[Press Release -]

Press Release:

Personal Finances – Melissa Morrison

 

Yes, we have past due personal notes which now have liens against us personally. All our personal and business taxes were paid.

 

When we shut down Agro Environmental Systems/Surepip Hatchery Equipment after getting stuck by BC Rogers Poultry in Morton Miss for $250,000, in 2000/2001 we sold off various parts of the business, and placed the remaining inventory on consignment with a company in Jacksonville who felt they could sell it, and the balance of machines with another company in Danielsville, Ga.

 

When the dust settled, using our business line of credit from the bank we had used for 10+ years, we borrowed funds to pay off all our accounts receivable and taxes. This was an annual renewable note which went up and down according to the capital requirements. We paid the interest and reduced the principle by 10% twice a year. As we sold some of the remaining inventory, we paid down the note.

 

That bank was sold about 4 years ago, and this note was sold to an outside group. They called the note due at the next renewal. There was no way to pay the note off, and they chose to call in our personal guarantee.

 

In order to keep our lawsuits against the developer and the Paulding Board of Commissioners ongoing because of the senseless tidal wave of litigation tactic they chose to use against us because we were exercising our 1st Amendment right to seek redress against government. After exhausting our savings and spending more than $200,000 to keep the suits alive we borrowed on the value of our “front acreage”, Same bank, same type of note. The new owners called the note due. We were unable to pay.

 

We could have chosen the bankruptcy route for the business as did my incumbent opponent, leaving almost a million dollars in unpaid creditors, which forced some small business owners out of business.

 

My husband and I may have liens now still to satisfy with the banks, but we can go to sleep at night knowing we did not force hardships on our suppliers and creditors. We did not force anyone out of business and we paid our taxes.

 

Our litigation with the BoC is indeed a cry for Justice on behalf of all the citizens of Paulding County. Every county department who was at all involved with what took place when Palisades was developed 2005/2006 failed us, and it was Ben Skipper with Community Development who told us, after acknowledging changing our buffers from 40’ to 25’, that, “If we didn’t like it then sue us”, and we did.

 

If you have an specific questions please contact me by pm, email, or phone. My website is votemelissamorrison.paulding.com

[Melissa Morrison for State House District 19]

I happen to know that you lobbied hard for it. I had many discussions with you about it. I am still waiting for her answer not yours but thanks anyway.

An academic exercise in futility, ....sorry I could not post on my membername earlier.

 

I will answer your questions with dignity while being honest.

Hence, my answer again.....

 

NJ,

 

Sorry for the delay, it was a busy weekend campaigning.

 

I was hoping, when Congress took up the Healthcare Reform,they would actually reform it. We were, and others we know, paying $30,000 ayear for mediocre BCBS coverage.

 

Unfortunately, what Congress ended up passing isunconstitutional and totally unacceptable as written.

 

How can anyone be FOR Obamacare!

 

So to answer your question, No, I am not a supporter of Obamacare.

Melissa

[Melissa Morrison for State House District 19]

Concerning HB87 and the DREAM Act:

 

I clearly stated we do need to address the illegal problems. At NO time did I write or say anything about perpetuating the situation or granting amnesty. Please quit twisting my words to suit your agenda. If you want to disagree, fine. But don’t put words in my mouth and don’t warp or twist what I write please.

 

HB87 is flawed. Let’s fix the flaws and move on.

 

I am against any type of blind amnesty. No Amnesty, ….period.

 

I have no problem with having a Georgia law concerning illegals, and deporting them.

 

But it needs to be a constitutionally sound law that covers the issues without depriving citizens of their rights. As per the various Homeland Security Legislation on the Federal level, this type of legislation is stealing American citizen’s rights by the State. And that is just as wrong as the Feds stealing them.

 

So explain to me, under HB87, just what happens when a vehicle you are riding in is profiled, stopped, and everyone asked for their papers? Your driver’s license is NOT proof of citizenship or that you are here legally.

 

What do you do?

 

As written, LEOs can stop ANYONE and demand to see their papers. If they do not have any proof of legally being in this country they can be taken to jail and detained until such time they can obtain proof of their citizenship. You would sit in jail until you were able to get someone to bring your passport to get you released. No passport or available birth certificate…then sit in jail.

 

You really think that is constitutionally correct?

 

Take it a step further, and say your neighbor’s cousin is in the car with you, and it turns out the cousin is an illegal. Everyone in the car goes to jail, and can be charged and convicted of a felony with a 5 year sentence for harboring an illegal.

 

It’s a poorly written law.

Let’s stop arguing about that and see to it that HB87 is replaced with a sound piece of legislation that covers all the bases. We need to address this before the courts strike down HB87 as I believe they will within the next year, leaving us right back where we were in the 1st place.

 

At the same time, close the loopholes.

Why the exemptions for less than 5 employees with E-Verify? As written, a builder with 8 employees simply has 4 working for 2 different companies. No need for E-Verify and he stays under the radar with his illegals.

 

So I ask again, just how do you propose we address the problems with HB87?

 

 

 

I clearly stated I have NOT read and looked at all the details in the DREAM Act.

And again, I am against AMNESTY.

 

As I understand the DREAM Act, and I may be in error, please feel free to show me where I am wrong….. it is offering an opportunity to open a means for eventual permanent residency status to these people under 30 who were brought here as a minor children who have NEVER been in any trouble, who have graduated from high school, and who are self supported with employment of some type.

 

Even after completing the program for I believe 4-8 years, paying their taxes, no trouble with the law, they still have a long and somewhat arduous route to permanent residency or citizenship. This is far from amnesty.

 

So you have a lady who was brought here as a young child. She goes to school, graduates from college, goes to Med School and is ready to enter the workforce. She can apply for the DREAM Act, and become a further asset to the community and our country as a tax paying member of society, or we can deport her when she tries to get a legal paycheck and send her back to a country she does not even remember leaving as a young child.

 

This appears to be a means to legalize, legitimize, and tax a reasonable percentage of these Non-Anchor babies/children WITHOUT amnesty,

Or do nothing as we have been, and let them continue to fly under the radar.

 

Just how do you suggest we handle them?

 

Who is going to go around trying to arrest and deport them?

Who pays for doing this?

When this was discussed with Gary Gulledge in reference to I.C.E. 2 years ago he was adamant about not wanting to have anything to do with the program.

So do we create a new state LEO Agency to profile and arrest suspected illegals?

How long before they are back here and arrested only to be deported again?

 

Any with arrests or other run-ins with the law, or high school drop-outs are ineligible.

 

To reiterate once again:

I am against amnesty.

I do want legislation to control our illegal worker problems, but I want a constitutional law that can be enforced to catch and deport the illegals without infringing on the rights of the rest of the citizens. And I would prefer this to be a Federal law to create a level playing field all around the country.

[Melissa Morrison for State House District 19]

Since you are running against the incumbent, I would like to know based upon her voting record as our state representative; how would you have voted differently? You already made it clear you would have voted against HB 87 because it didn't allow illegals amnesty.

Again, you twist and turn my response. I made it clear I would not have voted for HB87 as written because it is/was seriously flawed and required, in my opinion, some re-writing. NOWHERE did I mention amnesty of any sort.

 

What's with you and amnesty?

 

I do NOT endorse amnesty for illegal aliens period.

[Melissa Morrison for State House District 19]

You support giving illegal immigrants amnesty because we invested in their public education and they have jobs here? Seriously?

Please show me where I endorsed any type, shape, or form of amnesty. I suggest you review the details as outlined in the DREAM ACT. It clearly does NOT endorse amnesty.

 

I have asked for your suggestions and input, and instead you twist my words to fit your agenda.

 

What do you suggest we do?

[Melissa Morrison for State House District 19]

Melissa, partisanship bothers me as a voter. In such difficult times, I want a pragmatic candidate who puts the needs of his/her constituents above the desires of his/her party. Given the extremely hard-line resistance to tax increases from your party, would you vote in favor of a state-wide tax increase if you had arranged for a nice chunk of the proceeds to end up back in Paulding? For instance (poor example), say there was a 1% increase proposed to the state income tax but yet you had assurances that some of the proceeds would go to pay for a Paulding reservoir in full....would you vote for or against the tax increase?

 

 

mrnn

I assume you are asking if I would support a tax increase that was indeed a PORK project for Paulding.

 

Yes, I would support it if we were getting a sufficient [100% plus] return on valid projects we need for the county as a whole.

 

Kind of like when Chairman Shearin agreed to give $1million plus to GRTA in return for getting $13Million plus from GDOT to build the Hiram Bypass. No-brainer on that one.

 

Absolutely yes, and as the representative for Paulding, I would be remiss in my fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of district 19 to do otherwise, regardless of partisan politics.

 

It would not be fiscally conservative to bypass such an opportunity, per your example, of getting Richland Creek Reservoir completed.

[Melissa Morrison for State House District 19]

Two more questions for Mrs. Morrison:

 

Will you be voting yes or no on the TSPLOST in July ?

 

Do you support using taxpayer dollars to build

industrial parks for private sector business ?

Currently, the jury on TSPLOST is still out for me.

 

We do NOT need another tax.

 

But with the state of the economy, how do we maintain the highway systems we have without the money to pay for it?

 

We all know how bad the Hiram Sprawl is every afternoon, not to mention 61 North through Dallas.

 

What and how do we address such issues?

 

 

No I don't believe it is the government's job to be an industrial developer.

 

However, I am for Public/Private Joint Venture Developments.

 

If the county or other governmental entity can work out such an enterprise where the governmental entity stands to make a profit from helping businesses to locate locally, as a landlord partner, then yes, it makes good sense to me.

 

I am not for giving away the farm though, just to bring a business here.

 

It has to be an economically sound approach.

 

One such possibility for a joint venture would be to develop the Spray Fields property along the Norfolk-Southern tracks off Bill Carruth when they are fully decommissioned. I believe such a venture is already in the "talking" stage.

 

I would be willing to endorse the county to pay to grade, cut the roads, and build the infrastructure. They could then sell the lots to a private developer for a minimal down payment, with the balance due when they lease the building.

 

Win-win for all concerned and a means to bring more economic development to town.

[Melissa Morrison for State House District 19]

 

And before Melissa spouts about her Ag credentials, maybe she should speak to her former employer because I did. She couldn't even keep his schedule straight. If she can't do the easiest of tasks, what makes anyone think she is up for this responsibility.....

Good Morning. And congratulations on avoiding the topics at hand. I will reply to this once, and then move on to answering specific pertinent questions best I can.

 

Concerning your remarks about my job performance while I was Deputy Commission Coleman’s administrative assistant:

 

I spoke with him this morning and he informed me he has not spoken with you or anyone else about me and will be happy to confirm this to anyone else who wants to contact him. I assume you have his cell number. If not give me a call and I’ll give it to you. Dr Carter Black III also spoke with me this morning and suggested you give him a call as well about my job performance and qualifications for this District 19 House seat. He is still with the Ag Department on a part time consulting basis.

 

FYI: When I interviewed for the job as his assistant he specifically asked me who I voted for in the 2006 election for Ag Department Commissioner.

 

I honestly replied my husband and I both supported and voted for Gary Black, a rock solid Republican. At the time I assumed the former Democrat Speaker of the House might hold this against me.

 

Much to my surprise, he hired me for the job none the less.

 

We had our political differences but I performed my job duties well, with excellent job performance reviews and was with him for over 2 years, right up until the day he left.

 

Several times I was offered other positions within the Ag Department and he refused to sign off so he could keep me in his office.

 

I suggest you might want to consider staying with pertinent topics and let the Gold Dome gossip stay at the Gold Dome.

 

Melissa, would you have voted for HB 87? Would you, if you could, vote for the "Dream Act"? Just rying to find out where you stand on illegal immigration. I know where Paulette stands.

HB87 is Flawed as written, and I would have insisted on some re-writes before endorsing it. We are in need of serious immigration controls and reforms, but this bill is not the fix.

 

It excludes businesses with fewer than four employees from having to verify the immigration status of their employees.

Why exempt any company, large or small?

