Censure of governor a complete waste of time
In case you had not heard, the governor of the great state of Georgia has been censured. Is this a plot by dastardly Democrats unhappy about not getting their way on just about anything during the 2016 General Assembly session? Nope. Were the charges brought by irate citizens upset about what irate citizens get irate about? Well, in a way, yes. The scene of this slapdown was the Republican district conventions held around the state. There was high drama going on in the districts as delegates were being chosen to head to Cleveland for the national Republican Convention. In many cases, Sen. Ted Cruz had the best ground game and it showed. But this editorial isn’t about that. It is about the governor and the rebuke handed to him in the Third District in West Georgia.
The Third District decided to censure the governor over his veto of the religious liberty legislation that passed the General Assembly. What does the censure by the Third District mean? Absolutely nothing. Gov. Deal will not face voters again, but those who think he’s a lame duck and try to maneuver around him, like those who are positioning themselves to sit in his seat, should be cautious. The governor still has plenty of arrows left in his I-control-the-budget quiver. State Sen. Josh McKoon, one of the main supporters of the religious liberty legislation understood that and attempted to get his Third District colleagues to back off. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, McKoon said after the vote for censure “I said that it was not constructive for the GOP to lash out at the governor, and that if we want to pass conservatives initiatives next year, we need to make a positive case for their adoption.”
What supporters of the legislation need to realize is pretty clear. Indiana passed similar legislation and it is estimated the state will lose over the next six years $254.6 million, $60 million lost in Indianapolis in convention business. What’s going to happen in North Carolina and Mississippi, states that have passed similar legislation that was passed in Georgia? Time will tell, but North Carolina Gov. Pat McCory, a Republican, may find out pretty quickly as he faces Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper who said he refuses to defend the legislation. The NBA is already considering moving the All-Star game from the state as long as the law is in place.
What do those threats have to do with Georgia? Plenty. Georgia has two professional sports teams moving into new venues. Arthur Blank certainly wants to host a Super Bowl in the future and the Atlanta Braves also would like an All-Star game and a World Series. Not to be left out in the cold, the Hawks want to be considered as one of the premier clubs in the NBA, too. There is also the movie industry. Georgia has welcomed it with open arms and there are several sound stages around the state plus everything a set designer could want from antebellum to urban from mountains to skyscrapers.
And like it or not, Atlanta is the economic engine of the state and Gov. Deal understands that in order to keep that engine running smoothly, there is a certain balancing act. We can harken back to an earlier time when Atlanta called itself, “The city too busy to hate.” That attitude propelled the metro area to surpass rivals such as Birmingham, Alabama. While Bombingham became that city’s moniker and ts population stagnated, Atlanta became the ninth largest metro area in the United States and Georgia’s population is more than twice that of Alabama. Gov. Deal has never been bashful about his pro-business stance. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if he hasn’t already put out feelers to companies like PayPal that decided not to expand in North Carolina.
The real bottom line is this: In Georgia the law is only pandering anyway. Why risk the economic future of the state on a law that essentially does nothing — just like the censure from the Third District. Gov. Deal recognized that and did the right thing.
This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 3:57 PM with the headline "Censure of governor a complete waste of time."