Category Archives: Economy

T-SPLOST Southern Region Cost Changes

Update 6:30 PM 26 September 2011: Please see the corrected version received from Corey Hull today. -jsq

Received yesterday from Corey Hull, with this cover sheet message, responding to my request in the T-SPLOST public meeting Monday.

John,

In the attached spreadsheet you will find the each project associated with four columns: the original estimate, the updated estimate, the TIA funding (any difference from the TIA and updated cost estimate is a secondary funding source i.e. federal, state, or local), and whether that project is currently included in the constrained list.

GDOT provided the updated costs estimates (based on current GDOT bids) and in some cases those estimates were further revised by GDOT and the local governments where appropriate. All project scopes remained the same with the exception of RC11-000049 and RC11-000042 (highlighted in yellow), these project termini were changed significantly.

I hope this answers your questions, let me know if you have any more.

Corey

Corey Hull, AICP
MPO Coordinator
Valdosta-Lowndes MPO
327 W. Savannah Ave.
Valdosta, GA 31601
Visit our Facebook Site!
229.333.5277
229.300.0922 (c)
229.333.5312 (f)
chull@sgrc.us
www.sgrc.us/transportation

The spreadsheet he sent is on the LAKE website in Excel spreadsheet and HTML versions. If you want to know what the projects are, you need to look at the unconstrained and constrained project lists. More later.

-jsq

$1 of 17 GA tax dollars spent on prisons

Carrie Teegardin wrote for the AJC 4 April 2010, Georgia prison population, costs on rise
Georgia operates the fifth-largest prison system in the nation, at a cost of $1 billion a year. The job of overseeing 60,000 inmates and 150,000 felons on probation consumes 1 of every 17 state dollars.
Above owed to Farrah D. Reed, who also commented on Gov. Deal: the bad, prison slave labor competing with free labor:
Maybe if our tax dollars were spent on education and rehabilitation we wouldn’t have so many folks locked up in the first place!

-jsq

Videos of last night’s Valdosta school forum by George Rhynes

Last night was the second of the three forums the Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE) approved along with its statement opposing school consolidation. George Rhynes reports there were 300 people there, and he videoed everybody who stood up and spoke.

I especially like this one, with Jerome Tucker asking:

What makes the Chamber of Commerce better qualified than professional educators?
That pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?

Here’s the video:


Videos of last night’s Valdosta school forum by George Rhynes
education, referendum, consolidation, statement,
Forum at Valdosta Middle School, Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 20 September 2011.
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for bostongbr on YouTube.

Here’s a playlist of all George’s videos of that Forum:


Videos of last night’s Valdosta school forum by George Rhynes
education, referendum, consolidation, statement,
Forum at Valdosta Middle School, Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 20 September 2011.
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for bostongbr on YouTube.

-jsq

Calderón contra la Guerra de las Drogas?

Juan Carlos Hidalgo wrote for Cato 20 September 2011, Calderón Hints at Drug Legalization Again,
Mexican President Felipe Calderón seems to be experiencing a dramatic change of mind regarding his war against drug cartels. Soon after a drug gang set fire to a casino in Monterrey a few weeks ago killing 52 people, Calderón told the media that ”If [the Americans] are determined and resigned to consuming drugs, they should look for market alternatives that annul the stratospheric profits of the criminals, or establish clear points of access that are not the border with Mexico.” Many people interpreted that as a veiled reference to drug legalization.
The referenced story by Julian Miglierini 1 September 2011 for BBC News also said the Mexican president went farther: Monterrey attack: Game-changer in Mexico’s drugs war?
Hours after it took place, the president described it “as an abhorrent act of terror and savagery” and later said the authors were “true terrorists”.
When you think about the billions or trillions the U.S. and other countries spend against terrorists who cause less damage than the Mexican drug cartels, he could be indicating that priorities are misdirected.

The Cato article says Calderón has now gone further: Continue reading →

Solar Lowndes County Commission?

While GSEA is promoting statewide solar businesses and lobbying the state government to do what other states have done to promote solar, local governments and businesses don’t have to wait on the state. For example, the Lowndes County Commission has opened a discussion about solar energy in response to a presentation by Bill Branham. Now that they’ve learned the Lowndes County Commission could lead by making one of their famous position statements, this time in favor of solar, or by putting solar on the roofs of their buildings (solar on the jail! imagine that), bringing in money to do so by or by applying for grants, or by making a project big enough to apply for private venture capital from the at least two firms that are looking for such projects.

