Transportation spending, teacher raises and cash for rural broadband development -- Hall County’s state lawmakers offered a glimpse of Georgia’s 2018 legislative session on Thursday. With state government seeing tax revenue climb amid economic prosperity, the issues before state government this year focus on how to capitalize on growth rather than stave off decline. Times have changed even since 2015, when Georgia had among the highest unemployment rates in the nation. But much of the recent economic prosperity has been focused in metro Atlanta — especially along its northern transportation corridors — and lawmakers believe the state needs to invest in rural broadband and health care to help pull rural Georgia along with its capital city.