Many have made inquiries to me about making campaign contributions and picking up yard signs, for which I am grateful.

However, this campaign is not taking contributions in order to purchase signs and big ads that say nothing because I plan to only be responsible to the voters and not the “contributors.”

It is hard not to agree with Florida columnist Charley Reese, “It’s too bad today’s politicians don’t have the nerve to talk straight. If you try to pin them down on where they stand on an issue, most of them evade you like a greased snake.”

Mr. Reese also says, “We have developed an anemic political system because the great majority of candidates believe in only one thing – getting elected. They raise money and hire public relations people to sell them to the gullible voters like soap.”

I like to cut to the chase on the issues and avoid the political cliches. Never once has a political cliche ever solved a single one of our problems.

We need to act on the recommendations of the Georgia Water Council report and start resolving the water crisis for good. We need to fully fund the Ga. Environment Protection Division research required. We need to look at resolving the tri-state water lawsuit so we can make accurate projections and plans for the future water supply.

We need to pass a flexible cap on state spending which adds transparency and accountability, and therefore draws attention, to budget creep.

We need to prohibit lawmakers and government employees from accepting gifts, meals or trips from lobbyists or special interests. The average taxpayer deserves a level playing field regarding the creation of legislation and tax structures.

In thinking about our thousands of home-school families in Fayette County, I would be in favor of creating a limited state tax deduction for textbooks and classroom supply purchases as long as they are paying property taxes for schools.

I am in lock-step with Lt. Gov. Cagle in saying local control is the answer to education. Likewise, I oppose House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s proposal for the state to collect all school funds through additional sales taxes.

In this format, the state has centralized control and they will disperse our funds through a statewide formula which will hurt Fayette County as our population doubles in the years to come.

The Speaker’s alternative tax program, a tax substitution and not a tax reduction, will place more of a burden on seniors who now have education property tax exemptions at the local level. In addition, it will prevent local governments from solving local problems and the people of Fayette County cannot vote out the entire state legislature to create change when the sales tax fails us.

While I appreciate our system of common justice for all, we need to create structure in the judicial system and the Georgia Indigent Defense Council that prevents a lone individual such as Brian Nichols and his attorneys from bankrupting the state legal indigent defense account.

We must build more efficiency into the Georgia Department of Transportation. With material costs (asphalt, etc.) skyrocketing and property values increasing for right-of-way acquisition, project costs are rapidly climbing and that means less money to go around.

However, as I have stated before, if you cannot control your land use, you will never gain control of the insufficient transportation infrastructure. Haphazard development patterns create severe traffic problems; it is a fact.

I support truck-only lanes on our highways as the number of trucks will double on our highways in the next 20 years (again, land use planning must be employed also). In addition, I support increasing the limit on the volume of design-build projects, which combine designing and building into a contract done by one team, instead of separately.

Finally, I will never agree to any type of “local legislation” coming out of the state legislature aimed at constructing the TDK Boulevard Extension into Coweta County via the state. There are certain parties willing to do this and I am not one of them.

Steve Brown

Candidate, House District 72

stevebrownptc@ureach.com

Peachtree City, Ga.