Category Archives: VLCIA

Hispanics and farmers strike in Moultrie

Alan Mauldin wrote for the Moultrie Observer 29 June 2011, Stay-at-home protest: Latinos hope to show their impact:
Colquitt County’s Latino community is gearing up to make its presence known by, well, disappearing, at least as much as possible for the largest minority group.

On Friday, the day a strict new immigration law takes effect, many will stay home from work and refrain from shopping to help make others aware of the impact of their contributions in the county.

It’s not just workers participating: Continue reading →

Sumter County may go solar: where’s Lowndes County?

Sumter County gets it about solar power, independence and jobs. Where’s Lowndes County?

So how big is this National Solar project that Sumter County may get? Steve Leone wrote for Renewable Energy World, Seven Communities Waiting for the Sun in Southeastern U.S.:

The project will be a network of 20 solar farms, each of which will span 200 acres and generate 20 MW. It would be much larger than the 80 MW solar power plant in Ontario, Canada, currently the world’s largest.
The finalists are:
The communities selected by National Solar Power as finalists to become the location of the development are Gadsden, Hardee, Osceola and Suwannee counties in Florida, Sumter and Tatnall counties in Georgia and Guilford County in North Carolina.
And Lowndes County isn’t even in the running. Why not? Continue reading →

HB 87 getting press in Mexico

Famous not just in France, but also in Mexico! Georgia’s HB 87 gets press south of the border.
El Universal of Mexico City reported from Atlanta 27 June 2011, Juez bloquea partes de ley migratoria de Georgia
Un juez federal concedió este lunes la solicitud de impedir que partes de la ley de Georgia contra la inmigración ilegal entren en vigor hasta que se resuelva una demanda.

El juez Thomas Thrash bloqueó partes de la legislación que penaliza a la gente que transporte o albergue a indocumentados, y también detuvo las cláusulas que le autorizan a los agentes verificar el estatus migratorio de alguien que no pueda proporcionar una identificación adecuada.

Además, el magistrado sobreseyó partes de la demanda a solicitud del estado.

La mayoría de las cláusulas que forman la ley iban a entrar en vigor el 1 de julio.

Grupos activistas por las libertades civiles habían interpuesto una demanda en la que le pedían al juez que declarara inconstitucional la legislación e impidiera que entrara en vigor.

eca

In case you have not emulated Mayor Paul Bridges of Uvalde and learned Spanish, here’s google translate’s version in English:
A federal judge on Monday granted the request to prevent parts of the Georgia law against illegal immigration to take effect pending resolution of a lawsuit.

Judge Thomas Thrash blocked parts of the legislation that penalizes people who transport or shelter illegal immigrants, and also stopped the clauses that authorize agents to verify the immigration status of someone who can not provide proper identification.

In addition, the judge dismissed portions of the demand at the request of the state.

Most of the clauses that make up the law to go into effect on July 1.

Groups civil liberties activists had filed a lawsuit in which he asked the judge to declare unconstitutional legislation and prevent the entry into force.

eca

Pithy but factual.

We don’t need to feed the incarceration machine with a private prison in Lowndes County Georgia that will profit private prison executives and investors at the expense of Georgia taxpayers and Georgia farmers. Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq

Andrea Schruijer’s Opportunity —John S. Quarterman

Here’s my op-ed in the VDT today. -jsq
Welcome Andrea Shuijer Schruijer to a great opportunity as the new Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)!

For a year I’ve been asking for a list of jobs attracted by the Authority. We welcome your marketing expertise so we’ll know the Authority’s successes!

We welcome your communications expertise to inform the community affected by the process of bringing new jobs. VLCIA could publish its agendas, minutes, and videos of its meetings, events, and new jobs on its web pages, and facebook, maybe even twitter.

We welcome your stewardship of the Authority’s $3 million/year in taxes. Maybe some

Continue reading →

Uvalde “mayor for everybody” works against HB 87

Sometimes somebody does the right thing not for fear or favor, just because it’s the right thing.

Catherine E. Shoichet wrote for CNN 28 June 2011 about Paul Bridges, mayor of Uvalde, Republican mayor in the South becomes unlikely advocate for immigrants:

Bridges is waging a deeply personal battle.

Enforcement of the Georgia law could put him in prison and tear apart the families of some of his closest friends.

He thinks Governor Nathan Deal got it wrong when he signed HB 87: Continue reading →

GA farm worker story goes international

Ray Glier wrote for Agence France Press 23 June 2011, US farms at risk as workers flee immigration law
ATLANTA, Georgia (AFP) – A controversial immigration law in the US state of Georgia has brought unintended results, forcing farmers to reluctantly turn to ex-convicts as Latin American manual workers flee.

Low-skilled, undocumented workers, who for years have formed the backbone of this southern state’s farming economy, have bolted in the lead-up to the law taking effect on July 1, fearing deportation if caught working here.

The measure’s mainly Republican supporters argue that the state needs to enforce immigration laws in the absence of effective federal action, saying schools, jails and hospitals are overburdened by illegal aliens.

But as the full cost of the immigration reform emerges in the form of an estimated millions of dollars worth of crops rotting in fields, it could alarm other states that have passed or are considering similar strict measures.

