Carter's effort may be in state, taxpayer interest

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., is, in his own words, "kicking and screaming" about the U.S. State Department's apparent preference for Virginia over Georgia as the site for a new foreign affairs training center.

Carter, who represents Georgia's First District, is of course fighting for the interests of his home state and his own congressional constituents. But he's also, he said, fighting for the American taxpayer.

The State Department proposes to build a new $461 million training facility at Fort Pickett in Blackstone, Va., a plan Carter insists would be a massive waste of public money. Instead, he insists, the existing Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) at Brunswick could be expanded to accommodate the new training facility, at a savings of almost $200 million. Even in the bloated play-money context of federal budgets, that's not chump change.

The FLETC center at Brunswick -- technically, a separate township named Glynco (as in Glynn County) -- is the site of a former World War II naval air station from which blimps patrolled the south Atlantic coast on the lookout for German submarines. An Office of Management and Budget comparison of the Virginia and Georgia sites "made six different comparisons and in three of those favored FLETC," Carter told the Brunswick News. "In two areas, they were even. Only one of the comparisons favored Fort Pickett." We'll take his word on that for now; he said the report has not yet been released to the public.

Not surprisingly, Georgia's two U.S. senators, Johnny Isakson and David Perdue, agree with him. If Carter's numbers are right, so should the rest of Capitol Hill. But given the realities of political turf protection, we'd grant Virginia's delegation a bye.

Harris mourned

Morton Harris was a man of prominence who never stopped caring about society's dispossessed and underprivileged. The Monday passing of the distinguished Columbus attorney leaves a hole in this community's collective soul.

Harris created an endowment at his beloved Columbus High School to help disadvantaged students with school fees, field trips, standardized tests and the like. He and his wife also funded a scholarship endowment at Columbus State University.

Harris practiced law here in his hometown for more than 40 years, much of that time as a partner at Hatcher, Stubbs, Land, Hollis & Rothschild.

Away from the office his most passionate concern, especially in later years, was the widening economic and opportunity gap between the wealthiest and the poorest working Americans.

"He didn't care about race," said Harris friend, fellow attorney and former mayor Bob Poydasheff. "He didn't care about religion, he didn't care about ethnicity, national origin, whatever. He cared about human beings."

This story was originally published August 5, 2015 at 3:59 PM with the headline "Carter's effort may be in state, taxpayer interest."