ATLANTA – Turning to the likes of Alexis de Tocqueville and Thomas Paine for inspiration, Gov. Sonny Perdue today urged the state legislature “to carry a heavy load” and “do the hard thing now for the sake of” future generations.
“What stands out most is each generation’s willingness to pick up the yoke and move our nation forward,” Purdue said in his final State of the State. “It has not always been pretty … but what has never happened in this nation … is for one generation to drop the yoke and wait for the next to pick it up. And neither have they weighted them down with unbearable burdens.
“This is our time to carry a heavy load … to do the hard thing now for the sake of our children and grandchildren,” Perdue said, speaking before a joint session of the General Assembly.
As it stands now, 2010 looks as though it could be as difficult as 2009. For example, year-to-date revenue collections for Fiscal Year 2010, which started July 1, are down 13.7 percent compared to Fiscal Year 2009, according to state numbers.
“It would be easy to sit here and dread the tough decisions that lie ahead,” Perdue said. “But now is not the time to retreat. Now is the time to dig in even deeper and do the hard things so that our children and grandchildren will know a better Georgia.
“It’s a tall order, but ours is a high calling, and you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t men and women especially marked by optimism, ambition and an unmovable belief that we should be working to make things the way they ought to be,” the governor added.
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