Down on our lawmakers #2

It's not quite the plunder of the barbarians.  No, that's a bit too strong.  But Georgia is not a state with higher intellectual and cultural aspirations.

A case in point.   The governor and the legislature have decimated the budget for the state archives, so that they have been opening only a few hours a week, with almost no staff to assist people wanting to look up family records.   The official records of the state are not being tended to, and there was even talk of closing the archives entirely.

Yet that state is on the verge of agreeing to share in the cost of a new, billion dollar SuperDome for the Falcons -- a privately owned professional football team that makes millions of dollars every year.    They say, don't worry, a hotel-motel tax will take care of that, coming from visitors, not residents.

Easy for the politicians to say that.   More careful financial analysts say otherwise.   That new tax on visitors would go to pay for the cost of land.   But it would also cost the state millions of dollars in infrastructure and maintenance (roads, etc.) to support the project.  That would come from the budget that our state taxes make up.

Fortunately for the archives -- and for the preservation of our state history -- the University of Georgia has come through and is going to take the archives.  So they will be preserved and available for scholars and families -- and hopefully out of the hands of politicians, although UGA is a state school and depends on state money, which can be cut.

Many years ago my mother made trips to Atlanta and spent many hours in the state archives, researching her family ancestry.  Some interesting things turned up, and now we have that genealogy.   Left to Gov. Deal and his capitol cronies they wouldn't have been available for the likes of Sarah Rogers Roughton.

Ralph

PS:  While we're at it:   How about a hotel/motel tax to support our world class symphony orchestra and chorus with a new symphony hall?  In contrast to football that lines the pockets of millionaires, the ASO asks those same people to give millions to support the non-profit orchestra, which struggles and recently had to downsize its number of players.   Which is more deserving of government help?