Gasaway, Wilkinson Preview Legislative Session

Local legislators preview the upcoming legislative session in Atlanta.

28th District State Representative Dan Gasaway and 50th District State Senator John Wilkinson stopped in Toccoa on Thursday to speak to local leaders and citizens about what they expect to see come up during the legislative session that is scheduled to start on Monday.

Gasaway said healthcare is one of the major topics he expects to see on the agenda.

Primarily, he said that federal uncertainty with programs like Medicaid are creating a situation for the state where Gasaway says he does not know what to expect.

According to Gasaway, the state needs to see what happens with federal health care and the Affordable Care Act.

“All that affects Medicaid,” said Gasaway. “All that affects our local hospital here. All of it affects all of us. I have no idea how we are going to handle with the legislature.”

Gasaway said until the federal government takes whatever action it is going to take, it is hard to know what will change at the state level.

Meanwhile, Senator Wilkinson said education is always an important topic.

He said that with the Governor’s Opportunity School District amendment, which would have authorized the state to temporarily step in to assist chronically failing public schools, failing at the polls, there will likely be another proposal.

“When he makes his State of the State address next week, I have a feeling that he will have a Plan B that he will be talking about,” said Wilkinson. “I have no idea what that is.”

Wilkinson said that he expects the topic of casino gambling in Georgia to come up, though he does not know how far it will go.

“The casinos have hired not one lobbyist and not two lobbyists, but a team of lobbyists and they have billions of dollars to spend,” said Wilkinson.

The two also took questions from those in attendance.

One of those questions dealt with rural broadband Internet.

Wilkinson, who sat on a Rural Broadband Committee, said he is not sure exactly what its final recommendations will be, but thought it might involve tax credits or incentives for people to serve rural areas.

Gasaway said this is one of many issues in Georgia that is rural versus urban.

“It is a constant issue to get Metro people to understand that there is a another state that has different kinds of challenges,” said Gasaway. “This is another example of that.”

The event was put on by the Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce.