ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - The new year brings the start of a new session for the members of the Georgia House of Representatives.

For the past four years, Representative Bill Yearta focused on bringing attention to the people of Southwest Georgia. As a South Georgia native himself, Yearta says it’s vital that rural Georgian’s voices are heard at the state level.

One of Yearta’s top priorities is to focus on school safety. The house wants to ensure a tragedy like the Apalachee High School Shooting does not occur in Georgia again.

“We originally had it in the budget, I don’t know the numbers, but I think it was about $50,000 per school. I think it could go up to probably to around $68,000-$70,000 per school to help them put in things for public safety like metal detectors, immediate response buttons, or whatever the needs are that they identify,” continued Yearta.

On the topic of schools, Representative Yearta tells WALB that Georgians can expect to see some legislation regarding transgender athletes competing in female sports at the high school level.

“Well, I agree with our speaker Jon Burns, it’s an issue of fairness. I think girls ought to compete against girls and boys ought to compete with boys. That’s the way it is,” said Yearta.

Yearta says the state is on track to get the income tax rate below 5% before the end of the decade. With the current success of Georgia’s economy, Yearta says those large tax cuts may come even sooner.

“Inflation is high, people are spending a lot of dollars on groceries and fuel and things like that. If we can help on the state level to ease the tax burden, that’s always good.”

Representative Bill Yearta says he is always open to hearing about ideas and issues from residents of District 152. The best way to get ahold of him is by calling his office in Atlanta.

Previous coverage:

• Bill Yerta was sworn in for third term as representative for Georgia State House District 152

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