Like many of us faced with an economy that seems to want to grind our eyeballs out one rod and cone at a time, the state of Georgia is trying to make ends meet. And finding it painful.
Here's a suggestion or two that might save a few thousand bucks.
Don’t replace certain traffic signs. Better yet, recycle the ones currently standing and sell the metal for scrap.
You might think that’s a bad idea, but ask yourself this: When’s the last time you actually drove the speed limit? And no, 5-10-15 mph over the posted limit doesn't count.
That's what I figured. Just about the only people who drive the speed limit anymore are those who are either too intoxicated to read the numbers right or are afraid to get pulled over because they either don‘t have insurance or a license or they're wanted.
I'm not sure how much money scrapping traffic signs would save. But still, why waste the tax dollars?
Speed limit signs aren’t the only signs that could go. There are plenty of invisible yield signs out there as well. And those signs urging motorists to keep in the right lane unless they're passing might as well be written in Swahili, that's how much good they do.  
While we’re at it, why require a driver’s license in the first place? Or traffic cops? Or road maintenance?
 The state could save hundreds of millions each year by simply closing up shop at the DOT, the GOHS and DDS and letting folks take their chances getting from A to B. Of course, the result would be anarchy.  Which isn’t all that far from the way it is now, especially on Fridays.
Besides, since many don't want government in health care, why should they want it in transportation?
Quick hits:
- Speaking of saving money, the Bryan County Board of Education recently mandated that both sides of a sheet of paper be used when making copies.
Say what you want about newspapers, but we’ve been using both sides of paper for years now.
- If I understood this right, and there’s every possibility that I didn’t, Pembroke officials don’t want folks building bricked up mailboxes in front of new homes. The reason given at the most recent City Council meeting was liability.  
Stay with me now.

It seems mailboxes in subdivisions often tend to be on government right of ways. In this case Pembroke’s.
Of course, we know that most mailboxes don’t move. They don't leap about or do the Pee Wee Herman. They can't because they don't have feet, but that's another story.
Instead, mailboxes generally stay very still, which makes them a reasonably easy target to miss.
Easier to hit too, evidently.
Especially if it's dark and there are no streetlights or headlights or the driver isn't paying attention.
Bricked-up mailboxes, being more weighty, obviously pose more of a danger to vehicles which might strike them than, say, a mailbox atop an ordinary post.
Which means someone is more likely to get hurt, which means then he or she might be tempted to sue somebody. And because the mailboxes are on city right of ways, guess who's liable? The government.
Anyway, that was the gist of what I gathered. 
I could be wrong. I often am. And no, I don't know whether a homeowner gets to sue anybody back if an F-150 full of teenagers takes out his brick mailbox. Or better yet, visit revenge upon the driver's mailbox.
I can always hope, though.

Whitten is editor of the Bryan County News.