Gasaway, Wilkinson Preview General Assembly Session

Rep. Gasaway talks with attendees at Thursday's legislative preview event.

Rep. Gasaway talks with attendees at Thursday’s legislative preview event.

Local legislators take time to preview the upcoming Georgia General Assembly session.

50th District State Senator John Wilkinson and 28th District State Representative Dan Gasaway were in Toccoa Thursday for a Legislative Preview breakfast organized by the Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce.

Both Wilkinson and Gasaway said they expect a short session for many reasons, especially the prospect of a May primary, which is earlier than the traditional primary date.

Wilkinson said he does not foresee a lot of major things being proposed in the session.

“Since it is a major election year and a lot of people are running, I would not foresee a lot of major legislation coming through the General Assembly this year,” said Wilkinson.

Gasaway said he thinks some of the big bills headed for debate include firearms legislation that first came up last year, along with a law he is involved with that would require insurance companies to cover early intervention autism treatments.

The two also took questions on a number of topics, including the Wilbros odor controversy.

Gasaway said he is focused on trying to influence rules regarding composting facilities like Wilbros that are currently being re-written by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and Department of Natural Resources.

He said that Georgia need look no farther than North Carolina, which Gasaway said is much farther along in regulating this industry.

“What we were doing, as a state, is adopting North Carolina’s 10-year-old guidelines,” said Gasaway.  “Let’s not adopt what North Carolina did 10 years ago because the industry has continued to move forward.”

Gasaway said he went to North Carolina with Stephens County Development Authority Executive Director Tim Martin to look at similar facilities and see how they operate near and in communities.

He said they saw examples where this industry can work in communities.

“We toured a facility that handles 175,000 tons of sewage plant sludge a year with no odor complaints and they have residents within 1000 feet,” said Gasaway.  “Now, it is a different operation, (but) this can work.”

Both Wilkinson and Gasaway said they would work, as they did last year, to block any legislation that might negatively affect the community in regards to the Wilbros situation.

The two legislators were also asked about education funding and whether there was a chance that increases in state revenue could translate to more money for schools.

Wilkinson said he is not sure what the Governor will propose regarding education funding.

However, Wilkinson said his priority would be to let any additional funding go towards increasing instructional days for students.

“My priority would be to send the money to the local systems to give them flexibility on how they spend it,” said Wilkinson.  “Help the systems that are having furlough days do away with those furlough days and get back to 180 instructional days for students.”

The Georgia General Assembly session starts next week.