Candidates vying for seats take part in non-partisan forum

Six candidates took part – a seventh, Katherine Juhan-Arnold, who is running for Commissioner of Agriculture, texted in answers through another candidate – in the non-partisan forum held Oct. 8 at Trinity Baptist Church in Fort Valley.

The event was moderated by Karmen Brown, weekend/morning anchor for WMAZ-TV and Tony Gorcio Jr., a recent graduate of Fort Valley State University and project manager at Beach Conservative Citizens Incorporated.

The candidates were Rep. Tanya Miller, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, Democrat Peter Hubbard, who currently serves as a commissioner on the Georgia Public Service Commission and wants to continue serving in the role, Sheila Edwards, the Democratic nominee for the Georgia Public Service Commission – there are five in total who serve on it – Republican nominee Josh Tolbert, who is also running for Georgia Public Service Commission, Patty Marie Stinson, who is currently state representative for District 150, which covers several counties as well as Fort Valley and Dr. Lydia Powell, who is running for state superintendent of schools.

“The goal of the forum,” Brown laid out, “is very simple: To provide you all with an opportunity to hear directly from the candidates before casting your ballots. As you know, we are on the heels of a very important election, so tonight’s event is strictly nonpartisan. We are not here to endorse any candidate or political party.”

Later, in repeating those “housekeeping” rules, she said, “Please, let’s keep it respectful. No interruptions, no personal attacks.”

There were a few times in which one candidate couldn’t resist but for the majority all were respectful of each other.

“As you know,” she said, “politics affects us all. And so being an informed voter before you cast your vote helps strengthen our democracy.”

Each was afforded two minutes to start to tell a little about themselves, before the prepared questions. (Note: You can read those introductions, as well as the answers to several questions that had to be cut out due to space, by going to hhjonline.com, theleadertribune.com or hhjonline.com/the-news-observer/.)

Some of the questions were for all, Brown said, and some were “position” unique. Regardless, she said, “You are all welcome to address the question.” To which for the majority part, they all did.

What do you think the role of government is and how does your position contribute to the role?

Miller: “Well, ultimately, I think the role of government primarily is to protect the people. That is why government exists. It exists to protect your safety. It exists to protect your economic prosperity. It exists to protect your civil rights.

“Most people can live their lives on their own without the government telling them what to do, but we do want to make sure that our government is creating an environment that is fair for everybody and that treats everybody equally.

“The attorney general has a critical role in all of those spaces. As I’ve discussed, in fact, my platform is ‘protect the people’. And we’ve already talked about it. It’s protect them from violent crime. Protect them from corporations ripping them off, and protect their sacred right to vote and their civil rights in this state.”

Hubbard: “The Public Service Commission is really there to make sure you’re not paying too much on your utility bills and to help protect against cost shifts and to help protect against, I think, even more than that, I think we should be protecting against making decisions that lock us into a costlier energy future. Decisions that won’t have negative impacts on our public health by building fossil fuel power plants.

“I think we should also care for You know, more than just our economic well-being, although that is the focus of the Public Service Commission. If I were to just boil down to what our role is, it’s right there in the title of the Public Service Commission. It’s to serve the public.

“And the reason why I got in this race and took this role on is because I did not see that happening with the commission that we had for more than two decades, and I just did not see the leadership there. Accepting whatever was put in front of us by the utility. Accepting that and rubber stamping and putting it forward.

“So we need to serve the public. That’s our goal. We’re not there to serve corporations and the folks that already are doing very well for themselves.”

Edwards: “The Public Service Commission is supposed to be serving the public. It’s a five-member commission, one of the most unknown groups in the state, but they have the power for billions of dollars.

“And I can tell you my platform is going to be about people, putting people first, making sure that Georgia Power comes to the table with a new rate plan. Making sure that Georgia Power doesn’t turn off people’s power in the dead of winter or the hottest days of the summer. And then not demand that they pay reconnection even when they don’t have the money to pay the bill in the first place.

