Tag Archives: SPLOST VII

Vote No on the charter school amendment —Teresa Lawrence for GA House District 174 @ AAUW 2012-10-24

Teresa Lawrence for Georgia House district 174 @ AAUW 2012-10-24 Teresa Lawrence, running for statehouse district 174, says vote No on the charter school amendment. She was asked about it at the AAUW Political Forum at Valdosta High School Wednesday, and answered:

Vote No on the charter school amendment —Teresa Lawrence for GA House District 174
Political Forum, Deborah Van Petten, President (AAUW), Dr. Jim Peterson, Moderator
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta High School, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 October 2012.

I believe we should vote no for the charter school amendment. We have a means of passing it at the local level to approve charter schools now, and I don’t believe we need to give that decision over to the state level.

Ellis Black Teresa Lawrence’s opponent, the incumbent Ellis Black, did not show up at any of the four local candidate forums in Lowndes County. However, he voted both for HR 1162 that put the referendum on the ballog and for HB 797 that will suck up more money per pupil for charter schools than for public schools, taking the extra out of our local tax dollars.

We know where Teresa Lawrence for district 174 stands: against the charter school amendment.

-jsq

Videos of candidates @ AAUW 2012-10-24

Welcome After the fourth and final candidates forum, moderated for AAUW by Dr. Jim Peterson last night at VHS, the statehouse candidate attendance report card is:
Incumbents: Ellis Black (R 174) 0 of 4, Amy Carter (R 175) 1 of 4, and Tim Golden (R Sen-8) 1 of 4.
Challengers: Teresa Lawrence (D 174) 4 of 4, JC Cunningham (D 175) 4 of 4, and Bikram Mohanty (D Sen-8) 4 of 4.
Open seat 177: J. Glenn Gregory (R) 4 of 4, Dexter Sharper (D) 4 of 4.
Local candidates: 4 of 4 for every one of them,
Gretchen Quarterman (D) and Bill Slaughter (R) for Lowndes County Chairman,
Chris Prine (D) and J.D. Yeager (R) for Lowndes County Sheriff,
John Gates (R) and Demarcus Marshall (D) for Lowndes County Commission District 4,
Justin Cabral (R) and Jason Cain (D) for Solicitor General.

Here are videos of the entire forum.

Candidates Forum at VHS by AAUW, Deb Van Petten President,
Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 October 2012.

Videos of the previous 3 forums:

Continue reading →

Candidates again tonight @ AAUW 2012-10-24

Will any of our incumbent state legislators show up this time? Their challengers have spoken every time. AAUW logo 7PM tonight is the last time to see all the local candidates in one place: Wednesday 24 October 2012, Performing Arts Center, Valdosta High School, 3101 North Forrest Street, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, AAUW presents a Political Forum. This one, unlike some previous ones, is advertised on the sponsoring organization’s website (although oddly not on its facebook page) and in the VDT calendar.

So far, Ellis Black (R 174) 0 of 3, Amy Carter (R 175), 1 of 3, and Tim Golden (R Sen-8) 1 of 3. Challengers Teresa Lawrence (D 174), JC Cunningham (D 175), and Bikram Mohanty (D Sen-8) all spoke at 3 of 3. Videos of the previous forums:

Candidates at 30 Club forum at Serenity Church
Candidates at Homebuilders Association Forum at Rainwater Conference Center
Meet the Candidates by Chamber of Commerce at VSU

vote Don’t forget to vote, today, tomorrow, Saturday, or on that great election day, November 6th 2012.

-jsq

Videos @ 30Club 2012-10-22

Here's a video playlist of the Candidate Forum last night organized by the 30 Club at Serenity Church. Probably more commentary later; for now, in the interests of speed, just the raw videos.

Candidates Forum, 30 Club, J.D. Rice, President
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2012.

-jsq

County clarifies library and parks division in SPLOST VII

SPLOST VII’s $22 million for a new library and parks and rec goes about 2/3 for the library and 1/3 for parks and rec, and the latter doesn’t all go to parks and rec at Five Points, according to a mysterious red-letter note that has sprung up on the Lowndes County website.

The front page of lowndescounty.com has sprouted this undated and unsigned clarification under the SPLOST VII heading:

Exhibit A (Please note that the $22 million proposed by Lowndes County for the Library and Parks & Recreation, represents a division of approximately $14.5 million for the Library and approximately $7.5 million for Parks & Recreation. In addition, the $7.5 million proposed for Parks & Recreation is not allocated for parks and improvements at the 5-Points site. Parks & Recreation will use these funds for improvements in other areas of the county.)

