I read a lot about local control. Everything from hiring & firing to commuter rail to taxes. But I have not seen any rational proposals that could stand alone as self sufficient programs.

Grady Hospital has been poorly managed and racked up over $300 million in debt. The agencies, doctors and some politicians came up with a great rescue plan. One that will cost taxpayers through the nose.

One hundred fifty of the state’s 159 counties levy SPLOST taxes. School boards and county governments reap hundreds of millions of dollars and the variant levels of accountability and wise spending equals the number of programs in place.

Today’s AJC reports Atlanta area Mayors want more say in traffic issues and they are all quick to promote new or increased taxes.

Meeting with the Urban Land Institute to discuss regional problems such as the drought and land use, the conversation quickly turned to transportation and how the state can better help. Ideas included allowing local governments to tax gasoline and letting the entire (Metro) region take over MARTA – and fund it with sales tax revenues.

I find it strange that new or improved roads always mean increased development, land use rarely involves planning and management, and nobody is talking about curtailing growth beause of the drought! Yet the first "solution" is to generate higher tax revenues.

Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin acknowledged the lack of confidence in MARTA among state legislators and blamed state-level political agendas for cities’s inability to act. Decatur mayor Bill Floyd conceded that local gasoline taxes were a political minefield.

East Point Mayor Joseph Macon made the most truthful and revealing statement:

"We need a way to make (our ideas) public-proof."

Local control already provides its own brand of tyranny over citizens. Apathetic voter turnouts have resulted from a sense of helplessness. Look around at the tremendous waste, unmanaged growth, rising property taxes and poor infrastructure. No matter how much money local governments are provided there is an insatiable hunger for more.

I am not convinced that unchecked local control is such a good thing. With local governments, agencies and authorities and school boards there is a maze of policy-making and taxation schemes. If our state legislature could do anything positive it would be to provide statewide, equal protections for all Georgia’s citizens and taxpayers. Lord knows the cities and counties are not in that business.