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AJC.com > Legislature > Georgia Beat > Archives > 2005 > March > 24 > Entry
Senate dismantles Department of Motor Vehicle Safety
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Senate today passed Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue’s plan for dismantling the four-year-old Department of Motor Vehicle Safety, scattering its functions and 1,400 employees across four existing state agencies and a new department focused on driver’s license services.
The 35 to 15 vote on the bill followed a lengthy and sometimes heated debate about the need for the change and its potential costs.
Perdue has promised to alleviate the long lines at some driver’s license centers, particularly in metro Atlanta, and has said the best way is to have a department singularly focused on that issue.
Senate Democrats said the bill goes too far and unnecessarily breaks up an agency that is viewed as a national model and is credited with reducing commercial truck accidents.
“There is no reason or cause to do this,” said state Sen. Gloria Butler (D-Stone Mountain), a member of the Senate’s Public Safety and Homeland Security. “The department is working well in most cases.”
Senate Public Safety and Homeland Security Chairman Ross Tolleson (R-Perry) said he expects the various functions under DMVS to operate more efficiently and in a more cost effective manner under the governor’s reorganization plan.
He also disputed Democrats claims that there will be significant costs involved in the reorganization and the potential loss of federal funding.
“I’ll be honest I believe it will be a rather large savings,” Tolleson said.
Democrats tried to scuttle floor debate on the bill because it did not have a fiscal note, which is a report by state auditors on the likely costs of the reorganization.
They chided the GOP majority by declaring that the state law that requires fiscal notes on certain legislation was pushed through the General Assembly by former state senator and now U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson.
The GOP majority overruled them.
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