Well, I’ve been worried about this, but for a while this week it looked like legislative dysfunction would prevent the Georgia house and senate from agreeing on a tough new bill to go after illegal immigrants — undocumented workers —…
Category: Economics
Sunday package sales bill goes to the governor!
Sorry to sound so excited about something so relatively minor, but it’s easy to grasp at anything positive that comes out of the Georgia legislature these days. Like many others, I had assumed that the bill to allow local governments…
With tax reform dead, Georgia legislature backpedaling on Arizona-style illegal immigration crackdown
I’m already on record opposing legislative efforts in Georgia to enact “Arizona-style” laws targeting illegal immigrants. Last night, the Georgia state senate overwhelmingly (39 to 17) passed a bill addressing illegal immigration, but they removed entirely the one component that…
Tax reform bill appears dead for 2011 in Georgia legislature
So should I take the time to write a post about something that most of my friends have paid no attention to all and that — as it turns out — isn’t going to happen? What the heck, why not?…
Georgia state revenue continues its upward trend
A few days ago, the state of Georgia released the revenue figures for April March. You can go straight to the PDF: “March revenue growth tops 10%”. I’m a little tired of the overly hyped headlines (and this is only…
Update on Savannah Harbor Expansion Project
A few weeks ago, when the news was coming fast and furious, I made a number of posts about the proposed dredging of the Savannah River. But now the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project seems destined for many months of continued…
CoreLogic shows home price declines driven by distressed properties, a hint of stabilization for non-distressed sales
Just a quick post to update my ongoing posts about home prices. They’re still falling, at least as of February, pretty dramatically. CoreLogic Home Price Index data essentially mirrors Case-Shiller: According to the CoreLogic HPI, national home prices, including distressed…
Obama in “decent shape” for 2012 in Georgia in one of first major polls
I have no plans to turn this blog into a forum for the weekly political winds, but the latest release from Public Policy Polling — “Obama in decent shape in Georgia” — struck me as interesting for a variety of…
A little time to ponder tax reform in Georgia as legislature takes a break
I’ve had little good to say about the current Georgia legislative session, so it’s especially interesting to note that tension between Republicans generally, tension between social conservatives and economic conservatives, and tension between the Lt. Gov. and the Senate leadership…
Quick update on the Georgia banking crisis
Well it’s been a quiet few weeks for the FDIC. Only three banks in the entire country were closed in March, and there hasn’t been a bank in Georgia shut down since February 18th. Every week that goes by with…
About 26% of lottery ticket sales to HOPE, Pre-K — is it enough?
I have already written about the upcoming changes to Georgia’s HOPE scholarship program, and I wrote also about a failed alternative by Georgia Democrats to exclude the state’s wealthiest families from receiving scholarships. Today there’s a pretty good piece in…
Location-efficient communities and $4 gas
There’s a great new article up at Planetizen by Scott Bernstein of the Center for Neighborhood Technology: “$4 per Gallon Gas — Are We Ready?” It’s pretty clear that for many Americans, the answer to that question is a resounding…
Generally good news in Georgia employment data for February
We’ve seen some ugly numbers in the employment data for Georgia over the last few years. The latest stats aren’t exactly glowing, but they do show some real improvement in the economy. For February, the state saw a year-over-year decline…
Census data for Georgia released, county breakdown map embedded
Well the Savannah Stopover led into a great St. Patrick’s Day, and the Savannah Music Festival is just a week away. But at some point I’m going to be getting back to doing some hard work . . . The…