Georgia's Gov. Deal Names Lackey to Key Transportation Post

In one for the ages, Georgia's Gov. Nathan Deal tapped a long-time Republican operative to head up the state's important transportation department. The transportation planning director basically picks the projects that get funded from large parts of the state’s $2 billion gas tax budget! What follows are excerpts from the AJC.com article:

The Senate Transportation Committee on Monday voted swiftly and unanimously to confirm Toby Carr as the state’s transportation planning director, the semi-final step in his appointment.

Gov. Nathan Deal nominated Carr, a political aide, to replace Todd Long, a career transportation planner and engineer.

The planning director has perhaps the strongest single hand in picking which projects get funded from large parts of the state’s $2 billion gas tax budget.

Carr is former director of the Georgia Republican Party, led Deal’s gubernatorial transition committee, and recently has been Deal’s transportation policy advisor. He’s been acting as planning director pending his confirmation.

But his background raised no questions for the committee members. After Carr delivered his opening remarks to them Monday and braced for questions, the senators, both Republicans and Democrats, voted to confirm him without asking a single one.

In interviews, some said they had worked with Carr when he was Deal’s liaison to the General Assembly, so they were not concerned about his education, experience or the approach he would take for the transportation planning position.

“We’ve had great experience with him already,” said Sen. Bill Jackson, R-Appling, a member of the committee. “You know you have faith somewhere. You have to have faith in the people that you’ve known. You could criticize or ostracize anybody. But this young man is a fine young man, demonstrated right in this building.” Jackson had begun the meeting with a prayer that the committee “justify” “the appointment of a good man by a great governor.” Committee Chairman Jeff Mullis said the senators didn’t need to ask Carr questions the public could hear, because they had each spoken to Carr privately beforehand. “We had a copy of his resume,” Mullis said.

Carr has degrees in finance and agricultural engineering, which he earned with honors.

Long has degrees in civil engineering from Georgia Tech, for which he studied subjects including transportation planning, traffic flow, and geometric design for transportation.

Sen. Steve Thompson, D-Marietta, defended the unquestioning support of Carr. “I don’t know how good you have to be to size a project up,” he told a reporter after the meeting.

A 2009 law passed as SB 200 set up the planning director position so the governor would have a strong hand on the front end of choosing projects, in hopes of avoiding conflict with the DOT board at the back end.

The House Transportation Committee will consider Carr’s nomination after the primary elections, said Chairman Jay Roberts, R-Ocilla. Roberts said he did not anticipate roadblocks for Carr, but he would hold both a subcommittee hearing and committee hearing so representatives could have adequate opportunity to question Carr.

~ ~ ~

plez sez: georgia's good ole boy network strikes again! i'm always hearing how the republicans are about individual responsibility and hard work... they tend to leave out the part about licking the boss's boots and being a faithful political operative.


this story in the ajc.com got me so riled up, i had to respond: "so… a $2 billion gas tax budget is taken from a guy with degrees in civil engineering and given to a UGA grad (who, i’m sure is a nice guy, but is nothing but a political lap dawg) w/ with ZERO transportation experience on the eve of a statewide vote on spending an additional $1 billion transportation tax (have you people even looked at what parts of Metro Atlanta are going to get a lion’s share of that new construction?) … and NO ONE (democrat or republican) even asks him a softball question?!? you gotta love this state! i am voting NO on T-SPLOST (as many times as they’ll let me)!"


you got it, this yokel gets to "plan" what to do with $1 billion of basically discretionary spending... and i can guess where he'll use his discretion in spending it! the following picture shows the breakdown of the planned spending. my little area (plezWorld is circled in RED) is earmarked for 3 or 4 projects because the I-20 MARTA Expansion project is "contingent upon additional funding"! but the MARTA improvements from north springs to holcolm bridge road is mysteriously fully funded by t-splost! 

oh yeah! i thought republicans were against any new taxes?!?

~ ~ Citations ~ ~

Read the AJC Blog article about Gov. Deal's New Transportation Planning Director.


Go to the Untie Atlanta to see how Georgia plans to spend $6 BILLION transportation tax money.


Read the AJC.com article about the mystery of $1 BILLION in transportation tax money.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Obama Submits First Budget to Congress

President Obama Submits His First Budget to Congress

~ ~ ~

For years, congressional Democrats tried to avoid anything that would let Republicans slap the tax-and-spend label on them. But on Friday, they cautiously embraced President Barack Obama's budget, with its ambitious blend of new spending and tax increases, calculating that they can turn the old attack line to their benefit.

As they began to digest the administration's fiscal blueprint, even Democrats with reservations hailed it as a long-overdue example of honesty in federal budgeting after years of what one lawmaker called "fudgeting."

