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Old 02-13-2011, 02:57 PM
 
Location: Marietta, GA
7,887 posts, read 17,128,415 times
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Deal’s early grades: High marks *| ajc.com

I wasn't a fan during the election, and still haven't made my mind up completely, but I'll admit that Deal is making a good start.
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Old 02-14-2011, 01:48 PM
 
31,994 posts, read 36,537,731 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neil0311 View Post
Deal’s early grades: High marks *| ajc.com

I wasn't a fan during the election, and still haven't made my mind up completely, but I'll admit that Deal is making a good start.
I know it's a platitude, but in my opinion what voters really want is to see things get done. Skip the partisan squabbling as much as possible and just get on with it. I know that's how I feel anyway.

So far Deal seems to be moving in that direction.
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Old 02-16-2011, 04:39 PM
 
Location: Atlanta
7,574 posts, read 10,695,143 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arjay57 View Post
I know it's a platitude, but in my opinion what voters really want is to see things get done. Skip the partisan squabbling as much as possible and just get on with it. I know that's how I feel anyway.

So far Deal seems to be moving in that direction.
I agree. But, I'm also troubled in a way. Getting things done also means funding things (and sometimes defunding some things). Sometimes I feel like the public forgets about that. Too many want lower taxes, less spending, but more things done.

I'm still waiting to see two major things: a better more solid commitment to aggressively dealing on the water issue ($40 million isn't very much for building reservoirs) and I'm still waiting to see more movement for funding transportation issues in Atlanta through the GDOT.

Issues like new interstates and HSR... etc... They are things that I care about, but they are long term goals and I can live if they get left in the cold for awhile. But, the transportation and water issue for Atlanta is a major investment that will require lots of time just to get us up to par.
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Old 02-18-2011, 09:30 PM
 
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I wasn't a fan of Deal mostly due to the fact he ran mostly low-brow ads and his ethics issues.

That said, it appears he's a guy who's willing to work with both Parties to get things done.

However, he did inherit a nasty debt, so spending will have to be cut. Anytime spending gets cut, a bunch of people get angry.
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Old 02-19-2011, 09:33 AM
 
Location: Marietta, GA
7,887 posts, read 17,128,415 times
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Originally Posted by TracyJJ View Post
Anytime spending gets cut, a bunch of people get angry.
Exactly. Just look at Wisconsin. The problem is that nobody wants any cut to ever affect THEM...but they're always fine with cutting things that affect others, or raising taxes on others.

What this country needs, at the federal, state, and local levels is the realization that we are broke. People have to start to realize that the gravy train is over. We have bloated the budgets by adding entitlement programs and fluffing up public sector benefits and pensions for years.

As the economy comes back and property values begin to stabilize, some of the fiscal deficit here in GA will ease. Georgia has done a much better job than most states at holding the line on spending, but even GA fell prey to the tendency to bloat the budget in good times.
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Old 02-19-2011, 05:37 PM
 
Location: Atlanta
7,574 posts, read 10,695,143 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neil0311 View Post
Exactly. Just look at Wisconsin. The problem is that nobody wants any cut to ever affect THEM...but they're always fine with cutting things that affect others, or raising taxes on others.

What this country needs, at the federal, state, and local levels is the realization that we are broke. People have to start to realize that the gravy train is over. We have bloated the budgets by adding entitlement programs and fluffing up public sector benefits and pensions for years.

As the economy comes back and property values begin to stabilize, some of the fiscal deficit here in GA will ease. Georgia has done a much better job than most states at holding the line on spending, but even GA fell prey to the tendency to bloat the budget in good times.
You are right that Georgia has done a better job of holding spending, but there are some long-term consequences to this as well.

Well before the recession we started hacking the budget of the state DOT and the University system of Georgia. The effects of this in Atlanta are evident and as we grow... the fact that we haven't been investing in infrastructure enough is catching up with us. We need the ability to spread out expensive long-term costs and constantly invest a little bit each year, rather than save, save, save, and then hit a breaking point where we need to spend alot at once just to get something done.

The other issue with education...

They kept cutting the budget of the colleges themselves, eventually to the point where there was no more fat to cut and they were forced to raise tuition rates. Most people at the time in the public have been ok with this because we have the Hope Scholarship, but we have raised tuition enough that the Hope Scholarship funds can't keep pace. This is one major reason why Hope funding cuts are coming in the future and most likely most of the savings will come through a cap on tuition.
Overall cuts in higher education might not affect our economic competitiveness today, but it might in 10-15 years.

Now I don't want to get into the Wisconsin issue too much, because this is Georgia and we do things differently here and I am not necessarily argue we should be like Wisconsin by any means. But, first and foremost, the main reason people are mad up there aren't short-term budget cuts because of the recession and state budget problems, but it is a long-term change in the law that affects unions moving long past the recession. The state budget crises are primarily caused by the recession... not unions or a myriad of other things.

