Mayor Heidi Davison is going to the mat for her budget as commissioners look for ways to trim it by $1.75 million to avoid a tax increase.
Davison is especially interested in protecting poverty-related expenses like $192,500 for more frequent bus service along Atlanta Highway, Barnett Shoals Road and Cedar Shoals Drive, $93,000 to start a fund for affordable housing and $26,900 to hire a coordinator for a new mental health court.
Democratic activist Maddy Powell and Athens Grow Green’s Beth Gavrilles both forwarded an e-mail Davison is sending around encouraging citizens to tell commissioners they’ll accept a tax increase for such programs. Says the e-mail:
“Here's how YOU can help. Remind Commissioners of your commitment to alleviating poverty and the work the community has done thus far in that regard. Ask them to find other reductions than those listed above, which are a direct response to recommendations from OneAthens. Support your advocacy by telling them you are willing to pay a slightly higher tax and, if you are not, then make a suggestion as to what you would like to see cut or reduced in services from the budget to make room for the initiatives I have recommended for funding.
“Right now they are NOT hearing from those who have made a significant contribution to the OneAthens process.
“Send them an email, a letter, make a call , or go to our budget hearings this Thursday, May 15 at 5:30pm and next Thursday, May 22 at 6:45pm (see today's editorial). DON'T wait! We have a budget meeting on Thursday where decisions will be made as to what will remain and what will be cut!”
At the work session tonight, department heads will be telling commissioners about the impact a 2 percent cut would have on their departments. To get to $1.75 million, the commission would have to cut 2 percent almost all the way across the board, sparing only a handful of departments at most. I don’t see how they’ll be able to reach consensus on how to cut that much money, but I’ve heard a few suggestions from the public, including not providing employees with county-logo polo shirts, slashing the planning and building inspection departments (the budget hawks and the pro-development crowd appear to be one and the same), canceling the employee picnic Wednesday, not putting up new “share the road” street signs (the budget hawks and the bicycle-hating crowd also appear to be one and the same) and providing garbage customers with cheaper trash cans.
All of those ideas put together – except laying off planners and inspectors – might save, in my loose estimate, $5,000 at most. Only $1.745 million to go! In that spirit, I have a few suggestions of my own:
• Lay off six commissioners. What do we need ten for, anyway? Keep, say, Harry Sims(districts 2 and 3), David Lynn (5 and 6), Alice Kinman (4 and 7) and Doug Lowry (1 and 8). Let the mayor vote. You’d end up the same results anyway. Savings: $90,000 in salaries, $70,000 or so in travel and training expenses and untold millions in employee overtime and power bills because the meetings will be shorter.
• Since Carl Jordan will now be looking for work, hire him as an “energy auditor” to go around to county offices turning off all the lights on sunny days and turning down the heat and air conditioning. He does this already. Why not make it official? Savings: $30,000.
• Use eminent domain to seize the Super Wal-Mart and convert it into a co-op where Athenians can barter goods and services in exchange for blenders, video games and giant jars of organic peanut butter. Savings: none, unless we can figure out what to do with 500 bongo players and yoga instructors. But it might build some political capital.
• A 1 percent sales tax on Pabst Blue Ribbon. New revenue: $600,000.
• Replace water, sewer and road crews with chain gangs of UGA students caught drinking underage. Savings: $6 million, minus $3 million to house out inmates and $2 million in lost sales tax, property tax, mixed-drink tax and business license revenue because half the downtown bars will go out of business.
And voila! I just saved $1.79 million. Call or e-mail your commissioner today!
- Blake Aued's blog
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good intentions and road paving....
I have to wonder where people thought the money for these initiatives would come from.
Did we think they were all great ideas as long as we didn't have to pay for them?
The folks who do own homes, some of whom are surely part of the 750 who showed up to address poverty in A-CC, need to set a good example for UGA, who have put the responsiblity for their part time temporary employees right in our laps, the hospitals, who are each being asked to pitch in 3 million (note, they've been cutting their funding to the Nbhood Health Center for years now, despite the fact it helps keep the cost of their emergency rooms down, money they could use to fund their ambulance services) and the Chamber, who managed to get anything but a recommendation that wages be "looked at" taken out of the proposals.
Good intentions don't simply manifest. It's going to cost money to address poverty in Athens. I hope people are ready to step up to the plate and pay that extra 25 bucks per 150K house, this is where we quit talking the talk and start walking the walk.
Let's see, 25$ a year, that adds up to, um, about 5 double- white mochas w/whipped cream at 4.25 a piece at JJoes, 4.75 including a 50 cent tip. That's 2 dollars and a few cents a month, per household, so that converts to less than one large chocolate milkshake (3.10 at McD's, without fries, a challenge, I know) a month.
That's two cans of politically correct and locally roasted coffee a year at 13.00 a can. That's LESS than the cost of two nosebleed tickets to a gymnastics meet, which are 15 dollars a piece... and, MUCH less, at this point, than one half of one tank of gas.
