Local & State Headlines

Rynders ’happy’ in House

• State Rep. Ed Rynders has been appointed to some key leadership positions in the House.

Carlton Fletcher

ALBANY — If, as people say, politics is the ultimate game, few play the game as well as state House District 152 Rep. Ed Rynders.

An admitted “political junkie” who is something of an anomoly in Southwest Georgia — a Republican serving in a decidedly Democratic region — Rynders will head to Atlanta for his fourth term in January. He will be unopposed when voters go to the polls for the general election Nov. 4.

Never at a loss for a quote-worthy sound bite, his years as a radio personality on Albany’s WALG and a talking head for local Fox television affiliate WFXL serving him well, Rynders has been able to move steadily up the state political food chain by forging valuable alliances with some of the big players beneath the Golden Dome.

He currently is chairman of the Intragovernmental Coordination Committee, which oversees local legislation; vice chair of the influential Health and Human Services Committee, and serves on the high-profile Appropriations and Transportation committees as well. Of the 26 freshman representatives who joined the Legislature with Rynders in 2003, he was the third to receive a committee chairmanship.

“I’m really happy where I’m at,” Rynders said during a recent extended conversation. “A lot of elected officials look at their position in terms of ‘what’s next,’ how it will help them move to the next level. That doesn’t enter my thinking. I think I have as good a lineup of committee memberships as any legislator, so I’m happy enough to keep working for the people in my district.”

Rynders, who manages rental property he owns when he’s not serving in the Legislature, earned his stripes with current House Speaker Glenn Richardson, R-Hiram, when he spent time last year traveling with the Speaker as he sold his GREAT tax relief plan. That the proposed legislation, which would have ended ad valorem taxes in Georgia, did not pass during the 2008 session doesn’t detract from what Rynders says is a reality: that Georgia taxpayers are demanding tax reform.

“A lot of the local elected officials across the state complained that Speaker Richardson’s plan could not work, but if you ask them if they want property tax relief for their constituents, just about every one of them would say yes,” Rynders said. “I commend the speaker for putting a plan out there; I didn’t see a lot of other proposals.”

Since the Legislative session, much has been made of a call by some state Republicans to oust Richardson from his position as Speaker. David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, has been mentioned as a possible candidate to replace Richardson, but Rynders said he does not believe the movement has gained a great deal of momentum.

“Since this issue came up, I’ve talked with at least two dozen legislators,” Rynders said. “Oddly enough, though, I have not heard from the person everyone claims wants to be the next speaker. Sometimes these things spring up as part of someone’s political agenda.

“I’ll say this about Speaker Richardson: Without him, I would not have been able to get $9 million in the budget to build Building K at Albany Technical College. And that’s a fact.”

Gov. Sonny Perdue has created a stir in the state by demanding that all agencies make deep cuts (in most cases, 6 percent of their budgets) to offset what has turned into a $1.6 billion shortfall. That, according to Rynders, will be the primary issue when the Legislature reconvenes at the start of 2009.

“As bad as it is in Georgia, it’s still not as bad as it is in other states,” he said. “We’re very fortunate to have had reserves. People ask me how it came to this, but during the budget process, you listen to economists. There were about a dozen involved in the process, and we based our budget on their projections.

“Obviously, they were off. So we’ve got to concentrate on the budget, on financial matters, next year. Constitutionally, that’s the only thing we’re required to do.”

The mess that is the state’s Transportation Department is another key area of concern heading into 2009. State DOT officials threw up their hands when the ’08 legislative session ended and admitted that they had scheduled more projects than the department could finish and had projected budget shortfalls that could reach the billions.

“The Legislature came up with a model to address that with the 1 percent regional transportation SPLOST (special-purpose local-option sales tax), but it failed by three votes in the Senate after passing the House,” Rynders said. “I am one of those who voted ‘no’ on the measure.”

Asked to explain, Rynders said, “DOT had overpromised projects, had failed to follow through on promised bridge inspections and had managed its budget poorly. I didn’t want to send more money to that department with the issues it had. I felt we should correct the problems first.”

As the end of the first decade of the 21st century draws near, it has become a foregone conclusion — to the fear of those living outside metro Atlanta — that redistricting after the 2010 census is going to affect rural portions of the state greatly. Generally accepted wisdom is that the section of Georgia south of Macon will lose as many as five to six House seats and two to three Senate seats in the process.

That will force elected officials outside Atlanta to become even more of a unified front in an effort to offset the very real concept of “two Georgias”: the state capital and everyone else.

“There will be fewer voices speaking for rural Georgians,” Rynders said. “Obviously, I believe that we have to work not necessarily harder, but smarter when that day comes. There will be a lot of institutional knowledge lost, and it will be hard to fill the void.”

Many expected Rynders to hedge against redistricting concerns by running for the Senate District 13 seat that will be vacated at the end of the year Joseph Carter of Tifton. He said, however, he chose to stay in the House because he is better able to help manage the affairs of his constituents there.

“The most important thing I do in the Legislature is vote,” Rynders said. “The second is provide consistent service to the people in my district. I need to be able to help manage the affairs of the people who need my assistance, and it becomes harder to do as the number of people you represent expands.

“I’m very happy to be where I am. Besides, politics is a lot like comedy; most of the time it’s all about the timing. The timing (for a move) was not right. I think I’m in a good position right now to help Southwest Georgia and to help the state.”