It appears that State Rep. Tommy Benton (R-District 31) will suffer no ramifications from his support for a challenger to Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson.
Benton backed Rep. David Ralston’s bid to unseat Richardson, who was a lightning rod for criticism of the Georgia House of Representatives last year.
Richardson prevailed 75-25 in the Republican Caucus.
Benton met recently with Richardson.
“I just went by and told him where I was coming from and there wasn’t anything personal about it,” Benton said. “He told me there was not going to be any repercussions against us, that we would keep the same committees and offices.”
Benton is secretary of the Education Committee and serves on the Environmental, National Resources and Transportation committees.
“I was surprised,” he said of Richardson’s comments.
Benton also said Richardson indicated he may be a lower profile speaker of the House this year.
“He made the statement he was going to stay away from legislation,” said Benton.
Richardson created a firestorm of controversy last year with his GREAT Plan to eliminate property taxes. The plan was eventually killed.
The legislature will have enough to do without creating new controversy. It must cut the state budget to accommodate reduced revenue from an economy in recession.
2009 To Be Challenging
The 2009 session begins Monday, Jan. 12, and while the budget is always a challenge, this year could be brutal.
“Instead of us going in and trying to find money for different projects, we’re going to be looking to cut everything not just absolutely essential,” said Benton. “There will be a lot of looking at what the state government needs to be doing.”
Benton points out that funding for education “does not meet our (state) obligation” and expressed some hope that this year might be the time to renew that commitment. At the same time, he said, “something has got to be done in the medical area.”
While both the House and Senate appropriations committees are already at work, the real starting point is the governor’s proposed budget. Then, the document goes to the House, which makes its own adjustments, then to the Senate, which does the same. Eventually a conference committee will come up with a final document.
The process will be the same as always, but the difficulty far greater.
“We’ve got some serious problems in our medical establishments,” Benton sated. “Our larger hospitals and even the smaller ones like BJC can’t continue to pick up the tab (for) people not paying at all. Those of us who are working every day are funding medicine for all those who don’t have insurance and can’t pay.”
Perdue has asked departments to prepare for cuts of six to eight percent, although education was put at two percent, a figure that could go to four.
“If we go to four, there are going to be some serious cuts to school systems,” Benton pointed out. “They are working really hard not to cut that. When you’ve got $11 billion, two (additional) percent, that’s a ton of money.”
Contact Benton
Rep. District 31 Rep. Tommy Benton can be reached by phone at 706-367-5891 (home) or at 404-656-0177 (office); or by e-mail at tommy.benton@house.ga.gov.
For information, and links to Georgia representatives, U.S. Congressmen, Senators and other officials, visit Benton’s Web site at www.tommybenton.com.
