County leaders hear 2014 legislative priorities

CLEVELAND - County leaders from across northeast Georgia gathered in Cleveland Tuesday for a meeting of the District 2 Association of County Commissioners of Georgia.

The meeting was hosted by White County Board of Commissioners and was held at the White County Senior Center.

In addition to networking time between the county officials, they received an update on ACCG's legislative priorities in the 2014 Georgia General Assembly.

The group also had a time to share their concerns and interest with area state senators and representatives. Attending the meeting were Sens. Steve Gooch and John Wilkinson, State Reps. Dan Gasaway, Terry Rogers and Kevin Tanner.

Todd Edwards, associate legislative director for ACCG, said it's important that the county commissioners keep an open line of communication with area legislators.

"A lot of the bills covered by the legislators, in fact almost half, will impact counties in some way because we are charged with enforcing them, complying with them or following them in some way or another," Edwards said. "So it is good to get on the front end and have the commissioners talk with their legislators and partner together for good public policy because they share the same constituents and so much of what they do impacts taxpayers at the local level."

Edwards said some of the top legislative priorities in the coming general assembly session include: additional funding of juvenile courts; a clean-up of some tax reform issues; and telecommunications infrastructure, as it deals with cell towers and broadband Internet services and 9-1-1 facilities.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2013/10/267088