Albany legislative delegation receives few funding requests at annual meeting with local officials

ALBANY — State Rep. Winfred Dukes, D-Albany, does not fluster easily, but as the city and county’s annual meeting of its local legislative delegation broke up Monday afternoon, Dukes clearly was just that.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time and we have never had this few ‘asks’,” Dukes said. “I know we (Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, D-Dawson; Rep. Darrel Ealum, D-Albany; Rep. Ed Rynders, R-Leesburg, and Rep. Gerald Greene, R-Cuthbert) have worked tirelessly to provide funding to meet the needs of our constituencies, but to have so few asks for the upcoming session is surprising.”

An “ask” is a request for funding from the state. A quick look back at 2016-17, shows the county did well in Atlanta recently — $4.9 million to fund renovation work on Albany Technical College’s Carlton Construction Academy, more than $3 million for renovation work on the Commodore Conyers College and Career Academy and $22 million for a new fine arts building at Albany State University.

“I’m not really surprised there were no major asks from our city and county organizations this year. Our delegation worked tirelessly over the past three sessions to deliver on long-standing major projects,” Ealum said.” It’s pretty exciting to reflect back and see the funding for the ASU Fine Arts Center, the library expansion, the National Guard moved aboard the Marine Base, the College and Career Academy funding, and renovation dollars for the Carlton Construction Academy; all long-standing projects.”

Without the customary asks, most of the meetings centered on potential legislation and policies that could affect the county.

Dougherty County School Superintendent Ken Dyer was concerned about early childhood education.

“I wanted to thank the local delegation for their previous support and asked them to look into expanding Pre-K and kindergarten. We have learned that the achievement gap starts in the 1st grade and we want to close that gap,” Dyer said.

The superintendent also asked for the state to help the system in the recruitment, development and retention of teachers in critical areas such as STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) in hard-to-place areas.

Dougherty County Commission Chair Chris Cohilas wanted to discuss storm damages reimbursement. The county asked for $200,000 to help with trail head design and construction costs for the new trail at the old Radium Springs Golf Course. The trail will run approximately 20 miles from Radium Springs to Sasser.

The County also asked for $250,000 for MR&R (maintenance, repair and reconstruction) work at the downtown library.

Albany City Manager Sharon Subadan asked the delegation to freeze mandated stormwater fees. “These unfunded mandates have hit us hard,” she said.

Rynders thought the day went well.

“I think it was a very productive day of meetings,” he said. “I think we had fewer asks than normal because from a project perspective, I assume they are works in progress and still under discussion.”

Dukes agreed.

“I thought that today offered us a good opportunity to share ideas and express their concerns,” Dukes said, “What we need to do is how to work what we have to leverage as a group and use that to our advantage. It would also help if we all came together a little more.”

The General Assembly is set to open its annual 40-day session on Jan. 8