Since it was chartered in 1965, expansion and funding have been among MARTA’s most formidable opponents. MARTA was designed to serve the entire metro Atlanta region, but Cobb County and Gwinnett County never agreed to participate. Fulton County, DeKalb County, and now Clayton County have footed the bill through a 1 percent sales tax, but without regular
On Monday, the Governor’s Office announced that tax collections in July 2016 were up from July of the previous year. Net tax collections totaled $1.61 billion, an increase of 1.7 percent. Despite the overall increase, there were significant declines in individual income tax revenue, which was down by 7 percent, and corporate income tax revenue,
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the snafu in North Georgia’s Appalachian Judicial Circuit. Under intense public pressure, Appalachian District Attorney Alison Sosebee had just dropped the fraud charges she had filed against Fannin Focus publisher Mark Thomason and his attorney Richard Stookey. The charges were related to an open-records-request Thomason and Stookey had made
The Republican Party is splitting in two. Factional rumblings over America’s proper role in the world are rising to the surface and the difference between George W. Bush’s America— the world’s moral compass and protector—and Donald Trump’s America—insular and hell-bent on preserving national interests—could not be more stark. While Trump may have been the catalyst,
On Monday, Fulton County District Two Commissioner Bob Ellis announced that the county’s general obligation bonds have been upgraded by the credit-rating agency Standard & Poor’s from AA to AA+. It is now as safe to invest in Fulton County as it is to invest in U.S. Treasury bonds, which were downgraded from AAA, the
Atlanta has a traffic problem. And don’t boo me for stating the obvious. My concern is not for the suburbanites who are delayed an extra half hour on their commutes home. Georgia’s economy is largely dependent on another type of traveler, albeit an unpopular one. This is a driver who might have forced you into
Johnny Isakson’s many years of being business friendly have paid off. Today, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce endorsed him in Georgia’s 2016 senatorial election. He will face Democratic challenger Jim Barksdale, a self-funded millionaire, in November. The endorsement was no surprise. In his 12 years as a U.S. Senator, Isakson has not been shy about
Don’t say that nothing exciting ever happens outside Atlanta. The Appalachian Judicial Circuit, which includes Fannin, Gilmer, and Pickens Counties, has been at the center of a First Amendment and public corruption controversy ever since Mark Thomason, the publisher of the Fannin Focus, and his attorney Russell Stookey were arrested and indicted on charges of
State Rep. Beth Beskin (R- Atlanta) has announced endorsements in two Fulton County Superior Court judicial races. She has thrown in her lot with former Fulton County Magistrate Sterling Eaves and current Magistrate Gary Alembik. Both will be candidates in the July 26th general election runoffs. Judicial races are nonpartisan so the candidates will appear
The United States has been shutting down military installations built in the midst of the Cold War, well, since the middle of the Cold War. Seeing that individual representatives would fight hard to keep their districts’ military bases up and running, Congress passed the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act in 1990. This law established