I know times are tough. I know fees have gone up. I know we're not happy about it.
But c'mon folks, it's expensive out here. Imagine how you'd feel if you were one of the one in three of us who cannot afford a 150K house, never mind an occassional mocha or chocolate shake, never mind EVER seeing the GymDogs do their incredible thing. Imagine, if you can, trying to get to work and having to be in transit for over an hour each way, not counting time and stops and waiting for the bus if you have to drop off kids at daycare.
This is a WAR on poverty. We know the people who traditionally profit from the misfortunes of the poor: slum lords, pay day and auto title loan sharks, buy here pay here car lots, auto insurers who charge more than the value of the car per year to insure vehicles for residents in low income census tracts, and insurance companies whose skyrocketing premiums and copays are out of sight for those who are lucky enough to have health insurance-and that's just a short list. Did we really think they'd just roll over and play dead while we attempted to eliminate the source of their profits? Not to forget ineffectively run non-profits who spend, for example, 54K a year on travel. No wonder Mr. Heard couldn't handle the tough questions the other night, he's probably been on the road all year, shoot, somebody over there has, that's over a thousand a week for travel!
These folks who profit by either exploiting or pretending to serve the poor are the same folks who are now appealing to our greed, arguably our lowest, basest instinct. So who are we, Athens? Are we the folks who donated thousands of hours to addressing poverty?
Or are we the people whose complaints prompted local officials to ask the homeless camp just down the street from me to move their camp back 100 yards, since WalMart shoppers didn't like seeing them on their way by on the loop, when they were visible through the lack of winter foliage?
If we can't get this much done of the initiatives from PPA and OneAthens, how can we ask the other institutions involved in the effort to do their part?
So this is crunch time, folks. More power to you, if you have a great job. And if you can afford more house, and a decent vehicle, then bravo for you. If your house has tripled in value since you bought it less than a decade ago, then congratulations, that rocks for you, and I have no doubt you worked hard to achieve the material gains you've earned.
I'll trade houses w/any one of you for just one week, so you can live where the war on poverty is real and never, ever ending. Here in my neighborhood, gunshots ring out almost weekly, houses burn on what seems like a monthly basis, making room for unscrupulous (and really unimaginative and tacky) infill developers, and the homeless wander back and forth to the soup kitchen two and three times a day. They are NOT homeless by choice, some of them are dangerously ill and delusional. One fellow beat on my door in broad daylight, and when I jumped out of the shower to peek and see who it was, was spooked enough to go next door and break into my neighbors house, instead. He had JUST been released from jail, according to the police who picked him up minutes later. As far as I know, he is still out there. I know he hasn't been tried, because I identified him, and will have to go to court as a witness against him when he is. And face him the next time he gets out and uses my street as a place to break in and pick up a couple of bottles of wine and a few cd's.
It might give you some idea of what it's like to live on the "other side" of Athens. OneAthens, my caboose. I'd love a week in a 300 thousand dollar house. In a neighborhood where I don't have to set the alarm and keep my cell phone on me in order to work in the yard. Where I can sit on the porch w/out getting hit up, sometimes quite angrily and aggressively, by obviously ill and sad, powerless people. For money, rides, the cans in my recycling, food, or sex.
Maybe you could get used to being awakened late at night and begged to call the police because someone just got assaulted a couple of doors down. Again. In front of three little kids. Where the fact that they can't afford a phone or working vehicle, much less enough to eat might, just MIGHT be contributing to their domestic stress and violence. You think?
I admit, I'm confused. I see you parked outside churches and other places of worship, like clockwork, on Wednesday nights, and Saturday and Sunday mornings. You are the same folks who pitched in to help the police officer who is still recovering from injuries incurred while she was working a second job to make ends meet, and was brutally assaulted by a mentally ill person who slipped through the cracks of our legal system.
You are making sack lunches for the soup kitchen, holding weekly peace vigils, and lining the streets when one of our own comes back from Iraq in a flag draped coffin, in support of the those who've been left w/out their son or daughter, brother or sister, husband or wife, Mom or Dad.
Well, I just have to know. What is it you are willing to give up for the betterment of those who cannot do as well as you are w/out your help?
Is a half mill increase really going to hurt you as much as NOT paying it will hinder the progress of those about whom we claim to care?
Maddy
That $25 is going to go
That $25 is going to go where countless millions of other well-intended dollars have gone, down a rat hole. Until people learn that having babies at 15, again at 16, again at 17, and on and on, without the recognition of anything resembling a responsible father(s), is insane, nothing will change. If I knew my 25 bucks would go to effectively preventing these pregnancies then I would not gripe. But it won't. We have thrown money at the problem since Johnson's War on Poverty in the sixties, without any success. Quit blaming everybody from insurance companies, banks, churches, taxpayers, used car lots, etc. for the problem. That's a royal copout. People make a good living off of poverty, but it's not the groups that you are blaming. Are poor people so stupid that they don't know that having babies in their mid-teens is going to be a disaster? That dropping out of school at 15 is not going to lead to anything but dependency? But hey, let's throw some more bucks at the problem. There's a lot of people out there that have a vested interest in perpetuating the current state of affairs, and it ain't the taxpayers.
