Jody Hall is running for the Lowndes County Commission in the new District 5.
Here’s his campaign website and his facebook page. I saw him at Valdosta Farm Days, 16 June 2012:
Tag Archives: Elections
Gretchen Quarterman is running for Lowndes County Chairman
In case you haven’t heard, one of the LAKE crew, Gretchen Quarterman, is running for Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission. Today she’s at the Spirit of America Celebration at Valdosta Mall (next to Buffalo Wild Wing). As you can see, she’s been practicing.
Here’s her campaign website and her facebook campaign page. According to the VDT, 8 May 2012,
Continue reading“Anyone who is entrusted with the resources of another human being or thing, you have to be a good steward of tax money, air, and water. They are entrusted to us and need to be handled with responsibility.”
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Political Candidate Coverage Policy
All candidates for offices inside Lowndes County, Georgia in 2012
Here is a list of every candidate running this year for offices inside Lowndes County, Georgia (not including state and federal offices). -jsq
PARTISAN OFFICES
Chief Magistrate Judge
Joni B. Parker (R) (Incumbent)
4609 Oak Arbor Dr., Valdosta, GA 31602
229-244-0302 (h)
joniparker@yahoo.com
Solicitor General
Justin Cabral (R) (Incumbent)
1909 Williams St., Valdosta, GA 31602
229-444-1775 (h), 229-671-2510 (w)
jcabral@mchsi.com
Jason Cain (D)
505 Barfield St., Hahira, GA, 31632
229-251-7454 (h), 229-671-2800 (w)
cain102255@gmail.com
Richard A. Wilkes (R)
3525 New Statenville Hwy, Valdosta, GA 31606
229-559-1406 (h), 229-241-8602 (w)
rwilkes@thewilkesfirm.com
Judge, Probate Court
Terri Adams (R) (Incumbent)
3735 Creekwood Dr., Valdosta, GA 31602
229-251-1895 (c), 229-671-2652 (w)
reelectterriadams@gmail.com
Tina Folsom (R)
4246 Oak Forest Dr., Valdosta, GA 31602
P.O. Box 5041, Valdosta, GA 31604
229-245-1801 (h), 229-244-5400 (w)
tfolsom@langdalelaw.com
Clerk, Superior Court
Beth Copeland Greene (R)
2351 Copeland Rd., Valdosta, GA 31601
229-242-2368 (h), 229-333-5129 (w)
bgreene413@yahoo.com
Amanda Seago O’Steen (R)
714 Northside Dr., Valdosta, GA 31602
P.O. Box 4793, Valdosta, GA 31604
229-249-0834 (h), 229-269-2081 (w)
osteen4clerk@hotmail.com
Tina M. Riggins (R)
710 Northside Dr., Valdosta, GA 31602
229-245-8316 (h)
rigginstina@hotmail.com
Sheriff
Chris Prine (D) (Incumbent)
3938 Glen Meade Dr., Valdosta, GA 31601
229-559-6147 (h), 229-671-2900
prine_c@bellsouth.net
J.D. Yeager (R)
5427 Sycamore Run, Hahira, GA 31632
229-294-4094 (h), 229-740-0978 (w)
jd@jdyeager.net
Tax Commissioner
Continue readingJohnson & Johnson and Dell dump ALEC: where’s Southern Company?
J&J and Dell ditched ALEC, for two dozen bailing out of that ship of dubious lobbying. Where's The Southern Company? Still supporting ALEC's pro-fracking and anti-solar campaign?
A week ago Rebeka Wilce reported for PR Watch that Johnson & Johnson 19th Company, 23rd Private Sector Member, to Cut Ties with ALEC. Today Scott Keyes reported for ThinkProgress that Dell Becomes 21st Company To Drop ALEC. So many companies have ditched the corporate-legislative private-public partnership American Legislative Exchange (ALEC) that it's hard to keep count. Yet we still haven't heard from The Southern Company (SO), even as ALEC continues its drive to dismantle incntives for renewable energy and preserve fracking loopholes, and The Southern Company continues expanding use of natural gas (knowing it comes from fracking) while putting off solar and wind until "one day" some time next decade maybe, and (through its subsidiary Georgia Power) actively opposing fixing Georgia legislative hurdles to renewable energy. All that plus wasting Georgia Power customer cash and taxpayer dollars on useless new nukes at Plant Vogtle.