Several said they saw the tax increases as reasonable ones that could be sold to the public in difficult economic times, especially because middle-class taxes would be cut under the president's plan.

~ ~ ~

Read or download a pdf of President Obama's first budget.

~ ~ ~

plez sez: there's no such thing as a free lunch. you have to pay the cost to be the boss... i think there's at least one more cliche' in there, but i'm not up to ferreting it out at this time!

at least the republicans can trot out there "tax & spend liberal" moniker... even though, it took the country almost 30 years to figure out that reaganomics would never work!

~ ~ Citations ~ ~

Read the San Jose Mercuty News article about support amongst Democrats is tenuous for Obama's budget.

Read the CNN.com article about key budget figures, by department (must read).

Read the CNN.com article about Obama's $3 trillion budget.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Recession Worsens in Georgia

I read a report last week that said Atlanta is third in the nation behind Las Vegas and Detroit in vacant houses! USA Today reports that a record 1 in 9 US homes are vacant, a glut created by the housing boom and subsequent collapse.

Yesterday's AJC.com reported that there are over 6,000 unsold NEW condos in Atlanta! That doesn't count the hundreds of foreclosed and abandoned units in the metro area. There is a glut of housing in the Atlanta area, as the recession and foreclosures and unsold units push the market values south along with the rest of the economy.

On Saturday, 40 condos in plush Atlantic Station are going on the auction block. Element at Atlantic Station was said to be sold out three years ago... the place is half-empty today! Some Atlantic Station residents fear the Element auction will further depress values. Homeowners across the country are making mortgages payments higher than what their dwellings are worth today because of plummeting values. That’s led to property abandonment.

~ ~ ~

The jobless rate in Georgia hit a record high in January, jumping to 8.6 percent, the state’s Labor Department announced Thursday. The rate the previous month was 8.1 percent, but the layoffs have continued across broad segments of the economy.

“We are officially sailing in uncharted economic waters,” said Michael Thurmond, state labor commissioner.

The jobless rate has climbed 65 percent from its level a year ago. The previous record was 8.3 percent in 1983, as the economy was emerging from what had been at the time, the longest recession since the Great Depression.

The current recession began at the end of 2007 and is widely projected to continue at least until late this year. Pessimists say it will linger into next year or even beyond. Unemployment typically crests near the end of a downturn or after the expansion has begun.

Nearly 413,000 Georgians were looking for work, an increase of 62.9 percent over the year, according to the Labor Department. Fewer than half of those people are receiving unemployment insurance benefits.

The current rate is the highest since the U.S. Labor Department standardized jobless numbers among the states in 1976.

~ ~ ~

State coffers have confirmed what the rest of the data have said: The recession in Georgia has deepened. Revenue from tax collections in January came up $262 million short of the amount received during the same month a year earlier — a 14.3 percent decrease, the Georgia Department of Revenue announced Friday.

The shortfall provides a look in the rearview mirror, reflecting what has been a contracting economy — the cutbacks of profit-squeezed companies and debt-laden, paycheck-challenged consumers.

For tax collection, the economic currents have nearly all been head winds. On the corporate side, company spending is down, with many businesses nervous about the future and others coping now with falling sales. The result is fewer purchases, which means lower tax revenue.

But lower corporate profits also mean lower tax payments, and a series of companies in recent weeks have announced lower earnings, including metro Atlanta companies such as Rubbermaid and Equifax. Company cost cutting also translates into insecurity at best and hardship at worst for Atlanta workers. And that translates into less consumer spending on taxable items.

It has been a painful spiral: As jobs were lost, spending retreated, which meant companies cut and more jobs were lost. Unemployment in Georgia has jumped from 4.5 percent to 8.1 percent in the past year — climbing even faster than the national numbers. About 400,000 Georgians are officially jobless, according to the state Labor Department. If workers worried about layoffs tend to spend less on taxable items, those without a job are likely to be even more frugal. All of that’s bad for tax revenue.

~ ~ ~

plez sez: the picture above shows the more than 3,000 people who were lined up for a job fair in atlanta... there were 3,000 people in line at 7:00 am waiting for the 10:00 am opening!

the economic prognosis is bleak... at best. there are no signs that the recession is letting up in georgia. we'll keep plugging away in hopes that the stimulus plan signed into law by PRESIDENT OBAMA will loosen things up just alittle. times are really tight in plezWorld... i'm ready for the recovery... NOW!

~ ~ Citations ~ ~

Read the USA Today article about the record number of vacant homes in the US.

Read the AJC.com article about vacant condo auction in Atlanta.

Read the AJC.com article about record unemployment in Georgia.

Read the AJC.com article about the big drop in tax revenue in Georgia.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~