ATLANTA — Influential Georgia Republican Senator Steve Gooch joined 11Alive's Sunday politics show, The Georgia Vote, for a wide-ranging interview.
The conversation comes roughly six weeks before the presidential election and three months before the start of the next state legislative session.
The Senate Majority Leader discussed his priorities for the upcoming legislative session, his views on calls for gun control bills following the Apalachee High School shooting, and a host of other issues.
You can watch The Georgia Vote every Sunday on 11Alive at 11 A.M.
Some key takeaways below:
Gun legislation
Republican Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns recently released a raft of legislative proposals in the wake of the Apalachee High School shooting. Many focused on increasing physical security on campuses and boosting mental health resources. But he also signaled support for limited gun safety legislation.
"We will reintroduce legislation that incentivizes safe storage and encourages law-abiding citizens to properly secure their firearms and obtain gun safety training," Burns wrote.
"Simple measures such as storing guns in lockboxes or equipping firearms with trigger locks has the ability to save lives," he continued.
We asked Senator Gooch if he supported Burns' proposal:
Senator Gooch: We had a bill last year that allowed for a tax credit for people who bought the safe storage boxes and even gun safes themselves. And so I think that's a start; it's a good discussion to have. I don't know if that bill will get out of the House and the Senate this year, but I think it's worthy of discussion, but it's really the responsibility again of the citizen, the gun owner, to make sure that their gun is put in a safe location.
So I think that's a good discussion that Speaker Burns has taken on. And I think he put that letter out publicly last week. And so we will work with the House and the leadership in the Senate and the governor's office to see where that goes.
11Alive's Zach Merchant: You talk about discussion. Just to be clear, so I don't misquote you, and we represent your views accurately, do you support that legislation?
Senator Steve Gooch: I think the legislation to offer an incentive can be a useful tool. I don't support a mandate that people buy gun safes. I think that's a decision that each citizen must make on their own.
Upcoming legislative session
The Georgia legislature reconvenes in January and many lawmakers are already planning for the term to come. We asked Senator Gooch what his top priorities will be:
Senator Gooch: A lot of the things we do next year will pick up where we left off this past session. Even though it's a new biennial, there's a lot of bills that didn't finish the race, so to speak last session and so several bills just didn't make it across the finish line. And so we'll pick up there and dust those off and probably reintroduce a good many of those. We'll continue to work on good legislation that's going to help families, working families, in Georgia. We're going try to lower the income tax again next year.
We've lowered it three times now in the last three years. Governor Kemp has led the way to that direction and then I think it's been good because it's allowing Georgians to keep their money in their pockets and not in the government's pockets. We've had record surpluses for the last four or five years in our state budgets and we've returned a lot of that money to the taxpayers. $1.5 billion of that went back to the Georgia taxpayers this year.
Plus we took an additional $1.5 billion out of the surplus, moved it over to the Department of Transportation to try to fast track some much needed road improvements to help with a lot of the congestion due to the heavy growth that we've seen here in Georgia. So there'll be some more of those kinds of bills coming up. We'll continue to look at how to keep our children safe. Public safety in the schools is going to be a really top priority for the Senate this coming session.
We know all the, the issues recently up in Barrow County and that's been a tragic event that just unfolded. So we're going to look at how do we help our local school systems? How do we help our law enforcement personnel to go into the schools and protect our young children and those that are in need.
Abortion
Reproductive rights have become a major issue in the presidential election. We asked Senator Gooch about Georgia's abortion law:
11Alive's Zach Merchant: Georgia has in effect what's commonly known as the 'Heartbeat Bill.' It bans most abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. That's usually around six weeks of pregnancy. Do you think the legislature needs to re-examine that? Is that too restrictive for 2024?
Senator Steve Gooch: I don't think so, Zach. I tell you, we've had a lot of debate on that issue over the last 15 years, and I think the people in Georgia are very conservative. They're pro-family, they're pro-life. They want personal responsibility, they don't want the government taking care of every one of their needs. I believe that the exceptions that we've had in the heartbeat bill take care of most of the situations that most of the constituents I talk to are concerned about. And then when you explain to the constituents that there are exceptions for the abortion, then they back off, and they're like: 'ok, I understand, and I support that.'
11Alive's Zach Merchant: Conservatism, one of the core tenets of it is the idea that government shouldn't be making decisions for people who can act as responsible individuals. But this heartbeat bill restricts folks' ability to make an individual decision that some people say is a core element of their personal health. How do you reconcile that?
Senator Steve Gooch: The way I see it as a Christian is that I'm the voice of those who can't speak for themselves. So I represent 200,000 people in my senate district and those people have the same values, or most of the people in my district have the same values that I have, growing up as a Christian in a home, going to church.
We value life and we believe life begins at conception. And so that baby inside that wound can't speak for itself. And so we, as elected officials in a republic form of government, are sent to Atlanta to make decisions on behalf of our constituents. And I consider that unborn baby one of my constituents.
Sports gambling
A perennial issue under the Gold Dome, we asked the Senate Majority Leader whether he thought the legislature would legalize sports gambling in the upcoming session:
Senator Steve Gooch: You know, that bill came out of the Senate last year, and it came up, went over to the house, and I do not believe the Speaker brought it to the floor for a final vote. And so I can't speak for the House, but I do know that the Senate took action on that legislation, and it passed the Senate with the necessary votes to meet the majority required by the Constitution.
And so that'll be another issue that could come up, that'll be up to a senator or a representative, whoever wants to introduce that legislation. But it seems like we've had bills like gambling, casinos, sports betting for many, many years. And so I'm assuming that that should come back up again.
The upcoming presidential election
Senator Steve Gooch: I think it could be razor-thin. In Georgia, I think it's going to be close, closer than it should be. But I believe that we'll be a swing state this year. And then I think we'll be declared a Republican state again. In two years, we'll be looking at the U.S. Senate seat that will be up for re-election. And so that'll be an important race as well. So we have a lot of work to do. We have to convince our voters; we have to convince swing voters that we are the party for freedom and the party for capitalism.