Fresh Loaf

Let it first be said: The state Department of Audits and Accounting produces quality reports about government waste and efficiency, the kind that provide for fascinating reading. That is, if you’re into policy and government review. The scathing criticism you are about to read is not directed at the department, but at government accounting as a whole, and at politicians who think simply “putting the facts out there” leads to any kind of progress or transparency.

That being said, fans of open government might first be pleased and then pissed off with a new state website that launched yesterday and which is maintained by the department. That site, “Open Georgia: Transparency in Government,” allows users to search employee salaries and view how much our elected overlords doled out to professional service vendors during the last two fiscal years. The site, the brainchild of state Sens. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock and Chip Pearson, R-Dawsonville, met the Jan. 2009 launch date set by Gov. Sonny Perdue.

But judging from its contents, the governor should’ve given them some more time.

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Remember those Jekyll Island bills I wrote about just the other day? Well, they’re dead, killed in a committee yesterday afternoon. In a packed hearing held in the catacombs of the state Capitol — in a room that is literally no larger or accommodating than an airport chapel — members of the state Senate Economic Development Committee voted to scrap the bills of state Sen. Jeff Chapman, R-Brunswick, which would have limited development and ensured availability of affordable units to visitors. The legislators who voted against the committee’s chucking of the bills were Democrats.

The meeting started off awkwardly enough when Sen. Chip Pearson, R-Dawsonville, coldly asked several anti-Linger Longer ladies to move from the first two rows in the tiny committee room to allow members of the Jekyll Island Authority, the governor-appointed board that oversees the state-protected barrier island, to sit down. “Is this the only room?” asked one of the ladies wearing “Save Jekyll Island” buttons. “This is all we got,” Pearson replied. “If you want to wait until next week, we can do that.” Not the best way to get things rolling.

Rep. Debbie Buckner, D-Junction City, has several bills speeding their way through the state House that are related to Jekyll Island. We’ll be following those.

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