Wednesday, November 5, 2003

Splitting Fayette off to its own circuit unwise

Like the proverbial bad penny which keeps on showing up, it seems that no matter how the facts are presented concerning the subject proposal, this bad idea keeps on cropping up. My letter to you today is yet again an attempt to put this bad idea to bed, or at least until major facts change which would justify another study.

It appears to me that there has been two themes which motivate this proposal:

1. Pride of ownership — “It would be nice to have our own judge, so that we could call on him in a hurry!”

2. Some self-serving politician is protecting his or her turf or potential turf.

Neither one of these reasons is valid enough to offset the very high price which would be paid by taxpayers.

Pride of ownership: I fully understand and represent a person who thinks highly of my home town and home county, but never let it interfere in my more important obligation as a state representative, looking after taxpayer money while seeing to it that service to the people does not suffer.

I personally qualify for one who is proud of Fayette County. My father, grandfather and great-grandfather were born and raised in Fayette. In fact my great-grandfather originated the famous Yates Apple on his farm in the area near the Primitive Baptist Church on Ga. Highway 92 where he is buried.

If Fayette is split off from the Griffin Judicial Circuit as a separate district, state taxpayers would have to pay additional taxes of hundred of thousands of dollars, and the taxes of each of the counties of Fayette, Pike, Spalding and Upson would be increased greatly.

Now, if this proposed action would increase services greatly to the citizens, I would be strongly in favor.

On services to the people, let’s take a look at the present situation. Our four-county area has been allotted four judge positions who are spread over the circuit geographically in a manner which serves the population well.

Also the recent addition of full-time state court judges in Fayette and Spalding has eliminated much of the backlog.

We in the legislature working with Judicial Council of Georgia, county commissioners and others, keep close tab on the workload of judges and district attorneys and adding districts. I would be pleased to discuss this with you at 770-412-7166.

John Yates

State Representative

Post 1, District 85

Griffin, Ga.