ATLANTA - Governor Barnes has avoided the fiscal disasters straining Georgia's cash-strapped neighbors: the budget wasn't decimated, taxes weren't raised and a controversy over the state flag was relegated to history. <br>
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As a campaigner, Barnes cites his entrepreneurial roots in his family's dry-goods retail store and the appreciation it taught him for temperate business practices. As governor, he's twice ordered agency heads to squeeze a total of 7.5 percent savings from their budgets and has requested another one percent be reserved for possible future cuts in the current budget. <br>
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No state workers have been laid off and funds for education -- Barnes' signature effort in his three-plus years -- have remained untouchable. <br>
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In a recent inverview with The Associated Press, Barnes said, ``I try to operate the state as near as possible with the business principles that I was taught since I was a child.'' <br>
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Others see him as a power-hungry CEO who creates multitudes of state boards and commissions populated with friends to advance his agenda. <br>
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Ralph Reed Junior, chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, says under Barnes, Georgia has suffered a continuing ``transportation quagmire,'' an inability to identify future water sources and taxes that remain higher than most neighboring states. <br>
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Barnes hopes to spur economic growth and development with state spending he's pressing for nearly one billion dollars in new bond issues. Republicans contend tax cuts work far better.
