Georgia received $750,000 in transportation funding out of a possible $1.25 billion.

Georgia also slipped to the second tier in the Race to the Top for federal funds for education.

While D.C. passes out billions in stimulus dollars, we here in Georgia are being ignored. Whether you like the stimulus package or not, the reality is, we’re already paying for it.

What’s going on?

It’s called being an orphan state.

Georgia must be included if we are to reverse 15 percent unemployment. As of July 1, we are facing a $3 billion budget deficit in the state.

If we’d been able to access the funds for transportation, Georgia could have shifted general fund dollars from stalled road projects to job creation programs. If our governor would lobby for us instead of exchanging barbs with our U.S. representatives, we might have millions in federal dollars that are passing us by on its way to our neighbors.

As long as Georgia leaves money on the table, we will fall further and further behind North Carolina and Florida. Charlotte is already jockeying to reposition itself as the hub of the southeast.

Florida is a lot like Georgia with a lame duck Republican governor and mixed representation in D.C. The difference is their governor knows how to get money back to Florida that taxpayers have sent to Washington. Gov. Charlie Christ lobbied Washington for the funds needed to stabilize the state and move it forward.

It’s about time elected officials stopped being partisan and worked for the people who elected them.

Kelvin Bouie Sr.Chairman of the Democratic Committee of Decatur County