1818Blog: Sequesteria, Georgia Fair Share, and just how bad it won’t be for Gwinnett.

The history of the Democrats in Gwinnett is as old as Gwinnett County itself. 
Gwinnett was formed as a cession by the Creek Indian nation after their bloody
defeat by none other than Andrew Jackson. Historically, Gwinnett was a Democrat stronghold until, one by one, elected posts began to slip away to the Republican Party into the 1980s.  During the Republican rise one Democrat member of the Gwinnett delegation to the General Assembly was asked when he would switch parties, and he replied, “Probably around 1988.”  But the one thing about the old Democrats were not – they were not Leftists – at least not of the variety that we are witnessing today.

If anything can be taken from these columns in the last few weeks, it is that the GOP is in power in Gwinnett, but demography and time are not on its side.  The Leftists who constitute the core of the modern Democrat Party are still very much among us here in our county.  They were here ten years ago when I served on
the Board of Commissioners.  They masqueraded as Republicans and called themselves “homeowners’ advocates,” bent on stopping any kind of growth, smart or otherwise.  Now, it seems, they don’t bother to cloak themselves behind the veil of anything other than the radical Leftists that they are.  We have seen the rise of groups like MoveOn.org protesting in Snellville, and other groups demonstrating elsewhere…even though those “protests” only consist of a handful of people.

This week Sequesteria hit the Atlanta local media unlike I’ve ever witnessed
on a national budgetary issue.  Cox News –The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, WSB Television and WSB Radio, and each of their internet arms, were there for us, reporting the White House’s big list of line items to be cut in Georgia.  WSB
Radio, on Wednesday, reported a “protest” in front of the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center by a group calling itself Georgia Fair Share, demanding that Congressman Rob Woodall cut corporate loopholes so that police, firefighters, ems, and teachers in our fair county will not be laid off.

Georgia Fair Share – What could go wrong with a name like that?

Naturally, as someone who voted for four balanced county budgets, I asked myself how this could be.  When did we start taking federal money for things that we as a county should be paying for ourselves?

So I sought out one Jason Pfeifle, on camera spokesman for Georgia Fair Share and the vast horde of six people, plus cameraman, at this so-called protest.  Pfeifle could be seen in a video posted at the Lawrenceville Patch reading his little band’s demands to tax the rich and reinvest that money into the economy.  He had a really long scroll, a petition that the six all held up, smiling for the camera.  Then they gingerly rolled it up and marched it in to Congressman Woodall’s office whereupon Pfeifle presented it to Woodall’s staff representative in a manner as if to club her over the head with it.  Really -- She could be seen flinching in the video.  They gave more speeches in the office, then it the video ended. 

I contacted Pfeifle through Georgia Fair Share’s website, which apparently is only a landing page on Fair Share’s site, based in Washington. Mr. Pfeifle responded via e-mail that he would be glad to answer any of my questions either by e-mail or over the phone. He gave me his cell number.  I chose the written option and sent my questions over that morning.  By the evening I was convinced Mr. Pfeifle
was not going to respond, so I called him and got his voice mail, leaving a
message with my contact information.  As I write this he still has not called me back nor has he e-mailed back answers to my questions.

Maybe the questions were a little harsh.  I will post them here.  You be the judge:

1) How many of the people at your protest are residents of Gwinnett
County?

Okay, granted, I think we could find way more than six people who agree with Mr. Pfeifle and Georgia Fair Share who live in Gwinnett. It was a fun question, though.

2-6) How many Gwinnett County __________ will be laid off due to
sequestration? (Insert “Police Officers,” “Firefighters,” “EMS Personnel,” “Sheriff’s Deputies,” “Correctional
Officers)

These were the questions I was eager to read Mr. Pfeifle’s answers to, because they would have required a level of specificity that I am sure neither he, Georgia
Fair Share, nor its parent organization, Obama campaign front group Fair Share are willing to offer up.

So I asked Gwinnett County Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash exactly how many public safety personnel will, in fact, lose their jobs when sequestration hits.

Well, you can imagine my shock when she replied, “We do not rely on federal funds to pay for the cost of public safety personnel.”

Zero, zip, nada.  How can this be?  Mr. Pfeifle said we’d lose public safety personnel.  President Obama said we’d lose our “first responders.”  I mean, I saw it on TV! 

Moving on.

7) How many Gwinnett County School teachers will be laid off due to
sequestration?

The answer comes from GCPS Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks himself in a press release which was republished in The Patch on February 26.  The headline of The Patch article headline read, Sequestration Could Cost Gwinnett County Schools to Lose $3.4 Million.

Well, that’s a lot of money.  Surely teachers will be laid off.

According to the Wilbanks press release:

“The two largest cuts will be seen in our Title I grant – approximately $1.7 million and our IDEA Section 611 special education grant – approximately $1.3million.  The district does not anticipate an immediate issue with services as a result of the loss of Title I funds as we will be able to reserve funds from this year to carry into next year.

The funds from the IDEA Section 611 grant are primarily used to pay salaries for our special education paraprofessionals.  If these federal dollars are lost, the
district would look to fund these positions out of our local budget.  The use of local funds to offset or cover costs of programs affected by sequestration provides additional challenges to school district budgets that already are stretched thin.”

And I will offer, just think of how much more money the GCPS would have to cover these costs had it not used taxpayer dollars to oppose the Charter School Amendment.  But, I digress.

In short, zero teachers lost by sequestration.

Moving on.

8) How will the loss of night time tower service at Briscoe Field impact the citizens of Lawrenceville?

Well, of course this is a trick question.  Mr. Pfeifle would likely not know what the answer is.  The citizens of Lawrenceville might break out in street parties if sequestration closed the tower at night.  In reality, however, 24-hour service is needed for this airport, where many of the filthy-plane-owning-rich-corporations-that-don’t-need-tax-breaks park their planes.  I spoke to Gwinnett County Commissioner John Heard about tower operations.

He said, “The truth is, 24-hour tower operations are important for our existing corporate tenants at Briscoe Field.  We believe that the county can pick up the tab to staff the tower at night.”

In politics, when the truth is relative based upon the team one is rooting for, democracy fails.  Did Jason Pfeifle lie?  I choose to think he actually believes the
Obama campaign bullet points he recites like a trained parrot.  The whole line of “reasoning” spewed by Fair Share preys upon the ignorance of the general public on civics and the basic structure of our federal system.  This is not a unitary system like France’s where President Obama can tell the local gendarme what to do, much less defund the local gendarmerie. 

Our goal as good citizens, whether here in Gwinnett, or anywhere else is to call out the charlatans and snake-oil salesmen whenever we see them.

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