State Rep. Eric Gisler’s Third Town Hall meeting quickly became a conversation, and he exchanged ideas with the audience on topics including gun control, voting rights, education funding, property and income taxes, and the state budget surplus.
Gisler, representing Oconee County in House District 121, noted as the session at the Town of North High Shoals Town Hall got underway that he knew everyone in the audience, and many had been involved in his campaign leading up to the special election last December that put him in the General Assembly in January.
“Maybe I should just pull up a chair,” Gisler said after his introduction, moving away from the podium.
Gisler didn’t sit down, but he did interact casually for the next 90 minutes with the supportive audience of 19.
Gisler said he was proud that he and his fellow Democrats were able to derail Republican plans for Constitutional Amendments needed to eliminate homesteaded property taxes and to allow online sports betting.
Oconee County governmental and educational leaders were opposed to the elimination of the homesteaded property tax, he noted, and the online betting bill would not have generated enough revenue to justify the change in the law, he said.
Gisler said one of his biggest concerns is that the House and Senate do not agree to push back by the end of the session on Thursday the deadline for eliminating the QR Code on election ballots, threatening the upcoming 2026 elections.
Near the end of the Town Hall, Gisler expressed some disappointment that he was not hearing from those who might disagree with him, saying “one of these days we're going to have to get” someone in attendance “to yell at me.”
Democratic Votes
“Being the minority party, there's not a whole lot that we can do to stop some bad” legislation, Gisler said as he began his comments at the March 21 Town Hall. Gisler held his first Town Hall in January in Oconee County and his second in February in Clarke County.
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| Gisler 3/21/2026 |
House District 121 includes most of Oconee County and parts of Clarke County.
Because the proposed elimination of property taxes for homesteaded property required a Constitutional Amendment, he said, that vote required a two-thirds vote in the House.
“We held firm,” Gisler said. “I think we had one Democrat that voted in favor of that, which left them about 38 votes short.” The House has 180 members.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell estimated that the county government would have lost $9.8 million in property tax revenue under the legislation and that Oconee County Schools would have lost $32.2 million.
Online sports betting also required a Constitutional Amendment, Gisler said.
“I don't have a moral objection to gambling,” Gisler said. “I've been to Vegas. I've been to Atlantic City. I'm fine with that. But they're projecting that it would raise like $125 million a year in a $40 billion budget. So it's not that much revenue.”
Allowing online sports betting “opens the door to what everyone knows is an addictive behavior,” Gisler said.
“Gambling does not exist for a reason,” Gisler said of the current prohibition in the state Constitution.
QR Code
In response to a question on the QR code on the ballots by Harold Thompson, chair of the Oconee County Democratic Party, Gisler said “the number one thing we have to take care of this year is that deadline.”
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| Thompson (Left) And Gisler 3/21/2026 |
The legislature last year set a deadline of July 1 of this year for removing the code from the ballot, Gisler said, “but the legislature never provided funding to actually make that happen.”
The scanner at present reads the QR code that represents the votes, but the scanner does not actually read the votes. Critics say the QR code may not actually represent the votes.
“So it sets up this perfect storm,” Gisler said. “If the midterm elections don't go the way that they want it to go, which it's probably not going to, the way things are going, and those QR codes are on there, but the law says QR codes had to be gone, then it gives them reasons to go to court and cause chaos.”
Gisler said he plans to vote for SB 214, which would push the deadline back to Dec. 31, 2027.
Gisler says he has concerns about the legislation, “but if that's the best we can get to get that QR code deadline moved out, I think we have to do what we can do right now.”
Income and Property Taxes
Gisler said he voted in support of legislation cutting the income tax, but he does not think totally eliminating the tax is feasible.
“We can't eliminate the income tax, blow a $19 billion hole in the budget, without some kind of plan,” he said. “We do have a Constitutional requirement in this state to have a balanced budget.”
“We all know in this room that magic economic growth is not going to make up $19 billion a year,” he said. “You have to cut something. And the biggest line item is education. That means we're cutting public education.”
“Property taxes were a big discussion this year, and they still are,” Gisler said.
“If you want to reduce your property taxes, then reduce the need for that revenue,” he said.
“The obvious way” to reduce local property tax is for the state to provide more of the funding for education, Gisler said.
The Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula needs to be updated, Gisler said, so that the state is paying a larger share of local educational costs.
“So if you updated that QBE formula to where the local systems didn't have to provide quite so much,” Gisler said, “you could really pass those savings on in the form of property tax cuts.”
Other Comments
Gisler said he voted against a bill to repeal the ban on silencers on weapons.
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| Gisler 3/21/2026 |
The bill didn’t pass, Gisler said, “because several Republicans voted against that one as well. So that was a bipartisan defeat of that bill.”
Gisler said he voted in favor of suspending the gas tax for 60 days because “sales taxes are regressive. They cost lower income people and families more of their income.”
“Obviously, the president got us into a war none of us were looking for,” Gisler said. “That has made gas prices shoot up overnight, and so this gives a little bit of relief.”
Gisler said “I'm against term limits. I'm just against them, and the reason is because I think we already have term limits. They're called elections.”
“And the reason that they aren't working is because we've gerrymandered things so badly that people don't really have a choice,” he said.
“So I would much rather see us, at the state level, fix that problem by getting rid of gerrymandering and giving us some competitive districts in the state,” he said.
Congressional Candidates
Gisler said he is not endorsing any candidates in the May 19 party primaries.
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| Delancy 3/21/2026 |
“I think in the Democratic Party, we do too much of that,” he said, “and I think that people need to make the choice themselves.”
Both Pamela Delancy and Lexy Doherty, seeking the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Congressional District 10, attended the March 21 Town Hall. Gisler invited both to speak.
Delancy said she lives in Henry County where she has owned her home in McDonough for more than 23 years.
She retired from the Army in 2019 after serving 35 years, she said.
“I wrote medical policies for the government for service members as well as veterans,” she said.
“My service didn't stop when I got out the military,” she said. “I also volunteer at the food bank in my community. I walk with my community once a month to promote physical and mental well being.”
“So I'm very much kept abreast of what's going on with health issues,” she said.
“I can tell you that looking at where we are in the world today, the Constitution is in peril. Democracy is in trouble, and anyone that thinks it isn't has their head in the sand, according to me, because dictatorship has no allegiance to political affiliation.”
“And the right to vote is being suppressed every day, not just for me as a Black person or you as a White person, all American citizens.”
Doherty said she was the party nominee for the 10th Congressional District two years ago.
“I've been working to flip this district for going on three years now,” she said, “because I believe in the people here.”
“So I've watched in this district as it's moved to the left little by little,” she said, “and I believed, and I think history will prove me right, that we could flip this seat.”
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| Doherty 3/21/2026 |
“I come from a working family,” she said. “Both of my parents worked. My mom owned a small business. So I grew up seeing how hard they worked. And after my parents got divorced, my mom had some tough financial years where she was sleeping on friends' couches or in the van.”
“And so when I was with her, I was sleeping on couches and in the van,” she said. “And during the days, if we didn't have somewhere really that we could be, we spent time in the library or in public parks.”
“And so when I look around at what families need, I see so many hardworking families that are doing everything they can to make their kids' lives better and still need a little bit of help.”
“And I think it's our job to provide that help,” she said. “If people are willing to work hard for their families, I think we should be standing beside them to help make the load a little lighter.”
Republican Party Meetings
The Oconee County Republican Party held a candidate gathering on the same day as the Gisler Town Hall at the Cotton Gin on SR 15 south of Watkinsville, but Party Chair Kathy Hurley said in advance that I would not be allowed to record, or arrange to have someone record, the meeting. I did not attend.
Hurley reported on the party Facebook Page that 250 people attended the event, including 30 candidates.”
“There were stump speeches galore,” she wrote, but she did not say who spoke.
The Party held its usual monthly meeting on March 23, with Vernon Jones, seeking the party nomination for Secretary of State, Randell Trammell, seeking the party nomination for State School Superintendent, and Ken Yasger, running for the party nomination for Governor.
In addition, Oconee County Sheriff James Hale spoke on legislation before the General Assembly that would mandate weapon detection equipment at entrances to each of Oconee County’s 12 schools.
I usually attend Republican and Democratic Party meetings, but I missed the Republican Party meeting on March 23 to celebrate my granddaughter’s 16th birthday.
Because Hurley does not allow video or audio recording of the meeting, I was not able to ask someone to record the meeting for me.
Video
The video below is of the Town Hall meeting Gisler held on March 21.
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