State, Congressional candidates stick to issues at forum

   Following the advice of moderator Joel Williams, the candidates for state and federal legislative positions who met Tuesday night stayed focused on the issues and did not address one another.

   The candidates for state House, state Senate and U.S. Congress spoke at the Habersham County Courthouse for the second of two political forums hosted by Farm Bureau and the Habersham County Chamber of Commerce.

   Former Georgia representative Dan Gasaway made his return to politics in the crowded race for State Senate District 50 after losing a controversial election for his House seat last year. Gasaway did not address other candidates, but he did mention in his opening and closing statements that he has a desire to fix the debt situation at Habersham Medical Center.

   “I am the only candidate in this race who has the personal strength, political skills and legislative experience to help dig the Habersham County taxpayers out of this disastrous hospital deal they have been roped into,” Gasaway said. “That is the most important issue in any county in Northeast Georgia.”

   No other candidate addressed the hospital during the forum. Gasaway said he mailed 12,000 Habersham County homes in 2018 to inform taxpayers that “we’re in serious trouble on hospital.”

   The evening also included first-time candidate for U.S. Congress Michael Boggus, who used some colorful metaphors during his remarks, including saying that he was not a politician and that most of them could “kiss my ass.”

STATE HOUSE D10

   The four candidates for State House District 10 – Republicans Victor Anderson, Robert Crumley and Jimmy Dean, along with Democrat Nick Mitchell – are vying to replace Rep. Terry Rogers. They discussed a variety of topics, including their views on education programs and funding.

   “We have got to get rid of common core,” Crumley said. “The Georgia House is a Republican majority and I don’t know how Georgia got common core in its legislative assembly to begin with. Federal funding, that’s why. … I do not blame parents for homeschooling their kids or putting their kids through charter schools even. I support tax exemptions for homeschool parents and sending your kids to private schools simply because they don’t want to send their kids through common core.”

   Dean agreed that common core was a “terrible mistake.”

   “But I support our public schools and our public school teachers,” Dean said. “I don’t have any problem with private schools, homeschooling and I think there should be some sort of tax opportunity for people who go that route. But I do not support taking funds away from our public schools and our public teachers to fund private education.”

   Mitchell agreed that he strongly opposes taking money out of the public schools for private or charter schools.

   “One thing that our state government needs to step up and do is provide better pay for our teachers,” Mitchell said. “Maybe some of these teachers are worried about making house payments and car payments and less time preparing for their classes as a result.”

   Anderson praised the schools systems of Habersham and White counties.

   “We have a severe teacher shortage and that’s something that needs to be addressed at the local and state level,” Anderson said. “I am in agreement with giving parents options … but I also agree that those options do not need to take away from the resources allocated to our public school systems.”

STATE SENATE D50

   The race to be the next Senator for Georgia’s 50th District has six Republican candidates battling it out, including Habersham County residents Stacy Hall, Tricia Hise and Bo Hatchett; Habersham County native Dan Gasaway; Lee Moore of Franklin Springs; and Andy Garrison of Jefferson.

   Among other topics, the candidates talked about their support for House Bill 545, also known as the Right to Farm bill.

   Hatchett said the bill is important to tighten up the legal terms to keep farmers safe.

   “There were loopholes and ambiguous languages in the official code of Georgia that will be closed because of this bill,” Hatchett said. “One thing I think it does is allow farmers to not have to stay awake at night wondering if a nuisance lawsuit is going to be filed against them. … What this bill does is allow government to get out of the way and allow farmers to do what they do best.”

   Hise said she was the first candidate to come out in support of the bill.

   “I grew up in FFA and 4H … the success of the farmer is not only vital to the community and to our state, but it’s vital to our families,” Hise said. “It is not equitable or fair for an existing living farm to be sued in a frivolous lawsuit by an incoming homeowner. … I support our farmers, I support agriculture. I work diligently on a daily basis to work with farmers across District 50 as well as the state.”

   Moore said he also supports the Right to Farm bill.

   “Agriculture is our no. 1 industry and we have to do all we can to support it. Less government equals more freedom,” Moore said. “In Franklin County, chickens are everyone’s life. … One small percent might think the smell of chicken litter stinks, but to the 99% of people, that’s money,” Moore said.

   Garrison said he has been involved with agriculture for decades, including helping encourage youth involvement. “We have to support the $75 billion industry that comes through our state and that’s agriculture,” he said. 

   “I would support this bill or the intent of any bill that protects farmers’ rights,” Gasaway said, adding that he is a farmer himself. “I was called out for spreading poultry litter on my pasture in Banks County recently, which should be unheard of at any farm in Northeast Georgia, but it happened. Poultry litter turned Northeast Georgia green … those nutrients are important and odors are part of farming. Any effort to support our farmers is something we all have to support.”

   Hall said he supports the bill as well as Conservation Use Value Covenant (CUVA).

   “I have had a lot of good conversations with many farmers and folks in agribusiness in our district during the campaign, and as a state senator, I’m going to have their back,” Hall said. “I looked at them eye-to-eye and made a commitment to them that I will fight for them.”

9TH DISTRICT, U.S. CONGRESS

   The forum was broken in two parts with seven of the 12 candidates attending.

   Group 1 included Republicans Michael Boggus, Andrew Clyde, Georgia Rep. Matt Gurtler (R-Tiger) and lone attending Democrat Brooke Siskin.

