By JANET McGREGOR
jmac_snippets@hotmail.com

Sen. Rick Price, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland and Rep. Kathy Cox gave an overview of current legislature and answered questions posed by members and visitors at the Fayette County Republican Party's First Saturday Breakfast.

Extra tables were moved into the main room at Baci Italian Restaurant to accommodate the crowd.

While the main focus of interest for the majority of attendees was Gov. Roy Barnes' education bill, the three legislators took a few moments to inform the group of other topics.

Cox, who serves on the Education, Health and Ecology and Industry committees, touched on items from each of her committees. She announced a resolution had passed to give voters the option on the ballot in November to allow local school boards to enact impact fees. Currently, it is forbidden by the Georgia constitution.

She also discussed House Bill 784, which recently passed allowing advanced practice registered nurses increased authority to write prescriptions. “The hope is that it will help people in rural areas to have access to health care providers,” said Cox.

Cox also announced an increase in the homestead exemption to $15,000.

Also, she said she supports changes to the air quality bill made by House Republican leadership. The amendments will keep the fee for emission inspections at a maximum of $25, rather than allowing an increase, and keep the inspection interval requirement at two years rather than changing it to a yearly inspection. The bill still must pass the Senate.

Westmoreland challenged Republicans to “go out and sign up at least ten people to vote, and take ten people to vote with you.” He cited an upcoming bill, House Bill 445, which “says when a person gets off parole they will be handed a voter registration card.” He quipped that, since Republicans supported serving 100 percent of a sentence and the death penalty, he doubted many former prisoners would sign up as Republicans.

“The upcoming election is probably the most important in Georgia since the Civil War,” Westmoreland added. With the reapportionment of districts, there will be two additional Congressional seats. He said one Democratic legislator is working to recruit Republicans to run against incumbent Republicans.

Price discussed issues including the disbursement of the dollars owed to the state from a recent lawsuit settlement with tobacco companies. He mentioned a number of options being discussed for spending the money and cautioned that it is important to “keep a good eye on the money and how it is spent.”

He highlighted three ethics bills that had been introduced. He went on to say that Democratic majority leaders of the House and Senate have multi-million-dollar contracts with Grady Hospital. Chuck Clay, state chairman of the Republican Party, has filed ethics charges against the leaders. “In retaliation,” a number of ethics charges were filed against some Republicans, Price said.

During questioning on the Barnes education initiative, the trio noted concerns and positive aspects of the bill. Republicans in the Senate added 42 amendments. Price stated that his final decision as to whether to vote for or against the bill would be determined when it came out of committee. He voted for it when it contained the Republican amendments. Cox and Westmoreland both voted against the bill in its House form.

Cox specified a number of reasons for her no vote. “There are a lot of problems with the state of education in Georgia; also there have been a lot of successes in the school system,” said Cox.

“It's as if you have two school systems who go to the doctor,” she added; “one has a broken leg and the other has a sore throat and the governor's treatment is to try and put a cast on both of them.”

She also questioned the data that was used to arrive at the basis for many decisions in the bill.

The bill had gone through many changes and they highlighted the various paths the bill has taken thus far. All three noted that they were given the 156-page bill with only one to two days to review it prior to having to vote on it.

Price was questioned regarding voting for a bill that some felt would hurt Fayette County. Price is the senator for Fayette, Coweta and Spalding counties, all of which have divergent needs. While emphasizing that he has not yet made his decision on the final vote, he noted that as a Senator his responsibility is to the local voters and to ensure the needs of the entire state were best served.

Numerous announcements were made prior to the legislative forum. Jim Steinbach, Fayette County liaison for the McCain campaign, made a brief pitch for his candidate and Commissioner Greg Dunn, chairman of the Fayette County Bush campaign, spoke in support of Bush.

Don Apking announced his candidacy for the Fayette County Board of Education, Post 2. Solicitor Steve Harris also announced his intentions to seek reelection.

In addition to the three key speakers, other elected officials on hand included Judge Martha Stephenson, Judge Fletcher Sams, Judge Joe Tinsley, Commissioner Harold Bost and school board member Connie Hale. Brian Hilton, mayor of Lithia Springs, also made the early morning trek to join the group.