 

Authorizes bigger government

 

Mandates that all immigrants, legal and otherwise must ALWAYS have their documents on their person. Jim Crowe all over again.

 

Allows “Show me your papers” or “let’s go to jail” by profiling.

This includes US citizens who unknowingly have an illegal in their car if stopped.

Are we to require proof of residency/citizenship of anyone we allow into our automobile ?

Do you carry proof of residency/citizenship ?

 

The point is, HB87 is flawed, seriously, and desperately needs to be amended. It would behoove us to take care of this prior to the pending court rulings.

 

The DREAM act was just signed as an executive order last Friday I believe, and I am not fully up to speed on all of the details. This originally, best I recall was a bill proposed by several Republicans, including Orin Hatch. It has bounced around the Senate for the past 10 years in various versions.

 

The basic premise is the fact we have a huge financial investment in all of these illegal children, now adults, who we have paid to educate. They are here, working, and flying under the radar paying little to no taxes. The DREAM Act would provide them a legal means to seek legal working status with many restrictions, while they work, paying taxes and being a legitimate part of the community.

 

I would appreciate input and feedback from the voters of Paulding County on these 2 issues.

[Melissa Morrison for State House District 19]

Mrs. Morrison,

 

To help us get to know you better, could you tell us what your motivation is in running for this office?

 

Also...what are your goals and objectives should you be elected?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Thank you for asking.

 

My primary motivation has been the number of people I know in District 19 who have been asking me long before I retired in February, “Why don’t you run for the District 19 Seat ?, And their numerous reasons for asking”

 

So I am running.

 

My husband and I moved our manufacturing business here in 1989, and we know what a convenient place Paulding is for such businesses. We actually brought 2 other European companies with us as we only needed half the building at that time. Unfortunately for the county, when it came time for us to utilize the entire building after their leases expired, there were no other places for them to rent in Paulding. So they moved to Illinois and Oklahoma.

 

While working for the State Ag Department, I saw first hand what other counties were doing to attract industry, warehousing, manufacturing, etc., and how little Paulding was doing. From my 25+ years dealing with International businesses allied to the poultry industry I know and understand what these companies are looking for and what needs to be done to bring them to Paulding.

 

My goals under the Goal Dome

 

Return Honesty and Integrity to the District 19th Representative Seat.

 

Bring true Constitutional Conservative Values to the Seat

 

Work to clean up our [non-existent] Ethics Commission and to provide it with Legislation to severely penalize Politicians and Lobbyists who choose to abuse the system.

 

True Economic Development…..not just fast food and big box stores,…..retail that just re-circulates existing money actually becomes more of a burden on the infrastructure instead of helping pay for it.

 

I will work to modify the qualifications for the Economic Tier System so that Paulding can qualify as a Tier 2 level county instead of Tier 3 just because we abut Cobb, a Tier 4 county. This severely penalizes Paulding and gives Haralson, Polk, Bartow and Carroll and undue advantage over us.

[Melissa Morrison for State House District 19]

I did a Google search and it turned up nothing for "Melissa Morrison Democrat" or several variations. I am surprised people haven't figured out how to use search engines yet.

 

aboortzion? Really? There is nothing a GA legislator can do about that and anyone who even makes it an issue is either a partisan hack or woefully ignorant.

 

I would like to know Morrison's stance on transportation. We desperately need a better system of transportation and a means of paying for it. If the infrastructure crumbles, it costs more to rebuild and we lose those businesses that want to locate here.

 

I would also like to know her ideas on raising the state's gasoline tax that Uncle Nathan decided not to enact while prices were down. Stupid move. Gas prices will be back up when he does implement the tax and it will just hurt worse. While the price of gas is down, now is the time to raise a lot of money and it not be as painful.

 

Lastly, I would like to know if she has any ideas on the growing indigent care problems in Paulding.

 

Thanks for some tough questions. I will do my best to answer such pertinent issues.

 

Yes we need help with transportation infrastructure, improvements and paying for it. Anyone coming through the Hiram Sprawl at 5:30 in the afternoon can see that.