"Until people learn that
"Until people learn that having babies at 15, again at 16, again at 17, and on and on, without the recognition of anything resembling a responsible father(s), is insane, nothing will change."
You're right. That's why there's $190,000 in the budget to beef up the health department's teen pregnancy prevention program.
I hate to sound cynical, but
I hate to sound cynical, but hasn't this problem existed forever? And if I had to guess I would dare say it's becoming more prevalent, based on the births reported in the paper with no listed fathers and the mother's maiden name being given to the child. I hope the health department can work some miracle with that $190,000, but probably most of it will end up in same aforementioned rathole. Frankly, I not sure what will work, short of sterilization (please don't light up the torches, I am not condoning that). Poverty is, for the most part, having more children than one can afford, nurture, educate, and instill good moral character.
Well, I don't hate to be so
Well, I don't hate to be so cynical, but in another direction, and for other reasons.
I question whether the problem is as severe as many surmise, and whether the amount of money expended is going to produce measurable results. I'd like to get some official type person to project exactly how many teen pregnancies this substantial sum of money is going to prevent.
The following figures were obtained from this site, a compilation prepared by the Annie E. Casey Foundation ( the same people who bring you so much of NPR):
http://www.kidscount.org/cgi-bin/cliks.cgi?action=profile_results&subset...
Sorry but I'm too tired to put this into a html table format right now.
Teen births (ages 15-19) in Clarke County in 2006 totaled 192
Teen mothers giving birth to another child before age 20 totaled 37.
It's not clear whether or not the first figure includes the second, but I suspect not. So let's say total teen births in Clarke County for 2006 were 229.
Even this figure needs to be taken with a caveat, as the totals are based on a review of birth records on file with DHR in Atlanta, and so it is unclear whether these figures include residents of other counties who give birth in ACC. Also, a certain small percentage of these "teens" are married, and so would be outside the scope (I hope) of governmental efforts to prevent them from getting pregnant.
This figure is consistent with that reported by a UGA compilation of census information, http://www.georgiastats.uga.edu/counties/059.pdf, which reports 213 teen births in 2006.
Unwed births to teen mothers is reported to be 9% of the 1,525 live births in Clarke County. My cynical observation is that this is hardly an epidemic of teen births, and certainly not one of multiple teen births.
More disturbing is the figure that 46.5% of all births are to unwed mothers. The issue of unwed mothers is a lot like the weather, everyone is talking about it, but no one is doing anything about it. I would like to cynically propose that funds be diverted from the statistically insignificant issue of teen pregnancy to the very statistically and societally significant issue of unwed mothers (which would perforce include nearly all teen pregnancies anyway). Of course, addressing the issue of unwed mothers requires that we (society) make value judgments, and try to impose those values on other "cultures". Teen pregnancy is such a nice "either-or" target at which to shoot.
No matter how hard we try or how much we spend, there is going to be an irreducible number of teen pregnancies and births. There were 40 years ago in my teen years, when a girl often decided to go spend a school term with an aunt out west. I suggest that it is incumbent on the folks proposing to spend this rather sizable sum to at least posit what this irreducible number is, and so we can determine how much each non-pregnancy is costing us.
Completely FALSE
"We have thrown money at the problem since Johnson's War on Poverty in the sixties, without any success."
People keep saying this because they desparately want it to be true. It is not.
When Johnson's War on Poverty was initiated in January of 1964, the national poverty level was close to 20%. According to the US Census, in the decade following, poverty rates in the U.S. dropped to 11.1% and have remained between 11 and 15% ever since.
Poverty had significantly fallen among Americans under 18 years old from 23% in 1964 to 16.3% today. The most dramatic decrease in poverty was among Americans over 65, which fell from 28.5% in 1966 to 10.1% today. In the 1960's more than 30 million elderly and children were lifted out of poverty.
The oil shocks and recessions of the 1970's led to dire economic times for the nation as a whole (it was not a failure of the programs) and the advent of the Reagan-Bush era "War on the Poor" demolished most of the programs aimed at assisting the poor and unemployed. Yet poverty nationwide remained below 12%, until 2000 and the return of Reagan-Bush era politics. Since then poverty has been increasing.
So let's recap; according to Reagan-Bush, Bush II and oconaysayer, an initiative that reduced poverty from 25% to 12.5%, that brings at least 30 million people out of poverty constitutes a failure.
Well, the right wingers do
Well, the right wingers do love to have their little mantras. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Where's Orwell when you need him?
