With campaign season here, look for ‘rapid fire’ session of Georgia’s General Assembly starting today.

Georgia’s General Assembly convenes today with a whirlwind atmosphere that should have things wrapped up by mid March. “Fast and furious” is being used to describe the pace for the 2016 session. Perhaps an easier explanation is: election year. Candidate qualifying is March 7-11; also, incumbents cannot raise funds when the General Assembly is convened. With the primary set for May 24, look for the 40-day session to have very few breaks.

What we’re watching: The topic we’ll be tracking the most this year is reform of the Department of Revenue following the surprise repayment ordered from Floyd governments after it was discovered a Floyd-based industry had paid too much tax for nearly a decade. Local governments had to repay the principal and interest at the rate of 12 percent. State Rep. Trey Kelley, R-Cedartown, has been chairing an ad hoc committee looking at changes. We’ll be tracking local legislators’ votes on any reform.

This year’s emotional issues: Religious liberty: State Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, is the champion of this bill that is causing some major fireworks on the pro and con sides. Look for medical marijuana, casino gambling and a few others to get significant attention — and resulting headlines. Lawmakers will play it safe and probably conservative as — again — this is an election year. Yet another bid for education reform also is promised as Gov. Nathan Deal looks to make it an legacy issue of his administration.

Latest developments: We’ll have key updates as needed; however, we won’t be posting a lot of the in-session releases you’ve seen in the past or doing “status check” interviews on Hometown Radio. Key issues only. For example, Trey Kelley is on at 7:40 Monday morning to talk Department of Revenue reform.

You can follow local lawmakers via social media below:

Georgia House of Representatives:

Overall updates: https://twitter.com/GaHouseHub
State Rep. Christian Coomer: https://www.facebook.com/State-Rep-Christian-Coomer-184399078257261/?fref=ts
State Rep. Katie Dempsey: https://www.facebook.com/State-Rep-Katie-Dempsey-73084910529/
State Rep. Eddie Lumsden: https://twitter.com/eddielumsden
State Rep. Trey Kelley: https://twitter.com/RepTreyKelley
State Rep. Paul Battles: https://www.facebook.com/State-Rep-Paul-Battles-90893706786/

Georgia State Senate:

State Sen. Chuck Hufstetler: https://twitter.com/chuck4senate52 or https://www.facebook.com/chuck.hufstetler?fref=nf

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