Economic Development if Paulding, bringing business ventures here with manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, etc., instead of just retail will go a long way to helping our traffic problems by creating jobs which pay well here in Paulding.

 

Paulding already has public transportation. Mr Richardson and Shearin cut that deal with the GDOT 10 years ago bringing the GRTA Bus system to Hiram. It is well used. I personally road the GRTA Bus to and from Movies 278 to my job at the Ag Department across the street from the Gold Dome for 5+ years, 5 days a week. It is a well used system as I often had to stand on the bus which left downtown at 4:30. It is too bad these buses only run in the early morning and late afternoon.

 

If elected I will continue to promote, and personally use GRTA to get to and from the Capitol instead of burning gas in my car and charging the state mileage.

 

I have to agree is seems foolish to freeze the gas tax option at a time the price of gas is going down. Kind of like closing the barn door after all the horses got out.

 

But that is indeed the governor’s prerogative.

 

Indigent care is becoming more and more of a hardship on the local communities, including Paulding. At the present time we basically have 2 choices…..

1]Turn them away and let them die in the streets

2] Subsidize it, and work for solutions to pay most or all of the costs through a Medicare or Healthcare system.

 

I would have a hard time turning away a child with a broken limb, or other disabling painful injury.

 

But what are the real alternatives if not a public healthcare system of some sort to supplement PeachCare/Medicaire ?

 

What do our citizens suggest we do to handle these situations ?

[Melissa Morrison for State House District 19]

I will respectfully disagree feelip. I still like you though.

 

There is a record to look at now and how she voted is important. I won't trade a conservative vote for a liberal one. Just trying to decide if that is what we have to choose from.

I like Feelip as well!

 

Just to set the record straign, I am not a Liberal by any stretch of the imagination.

 

I am a firm believer in the Constitution as well as State’s Rights.

[Melissa Morrison for State House District 19]

I was definitely glad to read of your conservative beliefs. Does this include aboortzion? What are your views there? Thanks for your time.

Thank you for asking.

 

I am ProLife.

 

I will not discuss the “A” word on p.com as per Pubby’s rules.

 

I will be happy to discuss this with you in person, on the phone, or by email though.

 

My phone number is 770-313-7928

[Melissa Morrison for State House District 19]

I thought that I recognized the name from some Democratic website. May I ask when you joined the GOP?

I Have never been a member of the Democratic party....where do you think you might have seen this Democratic website, with my name?

 

I never found it necessary to physically join the Republican party until I chose to run for office. I was graciously accepted with open arms by the GOP at the Capitol when I qualified,...especially when I announced the seat I was seeking.

[Melissa Morrison for State House District 19]

Ms. Morrison, here is a question...were you previously a Democrat? If so, when did you switch to the Republican Party? Thanks.

Thanks for asking, I have never been a member of the Democratic party. I am a registered member of the Republican party.

Why whould you ask if I was a Democrat?

[Melissa Morrison for State House District 19]

My name is Melissa Morrison and I am running for the State House Seat for the 19th District in the July 31st Republican Primary.

 

My website link is Melissa Morrison for Ga House Seat 19th Distrcit

 

 

I am a Constitutional Conservative....a supporter of our Bill of Rights as well as all the amendments. My husband and I have lived in Paulding County since 1983. We moved our business to Paulding when we bought out the last of our partners in 1989 eventually operating out of 2 buildings in the North Industrial Park near the Sheriff's office with 25 employees.

 

When we downsized and sold off the manufacturing rights in 2006, I went to work for the Georgia Department of Agriculture. First in the Budget and Procurement office, and the following year I was asked to take the position as the administrative assistant to the Deputy Commissioner, Terry Coleman, Speaker Emeritus of the House. 2 years later when he left to run for state office I was transferred to the office of the State Veterinarian, Dr.Carter Black III as his administrative assistant.

 

I left the Ag Department last February after I turned 62 and have decided to utilize my 30+ years of business experience and 5+ years working next to and under the Gold Dome to run for the House Seat for District 19.

 

I am asking for your support, campaign donations, sign placements, and any other help any of you can provide to help send me to the Gold Dome as your representative.