Exhibit A is the list of projects and estimated costs that includes this item:

  • payment of bond debt for acquisition and construction of and equipping a new library facility and parks and recreation facilities
 
$ 22,000,000

Can somebody explain why the new library and Parks and Rec were lumped together in the first place? At least the county is sort of trying to explain the difference now.

They didn’t include the pie chart with their clarification.

Revised SPLOST VII Pie

I made the pie chart; took about Continue reading →

4,460 have voted early in Lowndes County —Chris Beckham @ HBA 2012-10-18

Chris Beckham announced at the end of last night’s political forum that 4,460 people have voted in Lowndes County as of 5PM yesterday. That’s up from 2,861 by end of Tuesday.

Here’s the video:

4,460 have voted early in Lowndes County —Chris Beckham
Candidates Forum, The Home Builders Association of South Georgia (HBA),
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 18 October 2012.

-jsq

Videos @ HBA 2012-10-18

Here are videos of last night’s Political Forum. The goal of this post is speed, so there’s no fancy format, just a video playlist in which you can find candidates by video title or thumbnail picture. We will probably come back later and use some of these videos in other posts.

Political Forum moderated by Chris Beckham of NewsTalk 105.9 WVGA
The Home Builders Association of South Georgia (HBA), Franklin Bailey President,
Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 18 October 2012.

-jsq

Record early voting in Lowndes County —WCTV

2,861 Total Votes through Oct 16, 2012 A record 2,861 total votes were cast in Lowndes County by Tuesday 16 October 2012.

Greg Gullberg reported for WCTV yesterday, Early Voting In Lowndes County Sets New Record,

Jessica Cooke, first-time Lowndes Voter Georgia state officials say the pace for early voting is slower this year than for previous presidential elections, but as Eyewitness News reporter Greg Gullberg shows us, you’d never know it in Lowndes County….

Wave of voters Jessica’s not alone. In fact, she was joined by a wave of voters of all ages here in the first week of early voting here in Georgia. Now they’ve actually already set an all-time record here in Lowndes County for the most votes in the first two days of a presidential election, with almost three thousand.

Deb Cox, Supervisor, Lowndes County Board of Elections, and Gregg Gullberg of WCTV:

Continue reading →

Candidates Forum today @ HBA 2012-10-18

Candidates Forum, 7-9PM today 18 October 2012, at the Rainwater Conference Center, 1 Meeting Place, Valdosta, GA, organized by the Home Builders Association of South Georgia and NewsTalk105.9 WVGA, moderated by Chris Beckham.

This thing is astonishingly poorly advertised, unless you happen to follow one of the organizing organizations. It’s not in the VDT calendar, it’s not on the conference center’s calendar, and people keep asking when and where is it. Now you know.

Here are videos (from three different cameras) of all the candidate presentations of the 2 October 2012 Meet the Candidates event at VSU. Tonight, if I understand correctly from there being a moderator, they debate. Presumably all the same candidates will be there: Continue reading →

Tired of seeing transparency be a constant source of tension —Barbara Stratton

Received yesterday on Bees in the library —VDT -jsq

Thanks for bringing up the question of selling the current library to SGMC. I tried to follow your link & did not see any reference on the page it brought up. I personally have been wondering why the taxpayers are not privy to any discussions of SGMC purchasing the property. Since SGMC has already purchased the adjoining properties, effectively land locking the current library, I would think the library board would have quite a bit of leverage toward negotiating price & we the taxpayers have a right to know what is transpiring between them. Everyone I have questioned states they cannot find out any information about proposed SGMC/library negotiations or discussions.

Thankfully LAKE does a lot to solicit transparency within local government entities & boards. I for one am tired of seeing said transparency be a constant source of tension. No one should have to constantly work to elicit information that should be readily available. I personally will not vote for SPLOST VII or any other proposed tax until I see local government become more accountable to taxpayers. SPLOST VII needs to die so a more responsible proposal can be presented. We complain about the federal government not balancing the budget, yet local government entities seem intent on devising lists littered with wants instead of focusing on needs as if the economy is thriving. I am an avid library supporter, but I'm not willing to blindly accept the current library board (or boards) opaque tax payer liability assignments.

-Barbara Stratton

-jsq