The $23 Million "Go Fish Georgia Center" will be built in Perry, Georgia.

Is it an investment to help a slumping state economy or a pet project pushed by a governor who has an admitted fondness for fishing and the outdoors? Like most other states, Georgia is facing a budget crunch and looking to make up a $1.6 billion shortfall, so Governor Sonny Perdue told state agencies to cut spending by 6 percent.  Those financial sacrifices are slicing into state programs that provide healthcare, education and some veteran’s services.  But just two months after the governor asked for the drastic cuts across the board, he signed paperwork to begin construction on $23 million fishing welcome center under his “Go Fish Georgia” program.  The welcome center, which just happens to be located near the Governor’s home in Houston County, will include an educational facility, fish and wildlife exhibits, state-of-the-art theaters, a nature trail, a fishing pond and a new fish hatchery.  The “Go Fish Georgia Center” is the centerpiece of the $19 million dollar state investment proposed by the Governor and approved by the legislature in 2007.  Select lakes and rivers are getting new boat ramps to attract world-class fishing tournaments to the state.  The Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the project and will likely benefit from it, says fishing has a $1.9 billion economic impact on Georgia and could help stimulate rural economies.

Fishing as a Business

Professional Angler Jason Williamson and FOX News Producer Brooks Blanton on Clarks Hill Lake in Georgia

Charlie Beale is the Recreational Manager for Columbia County near Augusta, Georgia.  He says investments in new boat ramps at nearby ClarksHill Lake has helped attract major fishing tournaments which bring worldwide media coverage.  He says local businesses like hotels, restaurants, convenience stores and gas stations benefit greatly from recreational fishing and major tournaments.  “Well I think a lot of the businesses in our area are impacted greatly with it.  There may be some businesses that are going out of business if we weren’t bringing the tourism dollars from the fishing in the area,”  Beale says.

Bukeye Lures is an obvious benefactor of attracting major league fishing tournaments to Georgia.  The company manufactures and sells fishing tackle which are marketed and sold across the country.  President and CEO Jeremy Altman says hosting a major fishing tournament in Georgia can have immediate and long-term impacts on their sales.  “Not only in the direct sales that you have that week, but you have residual sales through the year,” Altman says.  “The money is probably going to be made back within 5 to 10 years minimum and that will be a huge asset for even my children.”

Critics say Money Better Spent

But not everyone sees $19 million in tax dollars going to fishing as a wise investment, especially during hard economic times.  Many democratic lawmakers, who approved the expenditures in 2007, now say the state has taken a drastic downturn and the project should be put on hold.  Some say it’s hard to explain building a Fishing Welcome Center to constituents who are making serious sacrifices themselves.

Mindy Binderman is the Director at Voices for Georgia’s Children, a group that advocates for laws and policy that affect Georgia’s children.  She says state-funded health and education programs that serve children are being severely cut at the request of the governor and is concerned that Georgia still ranks near the bottom when it comes to children’s causes.  “About 12 percent of our children in this state are uninsured.  In 2005 that meant we ranked 41 in terms of kids health outcomes.  We believe that every child should have insurance and that every child should be covered,” says Binderman.  She says she understands that the state needs to invest in economic and recreation projects to spur economic activity. But she also thinks Georgia Lawmakers, including the governor, should be investing in schools, hospitals and building better roads to create jobs instead.  “I want parks for my kids, I want beautiful places for them to go enjoy the natural resources that we have in Georgia,” Binderman says.  “At the same time, I want them to have access to schools and have access to the best healthcare possible.”

If you build it… will they come?

Gov. Sonny Perdue, (R) Georgia

Despite criticism, the governor stands behind his “Go Fish” program as an investment that he predicts will give the state a return on its money many times over.  He also points out that the funding was approved nearly two years ago and has already been spent, making it impossible to help the current budget problems.  Binderman hopes the Governor’s prediction is true and maybe that investment in fishing and the money it returns can help improve programs she says are so vital to protecting Georgia’s youngest citizens.  “That we invest in prevention programs for kids and we invest in capital funding programs again that are targeted to real needs in this state.”

By Adam Shapiro, FOX Business Network correspondent

“Who wants to have a gas-guzzling dinosaur in his garage? Think of the gas bills!” - George Romney, April 6, 1959.

