State Priorities

After reviewing the list of committees in the Georgia Assembly, I wondered how we’ve traveled so far off course.  These strike me as “busy-body” committees dealing with problems that don’t belong to them.  The real business of State government should be to keep our eye on the State GDP and amend laws to support free enterprise and private property rights.  Georgia is #11 in State GDP with $411 billion coming from agriculture, banking, manufacturing, distribution, mining and timber harvesting.  Construction is being artificially propped up by federal “Squander-grants” and “regionalism”.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture is attempting to bankrupt 100 free-range chicken farms.  The State Forest Service got the State to buy 120 thousand acres of “wildlife preserves” taking land off the tax roles and out of productive use.  Agenda 21 implementation in rural counties, especially next to government land, shows “corridors” in Master Land Use Plans.  This will reduce agricultural land dramatically and none of this helps.

The City of Atlanta is at a crossroads. It can either fix the sewers, water distribution system and fix the potholes, or they can continue to pay double by having to fix breaks forever. They can either privatize MARTA or continue to support unsustainable “jobs programs” like MARTA and the public school system.  If Atlanta wants to be a “big deal”, it will continue to raise taxes and make part of it the Manhattan Island of the South.  Voters will raise hell if taxes go up, so the fancy parts will need to pay enough taxes to say fancy.  In the end, Atlanta can continue to keep a fancy downtown with a combination of well kept and run-down residential areas.  The best thing the State can do for Atlanta is to unclog the Interstates, increase our water supplies and let Atlanta pay for its own fluff.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader