By Clint Thompson
Georgia’s legislative session next year is set to begin in about a month. Agricultural organizations are ready to advocate for their priorities. One of those organizations is the Georgia Agribusiness Council (GAC).
GAC President Will Bentley was at the Georgia Farm Bureau Convention on Dec. 8 and discussed what some of his organization’s top priorities are. Not surprisingly, they center around taxes.
“When it comes to our priorities, always having a sensible tax environment is going to be important. We’ve got a few more things to update in the CUVA program,” Bentley said. “I think the speaker has reiterated he’s going to look at property taxes, so that will be important to our membership. And then just making sure that we’re well protected. A lot of times we’ll go into a legislative session without a lot of offensive positions and things that we’re trying to get passed; simply looking out to see what we need to defend and make sure our industry’s protected moving forward.”
The Georgia General Assembly’s legislative session next year is scheduled to start on Jan. 12 and conclude on April 6.
One of the main political themes for next year are legislators seeking re-election.
“I would expect this year in the legislative session to be a lot of red meat. It seems like everybody in the legislature is running for higher office, especially on the senate side,” Bentley said. “There’s going to be a lot of people jockeying for position and trying to get to the wings of their respective parties and trying to get through the primary season. I would expect there to be a lot of things to come out like that.”