70. DuBose Porter: Firewall around education.

From the GAE Legislative Hotline 2010:

Day 25

HB 1397- Quality Basic Education Act—“Salary Protection Act”

Sponsored by Rep. DuBose Porter (D- Dublin) and others

This bill adds a new Code section to the existing Quality Basic Education Act. The new section provides the following:

- No state funds provided for salaries for school personnel shall be transferred by any local board of education for any other purposes; and

- In the event of a budget shortfall, SALARIES for SCHOOL SYSTEM PERSONNEL SHALL NOT BE SUBJECT TO PRORATION AND SCHOOL SYSTEM PERSONNEL SHALL NOT BE SUBJECT TO FURLOUGHS.

Several members of the Georgia Legislature understand the importance of our public school personnel. In one way or another, several members of the Georgia Legislature have demonstrated their willingness to work with our organization to protect the interests of Georgia’s children by taking care of Georgia educators.

This bill takes care of Georgia’s educators!

The intent of this legislation is to protect public school personnel from further cuts. The revenue numbers have not been good for over a year now, however, this bill prioritizes educators and the extra sacrifices that they make. From assisting a child who has forgotten their lunch/lunch money to providing paper and extra pens/pencils so Georgia’s children are prepared in class. We applaud Rep. Porter and others for working with GAE and offering to carry this legislation to help support public school educators across Georgia. Take the time to thank Rep. Porter for sponsoring such a strong advocacy bill for educators.

69. DuBose and Carol Porter on CNN.

A few photos from the trip to CNN.

DuBose and Carol with Mykal Kristopher-Frierson.

Carol and DuBose are interviewed by Don Lemon on "Weekend Primetime."

A behind-the-scenes look just before the show!

Carol and DuBose pose for a quick photo in front of the iconic CNN sign in Atlanta.

Watch the video below from CNN on Saturday, March 13, 2010

68. DuBose Porter: Revenue Department still not ready to give you your money.

Tom Crawford wrote an article explaining the problem with the cheaters who take your paid sales tax money and keep it for themselves instead of returning it to you (we used that article in blog #62). An excerpt follows:

CRAWFORD / Lawmakers should go where the money is http://www.charltoncountyherald.com/articles/2010/02/16/opinion/editorials/doc4b7abcc8cfbbe844297319.txtBy Tom Crawford

Georgia loses buckets of tax dollars every year because of retailers who charge the sales tax on their customers but keep the money rather than send it to the revenue department. This problem is well known to lawmakers and revenue officials, but they haven’t done much to deal with it.

A pilot program in Hall County uncovered the fact that nearly 1,000 businesses in that county do not have sales tax numbers, which means they are not reporting their sales tax collections to the state. There are several hundred businesses that do not have a business license from their local government.

House Minority Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin) and his Democratic colleagues have been trying in vain for more than a year to pass legislation that would crack down on these renegade businesses who are cheating the state of sales tax proceeds.


Now another reporter, Jay Jones of the Rockdale Citizen, has published another story that shows the the reality that Georgia's elected Republican leadership and Georgia's Republican appointed Revenue Commissioner Bart Graham are refusing to give you back your money:

Excerpts follow from:

Porter says collect taxes in a new way (Rockdale Citizen)
CONYERS — Democratic candidate for Georgia governor DuBose Porter said his proposal to collect sales taxes from “cheaters” could reap millions for the strapped state budget and questioned why current state leaders have failed to act on it rather than offer new cuts.
Reporter: Jay Jones
Email Address: jay.jones@rockdalecitizen.com

State Rep. DuBose Porter, D-Dublin, speaks to the Bar Association of Rockdale County on Friday. The 28-year legislator is running for governor in the Democratic primary.

CONYERS — Democratic candidate for Georgia governor DuBose Porter said his proposal to collect sales taxes from “cheaters” could reap millions for the strapped state budget and questioned why current state leaders have failed to act on it rather than offer new cuts...
“I say before we start cutting education and raising taxes, let’s get what we should get from the cheaters,” Porter said. “This would be a GPS system telling you who’s cheating.”
As the state minority leader in the Georgia House, Porter, D-Dublin, got a pilot project done in Hall and Lowndes counties last year that showed that a quarter of all business license-holders had not paid sales taxes. The proposal is now in the General Assembly as House Bill 1137.
Porter added the state’s Department of Revenue had been against the proposal. “Either they are incompetent, hiding something or protecting somebody. I don’t know,” he said.
 Porter said the proposal could also help counties in finding businesses that have a sales tax certificate but not a business license.
In an editorial to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Department of Revenue Commissioner Bart Graham discounted Porter’s amount of $1 billion lost from cheaters. Also, Graham countered that part of Porter’s proposal that would allow counties to privatize tax collections would expose a businesses’ tax records.
Porter said during Friday’s luncheon that the Department of Revenue under its current system is unable to account for sales tax collections that exceed what was designated for the counties in local sales tax revenue receipts. Now, any unaccounted sales tax received is put into the state’s treasury. Porter said that while the state gets its 4 percent of sales tax, the counties with their 1 percent sales taxes are the ones that suffer from the loss of unaccounted tax revenue...

To read the whole story click here:

http://www.rockdalecitizen.com/newtonhome/headlines/86734157.html

_______________________

DuBose Porter, Governor 2010

Getting your money back for you.