“My platform is going to include not turning around and allowing coal ash companies who are infiltrating our campaigns to be the ones who are getting decisions made on their behalf. My goal is to make sure that nuclear engineers, which my opponent is … making sure nuclear power plants don’t overrun our state. That we utilize the sun and the solar programs that are available to allow people to access the greatest resource we have in the sun, which is free.

“My platform includes pushing back on data centers that are overrunning our state, that have come in, open doors. It’s like somebody coming into your house and watching your Netflix and eating your snack out of the refrigerator. We’ve got to stop that. We’ve got to put the guardrails in place to make sure these things are not happening.

“I’m a community advocate. The thing I can tell you is coal ash companies aren’t supporting me in my campaign. I can tell you that I don’t love data centers, as some people do. Tell you that I’m going to be your community advocate, your person at the table. As far as engineers at the PSC, we’ve got plenty in the basement at the Public Service Commission and PSC office. And I believe they have been causing the bad decisions to be happening and passing that along to PSC members.

“And so we need a community advocate on this board. We need somebody who’s going to stop the nonsense and say no to the man that Georgia Power brings and have a plan for the people, not the utility companies.”

Tolbert: “So the role of the Public Service Commission, I want you to imagine a moment that we live in a world in which there’s only one manufacturer of cell phones. Let’s say Apple. If you don’t like the device of your phone, your only option is to not buy it. You don’t like the features, there’s no other brand to go to.

“Now in that world, we still need phones, they’re still important. So we could probably create a commission to oversee the decisions that the phone company makes, that Apple makes, to make sure the phones are affordable, they have the right features, we sell them the right way.

“Imagine what type of people would you want on that commission. When we think about electricity, we don’t have to imagine this world we live in. Anybody else a Georgia Power customer, you all AMCs? Well, Georgia Power is a monopoly utility. And so we’ve created a commission called the Public Service Commission to oversee the decisions that they make.

“My way of giving is, are we doing a good job? Is Georgia Power making the same decisions they would if the customer had a choice? If you could go to another power company, would they still make the same decisions? And make no mistake, the decisions made in Georgia Power trickle down to the EMCs.

“Now, yes, there are engineers of the Public Service Commission. We’ve had engineers there for years, and their job is supposed to be to provide information to help protect the right payers.

“How’s that working out? What are your prices? What’s the price for power winding? We need more than that. We are going to elect those engineers there in the basement. We are electing the commissioners to make the decisions. It is not valuable for just the people that they’re reporting to them understands the information. The ones making the decisions need to also understand the information. That’s what the Public Service Commission does, and that’s what I’m thinking we should be doing.”

Stinson: “There’s 180 members of the House of Representatives of 56 Senators. Of course, we have our Speaker of the House, and we take the order. And so our role is we work to pass legislation that pass laws that impact everyone across the state.

“But our constitutional mandate is to pass a balanced budget, to pass the budget. That’s what we are – that’s our mandate to be there. And we work and do pass laws. And I often tell people, conversation turns into legislation. Legislation turns into laws. That’s how a lot of laws get passed. You know, they start off by having a conversation about something and that turns into legislation.

“You’ve got to work that legislation, take it through the process. But our primary focus of being in that House of Representatives is to pass a budget. Not just bills that we are passing and working on, that’s just what we do, but our mandatory primary job duty is to pass a budget. And as a state representative for these past 14 years, my whole focus has just been about doing what I can to help constituents, help the constituents in this district.

“House District 150 is small rural communities. We’re lacking a lot of resources. And so I have used this position to be a source for constituents to really help them maneuver through different situations. And I didn’t say this earlier, but before being a state representative, I served as a county commissioner in Taylor County for eight years. I was asked one time, which one did I prefer, commissioner or state representative? My answer is I just prefer serving the people and working on behalf of the people.

