What's on the agenda in Georgia General Assembly? Here are Savannah lawmakers' priorities

Nine of the 236 Georgia General Assembly members represent Chatham County residents. Over the next three months, those House reps and senators will champion bills, resolutions and other initiatives that are of local interest and lobby for services and capital improvement projects to be included in the state budget.

The 2023 session is unique: Both chambers have new leadership, and the Chatham delegation has undergone a shuffle. Long-serving Sen. Lester Jackson did not run for re-election, and House Rep. Derek Mallow won election to his seat. Mallow’s move created its own opening, and Anne Allen Westbrook captured that seat in the November vote.

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In addition, the 2021 redistricting altered district lines for the Georgia Senate, resulting in Sen. Billy Hickman, a Statesboro resident, now representing a portion of West Chatham.

Each year, as the Legislature convenes for business at the Georgia Capitol, Chatham lawmakers share their priorities. Here’s what they said.

Sen. Derek Mallow: Newcomer to focus on Medicaid expansion, Savannah-centric issues

Mallow intends to build on the momentum from his rapid political rise in his first session in the Georgia Senate. The Democrat first won elected office in 2020 — by 19 votes — and quickly gained a reputation in the House for a combination of passionate advocacy and common-sense management skills.

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Mallow lists Medicaid expansion and better access to public transit and affordable housing among his top priorities.

Mallow, whose district covers all of Savannah and other parts of Chatham County, works as an administrator with the Boy Scouts of America.

Sen. Billy Hickman: K-12 education reform is priority

Hickman will champion an overhaul of Georgia's K-12 education funding mechanism, known as Quality Basic Education, or QBE. The husband of an educator, the Republican flinches at a report released last year that 36% of Georgia third graders aren't reading on grade level, a literacy failure that has grown in recent years. Another study found that students who struggle to read coming out of third grade are four times more likely to end up dropping out of school than their better-reading peers.

The QBE formula was enacted in 1985 and hasn't been updated since. Several lawmakers have advocated for reforming the funding mechanism in recent years, but QBE legislation has yet to reach the floor of either chamber.

Hickman, whose district covers several rural counties as well as Bloomingdale and part of Pooler, also plans to advocate for improved access to health care in underserved areas.

Sen. Ben Watson: Health care issues top of mind for committee chairman

Watson, a physician by trade whose district covers parts of Chatham and Liberty counties and all of Bryan County, chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. He will prioritize health care network adequacy, as many Georgia counties have only one insurance coverage choice, and will also explore legislation that could empower state officials to challenge nonprofit hospitals that put patients in the middle of coverage squabbles with insurance companies.

Watson will also champion follow-up legislation involving funding for behavioral and mental health care related to the mental health reform law passed in the 2022 session,

With the Savannah area’s rapidly changing labor environment, Watson will work with colleagues to bolster workforce development measures, particularly for locally based soldiers who are exiting the military.

A Republican, Watson has served in the Legislature since 2011, first in the House. He moved to the Senate in 2016.

Rep. Bill Hitchens: Road improvements, Savannah Convention Center funding atop docket

Hitchens’ 2023 focus will be on the main travel corridor through his district: Georgia 21. Hitchens represents residents of Pooler, Port Wentworth, Rincon and southern Effingham County, and the state highway that connects those communities is a notorious travel bottleneck.

The Republican also intends to champion funding for the completion of the Savannah Convention Center expansion and legislation involving the Georgia Ports Authority police, child support for custodial parents of children with disabilities beyond the normal age, revamp permissible times for fireworks, and ignition interlock requirement for first-time drunk drivers.

Hitchens will also seek to continue a driver’s education program he helped implement in 2019. Funding for the initiative is due to expire this year.

A retired Georgia State Patrolman and a Marine Corps veteran, Hitchens has served in the General Assembly since 2013.

Rep. Carl Gilliard: Farmers’ Market, minimum wage increase are top priorities

Gilliard has gained renown as a Democrat who has successfully tackled polarizing issues in a Republican-controlled House during his tenure, be it gang violence, citizen's arrest laws or sea-level rise.

