ATLANTA (AP) – As Gov. Nathan Deal prepared to outline his 2016 agenda, he spent Tuesday touting his 2015 legislative package that overcame opposition within his own party and won approval last year.
Deal, a Republican in the second year of his final four-year term, is expected to focus on ways to overhaul Georgia’s education system when he delivers his State of the State address on Wednesday. An education commission he appointed made sweeping recommendations in December that would affect everything from how teachers are paid to how students advance grade levels. Deal hasn’t discussed yet which of the recommendations he will propose to lawmakers.
Deal spent much of Tuesday morning praising two laws from the 2015 legislative session: a $900 million transportation package for upkeep of Georgia’s roads and bridges and a constitutional amendment Deal proposed asking voters to allow the state to take over struggling schools.
During the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s annual breakfast and later at a press conference announcing $10 billion in construction planned during the next 10 years, he said state lawmakers who backed each proposal had “courage.”
The transportation package inflamed conservative Republicans in the House and Senate last year. They called it the biggest tax increase in Georgia’s history. The law increased gas taxes and created a $200 fee on electric vehicles and a $5 per night fee at hotels and motels. It also eliminated tax breaks for electric vehicle owners and jet fuel purchases by Delta Air Lines.