“But I will say this, when I was a county commissioner, I had a constituent reach out to me. Her baby turned a year old that Friday. She reached out to me Wednesday about 5:30 (p.m.). She couldn’t get in contact with Medicaid to make sure that she had her Medicaid ready for the baby to get into the person. I was able, as a state representative to make that happen for her. Really fast. As a county commissioner, I would have been able to eventually help get it resolved. But it was as a state representative. It’s just a matter of picking up the phone and calling to the Department of Community Health and making that happen. But that all comes with building good relationships.

“So, it’s important to be open, no matter what your position you’re running for, what you’re doing in life, you’ve got to build good relationships so people will know your character, know your ability, and know that you are there to work for them and work with them.”

Powell: “It’s actually a constitutional position. And so I think the three main jobs that this person should be doing, and the number one job is budget. So ensuring that the money that is allotted to the Department of Education is placed where it should be placed. But also you need to ensure that schools are adequately funded. Funded by, number one, ensuring that we are working on an updated formula. We currently have a 1985 formula, and that is what we’re using to fund our schools. And at the end of the legislative session, we say we’re fully funding schools. Yes, well, based on an outdated formula to fund those schools.

“So as state superintendent, you should be in the room. You should be at these committee meetings showing data, showing information to let the people who make these decisions know and understand why we need to update that formula. That is not happening with your current superintendent.

“Second thing is policy. So again, when the legislation gets together and makes decisions and the government signs it into law, those things have to come down into policy, to the local school board. They have to make sure those things get done. Then the teachers and administrators are responsible. So for example, cell phone ban, all right? How do we make sure that gets done? Having literacy coaches in K through eight spaces. And looking at what a mandatory minimum would be for someone I hire as a literacy coach. Can they just have a degree in political science to be a literacy coach? Or should they have specialized training in the science of reading? Should they be a reading specialist?

“That policy is something that a state superintendent should do. That is not happening.

“And finally, oversight. So, you have your budget, you have your policy, you have laws. And the oversight, which is not happening, and we can look at Dublin schools as to what was going on there, because there was no oversight. And the oversight that the current person is doing is mismanaged.

“So for example, when the law came about having divisive policies, he decided to say no to AP African American Studies in the state of Georgia. That is how he wanted to use his oversight. So as state superintendent, The governmental job I have is budget, policy and oversight.”

Gas, grocery, and housing costs continue to skyrocket in our state, Recent surveys have shown that Georgians are concerned about affordability. How much control over supporting affordability in our local communities would you have and how would you help that affordability factor for Georgians?

Juhan-Arnold: “When you pull up to a gas pump, agriculture is there too. The Georgia Department of Agriculture has an important consumer protection responsibility. When that pump says you bought 10 gallons, you should receive 10 gallons. Georgians work too hard for their money to receive anything less than what they paid for.”

Stinson: “As a state representative, in the minority caucus, we’ve worked really hard to try to pass legislation that addresses affordability and make things more affordable in this state. It’s a challenge in the minority caucus, but we continue to fight. Plenty of pieces of legislation have come forward that I supported to address these things. And until the makeup, I know we’re non-partisan here, but I just, you know, I’ve just got to speak real enough. Until we change things in the Georgia House of Representatives, then we’re going to continue our draft right now. And we’ve been working hard and fighting to address these things at the end.

“And so things actually change from the top all the way down to the bottom. You’re going to continue to have this. And so if you really want a real change at the grocery store, at the pharmacy, and all of that stuff, then you need to make sure you vote for those individuals in the same party at times.”

Tolbert: “It is what it is. It is what it is. When it comes to the energy burden is the biggest way the Public Service Commission touches your daily life. I had a $650 power bill in July. That impacts my life. The decisions that we make, how those costs get passed on to customers, it’s really, really meaningful.

“How are we going to handle potential additional challenges like this to make sure those prices aren’t going up further? Those are the ways it most meaningfully impacts our life. The commission has voted for six consecutive rate increases in the past three years. That’s a big problem.

