Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Guv'ment New laws starting Jan. 1 benefit boat dealers, unwanted animals, 'In God We Trust' sticker makers
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 9:16 AM
The Morris News Service's Walter Jones briefs us on several new laws that will kick in next year.
Among them: requiring all counties to use lethal injection to euthanize animals (some still use asphyxiation); exempting boat dealers from inventory taxes (that's a snoozer and some politico's favor to a constituent); and prohibiting out-of-town businesses from portraying themselves as local firms (aren't these incredibly exciting?).
And for all you property owners: You can rest a little easier knowing tax assessors must take foreclosures into account when determining property values. This kind of blew our mind, however:
If you're still unhappy with your local assessors or don't like your local government, you no longer have to display the name of your county on your car tag. A new law lets you put a sticker reading "In God We Trust" in place of the county name.
Jesus Christ. That must have been one of the few pieces of legislation by state Rep. Bobby Franklin, R-Marietta, that snuck past his colleagues.
Several ethics laws — some of which don't go far enough, as Jim Walls has noted — will also take effect. Lobbyists must now disclose more frequently where they wined and dined politicos. And local elected officials will have to file campaign disclosures with the state Ethics Commission, which should make the lives of reporters a little less crazy. (Have you ever tried to pull a campaign disclosure form for an Atlanta City Councilmember? It's not fun.)
These changes might be worthless, however, since the commission is woefully underfunded to handle the additional tasks.
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