by Tea Party of Gilmer County, 10/28/16
I know your time is limited.
If you missed the morning show on FETCHYOURNEWS.com on Thursday, Oct. 27
on FYNTV.com where I went into detail about the problems with the four constitutional amendments, I have gone into detail
below about each one. I think the show is also on the FYN website and it was
from 10 to 10:45 am. On the show I broke
each amendment down individually in case you have more interest in a specific
one. If you get a chance to read them I hope you find the information
interesting and informative about how things work down at the Capitol and
how we can be duped by the warm and fuzzy ballot language. Joene DePlancke
Amendment No. 1 - Opportunity School Districts
IN A NUTSHELL, this is simply a way to create another agency
with a CZAR appointed by the Governor with the power to select up to 20 failing
schools per year (100
total) along with taking 3% of the school tax revenue to run
this new agency. (This was buried on Page 7 of the amendment.) This new CZAR
will have the power to fire the principals but NOT to fire any unqualified teachers
and, will NOT have the power to change the evaluation process. And most importantly, he will not be able to
do anything about the extraordinary crime rate in these failing school
districts which is the primary reason these districts cannot attract better
teachers. So this CZAR will not have the ability to do anything different other
than take away all the control from the
local teachers, school board, community and parents along with taking 3% of the money they already have. The
state and federal governments already have strings tied to every penny the
local jurisdictions receive along with controlling every aspect of the
curriculum. So the State has already
failed and this will do nothing but take more of the local money for
"administration of another agency," under the guise of doing
"something for the children." What would be more beneficial would be
for the state to provide an additional 3% for after school tutoring, providing
late busses so that students can stay after for homework and additional
instruction and have access to tools they may not have at home. These
schools need funds to think outside the box, not a CZAR to take over
control. The teachers and people in
these districts care about their schools, their jobs, their children. But until you do something about the extraordinary
crime in these areas, there will be little improvement. The Governor is putting the emphasis on the
wrong problem. However, the State of Georgia has received the third highest
amount of funds from the Federal Government since 2009 to fix failing schools
and apparently with poor results. I would like to see where and how they spent
all this money. Bet it went into the
General Fund..... But I also wonder if the sudden attempt to create
Opportunity School Districts isn't somehow related to the receipt of these
funds. Maybe the State has been asked to
return them??? You know what they say....Follow
the money. Maybe this is why our State
Senators voted against this over and over again until the last vote. Something
happened down there.
AMENDMENT NO. 2 - VOTE NO.
Amendment Two would create the Safe Harbor for Sexually
Exploited Children Fund, to provide
rehabilitative and social services to children
who have been sexually exploited. It would draw those funds from additional fines placed on convicted sex traffickers and an annual $5,000 fee on adult entertainment businesses.
This sounds really good. However, the
wording in the actual text says the State "MAY" create this fund and may spend
this money to provide assistance to victims of sexual exploitation. The operative word here is MAY which means
that they also "MAY NOT". So
this amendment would give them the right to collect the money and require these people to pay it, but would NOT
require the state to use it for this purpose. And if you look at many, many
other laws passed in the state of Georgia that create ways that revenue is
collected and MAY BE USED for something, most of the time that money simply
goes to the General Fund and never is used for the intended purpose that you were led to
believe. Lawyers spend a great deal of
time wording these amendments and if they TRULY WANTED the funds to go to this
purpose then it would
have said SHALL be used. The extra money you pay when you
buy your tags is a perfect example. You
know the funds, like Save the Wetlands, Spay or Neuter, Save the
Hemlocks, etc. The last time I checked
not one penny in all these past years has gone to any of these charities or
causes. All of the money has gone into
the General Fund and used however the State saw fit because the wording was
"MAY use the funds for ...." and the State chose to not use them for
those purposes. BOTTOM LINE: We
should not need a constitutional amendment to appropriate funds to good causes. VOTE NO.
Amendment No. 3 - Vote No.
Amendment Three would allow state lawmakers to abolish the
Judicial Qualifications Commission, the
watchdog agency that polices the state's
judges. It would then
create a commission of legislative appointees. These appointees would be appointed by the
Governor, state legislators, and the Speaker of the House. Is this not like
letting the fox into the hen house? It seems to me I learned in 9th grade
Civics class (which they don't have any more because our Federally run education system doesn't want
educated voters) about the three branches of Government that they were supposed
to be separate and have separate powers so that they could police each other. If the person
that appoints the judges, i.e. the Governor, now gets to use his power to
appoint the people that oversee complaints filed against judges and have the
power to remove judges, it seems that the Governor and his appointees will
totally control the judicial system. The Judicial Qualifications
Commission may need to be overhauled, but we do not need a Constitutional Amendment to abolish it and create a
new commission that would take all oversight away from the "people." This
is just another way to take away more of our rights and control and give it to
the State. The State of Georgia received
a grade of "D" on our ethics in state government. The only
reason we didn't get an "F" is because we have this judicial oversight
commission. Don't let them take that
away from us. VOTE NO
Amendment No. 4 - Vote No.
Amendment Four would dedicate funds raised through excise
taxes on fireworks in the state to
funding trauma care, equipment and training
for firefighters and local public safety efforts.First, the ballot
language seems to be very misleading.
The summary says would take "EXISTING TAXES ON FIREWORKS" yet
the bill says it will dedicate funds from 'EXCISE taxes on fireworks which is
very different. The excise taxes are
charged to the vendor selling the fireworks when he purchases them. The vendor then can either pass that EXCISE
tax along to the consumer or not. If he
does pass it on, the sales receipt must indicate both the sales tax and the
excise tax, but he doesn't have to pass it on. So, not really sure what the pool of
funds will be, will it be taking the excise taxes the vendor pays which really
doesn't make any sense as he may have paid them to a vendor in China so how
would state collect them? And, if this
amendment applies to the EXCISE taxes the vendor collects from the consumer, I
wonder how much that will really be since the vendor does not have to pass that
tax on? Second, the language on the ballot fails to tell the voter what
percentages will be used for each category.
So if you think this is a good idea because Gilmer County, or your county, may receive funds for
local safety efforts, if you knew the real facts that would probably not amount to much as
only 5% of the amount collected would be available to the local counties. And since we have 159 counties in Georgia sharing this 5% (and it will probably be distributed based
on population) will not amount to much .. you do the math. Only good part of this amendment is that it actually says
"SHALL" create the fund and "SHALL" use the money. SEE, THEY DO KNOW HOW TO WRITE THE LANGUAGE
SO THAT IT IS REQUIRED TO BE USED FOR THE INTENDED PURPOSE! BUT, do we really
need a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT to make the legislature fund trauma care and
provide training and equipment for firefighters? Remember, they are already receiving this
money, this would just make them use it for something worthwhile. So are they
telling us that we can't count on the legislature to do what is right or necessary
without a Constitutional Amendment? If
so, we need a new legislature. We do not need to keep modifying the constitution
and adding amendments just to appropriate funding. That is the primary reason they are sent to Atlanta. We need to STOP adding to the bureaucracy. VOTE NO
As always, if you have any suggestions or ideas for our
meetings, you can email Frank at Oglesby@ellijay.com, or Joene at joene@ellijay.com Joene DePlancke, Vice Chairman joene@ellijay.com
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