67. DuBose and Carol Porter on Fox and Friends

66. Cuts to education short sighted.

As a past Chairman of Education and past Chairman of Higher Education DuBose Porter knows that to take education where it needs to be it will take the power and the will of the governor’s office. It is also possible to do the opposite with education with the power and will of the Governor's office and that is what Georgia is now experiencing. Perdue’s recommended cuts to education will continue to decrease the earning power of Georgia’s future citizens. United States jobs of the future will only go to those well educated enough to take them. Many of those jobs will be created by those whose minds where enriched and nurtured in academic settings provided in colleges and universities. Cutting education will result in lost wages and earning power for our state's citizens for decades to come. It is extremely short sighted to cut Georgia’s future income potential by such draconian measures.

A list of proposed cuts from the article Colleges outline massive cuts to help balance state budget By Aaron Gould Sheinin The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 5:42 p.m. Monday, March 1, 2010:

University of Georgia
Cut: $58.9 million
Positions eliminated: 1,418
Other: Reduce incoming freshman body by about a third; eliminate 4-H; reduce support for Veterinarian Medical Teaching Hospital by 66 percent
Georgia Institute of Technology
Cut: $38.07 million
Positions eliminated: 452
Other: Decrease admissions by 20 percent; eliminate 150-200 research positions; increase student-faculty ratio to 24-1
Georgia State University
Cut: $34.12 million
Positions eliminated: 622
Other: Reduce freshmen and transfers by 1,000; close Brookhaven campus; eliminate 396 course sections; close Fiscal Research Center and Capitol Hill Child Enrichment Center; eliminate Georgia Health Policy Center
Medical College of Georgia
Cut: $25.57 million
Positions eliminated: 63
Other: Accept 155 fewer students
Kennesaw State University
Cut: $14.12 million
Positions eliminated: 224
Other: Reduce freshmen and transfers by 10 percent; eliminate Center for Excellence in Teaching and select degree programs in education, business, humanities and social studies
Clayton State University
Cut: $4.19 million
Positions eliminated: 24
Other: Reduce 168 course sections
Georgia Gwinnett College
Cut: $2.66 million
Positions eliminated: 32
Other: Cap enrollment at 3,000, affecting 2,000 students; delay nursing program
Atlanta Metropolitan College
Cut: $1.37 million
Positions eliminated: 5
Other: Eliminate 38 course offerings; eliminate local match for transportation project
Georgia Perimeter College
Cut $9.92 million
Positions eliminated: 50
Other: Eliminate programs affecting 4,748 students

(Other colleges are to receive cuts but are not included in the list.)


To read the entire article http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/colleges-outline-massive-cuts-339971.html


To join college students protesting the cuts

http://www.petitiononline.com/georgia1/petition.html

65. Carol Porter announces for Lt. Governor.

"My wife, Carol, announced she is running for Lt. Governor of the state of Georgia today. Over the last several weeks, there has been a viral movement to draft Carol for Lt. Governor that has taken on a life of its own. There truly is no one more qualified or who knows the issues better. Carol is an awesome person and would make an awesome Lt. Governor. She announced this morning at 11a.m. and as of 6:00p.m. today, google shows there have been 123 stories generated on her announcement. It seems Georgia is finding out what I have already known, Carol is a wonderful person to have on your side. While we are running as a team with the same message, we are going to be running separate campaigns. Carol is just getting up her campaign, but to see her campaign blogsite go to www.carolporter4ga.com"- DuBose Porter

64. DuBose Porter: Faith welcome in governor's race.

Editorial: Talk of faith welcome in governor's race (Athens Banner Herald)
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/021910/opi_564750365.shtml

Athens Banner-Herald
Published Friday, February 19, 2010
Buzz up!

Certainly, there's a healthy amount of political calculation behind state Rep. DuBose Porter's recent prominent mention of his Christian faith on the gubernatorial campaign trail. Porter, a statehouse veteran vying with a raft of fellow Democrats looking to carry their party's banner into this year's governor's race, undoubtedly understands that conservative Christian voters played a major role in bringing the Republican Party to dominance in the state legislature.
Before proceeding further, it's important to note that this editorial should in no way be construed as an endorsement of Porter's candidacy. If or when this newspaper makes an endorsement in the governor's race, that endorsement will be based on a wide range of information about candidates' positions on issues, and on other factors.
It is, though, worth noting the possible implications of Porter's strategy of making religion an issue in a statewide political contest. On a personal level, a candidate's views on religion can provide some real insight into the moral and ethical framework he or she purports to bring into the public arena. On a political level, Porter's strategy of talking about his faith brings home the important message that a spiritual point of reference on the issues of the day need not necessarily be ceded as the exclusive province of a single political party.
Porter made that point bluntly at a gathering of the Georgia Christian Alliance earlier this month, which he attended along with most of the Republican field in the gubernatorial race. "I am tired of people saying that you can't be a Christian and a Democrat," he said. "Because I am. My faith is important to me, it's important to my family. ... Pray for me. And pray that God's will be done in this election. I believe that to my very core."
More recently, in an interview with local political blogger and regular Banner-Herald columnist Johnathan McGinty, Porter said, "Democrats have been portrayed in the national media as Godless. Democrats are not Godless. I have yet to go to a Democratic meeting that has not opened with a prayer. ... We as Democrats believe economic justice and civil rights will be helped by a strong education system and through job creation. Is this because we believe 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'? I think so. Is that a religious influence? It probably is."
Again not discounting the political calculation in Porter's profession of faith, the statements outlined here portray him as a man seriously committed to that faith. Given that apparent commitment, Porter's approach to the governor's race might serve as a template, both now and into the future, for other Democratic candidates who are also seriously committed to their faith.
In a political environment where Republican and Democratic candidates talk freely about their faith and its role in their lives, it's possible that, over time, that faith will become a yardstick by which voters can judge a candidate's personal fitness for office, rather than his or her political fitness to hold a position of public trust.
Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Friday, February 19, 2010