GOOD HOPE — Republican candidates for office got a chance to share their ideas with local residents Thursday night during the first in a series of town hall meetings hosted by the Cullman County Republican Party.

The forum, held in Good Hope City Hall, featured many local candidates for state and local offices who gave their campaign pitches and answered questions from County GOP Chair Waid Harbison and the audience.

The Republican candidates for Alabama House District 12, incumbent Corey Harbison and Alex Chaney, discussed topics such as the state of the education system and the possibility of any new taxes levied on the people of the state.

Harbison said there is a lot of wasteful spending in the state education system, with too much spent on administrative staff instead of in the classroom.

He said he has previously filed a bill that would allow city school systems to still be able to form their own district, but they would no longer be allowed to pull money from the state general fund to do so.

“We should be putting that money towards our kids,” he said. “Not for more office workers in a central office.”

Chaney said education is probably the most important thing the state provides, but the budget has a lot of wasteful spending that can be worked on.

“I would like to dig in and see where that money is going and try to cut back on some of the fat and wasteful spending,” he said. “I think we need to work on where that money goes.”

The state superintendent also needs to be someone who can take the reins and actually lead the state’s education in a better direction, Chaney said.

“We’re going backwards and we’ve got to move forwards,” he said.

Chaney also said he would not support any new taxes, but would support the citizens of Cullman County being able to decide for themselves.

“I would never force any issues on the citizens that are not wanted,” he said.

Harbison said he was also opposed to new taxes, but one issue that the people of the state have wanted a chance to vote on is the implementation of a state lottery.

“The citizens of Alabama, they want to be able to vote on a state lottery,” he said. “Before we start looking to implement mandatory taxes on the citizens of Alabama, I’m for giving the people the choice to vote on a state lottery.”

Chaney said he was not personally in favor of a state lottery, but agreed that it should be something that the people of the state have a chance to decide for themselves.

Education was also a big topic for the candidates for Alabama Senate District 4, incumbent Paul Bussman and Garlan Gudger.

Bussman said the State Board of Education has been shirking many of its duties and passing them to the state legislature, and poor leadership has been a cause of that.

“My goal the last seven years has been to get the state board to do their job,” he said.

The higher education lobby has also pushed its own agenda to the detriment of the K-12 and community college systems, and schools are suffering for it, Bussman said.

“I’ve found so many things that are just crazy and ridiculous that are taking advantage of our K-12 and community college system,” he said. “And I fully intend to fix that when we go back next year.”

Gudger agreed that there were problems in the state education system, and said the budget needs to be reviewed to cut any fat and make sure the funding goes to the proper place, such as more vocational training.

“Education funding is a reflection of the future of our state,” he said. “There are problems in K-12 and there are problems in higher ed and we have to address those problems.”

The mental health crisis and prison overcrowding were also discussed by the candidates.

Bussman said people in jail or prison who have a mental illness should be receiving the proper treatment instead of languishing in a cell.

“Right now we’re dependent on our sheriff to take care of mental health,” he said. “That’s a critical problem for me.”

One of the ways to tackle the crisis is on the local level, Bussman said.

Gudger said he has worked on mental health extensively on the local level, but mental health funding has stayed level for the past 15 years, adding Bussman has been a part of making those budgets.

“That’s not my job at the state level, that’s his job at the state level,” he said. “It’s one thing to talk about it, but it’s one thing to, even on the local scale, to do something about it.”