“It’s one of the reasons that I ran. It’s one of the reasons I challenge an incumbent in the same party as me. Because I don’t think it should be partisan. I think this power should be political, power should be partisan. My whole perspective on this is, I don’t care what party you are. If you hear a proposal from the utility, your ability to ask them, push back, demand scrutiny is far more important than what letters beside your name.

“And I wasn’t afraid to challenge an incumbent in my party because I care about the results, not what party you’re associated with. And I’m not asking for anybody to vote for any other person in any other party in any other position than what I am. I’m running for me. I’m asking people to vote for an engineer that understands energy so that we can drive our power.”

Edwards: “You know, we want to be nonpartisan. But we know what’s been going on over the last 20 years and who’s been in charge of the last 20 years and why you’re suffering the issues that you’re suffering now because the other side has been in power for the last 20 years, and they want to continue that.

“So, they tell you stuff like, oh, it’s nonpartisan. But when it was them in charge, they were happy to have it partisan. They were happy to have it go down a certain route. And so you turn around and you have to use your God-given intelligence.

“Because even though you don’t have five degrees, you’re smart people. And you know how to discern what’s going on in terms of who’s got your interests and who doesn’t, in terms of who’s been working in the community on the issues that impact you and your families and who hasn’t. I’ve been working in my community for decades.”

“I’ve been giving back for decades. I’ve been helping marginalized communities figure it out for decades. So, when you get ready to go to the polls, you look at the people who’ve been helping you versus the people who’ve been helping themselves.”

Hubbard: “I want to put a little bit of meat on the bones here for you because sometimes affordability is tossed around. It’s a buzzword, but it’s an impactful word. Utility payments are usually the second largest payment for most households, right after housing itself. And the traditional definition of whether something is affordable, whether utilities are affordable, is whether or not six percent of your household income or less is going towards utilities.

“But the thing is, is affordability doesn’t work as a blanket term. Everyone’s own definition of affordability depends on your own personal circumstances. So, for some people, they might only pay two, three percent of their household income on the bills, but for other people, it might be as much as twenty percent. So, affordability really means different things for different people.

“My goal is to deliver lower power bills, lower gas bills, make sure that utilities aren’t spending money imprudently, and when those chickens come home to roost, they don’t end up on your power bills. And there’s things that we can do, and I’ll just caveat this by saying I’ve served on the commission right now, but it’s a commission of five and the rule of three governors. So I can throw as much spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. But if I can’t get the votes, I can’t actually make impactful change. But there’s short, medium, long-term buckets of how we can actually deliver on affordability.

“I’m just saying things like the $35 senior discount, that needs to be expanded. We need to do more to help folks that are struggling to pay their gas bills, and we have pots of money that we can do if we have the votes to help folks with their gas bills.

“In the medium term, we need to bring in utilities to justify the rates they’re charging. Our gas companies have not come in to justify their rates in over a decade, and that’s why their gas bills have doubled.

“And in the long term, we just need to build the right resources. Clean energy will help lower our bills. So, I’ve got a lot of ideas on how to actually deliver on affordability. I just need the votes to do it.”

Miller: “So, the Attorney General’s job is to protect the consumer. When I started this campaign over a year ago, I launched my campaign talking about the cost to live and what the attorney general can do about it. The first thing the agent can do about it is take these cheating corporations to court every time they’re charging you a junk fee. Every time they’re predatory lending to you. Every time they are ripping you off at the gas pump. Every time grocers are conspiring to keep your prices high. Every time an online platform illegally colludes – that means agrees together to charge different people different prices for the same thing – if you’re doing them to be a deadline with that, standing up for working people. “I’m a working class kid from a working class family. My viewpoint is forged in that. I did homework by candlelight when they turned the lights out and stayed warm by kerosene heater when they turned the gas off in the winter time.

“I watched my mother work two jobs, living paycheck to paycheck and always wishing as a kid that somebody would stand up to them for my mother. I became a lawyer to stand up to people who hurt people like my mother.

