The Georgia General Assembly will come to order Monday, resuming the raucous, messy, imperfect process that is governance among a free people.
Even in an ordinary year, the stakes for Georgia and its people are significant, depending on what does – or does not – transpire within the halls and chambers of the Gold Dome. At minimum, there’s a state budget to be decided and matters routine and noteworthy alike that deserve an honest hearing and action by lawmakers.
It’s safe to say, though, that 2016 will not be an ordinary year for the Legislature. Matters of grave importance are before this body. Underlying it all should be a realization that the trajectory of our state now, and in years to come, stands to be significantly affected by lawmakers’ actions – or inaction.
If proper, smart and, when warranted — bold — decisions are made during the next 40 legislative days, Georgia can continue to build on strengths and successes that have energized this state’s magnet for smart people and innovative industry.
Conversely, if wrong choices are chosen – or correct ones carelessly flung aside – then our momentum may, at best, stumble. At worst, the state’s prosperity could suffer if misguided, or simply venal, legislation somehow becomes law.
That’s the risk. Then there is the related, hefty challenge that’s squarely in front of legislators. It’s easy to understand, yet will prove hard to accomplish. Simply, it is to recognize that Georgians, to a great extent, agree in a general way on the biggest issues here that need work. Where we disagree, vehemently at times, is on just how to solve the problems that face us – not the fact that they exist.
That shouldn’t be much of an obstacle to progress. Nothing is more American than factions arguing over the best course toward resolving any bugaboo before us. Such partisan squabbles can be entertaining, but only as long as they eventually give way to earnest talk that results in workable, collaborative solutions.
Americans, and Georgians, have thoroughly stumbled on this last point in recent years. We know what the rubs are; yet we have proved increasingly unable to bridge the chasm that traps honest differences of opinion. Solutions have been left stranded on either side as a result.
The normal hyperbole of an election year only heightens the risk that inaction will rule as lawmakers increasingly play to the polls and popular opinion. When that happens, true statesmanship – and results — get shoved to the back bench.
That should not prove the case in Georgia this year – not with so much here in need of resolution. The list of issues and causes before the Gold Dome is too serious for cynical politicking to trump sound policymaking.
Most Georgians, and metro Atlantans, would agree that our public schools need much work yet, as does the infrastructure that lets people and goods move profitably around this state. Serious challenges remain in the state’s health care apparatus. And yet another nasty skirmish is likely over religious liberty – a right that was etched centuries ago in the granite that is the U.S. Constitution.
As of Monday, the Legislature will begin choosing how its scales will weigh progress versus politics. Lawmakers should remember that Georgia’s future will be similarly assessed by the actions they take.
Andre Jackson, for the Editorial Board.
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