The Political Vine

MEMORANDUM

To: Governor Sonny Perdue, Georgia General Assembly Members, Constitutional Elected Officers, and Other Interested Parties

From: Political Vine

Re: Ideas To Help Out The State Budget (That Don't Involve Fancy Accounting Tricks)
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So, it looks like you folks are having a bit of a problem balancing the state's revenues with expenditures. We have a few ideas for you to (seriously) consider.

Revenue Raising Idea:

When times are tight in the private industry world, CEOs react by cutting labor and tightening spending budgets. They also re-examine their corporate portfolios and, more often than not, decide that they can sell-off assets to raise cash.

State government, if it was run like private enterprise, could make budget cuts by laying-off personnel, cutting programs or changing the way they operate. But, the budget revenue shortfall is so tremendous this year that cutting expenses will likely not be enough to solve the problem by itself. Revenue must be raised.

And, the best way to raise money would be to sell-off assets. How do you do that in government? Sell-off real estate assets (i.e., government buildings) to private enterprises who in turn grant state government non-cancellable* 25- or 50-year leases to occupy the buildings for office staffing purposes.

Is there anything in either the Georgia Consitution or Georgia State Law that prevents state government from selling government buildings? We don't know, but we doubt it is in the Constitution to prevent this. And if there is a state law, we know how easily THAT can be changed.

But, here's the benefit to both sides of the deal. If the state sells the buildings to private enterprises, the state 1) reaps instant revenue from the sale of the buildings, and, 2) is able to turn over maintenance and operation of those buildings to private enterprise (thus enabling expense cuts in the state building maintenance departments)

The benefit to private enterprise buying these assets is that 1) they will jump at the chance to acquire the property and take advantage of the depreciation tax write-offs for the next 25 or 50 years, and, 2) be able to negotiate a reliable, long-term leasing deal from state government.

Plus, if the buildings are sold to private enterprise, additional revenue will be generated from the property taxes paid on the new valuations.

*non-cancellable as long as the state pays its monthly lease payment to occupy the building.

Cost-Cutting Idea #1:

Through July 2003, these were the Top 5 organizations to spend money lobbying the Legislature for budget money:

1) $42,900-Georgia Power
2) $38,170-Georgia World Congress Center Authority
3) $31,961-Georgia Soft Drink Association
4) $16,807-Georgia University System Board of Regents
5) $15,792-Home Builders Association of Georgia

You know there's something amiss when you find out that, of the Top 5 lobbyist expenditures for 2003, two state government entitites are responsible for two of those positions. Both the World Congress Center Authority and the Board of Regents are public tax-dollar supported entities, and what do they do with their money? Pay to schmooze legislators for favorable treatment in the budget. And, this is not even counting the fees paid to the lobbyists themselves which, very likely, is quite exorbitant.

Sorry, but we think it is a reckless management of tax dollars to pay lobbyists to influence the legislature into giving your already bloated government budgets more money to waste.

We didn't have time for a full-blown analysis of the lobbyists' expenditures, but we observed a significant number of municipalities within Georgia who hired outside "guns" to lobby for them; one special example will be covered later in this issue.

Cost-Cutting Idea #2:

Contrary to the popular misconception going around state government, (and out of the mouth of such illustrious political mouthpieces as Bill Shipp) there IS significant waste in state government.

This is intuitive to us because a government built upon the Good 'Ole Boy System could not have been built with an eye toward the highest and best use of available resources. It is simply not possible.

In order to discover this cache of waste and inefficiency, consider implementing any or all of these proposals:

1) People who have been in charge of any department for more than 1 year should be reassigned to another department and tasked with the duty of finding the cuts in the new department with an incentive of some sort if they accomplish the task. If a person is reassigned to a new department, they aren't "married" to their department and can better examine what's going on. There will be less of a "co-dependency" between department heads and employees if they are new to each other.

2) A real needs-based audit should be performed on every department by an outside contractor. Such an audit will question each activity within each department to determine if it is truly needed to operate the department. Or, if some services can be consolidated. All we keep hearing about is how state government should run like a business...this is how businesses streamline their operations.

3) A real expense audit should be performed on every department in state government. We don't mean that ridiculous variance report published by the Revenue Department every year that merely compares budgeted expenses with actual expenses. We mean an audit that analyzes what is paid for copy paper and determines if the contract with the vendor is the best it can be.

What's that, you say? Too expensive to hire outside consultants? You're right...outside consultants are plenty expensive, and who wants to hire some yo-yos like Authur Andersen? That's why you need to hire consultants who work for their food and don't receive one penny unless they find where significant money can be saved.

We know of a small niche of industry consultants that specialize in expense reduction analysis of entities like colleges, large corporations, and government municipalities. They examine a department's accounts payables (excluding employee payables) to see where supply contracts can be improved. They could examine utility bills, cellphone bills, office supply contracts, etc. and make recommendations on where costs can be reduced. Their reward is based on a negotiated percentage of the savings the municipality experiences as a result of implementing their recommendations. Since no money is paid unless savings are found, there is no financial risk to the entity being audited. Any entity that would refuse this kind of service should be immediately investigated for corruption...because, chances are, the person in charge is hiding something they don't want found.

Look, in order to streamline government, it's going to take new thinking to accomplish it. We understand that legislators or government bureaucrats may be too wedded to the system to make the right changes, but, something has to be done. Canceling guided tours of the state capitol will not result in enough expense savings (so, keep thinking, Ms. Cathy Cox).