“So, everything that attorney general’s office will do on day one is this. Everybody who has a job there will have to ask himself this question every day. ‘What are we doing to make the lives of working people in the state of Georgia better?’

“We will not answer to a politician. We will not answer to the president. We will not answer to politics or special interests. We will answer to the people of Georgia.”

Powell: “Just some of the things when we look at teachers and what teachers actually make, we do need to look at ways to incentivize teachers so that they can make a livable wage.

“And so some of those things are waiving certification fees. Waiving the fees for fingerprinting as well, loan forgiveness programs for people aspiring to be teachers. I’m not making people who are coming into the profession actually pay for their teacher training programs have some sort of reimbursement where if you give two to three years to a high poverty area, you get that reimbursed because that is a difficult thing and when teachers get all these loans, come out of college and make $43,000, they can’t afford to get a home because their debt to income ratio is too high. So a loan forgiveness can be a life changer for a teacher.

“We also need to have discounted childcare, discounted health insurance. And these are not things I’m making up. These are actual things that happened in 1998 when I started teaching. I was able to afford to live. I was able to afford to get a house because these RV things that were in place for me. And all of these things have been taken away for our children. And the cost of things is three times higher than it was when I got out of college.”

How will you create opportunities for working families while encouraging the operation of small businesses and also supporting small business owners?

Hubbard: “Well, as a small business owner of a funeral home, with a lot of state regulations, I was in a forum earlier this week, and that’s what I talked about, how we can, as a state, we try to minimize some of the regulations for our small business owners.

“Quick example, in a funeral home business, we are required by law to have not less than eight caskets in your funeral home. And a family may come in and order from your catalog and never purchase one out of your showroom. But by law, we are required to have eight on the inside of the building at all times.

“So just coming up with ways to minimize some of the regulations so it won’t be such a burden on business owners, small business owners to keep the doors open. But what I have done over the past 14 years is just try to work with my local governments to create an atmosphere to be more business friendly, to be business ready.”

Stinson:  “I’m sure a lot of you watched the debate last night. We heard from the candidates talk about how they wanted to invest into the state for industry and businesses, which is great. But we all know our politics is local. And in order to get those businesses and industry to look at this part of the state, we’ve got to make sure that our local governments are ready, that we’re a business rating, that when a developer comes knocking on your door, that you’re going to be there to open the door, that you’re not going to the tenancy.

“They’ve got to wait until next week to come back to see you. That’s not how it works. So that’s been my goal to work with local officials to make sure that we have all our business in order, so we will be ready for business and industries when they start to come to our community.”

Tolbert: “The availability of reliable affordable electricity is one of the single largest indicators and precursors to growth, to economic growth. Your factories, your companies, your manufacturers, the ability of them to have reliable electricity that’s cost effective has tremendous impacts on their ability to grow, to create jobs, create products, and for overall economic growth.

“The agricultural industry that’s in middle and south Georgia is growing with an increasing amount of reliance on electricity for pumps, for irrigation, for all sorts of things. And so this is not just an issue that affects your home or affects a factory somewhere. It affects all parts of Georgia. And so the ability and the willingness of the Public Service Commission to ensure that we continue to have affordable, reliable electricity is a tremendous precursor to continued economic growth in this state.”

Juhan-Arnold: “Georgia farmers should not have to navigate government programs alone. There are USDA programs that can help farmers fight risk financing, conservation, disaster recovery, crop protection, infrastructure, rural development, and expanding their operations.

“But a program is only useful as farmers know that it actually exists. Understanding how to qualify and how to successfully access it. As Commissioner of Agriculture, I love the Georgia Department of Agriculture to be a stronger connector between our farmers and resources that are available to them. When federal USDA dollars and programs are available, Georgia farmers, which are small farmers, family farmers, beginning farmers, and established producers should know where to go and how to get that help. So, really close that gap in ensuring that our farmers in rural Georgia know where to get those resources from.”

