Category: Archived Columnists

Georgia’s governor has practiced a pragmatic ebb and flow on a number of public policy issues during his first term.

Since the summer of 2011, Gov. Nathan Deal and the state have been quietly tackling an issue Republicans have historically ceded the floor on –— criminal justice reform, particularly for juveniles. It’s a problem too expensive to ignore, and conservative groups across the country are now championing such reform in the name of smarter and smaller government spending.

Youth employment is at its lowest level since World War II with only half of young people ages 16 to 24 holding jobs in 2011, according to a recent policy report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Overall, 6.5 million people in that age group are both out of school and out of work, “statistics that suggest dire consequences for financial stability and employment prospects in that population,” according to the report.

The status quo pipeline from high school to college is a broken model for success, particularly for those not mentally prepared for the challenges of adulthood.

The universe has a way of throwing cold water on you without you realizing you need it. For Atlanta City Councilman Lamar Willis, it was being denied life insurance.

“I’ve always been aware of my size, but I never felt like the weight hindered me from doing things that I wanted to do,” Willis said in an email. “I just believed that tenacity, skill, and determination were the tools that would allow you to do and achieve whatever goals or tasks were ahead of you. When I was denied life insurance due to my weight I realized that the same values that I place on my children, education and career need to be directed to my personal health.”

The last line of the great Herman Miller’s poem — “The Martyr”— sums up how the American public should treat the political theatrics regarding the fiscal cliff being acted out by our Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington. “Beware the People weeping when they bare the iron hand.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and other partisan actors performed their one-act plays on the various Sunday political talk shows, declaring the opposite side as unwilling to compromise. Boehner called the Democrats plan to avoid the fiscal cliff as “unserious.”

In a phone interview, Mel Schwarz, director of tax legislative affairs for Grant Thornton, shed some light on the negotiations and what could lie ahead.

Among the flurry of press releases pronouncing the rebound of state’s economy, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI) released a sobering report this month on the Great Recession’s impact on working and middle class Georgians.

The institute’s State of Working Georgia 2012 report addresses battered annual incomes, decreased wealth, depressed wages and historically high poverty. There’s another Georgia far removed from the cluster of Buckhead A-Class office buildings, the trendy Midtown restaurant scene and the gameday suites.

Ladies — who piques your interest — George Clooney, Ryan Lochte or Richard Branson?

Gents, how about Tyra Banks, Jessica Biel or Anna Kounikova?

You may recall the high school and college game “Bed, Wed or Dead.” Atlanta entrepreneur, Taryn Crouthers created a web version at this year’s Startup Weekend Atlanta. Her simple, addictive game won first place qualifying her to compete in Global Startup Battle – a competition featuring Startup Weekend winners across the world.

Tech enthusiasts came together the weekend of November 9 to create a web or mobile application within 54 hours. National successes include Zaarly – which has received $15.1 million in funding – and Foodspotting.

While the country is consumed with conversations about the demographic divides of the Republican Party and the shellacking the Mitt Romney campaign experienced, a number of transportation referenda have gone seemingly unnoticed.

Transportation investment measures on the Nov. 6 ballot included seven sales tax, five property taxes, one bond and one gas tax, according the Center for Transportation Excellence (CFTE).

Michigan alone had five referenda across the state, all funded via property tax increases ranging from .1 to .6 mills.