Twitter

I have recently been experimenting with Twitter. At first, I thought it was just a huge time suck, but am finding it increasingly useful for work and politics.

Below is a "Twitter Mosaic" that shows my Twitter followers. If you're interested in social media or keeping up with what is going on at a very grassroots, instant level in your community, or about a cause or product you are interested in, Twitter might be for you. I suggest using the Tweetdeck application to keep things organized. For those who want to focus on local commentary, there is a TwitterLocal app, and for those interested in sports, there is Twackle. Unfortunately, none of these apps are integrated.

I can see a lot of uses for Twitter and politics. Twitter searches can certainly help one keep up with issues at a grassroots level, and address controversial issues before they explode. Most politicians on Twitter offer little more than perfunctory updates (so far), which makes me think their staffers are likely handling it for them. However, those who comment on the political process are some of the most active users of Twitter.

Unlike Facebook and Myspace, it seems that locally Twitter has limited penetration beyond students, media types, and technophiles. So the jury is still out on whether it is ultimately useful and lasting, or just this year's version of the beta tape or the Newton.

And of course, there is the ultimate question: do people really care what their 374 followers are up doing or how they feel about an issue, and vice versa? So far, it seems that they do.

Get your twitter mosaic here.

As the World Turns (GDOT edition)

Unlike many of my Republican colleagues, I think the GDOT board was pretty smart to fire Gena Evans. Not because I am a fan of GDOT, which is awash with ineffective bureaucracy and major financial problems. But when you find out your commissioner is supporting an agency's demise with a combination of inaction and insubordination (even if she believes she is doing the right things), you've got to let her go. And what's the point of keeping her, when her loyalty lies with two men -- Lt. Gov. Cagle and Gov. Perdue -- who are trying to dismantle your organization?

Evans certainly had a reform agenda. Unfortunately, she didn't recognize that while implementng her agenda, she needed to keep projects moving. While there was palpable excitement after Evans' appointment, frustration steadily mounted as projects were constantly delayed, shelved, or cancelled. With Evans, it was all publicity, no paving. This quote from outspoken board member David Doss in the Rome News-Tribune makes it clear that inaction was Evans' undoing:

“I think it had become clear to the board that there was growing dissension about the lack of progress being made, and the majority felt it was finally time to make a change and go in a different direction,” Doss said. “It’s no secret that the board has been split for quite some time on a lot of public votes. But on this issue, it seems that some members obviously changed their minds and voted for the termination.”

So last week the GDOT board kicked the fox out of the henhouse and appointed Gerald Ross, an unassuming engineer I met when working with Oconee County on the Mars Hill expansion, interim commissioner. Safe choice. Jim Galloway has the best play by play here.

Now the real fun begins. Evans has gone public and is attacking GDOT in outlets like the AJC, Creative Loafing and WSB-TV. Only one reason to do this: Evans supports the Governor and Lt. Gov.'s transportation funding revamp and wants to paint GDOT as incompetent. Fair enough.

However, with competing transportation funding bills in the senate and house and the wholesale restructuring bill floating around the legislature, my bet is that nothing occurs on transportation this year. There is just too much information for legislators to process. One likely predictor of the future: the Georgia House has positioned itself to benefit from inaction, according to Galloway:

The governor is now persona non grata with the constitutionally required board that governs the DOT — as witnessed by last week’s firing of Commissioner Gena Evans. The Senate has joined Perdue.

If the House emerges as the protector of the DOT board, the chamber would have enormous sway over that agency — and the billions of dollars it controls — for years to come.

Should this happen, of course, chances of an agreement between the Senate and House over a sales tax for transportation would be out the window.

Inaction, ironically, will leave GDOT in the driver's seat to implement stimulus funds and more.

So what does this mean for Northeast Georgia? Best case: status quo, with a competent regional GDOT office executing basic plans and maintaining our roads. A dedicated funding source for transportation seems like a long shot. Worst and likely case: another year wasted when it comes to transportation funding and structure, which is bad news for Atlanta and all of Georgia. No dollars for the Brain Train. More chaos with state transportation funding. No 316 improvements. And continued damage to our state's reputation as a place to locate a business.

A solution would involve more pragmatism than Georgia's political leadership has shown in the past few years, so my hopes are not high. Please comment if you see any solutions I'm missing.

SPLOST in the OC

The Oconee County SPLOST vote is approaching on March 17, exactly two weeks from today. Some background on SPLOST: it stands for Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. It is pronounced suh-plah-st; only in Athens-Clarke do they use the SPEE-lost pronounciation, which struck me as weird when we moved back to Oconee in 2002. SPLOST dollars can be used for capital improvements, but not ongoing government expenses.

At any rate, the run-up to this SPLOST has been very quiet. The first SPLOST vote I can remember in Oconee was when I was a kid, and it was anything but quiet. Although I was too young to vote, I was certainly a lobbyist on behalf of the county. I cared because it was to pay for the John T. Brannen building, aka the "New Gym," at Herman C. Michael Park.

You see, Oconee didn't generate nearly as many sales tax dollars then (our big retailers were Bell's, Oconee Sporting Goods, our four Golden Pantries, and A.J.'s), so there was a big campaign to get folks to vote for the extra 1% sales tax that SPLOST entails. I made significant contributions to the cause with daily purchases of Mountain Dew ($.39 per can) and Skittles ($.33 on sale) at the old Golden Pantry at the "4-way stop." I typically rode my bike up there or walked in the summer, or walked over there from OCHS -- now Oconee Middle -- during the school year.

So anyway, the SPLOST passed, and all of us amateur basketball players reaped the benefits as we moved from the "Booster Club Gym" in downtown Watkinsville -- now dubbed "Rocket Hall" -- to a shiny new gym at Herman C. Michael Park. The person in charge of herding the teens at the "New Gym" was Dan Matthews, who was known to jump into a full court game every now and then to teach us kids a lesson. Since then, many notable county projects have been funded with SPLOST dollars, including the new Veteran's Memorial Park.

So recently the ABH, Lee Becker and Wendell Dawson have taken a hard look at upcoming the 6-year, $40 million SPLOST referendum, and you can read the blogs for their perspective on the county's priorities. Overall, SPLOST is a valuable tool that removes significant burdens from property owners, particularly if it isn't used to fund projects that require significant ongoing general fund dollars. These kinds of "legacy" projects can be tempting for governments, but should be avoided as SPLOST investments as they create a significant ongoing operating cost that cannot be funded with future SPLOST dollars. Most of the stuff on the list passes the smell test.

One thing that hasn't received a lot of focus is that this is the first SPLOST in which Oconee County's four municipalities are participating. Watkinsville will recieve 7.99% of the proceeds, or approximately $3.2 million. Most of these funds will be used for sidewalks, greenspace and roads, which will require limited ongoing maintenance funds, but are in much demand from our citizens. Potential sidewalk locations include Harden Hill Road, Simonton Bridge, and/or VFW drive. Playground improvements, new sewer lines (not sexy, but very necessary to improve our industrial park), and greenspace acquisition are also on the table.

Bogart will get $1.6 million, New High Shoals $668,000, and Bishop $220,000. For our small cities, this funding boost is truly a game changer, allowing some flexibility with tight budgets and the ability to better serve citizens.

As alluded to by Dawson and Becker, there are likely other issues at play in the background, but in my mind, a vote in favor of this SPLOST is a no-brainer. While we may all quibble over details, the good far outweighs the bad in this proposal.