The blame game (local edition)
Nothing like some good, old-fashioned finger-pointin' to kick off a legislative discussion meeting. Keith Heard says Athens-Clarke County officials are to blame for not doing anything for poverty. Heidi Davison says 'no way, we've got a plan ... you don't have a plan.' Jane Kidd does her best Jane Kidd impression. The two Republicans, Brian Kemp and Bob Smith, don't even bother to show up (thanks for caring guys).
So what comes out of this meeting, you ask? Nada.
No one wants to take responsibility for high poverty in Athens-Clarke County or the rising unemployment rates, when in fact there is plenty of blame to go around. You've got a state legislature which hasn't paid any attention to issues of poverty and has in fact defeated some measures to address poverty such as the living wage ordinance which came out of Atlanta. You've got a county commission - save Commissioners Elton Dodson and Alice Kinman - which has shied away from developing any sort of master plan to tackle poverty. You've got charities which are struggling to make ends meet because charitable donations are slumping and because some organizations are mismanaging funds. And you've got a community which is struggling to attract jobs to the area which can help alleviate this problem.
I'll be more than happy to point the finger at everyone in this little spat. If folks really want to get serious about poverty, then the public sector, the private sector, the non-profits and the religious community is going to have to find a way to develop a plan to take this on. Huffy little meetings won't get it done.
So what comes out of this meeting, you ask? Nada.
No one wants to take responsibility for high poverty in Athens-Clarke County or the rising unemployment rates, when in fact there is plenty of blame to go around. You've got a state legislature which hasn't paid any attention to issues of poverty and has in fact defeated some measures to address poverty such as the living wage ordinance which came out of Atlanta. You've got a county commission - save Commissioners Elton Dodson and Alice Kinman - which has shied away from developing any sort of master plan to tackle poverty. You've got charities which are struggling to make ends meet because charitable donations are slumping and because some organizations are mismanaging funds. And you've got a community which is struggling to attract jobs to the area which can help alleviate this problem.
I'll be more than happy to point the finger at everyone in this little spat. If folks really want to get serious about poverty, then the public sector, the private sector, the non-profits and the religious community is going to have to find a way to develop a plan to take this on. Huffy little meetings won't get it done.
posted by Jmac at 8:24 AM
8 Comments:
Yeah, but those poor people don't vote, so who cares. The actual voters want bike lanes and pretty, artsy bus stops.
It's a lot easier to make sympathetic noises about poverty and blame the other guys than it is to actually do something about it.
lost in all of this ABH drivel - sensationalist headlines sell papers, you know - is this simple fact: The meeting was not ever supposed to be about poverty in Athens. Maybe it should have been but that was not on the agenda. Keith Heard brought up the issue in order to change the subject because he didn't want to discuss the issues that were actually on the agenda. It's an old politician's trick but I'm surprised that he was dumb enough to pick poverty as the issue since he has done absolutely nothing to try to help in all the years he has held office. If it weren't for how badly the ABH wants to make Heidi look bad, the headline would have been "Pot Calls Kettle Black".
Well, I don't know if either Heard or Heidi came out looking all that rosy, though I do agree that the local government got a little more of the smack-down.
But good point made - lost in all of this was the fact that the local officials don't really care about what the local government wants ... which is the hotel-motel tax. Good idea or bad idea aside, the commission is all about this and the local officials - Democrat and Republican - appear to be indifferent to helping out.
Well, since you bring it up, the local hotel-motel tax is a terrible idea. Here's one thing (I'll probably blog on this soon). Athens isn't Atlanta. We don't have the Carter Center, or Sweet Auburn, or Six Flags, or Underground Atlanta, etc. Other than those 6 home football games a year and graduation, a lot of the folks coming into town are coming in on business, whch means they're coming in ot work with (usually) our locally-owned businesses. So guess who's going to be paying the extra hotel-motel tax? Local business, often. And guess who they're going to pass the extra expense on to?
Oh, one other thing. Huffy little meetings are what we're best at here in the ACC.
I wouldn't necessarily say I "applaud" Heard, but I do acknowledge that the mayor was being duplicitous, and he and Jane Kidd aren't going to be able to do much until the Dems pick up some seats, which isn't looking likely.
Recognizing the state isn't tackling the issue, and won't, its up to the M&C to work with the local community to fix the problem. First thing: encourage economic development that will employ people without college degrees and pay them more than the pittance that UGA does. I'm proud the M&C are supporting CertainTeed and aren't joining the folks protesting Nakanishi -- these are the kinds of jobs we need to keep, and then we need to do some things policy wise to help get more relatively high-paying jobs to this community.
CertainTeed has been an awfully tough call for me - trying to balance my goals of increasing employment and combatting poverty with concern for the environment - but I tend to lean toward allowing their expansion primarily because:
1. It still falls within EPA limits after the expansion;
2. It would bring much-needed jobs to area;
3. The company has, despite the negative play it has gotten from some groups, is one of the more environmentally conscious businesses out there right now;
4. I don't necessarily understand the whole child care center argument because that center was built after the plant was put there. Who in their right mind says 'gee, let's build a day care center downwind of an industrial plant?'
jonathon said...
Well, I don't know if either Heard or Heidi came out looking all that rosy, though I do agree that the local government got a little more of the smack-down.
--end quote--
I had a chance to talk to several folks who were actually at the meeting and, I hope you're sitting down because I know you'll be shocked to learn that it didn't really go down the way it was written in that miserable rag known as the ABH. I mean, who would have ever thought that Blake Aued would not get the story right?! I'm just stunned!
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