Unemployment rises

The Georgia Department of Labor (DOL) announced the state’s unemployment rate increased in July, according to a press release on Aug. 16. Unemployment went up to 4.9 percent in July, from 4.7 in June.

The DOL said it’s not unusual to see a hike in unemployment during the month of July. They attributed it to students who entered the workforce in June looking for temporary summer employment but did not find work right away.

The release also said from June to July, Georgia lost 24,400 payroll jobs. DOL said 80 percent came from seasonal workers in public schools. Out of state’s 14 metro areas, nearby areas included Brunswick, down 600 jobs, or 1.3 percent; Hinesville was down 300 jobs, or 1.6 percent; Macon was down 1,000 jobs, or one percent; and Savannah was down 500 jobs, or three-tenths of one percent.

For more information on Georgia’s labor market, visit www.dol.state.ga.us.

Revenue up

Governor Sonny Perdue announced that statewide net revenue collections in July increased by 10.5 percent.

The July collections totaled $1.299 billion, compared to $1.176 billion last July, an increase of over $123.6 million, said the Office of the Governor's press release on Aug. 10.

Some additional figures included individual income tax, up 5.5 percent from last year; total motor fuel taxes up 1.8 percent; tobacco taxes up 22.4 percent; alcohol beverage taxes up 3.8 percent; property taxes up 117.6 percent; and motor vehicle taxes up 10.1 percent.

July is the first official month for the Fiscal Year 2008.

Buy dry

Georgia Watch, a nonprofit consumer watch dog organization, kicked off the "Buy Dry Land" campaign last Nov. in Richmond Hill.

To date, Chandra Brown, the Ogeechee/Canoochee Riverkeeper and executive director, said the community still has a lot to understand about what the campaign represents.

"Across the state, many new homeowners are finding that the home they purchased is severely flooded during moderate to heavy rainfall," the campaign’s original press release said.

With Coastal Georgia’s population looking to reach almost 850,000 within the next two decades, "developers are building more and more homes in drained and ditched wetlands," the release said. With only moderate rainfall, to these properties, land that is dry in some seasons can quickly return to wetlands for up to weeks at a time.

State officials have estimated that up to 70 percent of Georgia’s flood plain maps are outdated 20 years or more. As a result, homeowners don’t realize their "new" property is in an unmapped, expanding flood plain, and don’t purchase flood insurance until it’s too late, the release said.

To find out more about the campaign, visit www.buydryland.org, or www.georgiawatch.org/buydryland.html.