Schools, immigration on the front burner

By Victor Alvis

Area state legislators said Thursday that issues surrounding education, eminent domain and illegal immigration are likely to take top priority when the 2006 legislative session begins Monday in Atlanta.

The legislators were featured at the Dalton-Whitfield Chamber of Commerce’s annual legislators breakfast at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center.

State funding issues and teachers’ pay topped legislators’ concerns about education. Lawmakers talked last year about implementing a statewide sales tax for education instead of continuously raising property taxes.

“I had some problems with the 3 percent sales tax proposal,” said Rep. Roger Williams, R-Dalton. “It’s probably not best for our area. We would have to send more to the state than we would receive back. I don’t think it will come out of committee. It’s a dead proposal, but it has some merit when tied to a property tax.”

Williams said the tax was originally proposed in answer to a lawsuit filed against the state seeking equalized education funding throughout Georgia. Murray County is one of the counties involved in that suit.

Sen. Don Thomas, R-Dalton, said he doubted anything would done about a sales tax this year.

“Eventually, we might see a proposal for a 50/50 split on the two taxes that would make it a 1-1/2 percent sales tax and cap the property tax,” Thomas said.

Rep. Ron Forster, R-Ringgold, said the state will first have to decide what to do with an anticipated $1 billion surplus. Teachers and other state employees are hoping for pay raises.

“We’re going to look at teacher pay,” Forster said, “but the surplus may mean that a lot of citizens were overtaxed and are due a refund. We’re 15th in the country in teacher pay, but when you factor in the local cost of living, we’re No. 1 in teacher pay.”

Thomas noted the state’s “rainy day fund” is depleted, and a 2-3 percent pay raise for teachers would eliminate the surplus.

“It would eat it up pretty quickly, but the governor is dedicated to education,” Thomas said. “I think you should see a large part of the surplus going to education. We can never pay our teachers enough.”

Other issues the lawmakers expect the Legislature to deal with this year include:

• Last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision on eminent domain that allows government officials to seize private land for commercial economic development. The court did rule that states and local governments are free to place restrictions on eminent domain more strict than those required by the U.S. Constitution.

“I’ll be surprised if that’s not the first bill through,” Rep. Tom Dickson, R-Cohutta, said. “We need to protect the property rights of our citizens.”

• Illegal immigration.

“It’s obviously a big issue nationally and in our area,” Williams said, “but I don’t know what’s going to happen with it yet.”

n The controversy created last year when the state switched to UnitedHealthcare for the state employee health plan. Several health care providers refused to accept United.

• The controversy created last year when the state switched to UnitedHealthcare for the state employee health plan. Several health care providers refused to accept United.

• A proposal that the state be able to use a “sealed bid process,” a practice many media organizations and others criticized last year as a “secrecy bill” that would allow the state to violate the Sunshine Law by conducting business behind closed doors. Proponents say the practice prevents other states from having an unfair advantage by using open records to see what incentives the state makes during business negotiations.

n Rejection of bills that would tax carpet samples or any related items that are for display purposes only.

• Allowing nurse practitioners to write prescriptions under the proper supervision of doctors.

• The use of the state Diversion Center locally as a low-risk incarceration center, rather than building a new pod onto the Whitfield County jail.

• Expanding preschool opportunities for children by growing the local “Little Bloomers” program.

• Stronger laws against sexual predators.

“Last year was the first time in 138 years that Republicans gained a majority in the Legislature,” Williams said. “We were able to get a lot of things done, and we came out of that session with a promise to deal with substantive legislation this session” despite it being an election year.