Questions answered by Lamar Paris, County Commissioner
Q. The State of Georgia Legislature is trying to pass a law allowing the sale of alcohol on Sundays and most think it will pass. Governor Perdue vetoed it last year. If it does pass, what will you do with regards to Sunday alcohol sales?
A. I am against Sunday alcohol sales and even if it passes the Georgia Legislature, I will not support it in Union County.
Q. How many alcohol permits has the county issued so far?
A. We have issued a total of six permits. This includes two restaurants, three convenience stores and Wal-Mart. The City of Blairsville has issued licenses for one restaurant, two convenience stores and two grocery stores.
Q. Have there been any problems that you know of with the sale of alcohol?
A. None that we are aware of.
Q. Has the unemployment rate for Union County improved any recently?
A. Actually the unemployment rate has remained the same as when I last reported it in June of last year – at 8.8% as of December 2010.
Q. How does that compare with surrounding counties?
A. Union County has the third lowest unemployment rate out of 13 surrounding counties in our Regional Commission boundary. While any rate over 6% is not good, we could certainly be worse as are several of the other counties.
Banks 7.1%
Forsyth 8 %
Union 8.8%
Hall 9%
Towns 9.2%
Habersham 9.8%
White 10.2%
Dawson 10.5%
Lumpkin 10.6%
Stephens 10.6%
Franklin 11.8%
Hart 12%
Rabun 12.7%
Q. What is the latest in Union County lottery spending?
A. The 2010 Georgia County Guide shows that the citizens of Union County spent $5,767,448 on the lottery in 2009 as compared to $5,825,790 in 2008. Total lottery sales for Georgia was $3.6 billion for 2009.
An interesting comparison, while the citizens of Union County spent $ 5,767,448 on lottery sales, they only spent $5,375,155 on county government property taxes.
You can see by these numbers that while many complain about property taxes, many are also willing to pay more to play the lottery.