Georgia business leaders see Barnes as focused visionary

ATLANTA - Governor Barnes has avoided the fiscal disasters straining Georgia&#39;s cash-strapped neighbors: the budget wasn&#39;t decimated, taxes weren&#39;t raised and a controversy over the state flag was relegated to history. <br> <br> As a campaigner, Barnes cites his entrepreneurial roots in his family&#39;s dry-goods retail store and the appreciation it taught him for temperate business practices. As governor, he&#39;s twice ordered agency heads to squeeze a total of seven-point-five percent savings from their budgets and has requested another one percent be reserved for possible future cuts in the current budget. <br> <br> No state workers have been laid off and funds for education -- Barnes&#39; signature effort in his three-plus years -- have remained untouchable. <br> <br> 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.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Others see him as a power-hungry CEO who creates multitudes of state boards and commissions populated with friends to advance his agenda. <br> <br> Ralph Reed Junior, chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, says under Barnes, Georgia has suffered a continuing ``transportation quagmire,&#39;&#39; an inability to identify future water sources and taxes that remain higher than most neighboring states. <br> <br> Barnes hopes to spur economic growth and development with state spending he&#39;s pressing for nearly one billion dollars in new bond issues. Republicans contend tax cuts work far better.

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