Q&A With State Representative Mark Burkhalter

publication date: Oct 11, 2008

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author/source: John Fredericks / STAFF

By John Fredericks / STAFF

Burkhalter

Mark Burkhalter (R) is Speaker Pro-Tem of the Georgia House of Representatives. He is second in command to current Speaker Glenn Richardson. He seeks an eighth term this November and represents House District 41, which encompasses parts of Alpharetta and all of Johns Creek. Burkhalter has no Democrat opposition in this year’s election.

The Beacon spent a morning with Burkhalter recently to get his take on the big issues he will be facing in next year’s Georgia House session, and to gain some insight into his vision for North Fulton County. Below are excerpts of that interview. The full transcript can be found on beaconcast.com.

Mark Burkhalter was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up in Alpharetta and graduated from the old Milton High School. He earned two degrees from the University of Georgia, a B.A. in Political Science (Global Studies) and one in Germanic and Slavic Languages. Following graduation Mark worked for two Georgia Congressmen at the U.S. Capitol.

Q: As you look ahead to the 2009, what are the major issues you feel must be addressed successfully in the upcoming session at the Statehouse?

Burkhalter: Five are pressing: education, spending, and what I call the ‘Three T’s:’ transportation, taxes and trauma.

On Education: We have to remain committed to improving education. Without an educated Georgia, and an educated workforce in Georgia, Georgia can’t continue the success we’ve had. We’ve got a pro-work environment in Georgia, based on relatively low taxes to attract business. If we don’t have an educated, bright young generation coming up then we’re going to be forever behind the curve. We have a Policy Committee that’s working on those ideas right now.

On Spending: In a year in which our revenues are going in reverse it makes for some challenges. And we’ll get through them but in the process we are going to have to cut state spending. Some cuts will be painful; others will be cuts we should have made anyway. Until our economy gets jump-started our revenues will remain flat, so we have to look for ways to rev-up our economy.

The beauty of State Government, at least this state, is we are a balanced budget state. There are some Constitutional provisions in Georgia’s Constitution that the people ought to be very proud of. I know as a Legislator I’m glad we have them. And we have to balance our budget. We can’t deficit spend like Congress can. When we borrow money we can only borrow a small percent based on any given year’s revenues. We’re allowed to spend 10 percent of a single year’s revenues toward debt service and we’re about at 5 percent. So can we reduce the size of government? Absolutely and that’s why you look at doing tax cuts.

On Transportation: If we don’t make significant progress in solving our transportation woes this session, the public is going to lose patience with government to a point that we haven’t seen in some time. So I think it is incumbent on us to hear what they’re wanting and to try and get some immediate solutions. That is not easy because the way transportation funding is doled out from the Federal Government it’s a long, drawn-out bureaucratic process – a longer one than we care to admit.

Q: In the last session there were several initiatives to try to independently fund transportation through different types of taxes or levies. All of those got shot down. Do you see any of that resurfacing on ’09?

Burkhalter: I do. The House did pass the referendum on the transportation sales tax to allow voters to decide if they wanted to dedicate some of their sales tax dollars towards transportation. The Senate failed. I believe the Lt. Governor (Casey Cagle –R) and the Senate have a better understanding of their [folly] in not passing it and I think you’ll see them come around.

I do think though, we have to have an honest admission that even if the voters decide that they want more of their tax dollars to go to transportation our transportation needs are in the billions of dollars. And to get billions of dollars is going to take private money. It can’t be done with all public money. So we need to go and be innovative and do what a lot of other states are doing and entertain Public/Private Initiatives. This is where you literally have private companies that come in and build the roads for you. These PPI’s have to have a return on their money, which means they have to toll the roads. I’m very sensitive to PPI on 400. There’s been a proposal on 400, there’s been one on 575, there’s one on 316 and there’s one on 75.

I’ve always insisted that if people want to stay in existing lanes that they’ve already paid for with their tax dollars we need to leave those lanes. Anything they build in addition to that they can toll and if people want to take those toll lanes they can do it. These roads have been bought and paid for over again. On top of that we’re even more unique in North Fulton County. We have the only toll road in Georgia.

Q: I understand there’s a request by GDOT to spend $8.5 million for a new software program for Ga. 400. Do we need that?

Burkhalter: When Ga. 400 was completed and the tollbooth opened, every politician got up and said, ‘You see this plaza? We constructed it in a temporary fashion because when these bonds are paid off, you throw all your nickels in here and when you’ve paid for this road improvement we’re going to take this plaza out and you won’t have to stop and throw quarters in.’

I remember distinctly what the promise was. And I am set on finding a way to live up to what we promised. I wasn’t in elected office at the time. It is three years from being completely paid off.

Q: Give us one example of a particular heavy-traveled corridor where a PPI opportunity might work?

Burkhalter: The obvious one is 400. That’s one that we’ve already seen. We passed a law some years ago to allow these PPI’s. They would make a bid on creating additional lanes would require a toll, while the existing lanes would be free once they are paid off by the existing toll that is there now [in about three years].

Trauma
Q: In the 2008 session all the trauma funding initiatives failed. Now what?

Burkhalter: We have gaps in our trauma network, and people have to understand that this is the money-losing side of health care. You don’t have hospitals rushing to build trauma centers because they run significant operating deficits. Once you come in the door Federal law says you’ve got to treat them, you’ve got to pay for them. But its one of those functions that, regardless of how conservative your philosophy is of government, it does have some essential roles.

As a result we have 13 trauma centers in Georgia serving 10 million residents. South Carolina has 22 trauma centers serving less than four million people. It’s just unthinkable that we would let people that are driving down the road that happen to be between these locations of trauma centers and have chest pains and needlessly die because our network is so loose.

So the state is already in the business, to make it clear, of spending some of our tax dollars towards this trauma network. Last year we spent $50 million at least helping the ones that are existing in operation. We need $90 million to do it right.

The bill I introduced as Chairman of the Probations Committee was a bill that would dedicate a quarter of property taxes in the state to trauma. The Governor proposed that we eliminate this quarter mill, stop collecting it – and on the other hand saying we also need to fund trauma care. To me it’s money the state already collects. If we dedicated that quarter mill there’s the $90 million for trauma care we need, and the state could take this issue off the table.

Q: Are you going to attempt to introduce that again in 2009?

Burkhalter: Yes.

Taxes
Q: One of the big initiatives you called for in 2008 was to, ‘Axe the birthday tax.’ It failed. What about 2009?

Burkhalter: My comprehensive tax reform is off the table for this year. That’s a product of the falling revenues. We have to bail water right now so it’s a little hard to engage in a substantial tax reform discussion this year.

I subscribe to the very simple but proven theory that when government takes in less the people have more, and when people have more money in their pockets the economy tends to grow. And when the economy tends to grow, revenue tends to grow, too.

I think we need to continue to try to find ways to relieve the tax burden on Georgians. The birthday tax, as I call it, is one of the most egregious taxes we have. Everybody hates it; polls run 90 percent against it. It doesn’t matter whether you are rich or poor in Georgia you would benefit from this tax relief.

Q: Will there have to be a supplemental budget passed in this coming Session that will impact the ’09 budget?

Burkhalter: Absolutely, and we also have the Rainy Day Reserve Fund.

You don’t want to drain it unless you have to. Georgia’s one of three states with a triple A bond rating with no footnote on it. In other words we can borrow money and it’s the lowest rates when we borrow money, which is good for taxpayers. Again, you can save a lot of money if you basically keep your credit score, your bond rating high and that’s what we’ve done.