Published 5:47 pm Thursday, July 23, 2026 CARTERSVILLE — Citing rising costs as one of the top issues facing city and county governments, the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) and the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) were two of the organizations that gave testimony at the the first House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Local Government Taxation, Funding and Budgeting meeting, July 22. State Rep. Chas Cannon, R-Moultrie, who was appointed by House Speaker Jon Burns to chair this study committee, opened the meeting. In a prior press release about the appointment, Cannon, who also serves as Colquitt County’s administrator, said, “At the local government level, you really get a chance to interact with the citizens and understand the issues they are facing on a day-to-day basis. On most occasions, those issues can be resolved or addressed with good, solid leadership and keeping things simple, flexible and transparent.” Larry Hansen, executive director of GMA, said, there were 536 cities in the State of Georgia and 45% of the state’s population lived in those cities. He said, they surveyed the cities last year on what they needed from 2025-29. “Our cities say that they need $10.3 billion to meet their water and sewer infrastructure over that five-year period, $9.7 billion for transportation and, then, all other categories are $13.4 billion,” he said and explained that the other categories included things like parks, stormwater drainage, police and fire…
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