Thursday
Apr302009
« Beaudreau is not a "commerce commissioner" »
Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 11:17PM
Tuesday night, the Gwinnett County Commission approved a waste transfer station on Alcovy Industrial Boulevard in Dacula. What struck me about this decision was not whether the approval was warranted from a land use perspective. I appreciate that waste transfer stations are difficult questions for commissioners. In similar projects in the past, I have seen legitimate arguments for the board to vote either way. I do not know the particulars of the Dacula project but those details and whether the case should have ultimately been approved is not why I felt compelled to comment. I must question part of the rationale Commissioner Mike Beaudreau offered in his opposition to the project.
To imply that the commission should base its decision on whether a proposed business venture is "speculative" suggests a view of government as marketplace arbiter. This is not the role of the Gwinnett County government. Whether the approved transfer station is speculative, whether there is too much or too little competition in Gwinnett's waste transfer marketplace, these are business questions. Such questions are best answered by the free market, not Mike Beaudreau. The question before the Gwinnett Board of Commissioners should be only be considered from a land use angle.
As I have discussed numerous time on the Buzz, our elected officials should limit the considerations for their decisions to whether a project has a material impact on other nearby land owners. Unforunately, MIke Beaudreau seems to view the role of government as larger than it should be. While there is little the residents of District 3 can do at this point, Beaudreau's sympathy to government interference in the free market should be noted should he run either for reelection or for higher office in the future. This type of big-government advocacy from Republicans is what has caused seriously weakened the national party, thus opening the door for the hard-left, socialistic policies of the Democrats that are being being slickly packaged for a naive American public. Demanding limited government from elected Republicans is not just a national issue, but something that must start at home with local officials.
"I'm firmly against this proposal," Beaudreau said. "With roughly 14 transfer stations already in Gwinnett County, we're really getting into the speculative business here and approving something speculative in nature."
To imply that the commission should base its decision on whether a proposed business venture is "speculative" suggests a view of government as marketplace arbiter. This is not the role of the Gwinnett County government. Whether the approved transfer station is speculative, whether there is too much or too little competition in Gwinnett's waste transfer marketplace, these are business questions. Such questions are best answered by the free market, not Mike Beaudreau. The question before the Gwinnett Board of Commissioners should be only be considered from a land use angle.
As I have discussed numerous time on the Buzz, our elected officials should limit the considerations for their decisions to whether a project has a material impact on other nearby land owners. Unforunately, MIke Beaudreau seems to view the role of government as larger than it should be. While there is little the residents of District 3 can do at this point, Beaudreau's sympathy to government interference in the free market should be noted should he run either for reelection or for higher office in the future. This type of big-government advocacy from Republicans is what has caused seriously weakened the national party, thus opening the door for the hard-left, socialistic policies of the Democrats that are being being slickly packaged for a naive American public. Demanding limited government from elected Republicans is not just a national issue, but something that must start at home with local officials.
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