Wednesday, June 26, 2002

With election season now upon us, it may be a good idea to look at what our state legislators have accomplished earlier this year. It may help us understand what our legislators mean by a "busy session," and it may give us ideas on what to look forward to when the legislature meets again next year.

From the right's perspective, the biggest accomplishment is probably getting new special automobile license plates supporting the National Rifle Association. That's coming in 2003. We'll also have special auto tags supporting the neutering and spaying of pets, and some for breast cancer programs for the medically indigent. (To be indigent is to be poor. I don't know how anybody can be "medically" indigent as opposed to being just plain poor. But I am not here to argue with our state legislators.) It won't be long before everyone can have a different tag, and every mile of highway will have a different name too.

In past letters, I have poked fun at our Georgia laws designating an official reptile, an official insect, an official vegetable, and official barbecue championship cookoffs (one for beef, one for pork shrimp and chicken should be on the way, if someone can think of it). In 2002, our legislature designated grits as the official prepared food of the state. There's yet no law forcing anybody to eat them.

Many of us wonder what the people we elect do out there, at the state Capitol. Well, that's what they do. Now you know.

If and when any candidates show up at forums for state office, it would be a good idea to ask them whether they have supported any of these laws, or have ever protested about them, or would support making some more.

One can find these new laws in a just published Summary of General Statutes Enacted at the 2002 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia, available from the Office of Legislative Counsel.

You'll also find there that this year the legislature exempted the Georgia State Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution from having to pay sales tax. If you're running for office, there's no point promising them to do it to get their votes, it's already been done. A few years ago, a Republican candidate in Cobb county promised to work to abolish the sales tax on prescription drugs. The only problem was that prescription drugs were already exempted from the sales tax at the time. (They still are. Don't promise that.)

One interesting new crime that might be of interest to many parents is the failure to check in at public school entrance offices: that's now a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature. Given the zero-tolerance propensities of some of our school officials, it may be safer for parents to stay at home eating grits than to pop in at the school to check on the kids. Don't forget to check in, officially!

Another really useful law sneaked in this year forbids the abandonment of corpses (before cremating or burying them). One more crime to charge murderers with, to add time to their life sentence.

I don't really know what it takes to elevate the level of legislative debates to worthy issues. Do you recall reading articles or letters in our local papers from local legislators where they seemed to care about important social issues beyond how their electoral district was carved and how it might thwart their reelection?

I understand some lawyers in our county are now pushing for our having our own judicial circuit, so we would no longer share Superior Court judges and prosecutors with Spalding, Pike and Upson counties. That's an excellent idea, worth debating. It could do us more good than grits or auto tags for the NRA. We need family courts, too, with judges different from those who handle murder cases. The training and the approach ought not to be the same.

Too many candidates for public office want to be elected so bad that they dare not come up with any original thoughts for the citizens to consider in their voting decisions. We need to prod them into being creative and forthcoming. The fewer buffoons we elect, the better off we'll be. But we have to smoke out the buffoons first, and to have alternatives.

Claude Y. Paquin

Fayetteville

cypaquin@msn.com

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