Recent editorials from Georgia newspapers:
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Oct. 25:
Rome News-Tribune on water control:
The tri-state water wars are being waged in the U.S. Senate as senators from Georgia and Alabama are on opposing sides in the long-running dispute.
Georgia Sens. Johnny Isakson and David Perdue went on the offensive after Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., added wordage to the Energy and Water Appropriations bill to bar the Army Corps of Engineers from reallocating water in the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa basin until the governors of the Alabama, Georgia and Florida agree on a settlement.
The language, Isakson said, “would give Congress the authority to intervene in the long-standing water dispute on the side of Alabama and against Georgia.” And that would nullify the latest proposal by the Corps of Engineers, released this month, giving Georgia a significant victory by permitting metro Atlanta and downstream Georgia cities to use more water than now allowed. However, the issue is still very much in flux since the Corps has not made its final recommendations and the water usage question is now before the U.S. Supreme Court in a Florida case seeking to cut Georgia’s withdrawals from the Chattahoochee River.
Isakson and Perdue contend that Congress should not meddle in this interstate dispute. Both Georgia senators recently provided the crucial votes to block the Senate from taking up the bill in opposition to their own party leaders. But they said it was all about proper legislative procedure and protecting Georgia’s water interests. Isakson argued on the Senate floor that the language “circuitously placed into the bill … would disadvantage my state of Georgia and show a preference to other states that surround us.” He said he didn’t appreciate the use of an appropriations bill to direct the actions of the Corps of Engineers “without debate, without any degree of direction and in total conflict” with past court decisions.
Perdue told the Senate that “with nearly 30 years of court cases and 60 years of water rights issues, the line between who is right and who is wrong can sometimes get blurry.” But he said, “the fact is the Senate should not be intervening in disputes between the states. This is an issue that should be decided by the courts, and the Senate certainly should not allow one senator to invalidate progress on a multi-state water rights issue problem.” Neither he nor Isakson referred to Sen. Shelby by name in their remarks.
As the Georgia senators argued, such a vital issue as water rights should not be decided by Congress in favor of one state or the other - and surely not by inserting language into a bill without the knowledge of other senators whose states are affected. Moreover, the Corps of Engineers has not even completed its draft plan and the Florida case is pending before the Supreme Court.
The Senate is not expected to take up the energy-water spending bill until December, ahead of a looming deadline for government funding to run out. By then, we hope the issue of the Shelby amendment can be settled by eliminating it from the bill and allowing the Corps of Engineers to finish its work while the judicial process runs its course - so that perhaps the seemingly never-ending water wars may be equitably resolved for all concerned.
Online:
https://www.northwestgeorgianews.com/
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Oct. 24:
The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer on health care availability:
At some point, and on some commonsense level, Georgia lawmakers have to get past the idea that the deciding factor in health care policy is the political necessity of publicly loathing Barack Obama.
The deciding factor ought to be the needs of millions of Georgians whose interests those lawmakers are sworn to represent. More specifically, it’s about the more than 1.5 million Georgia residents who have no health insurance. According to a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, in only three states is that number higher, and they are all more populous than Georgia. The same study shows Georgia with the third-highest number of uninsured citizens — again, behind only more highly populated Texas and Florida — who make too little to qualify for subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and too much to qualify for unexpanded Medicaid. That number, in Georgia, tops 300,000.
That “coverage gap” was on the minds of families and advocates who gathered Tuesday in Atlanta to ask legislators to provide better mental health coverage for children and young adults. Many of the latter, anxious (and in at least one case grieving) parents told lawmakers, are in mental health crises with no access to affordable help.
It was also on the minds of local members of the state House Democratic Caucus who led a town meeting here Wednesday night, making the case for Georgia to join the 31 states that have already expanded Medicaid to insure working families who otherwise cannot afford health coverage.
It’s an economic and practical as well as a moral issue, House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, told the Columbus audience: “We have 15 rural hospitals facing ruin if we don’t step up. We have millions of dollars we can generate for this state and thousands of jobs.” (For one southwest Georgia hospital, Stewart-Webster, it’s already too late.)
A telling statistic from the Kaiser report: Hospitals in states that expanded Medicaid had an average decrease in uninsured patients of nearly one-third, and a 40 percent decrease in unreimbursed costs for indigent patient care. A different study, this one by Moody’s Investors Service, showed an average of 13 percent less uncollectible debt on unpaid hospital bills last year in Medicaid expansion states.
For how many struggling rural hospitals might such numbers mean the difference between survival and going under? More to the point, for how many acutely ill and injured people might they mean the difference between life and death?
Georgians’ critical need for affordable and timely access to health care is a fact, not a “talking point.” If lawmakers have a better approach than 100 percent federal coverage through 2016 and 90 percent thereafter, let’s hear it. If Georgia has a feds-free formula for saving desperately needed health care facilities and caring for the Georgians who desperately need them, let’s hear it. What we’ve gotten so far is political placebo.
Online:
https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/
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Oct. 24:
The Macon Telegraph on job availability:
While many people are still down in the doldrums following the Great Recession, the evidence is unmistakable that the economy is recovering. Unemployment in Georgia is 5.8 percent and for Bibb and Houston counties it’s 6.3 percent and 6.1 percent respectively. Companies are having job fairs as they look for qualified workers such as the one that was held by the Middle Georgia Kroger stores Saturday. The Georgia Department of Labor’s website has long lists of open jobs in the Middle Georgia area and many of the state’s largest employers use the Department of Labor to screen applicants. For example, Kumho Tire’s new plant is looking for employees but all applicants have to go through the DOL.
However, it’s apparent that while jobs are available, the more training and certification a job hunter has, the more successful he or she will be. And that’s what’s different about this economic recovery. Too few people have put themselves in the position to be qualified for work, particularly the work of the 21st century.
Gone are the days when employers were just looking for a strong back and an ability to follow directions. As technology continues to invade every corner of our lives, there is also not a phase of business where technology hasn’t left its mark. Wherever we turn, there are new advances that didn’t exist just a short time ago. Business processes are becoming more streamlined and efficient with each passing day and fortunately, Georgia is well situated with its network of technical schools to take advantage of the pace of change. New workers can be trained quickly and older, more experienced employees, can be retrained on new processes.
And there is something else potential employees need to be aware of. Most, if not all, employers conduct background checks and drug screens. Sketchy histories or signs of drug use will disqualify applicants. One recruiter recently said that he received 80 applications for a job, but most of the applications were incomplete. He interviewed 10, but only one was hired because the others, for one reason or the other, washed out.
Yes, jobs are out there. On Thursday, Brig. Gen. Walt Lindsley, commander of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex, said he plans to fill about 200 new aircraft mechanic positions at the base and another 84 existing positions currently vacant in software maintenance.
All this should point to reasons students should stay in school. The statistics are startling but worth repeating: For every $1 a college graduate earns, a high school grad only makes 49 cents, and a dropout, 30 cents. School is not a waste of time. It’s an investment that always pays off.
Online:
https://www.macon.com/
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