EDITORIAL: It's that time of year again - duck

The Georgia General Assembly was gaveled into session Monday, and most everyone knows what that means: It's time to duck. When the 236 lawmakers plus the lieutenant governor and governor all gather under the Gold Dome, there is a strange metaphysical reaction, and nobody quite knows what will emerge to lay waste on the huddled masses. Last session there was an almost $1 billion tax increase tucked into fuel prices, but hardly anyone noticed because of falling gas prices. However, what goes down will eventually rise again. This year, the General Assembly will venture out on several different limbs and there will be plenty of people ready with saws in hand.

Allen Peake, R-Macon, is attempting to make it legal for up to six cultivators to grow marijuana for medicinal use in the state and expand the number of maladies that can be treated.

Some lawmakers want to bring casino gambling to Georgia all in the name of saving the Hope scholarship. That should be an interesting debate. Can you save one thing (HOPE) by killing something else (the Georgia Lottery)?

Religious freedom may make it out of committee, but the Georgia Chamber of Commerce is against such a bill, and generally when the chamber is against something it dies somewhere in the process.

Keisha Watts, D-Atlanta, is proposing in House Bill 709 that people applying for a concealed weapons carry permit complete a firearms safety training course. Such a bill probably makes too much sense to pass.

James Beverly, D-Macon, is proposing moving the municipal elections in Macon to coincide with the presidential election calendar to increase turnout, but it stands little chance of passage in a Republican dominated House and Senate.

This will be a fairly quick session. It is an election year for everyone and no lawmaker wants to be stuck in Atlanta when they need to be home showing off the quality of bacon they brought home.

This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 8:19 PM with the headline "EDITORIAL: It's that time of year again - duck ."