I suppose if you took money
I suppose if you took money from everybody who works their a$$ off and give to the people who don't choose to, for whatever reason, you would eliminate poverty. And if the war on poverty was as successful as you claim, what happened to Athens? Was the poverty rate higher than 30% in the early sixties? If you want to eliminate poverty with your money, go for it. You have that right to do whatever you want to with the money the government lets you keep. But I doubt you have contributed very much of your own dough to the two organizations that got their funds reduced, right? I contribute to the poor, but I do it through contributions to churches that perform actual services to aid the poor and homeless; I contribute to Good Will and the Salvation Army and the Toy Fund and countless other organizations that I personally feel are doing good deeds to help the more unfortunate ones among us. I work in soup kitchens operated by the church I attend. I donate my used clothing to the church. But I do these things voluntarily, not through the force of government. You say this is not enough, that there are not enough funds voluntarily contributed to help organizations fight poverty? You are right. You know why? Because the people of this country have pretty much accepted the government's word that this role is best performed by bureaucrats. Just set up countless agencies, committees, bureaus, departments and cabinets, at all levels of government, and all with highly paid professional bureaucrats. Just be sure and stand back from the feeding trough because you might get run over.
Why do you assume that
Why do you assume that people who are poor don't "work their arse off" doing 2 or 3 jobs and, likewise, that people who are wealthy do? Surely you must recognize that wealth is generally transferred from generation to generation and, likewise, the greatest indicator of one's likelihood of being poor is that one's parents were poor. Do you not believe America has a class system?
The issue I see playing out
The issue I see playing out with the current budget has nothing to do with a $25 increase in taxes. As you stated Maddy, $25 is just a trivial amount for anyone in the middle class. Crack is probably more expensive than $25.
However, the proposed millage rate increase brings to light some of the projects we have in Athens that are questionable in terms of their usefulness.
Should we spend millions to expand or re-stripe roads so the few hundred hardcore bikers in town can enjoy them? Is this a wise investment for the other 99,000 of us in the county?
Should we fund programs with marginal effectiveness
As far as your comments Maddy:
Yes, some people make a living off of lower-income citizens. However, when was the last time you saw a national insurance company basing their business model on screwing over poor people? It's a very risky business whenever you insure persons who have horrible credit (i.e. if they screwed over other companies who they didn't pay back, who is to say they won't do it to you?). Rarely do you see any of those guys making the big cheese.
Those "unimaginative" houses that are built in the older neighborhoods mostly come from plans recommended by the planning commission.
Are you defending the same "tent city" that has it's own crime blotter in the newspaper?
The point I failed to recognize from your argument, though it was full of intense rhetoric, was the ultimate question, "What is that $25 really going to do"? Are we going to buy a magic potion to make the homeless disappear? Are we just throwing money at this current political push?
Any thought to the fact that we offer a plethora of services compared to neighboring counties and as a result, homeless from around the region flock to Athens to feed off our social system? As a matter of fact, some neighboring law enforcement authorities actually drop off homeless people that they don't want in Athens, figuring "we can take good care of them".
I am not trying to sound heartless here as I fully support any program that truly supports those less fortunate who are willing to also do something for themselves. As the old proverb says, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." It seems many of the programs we offer are more of a "hand-out" than a "hand-up". It disturbed me greatly when volunteering for Habitat for Humanity to see ~20 people busting their butt to build a house for a woman who sat in the corner the whole day and hardly lifted a finger to help build her future home.
Bike lanes
Are free. It's just a question of where you paint the lines.
Paint is not free the last
Paint is not free the last time I checked. Neither are paint crews. Furthermore, if you wish to maintain the same lane width, roads have to be widened to accommodate an additional bike lane (unless we paint the bike lane lines in the grass). I need to start shopping with you Blake - you know where the good deals are apparently.
Sigh. Do I have to spell it
Sigh. Do I have to spell it out for you?
Roads must be restriped periodically. The question is where the stripes are painted. Whether bike lanes are painted on or not, the cost is the same. Painting bike lanes onto a road when it is being restriped anyway - which is when it's done - does not cost anything.
P.S.
I see your point now. In cases where roads are widened to accomodate bike lanes or sidewalks (i.e. Research Drive), it is paid for by GDOT or SPLOST, which isn't part of the budget we're talking about.
Does Gov. Sonny know about this?
GDOT pays for bike lanes?
Are you sure about that?
Yes
Heidi got some in the MACORTS TIP.
A puzzlement?
I've some thoughts on the overall budget, but in today's paper there is an article which is a puzzlement to me in its specifics, but indicative of a more general problem with the budgeting process in ACC.
Today's ABH reports:
Athens Housing Authority payments in lieu of taxes - usually around $90,000 a year, calculated based on rent and utilities paid by public housing residents - would pay for the fund. No strings are attached to the payments. They've been spent on general government services in the past, but AHA Executive Director Rick Parker has lobbied the county for several years to earmark them for affordable housing.
