Between now and the crack of the gavel opening the Georgia General Assembly in January, state senator-elect Greg Hecht plans to meet with virtually everyone responsible for leading the 34th district into the next millennium.

"I'm going to go meet today with the lieutenant governor[-elect Mark Taylor] to talk to him about committee assignments," the Jonesboro-based attorney said in a telephone interview from his office last week. It was the day after his decisive win over Fayette Republican Bill Bonner. The seat returns to the Democratic side of the ledger for the first time in nearly a decade.

"I'm trying to prepare myself by meeting with other legislators in the districts," he continued, "and I hope to talk to the mayors, city councilmen, county commissioners all the elected officials who can help me get a clear focus on the needs of the district."

Hecht plans to follow the course he laid out for himself while he was campaigning, citing safe-schools issues, decreased government regulations, lower taxes, health care concerns, and criminal law reform.

"I'll be continuing some of the work I did as a representative in 1997," he said. "I authored safe-schools legislation, which require school districts to honor out-of-county or out-of-state suspensions and redirects violent offenders to alternative schools. Obviously, we have continuing problems. There are certain suggestions and proposals being made, and I am reviewing some of those.

"Another area I want to work in is trying to decrease government regulations and red tape and tax burdens. I want to see where we can make tax cuts," he said.

Hecht believes mental health services do not deal with some children's needs appropriately. "There are gray-area kids, like autistic children, who are not served well by our mental health services throughout the state. The definitions seem to exclude autistic children and those with other rare conditions."

In the arena of health care reform, Hecht said, "We need to try to address citizens' selection rights for doctors that will ensure good coverage.

"With regard to criminal laws, I want to focus on truth-in-sentencing. We need to eliminate the incentive [for law-breakers] not to worry about [punishment]. It's not that they don't serve time, the problem is if they get a 10-year sentence and serve only three years, they think they're getting away with something. Their sentence becomes a joke."

Hecht also said he believes that the state and the Atlanta Regional Commission "are going to have to work together" on problems such as air pollution and transportation. "That's what I want to talk to the commissioners and councilmen about. You've got to make sure you work as a team member and not one who is going to impose their will on a lot of people, stepping on toes. I want us to work as a team together."

At 35, Hecht is one of the younger members of the senate, and says he is pleased with the diversity of ages represented there. He feels that he represents families with young children, as well as up-and-coming leaders in commerce, and therefore has a vested interest specifically in education and certain business issues.