I don't mind people debating the purpose and amount of power unions have, but is is disingenuous to weaken them for the long-term and say it is just a short-term budget crisis reaction. Those things should legislated and argued separately.
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Old 02-20-2011, 10:45 AM
 
Location: Marietta, GA
7,887 posts, read 17,128,415 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cwkimbro View Post
The other issue with education...

They kept cutting the budget of the colleges themselves, eventually to the point where there was no more fat to cut and they were forced to raise tuition rates. Most people at the time in the public have been ok with this because we have the Hope Scholarship, but we have raised tuition enough that the Hope Scholarship funds can't keep pace. This is one major reason why Hope funding cuts are coming in the future and most likely most of the savings will come through a cap on tuition.

Overall cuts in higher education might not affect our economic competitiveness today, but it might in 10-15 years.
Sorry, but you won't get any agreement from me on higher education being an issue here. People here have it pretty damn good.

Georgia has the Hope Scholarship, and even at 90% tuition payments as is now being discussed, that's better than most states, and all you have to do is graduate with and maintain a 3.0 average. That's a pretty basic minimum. Tuition here is also pretty cheap in comparison to both private universities and other public colleges. The Hope was paying way too much in my opinion. Paying for fees and books, along with 100% tuition for anyone with a 3.0 GPA is just not sustainable. I am glad that it's a merit based scholarship and not financial aid, and that can be tightened up as well. Maybe a 3.2 GPA or interview requirements?

As for public schools in Georgia, much has to do with the property and sales tax structures. Counties and cities have been hit with the worst property value declines in a lifetime. That has impact. How do you solve that? Raise property taxes so much that you damage the housing market further? Raise the sales and income taxes, so you damage the economy further?
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Old 02-20-2011, 04:09 PM
 
Location: Atlanta
7,574 posts, read 10,695,143 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neil0311 View Post
Sorry, but you won't get any agreement from me on higher education being an issue here. People here have it pretty damn good.

Georgia has the Hope Scholarship, and even at 90% tuition payments as is now being discussed, that's better than most states, and all you have to do is graduate with and maintain a 3.0 average. That's a pretty basic minimum. Tuition here is also pretty cheap in comparison to both private universities and other public colleges. The Hope was paying way too much in my opinion. Paying for fees and books, along with 100% tuition for anyone with a 3.0 GPA is just not sustainable. I am glad that it's a merit based scholarship and not financial aid, and that can be tightened up as well. Maybe a 3.2 GPA or interview requirements?

As for public schools in Georgia, much has to do with the property and sales tax structures. Counties and cities have been hit with the worst property value declines in a lifetime. That has impact. How do you solve that? Raise property taxes so much that you damage the housing market further? Raise the sales and income taxes, so you damage the economy further?
Yea the Hope scholarship is something great, but they are starting to weaken it and it's long term affects on our economy.

If it were me they should add a financial aid component to it, while maintaining coverage for everyone. There really aren't that many kids coming from impoverished families in our colleges even with the Hope today, so it wouldn't cost much. But, if we can keep 100% support for those kids in school, which little by little helps fix long-term poverty issues and allows the brighter minds in our society make the economy work better, despite where they originally come from.

Also, keep in mind the Hope scholarship doesn't pay for 100% the cost of going to college now... just tuition and some fees. For most students at the better universities this is only half their total costs. They have to pay to live in another city. They find just about the cheapest way to do it, but to be fair... the changes aren't going from 100% to 90%... For most it is more like 50% to 45%

Either way.. the reason this is happening now is state support for college were cut and it forced tuition increases. Most people and politicians don't want people to connect those two issues and they need to.
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Old 02-21-2011, 01:03 PM
 
4,120 posts, read 6,577,208 times
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One of the direct effects of increasing a students GPA from 3.0 to 3.2 to qualify for hope is for students in high school to sign up for easier classes. Instead of taking a a honors or AP calc. class as a senior they may instead take a statistics business class which is much easier class. However when the student goes to college they still may have to take the calculus class and will have to start lower in the class sequence or take a prereq in order to gain entrance. This costs money too, so raising the bar for students to qualify isn't the perfect solution.

The 2nd part no one has mentioned is the 100k new students the university system has received in the last 10 years. One of the successes of the last 20 years is the growth of the business sector and population growth related to said. These people have had children and now their children are going to college leading to overcrowding, full classes where students are being kept in college longer as they cannot get into full sections.

The only negative I have to Deal right now is his cuts for corporate taxes. Hold the line right now and when the economy comes back fund the long term projects first then cut.
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Old 02-21-2011, 04:22 PM
 
Location: Georgia
5,845 posts, read 6,119,413 times
Reputation: 3573
Ratings tend to be higher early on. Get back to me in a couple years to see how he's been doing.
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