Amazing Fact About Sex Offender Registries

Look at the cost to maintain the registry in this county in Georgia ($34,100.00). If we were to assume that the costs are reasonable then using that number calculate what is being spent "nationally" it comes to $107,108,100.00 per year. (Note: there are 3,141 counties in the US US Census Bureau) Its hard to believe that, for an address book which is all the registry is, that the public would spend that kind of money.

11-29-2008 Georgia:

Mandates cost A-C $1.8 million
Locals pay for state, federal government decisions

Athens-Clarke County will spend more than $1.8 million this year on programs the state and federal governments refuse to fund.

The expenses range from $500 to pay the state to certify police officers to use radar guns to $1.3 million for storm drainage infrastructure to comply with federal environmental law, according to a partial list of unfunded mandates prepared by Athens-Clarke officials.

And the list doesn't include $2 million in local tax revenue for libraries and public health, areas where state funding has been stagnant or declining in recent years, Athens-Clarke Mayor Heidi Davison said.

"A lot of the expenses we incur are a result of state and federal decisions that are pushed down to the local governments," Davison said.

State Rep. Bob Smith, R-Watkinsville, told county commissioners at a May meeting that he did not believe the state was forcing Athens-Clarke County to spend local taxes on state-mandated programs. To prove Smith wrong, Davison handed out the list to the county's five state lawmakers at a similar meeting earlier this month.

Smith took issue with some of the items on the list, including $31,200 to hire a clerk for a second Athens-Clarke State Court judge the legislature approved last year. The legislature passed a bill creating the judgeship exactly as Athens-Clarke officials wrote it.

Athens-Clarke officials also shouldn't complain about spending $5,200 to mail second notices to drivers caught by red-light cameras because the county raked in a net $569,000 from fines levied based on the cameras, he said.

As for federal unfunded mandates, like the stormwater infrastructure, locals should take it up with President-elect Barack Obama, Smith said.

"I'm sick and tired, like many voters in Georgia, of these onerous environmental regulations all over the place," he said.

The 17 unfunded mandates Athens-Clarke officials identified also include:

► $500,000 over three years to retrofit diesel engines in county vehicles to comply with the Clean Air Act.

► $500,000 over five years to replace 17,000 street signs to comply with new state standards.

► $34,100 annually to maintain a registry of sex offenders.

► $32,000 annually to respond to open-records requests.

State funding and local taxes have caused tension between legislators and local elected officials in recent years.

Last year, some House Republicans tried to outlaw the property taxes that fund local government services and schools and replace them with sales taxes collected and distributed by the state. Mayors and county commissioners across the state fought the proposal, and it went down in flames.

This year, state lawmakers will consider capping property assessments at 3 percent per year, a bill Smith said he supports.

"A message has got to be sent," he said. "People want government to be streamlined. You can't stop (governments) until you starve them."

Davison, though, contends that the state should help local governments keep taxes low by providing a larger share of the funding for essential services like public health and education, not by trying to control what local elected officials spend.

"They keep telling us we're wasting money, but they won't help us, and we're picking up the slack," she said. ..News Source.. by BLAKE AUED