Sen. John Wilkinson (R-Toccoa) serves as the Chairman of the Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee. He represents the 50th Senate District which includes Banks, Franklin, Habersham, Rabun, Stephens and Towns counties and portions of Hall and Jackson counties. He can be reached by phone at 404.463.5257 or by email at [email protected].
First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people of the 50th Senatorial District for giving me the opportunity to represent you in the Georgia State Senate. The 50th district is composed of approximately 180,000 people in Towns, Rabun, Habersham, Stephens, Banks, and Franklin Counties, as well as, portions of Jackson and Hall Counties. We are blessed to live in the most scenic area of our beautiful state. I pledge to you that I will work hard every day to represent your interests and support policies that will make Northeast Georgia an even better place in the future for our children and grandchildren.
The 153rd legislative session officially began on Monday, January 12th, however, much work had been done ahead of time to ensure a productive session. The Senate Republican Caucus met in December and selected officers for the upcoming session. I was selected by my fellow Senators to serve as Secretary of the Republican Caucus in the Senate for the upcoming session. One of our most important responsibilities is the assignment of Senate members to committees and to offices on those committees. During the first week of January, I was one of two Senate members named to the Committee on Assignments by Lt. Governor Casey Cagle to work on this task. I served along with other members of the Senate Leadership to assign Senators to committees. When I make my requests for assignments, I do so with the needs and interests of Northeast Georgia in mind. I was pleased to receive the following committee assignments for the upcoming session: Agriculture and Consumer Affairs (Chairman), Appropriations, Education and Youth (Vice Chairman), Natural Resources and the Environment, Rules (Ex-Offico). During the upcoming session these committees will work on legislation that will have a tremendous impact on all of us. If there are issues of particular interest to you, I encourage you to contact me and share your concerns.
During the first week of the session, Governor Nathan Deal delivered his annual “State of the State” address, outlining Georgia’s achievements and goals for the future. Obviously, there are many issues that we will face during the upcoming session. Since education is the recipient of more than half of our state’s budget, it is always important to make sure the money is being spent in ways that provide the most benefit to our students. We will be looking at updates to the funding formula for our schools. As our state’s economy continues to improve, we will continue to fund K-12 education at a higher level. Last year, we were able to increase funding to local school systems by more 300 million dollars, and we plan a significant increase again this year. Our young people are our most valuable resource, and we have an obligation to provide them with a “world class” educational experience. A transportation plan for our state and a bill to allow our children who are suffering to benefit from medical cannabis without moving to another state are also priorities for this session. I feel confident that we will meet these challenges.
This past week, we have been in recess for budget hearings. This gives the appropriations committees in the Senate and House the opportunity to hear from various state agencies regarding their budget requests for the upcoming year. As our economy continues to recover, it is important that we prioritize our resources and use them as efficiently as possible.
We will be back in the Senate Chamber and ready to begin debating legislation on Monday, January 26th. Again, if I can be of any assistance, please feel free to reach out to my office at 404.463.5257 or by email at [email protected].