Small was big in 1954 and one U.S. car maker got it right.  Not GM (GM), not Ford (F), not Chrysler.  The car company that saw the future, but never lived to see it, was the now dead American Motors. (Triumphant trumpets blow). Toward the end, they produced some of the ugliest cars ever envisioned – Pacer, Gremlin – remember those? But long before some AMC designer first sketched the Pacer and Gremlin (probably on a residual acid trip mid 1970s), American Motors was producing a popular small car called the Rambler. (Angelic harp music plays even though I am a Studebaker man, we must give Rambler its due.)

Little Rambler actually got its start in the early 1950s thanks to George Mason, who was in charge of Nash Kelvinator (they also made kitchen appliances).  Mason decided that his company, needed to build a small affordable post war car.  The Rambler was born. (Chorus sings hallelujah). Nash also sold the small and popular Metropolitan but it was built by Austin Motors of England so the Rambler holds the title as the first truly all American post war small car. (Studebaker perfectionists forgive me; there is no time now to mention the Lowey designed 1953 coupe, and the Lark, which deserves praise, is just a Scotsman with the front and back chopped off).  OK, back to the Rambler.  It was from the first day a huge, undisputed triumphant…. FLOP!  Back then people joked, “Did you hear about the man who was hit by a Rambler and went to the hospital to have it removed?”  Rambler was not exactly what we call an overnight sensation. (Sad ominous music plays.) But George Romney (Mitt’s daddy) was!

Romney became American Motors CEO in 1954 after the Nash Hudson merger was completed and George Mason unexpectedly died.  Romney inherited a company on the brink of bankruptcy. AMC lost money in 1955 and 1956 but by 1957 the company moved back to profitability.  How? Romney eliminated the larger cars AMC produced and used the small Rambler to save it!

Romney traveled the country promoting the Rambler speaking to community groups about the need to purchase small fuel efficient cars.  This was the mid 1950’s and while the big three auto makers ignored Romney the buying public listened and liked what they heard.  A 1959 time magazine article profiling Romney quotes an executive from GM saying, “Romney’s been selling a dream — price and economy – but he’s done a good job at it.”  (Nasty music plays here) Even then GM executives failed to get it!  Romney wasn’t selling a dream; he sold a product consumers wanted, a good small car.

In 1957, the U.S. economy was in recession, the big three auto makers were losing millions (sound familiar) and Rambler sales were rising! (HUH?) That Time magazine article profiling Romney says that In 1958 American Motors netted a $26 million profit while Ford and Chrysler lost $61 million.   But here’s the rub, that same article talks about the rising demand for small cars!  American Motors Rambler had 1.6% of the US car market in 1957 by 1959 it captured 6.2% and was the fifth top selling car.  More troubling for GM, Ford and Chrysler, Imports in 1959 captured 10% of the market up from 0.8% in 1954.  (Chorus gasps in horror). That’s right, in six years imports went from 0.8% of the market to 10%. Romney’s so called dream, price and economy turned out to be the big three’s nightmare. This ability to dangerously ignore the market is nothing new for Ford, Chrysler and GM which had no small car offerings until 1960.

Detroit’s big three were running for cover in 1959 attempting to design their own small cars, “compacts”.  Allow me to quote directly from Time Magazine April 6, 1959.  “General Motors is pressing its suppliers in hopes of getting into pilot production in May, is expected to be the first to introduce its compact car, a rear engine job, in August or early September.  Ford’s economy car is scheduled for December introduction, Chrysler’s for February.”   History remembers the Chevy Corvair, Ford Falcon and Dodge Dart as successful cars.  Ralph Nader would object to that last sentence, but those machines were the panicked production of industry leaders that were playing follow the leader and failed to see the future which was not just staring them in the face, it was clobbering them over the head!

Fast forward to December 10, 2008.  Congress is about to vote on a multi billion dollar bridge loan to save GM, Ford and Chrysler. Executives at those companies blame the current credit crisis for their problems but I believe the death blow was delivered by their own ignorance 50 years ago.  Out of fairness to Ford, they have been attempting to right their ship since 2006.  Few people expect Chrysler to stay in business, with or without a bailout, past next year and GM which has also been attempting to get it right will be much smaller, forced to shed some of its product lines.  How sad.  Where would GM, Ford and Chrysler be today if they had listened to George Romney, when he said, “The dinosaur perished because he got too big.”

