Today in the VDT David Rodock wrote, Georgia Power discusses nuclear, solar, energy costs
Yet another dignitary visits without telling the public first.Georgia Power president and CEO Paul Bowers visited Valdosta late last week to talk nuclear energy, solar and what the company has been doing to cut energy costs for their customers.
Anyway, much of the story is about how cost-effective and safe Continue reading
The first question Kent Bishop asked at the Chamber’s Candidates Forum,
where he got eight minutes to speak for school consolidation while
each of the candidates for Valdosta Mayor only got five,
still hung in my mind at the end:
What qualifies you to come talk about education?Like so many CUEE speakers, he isn’t an educator and he hadn’t done his homework.
You know, what I hear is that, from the other side, is that our taxes would go up because of consolidation. The facts just don’t point to that. Generally what you’d see is some blending of the costs. And if we do that and average it out, we’re gonna find the two millage rates will come out somewhere in the middle. It makes total sense.Well, maybe it makes total sense if you like just making stuff up. Or you can see, hear, and read the extensive research by the Lowndes County Board of Education that demonstrates if consolidation passes taxes will go up and public school services will go down.
The speaker went on about ongoing white flight, without ever mentioning that consolidation would cause bright flight to head out of the county to Lanier and elsewhere.
He did come right out and admit something I’ve been saying: Continue reading
CUEE has staked their efforts on catch phrases & false promises that look & sound good. All of their info is at best a half truth. The promises that are imposible to keep are lies. I was raised believing a promise broken is a truth untold, which is a lie.
Unfortunately this tactic will work for today’s lazy voters who won’t even take the time to go to a website where the true facts are posted much less do their own research. Surely don’t ask them to leave the comfort of their homes & entertainment & personal addictions to attend any public meetings on either side when they should be visiting both sides at least once. They are part of the convenient idiot masses that facilitate take overs by the clever greedy for money & power few.
Both school boards [VBOE, LCBOE] and their supporters have done a great job of researching to produce true evidence that dissolves all the CUEE false rhetoric & print.
We cannot assume that truth will prevail because it is much easier to believe the fast sell that requires no personal effort. CUEE is banking on this. Most of the school consolidations that have occurred had many that were shocked when they passed because they did not account for the money/power ruses of the facilitators working so well with the lazy voter public. Many will not even show up claiming they have no stake since they have no children in either system. They are too lazy to check the researched facts to see they will be paying higher taxes for a handicapped unified system.
-Barbara Stratton
He took CUEE’s own figures for how much more consolidation would require
to be spent per each Valdosta City school student, and demonstrated that
not only would that require raising taxes for both Valdosta and Lowndes
County residents to near the state-capped maximum of 21 mils, but even
then there is no way enough tax revenue would be generated to pay for all
the things CUEE proposes to do after consolidation, and probably not even
enough taxes to continue employing all the teachers currently employed
by the two school systems. Oh, plus consolidation would lose state and
federal grant money by increasing the composite school system size, so the
local taxpayers would have to make up that slack, too.
Here are his slides.
Here is a playlist.
-jsq
showed it to us all, and could answer questions,
all demonstrating that school consolidation would not improve education,
would increase expenses and taxes, and far from bringing in more industry
would probably drive some away by reducing the quality of education.
Tuesday evening, going beyond
the research it had already published,
Dr. Troy Davis took CUEE’s own figures for how much more consolidation would
require to be spent per each Valdosta City school student,
and demonstrated that not only would that
require raising taxes for both
Valdosta and Lowndes County residents to near the state-capped maximum
of 21 mils, but even then there is no way enough tax revenue would be
generated to pay for all the things CUEE proposes to do after consolidation,
and probably not even enough taxes to continue employing all the teachers
currently employed by the two school systems.
Oh, plus consolidation would lose state and federal grant money by
increasing the composite school system size, so the local taxpayers
would have to make up that slack, too.
Jerome Tucker, on fire as a cheerleader, spelled out his life-long Continue reading
Click on the link to see the entire table, including the “Disburse Total” column on the right. Continue reading
Dean Poling and Kay Harris wrote a long article about weapons in prisons for the VDT 28 August 2011, An eye for an eye: Life behind bars, concluding:
The VDT has been trying to find out more since at least 2009, when Malynda Fulton wrote 9 November 2009, Department of Corrections says records are ‘state secrets’ or destroyed, Continue readingInmates are intelligent. All they have is time. Why? Because there is no rehabilitation anymore. They are merely being housed. The prison programs don’t work, especially for lifers with nothing else to lose. So they have plenty of time to figure out ways to beat the system.
Research quality of education, property taxes, and property values
after school consolidation, and you’ll find down, up, and down,
said this speaker.
Didn’t get his name; sorry.
I don’t have kids, but I have plenty of friends that do. that are in Valdosta city school system, and they like the direction that the school system is going. They like the quality of education that their children are getting at this time.You know, the research CUEE either did and rejected, according to Sam Allen about the questions VDT claims CUEE can’t answer. There are answers; just not ones CUEE likes.My grandfather used to say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It ain’t broke, so why are we going to let them try to fix it?
Do the research; I’ve done the research. Do the research on other communities that have consolidated two systems. When you get a big huge system, the quality of education goes down. Check it out. Research it.
Property taxes go up. Property values go down. Do the research.
Here’s the video:
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it @ VBOE 29 August 2011
education, referendum, consolidation, statement,
Work Session, Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 August 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
In addition to the Draft Constrained List for T-SPLOST
draft constrained list of T-SPLOST projects, which doesn’t even include dollar estimates,
this
longer report
contains details for each project.
And the cost to widen Old US 41 North from North Valdosta Road to
Union Road has gone up from
the previous estimate in June of
$8 million to $12 million in August, for a 50% increase!
I wonder if the County Commissioners know about this rapid cost inflation.
| Previous | Current | Difference | Increase% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PE | $650,000 | $800,000 | $150,000 | 23% |
| ROW | $850,000 | $1,200,000 | $350,000 | 41% |
| CST | $6,500,000 | $10,000,000 | $3,500,000 | 54% |
| Total | $8,000,000 | $12,000,000 | $4,000,000 | 50% |
Curious how when the components went up by odd amounts,
the total went up by exactly 50%.
It’s almost like the total was increased and then the components
were arranged to add up to that.
Also curious how the biggest increase, percentage (54%) and total ($3,500,000) is for construction. I could see how Rights of Way (ROW) acquisition costs might go up because people might not want this boondoggle in their front yards, but why was it so hard to estimate construction costs the first time?
And curious how that construction increase is a bit more than Continue reading
Here’s the video: Continue readingWe cannot duck this issue. I couldn’t duck it any more. I couldn’t sleep, if I wasn’t out advocating getting rid of the War on Drugs. You can’t get to end the War on Drugs that the whole bureaucratic institution of the United States of America has declared, unless you end prohibtion. They couldn’t do it with alcohol, and you can’t do it with drugs.
—Alice Huffman, President, California NAACP