This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, January 2, 2018

More oversight?

I really am a positive kind of guy and hate to continually be the squeaky wheel, but gee, the Bibb County School Board just published an advertisement called “a schedule of expenditures of SPLOST proceeds for 2016 and fiscal 2017.” Unfortunately there were no details just glittering generalities. For example, we have $5 million for constructing and equipping a replacement facility for campus police.” What does that mean? Where is it? Are they building a jail? It cannot include vehicles since there is another $12.5 million dollars for “school buses, vehicles” etc.

How about $42.635 million for “Purchasing new technology, fine art equipment, athletic equipment, safety and security systems throughout the district.” What does this mean? Why are security systems and fine art equipment listed in the same sentence. Don’t forget that these funds are not to be used for personnel and salaries.

Friends, over $185 million are being spent with no details given. This from the folks who have warehouses filled with millions of dollars of unusable technology equipment from previous school budgets. These are staggering sums of money with seemingly very little openness or oversight of the expenditures. The sums that I am speaking of appear to be already spent as they are being reported as being expenditures rather than proposed expenditures.

There is no way that part-time school board representatives can have meaningful oversight of so many expenditures. This is fertile soil for excess and corruption as we have already seen. I call on the school board and The Telegraph to publish detailed line item reports for public scrutiny: what schools are receiving what upgrades? What kind of technology is being purchased and what schools are to receive them? How many school buses and vehicles and for what purposes? If that is not available then perhaps a grand jury needs to be convened to find out what is happening with these public funds. Certainly there should be no further proposed SPLOST until we can get a handle on the avalanche of money being spent from this most recent one.

Homeless eviction

The homeless as well as every citizen has the right of access to the river’s frontage as granted by the maritime law of 1820 as ruled by the Supreme Court’s Navigable Waters Act. The federal government has jurisdiction over all rivers within these United States with the responsibility of dragging and locks and dams to control flooding and to maintain river navigation in case of national emergency.

If Bibb County had leadership worth two cents, the Ocmulgee River with the Corps of Army Engineers could establish a river for the current drainage ditch with banks that could control river level that would protect our Golden Lucifer Williams ball park from flooding, plus beautifying downtown. It would increase downtown property values and attract business development and tourist attractions.

Such a deal

I hope the tax cuts produce new jobs, raise workers’ pay and increase tax revenues. What do we know? Congress raised the debt by $1.5 trillion. The 2018 budget is $4.2 trillion. It adds $80 billion to the debt. Tax revenues will be lower in 2018; therefore, Congress will have to borrow to fund the 2019 budget. How much will this add to the debt? Corporate tax cut is permanent. Individual tax cuts are temporary. They will be phased out starting in 2025. The tax code was not overhauled. We got new rates. Taxpayers will not be able to claim some deductions until 15 April 2019. The cuts to Obamacare will result in approximately 13 million without insurance coverage. Hedge fund managers’ profits will be taxed as capital gains, 15 percent, not as income. Real estate developers receive a tax break.

The IRS was not funded to update its computers. Therefore; the tax withholding schedules will not be revised until after February 2018. Workers will not get an increase in their take home pay until after the tax withholding schedules are revised. Because the tax cuts add to the debt, Congress has to follow the Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) law. It has to resolve the mandatory spending cuts in 2018. What will be cut? Will it be Social Security and Medicare?

The bullies

An old western show about outlaws paying off the town’s leaders so they could come and go without fear of jail time reminds me of corporations who come into town and do what they want to the environment with national and state law protections and no fear from the communities residents or local laws. They know they have had the upper hand since the early 1800s when corporations obtained the same rights as a person.

The recent case of the Macon-Bibb County Planning and Zoning Commission’s repeal of a permit for a gas pipeline is just a hiccup for a corporation that has the U.S. Constitution on its side. Unless local authorities are willing to spend a lot of time and public funds, these are difficult cases to win, but it can be done.

To stem this tide of bullying, local governments should consider working with legal representatives who believe land is not just property, but is an ecosystem with rights just like that of corporations.

If the mayor wants to be a good “Climate Mayor” he must realize that growth at any cost to our environment is not acceptable and that we are all one community, rich and poor, and deserve the same protections from entities whose only goal is profit at our expense.

Big time thanks

A huge thank you to Bryan Nichols for his tremendous gift to Macon and Middle Georgia of his vision, effort and work to bring about the Christmas Light Show Extravaganza! Seeing, hearing and experiencing the free light and music display on Poplar Street in Macon is a must for your family this Christmas and New Year’s season. After experiencing the wonderful lights and music of the Macon Pops, stop by the Taste and See Coffee Shop and Gallery for some fantastic coffee and a bite to eat.

Thanks again Bryan for a job absolutely well done!

You said it

Thank you Gloria Smith of Dublin. You have said what too many of us were afraid to say. Speaking out we would be called racist. Discipline in the home is the greatest form of love.

This story was originally published December 27, 2017 at 5:22 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, January 2, 2018."