By LEE HOWELL
Politically speaking

There is a lot of uproar in Spalding County — and in the surrounding counties (including Clayton, Coweta and Fayette) which are served by the Griffin Technical Institute — because the state's recently-adopted supplemental budget did not include the $9.8 million in construction funding for a new classroom building on that technical school's campus.

The project had been the number one request on the list of funding priorities submitted by the Georgia Department of Adult and Technical Education and it was specifically endorsed by Gov. Roy Barnes in his annual budget speech.

Thus, when the state house of representatives passed their version of the supplemental budget — and it did not include the funds for the project — there was immediate scrambling in the state senate to insure the funding was restored there.

However, the final version of the supplemental budget which emerged from the conference committee and was adopted in both chambers before being sent to the governor's desk for his signature did not include any money for Griffin Tech and a half-hearted attempt to put the project in the “big” budget for Fiscal Year 2001 also failed.

The much-needed project at the local technical school (which is the fastest growing in the state) was put on hold for at least another year.

Now, it should be pointed out that this is not the first time a worthwhile project (which was undeniably important to the area in which it was located) has been delayed for a year, or more, due to budgetary compromises.

And, it is interesting to note that almost the exact amount of money needed to fund the Griffin Tech project was used by state lawmakers to fund the completely unexpected and absolutely necessary clean-up work following the devastating tornadoes which tore through South Georgia this year.

So, why was the money for the Griffin Tech project dropped from the supplemental budget this year?

Some folks say it was due to the fact that House Speaker Thomas B. Murphy does not like the two state legislators from Spalding County, John Yates and Bill Sanders.

That may be part of it.

And, if it is, it is completely understandable — no matter how painful to the local economy that might be to accept.

For, Mr. Yates and Mr. Sanders have done little to endear themselves to the Speaker or the other members of the House leadership.

Speaker Murphy is only human — and when you have two legislators who spend much of their time verbally attacking every decision made by the leadership and insulting personally the man who heads that leadership structure, as well as his colleagues among the chairmen and chairwomen of the House committees — then you have to expect some response.

(Indeed, I cannot think of any other reason that Mr. Yates and Mr. Sanders spend so much time attacking the speaker and the governor unless they are trying to get them to respond in such a way that it makes the people being attacked looked worse than the attackers!)

But, before too many people begin accepting the portrait of Mr. Yates and Mr. Sanders as martyrs to the cause of “standing up for one's beliefs,” remember that legislators are elected to meet the needs of their districts.

Winning legislative approval for funding the expansion project at Griffin Tech was the key need of Spalding County and one of the few specific agenda items local citizens have put before the legislature in recent years.

Now, I respect both Mr. Yates and Mr. Sanders as much as I disagree with their stone-throwing tactics.

But, the bottom line is that when push came to shove, Mr. Yates and Mr. Sanders failed their constituency: In this instance, they proved themselves to be completely ineffective in dealing with the powers that be who ultimately made the decision about funding — and, therefore, they were useless.

The expansion project at Griffin Tech is still important, it still needs to be funded, and, hopefully, it will be during next year's budget process.

But, Mr. Yates and Mr. Sanders have proven that they are not the ones who can get the job done.

[Lee N. Howell is an award-winning writer who has been observing and commenting upon politics and society in the Southern Crescent, the state, and nation for more than a quarter of a century.]

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