Kidd provides update on pending state legislation

Published 11:30 am Tuesday, March 17, 2015

For the first time in his political career, state Rep. Rusty Kidd (I-Milledgeville) held a town hall meeting to inform local residents about what’s going on under the Gold Dome in Atlanta when it comes to state legislation.

The meeting, held Saturday afternoon at Central State Technical College, brought out 25 residents, some of whom questioned the veteran state lawmaker about a number of issues, including the controversial issue of unification.

Unification was something looked into a number of years ago, but it’s just now coming to a local vote, Kidd said.

“It’s not 100 percent perfect, but it’s a start,” Kidd said of the proposed unification charter.

Voters in Milledgeville and Baldwin County will head to the polls later this year to decide the fate of local unification. Election day is set for Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Earlier, Kidd welcomed those in attendance, and informed them that he and other members of the Georgia General Assembly worked until about 9 p.m. last Friday, which marked Crossover Day for legislators.

“I got there about 7:15 a.m. and left there about 9:30 p.m.,” he said, noting he drove home afterward. “It was sort of a short night.”

State lawmakers now have only nine days left in this session and things will go rapidly between now and then, Kidd said.

Kidd said the purpose of the town hall meeting was to allow residents to ask him anything about any legislation they have heard about or that they have an interest in during this term of the 2015 session of the Georgia General Assembly.

Maj. Gen. Peter Boylan (Ret.) was the first of several residents to ask questions of Kidd.

Boylan inquired about a House Bill concerning Georgia Military College (GMC), and public disclosure of city council meetings.

The latter issue never made it to Friday’s Crossover Day, Kidd said.

Kidd said the bill remains in the Senate committee, where it likely will die this session.

The GMC question was related to the Boylan-Greenway Bill, known as HB 82, which passed the House a week ago, Kidd said.

“It’s in the Senate Natural Resources Committee now,” Kidd said.

He said he had talked to the committee chairman, and that there would be meetings to discuss it further this week.

“That bill, for those who don’t know, states that the president of GMC and the president of Georgia College, they themselves, or their designee, can serve on the Oconee-Greenway Authority,” Kidd said. “We are very fortunate this year to be able to get about $ 2 million for GMC. We got $1.247 million for pay raises for the teachers, and so forth. GMC had not gotten any increased stipend to offset salaries or health insurance since 1998.”

Kidd said another half million dollars was budgeted to refurbish Jenkins Hall at GMC.

“We also got $9 million for Georgia College to redo Beeson Hall, across from the old Peabody School,” said Kidd, who is the only Independent lawmaker in the Georgia General Assembly.

There was also a question regarding the controversial Religious Freedom Bill, which the state Senate approved last Thursday. It now heads to the state House.

“One of the things we, as Americans have all been proud of is our religious freedom,” Jay Hodges told Kidd. “Yet, we felt a need to pass a Religious Freedom Act for Georgia?”

The bill would forbid state government from infringing on a person’s religious beliefs unless the government can prove it has a compelling interest. Critics argue it could provide legal cover for discrimination.

“And so why do we need a Religious Freedom Act in the state of Georgia,” asked Hodges.

Kidd said he agreed with him 100 percent.

“I’ll talk like I always talk,” Kidd said, as a person, and not as a politician. “I tell the truth like I see it and hear it, rather than like a politician. I think that some of the Republicans are way out here on the left, just like some of the Democrats are way out here on the right. Both sides, I think, want to ram it down the throats of those who are very religious themselves, but don’t carry it on their shoulders as much as other people do.”

He said that was kind of the way he saw it.

Hodges said his issue with what he understood was contained in the bill is that it seems to provide for discrimination.

“And I don’t like that,” Hodges said.

Kidd agreed, wholeheartedly.

The medical marijuana bill, meanwhile, passed the Georgia House of Representatives this session, Kidd said.

“I didn’t really like it last year,” Kidd said. “And I don’t really like it this year. It’s better than it was last year in that it puts a step in between the doctor and the patient. So, if the doctor says, ‘Yes I think this young child who is having seizures and so forth, is a candidate for cannabis oil, then that has to be approved by a medical board prior to the person being legally able to get it.”

Kidd said he still doesn’t like some things about it.

“It says if someone possesses a 20-ounce bottle of cannabis oil, the oil on the leaves of the marijuana plant all has the THC on them,” Kidd said. “When you take that oil off the leaves and process it down, you lose a certain amount of the THC – the oil that is used for the treatment of the seizures, etc.”

Kidd said he believes it will cause more of a burden on law enforcement in certain cases.

“Let’s not have laws on the books that we’re not enforcing,” Kidd said.

Another House Bill that he talked about is the gas tax bill.

“I supported it,” Kidd said, in hopes that the Senate would make changes in it. “If they don’t make changes, and send it back, I will vote against it.”

Kidd said he believed residents that he represents in both Baldwin and Putnam counties “would rather see, if the state needs to raise that much money for roads, then let’s go ahead and increase the sales tax, rather than create another excise tax.”

He said there is no telling what it would actually end up being when it’s completed.

Kidd said he believes that county commissioners in both Baldwin and Putnam counties would rather see the existing sales tax increased, once the $1 billion is generated or roll it back.

Kidd also addressed the subject of publicly-funded charter schools.

“I think it’s a pretty good idea,” he said, explaining that it appears to be working well in neighboring Putnam County, where the entire school system operates as a charter school system. “That’s why their graduation rate is a lot better than [Baldwin].”

He said be believes the idea would be a good one for Baldwin County.

Exactly how the governor’s idea about taking over failing schools in the state is going to work, Kidd said he’s not sure.