By Ashley Speagle
Correspondent
ATLANTA – Georgia needs to stand on its own two feet and quit relying on federal dollars, state lawmakers were told Monday.
“Let’s draw a line in the sand, regain Georgia’s sovereignty and tell the federal government, ‘We’ll call you if we need you,'” said Ben Brandon, a member of the Dade County Tea Party Patriots.
Tea (Taxed Enough Already) Party groups began forming last year to protest taxes such as those used to fund federal stimulus money in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
“We were not involved in politics until a year ago at the Tax Day Rally,” said James Groce, co-leader of the Tea Party of Walker County.
At Monday’s meeting with Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, Tea Party representatives from six Northwest Georgia groups said they want to inform their local legislators on what concerns them, including education, ethics and the use of federal money.
“Anytime the federal government mandates anything down to the states, they put some constraints or controls on it,” Mr. Groce said. “We want less control.”
Rep. Jay Neal, R-LaFayette, who attended the meeting, said the groups’ public education on what the government does is vital to communities.
“A lot of people who don’t know me think I go to Washington,” Rep. Neal said.
“There’s a lot of people out there that don’t really understand what government is.”
Mr. Groce said everyone should get involved.
“We need to watch them while they’re in office and hold them responsible,” Mr. Groce said. “That’s what we’re doing to Jay.”
Northwest Georgia currently has Tea Party groups in Catoosa, Dade, Walker, Whitfield, Chattooga, Murray, Pickens and Gilmer counties, said Teresa Tatum, a member of the Catoosa County Patriots present at Monday’s meeting.
Ms. Tatum said her group meets twice each month with a bipartisan group of 30 to 60 attendees, and they will focus future efforts on public legislative education.
“We will focus on getting people voting and motivating them to register and vote,” she said. “Our next meeting will be ‘State and Local Government 101.'”
On Monday, Tea Party representatives said state education is an important area for Georgia to gain more control over.
“We want education to come back to the state, and we want the federal government out of it,” said Jack Smith, a member of the Tea Party of Gilmer County.
“The new Race to the Top is a hideous idea because it gives Washington more and more control over education in the states,” said Mr. Brandon, a former Dade County commissioner.
However, the group representatives said they do not completely oppose government spending.
“We’re not anti-government,” Mr. Smith said.
The groups also said Monday that they want to see continued effort to reform ethics in the Legislature.
“We want to get the feeling that the people we elect and send down here work for us and not the lobbyists,” Mr. Brandon said. “Right now, we don’t have a really good feeling about that.”
Rep. Neal said Georgia already ranks seventh in good ethics requirements but may need to tighten the enforcement of its ethics laws.
He also praised the work of the Tea Party representatives.
“They share the concerns of many Georgians,” he said. “We’re going to work to do everything we can with folks like this out on the forefront.”