   The first group had interesting comments about regulatory reform of Congressional oversight.

   “I’ve seen this a lot happen during the COVID-19 crisis where a lot of these regulations have been lifted, and I have talked to business owners who love that the regulations have been lifted and want it to stay that way,” Gurtler said, noting that he was picked as Georgia’s most conservative state representative. “The federal government is too massive and too intrusive, and we need to bring principle back into government.”

   Siskin agreed that there should be limited, yet efficient, government involvement. “We need to work to find common ground on both sides of the aisle to limit the government to make sure it works efficiently and effectively.”

   Boggus agreed that if regulations could be lifted in the pandemic, they could be lifted any time, and he also agreed that collaboration is vital.

   “The reason why both sides of the aisle cannot work together is because they don’t talk to each other and that’s a problem in Washington,” Boggus said.

   Clyde said President Donald Trump’s policy was for every new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated.

   “The federal government is much too large … I do not believe in legislating from the bench in the courtroom. I believe the legislators need to take that on and not make it happen through the courts,” Clyde said.

   Both groups got the same questions, and Group 2 featuring Kevin Tanner, Ethan Underwood and Georgia Sen. John K. Wilkinson (R-Toccoa) had some thoughts on immigration.

   “If you have your arm cut off and severed, you have to stop the bleeding, and that’s what we have in this country,” Tanner said. “We are bleeding at the border. We are not sure who is coming into our country, and it’s a national security issue. … As a poultry farmer, I understand the importance of a workforce, so we are going to have continue to enhance the H2A program to allow documented workers to come to this country and work, and then go back home, then come back the next year if they desire to do that. It’s hard to have an immigration conversation without securing the border.”

   Underwood said immigration was a simple fix if Congress would admit what the purpose of it is.

   “For Republicans, we want to know who is in our country,” Underwood said. “It’s a national security issue, it’s a national health issue to know what non-citizens are in our country. But the truth is, Democrats are looking at it as potential voters. … We need workers to come in to work in the agricultural business and the technology sector so long as it does not suppress wages of Americans who want to work in those fields. But we need to know who is here, whether it is through a Visa or a green card of citizenship. Otherwise, you don’t need to be in the country.”

   “We have to take whatever steps are necessary to secure our borders, then we have to come up with a legal way for people to come to this country,” Wilkinson said. “We need a temporary worker program that works. That is very important to agriculture across the country and in our state. We need a program where workers can come here, do their work, then leave.”

TAX INCREASES

   All the candidates in the state races were asked point blank if they would ever support any kind of tax increase.

   In the Georgia House race, Crumley said he would never support any kind of tax increase as part of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge that he has signed. The other three candidates said they had no desire to raise taxes, but had to consider current factors, particularly as it relates to revenue losses from COVID-19.

   “We have a certain level of services that are needed and expected by our citizens, and we are facing a budget situation where the General Assembly has to cut 14-15%,” Anderson said. “I would be opposed to be tax increases in any form … but there are questions coming out of the economic downturn we are in now that can’t be answered. I fully expect our recovery will negate this problem.”

   “None of us up here or out there exactly know what’s going on with this coronavirus situation. I have no intention to ever increase taxes, but at the same time, we have to take care of our children, our senior citizens and our public safety issues,” Dean said. “We have to make sure everything our government is required to do has enough funding to do it.”

   “There’s way to know what the future holds,” Mitchell said. “What I will commit to is not raising taxes on lower to lower-middle income brackets, but outside of that, everything is on the table.”

   Among the candidates for Georgia Senate, Moore said flatly that he would commit to never raising taxes without elaboration.

   “Let’s be honest with each other, government runs by taxes,” Garrison said, adding that he has no desire to raise taxes. “We are going to have to raise money and cut expenses to get through this budget.”

   “We have serious financial problems confronting the people of our state, and we don’t know where this is going to go,” Gasaway said, noting that his voting record in the House reflected his desire to keep taxes low. “Nobody based on the circumstances we are in now can responsibly say they know what is going to happen, we are in unprecedented economic times. Our teachers are probably looking at a 20% pay cut. … I don’t want to see that happen to anybody. It’s something we have to be cautious about and find ways to cut spending.”

   “I’ll be honest, I think it would be pandering for votes to say that I would never ever support a tax increase,” Hall said. “I will work my tail off as my record shows to keep taxes as low as possible. We have had 58% turnover in two years in our jail, and we had to have a 3% increase in our millage rate in order to pay our deputies, jailers and our fireman just a little more. … If you house catches on fire, no disrespect to 18-year-olds, but you don’t want just 18-year-olds coming to put out the fire. You want a little bit of experience.”

   “There are times that a tax increase may be necessary, but before I would vote for a tax increase, we need to make sure all the fat is trimmed in the budget,” Hatchett said. “We’re going to make sure it is fiscally conservative thing to do. … But I’ll always fight for lower taxes.”

   “Will I fight tax increases? Absolutely, that is my word,” Hise said. “I will look at every single element and every way possible not to raise taxes. But there are politics down in Atlanta, and one of the problems we had with the transportation bill is that things were added to it at the very last minute. If you have stayed in a motel in Georgia since that bill was passed, you had to pay $5. … I will do everything within my power to cut the red tape, to put politics aside and my district first as long as there is pork being added to the budget.”