"Local government is not really putting any dollars to speak of into affordable housing right now," Parker said.
I understand why AHA is making a payment in lieu of taxes, no need to go into that.
What I don't understand is why the AHA, which is in the business of providing affordable housing to low income citizens, would transfer funds to ACC, which is not in that business, for the purpose of doing that which AHA is already set up to do. (I know that's an awkward sentence, but it's an awkward situation.)
First there is the general philosophical consideration of whether this is the time for ACC to begin a new enterprise, when the need is already being addressed by other public, quasi-public, and private entities. Given that these dollars are essentially a donation from AHA to ACC, if earmarking them for affordable housing is so important, why doesn't AHA just so earmark them and be done with it. It's not as if AHA hasn't already engaged in some "enterprise" financing. If I'm not mistaken, AHA has backed some bonds (or other debt) for some of the apartments around town. If Parker feels so strongly about backing affordable housing, why not just make a grant to Habitat for Humanity or some similar group.
Even Herzonner agrees that giving the funds to a non-profit is "do-able", saying that the funds could be used "to fund nonprofits that build below-market housing, Davison said." Given that suitable non-profits agencies already to exist, why is it necessary to engage in this Tinkers to Evers to Chance play with $90K?
Even the much lambasted (and justly so) EADC and HCDC are in theory already set up for the purpose of providing affordable housing. If those agencies can get their houses in order (pun intended), they provide an existing mechanism to accomplish the goals which Herzonner has set forth. Isn't it more expeditious, and a more efficient use of available resources to use those (and other) existing agencies for the purpose for which they were intended.? Do we need yet another county level government department?
I just can't find a rationale for ACC to set out to duplicate the services which are already being provided by other agencies, whose mission is to specifically provide those services.
So is this "enterprise fund" just an exercise in empire building and old fashioned political control?
The second concern is of a practical nature. Given that AHA seems to have a spare $90K and given that ACC seems content to park that $90K in a glorified savings account, why go through the exercise? On both ends there has to be certain administrative costs in transferring and accounting for the money. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Mr. Parker isn't going to write Herzonner a check from petty cash. Once the money is in ACC's hands, someone is going to have to deal with it, and eventually a process will have to be implemented (and people hired to implement it), at a cost to ACC. If ACC has no real use for the money right now, which is what I get from Herzonner's statements, why put both agencies to the trouble and expense of making the transfer. I'm sure the rejoinder will be that the transaction costs are minimal. They may well be, but in hard times, counting the nickels and dimes is important.
Housing authorities all make
Housing authorities all make a PILOT to their local government, which can do whatever it wants with it. Some keep it and spend it on whatever they want, some spend it on housing and some give it right back the the housing authority. But the housing authority has to sign over a check, even if it gets the money right back.
A-CC does have real use for the money. But the fund must be built up over several years to do any good.
I'm not disputing that A-CC
I'm not disputing that A-CC has a real use for the money. What I question is whether the A-CC government has a real use (or need) for the money. Why must the local government go through the exercise of creating another bureaucracy when there are already agencies in place (competent and otherwise) dedicated to the same goal?
As far as building up the fund over several years, there is that tricky point of local government law, so clearly illustrated by the dump fiasco, that Heidi cannot obligate the use of the money beyond her term. She can build up the fund for two years, and then the next administration can decide to use it for organic community gardens.
BTW, that limitation does not apply to the housing authority, which can enter into long term agreements.
Wheel has already been invented
I'm not disputing that A-CC has a real use for the money. What I question is whether the A-CC government has a real use (or need) for the money. Why must the local government go through the exercise of creating another bureaucracy when there are already agencies in place (competent and otherwise) dedicated to the same goal?
As far as building up the fund over several years, there is that tricky point of local government law, so clearly illustrated by the dump fiasco, that Heidi cannot obligate the use of the money beyond her term. She can build up the fund for two years, and then the next administration can decide to use it for organic community gardens.
BTW, that limitation does not apply to the housing authority, which can enter into long term agreements.
There is no new bureacracy
There is no new bureacracy involved. HED already exists and can administer the fund, as it does the growth fund for small businesses, when enough money has been added to make it useful.
Heidi can obligate the use of money beyond her term. That's the point of taking it out of the general fund and making it a special fund. Whether the next administration chooses to add to the fund is a different story.
Of course, by your logic we should not ever do anything new in government because someone might reverse it at some point. Of course, the next mayor could lay off every police officer, too, but that's no reason to get rid of the police department now.
Speaking of reinventing the wheel, lots and lots of cities and states have similar programs. This is nothing new, nationally at least, although it is new to Athens. Google it and see for yourself.
Blake: Do you bother to read
Blake:
Do you bother to read what I said. I've never disputed that there is a need that should be addressed, or that the designated money should be used for it's intended purpose. I've certainly never demonstrated that new and innovative programs in any area are not necessary. I don't see parking a bunch of money in a bank somewhere until you figure out what you want to do and how you are going to do it particularly new or innovative.
