Otis Putnam For State Senate     |   home Biography   |   House/Senate Bills   |   Contact   |   current issues   |   links   |   Contribution information   |   My support letter   |   Pro-Life Support current issues Teacher shortage: House bill 210 Georgia needs 10,000 teachers, but over 3,000 are currently training. The General Assembly needs to find a better way to entice people to enter the teaching field. We need better pay, better incentives, a supply fund so teachers will not have to pay for supplies out of their pockets. Natural Gas Deregulation: This issue is currently being debated in the General Assembly. The Natural Gas industry wants to raise the amount of the deposit for Natural Gas user, because of gas customers being negligent of their gas bill. I do not support the price hike in the gas industry. Fuel prices are high enough, there are other options! Cell phone ban while driving Senate Bill 336. This bill is design to stop motorist using a cell phone while they are driving. Hands free cell phones are not included in this bill. I support this bill, because no motorist needs any more distractions. Bus driver bill Senate Bill 296. This bill gives School Bus Drivers more authority to turn in motorist that run the bus' stop sign. Prior to this bill the bus driver had no true authority, except to tell an officer of the law. Moment of silence Bill . Senate bill 402: This bill will allow people have a moment of silence in the schools. I support this bill! Shop Georgia A tax free holiday for school supplies and school related items. The tax free days will be on March 29-30 and on August 2-3. this tax free holiday will exempt clothing up to $100, School supplies up to $20, and computer equipment up to $1,500. This is expected to boot Georgia's economy! this will be a savings to customers in the amount of $11 million. We shall see, if it does boost Georgia's economy! Foreign Language programs have been cut from the budget. This cuts out foreign language programs in the schools. This cuts $2 million from the budget! Most of Georgia's Schools are just above Failure cutoff list:  Forty-One of Georgia's schools are on the failure list. The CRCT, a standardized test scores will determine teacher bonus' and if schools need extra help or not. The Office of Education Accountability was created from HB 1187, in 2003 will contribute $23 million to those school performing low on these standardized test! Money is not always the answer to every educational problem! State records show that 61% of 4th graders failed the English, 67% failed the math section, and 60% failed the reading section. The current standard for determining a failure school is 70%. Family Values:  We need to keep marriages strong and give self sufficient families the ability to survive. We must build strong family values in Georgia. Senate Bill 569 is a good start, but more needs to be done. Senate Bill 569 is public policy that helps to strengthen marriages and give help to self sufficient families help. The fact of the matter is that, no matter how many laws we are passed to help family values, the choice is up to each and every individual in Georgia. Let's give our children the best future possible!! Water Issue:  We need to solve this water issue in Southeast Georgia. People have said that they do not really know the extent of problem of the water situation. They must study this issue and find a solution to solve the water system problems. We should have more foresight and maintain our water systems, or we will always be in this situation. Right to Bear Arms:  I feel that every responsible citizens should the right to bear arms. Citizens, if they own arms should take the proper precautions to keep those arms out of the reach of children and people that are violent. Hunting and turkey shoots are great sports, and I enjoy them . We have many gun laws on the books, but they appear to be impotent. We do not need to worry about making any more frivolous laws, but we should revise the existing laws and make these have more common sense. We should not take the right to bears arms from responsible citizens of Georgia! Worker rights:  Georgia has many good labor laws, but there are a few:that need to be revised. Georgia is the right to work state.I have no problem with the right to work. A worker in the State of Georgia can be terminated for no reason. I feel this is not fair. I understand, if an employee is not performing up to standards, but as we all know that personalities have a great deal to do with the way you are treated in the work place. Many workers in Georgia may have a personality trait that is not desired, but this person is not harmful or disruptive. I do not want to take the right from companies to terminate workers for acceptable reason, but I think some labor laws should be revised to protect the innocent worker that gets terminated due to personality conflicts. Transportation/Roads:  We have many Transportation issues that need to be visited. The Northern Arc need to be completed. I am for any improvement to ease traffic congestion and traffic accidents. There may be many obstacles for the Northern Arc, i.e. buying the land for this Arc, etc. We must find other land or ways to complete the Northern Arc, which will allow Georgia a safer travel to their destination. I support the completion of GRIPP. GRIPP is the highway project that four lanes highways throughout Georgia. We need those four lane highways. These highways will take travel less difficult, and could attract business to the area. I support funding for a rural transit system. This transit system can cut traffic and make a great amount of revenue for the State of Georgia. Lets move forward on all of these issues.