How do you plan to improve public safety while ensuring the community trust?

Miller: “Look, the attorney general’s job is public safety. I am the only law enforcement person, person with law enforcement experience in this race. My opponent’s qualifications are his fealty to Donald Trump.

“What we do not need is another lackey in a powerful position designed to protect the people. I was undefeated as a homicide prosecutor. But public safety takes more than just confidence and experience, so I’m the only one in this race who has that. People who do this work understand that public safety is also about prevention.

“It is also about investing in the things that keep young people, in particular, off the path of belonging or becoming part of our criminal justice system. Now, in addition to that, we have a severe problem with the Department of Corrections. The Department of Corrections has been underfunded and neglected for decades by the party in control. Why that matters to us is because crime doesn’t stop for the Department of Corrections. We know that gangs are right now preying on seniors from the prisons with their cell phones.

“In addition to that, people when they go into our criminal justice system to come out better not worse. That means we have to invest in rehabilitating people. We have to invest in giving people an opportunity to re-enter into our society to become taxpaying citizens to become voters in our community and that requires us to invest not only to keep these prisons safe but invest in the things that we know stop people from committing a life of crime.

“And until you have the courage to stand up and not just talk tough but to actually do the things that keep people safe. I don’t think you are worthy of an office as important as the attorney general this great state.”

Stinson: “As a member of the Appropriations Committee, every year through our budget hearings, we have the state commissioners come and submit their budget request to the Appropriations Committee.

“So I always vote to support whatever they are requesting for their departments. So as a state representative, I’ll be working to support those state law enforcement officers or state agencies on that level.

“But what we can do to help ensure that there is some assistance that flows down to our local law enforcement agencies, because we hear that mental health is a big issue in our local jails, working with our Department of Behavioral Health commissioner to ensure that those mental health services are making their way down to our local jails. Working with our Department of Community, though, to not put such a Medicaid burden on the local jails.

“Because it’s my understanding if someone … I’ll give you a quick example. When I was a county commissioner, right before I became a county commissioner, there was a gentleman in the local jail. He kept complaining that he was having heart issues and they ignored him and later he had a massive heart attack and the county ended up with a $100,000 hospital bill. That’s on them. Not his health insurance, but on the counties.

“And so ways that we can kind of help ensure that those types of financial burdens don’t fall home to our local government agencies.”

Edwards: “I think it is criminal that people are being charged for absorbing the most on their utility bills. I think that’s crime. But people are given the green light to do that.

“And we have to turn around and make the change that we want to seek. We have to turn around and vote for people that are going to vote for our substances when they get into office. Legally charged so that we don’t have people to turn into a life of crime, so that we don’t have the jails and other criminal institutes loading up black and brown people.

“We have to turn around and be the change that we want to see. And we have to create an opportunity for these people to be able to succeed.

“And they can’t succeed if they’re turning around and taking their whole check and giving it to Georgia Power. If they’re making a different wage, how do they support their families in Georgia Power? It just can’t happen, and that’s criminal.

“And so when I become the next Public Service Commissioner, I’m going to do something for the ballot. I’m going to push back on Georgia Power coming and asking for more rate increases. I’m going to demand that they bring a plan to lower the rates.

“We’re going to demand that they open up a solar program so that you can utilize and benefit from that situation. They try to scare you that, oh, solar is just for the daytime. Well, you can store it so that you have access at night.

“So they’re always trying to create a boogeyman to scare you into your position. But you have to be brave. You have to put your brave hat on, your shield on your arm and move forward and press forth like the eight women on the ballot on your behalf.

“You know, it’s not easy going across the state, being in a different town, a different city, a different whatever every day, pushing our issues, but you’re important enough for us to do this. And the people that are in your family, your children, your grandchildren, we have to create an atmosphere for them to be able to survive, to be able to move forward.

