Ronald Daniels

. . . apparently, it is for the horses. I glazed over reports that Governor Perdue had included a sum of money for the agricenter in Perry in the budget, specifically for the horse park which has gotten state money in the past. While I read several reports about this particular element of the budget proposal, it just failed to click in my head.

Then I started thinking, really thinking about the present condition of our great state. We have schools moving to four-day weeks to cut costs, prisons are closing, and we have state workers working overtime without overtime pay or on furlough. But hey, we can guarantee a 9 million dollar bond for some horses.

But it is not just 9 million, this project from start to finish will have cost 20-some-odd million dollars. Granted, this seems like a huge amount to us common people but that amount really isn’t a big amount in terms of the state budget. But could this nine million not be spent better elsewhere? Perhaps by putting it into parts of the state that are really hurting; like education, corrections – or heck even transportation.

I understand it is a long, somewhat accepted, tradition of a sunsetting Governor getting some pork for his home district – but Perdue got that last year. Except that time it was fish, not horses. I can’t say I know exactly what is going on in the Governor’s Mansion up there in Atlanta, but I know what things look like in this part of the state. People are hurting. Money is tight. One could say we are in hard times. I guess Perdue missed the memo.

One can only hope our legislature will not stand for this, especially the Republican legislators. Their caucus is already plagued by ethics problems, horse-trading pork in the budget might not be the best idea. Especially given the national backlash against extraneous spending. Can the Georgia GOP afford to fund Perdue’s “My Little Ponies” project again?

What has really jumped out at me, is the number of none-politicos I have seen talking about this. Generally something like this doesn’t pick up much traction outside of us low-grade political junkies, but I have seen people who normally do not mention politics actively talking about this.

Somebody up there in Atlanta, please kill this thing.