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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2006 > March > 13 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USConstitutional amendment for HOPE falters
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Passage of a major piece of Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue’s election year agenda - a constitutional amendment on lottery funding of HOPE and pre-kindergarten - was hinging late Monday on an 11th hour change of heart by the Georgia House.
House Democrats early in the day blocked Perdue’s proposal from getting the required 91 votes, or two-thirds majority, required for a constitutional amendment.
But the full House later agreed to reconsider and then table the measure, leaving open the possibility that it could be brought back up for another vote in the final hours of a marathon Crossover Day.
Crossover Day, set by the GOP majority as the 30th day of the 40-day session, is generally considered the deadline for bills to clear one chamber and have a chance of becoming law.
Perdue’s bill failed in the state Senate last month, based on a similar block vote by Democrats.
In the House, where the vote was 102 to 68, supporters argued that a constitutional amendment would ensure that lottery funds are preserved for the highly popular HOPE scholarship and voluntary pre-kindergarten programs.
Opponents argued that Georgia voters already passed a constitutional amendment in 1998 that declares those two programs to be the funding priorities. Democrats also have suggested that Perdue wants to use the amendment to show he’s a champion of HOPE and to deflect criticism about his past record, particularly his proposal in 1994 to cut payments for students’ books and college fees.
House Higher Education Committee Chairman Bill Hembree (R-Douglasville) said the constitutional amendment will preserve “the greatest program in the educational history of this state.
Hembree said $1.8 billion - that could have been bankrolled for HOPE and pre-kindergarten - has been spent over the years on school metal detectors, satelitte dishes, computers, school construct and other projects of questionable merit.
“In 2002, $300,000 went to GPTV (Georgia Public Television) so our students could watch panda bears,” Hembree said.
State Rep. Kathy Ashe (D-Atlanta) argued that the amendment “doesn’t end tinkering.”
She said it does eliminate the options that voters have signed off on to use some lottery funding that doesn’t take from HOPE and pre-k for technology and school construction.
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