Come on, Southern Company and CEO Thomas A. Fanning: you can do better than that! Turn to the sun and the wind for clean green jobs for community and profit.
If you're a Georgia Power customer and you'd like to help persuade SO, you can pay your Plant Vogtle Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) charge in a separate check and write on it what you'd like instead. Even if you're not, it's election season, and every member of the Georgia legislature is running: you can contact your candidate and find out what they're willing to do to get us solar and wind for energy independence, jobs, community, and profit.
-jsq
Georgia Trend Propagandizes for T-SPLOST
When did state tax policy become a plaything for companies, instead of a source of services for taxpayers? There’s a lot of fudging in the T-SPLOST article in the current Georgia Trend. I guess that’s not surprising when it’s mostly about the viewpoint of the CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
Ben Young wrote for Georgia Trend June 2012, Transportation Game Changer: July’s statewide referendum will determine Georgia’s economic future. There’s a lot at stake for all 12 regions.
“The reason our port is the fastest growing is because our road and rail network is so efficient,” says Chris Cummiskey, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic De-velopment, another top RTR advocate. “If Zell Miller and other former administrations hadn’t done something to make the port more of a growth engine, we would now have little to no success in advanced manufacturing.”
Yet the rest of the article is all about roads, with little or nothing about rail, except for metro Atlanta and Charlotte as a comparison. Where are the rail projects linking Valdosta to Atlanta and Savannah, or the Valdosta MSA commuter rail or bus system? Nowhere in T-SPLOST.
It is also unclear how Georgia can sustain growth in logistics-related sectors that depend on moving goods quickly and efficiently — sectors believed to be leading us out of the recession — without strengthening the highway network, which has suffered due to lower gas tax revenues. Without an additional tax, there is no way to keep up what we have, much less build anything new, proponents say.
Um, then maybe the governor shouldn’t have refused to extend Georgia’s gas tax by 8/10 cent (almost as much as proposed the 1 cent T-SPLOST tax, but on gasoline, not on everything including food). And note “believed to be” and “proponents say”. Later in the same article:
People are desperate for more transportation funding and the improvements it will bring, but the referendum itself is complex.
Who are these unnamed “people”? The same “proponents” by whom things are “believed to be”? Isn’t it wonderful to base tax policy on hearsay?
If Georgia was serious about creating jobs to lead us out of the recession and into a national and world leader, Georgia legislators Continue reading
Gov. Deal freezes state gas tax
Why is the governor freezing an 8/10 cent gas tax just before voters are expected to decide on a 1 cent transportation tax? Why do we need T-SPLOST when we could use that gas tax instead?
According to the Governor’s own press release:
Friday, June 8, 2012
Gov. Nathan Deal announced today that he will stop an increase in the motor fuel tax scheduled to go into effect on July 1. Using the formula established in state law, the Department of Revenue determined that average gas prices over the past six months call for the motor fuel tax to rise to 12.9 cents per gallon from 12.1 cents per gallon.
With that 0.8 cent gas tax, why would we need the 1 cent T-SPLOST sales tax? That 0.8 cent gas tax would have gone into effect just before the 31 July 2012 primary election, when voters till vote on the T-SPLOST referendum. T-SPLOST, which is a one cent sales tax. And a gasoline tax is paid by people who actually use the roads, not by every pedestrian who buys food.
The governor’s PR also said:
“We’re seeing a slow and steady rebound in Georgia’s economy, with our unemployment rate going down and state revenues heading up, but Georgians are still paying gas prices that are high by historical standards,” Deal said in a statement. “The state should not add to that burden at this juncture.”
But we should increase everyone’s food prices with a T-SPLOST tax? How does that make sense?
The governor’s PR also says:
The governor of Georgia has the power to suspend collection of a tax, but the action requires ratification from the General Assembly.
Oh, but this freeze only lasts until January, and the General Assembly doesn’t meet until then. How convenient!