Neither you nor anyone else has addressed why ACC has to go through the paper exercise of transferring the money from AHA to some super savings account over at the BOC, when the AHA is perfectly capable of spending the money on the intended purpose.
It's easy to be glib and say that there won't be any new bureaucracy and that HED will administer the fund, but exactly who is the apparently underworked public servant who is going to shoulder these new responsibilities. Can we identify this position?
You can pooh-pooh the idea that future administrations will honor the noble vision of Mayoress Heidi, but when it gets to the point of letting police go, or sitting on some Christmas account, waiting for Santa Claus, you can be sure that there will be a sudden realization that there ain't no Santa Claus, I don't care what Virgina believes. But I will defer to the Steiner family for comments on the inviolability of the Mayoress's promise.
To say that Heidi can "obligate" the money beyond her term is simply wrong. There's really no point in making such statements.
I could say the same for you
The housing authority can't just keep the money and spend it on affordable housing. They have to give it to the county, even if the county gives it right back. Your statements to the contrary, you clearly have no idea how either PILOTs or affordable housing development funds work. If you spent half as much time educating yourself as you did running your mouth off, I wouldn't have to explain this to you.
Again, this time I'll try and use the small words
No one (at least not me) has said that AHA should keep the cash.
I said and said once more that ACC BOC does not need to do the same thing some in place group does now. ACC can give the money back at no cost to AHA and let AHA do its thing, which includes the build of a house.
I take a guess that I have a lot more hands on work with affordable housing development funds (darn, there go the one syllable words) than do you, not the least of which is work on money for Habitat for Humanity, plus I take hold of a tool or two.
That is an option
And one that I addressed in my story. It could be used to fund affordable housing construction.
It would be wiser, however, to use the fund, when it is fully capitalized, for revolving loans and gap financing for low-income potential homeowners. The only such program in existance in Athens is at EADC, which is not likely to be the recipient of any local money anytime soon. EADC's gap financing is for suckers anyway: 5 or 6 percent deferred interest for five years, renewable for 10.
The housing authority, Athens Land Trust and Habitat for Humanity have different models, and ones that in my opinion work much better.
You did say AHA should keep the money. "Neither you nor anyone else has addressed why ACC has to go through the paper exercise of transferring the money from AHA to some super savings account over at the BOC, when the AHA is perfectly capable of spending the money on the intended purpose."
The point is not to park it in a savings account until someone figures out what to do with it, it is to build the fund over a period of years until there is enough principal to spend only the interest. If the county had started doing this in 2003 there would be more than half a million dollars now to offer small no-interest loans or grants (in the $10,000 range) to people making less than 80 percent of the area median income who can almost afford a home on the open market but not quite.
BTW, the staffer you asked for is affordable housing administrator Matt Murphy. His colleague Catherine Hogue runs the growth fund, which is very similar to the housing fund but for small businesses.
We keep hearing from various
We keep hearing from various functionaries how there is just no fat in the ACC budget, and that there's just nowhere to cut $1.5 million. In researching budgetary issues, I ran across this little factoid.
General operating expenditures for Athens-Clarke County in 2000 equaled $78.8 million, or $776 per capita. By 2004, general operating expenditures increased by 16.4% to $91.7 million, or $904 per capita. General operating expenditures per capita for counties with similarly-sized populations was $692 in 2004. The statewide average was $626 per capita during the same period.
http://www.dca.state.ga.us/CountySnapshotsNet/countysnapshot.aspx?stype=...
Maybe one of our ace political reporters can find out why ACC spends 30% more per capita than similarly sized counties, and what is the money spent on? Is it across the board, or concentrated in certain areas. I have my suspicions, but I'm going to have to look at it some more, if that's possible.
Or do we just keep accepting the hand wringing and wailing that there is "no fat" in the budget?
Census doesn't count the students
Part of the reason that we spend 30% more is that 30,000 people join our city every fall who are not counted in our population..... We have a choice to either let the city get really crowed or build our public infrastructure to support this 30% increase in our population.
Really?
I thought they counted the ones who live off campus.
Whoops....
Wrote.... Didn't think first.....Happens often.....
My point is still valid for whatever % of students live in dorms......The flip side, however, is that Athens has retail sales per capita more than 30% above the state average so that local portion of sales tax revenue should reflect that.
UGA definitely adds some
UGA definitely adds some complexity to population records. Anyone have a firm statement as to who is and who is not counted? If students are counted, are their incomes (or lack thereof) added into the mix? If so, that alone could be killing our poverty statistics.
The Authoritative Rules...
According to the Census Bureau, college students living away from home while attending college are to be counted where they are living at college.
The link is http://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/resid_rules.html
That is the official line. In practice I'm sure that there is a lot of nonreporting by students and double-counting as students and parents both fill out the form.
