State Rep. Mickey Channell: “There are things we used to do that we just can’t do anymore.” Local and state leaders at last week’s 2009 annual Legislative Breakfast said that the enormous shortfalls in federal, state, and local tax revenue caused by the recession are fundamentally changing the way government works, and they expected that government would be able to do even less for communities next year.

Saying that he and other legislators have a tough job in the upcoming legislative session, Rep. Mickey Channell told leaders from Wilkes, Lincoln, and Taliaferro Counties that the budget shortfalls will “require us to determine what the government’s real job is. There are things we used to do that we just can’t do anymore.”

The state budget is expected to come up some $2.5 billion short for the fiscal year, Channell said. “So we can either raise taxes or cut expenditures,” he said, “and you’re not going to see taxes raised, so you can count on more cuts.”

The annual breakfast this year was a cooperative effort of the Wilkes County Community Partnership, the Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce, the Washington-Wilkes Chamber of Commerce, and the Taliaferro County Board of Commissioners. Hosted at the Pope Center, the breakfast was catered by Alfred’s on the Square.

After welcoming comments from Sharon Williamson of the partnership and Gaye Smith of the Georgia Family Connection, and W-WCHS honor student Milton James, the county commission chairmen of the three counties related the state of their counties to the state leaders.

Chairman Sam Moore of Wilkes County thanked the legislators for their help in moving the four-laning of Highway 17 forward and for help in saving the Robert Toombs House, and for the state prison facility, a state patrol office, and the forestry office still open in the county. Moore pointed out that Wilkes County, as are all counties, is struggling under the state’s unfunded mandates. “Counties have to operate as economically as we can, but we still have to meet state mandates. You’re the ones passing the laws we have to follow.”

Both Chairman Wade Johnson of Lincoln County and Chairman Charles Ware of Taliaferro County spoke at length concerning their frustrations with budget cuts and cuts in government programs that affect citizens of their counties.

State Rep. Sistie Hudson, who represents Taliaferro and five other Georgia counties, said that the recession is hitting hard in her already poverty-stricken area. “We’re hurting, folks. I’ve never seen it like this – it hasn’t been this bad since the Thirties.”

State Sen. Bill Jackson ended the annual breakfast with a note of hope. “I want to bring you hope and to say this too will pass,” he said. “We’re in one of the most crucial times in Georgia, but it’s also a time of great opportunities. I have hope – history shows that we can overcome our problems.”