“And right now that’s not been happening, what’s been happening is people in their self interests the interests of these companies that are supporting them. You have to peel the onion and see who’s really behind all these things. And when you do that, you’ll be able to make some decisions about who you’re going to support in these election cycles.”

How can you ensure that public tax dollars are allocated directly towards supporting our students and their needs?

Powell: “Well, we’ll start first with having a formula. that adequately funds our schools. That’s step number one. We need to look at the fact that over 70% of our children in the state of Georgia are economically disadvantaged. And there is no poverty rate added to the QBE formula. And what that means is you get, say you get a dollar for each student, like one point for each student.

“Well, if your student is gifted or ESOL or special ed, you get $1.50. So $1.50 per student. We’re just using those small numbers. But if you’re working with students maybe high poverty or high poverty requirements, you don’t get extra funding for those students.

“Why is that important? Well, in my research, when I was working with my doctorate degree, before my dissertation on African American males in the dropout rate, what do you think the number one indicator was for a student to drop out of school? Poverty.

“So, if poverty is the number one indicator, why aren’t we funding that? So that would be the first step at using the resources.

“Step number two, is making sure our budget shows our priorities. I tell people all the time, I can say my priorities are buying books, my priorities are doing this and that, but when we look at my credit card statement, my priorities look like I like to eat and go to the movies. So when we look at our budget and we say we want literacy coaches in every building, and we’re going on a budget $70 million for that. But then we say literacy is important because only 35% of our third graders can pass the third grade test. And when we look at Peach County, it’s 25% of our children in Peach County already at grade level.

“But then we give $100 million to privacy vouchers. Does that sound like a misallocation of months? Well, our priority should be something different.

“So those are the ways we can start. Now, there are other ways to drill down the money and make sure kids get what they need, but let’s just start with those two ways.”

Edwards: “One of the biggest needs of schools is the cost to power the school with electricity and also the diesel to run the buses. And one of the projects that’s near and near to me to my heart is I visited Clayton County Schools and saw they have 400 buses altogether.

“A hundred of them now are electric school buses. And it costs a lot more to buy them, but they cost a lot less in diesel. And kids that are riding in those buses don’t have to suck in the fumes that get drafted in through the windows. I think that goes a long way to help out the kids, as long as the benefits of saving that diesel are returned back to the school and they actually see that benefit.

“But I also think, I want to just point out that we need more solar on schools because that will help to lower the burden of paying that power bill every year. There’s a really great example in Arkansas where they put solar on the school. They found $600,000 a year in annual savings. And what they did with them is they gave them back to the teachers and are paying the teachers $15,000 more per year in that one Arkansas school district. We could do that here in Georgia and that would put money back in the pockets of the schools so that we could do more of those dollars.

“As I stated earlier about the appropriation process. This time of the year, typically the governor’s office is paying a budget would present the different commissioners and department heads like the state school superintendent, the state commissioners for agriculture and all the others they would come and present their state budget requests to the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget and then from there when we started our appropriations committee hearings in January each one of those departments, state department hearings like the state school superintendent would come and submit their budget requests to the appropriations committee.

“And they will submit their request of what they want for that State Department. And each commissioner will do the same. And we hear from them. And a bill is implemented in the House of Representatives, the budget bill, and then we pass it and it goes over to the Senate back and forth in that matter.

“But for me, it’s about supporting the request from these State Departments because they know more about their departments than I do. And so they come and make their budget requests. So whatever requests that they are making as the commissioner or department of directions or the state school superintendent, that’s what I support.

“And so today, for instance, we were speaking of Peach County, a circle of estimate with this Peach County superintendent and some other staff members, and they were going home with us things that were a concern for them before we go back to the legislative session in January. And then next month we’ll meet with RESA, the Middle Georgia RESA and the … and get a chance to hear from all of the superintendents throughout the district about their concerns and things that they want us to work on their behalf when we go back into session.

“So I just wanted to share that so everyone kind of have an idea of how we do it in the House of Representatives.”