Their incomes are counted and I firmly believe that it does elevate our poverty rate but doesn't completely explain the high rate.
For example, using 2006 Census data Clarke County has a poverty rate of 30.8% and the state of Georgia's is 14.7%. So Clarke County's is 2.1 times the Georgia rate. If you remove 18-24 year olds, Clarke County rate drops to 16.1% and Georgia's drops to 13.8%. Simply eliminating 18-24 year olds brings Clarke County's rate from 110% greater than Georgia's to 16.6% greater. It's not conclusive but I find it strong support for the possibility that the large student numbers are elevating our poverty rates.
That makes sense - if you
That makes sense - if you drive around similarly sized cities like Macon, Columbus, Augusta, you will find the same relative amount of downtrodden areas. As a matter of fact, I would beg to argue that their poverty problems can be worse - just looking at the cost of housing, you can pick up a home in a bad neighborhood in any of those other cities for $30-40,000. Houses in Athens very rarely go for this much, even in places like Stonehenge, behind Peter St, etc.
Also keep in mind that a lot of the Athens money is not in Clarke County - they moved to Oconee.
I always thought there was something fishy about the 31% number... Of course we can always keep improving things in the community, but let's get the logic with our statistics correct...
Thanks for looking that up Richmart
The poverty rate
Not counting 18- 24-year-olds (no way to separate students from non-students), it is 24 percent.
I'll doublecheck my numbers
I'll doublecheck my numbers tomorrow but according to the 2006 data I used it is 16%. I also think there's a way to pull out those enrolled in school and if I can find time tomorrow I'll see if it works.
I Stand By My Numbers
Using the 2006 American Community Survey which allow you to pull out those enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs:
Total Population:
Clarke County State of Georgia
99,016 total residents 8.67 million total residents
30,355 poor 1.24 million poor
30.7% poverty rate 14.3% poverty rate
Ratio 2.15
Minus those enrolled in undergrad or grad:
Clarke County State of Georgia
71,622 total residents 8.15 million total residents
11,414 poor 1.14 million poor
15.9% poverty rate 13.9% poverty rate
Ratio 1.14
According to this data, 62.4% of our poor residents are either enrolled in college (undergrad years) or enrolled in graduate or professional school.
It depends on which poverty
It depends on which poverty rate you are looking at-- the individual one or the one for families.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation reports 27.6% of children live in poverty in 2005. That would not include many offspring of UGA students.
67.4% of the students are eligible for free lunch.
No one reports how many of those have a cell phone.
http://www.kidscount.org/cgi-bin/cliks.cgi?action=profile_results&subset...
I used the individual one so
I used the individual one so that when I ignored those enrolled in college their children would still be counted. Pulling them out would reduce the poverty rate even more.
For those who care, I was giving a test this morning which gave me time to pull together the following blog post on my almost completely neglected blog.
http://spatialmismatch.blogspot.com/2008/05/athens-poverty-rate-and-coll...
Rich
Double post
Edited to delete
I Stand By My Numbers
Using the 2006 American Community Survey which allow you to pull out those enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs:
Total Population:
Clarke County State of Georgia
99,016 total residents 8.67 million total residents
30,355 poor 1.24 million poor
30.7% poverty rate 14.3% poverty rate
Ratio 2.15
Minus those enrolled in undergrad or grad:
Clarke County State of Georgia
71,622 total residents 8.15 million total residents
11,414 poor 1.14 million poor
15.9% poverty rate 13.9% poverty rate
Ratio 1.14
According to this data, 62.4% of our poor residents are either enrolled in college (undergrad years) or enrolled in graduate or professional school.
I don't think those figures are right
By my calculation, $78.8 million divided by 100,266 (2000 population according to the census) equals $786. I don't have the 2004 budget or a population estimate, but the 2007 operating budget was $92.7 million, divided by 2006 population estimate of 111,580 equals $831. In 2008, assuming the historic 2 percent annual population growth continues, it's $103 million divided by 116,088 equals $887. That's a 13 percent increase over eight years.
Athens is not just a county, it is a city, too. Not many counties have police departments or other services we have in Athens, and most counties with comparable populations (Floyd, Dougherty, etc.) also have city taxes (Rome, Albany, etc.) on top of the county taxes.
According to DCA, the unified governments of Augusta-Richmond County spent $714 per capita in 2004 and Columbus-Muscogee County spent $838 per capita in 2004. Assuming 2 percent growth, that would be $773 and $907.
There is fat, but everyone defines it differently. The commission cut $1.4 million of it last night. However, I have a feeling that some people will not like what they cut or consider it fat.
Services, what services
There are only 3 county wide services that I can think of --police, fire, and leaf and limb pick-up. All counties provide some form of police protection, many with a separate police department, and fire, which in many counties includes EMS.
Then there are administrative offices such as building inspections, and so on which are generally provided by other counties.
