TIFTON — Austin Scott said Thursday that he wants to continue serving the people in Tift and Turner counties as the Republican representative of House District 153.

So far, Democrats Doug Hughes (Ashburn) and John Tibbetts (Tifton) have qualified for the seat and will face each other on the Primary ticket and the winner of that race will face Scott in the General Election this fall.

Scott, who has served the district as representative for 12 years, said he invites anyone to check his voting record, his service record and his responses to requests made of him by constituents.

“My record is out there,” Scott said. “The things I’ve done right and the mistakes I’ve made are all public record.”

Scott serves as chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee; is a member of the Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment Committee; the House Rules Committee; and the Ways and Means Committee. He is also a member of the State Certificate of Need (CON) Commission, the State Trauma Commission and the Georgia Rural Development Council.

Eight of the 12 years Scott served in the House were under a Democratic majority. For the last four years, Republicans have held that majority.

“I didn’t just wake up and I was there,” Scott said.

Scott said Tibbetts, who ran against him in 2006 and garnered 46 percent of that vote, has “criticized him for five years” for not responding to questions and requests of citizens in the district.

“I would like for him to identify the people we have not responded to,” Scott said. “It’s a false accusation and it’s typical of him to make arbitrary statements like that that he has no foundation for.

Scott said he believes his seniority, experience and the fact that the Republican party will continue in the majority, makes him the best candidate.

“We’ve been able to work with members of the Democratic party for the good of this area, but we will have a Republican government for the next two years and I just wonder, how can a freshman in the minority party interested more in complaining than offering solutions be as effective as a veteran of the majority party who is solution-oriented?” Scott said.

Scott lists as his accomplishments: providing web-based access to quality and price information about health care; improving the state-wide trauma care system; hiring more troopers for the Georgia State Patrol; putting additional funds in classrooms; continuing to protect water rights; and increasing funding for research and development.

Scott and others made an attempt to pass legislation that would increase the earned income credit for Georgia’s senior citizens so that segment of the population could earn $16,000 in income and be exempt from state taxes. The efforts weren’t successful.

“If we’re going to exclude retirement income for seniors, then we need to exclude earned income for seniors,” Scott said. “We’ll go back and try again.”

Scott said the Certificate of Need legislation is important to his campaign because “it shows the solution-oriented side of our service.” The legislation passed and physicians who work in surgery centers built after July 1 are mandated to accept Medicare and Peachcare, if they take children as patients, and to make a two percent contribution to the commission for indigent care.

“That contribution will go back to the indigent care trust fund, which goes back to the hospital,” Scott said.

Also, those surgery centers will be mandated to make a 4 percent contribution to the indigent trust fund if they don’t accept Medicaid covered patients.

“The resolution for CON is a good example of how we work with both sides to get a solution,” Scott said. “We worked with people who had supported and opposed it in prior elections and came out with a bill that the vast majority of people on either side of the issue are satisfied is fair.”

Scott said he also worked on the Joint Comprehensive State Trauma Service, which led to $50 million in funding for a trauma network in the state which, in part, would provide more emergency medical transportation. He is also working with Georgia Agricultural Commissioner Tommy Irvin in an attempt to get a commitment to move some of Georgia’s state agricultural department to Tifton.

Scott is the father of a son, Wells, who is 8. His wife is Vivien. The couple resides in Ashburn.



To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4231.