Gasaway, Wilkinson Review Legislative Session

Local leaders receive an update on the recently completed state legislative session in Atlanta.

50th District State Senator John Wilkinson and 28th District State Representative Dan Gasaway appeared before local leaders at a Post-Legislative Coffee event Wednesday at the Mitchell Allen Meeting Room at the historic train depot in Toccoa.

Gasaway said the session was a very difficult one for him and he is glad it is over.

“We had a lot of tough issues that had a lot of pressure,” said Gasaway. “I am glad it is over. This was very different from my first two sessions.”

Gasaway said one of the biggest issues was transportation and the legislation that changed how the state figures fuel taxes, moving to an excise tax and away from sales tax on fuel.

He said that bill was one example of a legislative process that he feels needs to be looked at closely.

“We have come to accept that we have this 40-day session and this part-time legislature and we accept what we get and if it is rushed, that’s okay,” said Gasaway. “What we are talking about here should have been better thought through than it was. This is modern times. We all have computers, we have technology. We do not need to be making decisions that affect unknown amounts of people at 8 o’clock at night without any debate whatsoever and voting hours later. That is what happened.”

Gasaway said he just wants to see the system created through the transportation bill work and is confident that within a few years, the state will hit its revenue projections for the bill.

Meanwhile, Wilkinson said the transportation bill was something that needed to be done, noting that the state’s funding formula for transportation had not changed in decades.

Wilkinson said that he was also pleased with money put towards education in the state’s budget.

“When I look at the budget and what we did with some of the increase we had because revenues were up,” said Wilkinson. “We took $280 million and we gave that to local school systems.”

He said the goal was to replace some austerity cuts, just like last year.

Wilkinson added that the state also increased funding in some areas of higher education.

The state senator was also asked about his bill that would allow school systems to switch to elected school superintendents and boards of education selected by a grand jury.

Wilkinson said he put the bill forward not because electing a superintendent is necessarily better than appointing, but because communities do not have a choice at this time.

“There are some challenges with the system we have in place,” said Wilkinson. “Sometimes I think if you elected a superintendent it might provide a little more accountability.”

Wilkinson said having school board members chosen by a grand jury could also bring people into the school board that might be willing to serve, but not willing to go through a campaign to do so for a job that pays practically nothing.

He explained that the bill will be back under consideration next year.

Wednesday’s Post-Legislative Coffee was put on by the Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce.