Was it a “great” General Assembly session, or a “divisive” one, marked by political posturing? Depends on who you ask - but all three local legislators at a May 4 Federation of Neighborhoods forum agreed that money was very tight. State Senator Bill Cowsert’s assessment was upbeat: “We didn’t borrow money,” he said. “We didn’t raise taxes.” But “we basically used every reserve fund that we had” - along with federal stimulus money - and future state budgets beyond 2010 could be “very shaky, unless the economy turns around.” But, Cowsert said, “we didn’t cut healthcare,” and “that’s the one topic I got the most emails on.”

“Of course, we also passed one [resolution] to secede from the Union,” he acknowledged - which even most senators had not read. But “we didn’t do a whole lot of damage, and part of what you’re doing is stopping bad ideas,” Cowsert added. Representative Keith Heard, though, voted against the budget, because it cut Homeowners’ Tax Relief Grants while giving raises to teachers and adding various tax breaks. “Everything should be on the table,” Heard said, in such a tight budget year. Cutting the tax-relief grants - which will raise local property tax bills - was “kind of like a political payback” to local governments that fought against some legislation, he believes. “I heard, on one hand, ’We want to give the locals local control,’” Heard said, “but on the other hand, ’We want to take it away.’”

Cowsert insisted that education is being properly funded - it is now 60 percent of the state’s budget, with dollars to local schools up year by year - but Heard said it isn’t keeping pace with the increased number of students. And yet, Heard added, legislators never discussed eliminating tax breaks - on aircraft parts, Zoo Atlanta, jet fuel, port traffic, sales-tax holidays and more - and even the state’s inventory tax was eliminated. At times, Heard said, “the tone was very divisive… I was sad to see that our state of Georgia is reliving the Civil War in 2009.” And, he said, “it was just amazing some of the stuff that didn’t pass.” But he did like the “super speeder” bill, which will both raise money for trauma care and discourage speeding. “The other thing that I saw,” Heard said, “was posturing for 2010.”

Even as a minority Democrat, Rep. Doug McKillip “had a good time,” he said, “getting a little more progressive bent on some of the issues that are coming through,” and working on local bills to aid Athens’ Industrial Development Authority and the Athens Land Trust. Cowsert, too, enjoyed the session: “It is fascinating. It’s like going to a different seminar two or three days a week” - nuclear power one day, capital punishment the next. “When we take votes in the House,” McKillip said, “Democrats and Republicans probably agree on better than 90 percent of what comes through there.” But while Republicans refused to raise taxes, neither were tax exemptions eliminated, he said. Cutting special-interest tax breaks “would save over a billion dollars” and could have reduced the pain of the tight budget year, McKillip said. And he agreed with fellow local Rep. Bob Smith (who did not attend) in calling for “sort of a tax constitutional convention to take a look at our archaic tax system.”

All the legislators said Georgia needs a statewide transportation plan. McKillip said he’d like to see a one-cent statewide sales tax for transportation projects; it didn’t pass this year, but it will pass next year, he thinks. “Some funding mechanism for transportation’s going to fly - whether it’s regional or statewide, it will occur,” McKillip said. A higher gasoline tax should also be considered, said Cowsert. “The Senate believes strongly that it would not pass statewide,” but that metro Atlanta voters might approve such a tax, he said.

The recent shift in transportation planning (from the State Transportation Board to a governor-appointed planner) will give legislators some power over GDOT decisions and therefore “make the DOT more responsive to the voters,” Cowsert said. “It’s always been political,” added Rep. Heard. “It’s amazing how folks in certain positions are able to get their roads.”

John Huie

jphuie@athens.net