Another subject Gilliard has long championed is support for Georgia’s farmers’ markets and produce terminals. The Savannah Farmers’ Market sits within his westside district, and he’s been among the leaders of an effort to establish a development authority that works in conjunction with the Georgia Department of Agriculture to bolster the viability of state-owned markets to address food insecurity. Gilliard runs a related nonprofit, Feed the Hungry.

Another priority for Gilliard is to continue to push for the Georgia Liveable Wage Act, which would raise the minimum wage for state employees to $15 per hour.

Rep. Anne Allen Westbrook: Voting reforms, health care access focus of newest member

Westbrook will assert herself early and often as she joins the Georgia House. She has prioritized two issues for her first session: To ensure election measures promote voting and don’t disenfranchise Georgias; and health care access.

On voting, the Democrat was troubled by the unintended consequences of Georgia’s recent voting reforms seen during the 2022 U.S. Senate runoff. The law called for a shortened timeline between the general election and the runoff, and absentee voters experienced delays with ballot processing. In addition, the change meant fewer days - and longer lines - for early voters.

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Westbrook will seek pragmatic solutions on health care access. She acknowledges the GOP majority is unlikely to support full Medicaid expansion but does see the potential for bipartisan support for new legislation to help hospitals and providers in underserved areas of rural Georgia.

Westbrook is an attorney by trade.

Rep. Ron Stephens: Property tax exemption, medical examiners on chairman’s wish list

The dean of the Chatham County legislation and a member of the Georgia House since 1997, Stephens is an influential lawmaker who is focused on “pocketbook issues.”

The Republican will support Gov. Brian Kemp’s push for legislation that would lower property taxes in 2023 in addition to the governor’s promised income tax refund. Stephens is also open to exploring a property tax reduction that would be tied to the revenue generated by the Local Option Sales Tax, or LOST, which was recently renewed in Chatham County.

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Stephens’ district encompasses municipalities, such as Richmond Hill, and unincorporated areas greatly impacted by the region’s economic surge. He will champion several workforce development initiatives this session.

Stephens will also seek to pass legislation that would require coroners who are not medical examiners by training to have one on staff. Currently, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations conducts autopsies in counties without an ME, leading to delays. Chatham is among those counties without a medical examiner in the coroner’s office.

Stephens is a retired pharmacist.

Rep. Edna Jackson: Savannah State, hotel-motel taxes top of mind for political icon

The former Savannah mayor and civil rights era pioneer is putting her influence behind the passage of legislation that would increase Savannah’s hotel-motel tax by 2% to 8%. The increase nearly passed in 2020 before division among Savannah City Council members halted those efforts.

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Jackson, a Democrat, will also seek solutions to funding issues encountered by Savannah State University. She sits on the House Higher Education Committee and will encourage her colleagues to consider pushing for changes to the University System of Georgia’s funding formula, which is tied to enrollment and can put schools in a financial bind when enrollments drop significantly. SSU is facing an $11 million budget gap for the 2023-2024 school year due to a long-term enrollment decline.

Jackson also vows to fight any GOP attempts to further restrict abortion. The United States Supreme Court repealed the Roe v. Wade decision last June, following the close of the 2022 Georgia General Assembly session. The ruling cleared the way for state’s to implement abortion restrictions.

Jackson joined the Legislature in 2022 after winning a special election in 2021 following the death of Rep. Mickey Stephens.

Rep. Jesse Petrea: Focus remains on criminal justice-related reforms

Petrea styles himself a criminal justice watchdog and has championed several legislative measures related to police, courts and the corrections system in his eight years in the House. His focus this session is a bill that would create a Prosecuting Attorney Oversight Committee aimed at district attorney. He is an outspoken critic of Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones.

Petrea, a Republican, also wants the state to strengthen its drunk driving laws, requiring judges to issue a "written" finding before accepting a plea that reduces a DUI to reckless driving. Also, he wants the law to require restitution to dependent children when a parent or guardian is killed by a drunk driver or drunk boater.

Petrea will continue his push for better transparency from the Department of Corrections as it relates to ICE detainees, or immigrants who entered the United States illegally and are incarcerated from criminal acts. The bill would require a list of these detainees be posted prominently on the Corrections website and include all crimes committed.

Petrea works in the health care industry with a focus on senior care.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah Georgia Legislature lawmakers: Priorities for 2023