The Red and Black

As Mark Twain, America's greatest writer, said, "There are lies, damn lies and statistics". The best way to tell a lie is with statistics since it is virtually impossible for anyone to dispute them. These kinds of "studies" as reported here are nothing but cheap publicity tools to continue the propaganda that UGA should receive anything it wants, in secret, without question or any requirement of public hearings. It operates basically in secret, as does its various secret entities the UGA Real Estate Foundation and the UGA secret Athletics Committee which runs its sports business on state owned public property with no, zero, input or possibililty of input, from any citizens. The Board of Regents are little different, and basically operate in secret too. This is the "best" the lawmakers of the State of Georgia could do for their constituents after a violent Revolutionary War with England over issues like taxation without representation and a Boston Tea Party over the same thing. Obviously "representative democracy" was "dead on arrival" in the corrupt State of Georgia, where virtually every important issue is done in secret. Citizens of Athens and Georgia obviously love to be fooled.

This sounds a bit like propaganda. The U didn't "spend" money on salaries, it paid people to do the jobs necessary to keep it running. After working for the U at 31,000 per year, after all deductions were taken out for a household of two, my take home pay was around 500 a week. This was WITHOUT choosing one of the benefits packages, which would have made my take home pay less than 500 a week. This salary barely covered my bills, let alone left any for savings, vacations, braces for kids, etc. Some of the jobs posted on the website BOAST that they start at a minimum of 20,000! Divide the money spent on salaries by the number of employees, and you will see it is not all that impressive. A Faculty or staff member who works more than 5 or 10 years might be making decent money, but hourly workers never make a living wage. And most of the operating expenses, etc. basically go right back into the U, they are paid to U depts., they don't really go into the community as implied. A lot of the money listed as spent by students also goes directly back to the University.

But then the U uses a boatload of county resources for which it does not pay a dime in property taxes. The U make an economic impact alright. Just not the kind stated in the article.