Gold Dome Live is moving!
Our new spot will allow us to get the news to you even faster and make commenting easier. Please bookmark the new site and sign up for our rss feed:
http://blogs.ajc.com/gold-dome-live/
AJC.com > Legislature > Georgia Beat > Archives > 2005 > March > 11 > Entry
Faith-based initiative bill fails in Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue’s plan to ensure that religious organizations can compete for state dollars lost again in the Senate Friday, the second time it has failed to get enough votes to make it onto the ballot.
Proposed changes to the state Constitution need to get two-thirds of the vote in both chambers. The vote was 32-21 Friday, six votes short of the 38 needed to move it to the House for consideration.
However, lawmakers said the House could try to suspend its rules and pass a version of the proposed amendment next week.
The measure has widespread support among church leaders, but has run afoul of Georgia’s two largest teacher groups — the Professional Association of Georgia Educators and the Georgia Association of Educators — whose members fear it could pave the way for private school vouchers. Perdue’s proposal contains no language about vouchers.
The Faith and Family Services Amendment had little chance Friday because it needed at least four Democrats to join the chamber’s 34 Republicans to pass the plan. Democrats promised not to go along with the Republican governor’s proposal if the GOP majority didn’t include provisions making it clear that private school vouchers would be outlawed.
Republican senators voted down the proposed language, essentially assuring the measure’s defeat. “It is not the fault of the Democrats. It is the fault of the governor himself,” said Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna), who proposed the anti-voucher language.
Republicans didn’t even bother debating the proposed amendment.
But Perdue was unhappy with the outcome.
“An unfortunate legacy of this session of the General Assembly will be a few members voting in opposition to faith-based organizations that provide aid to needy Georgians,” Perdue said in a statement. “Thanks to those who opposed this measure, these faith-based groups will remain subject to the threat of legal action that could halt their valuable programs.”
The proposed constitutional amendment would ensure religious organizations could perform social services to compete for state dollars. Some do so now, in a roundabout fashion, by setting up separate foundations. Proponents argue that those arrangements could be invalidated by the courts. Some critics say the proposed amendment isn’t needed and that Perdue filed it to score points with religious conservatives.
Permalink | |
