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Annual Legislative Breakfast hears lawmakers
The Annual Legislative Breakfast was held at the Third Shiloh Mission Center in Washington. A full house of concerned citizens and civic lead- ers attended. Leaders addressing the breakfast included U.S. Rep. Paul Broun Jr., State Sen. Bill Jackson, State Rep. Mickey Channell and Rep. Barry Fleming. Field representativess Nancy Bobbitt from U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson's officeand Jennifer Hayes from the officeof U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss were also in attendance. For what may be the first time, a sitting U.S. congressman, Dr. Paul Broun of Athens, spoke to the Wilkes breakfast. He said he was returning later that day to Washington, D.C., to resume work on the U.S. budget. The budget faces gridlock, he said, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. "We're seeing bill after bill introduced and going to the floor sometimes without having any hearings or any normal legislative process like amending the bill." The leadership, when they came into power, said that it was a new era of openness and fairness, Broun said. "Nothing could be further from the truth." Broun said that he and other congressmen are working on health care financing reform. "Our health care delivery is the best in the world, but our health care financing is broken. There's too much government intrusion in the doctor-patient relationship, and we've got to change that, too." To address illegal immigration, he and Congressman Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee have re-introduced the late Charlie Norwood's CLEAR Act, which would empower local law enforcement to arrest and send illegal aliens to the INS. "The illegal alien problem is overrunning the education system, the health care system, and causing a tremendous drain on small communities. If we can cut off the economic spigot for these folks, they'll leave." House majority whip Rep. Barry Fleming told the Wilkes Co. audience that he would step down from his state seat to run for the 10th U.S. Congressional District seat held by Broun, and that he had enjoyed working with local leaders as whip. The next session of the Georgia General Assembly, Fleming said, would see a strong move afoot to discuss using a sales tax rather than property tax, especially for school district funding. "Going to a statewide sales tax for funding education may be a way to go. The general assembly will be discussing that next session." Another big subject on the agenda is the drought and water conserva- tion. He sees a consensus building in the state to build more reservoirs. "Georgia gets 50 trillion gallons of rainfall a year, and only uses 1.5 trillion gallons. We get plenty of rainfall in this state, we just don't hold enough of it back when we can." Rep. Mickey Channell, vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said that water would indeed be a big topic in Atlanta beginning next month. The state water plan will be discussed, he said, "And I can tell you that there are people who are interested in taking water from Clarks Hill Lake, Lake Oconee, and Lake Sinclair. And they will do that over my dead body." State Senator Bill Jackson said that he was glad to be back for his fourth session in the legislature. "I want to go to Atlanta and bring back some tax relief to the area, and to prevent our precious Savannah River water from getting transferred to Atlanta. They need to send industry over here, where the water is."
The annual Wilkes County Legislative Breakfast is sponsored by the Wilkes County Community Partnership, the Washington-Wilkes Chamber of Commerce, and the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG).
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