Yesterday we had our monthly Paulding County Republicans meeting. Our speaker was Georgia Senator Bill Heath, who is the Senator that represents my district in the Georgia Senate. I’ve met Senator Heath a couple of times before, but this was the first time I’ve heard him speak.
Heath spoke mostly about the budget – how they anticipate that revenues will be less than expected and will likely be making some cuts in some areas. He spoke for a few minutes, but most of his time was spent answering questions.
During the Q&A, Heath offered a couple of interesting statistics. First, Georgia is 50th in the nation in transportation spending. (The libertarians in the room cheered when he said that.) Heath wasn’t necessarily boasting that statistic; it was given as he was discussing some of the possible solutions for some of the Georgia’s transportation problems.
The second interesting statistic Heath offered was that Georgia places less of a tax burden on its citizens than any other state. That’s a per capita statistic, but it’s worth mentioning. Everybody in the room cheered when he gave that stat.
Somebody asked a question about laws that restrict cell phone using while driving. Heath’s response: “How about some personal responsibility?” Awesome. I was thrilled to hear him say that. Then, as the discussion continued, Heath said “We cannot legislate personal responsibility.” There was a lot of cheering over that one. It’s always nice to hear a politician – especially one that represents you – supporting individual responsibility.
Heath asked us all to write some things that were important to us on a 3×5 card that he could take with him. He said he’s done that before and has found it to be a great way to hear what people are concerned about. It’s worth mentioning that after the meeting, Heath stayed to talk to people and answer questions, and he was one of the last people to leave.
I was also excited to see that some of my fellow Ray McBerry supporters came out to the meeting. (Thanks for coming, you guys. I hope you’ll come back next time.)
Our next meeting isn’t until January (we skip December because of everybody’s always-hectic schedules), but I’ll be attending the Cobb County GOP meeting on December 5. If you can come, you should. Senator Johnny Isakson will be speaking, and I can’t wait for that Q&A session (unless Isakson pulls a John Oxendine and bolts out the door before anybody can ask him anything).