Candidate Profile: Patterson runs for state House as conservative Democrat

Published 10:58 pm Saturday, May 1, 2010

Tennga resident Tommy Patterson says politics is in his blood, saying he is related to former Murray County Commissioner Kirby Patterson and Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin. But he says  the loss last year of the homestead property tax exemption grant is what prompted him to run for the state House of Representatives this year.

The homestead tax exemption grant compensates local governments for exempting part of the property value of homeowners from property taxes. The state didn’t end the grants entirely but has set up a formula for funding them that all but guarantees they won’t be funded for at least the next couple of years, making local governments and school systems less likely to provide the homestead exemption.

“That really hurt a lot of people, especially people on fixed incomes. My mother was one,” he said. He said the General Assembly should have found some other way to deal with its own budget problems and that if elected he would fight to restore the homestead exemption.

“I’ll do everything I can,” he said.

Patterson, 43, qualified last week as a Democrat for the District 6 seat in the House. That district includes parts of northern Murray and Whitfield counties as well as part of eastern Catoosa County.

On the Republican side, incumbent Tom Dickson and Whitfield County Board of Commissioners member Mike Cowan will face each other in the July 20 primary. The winner of that race will face Patterson in the November general election.

This is the first run at elected office for Patterson, a native of Murray County who work as a Realtor for Gregory Real Estate Co. in Chatsworth.

“We need to find ways to create more jobs, especially in this area. It seems that when we do get something it goes to Atlanta or to south Georgia. They seem to have forgotten about us,” he said. “We need to do a better job of recruiting businesses.”

Patterson describes himself as a “conservative Democrat.”

“I know a lot of people don’t believe there are conservative Democrats, but I’m one. I grew up here, hunting and fishing and going to church. That’s what I believe in,” he said. “I believe in cutting taxes and trying to create jobs. I’m probably more conservative than Tom Dickson is.”

How so?

“He’s voted for tax increases, especially (ending) the homestead exemption, but also that hospital tax they did,” he said.