Legislative Outlook: Local Representatives Talk About 2012 Session

Monday, the Georgia General Assembly kicked off its 2011 session.

Sunday, legislators from the Dunwoody area gave a preview of what’s ahead.

Reps. Tom Taylor, Elena Parent and Mike Jacobs and Sens. Fran Millar and John Albers, spoke about their key issues this session at a 9 a.m. forum at Dunwoody United Methodist Church.

Among the major issues discussed were tax reform, Brookhaven’s cityhood, school funding, transportation restructuring and the state’s federal debt.

The state’s $721 million Unemployment Debt

The biggest issue that nobody is talking about, Millar said, is the fact that the state owes the federal government $721 million, after borrowing money to meet the unemployment benefits during the economic downturn.

“This is a major, major problem,” he said.

The $721 million loan was used to help pay unemployment benefits to those who were laid off.

Because the state’s funding for the program was so low when the recession kicked in, it had to go to the federal government to help pay that cost.

The funding shortfall on the state’s end was the result of giving companies a tax holiday on paying unemployment insurance for several years, in more stable economic times, meaning the fund did not grow as it normally would have.

“It’s going to be an unpleasant situation because we’ve got to put that burden both on the unemployed and the employer,” he said.

Millar said it will be a $2 billion problem, as the state has to both pay the federal government back and replenish its own unemployment reserves.

Further, the payments from the state will grow each year the debt is not paid off.

Starting this year, the state will have to pay $21 per employee surcharge, in 2012, it will be $42 per employee, Millar said.

 “I think it’s the biggest issue out there,” he added. “We are supposed to have a balanced budget in this state.”

“When you’ve got a $721 million obligation and people don’t know about it because it’s a footnote in some financial statement that nobody looks at. That’s a big issue” he added.

Taxes/jobs

Taylor and Millar said it will be important to look at exempting companies from paying taxes on energy used in manufacturing.

“The tax on the energy and manufacturing makes it so uncompetitive compared to the surrounding states when we try to attract jobs like that,” he said.

Taylor would also like to see more focus on training Georgians for Georgia jobs. He said he’s heard from companies that complain that they have to take their searches nationwide to find qualified candidates.

Albers agreed.

“We need to make sure we have a workforce that can handle those jobs,” he said.

He also said the state needs to look at tax reform.

“In Georgia we’re one of the few states around here that still has a high income, capital gains and corporate tax,” he said, putting the state at an economic disadvantage. “We want to be assured that we can start moving away from that, broaden our tax base and move to consumption based taxes, what you might call a fair tax.”

He’ll be working on finance committee to help with that issue.

Transit

Jacobs said he’d like to see the patchwork of transit agencies have more synergy.

“We need to start moving them under one umbrella so we can get away from the inefficiency in the current system,” he said.

 “They don’t have a single fare media,” Jacobs said. “The breeze card you can’t use anywhere but MARTA.”

He’d like to see the patchwork of transportation providers put into a more cohesive system.

Jacobs also feels like Fulton and DeKalb Counties are carrying an undue burden for MARTA.

GM plant property

Elena Parent and Fran Millar discussed the former GM plant property in Doraville, which is still owned by GM.

“We don’t need another shopping mall,” Millar said, saying he’d like to see a corporate campus of some kind on the 165-acre property. The plant closed in September 2008.

Parent agreed, saying biotech and tech companies would be a great asset to bring to that property.

Both agreed that the price of the land is too high currently.

“Doraville certainly wants to see a very high quality product there,” Parent said.

Cityhood

Jacobs said, of anything, his main priority this session will be Brookhaven’s incorporation.

“I am fully in support of the incorporation of a City of Brookhaven,” he said. “That will be able to deliver to citizens south of 285 a more responsive local government, that guarantees a property tax cut and lives within its means. That is the very antithesis of the DeKalb County government that we currently live under. It is a much better product and is one that I am happy to carry to my constituents and to the voters.”

Tom Taylor stands with Jacobs on the issue.

“I’m supporting Mike on co-sponsoring the bill on Brookhaven,” he said.

Taylor pointed to Dunwoody as a model for how it can be done successfully.

“It’s served as a great model for how good, responsible local government works,” he said.

Lobbyists

There was also discussion about lobbyists and their relationships and access to members of the General Assembly.

It was pointed out that the public has access, through the Georgia Ethics Commission, to gifts given to every politician and made by lobbyists.

Tom Taylor pointed out that while lobbyist can be seen as a bad word, they can also be helpful in getting representatives up to speed on issues.

“A lot of this is education. There are industries we don’t know about,” he said, pointing to a recent trip he took to Forsyth County on his own dime to talk to members of the timber industry.

School funding

Fran Millar said he’ll be focused on revamping K-12 funding, which he says needs a major update. Millar, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, said they’ll be looking at eliminating things in the funding formula code and making  recommendations. Modernization will be key, he said.

“For example, your formula for education takes no account of technology, everything is to pay for textbooks,” he said. “So we’re going to update for the 21st century.”