The Augusta Courier

Motor Fuel	$ 4,583,000.00
Out of State Fuel	165,000.00
Auto Tags	4,500,000.00
Liquor	3,687,000.00
Wine	400,000.00
Beer	2,000,000.00
Cigarettes and Cigars	5,000,000.00
Corporation Income Tax	3,850,000.00
Individual Income Tax	3,750,000.00
Drivers' Licenses, Insurance Premiums for loan companies	1,500,000.00

STRICTLY PERSONAL

By ROY V. HARRIS

Last week, we stated that the Governor's new revenue bills would not raise forty million dollars.

At the time, we did not have access to the state's records nor the advice of the experts who make the calculations.

But, thirty years' experience in dealing with the Revenue Department and state finances told me that these revenue bills would never raise forty million.

Now, the State Revenue Commissioner has written the Governor a detailed letter based upon the calculations of his experts and the records of his office and estimates only twenty-nine million dollars for the first year.

Twenty-nine is a long way from the sixty-five which the Governor sought.

The first impression that strikes me is that the Governor and the members of the Legislature didn't get enough money to pay for the cussing they are getting.

Here's where the twenty-nine million comes from:

Last week, we predicted that the schools would come last and so they do.

The biggest business in Georgia is the operation of the schools. We are soon going to have a million children in school in Georgia and furnishing teachers, buildings and transportation and the other services necessary to educate a million children is one big job.

It is the most important job.

Last year, the state spent one hundred and four million dollars on the public schools. I don't know the exact amount that will be available this year, but with the $12,180,000 now allotted of this new money, the total appropriation to the public school system will probably be between one hundred and sixteen million dollars and one hundred and twenty million dollars.

The Highway Department is going to have, including state and federal money, from eighty-five to ninety million dollars for building roads in Georgia.
If the Governor follows the Senate resolution, the Highway Department will have more than nine million dollars out of the state treasury added to what it had last year. Governor Talmadge took six million dollars of the Highway money to finance the state and if the Governor follows the Senate resolution, this six million dollars will be added to the nine million, which will give to the Highway Department fifteen million dollars in new money from state sources alone.
Then, the federal government is increasing its appropriation from approximately thirteen million to twenty million dollars.
So, the public schools came last and the University System and the public schools will get about one-half of the new money.
Now, roads are important and I am just as strong for building roads as I am for building schools. The business of the state today is conducted on the highways of the state and the better highways we have the more business we have and the more business we have the better able we will be to take care of the schools.
But, it still stands in Georgia that you can get more enthusiasm over roadbuilding programs than you can over schools because all of the contractors, machinery dealers, materialmen and others have always been able to find the pickings in the Highway Department much better than they are in the school system.
There just isn't much way that all of these hangers-on to political camps can make any money out of the schools. But they can make money out of building roads.
The average citizen who tends to his own business and isn't dependent upon public spending for a living sits quietly by and takes no part, and consequently, those who do make money out of doing business with the state are able to impress their will on the legislature and the politicians.
Last week, we also said:
"The school teachers, like the cow's tail, came out last at the recent session of the legislature."
Now, it seems that the twelve million dollars which the Board of Education will receive will be spent as follows:
New teachers $3,200,000.00
Earned Pay Increases 3,000,000.00
Transportation 500,000.00
TOTAL $6,700,000.00
Other little items will probably make this figure at least seven million dollars, and this will leave five million dollars with which to increase the pay of the teachers.
With twenty-eight thousand teachers, this will not leave quite two hundred dollars each to increase the salary schedule of the teachers.
So, the school teachers bore the brunt of the tax fight and yet, the school teachers will occupy the position of the cow's tail in the distribution of the twenty-nine million bucks.
It is the same old story. We raise more money and when we get around to the school teachers, they come last.
They should come first. The people should put the school teachers first for purely selfish reasons. They have the job of training and developing the minds of our own children. If they fail to do a good job on your child, then your child is crippled and handicapped for life.
A lot of the children in Georgia today are being handicapped because of poor teachers. We do not have as many good teachers as we ought to have. When your Board of Education hires a poor teacher, it doesn't hurt the Board of Education and it doesn't hurt you, but it does cripple the mind of your child and it handicaps him for the rest of his life.
There is only one way that we are going to get better teachers in Georgia. That is to raise the pay of the teachers and to fix a salary schedule which will attract into the teaching profession the brightest minds among our young people.
It is a waste of money to hire poor teachers. A poor teacher inflicted
upon your child is a curse to the child.
So long as we continue to put the teachers last and in the position of the cow's tail, we can't expect to make the teaching profession attractive enough to lure into the teaching profession our people with the brightest minds and the most pleasing personalities.
We predicted many months ago that the legislature would do a patchwork job instead of giving us an adequate system of education in Georgia.
That is exactly what happened. The public school system and the University System, according to Governor Griffin's study committee, needed between forty million and fifty million dollars more money in order to have an adequate system of education.
These figures were about right.
Now, the University System and the public school system together come out with fifteen million dollars more.
This means that we are at least thirty million dollars a year short of an adequate system of education.
So, it is a patchwork job and not an adequate job.
The legislature and the Governor continue to be faced with the same problem.
Of course, the fifteen million is better than nothing and some improvement in the school system can be made with this amount.
But, the recent legislature leaves the solution of the job to future legislatures and it is my prediction that we will face a crisis in the school system again either in 1956 or 1957 and the legislature will be called upon to complete the job.
Now, we can't blame Governor Griffin for the patchwork job. He tried to do a complete job. He asked for sixty-five million dollars and got twenty-nine. He got less than one-half of the amount for which he asked.
Had he got the other thirty million dollars, he would have been able to have initiated an adequate program of education for the public schools of this state.
So, the fight for an adequate system of education in Georgia isn't over. It has just begun.
Governor Griffin has made a valuable contribution to the movement and deserves a great deal of credit for what he has done.
It is true he wound up with just a patchwork proposition and what he has done for the schools will not give us an adequate system of education. Yet, he kept the fight going.
He made some progress. He did the best he could.
Now, instead of cussing the Governor about the taxes, we ought to join him and help him at the earliest date possible, complete the job and give us an adequate system of education.
After all, it will be found that the taxes which the Governor did get the legislature to levy will not hurt the individual taxpayer.

Highways	$ 9,248,000.00
Board of Education	12,180,000.00
Board of Regents	3,132,000.00
Teacher Retirement	348,000.00
Health Department	2,088,000.00
Welfare Department	2,088,000.00
Corrections and Safety	348,000.00