Governor Meets with Newspaper Persons

Members of the press from middle Georgia met with Governor Sonny Perdue Tuesday for an “informal, on-the-record, round table discussion” at Gordon College in Barnesville.

Kathy Mudd, editor and publisher of The Monticello News, and Ted Dunagan, writer/photographer were among the members of the press that met with the governor.

Gov. Perdue gave a brief power point demonstration “fact check” reviewing some of the accomplishments of his first term in office, before opening the session up to questions.

Gov. Perdue spent most of his time discussing education statistics and many of the questions related to education. He said he has increased direct student spending by $1 billion which is more than $400 per student.

He reviewed revenues for the past decade, showing how the state’s revenues slumped in 2003, his first year in office. He said that the state recouped by cutting back on spending rather than raising taxes.
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Gov. Perdue expressed his optimism about the state’s economic future, and when questioned how he measures the progress, it boiled down to jobs. He said 230,000 new jobs were created in the state last year, and as long as that continued the economy is good.

He spoke on energy dependence and short and long term solutions. He said that right now the technology is almost complete to use pine trees for energy. He said when we can commercially convert cellulose to ethanol, we will reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

He spoke about litigation, how explained that it can’t always be avoided, but that steps should be taken to prevent “sour grapes” lawsuits.

The governor agreed to sit down with a contingent from Georgia Press Association and discuss open records concerns.

He suggested concerns about legal notices being removed from county legal organs were not valid. He indicated there was some “paranoia.”

The afternoon meeting, attended by less than two dozen journalists was informal and friendly.

Questions that the governor could not immediately answer were referred to his press secretary Heather Hedrick who is to get back to the newspaper people.