State Senate

District 46:
Haines
Kemp

District 1:
Carter
Garland

District 3:
Maxwell
Robinson

District 5:
Logan
Lynn

District 7:
Bushnell
Hoard
Vaughan

District 9:
Chasteen

Mayor:
Davison

Doug Haines (Democrat, Incumbent)

Affordable Housing

Question:
According to a study recently released by the Athens-Clarke County Department of Housing & Economic Development, affordable housing for very low income residents continues to be a challenge in Athens. What can be done at the state level to help? What have you done, and what will you do, to improve access to decent, stable affordable housing for those of low and very low income?

Answer:
Assuring access to affordable housing will take more than simply building more low-cost (but good quality) housing, although that is certainly part of the equation. Keeping people in the homes they already have, providing resources that help the working poor hold onto their jobs, and raising the wages they receive are important too. In my first term as your State Senator, we have made progress, but there is still a lot to be done. I supported Ballot Question 2, a proposed amendment to our State Constitution that would allow for a special tax status for affordable housing; this will help keep construction and operating costs, as well as rents, down. Keeping people in their homes is more humane and less costly than trying to help them after they've been made homeless. To that end, I sponsored the nation's toughest predatory lending bill, which went into effect this month, to stop people, especially the elderly who are most often the victims of this crime, from being bilked out of their homes. I also sponsored legislation that would have ensured that mobile home park tenants had the right to make a matching offer if the park was to be sold. For many Georgians, manufactured housing is the only affordable option. The bill was defeated by lobbying led by the building and apartment management industry, but I will introduce it again. Finally, we can seek federal funds available to cities like Athens that our local government has so far not attempted to access.

Water

Question:
What can be done at the state level to ensure that our water is clean and plentiful? What have you done, and what will you do to improve water quality? What have you done and what will you do to ensure that we have enough water, both for our use and to maintain a healthy aquatic habitat in our rivers and streams?

Answer:
I am pushing regional solutions which include multi-county facilities which better conserve water and offer significantly better technologies for controlling pollution. I am working on a legislative package to devise cost-effective means of dealing with drinking water and wastewater needs through legislation and regulatory mechanisms. I have worked on water policy issues for more than a decade and authored one of Georgia's key water policy laws, the inter-basin transfer law, before I was elected. As a public interest lawyer, I successfully prosecuted many cases against Clean Water Act violators. Prior to my election, I testified on water issues before the Georgia House and Senate and before the US House of Representatives. Since my election I have played a key role in the establishment of the North Georgia Metropolitan Water Authority and the Water Policy Study Committee which is charting the water future for the rest of Georgia.

The biggest source of water pollution in GA is erosion and sedimentation caused by development. To combat this, we can tie Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority funds, which go to local governments for infrastructure, to their success in improving control of erosion and sedimentation. Communities implementing wider riparian buffers, or which can show enforcement of erosion and sedimentation regulations, would be given priority for GEFA funds.

Next session, the General Assembly is likely to vote to increase the minimum riparian buffer. I will fight for this, as well as to ensure that priority is given to considering all important uses of water, including drinking water, agriculture, and support of aquatic system integrity.

Growth and development

Question:
Athens has been nationally recognized as one of the fastest sprawling areas in the U.S. What can be done at the state level to curb sprawl? What have you done and what will you do to help prevent sprawl and its associated problems?

Answer:
Why don't we like sprawl? First, the cost - for infrastructure, police and fire protection, roads. It's bad for the economy. It costs more to build subdivisions the way we have. And second, the environmental impacts - on air and water quality, and loss of open space. Part of the picture in slowing sprawl is the Greenspace program; our transportation policy, and regulatory and incentive programs.

I supported the Community Greenspace initiative, which is a great start. I made sure that the TDR enabling legislation was amended to make it easier for ACC to implement this market-driven land preservation tool. There are other innovative solutions. DCA has funds available for local governments for infrastructure improvements; we can make sure that communities that implement "smart growth" policies - like protecting greenspace, encouraging infill and mixed-use development - are given higher priority for receiving these funds. We will need to regulate the use of septic tanks. It is now customary for subdivisions to use septic systems for wastewater and wells for drinking water. But there are no safeguards in place to ensure that septic systems are maintained, so they fail, and when that happens our drinking water sources become polluted. This is an example of better environmental control and enforcement that are needed, for public health reasons, that will slow down sprawl. We need to continue to find innovative programs that allow local governments to coordinate federal and state dollars that are available for "smart growth" initiatives.

Transportation Alternatives

Question:
Air quality, water quality, and public health are all negatively impacted by our excessive dependence on the automobile for transportation. What kinds of alternatives to automobile transportation do you support? What have you done and will you do to help us to expand our transportation choices here in Athens?

Answer:
We need to have a vision of transportation for the future which takes into account more than just road-building; and we need to start now to create the infrastructure for the future. We took the first step toward creating that infrastructure by passing GARVEE bonding, which allows the state to borrow money at historically low rates based on the federal transportation funds we expect to receive in the future. This will allow us to build transportation systems that look to the future, that will move people efficiently and effectively, with more choices than just automobiles; this must include commuter rail. By investing in infrastructure that will allow people to travel by more efficient, less polluting means than the automobile, we'll save money in other areas, and we'll give our area relief from air pollution. This is especially true for Athens, with the growing congestion on 316.

In order to make commuter rail viable, ticket prices would need to be affordable. We should not expect rail tickets to completely cover the costs of running the line. We subsidize roads astronomically; road users don't pay anywhere near the true cost of building and maintaining our roads. So why impose that kind of cost analysis on rail or other alternative transportation?

But providing commuter rail is only part of the picture. We have to be prepared to receive rail. The local transportation system has to be ready to move the rail commuters - many of whom will likely be UGA students - efficiently and effectively. If we have a well-functioning transportation system here, and in Atlanta, commuter rail will become a reality.