COLUMBIA COUNTY, Ga. (WJBF) – Columbia County lawmakers talked key issues at the Chamber of Commerce’s annual pre-legislative breakfast Thursday morning.

State Senators Lee Anderson and Max Burns, and House Representatives Mark Newton, Jodi Lott, Barry Fleming, and Rob Leverett were in the hot seats.

“It’s a great opportunity to get together with hundreds of Columbia County leaders, business owners, business people, to let them know and for us to hear from them what’s important to them as we go into this session,” said Rep. Mark Newton, District 127.

Some big issues discussed were affordable and accessible healthcare…

“Our healthcare providers need help, our hospital and health systems,” Rep. Newton said. “And so we want to make sure as we modernize some forty year old certificate of need law, that we keep in mind how important it is to protect and even strengthen some of our hospitals outside of the metro-Atlanta area.”

Affordable childcare…

“It gets expensive,” said Rep. Jodi Lott, District 131. “If you’ve got one child it is expensive, if you’ve got two or three, in some families it’s almost unmanageable.”

Growing the workforce…

“We have to up our salary, basically. We have to,” said State Sen. Lee Anderson, District 24. “We’re definitely going to have to confront some way to raise the base salary for the people who work for the state.”

Tort reform…

“A topic that I think is a big priority for the chamber, this chamber, the state chamber, and all of us is to make sure that our justice system functions properly and isn’t subject to abuse,” said Rep. Rob Leverett, District 123.

And lowering income taxes…

“Let’s come down from five-point-five to four-point-nine-nine, toward a path of three-point-nine-nine, perhaps even lower. I would be candid and tell you my goal would be zero.”

The General Assembly will have a special session starting on Nov. 29 due to a federal judge ruling for redistricting. The regular session will begin in January.