Sen.

Rick Price, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland and Rep. Kathy

Cox gave an overview of current legislature and

answered questions posed by members and visitors

at the Fayette County Republican Party's First

Saturday Breakfast.

Extra

tables were moved into the main room at Baci

Italian Restaurant to accommodate the crowd.

While

the main focus of interest for the majority of

attendees was Gov. Roy Barnes' education bill,

the three legislators took a few moments to

inform the group of other topics.

Cox,

who serves on the Education, Health and Ecology

and Industry committees, touched on items from

each of her committees. She announced a

resolution had passed to give voters the option

on the ballot in November to allow local school

boards to enact impact fees. Currently, it is

forbidden by the Georgia constitution.

She

also discussed House Bill 784, which recently

passed allowing advanced practice registered

nurses increased authority to write

prescriptions. "The hope is that it will

help people in rural areas to have access to

health care providers," said Cox.

Cox

also announced an increase in the homestead

exemption to $15,000.

Also,

she said she supports changes to the air quality

bill made by House Republican leadership. The

amendments will keep the fee for emission

inspections at a maximum of $25, rather than

allowing an increase, and keep the inspection

interval requirement at two years rather than

changing it to a yearly inspection. The bill

still must pass the Senate.

Westmoreland

challenged Republicans to "go out and sign

up at least ten people to vote, and take ten

people to vote with you." He cited an

upcoming bill, House Bill 445, which "says

when a person gets off parole they will be handed

a voter registration card." He quipped that,

since Republicans supported serving 100 percent

of a sentence and the death penalty, he doubted

many former prisoners would sign up as

Republicans.

"The

upcoming election is probably the most important

in Georgia since the Civil War,"

Westmoreland added. With the reapportionment of

districts, there will be two additional

Congressional seats. He said one Democratic

legislator is working to recruit Republicans to

run against incumbent Republicans.

Price

discussed issues including the disbursement of

the dollars owed to the state from a recent

lawsuit settlement with tobacco companies. He

mentioned a number of options being discussed for

spending the money and cautioned that it is

important to "keep a good eye on the money

and how it is spent."

He

highlighted three ethics bills that had been

introduced. He went on to say that Democratic

majority leaders of the House and Senate have

multi-million-dollar contracts with Grady

Hospital. Chuck Clay, state chairman of the

Republican Party, has filed ethics charges

against the leaders. "In retaliation,"

a number of ethics charges were filed against

some Republicans, Price said.

During

questioning on the Barnes education initiative,

the trio noted concerns and positive aspects of

the bill. Republicans in the Senate added 42

amendments. Price stated that his final decision

as to whether to vote for or against the bill

would be determined when it came out of

committee. He voted for it when it contained the

Republican amendments. Cox and Westmoreland both

voted against the bill in its House form.

Cox

specified a number of reasons for her no vote.

"There are a lot of problems with the state

of education in Georgia; also there have been a

lot of successes in the school system," said

Cox.

"It's

as if you have two school systems who go to the

doctor," she added; "one has a broken

leg and the other has a sore throat and the

governor's treatment is to try and put a cast on

both of them."

She

also questioned the data that was used to arrive

at the basis for many decisions in the bill.

The

bill had gone through many changes and they

highlighted the various paths the bill has taken

thus far. All three noted that they were given

the 156-page bill with only one to two days to

review it prior to having to vote on it.

Price

was questioned regarding voting for a bill that

some felt would hurt Fayette County. Price is the

senator for Fayette, Coweta and Spalding

counties, all of which have divergent needs.

While emphasizing that he has not yet made his

decision on the final vote, he noted that as a

Senator his responsibility is to the local voters

and to ensure the needs of the entire state were

best served.

Numerous

announcements were made prior to the legislative

forum. Jim Steinbach, Fayette County liaison for

the McCain campaign, made a brief pitch for his

candidate and Commissioner Greg Dunn, chairman of

the Fayette County Bush campaign, spoke in

support of Bush.

Don

Apking announced his candidacy for the Fayette

County Board of Education, Post 2. Solicitor

Steve Harris also announced his intentions to

seek reelection.

In

addition to the three key speakers, other elected

officials on hand included Judge Martha

Stephenson, Judge Fletcher Sams, Judge Joe

Tinsley, Commissioner Harold Bost and school

board member Connie Hale. Brian Hilton, mayor of

Lithia Springs, also made the early morning trek

to join the group.

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