All those people who are complaining about the tall grass in the median of Highway 34 East from Thomas Crossroads to Peachtree City may be happy to hear the Coweta County Commission has decided to cut the grass. That's probably the right thing to do, because the grass is high enough to potentially be a safety issue.
But there's a potential problem with this decision. The county is not supposed to do the cutting along state highways. That's the job of the Georgia DOT, but DOT does not have the money in its budget to keep up with median grass cutting.
Already, Newnan and Coweta County do some of the grass cutting on Highway 34. The city handles the cutting on the road within the city limits. Coweta County does the cutting from the end of the city limits to the Thomas Crossroads area. If that's the case it makes sense for the county to cut all the way to the Peachtree City limits -- at least for now, while the state is not doing its job.
The problem is this may set a bad precedent. If the county takes over the grass cutting on state Highway 34 East, what happens if residents along other state highways want the county to cut the grass along other roadways?
This county versus state "who pays" issue for roadway grass cutting is just one small example of the budget problems in our state. Georgia DOT and every other state agency is strapped because of the budget crisis in Georgia. But our local governments are facing similar tight budgets. The bad economy is not just a state issue. Local governments -- be it the county government, city government or school system -- can't simply fork out the money to take over all state functions.
It's a big issue -- much bigger than just cutting the grass along Highway 34 East. The issue is going to get bigger in the next two years. Somebody has to pay. Whether the county pays, or the state pays, ultimately, taxpayers are going to foot the bill. Or we will have to scale down government and give up some things -- probably things much bigger than cutting the tall grass along our roadways.
