Shipp sounds off: Georgians not getting the best government.

What do most of us want from Georgia government?

For starters: A kept promise to make our lives and property secure. Responsible caretaking for the tax money we pay.

Some assistance with education and transportation. Facilitation of health care, not just for the needy and elderly, but for everybody.

And, of course, to leave us alone, unless intrusion is absolutely necessary.

The just-adjourned General Assembly and the governor's administration have racked up a fat zero in just about every one of those categories.

Look at the record:

• Public monies: The first Republican General Assembly in modern times set records for spending and raising the level of state borrowing, with more than $1 billion in new bonded debt.

However, serious financial problems may loom. The state's good credit may be in jeopardy. State officials say they cannot successfully audit Medicaid's books because they are in such disarray. The bond markets are reluctant to accept the state's bonds without a certified audit of Georgia's finances, including Medicaid. Gov. Sonny Perdue has had in place a chief financial officer - a former big-time banking executive - for three years, presumably to impose orderly accounting procedures on state agencies.

• Security: Law enforcement has all but broken down in the capital city. The sheriff's office cannot even secure the state's largest jail and court system, as evidenced by the recent spree of slayings committed by a violent rape defendant. The Fulton prosecutor's office is best known for losing seemingly slam-dunk felony cases against celebrities.

The legislature and Perdue looked the other way when several officials called on the state to end the chaos.

• Transportation: Traffic congestion grows worse. The legislature appoints another study committee. Talk continues to fill the air about selling some of the taxpayers' highways to private toll collectors. No state money is available for MARTA. The number of riders diminishes. The state fails to react. No move is made toward the obvious solution: fold MARTA into a statewide or regional transit authority devoted to moving people instead of creating jobs.

• Education: Almost none of the massive education budget cuts, necessitated by the recent recession, have been restored to the state's school systems. The lid on classroom size has been removed. Incompetent teachers cannot be fired. Their tenure has been restored. The governor has taken money from HOPE scholarships to construct a million-dollar education Web site. Virtually no state oversight exists on local school boards.

• Health care: Thousands of poor kids have been dropped from the PeachCare insurance program. Moreover, no additional nursing home beds have been added to the state's inventory in years. Worst of all, the administration refuses to kill off the antiquated and monopolistic Certificate of Need ["CON"] system that deprives many of the state's most densely populated areas of healthcare facilities.

One small example among many is Henry County, the nation's third-fastest-growing county, which cannot legally host a radiation-treatment center for cancer. The state Department of Community Health initially issued a certificate for such a center, but competitors from other counties persuaded an administrative hearing officer to deny the CON.

Established hospitals and medical facilities in Atlanta and Albany lobby to maintain the CON system to keep out competitors.

Georgia is among a minority of states that continues CON, started nearly 30 years ago to try to contain Medicaid costs. The CON effort failed, and most states abandoned it. The Federal Trade Commission recently published a report declaring that "states should decrease barriers to entry into provider markets. States with Certificate of Need programs should reconsider whether these programs best serve their citizens' health care."

• Government intrusion: An anti-smoking measure may allow a health officer to invade your private office without a warrant to determine whether you are complying with the law. An even more egregious case of government intrusion: A woman, accidentally impregnated with a defective fetus she does not want, must endure a state-mandated lecture against abortions and wait 24 hours before she can end the pregnancy, even in its earliest stages.

Child-custody benefits are threatened by a complicated formula that allows non-custodial parents to decrease their payments in exchange for spending more "quality time" with the children.

So who's to blame for the above? There's plenty of fault to go around. A rookie legislature without seasoned or talented leadership is the political experts' short answer. A more accurate and even briefer explanation: You and I are the culprits. We tolerate such stuff.

(4-2-05, The Athens Banner-Herald.)