For continuing coverage on the bailout and what it means for you, tune in to FOX Business Network.

As the Big Three CEOs face round two of hearings on Capitol Hill, many Americans are still asking the question: to bail, or not to bail? The heads of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have asked for $34 billion in loans in order to remain afloat through the current financial crisis. Today’s debates in the Capitol follow this morning’s release of a Labor Department report showing a November net loss of 533,000 jobs — the highest loss in 34 years.

So, here’s your opportunity to post comments and speak out! What do  you think? How should the government handle the Big Three?

Plus, read more thoughts on the bailout from our FOX News Crews!

By Jim Angle, FOX News Correspondent

One reason the automakers are seeking help, they say, is the economic crisis which leaves many consumers tightening their belts. Even many of those who want to buy a car may be unable to get credit.

And that is hitting all the automakers. November sales are down more than 40 percent at GM and Chrysler… and more than 30 percent at Ford. But Japanese companies are down 32 to 42 percent as well.

But the US industry says all the focus on a rescue has obscured a widely unappreciated fact — how far the US companies have come in recent years to change their cars to make them more fuel efficient.

Today I talked with two people associated with GM about how far they have come. Watch my package that aired yesterday on FOX News Channel.

By Jeff Flock, FOX Business Network Correspondent

It’s so quiet you can hear the compressor on the Coke machine come on inside the UAW local 652 union hall here in Lansing, Michigan.  Autoworkers from the GM plant across town which builds the Cadillac CTS are gathered to watch the hearings on Capitol Hill that will likely decide their futures.  They’ve invited us from the Fox Business Network to watch with them and we’ve hooked up a non-stop feed of hearings from Washington so they don’t miss anything.

Mike Green, the president of the local who has worked for GM for exactly 30 years this year is sometimes suspicious of reporters who come to ask him about autoworkers making too much money or getting paid for not working or refusing to cooperate with the company to be more efficient.  He thinks people don’t have their facts straight.  But today he is open to all questioners.  Mike was hired into GM when he was 17-years-old, after he got his high school degree early.  “I’m a goddamn genius” he tells me, “And that’s the first lie I’ve told you.”

Mike says if they didn’t in the past, the quality of American cars now compare to anyone’s in the world.  And he’s not alone.  ‘Road and Track’ named the Cadillac CTS made here in town the 2008 Car of the Year.

Mike introduced me to Gary Watson, former president of the union but now just another GM retiree worrying about a pension he paid into for four decades if GM goes bankrupt.  “Even if there’s money enough left to pay my pension I’d have to spend it all on health care which I’d have to pay for myself if they go out.”
Randy Freeman, the union VP here, wonders about all the work they’ve done to improve people’s confidence in GM products.  The Lansing Cadillac plant has a unique union contract that focuses on flexibility and quality; it’s because of that, he says, that they beat out all the Japanese, German and other competitors from around the world for car of the year.  “Are people gonna have confidence in a car made by a bankrupt company?” he asks.

Jake Jacobsen is here watching, too.  He works for one of the thousands of suppliers that service Detroit’s big three… many of them sell to all three as well as the foreign companies that make their cars here in the US.  He watches GM CEO Rick Wagoner speak, but as he does he thinks about a co-worker who asked this morning, “Jake, do you think I’m gonna have a job when this is all over?”  He and the others wonder about Wall Street executives “who didn’t even have to go to Washington and they got $700 billion.”

Some here think the Congress didn’t get enough accountability when they gave the money to Wall Street, so now Main Street is getting ‘the shaft.’

Watching the auto hearings through the eyes of the people who would take the hit if the US car makers go out of business calls to mind what everyone said was the reason for the Wall Street bailout: ‘if we don’t do it, a lot of people will get hurt beyond the corporate CEOs and management.’  I’m in a room with a lot of those people.

We’re watching Rick Wagoner and Bob Nardelli and Alan Mulally speak on Capitol Hill.  The truth is that they will be fine even if their companies fail.

The Mikes, Garys, Randys and Jakes may not be.

Visit FOX Business Network for the latest news and exclusive coverage on the auto bailout.