Maybe Georgia should fund mental health facilities instead of
local jails having to act as mental hospitals.
On a positive note,
Agriculture is an $81M industry in Lowndes County.
Law, taxes, and education, in the second day which was only in the morning,
of the
three days of
“Budget Hearings” which aren’t really hearings because nobody from the
public can speak and they don’t have a budget to hear yet.
See yesterday for
the agenda.
Here are links to videos of each item with some notes by Gretchen,
followed by a video playlist.
And one more day to go today. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Education
Videos: ESPLOST V kickoff meeting @ ESPLOST 2015-02-24
Co-Chair Jerome Tucker emphasized that ESPLOST helping
public schools also helps economic development.
See below for who we now know are the
committee members for the Educational Special Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST).
It’s mysterious why that information wasn’t in
the PR before the meeting,
but now we know, since Gretchen went and took the videos
and collected the flyers you’ll find below.
Early voting already started that same day and continues through March 13th, with the final Election Day 17 March 2015.
Lowndes/Valdosta Citizens for Excellence in Education
Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax
For Lowndes County Schools and Valdosta City Schools Continue reading
$12 million loss to local Lowndes County governments –text of Valdosta resolution against HB 170
Local schools would lose
$4 million annually
and local governments overall
$12 million annually,
because
HB 170 would
“re-allocate local sales tax funding from local governments to the state of
Georgia”, resolved Valdosta’s Mayor and Council last Thursday.
Plus HB 170 would effectively authorize
“double taxation of municipal residents”,
because both Lowndes County and Valdosta would have to raise property taxes,
which would result in Valdosta’s citizens being taxed more twice (by
both the county and the city).
For how serious Valdosta considers this threat to its ability to provide services
to local citizens, witness how fast this resolution got passed
(within weeks after HB 170 was introduced into the legislature)
compared to how long it took for Valdosta to pass
a resolution against the Sabal Trail pipeline
(about eighteen months).
Here’s the complete text of the Valdosta resolution that passed 5 Febuary 2015. See also Valdosta’s PR about this resolution, which contains links to the evidence, and Valdosta’s letter to the sponsor of the bill.
RESOLUTION NO. 2015-3
A RESOLUTION TO OPPOSE THE STATE OF GEORGIA’S
TRANSPORTATION FUNDING ACT OF 2015 Continue reading
HB 59 to waive sovereign immunity in certain cases
Sue the state? You’ll lose, because of sovereign immunity,
unless HB 59 passes.
Then you might be able to sue GA-DNR for circumventing permiting
in allowing construction on the Georgia Coast, or if it
should approve a compressor station in Albany, or if it
should issue any other permits for the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline.
State agencies such as the Department of Natural Resources (GA-DNR),
can use “letters of permission” to do things like make alterations to
Georgia’s coast, and anyone suing to stop it runs up against sovereign immunity
unless the issuing agency has expressly waived it.
Now that may change with
HB 59,
“State tort claims; waiver of sovereign immunity for declatory judgment or injunctive relief; provide”.
It has six co-sponsors, including
Jay Powell, District 171, Camilla, Mitchell County, GA.
Here’s the key part: Continue reading
Pipelines are bad economics: invest in renewable energy instead –Harvard
Let’s stop wasting money on the slide-rule technology of Keystone XL or Sabal Trail: they’re both bad investments, either short-term or long-term.
Andrew Winston wrote for Harvard Business Review 30 January 2015, Why the Keystone Pipeline Is the Wrong U.S. Energy Debate,
In the short run, with oil at $50 per barrel, Keystone will connect refineries to oil that may be unprofitable to extract. In the long run, as the world turns away from fossil fuels aggressively, the pipeline will be moot — a relic of the past.
Either way it’s a poor investment.
What, then? Continue reading
MLK and pipeline opposition
The fossil fuel opposition is the child and grandchild of Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
With their nonviolence, truth, and action as a model, we shall overcome.
Bill McKibben, The Guardian, 25 August 2011, Martin Luther King’s legacy and the power of nonviolent civil disobedience: In opposing the Keystone XL oil pipeline, demonstrators are getting a sense of the civil rights leader’s courage,
Preacher, speaker, writer under fire, but also tactician. He really understood the power of nonviolence, a power we’ve experienced in the last few days. When the police cracked down on us, the publicity it produced cemented two of the main purposes of our protest: First, it made Keystone XL “ the new, 1,700-mile-long pipeline we’re trying to block that will vastly increase the flow of “dirty” tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico “ into a national issue. A few months ago, it was mainly people along the route of the prospective pipeline who were organising against it. (And with good reason: Continue reading
South Georgia Growing Local at Pine Grove Middle School this Saturday
Update 2015-01-20: Actually that’s Wednesday 21 January 2015 for Gretchen on the Chris Beckham radio show, 105.9 FM, still at 8AM.
Gretchen Quarterman will be
on the radio
7:30 AM this morning on the Scott James show 92.1 FM and 8:00 AM tomorrow January 21st on the Chris Beckham show 105.9 FM,
talking about
South Georgia Growing Local 2015,
a full day of five parallel tracks of talks about soil, planting, fruits, vegetables, oils, permaculture, hydroponics, bees, bugs, invasive plants, citrus, chickens, goats, hams, cooking, water, and solar power, all here below the gnat line in our loamy soil and above our Floridan Aquifer.
The conference is 9AM to 5PM Saturday January 24th 2015 at Pine Grove Middle School, on River Road north of Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
See you there!
-jsq
Housing, paving, appointments, solar, packets, wells, pipeline, and trash! @ Town Hall Meeting 2014-12-15
Very respectable turnout and impressive interaction
at the first-ever Town Hall by an individual Lowndes County Commissioner:
Demarcus Marshall, Super District 4, 15 December 2014.
See and read his
State of District 4 address.
You can read his
summary of issues and concerns,
and you can watch citizens express those concerns in
the
LAKE video playlist: Continue reading
Thanks for concern about drinking water from the Floridan Aquifer –Don Thieme about Valdosta draft resolution against Sabal Trail pipeline @ VCC 2014-12-09
Water matters, too, said a comment yesterday on We all live in Lowndes County: Valdosta Draft Resolution Against Sabal Trail Pipeline @ VCC 2014-12-09. The Valdosta City Council votes tonight at 5:30 PM on this resolution. And don’t forget to get your comments or motions to intervene to FERC before the deadline of 24 December 2014. -jsq
Many thanks to Tim Carroll for adding the part about this important environmental issue which affects everyone in the city of Valdosta and Lowndes County as well. This is not just about the property rights of a few concerned citizens although those are important as well and demand protection from elected politicians.
–Don Thieme
Probation, Sabal Trail, budget, calendar, appointments, Thomas County Commission @ TCC 2014-12-09
The
Sabal Trail pipeline
and
probation payments were
major issues at the Thomas County Commission 9AM Tuesday 9 December 2014.
Sheriff R. Carlton Powell noted that private probation company
Sentinel, which he said serves Lowndes County, was involved in
several lawsuits.
Here’s the agenda, and below are links to the videos, followed by a video playlist.
Continue reading