Why should We, in Lowndes County, have to buy our electricity from Georgia Power when we could produce it Ourselves?

John Quarterman's post at On the LAKE Front, entitled "Tesla opening market for home solar batteries," inspired this response:

It would be great if we could build the network from the bottom up, beginning with individual property parcels, i.e. your home and land, especially in a combination of production and storage. There is no valid reason individuals should not be able to produce electricity and sell it on the open market, just like the big boys do. There should be no impediment to a farmer that would like to plant a field of solar panels, and reap the fruit of it, or an entrepreneur that stores power than sells it back, and makes a profit. Sounds like the ultimate in free enterprise to me.

Additionally, I believe communities should have the freedom to do this. I have often said Lowndes County could easily supply it's own electricity, along with selling excess on the open market, to such an extent that it could eliminate the need for certain taxes, or provide much more in services to its citizens. The citizens could set their own electrical rates in one model, even zero. Why should we, in Lowndes County, have to buy our electricity from Georgia Power, when we could produce it ourselves? Are we free, or a colony of some sort? 

Why Don't the Email Links Work?

I don't know what to think of this: I've just gone to the Georgia state website for the House of Representatives. Not a one of the links, "email So-and-So," works. You can get senator Ellis Black's email by going through their spam filter, but none of the house representatives worked. I tried Amy Carter (175), Jason Shaw (176), and John Corbett (174).

The Continuing Saga of the Transportation Bill - HB170

HB 170 has been passed out of subcommittee, and moves on to the full transportation committee. Passage of this bill would take twelve million dollars a year from Valdosta/Lowndes County in one fell swoop, to be spent up in Atlanta. It will force local governments to make up this shortfall, that is, increase taxes, or cut services severely.

This is NOT a good thing for us here in Valdosta and Lowndes County. In fact, it's pretty bad. I want to know if our Republican representatives are towing the party line on this, or are they going to bat for their constituents and resisting this money grab.

Yet More on the Transportation Bill

There's definitely some underhanded maneuvering going on in Atlanta right now regarding this "Transportation Bill," aka, HB170. I don't know who came up with this kakamaymee idea, but it might be good to know. 

Last Thursday, the Valdosta City Council passed a resolution against this bill. [The County Commission may do the same tonight. Forgot there was a meeting, so I'll have to wait for the Quarterman Report , that is, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE) ] It takes away a huge amount of money from us locally. Up to twelve million dollars a year. We, locally, would have to make up for it. The city and the county would have to raise taxes to replace that twelve million dollars that the state is unilaterally trying to appropriate for itself. Monies that were originally intended for the local area, Atlanta is trying to appropriate for itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S5DyMODhmA#t=22

[Sorry, can't get the embed working. It's the County Commission talking about this subject, courtesy of LAKE.]

This is happening in our Republican controlled legislature. This is, evidently, what the Republicans want. Please call your representatives if you reject this bill. That would be State Rep. Dexter Sharper, Amy Alexander Carter, Jay Shaw, and Senator Ellis Black. These representatives need to realize what their constituents want. But they'll only know that if we tell them.

46 mins · Like · 

Valdosta Lowndes County Development Authority's,

formerly known as the Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority, director, Andrea Schruijer, recently did an interview on Metro 17. Being the geek I am, I had to check it out. One thing I learned is that the VLCIA/VLDA claim 3280 jobs created in Lowndes County over the last ten years. I would like to know how many jobs were created in existing businesses over that time, along with how many shut their doors and the resulting job losses.

The Development Authority gets well over a million dollars a year from us taxpayers, for which we have received three hundred twenty eight jobs a year. We spend over three thousand dollars a year for every job the Development Authority says we gain through their efforts. I don't know. Do you think we're getting the bang for the buck?

That Didn't Take Long

The City Council meeting tonight went pretty fast. It was over by a quarter after six. One thing they did do was pass a resolution against the state transportation bill, HB170. The state is looking to take a billion dollars from cities and counties, not to mention schools and police departments. They'll claim they didn't raise taxes, and local politicians will take the heat when they have to to make up the shortfall. This is what the Republican legislative super majority is bringing us.

Here's the article at ValdostaToday.com

Potential issues related to its passing may come from part of the plan to fund about half the money ($500 million) for a new $0.06 a gallon local excise tax on gasoline.  This would be subject to approval locally, but would replace the current SPLOST initiatives many communities and local governments use to fund projects, when those SPLOST initiatives expire.  Lawmakers believe it may be a tough sell to get local communities to hand over their SPLOST money to state politicians and trust they will provide needed improvements. [Emphasis ed.]

Do ya think?  Tonight was a prime example of that.

That’s a neat trick: One billion dollars in new transportation money, without a tax hike? Really? No.

Jay Bookman, at the Atlanta Journal - Constitution, wrote,

That’s a neat trick: One billion dollars in new transportation money, without a tax hike? Really?No.Most of that money is generated through legislative sleight-of-hand. It takes somewhere between $550 million and $700 million a year in revenue sources traditionally used by local governments and converts that money into state transportation funds. In other contexts, you might call that stealing. In Georgia, it’s called leadership.You know what happens next: Local governments, their finances strapped by the recession, will raise other taxes to close the gaping hole left by the state’s raid. But the onus of raising those taxes will be put on county commissions, school boards and city councils, not state legislators. The state gets the revenue; local officials get the heat. It’s beautiful.

They're about to cut Valdosta and Lowndes County out of millions, mostly to benefit Atlanta. It will result in either higher taxes at the local level, or serious cuts in services rendered, including road repair. We must raise a stink with our state representatives.