NEWSLETTER SPONSOR

ATTENTION POLITICAL CANDIDATES (of all walks of political party preference)

Running for office this November 4? Here's a neat little last-minute get-out-your-vote idea for you to consider. Halloween occurs on the Friday right before your election. Every Halloween, the kiddies go out and fill their bags with treats. And, most of the time, every parent instructs their kid to not eat one drop of candy until they've had a chance to examine the treats, right?

So, our idea is that instead of buying and giving the standard fare candy, candidates should buy candy that has the wrapper imprinted with their name and office they seek. The kids' parents will see the candy, read it, and immediately get an "impression" of your name in their mind. Sure, they will open it and eat it as well, but, it is likely that, when combined with one other exposure the voter has of your name (whether via a push-card or a yard sign), the memory of your name will be longer than if you rely on one type of medium to reach the voter.

We have a wide selection of individually wrapped candy (and gum) that can be imprinted with your name and office you are running for. These can be distributed to your supporters in the district for them to distribute to the kids who come by their house on Halloween. We also have Halloween grab bags that can be imprinted with your logo as well.

We are offering FREE set-up charges for one color imprints, and, if you have a multi-color imprint, our costs will be your costs. We can ship to anywhere in Georgia or the contiguous United States. We just need a picture of your logo, or an idea of what you need.

For an appointment, or to obtain samples, contact Bill Simon at either 678-560-9910 or via e-mail: Bill@IDBuilders.com.

Oh, and to reiterate, this deal is open to any candidate, regardless of political orientation. At ID Builders, we consider business to be more important than political partisanship.

Is Teddy Lee Going To Take Early Retirement? Inquiring Minds Wonder...

The ongoing game of checkers between Governor Sonny Perdue and State Ethics Commission Executive Secretary C. Theodore Lee, which was initiated earlier this year by the Governor when he asked for Lee's resignation and Lee refused, has taken a bit of an interesting turn.

On September 1, Jim Lientz, the state's chief operating officer, sent a letter to Lee informing him that since there was empty government office space available for free in the Capitol Hill complex, then there was no good reason why the ethics commission should be paying to lease space in Douglasville.

Lee responded that such a move would only save the state approximately $6,000 in lease payments per year, while possibly incurring $50,000 in extra expense to reprint all of the commission publications to reflect the new address.

Lientz responded with "I would expect that [Teddy Lee] will be cooperative and that his commission will help him understand the reasons for being cooperative."

This past week, the Governor's office slid his red checker into quite the interesting position. Lee and the Commission were notified via a letter from Georgia's Department of Administrative Services that the state will stop paying rent on the Douglasville offices on September 30. The letter also stated that the landlord of the commission's current space would be notified of such action and that he has the go-ahead to begin eviction proceedings if the Commission remains.

PV Has A Few Comments: 1) The location of the Commission way the heck out in Douglasville is a royal pain to get to and from in terms of distance and traffic for those of us who don't live in Douglasville.

2) Lee protests that they will have to spend in the neighborhood of $50,000 to reprint documents to reflect the new address. Really? Is that how much it cost in 1998 when they moved from DeKalb County to Douglasville? Someone should file an Open Records Request to see if that claim is valid.

3) Commission Chairman Sam Nicholson claims that no one has ever really complained about where the Commission is physically located. Maybe so, but it could be due to the fact that you won't find many lobbyists or targets of ethics charges who are willing to complain openly to the Commission that they are located in an inconvenient place. Perhaps had they provided a big wooden Complaint Box to stuff anonymous protests in, they would have heard the complaints more.

4) As much delight we might feel from just being a spectator here, we hope this power move by the Governor actually sticks. Because Nicholson will huddle with Lee, AG Thurbert Baker, and SOS Cathy Cox to determine if they have to follow the letter's orders, or they have the ability to fight it. The question is, which part of Thurbert Baker's realm of legal responsibility will he call on if the Ethics Commission decides to make a stand against the Governor?

The Life Support System of DeKalb's CEO Vernon Jones Displays More Absurdity

No, we're not going to cover the developments of the past few weeks about Vernon Jones' hiring of a spy unit of police (at taxpayers' expense) to follow his security detail to make sure he wasn't being followed by the DeKalb District Attorney's office (who is of the same political party as Jones himself).

No, we're going to cover something we developed on our own. Seems that Vernon Jones has decided that because he is so special, and has so many more special needs than any other county commissioner possibly in the United States, he needs to hire outside lobbyists specifically for his Mr. CEO office who are paid for out of county funds.

DeKalb County Government itself has hired outside lobbyists, William O. Wingate and Keith Hillsman. Hillsman works for Wingate's firm. A third lobbyist is Angelo Fuster.

DeKalb County School System has hired Kerry Ramsey, James Mullins, and Lasa Joiner.

Vernon has hired the most expensive firm he could find for his special needs: Georgia Link Public Affairs Group, LLC whose lobbyists are Skin Edge, Trip Martin, Boyd Pettit, and John Bozeman.

Now, we are not faulting the lobbyists here, but we are wondering why Jones needs a lobbyist firm separate from the rest of DeKalb's county government? How much is being wasted on all these lobbyists being paid by government entities? We could possibly understand having two lobbyists per government department or entity (one gets ill and cannot attend a meeting and needs backup) but this excess crap from Vernon Jones has gone beyond merely wasting public tax dollars.

We wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out that there's a bunch more corruption going on in his stewardship of DeKalb County. But, we'll leave the Open Records Request to find out how much money is being paid to lobbyists to the folks at the AJC; they look like they're having fun making Jones squirm.