The Blackshear Times | Blackshear, Pierce County, Ga. Tom Crawford / Citizens, legislators deserve better than leadership gives

There are many members of the Legislature who work hard and try to represent the best interests of their constituents back home.

They run for office thinking they will be allowed to make informed decisions about which bills to pass and which bills to defeat.

They don’t know they will come to the capitol merely to carry out the orders of the governor and the leadership of the House and Senate.

This year, legislators were pressured to cast late-night votes on a huge transportation tax increase and a lucrative tax giveaway for Mercedes-Benz.

The Mercedes tax break wasn’t introduced as a bill and did not go through the normal committee review process. The measure was cooked up by the governor’s lawyers, added to an unrelated bill, and presented to lawmakers less than two hours before the session’s adjournment.

The transportation tax bill at least was introduced and reviewed in committee meetings, but the final version included some provisions that legislators did not see until the bill was put before them late at night for a final vote.

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