If the LCC won’t do it, how about solar Valdosta fire departments, or solar Hahira tobacco barns?

-jsq

Solar works for Georgia —GSEA

Back in June, the Georgia Solar Energy Association (GSEA) held a Solar Summit in Atlanta, in which we learned there were four certified solar installers in Georgia four years ago, and now there are forty; that oil for energy is a national security risk (Col. Dan Nolan), and that “Solar is great for diversity, independence, research, and business.” (Chuck Eaton), and that Georgia is the third top state “that would benefit from solar deployment through generating and exporting energy to other states” (Richard Polich). Sounds like a business opportunity to me!

GSEA chair Doug Beebe elaborates in a column in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on 11 September 2011, Solar energy already works in Georgia, but it can do so much more for our state’s economy,

This has been a great year for the Georgia Solar Energy Association, too. Our membership has swelled to almost 300 corporate and individual members. This number includes manufacturers, installers, integrators, consultants and advocates who want to see Georgia benefit from an industry that contributed more than $5 billion in economic activity to the U.S. gross domestic product since 2008 and now employs more than 93,000 workers nationwide.

Our annual Southern Solar Summit in Atlanta this summer sold out, filling the auditorium at the Georgia Tech Research Institute Conference Center with Georgians eager to learn what innovations are making solar power more accessible in Georgia and beyond. Another annual Solar Summit in Savannah last month doubled its attendance this year, proving that interest in solar has spread beyond metro Atlanta.

The 2011 Georgia Solar Tour will feature sites statewide. We hope that some of the participants in this year’s tour will become hosts in next year’s.

Great, huh? So what’s the problem? This: Continue reading →

Gov. Deal: the ugly on energy

Gov. Nathan Deal said he’s a free-enterprise person and doesn’t want to subsidize renewable energy, but he maybe doesn’t know that the state of Georgia subsidizes Georgia Power’s new nuclear plants through an indirect tax, and that fossil fuels are far more subsidized than renewable energy. That plus the chickens.

Continuing Gov. Deal: the good, the ugly, and the bad on prisons, quoting again from David Rodock’s interview with Gov. Nathan Deal in today’s VDT.

The Ugly

Continue reading →

T-SPLOST public meeting in Valdosta Monday morning 19 September 2011

The next T-SPLOST public meeting is tomorrow morning:
Monday, September 19, 2011; 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.; at the Valdosta City Hall Annex; 300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia; presentation will begin at 10:30 a.m.
These meetings are intended to gather public input:
After the public meetings the Roundtable will reconvene to review the public comments and adopt a final Constrained List that will be presented on the ballot to voters in 2012.
If you can’t go to the meeting, you can send in the public comment form or email Corey Hull at the SGRC.

I don’t know what you might want to comment on, but a couple of things that come to my mind are:

-jsq

Cobb EMC loses special election by huge margin

Cobb EMC lost a court-ordered special election yesterday by 2561 to 1113, according to Take Back Cobb EMC’s facebook page. That was the vote against mail-in voting, because the insurgents believe mail-in voting helps incumbent directors win re-election. It’s Cobb EMC’s incumbent directors who want to build a coal plant in Ben Hill County, about 70 miles north of here.

MJDOnline explained the issues 14 September 2011, Don McKee: Decision day comes Saturday for Cobb EMC members

There are two questions in the form of proposed bylaw amendments to be decided by members Saturday: (1) whether to allow mail-in voting for directors, and (2) whether to prohibit payment of retirement benefits to directors.

Reform groups Cobb EMC Owners Association, Take Back Cobb EMC and Cobb EMC Watch strongly oppose allowing mail-in voting until new directors are elected. They argue that mail-in voting would give an overwhelming advantage to incumbent directors with unlimited EMC member funds at their disposal in campaigning for re-election versus the very limited funds available to challengers.

“The historical evidence of mail-in voting shows that it favors the incumbents over challengers,” Cobb EMC Watch says. “It gives the corporation tremendous leverage to manipulate and influence the voting process. The corporation can use its much greater financial resources to back its slate of candidates.”

One would guess the second item on the ballot passed: Continue reading →

Student protesters greet GA Gov. Nathan Deal @ VSU 16 Sep 2011

Possibly the last thing Gov. Nathan Deal expected to find at Valdosta State University greeted him: student protesters!

Their main question was about the impending Sept. 21st execution of Troy Anthony Davis, about whom Amnesty International says there is too much doubt.


Student protesters greet Governor Nathan Deal at Valdosta State University, 16 Sep 2011.
Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

The press had already noticed: Continue reading →