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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2006 > March > 28
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Law would require courthouse security plans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia House passed legislation Tuesday setting up a system for all 159 counties to establish a courthouse security plan.
Senate Bill 462, which passed the House 129 to 32, is an outgrowth of a debate over courthouse security that began after last year’s fatal shooting spree at the Fulton County Courthouse.
Legislators were in session March 11, 2005, when rape suspect Brian Nichols allegedly killed a judge, court reporter and sheriff’s deputy.
“That great tragedy gave rise to an examination of how we protect our courthouse facilites,” said Rep. David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge), who brought the bill to the full House.
Ralston said the bill requires every county sheriff to develop a courthouse security plan and submit it to the chief Superior Court judge for review and possible modification.
The bill requires that the sheriff provide the county commission with an estimated cost of the plan and an implementation schedule. It does not mandate that the county commission provide additional funding.
Ralston said the expectation is that sheriffs will fund the plan out of their budgets. The bill now goes back to the Senate for approval of minor House changes.
Permalink | | Categories: Breaking news
District attorneys get pay boost
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state’s 49 district attorneys will get a $7,000 raise in their base pay under legislation given final legislative approval Tuesday.
A bill, sponsored by Rep. Mack Crawford (R-Zebulon), would make the increase effective July 1 and would boost DAs pay to about $7,500 less than the salaries for Superior Court judges. DAs currently have a base pay of about $100,000.
Permalink | | Categories: Breaking news
Law increases penalties for child murderers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The 2004 strangulation death of Carrollton 8-year-old Amy Yates has motivated the Georgia General Assembly to increase the potential penalties for child murderers.
“Amy’s Law, which won final legislative approval Tuesday, would give juvenile court judges the authority to lock up a child who murders until age 21.
Current law says that children under 13 can be sentenced to a maximum of two years of confinement for murder.
In Amy’s case, a 12-year-old neighbor was sentenced to at least one year in a residential psychiatric treatment facility. Amy’s body was was found April 26, 2004 in the trailer park where she lived, hours after she left home to ride her bicycle to a friend’s house.
Sen. Bill Hamrick, (R-Carrollton), the bill’s sponsor, said the existing state law imposed harsher penalties on students who brought a weapon to school than it did to children under 13 who kill.
“It just doesn’t make sense to the public that any murder, whether committed by a juvenile or adult, would only merit a two-year sentence,” Hamrick said. “This is supported by most everybody who weighed in -children’s groups, prosecutors.”
Hamrick’s proposal was attached to House Bill 1145, a measure that forces the juvenile courts to order mental evaluations if there is any question of a juvenile suspect’s competency to stand trial.
Permalink | | Categories: Breaking news
Plan to abolish car tag tax to be studied
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A proposal to abolish the state’s annual car tag tax will be studied by House lawmakers over the summer.
The House on Tuesday approved creation of a study committee to assess the feasibility of eliminating or phasing out the tax, which generates about $500 million a year, mostly for local governments.
Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta) said any proposal would guarantee that locals are reimbursed by the state so they don’t lose any money.
Georgians, at or near their birthday, have to register their vehicles and pay a tax that’s based in part on the vehicle’s age. About 8 million cars, trucks and SUVs are licensed in the state each year.
Burkhalter has said House Republican leaders don’t believe “Georgians shouldn’t have to pay government to own their vehicles, whether they’re rich or poor, have a broken-down pickup truck or a couple of cars.
“And what worse a birthday present can you get than to have to buy [your tag] on your birthday?” he said recently.
House Democrats have said the idea has merit, provided it does not shift the tax burden to farm and home owners.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Breaking news
Budget impasse grows heated
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a show reminiscent of some of the old battles of Democratic leaders, Republican House Speaker Glenn Richardson and GOP counterpart and Senate President Pro-tem Eric Johnson took turns publicly denouncing each other over a budget impasse that has the two chambers snarling at each other.
Lawmakers are set to adjourn the 2006 session on Thursday, and as of this morning, budget negotiators had made no headway toward agreeing to an $18.6 billion spending plan that must be approved before they go home.
A quick-tempered Richardson (R-Hiram), took to the well this morning and accused Johnson of trying to trade an agreement on the budget for Senate consideration of a House leadership-sponsored bill that would make it easier for Atlanta Gas Light to build a pipeline and charge ratepayers.
“I told him, hell no,” said Richardson. “I am not going to continue playing games with the budget. We are not going to trade bills for votes.”
Richardson said Senators want to insert language in the budget telling the judiciary how to spend money, a violation of judicial independence, he argued.
“This dispute is about a power play and about putting power over politics,” he said.
However, by telling House members about the AGL offer, Richardson broke legislative taboo against relaying private conversations.
Johnson (R-Savannah), reacted angrily, although he didn’t dispute Richardson’s characterization of the offer. He criticized the speaker for saying it was a mistake to allow the Senate to have its own budget office that, sometimes, works against the wishes of the House.
Johnson said, “There is an arrogance across the aisle in thinking the Senate should not have a seat at the (budget) table.
“We are down to hours of maybe getting out of here without a budget.”
Such threats, and arguments, are common over the budget. However, a few things make it different this time.
First, this is the first time the Republican leaders have publicly gone into the well to personally chastise each other. While Richardson and Johnson have had disagreements, they’ve generally aired them privately.
Also, this debate isn’t really about big items in the budget. Both sides agree to 7 percent raises for prison guards and patrolmen, 4 percent for teachers and most state employees, record education spending and $1 billion to build schools and roads.
And thirdly, it’s extremely late to not have started work on the differences between the two bodies over the budget. Budgets generally take a few weeks of negotiating. When House and Senate negotiators got together shortly before noon, they had 60 hours left to get their work done before the end of the session.
As of early this afternoon, leaders of the two chambers were considering proposals to break the impasse, and finally meeting in public.
Permalink | | Categories: Breaking news
Illegal immigrants and amnesty
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Legislature is poised to pass a far-reaching bill addressing illegal immigration. However, that bill does not deal with amnesty, which is being debated at the federal level. Some believe illegal immigrants already in this country should be given a path to citizenship. Others think they should have to go back to their home countries and apply for U.S. citizenship. What do you think?
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