Gasaway, Wilkinson Preview Legislative Session

Local state legislators say education and casino gambling will be among the top issues that legislators under the Gold Dome will cover this year.

50th District State Senator John Wilkinson and 28th District State Representative Dan Gasaway both met with local leaders on Thursday at the Mitchell Allen Meeting Room in downtown Toccoa to preview the legislative session.

Gasaway said he wants to hear from the citizens on casino gambling and how they feel about it.

“I do not have a sense of where people are,” said Gasaway. “I know where I stand. It is not really something I support, but when you go to the capacity John and I are in, we represent thousands of people, it is not our individual vote. You are trying to develop a sense of the people’s will on it and we know if it goes on the ballot, it will pass.”

Gasaway said the question for legislators will be whether they will vote for it to be put on the ballot for the public to decide if their constituents are against casino gambling as a whole.

According to the legislators, the state would use its revenue from casino gambling to benefit the HOPE scholarship program.

Gasaway said that while it would potentially have a short-term benefit on the revenue side, there are a lot of negatives that come with it.

Wilkinson agreed that while there may be an upside, there may be a lot of downsides to it also.

“There is a real downside, with the crime and the people spending food money and children being neglected,” said Wilkinson.

He said he would also like to hear from the community on the issue.

Moving to the other main issue legislators talked about, education, Wilkinson said he expects legislators to closely look at recommendations that have come from a task force on education funding.

He said he expects changes to the state’s education funding formula to be considered.

“My goal is to be an advocate for education,” said Wilkinson. “Education is important at all levels. We spend over half our state’s budget on education and we need to spend it in an efficient, effective manner. I really feel we do that for the most part.”

As for Gasaway, he said it is important to make sure that what ever is done is fair to rural Georgia.

He said that as the metropolitan areas continue to grow in the state, that will be something to constantly keep in mind.

“That is an issue, not only for this session and this education reform, but all future things we watch, how do we make sure rural Georgia does not get left behind?” said Gasaway.

Meanwhile, both men responded to concerns from business leaders about teaching students about things like soft skills for the workforce by saying that it is also important for teachers to speak up and make their voices heard.

The Georgia General Assembly’s 2016 session starts on Monday.