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One-On-One

Every Friday, News13’s Amy Hoyt talks with newsmakers about the most current topics around the panhandle, state and country. Elected leaders are held accountable and have the opportunity to answer the questions you want asked. Amy is one of this area’s most credible journalists and puts her experience to work for you. Here are her One on One interviews, past and present.

ahoyt@wmbb.com

Saturday, July 12, 2008

One on One - Marti Coley

The 2009 Legislative Session was a tough one. Lawmakers cut billions of dollars from the budget because of a slow economy. Some of those cuts were in education.

In Bay County, the school district is having to slash close to 20 million dollars from its budget.

Dist. 7 Rep. Marti Coley voted to cut the budget. The former educator said it was a tough decision, but had to be done. “People say, how can you not fund education, we are funding education,” we increased education spending by 41% over the last eight years” Coley said. This year, Rep. Coley says legislators did cut education, but less than they cut healthcare, and she says they only cut per student funding by 130. per student.

When asked about the lottery dollars and why that doesn’t fund education as much as it could, Rep. Coley says it does. “Most of the money goes to Bright Future Scholarships for middle income families”, Coley said.

“Raising taxes isn’t the answer, we have to have a business friendly state, Coley says, or people won’t come, they will leave and we will be in worse shape.”

To hear the extended interview with Rep. Coley, click below.

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