-jsq
The solar train is leaving the station, but the nuclear buggywhip is in the way
The president of the Georgia Solar Energy Association Solar Energy
Industries Association says the solar train is leaving the station nationwide, but Georgia remains enmeshed in tangled legislation. We could have changed that last year with SB 401 if Georgia Power and Southern Company’s vested interested in new nuclear plants at Plant Vogtle hadn’t gotten in the way. We can change it next year with a similar or better law. The time to contact your Georgia legislator or candidate is now, while election season is on.
Update 14 June 2012: Fixed Rhone Resch employment attribution.
Rhone Resch wrote for the Saporta Report, 3 June 2012, It’s time to put solar to work in Georgia
There are now more than 100,000 Americans employed at over 5,600
solar businesses in all 50 states. Many of these are small businesses that have been hit hard by the recession, but they are finding new opportunity for growth in the solar industry.
In Georgia, there are more than 80 companies in the solar value chain including Suniva, MAGE Solar, Inc. and Enfinity Corporation. I will be joining representatives of each of these fine companies — and many others — at the Southern Solar Summit on June 15 in the Georgia Tech Research Institute Conference Center in Midtown Atlanta
to talk about the strides solar is making, and what remains to be done.
These companies are leading rapid innovation — across the entire value chain, from manufacturing improvements to new financing and sales mechanisms, that are allowing more and more Americans to go solar.
He points out that more solar was installed in 2011 than the total installed in 2008 and 2009, which shows that Moore’s Law continues to work for solar: the price per watt continues to go down, causing demand to go up. He projects forward:
The U.S. is on pace to install nearly 3,200 megawatts of new solar capacity this year with an annual growth rate of 30 percent through 2016.
At that rate, the United States would add more than 25,000 megawatts of new solar capacity between now and 2016. That is roughly the size of 25 coal-fired power plants and represents a significant opportunity for states that aggressively move to obtain a share of this exponentially growing market.
Hm, at Plant Vogtle the operating nuclear reactors produce about 2,430 megawatts and the two new ones under construction are supposed to produce about 2,200 megawatts. So that 25 gigawatts of new solar capacity by 2016 would be about 20 nuclear plants, a number that may be familiar from what Germany has already deployed. Somebody remind me again: why are we building any new nukes? How about if we end the nuke boondoggle and get on with clean green jobs for community and profit?
Rhone Resch says what Georgia can do:
Continue readingWhy did old US 41 N increase from $8 M to $12 M? —John S. Quarterman @ SGRC 2011-09-19
I asked why the Old US 41 North widening project changed from $8 million on the unconstrained list to $12 million on the constrained list, an increase of $4 million or 50% when the description did not change?
The answer indicates GDOT and local governments want to drive development north in the county, leaving pedestrians and bicyclists stranded yet having to pay.
Corey Hull responded:
Halfway through we received new cost estimates….
GDOT did the cost estimates, in cooperation with the local government that was responsible for that.
A state employee told me after the meeting that GDOT raised some estimates because it thought the local government, in this case the Lowndes County Commission and staff, didn’t put in enough to cover the project. I don’t know whether GDOT was figuring by Atlanta costs or not…. At least the cost didn’t go up further in the final project list; I just checked and it’s still $12 million.
Corey elaborated that some projects increased and some decreased. I asked him which ones did which. He said he’d have to go back and compare. Later he helped me produce a list of comparisons of costs of Lowndes County projects, which shows that one went down by 30% and three went up by 50% or more. One, RC11-000099 St. Augustine at Norman Intersection Improvements, went up by 131.5%.
That $12 million for widening less than 3 miles of one road is more than one item that was in the unconstrained list but cut from the constrained list: $7.5 million for a bus system, with three bus lines that would connect Wiregrass Tech, Five Points, Downtown, Moody, East Side, South Side, West Side, and the Mall. A bus system recommended by the Industrial Authority’s Community Assessment to aid in employee attendance, industry recruitment, and workforce.
You could probably even start up a substantial commuter rail system using existing freight line tracks for less than $12 million. Even though GDOT apparently only believes in roads and bridges, busses and trains are actually more cost-effective, especially for lower-income people. The same lower-income people who will be disproportionately taxed by T-SPLOST as a percentage of their income.
Instead, the description for the Old US 41 North project admits the county is driving Continue reading