Tag Archives: tax

Too many people are making literally billions from the illicit drug trade —Major Neill Franklin

The only way to stop drug lords from reaping billions from the drug trade is to end drug prohibition, says a former leader of the drug war. The same applies to private prison companies reaping millions.

Tony O’Neill wrote 14 June 2011 in The Fix, Why Growing Numbers of Police Are Slamming Drug Prohibition:

For decades, police were convinced that total prohibition was the only way to end America’s deadly drug wars. Now thousands of cops are not only having second thoughts but actually taking to the streets in protest.

“I was pro-prohibition: that’s what my training was about!” says Major Neill Franklin, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), who previously served for 33 years with the Maryland State Police and the Baltimore police forces on the front line of America’s longest running war. “Even though I grew up in Baltimore and saw what was going on, we were taught and trained to believe that if we push hard enough, if we lock up the people involved, then this will eventually dissipate, or at least be reduced to a manageable level.” He gives a long, world-weary sigh. “Of course back then I had no clue…You just can’t tell somebody not to use and they’re gonna stop using! As long as there are people willing to buy, and as long as people don’t have employment, then you’re going to have an illicit drug trade. I saw that we made these arrests—we locked up dealers and users alike—and it might get quiet for a few days, or even a couple of weeks, but give it time and it all starts up again.”

The War on Drugs has failed. Like alcohol prohibition before it, it breeds more violence. Law enforcement against it just makes it worse: Continue reading →

This looks like gambling with my tax dollars. —Karen Noll

Received yesterday on “You can’t borrow yourself into prosperity.”:
The industrial authority’s spending of money seems to have no end. They don’t seem to budget appropriately or have a long range plan for the land they have acquired. Yet another industrial park when the Hahira park is still without any leasers.

This looks like gambling with my tax dollars. I don’t gamble with my own money for the reason that I am likely to loose. The board & staff feel no responsibility to the taxpayers. so, it is clear that they would ignore our demand for a no biomass clause and support of clean air for our families.

-Karen Noll

1 in 13 Georgia adults in the prison system —Pew Center on the States

Georgia is number 1 in something: locking people up, 1 in 13 of adults, according to the Pew Center on the States.

That costs us more than a billion dollars a year in tax money, 5.9% of the state budget. That’s up from $133.26 million in 1983, increased by more than a factor of seven.

Meanwhile, the correctional population swelled from around 100,000 in 1982 to more than 550,000 in 2007. And while other states have started decreasing their prison populations, Georgia’s continues to increase. The state is even coming up with new ways to lock people up, such as kicking them out of mental institutions. We seem headed back towards plantation slave labor and prison road gangs in for minor drug infractions.

How about we reverse this trend? Continue reading →

VLMPO meets 12 July 2011 —Corey Hull

Corey Hull of VLMPO sent this 27 June 2011. The TIA item is about T-SPLOST, and there is opportunity for citizen participation. -jsq
Good Afternoon,

The Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Committee will be holding its next regular meeting on July 12, 2011 at 1:30 p.m. at the SGRC office (address below). Please find attached the agenda.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at chull@sgrc.us or at 229-333-5277.

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

That agenda is appended. -jsq 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 →

$7.5 million T-SPLOST for a bus system

What costs less than $10 million to widen New Bethel Road from 2 to five lanes and less than $8 million to widen Old US 41 North? The answer is $7.5 million for a Valdosta Urbanized Area Transit System
…including the creation and maintainance of a Public Transit System in the City of Valdosta and Greater Valdosta-Lowndes County.
What would be the benefits?
This project will provide mobility options for all travelers; improve access to employment; and help mitigate congestion and maximize the use of existing infrastructure by promoting high-occupancy travel.
And that’s the entire description for this project. Nothing about promoting sprawl. Would actually promote dense close-in development. Can’t be very important, then, right?

Not when the sprawl plans for Val Del Road and Cat Creek Road add up to $6 million, or almost enough for the entire bus system.

Last time the transit system was being considered by the county, I was asked by a prominent local politican, “would you ride it?” Not every day. But more often than I would drive on the $10 million five lane New Bethel Road.

If you’re interested in a potential bus system, here is a lot more information about it.

Here’s what Lowndes County submitted for T-SPLOST funding, extracted from the 171 page PDF.

Project Sheet

Continue reading →

91% of voters support using solar power in NC —Ivan Urlaub of NCSEA

Like the previous speaker, Ivan Urlaub of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA) pointed out there are downsides to too many incentives, such as too much dependence on them which means if they end, so can the industry. So how to generate demand?

They’ve done it in North Carolina:

91% of voters support using solar power to meet our growing needs for energy and electricity
Solar is hands down the most popular energy source across NC, across parties, ages, genders, etc. Coal and nuclear are the politically charged energy sources, and neither got a majority. Number 2 was offshore wind with 83% and number 3 was onshore wind with 82% support. Here’s the NCSEA press release. Here’s the survey.

How did they do this? Continue reading →

$3 million T-SPLOST for sprawl on Cat Creek Road

Three million dollars buried on page 90 of the 171 page T-SPLOST Unconstrained Investment List for the Southern Georgia Region to funnel traffic along Cat Creek Road to Moody Air Force Base, promoting sprawl in far north Lowndes County, in an area the Comprehensive Plan says should be for agriculture and forestry.

In amongst the boilerplate and the red herrings (“potentially reducing the incidence of crashes”, “mitigating congestion”) is the real purpose of this project:

Also as a part of the project, protected left turn lanes will be added at various intersections along Cat Creek Road. The proposed intersections include Pine Grove Road, Radar Site Road, New Bethel Road, and Hambrick Road.
There’s a more long-term reason, too, which is hinted at with this further unnecessary work: Continue reading →

$3 million T-SPLOST to widen Val Del Road

In the Lowndes County T-SPLOST boondoggle of the day, the county wants $3 million to widen Val Del Road: all of it that’s in the county, plus adding paved shoulders, and at some intersections turn lanes, plus fiddling with drainage. Nothing in the writeup about promoting new development, although we saw in the proposal for Old US 41 N that that’s exactly what road widening projects are for.

Here’s what Lowndes County submitted for T-SPLOST funding, extracted from the 171 page PDF.

Project Sheet

Continue reading →

Trend towards drug legalization

Has anyone else noticed that even sitting big name politicians are saying things only one step short of just legalize it?

The most famous politician in the world said a few months ago: ‘Drug legalization is an “entirely legitimate topic for debate,”‘ which is a big change from 2009 when Obama laughed off the question.

Newly elected GA gov. Nathan Deal said we can’t afford to lock up non-violent drug offenders. In April Gov. Deal signed a bill to create a panel to overhaul sentencing laws.

Public opinion is almost to the majority nationwide for legalization, according to the Pew Research Center.

Private prisons have no business plan, because the majority of their “customers” are in danger of not getting locked up. We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq