Ask Coastal Georgians what state lawmakers should prioritize in the current session of the General Assembly, they demonstrated what is an abiding concern and passion of the region’s residents: guarding the region’s environment and natural resources.

Three of the top four legislative priorities in an informal reader survey conducted by The Current ahead of the session’s start last week related to the environment, with water management ranking highest. Not far behind was protection of the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge.

Those Coastal Georgians had equally strong opinions about what should be relegated to the bottom of lawmakers’ to-do lists in Atlanta when lawmakers begin their work in earnest on Monday following a week made up largely of pomp and ceremony.

The trailing topics: State support for tourism promotion, for one. Legalizing gambling, for another. And most surprisingly perhaps — given the predictable focus on tax relief in this election season — respondents ranked ending the state income tax as second-to-the-last of their priorities.

Regulating data centers, warehouse growth

Noteworthy among the survey’s respondents was an environmental concern that only in recent months has become a hot-button political issue across the state — energy and land-devouring data centers.

Regulating the centers’ growth and activities ranked fourth among the priorities of those who responded to the survey.

Data centers shouldn’t be allowed “within 10 miles of a neighborhood,” one respondent to the survey said, while another appealed to lawmakers to ensure that the costs of centers’ voracious need for energy aren’t passed on to residential customers.

Another respondent urged the legislature to set a “huge limit” on the construction of data centers, as well as warehouses, which, the person said, was “decimating” wildlife habitat in the state.

“The Savannah area has warehouses sitting unoccupied, but we are still building them everywhere, and it needs to stop,” the person wrote.

Using the state’s budget surplus

While the survey’s respondents by an overwhelming number want lawmakers to address environmental concerns, health care wasn’t far behind.

Using the state’s $14.6 billion surplus to improve health-care access Georgians ranked second among their legislative priorities.

But any move by Gov. Brian Kemp or the Republican-dominated legislature to use that surplus to address the needs of the thousands of Georgians expected to lose their health care coverage following the end of federal subsidies under the Affordable Care Act doesn’t appear likely.

Kemp has frequently boasted about the surplus during his second term in office, citing it as a prime example of his administration’s responsible financial management.

He did so again on Thursday, in his state-of-the-state address, saying that his administration’s “fiscal restraint” has ensured Georgia is well-positioned to address any future rainy day. He didn’t specify what such a rainy day might be.

Eliminate property taxes for seniors

While eliminating the state’s income tax ranked next-to-last as a priority among those who completed The Current’s survey, tax issues were far from absent in their responses.

Property tax relief for seniors was a recurrent theme.

A Camden County resident who described himself as elderly and receiving Social Security said he shouldn’t be required to “shoulder” school costs. Another respondent said property taxes should be eliminated altogether for those people over the age of 65.

Still another implored legislators to renew state tax credits for electric-vehicle use, especially for low-income Georgians, so that Kemp’s vision of making Georgia the nation’s E-mobility capital can be realized.

How the survey was carried out

The Current’s informal survey, linked and announced in our newsletters until Jan. 12, offered a list of 15 possible legislative priorities. Those potential priorities were drawn mainly from legislative agendas prepared by local lawmakers and municipal officials, as well as business groups and other non-governmental organizations. Responses were recorded from 269 readers.

The list of possible preferences included, in order, “affordable housing,” “use budget surplus to address health care access,” “Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge protection,” “water management,” “voting processes,” “regional transportation,” “roads, bridges maintenance, replacement, “state support for tourism promotion,” “repairing state corrections facilities,”  “ending the state income tax, “setting standards for new data centers,” “affordable residential renewable energy,” “setting standards for artificial intelligence,” “legalized gambling,” and “firearms safety, storage.”

We asked readers to rate each of those possible priorities on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 meaning “it should be a top priority” and one signifying “not a big deal now.” Topics with higher average scores meant higher priorities.

Divisions over immigration

Space was also made available in the survey to specify preferences that weren’t listed, and some respondents took advantage of the opportunity.

In those instances, immigration was a notable theme, though state lawmakers have little, if any, say in a function that falls largely under the federal government.

One respondent urged support for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Another pushed for revoking the driver’s licenses of illegal aliens. Still another said illegal immigrants should be removed and Islam banned in the U.S. as a “terrorist threat to America.”

Others, reflecting the deep divide over immigration, said the ICE processing facility in Folkston in southeastern Georgia’s Charlton should be closed. “More sanctuary cities needed,” wrote another.

One respondent found the whole survey wanting.

“Shame on you. This survey specifically fails to address the urgent and ongoing issues affecting residents of Georgia.”

The person continued: “Property theft, forced home displacement due to outsiders, development companies, property investors, HOA board takeovers, exorbitant assessments and systemic mental and financial abuses continue unchecked. The survey questions are profoundly irrelevant or frivolous, ultimately ignoring the real hardships constituents face daily.”