans tyrants of any kind, and I don't think you have mounted an electoral campaign for President of Definitions, is really bad form. But by your own language, "...Depending on the votes," you are objecting to a decision the majority of voters made. I doubt there has ever been a 50.1% vs 49.9 % election, but if there has, if the rules are that the majority wins, it's not tyranny of any kind, it's democracy. Now if you object to that rule, or believe there is another country where your version of common sense is better than anyone else's, okay, i'm for you letting me know where it is. I'm under the impression, I don't know that much about it, that the Splost funds have a lot to do with the way transportation decisions in my adopted home state are made. I think the highway system, at least in Gwinette County, is excellent. Except for two hours in the morning and two more in the evening, and excluding the expressways. No transportation agency, local, state,anti-regionalist, or federal, could control that amount of traffic in a perfect manner. Well, except maybe in New York City or London where lots of people consider trains to be the solution. Taxes are supposed to be spent making the lives of the majority better. That also is not tyranny. Maybe you could further explain your plans to eliminate traffic and tyranny. Lowering your personal tax rate probably won't work.

lee - a pure democracy is tyranny, because 50% +1 person can vote to steal from 50% -1.

"Tyranny, BROADLY DEFINED, is the use of power to dehumanize the individual and delegitimize his nature. Political utopianism is tyranny disguised as a desirable, workable, and even paradisiacal governing ideology. There are, of course, unlimited utopian constructs, for the mind is capable of infinite fantasies. But there are common themes. The fantasies take the form of grand social plans or experiments, the impracticability and impossibility of which, in a small way and large, lead to the individuals subjugation." - Mark Levin, Ameritopia

There a definition from some other person than me. This grand construct to tax regions and centrally plan transportation is a utopian construct. The regional vote is tyranny, because it deligitimizes the citizens human nature to participate in a republican form of government. T-SPLOST is mobocracy and it disenfranchises hundreds of thousands.

Politicians can't eliminate traffic. They can only tax you to build more projects that become filled with traffic. It would not be tyranny if the state legislature just told all the counties to collect 1%, or told them to take a vote by county, or raised the MUFT 15.5cents. The Regional vote is the problem.

Bill,
Democracy = tyranny. Okay, I get it, definitions are infinitely malleable and you are the the Intelligent Designer, the man who gets to decide what is means. "Politicians can't eliminate traffic." Which came first, the traffic or the roads or the tax breaks for businesses that tempted the traffic? The Constitutional guarantee of free speech doesn't mean you get to make up definitions and call Americans ugly names. Of course you can, but that doesn't make it true or patriotic. If you think hundreds of thousands feel they are disenfranchised (I'd like to know where you get your figures) you all should find the place where democracy doesn't tyrannically disenfranchise so, so many poor victims, and send that data along.

Mark Levin:, propagandist, political hack, moron.

lee - In every instance from every philosopher from Plato to Montesquieu democracy leads to tyranny. And I mean from a mobocracy standpoint. It is not my definition.

And, yes politicians can't fix traffic. If they could why is there horrible traffic in all of our cities?

I'm not the intelligent designer, you obviously are if you want to throw-out republicanism and proportional voting. You want an outcome that fits your vision and it does not matter who you injure. Ever read Montesquieu?

Oh Bill,
If democracy doesn't = tyranny, it = mob rule. Do you keep the gods of hyperbole in your basement? These are American you are vilifying. Or is it just some specific sample of Americans you call a mob?

If you have surveyed every philosopher from Plato to Montesquieu, you haven't had time to breathe. What about Montaigne, Hume, Emerson? I know Emerson is too close to contemporary for your tastes, but he is American. French elites aren't my normal reading material, but okay. What work are you reading; Persian Letters or The Spirit of the Laws and what translation? Just so we're on the same page. If, by any tiny chance, you are selecting quotes from Levin's selection of quotes, I can refer you to a more reliable source.