Endorsements for Amendments 2-4

The last items on the Nov. 8 ballot are the amendments to the Georgia Constitution and the the Macon-Bibb County extension of the 1 penny special purpose local option sales tax. We endorsed the SPLOST last Sunday and with the closing of the Boeing plant, one of the items the next SPLOST will fund is the extension of the runway at the Middle Georgia Regional Airport, which will allow larger aircraft to land and take off, some carrying freight and others coming here for maintenance. With established companies already at the airport providing maintenance, this opens up an entirely new window for them and for the workforce they will need to complete the additional work.

Amendment 2, if passed, will funnel some fees, assessments and penalties paid by adult entertainment establishments to pay for child victim services through the Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Fund. It would also allow courts to impose additional penalties for those found guilty of sex crimes from prostitution to pandering.

Amendment 4 would take existing fees and taxes on fireworks sold in the state and disburse them in the following manner according to Senate Bill 350:

▪  55 percent to the Georgia Trauma Care Network Commission.

▪ 40 percent to the Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council for equipment and training.

▪  5 percent would go to local governments for public safety.

Both Amendments 2 and 4 are to protect the funds from the sticky hands of the General Assembly that has a habit of saying one thing and doing another with money raised for certain purposes. Once embedded in the state’s constitution, the money raised cannot be used for any other purposes. Vote yes on Amendments 2 and 4.

Amendment 3 is a bit more problematic. It basically says it “reforms and re-establishes” the Judicial Qualifications Commission. Without getting too deeply into the weeds, the JQC is the body that oversees judges, and in our opinion, it has done a pretty good job over the decades. Some legislators have been on the losing end of JQC decisions and have decided to get even. What they have proposed with this amendment is to inject politics into a newly formulated JQC and remove the State Bar of Georgia and private citizen participation. That’s just wrong. While saying this would add to the transparency of the JQC, the opposite is just as likely.

Vote no on Amendment 3.

This story was originally published October 19, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Endorsements for Amendments 2-4."