The story quotes the figure of 11,000 needed workers, and quotes some farmers about that the state’s scheme to send people on probation to work on farms: Continue reading →

HB 87 partly blocked by judge

Kate Brumback wrote for AP today, Judge blocks parts of Ga. immigration law
A federal judge on Monday blocked parts of Georgia’s law cracking down on illegal immigration from taking effect until a legal challenge is resolved.

Judge Thomas Thrash granted a request to block parts of the law that penalize people who knowingly and willingly transport or harbor illegal immigrants while committing another crime. He also blocked provisions that authorize officers to verify the immigration status of someone who can’t provide proper identification.

Thrash wrote that under parts of the law, the state is enforcing immigration law that should be left to the federal government.

And he left other parts intact.

-jsq

PS: Owed to Steve Perkins.

Lowndes County budget hearing today 5PM

That’s 5PM, before the usual 5:30 PM Lowndes County Commission regular session time, at 327 North Ashley Street. The county has published a public notice about this second hearing. It’s not clear they did that for the first budget hearing, which was last week. And the budget doesn’t include the T-SPLOST boondoggles Lowndes County is requesting.

VDT opined 23 June 2011, What We Think: Surviving, not thriving:

Lowndes County Commissioners held a budget hearing Tuesday to discuss the 2011-2012 fiscal year with citizens, only to have no citizens appear. The budget will be finalized at a public hearing Tuesday, June 28, prior to the regular commission meeting.

With all of the attention paid lately to officials and their expenses, you would think that the opportunity to learn how the county spends citizens’ tax dollars would have been an opportunity not to be missed. But missed it was.

After giving people in Valdosta a hard time for not showing up at their city’s budget hearing, I have to say: mea culpa. I wasn’t there.

However, I would ask: how were we supposed to know about it? Someone from LAKE has been at every regularly-scheduled Lowndes County Commission meeting in the recent past, videoing the whole meetings, and I must have missed the announcement of this recent budget hearing, which is also not on the county’s website calendar.

The VDT continues:

Maybe it’s because there’s nothing new about the county’s budget. It’s the same as it has been for several years — flat.

No increases in revenue are projected. No new positions, merit raises, cost of living increases, or significant purchases, again. Caps on assessments, the continuing lull in construction, and slow sales mean no new revenue is coming in. What is projected is enough to make ends meet, but there are no frills, no luxury items, not this year.

Oh, there are luxury items, they’re just not in the budget, because the county is asking we the taxpayers to pay through the proposed new T-SPLOST tax for That’s $24 million in new taxes they’re requesting for unnecessary road projects that will promote sprawl into far north Lowndes County and into Lanier County. Sprawl that will end up costing Lowndes County more than it can bring in in taxes from the sprawling developments.

And Lowndes County has tacked onto the end a request for $7.5 million for a bus system. Which would you rather have? A bus system that would promote the entire county’s economy, or five lanes on New Bethel to add to Lanier County sprawl?

Fortunately, T-SPLOST does publicize its hearings, the next of which will be 6 July 2011 in Nashville, Georgia.

The VDT concludes;

But for Lowndes to thrive, to make such a possibility come alive, it needs citizens willing to participate in the process. We need creative thinking and we need leaders willing to listen to the possibilities of new ideas.
Hear hear!

Stay tuned for what happens when a citizen tries to get involved in the Lowndes County budget process.

-jsq

Harrisburg prepares to file bankruptcy

After defaulting on its incinerator bonds and preparing to sell off pieces of itself, Harrisburg, PA, is preparing to file bankruptcy.

Laura Vecsey wrote in Pennlive 16 June 2011, Harrisburg City Council looks to introduce resolution that would allow bankruptcy paperwork to be prepared:

Harrisburg City Council member Brad Koplinski is seeking to introduce a resolution that will allow the council to prepare paper work that might become necessary should a majority of the council decide to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Koplinski said the urgency of being prepared escalated Thursday when state Sen. Jeffrey Piccola introduced legislation that called for a state takeover of Harrisburg should the distressed city fail to adopt the Act 47 plan it was presented Monday.

It seems Harrisburg applied for Act 47, which is apparently a state bankruptcy protection plan last October, but now: Continue reading →

The Atlantic dissects Georgia’s anti-immigrant law

The VDT’s pan of HB 87 gets national notice. Why we don’t need a law that puts south Georgia farmers out of business while profiting private prison company CCA at taxpayer expense.

Megan McArdle wrote in the Atlantic 21 June 2011, Georgia’s Harsh Immigration Law Costs Millions in Unharvested Crops. She started by quoting Jay Bookman, who quoted the VDT. She then goes into the economics:

The economics here aren’t particularly complicated, and I’m sure they won’t be new to the sophisticated readers of the Atlantic, but they are useful to look at and consider explicitly when thinking about issues like this.

It goes like this. If you’re not going to let illegal immigrants do the jobs they are currently being hired to do, then farmers will have to raise wages to replace them. Since farmers are taking a risk in hiring immigrant workers, you can bet they were getting a significant deal on wage costs relative to “market wages”. I put market wages here in quotations, because it’s quite possible that the wages required to get workers to do the job are so high that it’s no longer profitable for farmers to plant the crops in the first place.

Yes, that would be the problem. A law that benefits private prison company CCA at the expense of Georgia taxpayers while putting Georgia farmers out of business.

She concludes: Continue reading →