Friday, January 9, 2004
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Friday, January 9, 2004 |
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Legislature convenes Monday By JOHN THOMPSON Fayette County’s ranking state legislator, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Sharpsburg), believes the upcoming legislative session will be a short one. “With all these people running for election, I really don’t see this as a real long session,” he said. The 2004 edition of the General Assembly gets underway Monday, with legislators facing several challenges. The most pressing is the state’s budget, which is looking at huge deficits. But Westmoreland said, the choices to be made by Gov. Sonny Perdue got a lot easier at the end of last year, with some help from Washington. The state received just over $400 million from the feds, which helped get the deficit more under control. “We got $136 million back in Medicare reimbursements and $279 million in federal flexible assistance,” he said. Still, the legislators are going to sharpen their knives to make more cuts to the budget. Westmoreland still believes teachers will get a raise this year, and he would like to see the governor’s education program move further. Other issues he sees drawing interest this year is tort reform and on a local level, golf carts. “I’m going to propose legislation Monday that explains what a golf cart pathway is, and what a roadway is,” he said. “That will enable cities like Peachtree City to set age and other requirements for who can travel on the paths.” But there is one issue that could throw the whole session into an uproar. A lawsuit got underway yesterday in the courts brought by the state Republican Party, challenging the redistricting after the 2000 Census. That gerrymandering is responsible for the awkward legislative map that serves Fayette County today. “If they decide our way, we also might be doing some redrawing of lines,” Westmoreland said.
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