Can you provide some more specific examples of unique "services" that "Athens" (sic) provides to all taxpayers?
I'm just saying
If you're going to compare Athens-Clarke to Bibb County, you'd have to include Macon city taxes, and DCA's not doing that. Add Macon's budget to Bibb County's budget and divide by number of Bibb County residents, and you'll have a number you can compare to Athens-Clarke County.
P.S. No, most Georgia counties do not have a police department or professional fire department and many do not do building inspections, or even have zoning. Those are city services that some more populous counties provide.
It's Terrapin time -
Blake:
Again we have to address the issue of reading comprehension.
I carefully worded my comment to say that every county in Georgia provides police protection.
And then you rejoin with the p.s. that "no, most counties do not have a police department". That's really not responsive to my comment, as I never suggested that any county had a police department, so yes, every one of the 159 counties in Georgia from Gwinnett to Echols provides police protection, either through the mechanism of a county police department or through the sheriff's office. Please let me know of any that don't.
There's still a difference
A sheriff's office typically provides a lower level of service than a police department. That is one reason why big cities and counties create police departments rather than simply add to the sheriff's office, the other being that sheriffs are elected and harder to control than police chiefs.
The problem with taxes
The problem with taxes is once they are in they never go away. In 1862 Congress passed the first income tax to help fund the civil war. The war is over and we are still paying. Income tax, property tax, capital gains tax, death tax, sales tax, gas tax, SLOST, enviromental affecting tax, consumption tax, corporation tax, inheritance tax, tolls, ad valorem. When is enough? Think people should pay more? Well lets get a law passed offering people the chance to donate money to the government. Those that feel they don't pay enough can give all they want.
Bill Bowen, III
Not to be confused for my father Dr. Bill Bowen, JR
That's true for the most part
There was no income tax between 1894 and 1913.
I actually pitched an idea to Alice Kinman the other day. You know how you can check off a box on your income taxes to contribute to presidential campaigns, or pay extra on your tag for wildlife? Why not let taxpayers write in an amount on their property tax bills that would go specifically toward OneAthens initiatives?
This and that
Although citizens should be active in perusing the budget and making suggestions to their representatives, it should not fall to them to do the heavy lifting on finding budget cuts (and I will again take the opportunity to point out that what we frequently refer to as “cuts” are not cuts at all, but merely reductions in projected increases).
Even so, a group of us citizen types did just that back in 2004. We spent weeks analyzing where expenditures could be reduced without affecting the necessary functions of government – and we found lots of them. In fairness, the Commission did take many of our recommendations and was able to reduce the millage rate that year (while simultaneously increasing spending – there were no budget “cuts”). Also in fairness, though, until we presented the Commission with our analysis, no one inside the rail was talking about a millage rate reduction, they were just going to spend the new “free” money.
Of course, the Mayor and Commission routinely tell us that it has cut taxes twice in recent years (this is emphatically untrue – by state law any millage in excess of the “rollback” millage rate is by definition a tax increase). The millage rate reduction mentioned above happened entirely due to the efforts of the Clarke County Republican Party (when is the last time you heard anyone inside the rail, or outside it for that matter, mention that salient fact?). The other millage rate reduction was simply a bait-and-switch with the stormwater utility fee (about which many in the peripheral areas of the county are still smarting).
The reason we don’t have affordable housing in this county is because we have “progressively” zoned it out of existence. I have argued for years that local government’s land use policies directly result in needlessly inflating the cost of housing and encourage neighborhood gentrification (see a couple of recent columns from Thomas Sowell making precisely this point). The idea that local government should increase my taxes so as to counter the obvious effects of local government’s policies is a tough sell, indeed.
I laugh whenever I hear someone make the “cut services” argument. Again, for years I have been pointing out the vast disparity in services between the old City of Athens and the formerly unincorporated area of the county. The explicit provisions of the Charter be damned. After 7.5 years of never seeing a leaf-and-limb truck in front of my house, I recently called the solid waste folks to see if such service was, indeed, available. The fellow I spoke with told me that he had been on the job for about three years; over that time he has had a steady series of such calls from folks who had been told that leaf-and-limb was not available in their area (which frequently turns out to have been incorrect – but that is what local government told then) and that the department would send someone out to see if service could be provided to my house. Three weeks later I still haven’t heard from anyone.
Hey SG, the problem with quoting actual statistics is that lots of folks in this town simply do not want to hear them; there is always some reason as to why the numbers don’t really imply (overspending) what they really imply (overspending). I’ve run into this with the CCSD budget for years. When presented with the startling explosion in budgets year after year, defenders of the status quo always respond with the sanctimonious refrain of “where would you make cuts” rather than any rational explanation of why more spending would demonstrably improve student performance.
And as I’ve pointed out before, we were promised that the income tax rate would never exceed 7% and would never apply to anyone other than “the rich.” You see how that one worked out.