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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2007 > January > 26
Friday, January 26, 2007
Speaker says liquor should be part of any vote
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If Georgians are going to be able to vote on allowing Sunday beer and wine sales, hard liquor ought to be part of the equation, House Speaker Glenn Richardson said Friday.
While offering no personal opinion on the merits of Sunday sales, Richardson told reporters, “If we’re going to put that out there for sales of beer and wine, do we also allow spirits to be sold?
“It seems logical to me if we’re going to consider it, we consider all those issues - letting voters decide and putting spirits with beer and wine. I don’t see any difference between those two. If we’re selling one we should let the voters decide if they sell both.”
Senators have sponsored a measure to allow local voters to decide if they want to allow stores to sell beer and wine on Sundays. Grocery and convenience stores, which are pushing the bill, can’t legally sell liquor in Georgia.
The liquor store industry has opposed the legislation, in part because it didn’t include the sale of hard liquor.
Jim Tudor, a lobbyist for the convenience store industry, said supporters of the Sunday sales bill are willing to consider adding liquor.
“If there is a legislative will that this (liquor) would be added, this is not something we would object to,” he said.
Adding liquor to the equation may win over some in If Georgians are going to be able to vote on allowing the liquor store industry, although the bill is still strongly opposed by conservative Christian groups, such as the Christian Coalition of Georgia and the Christian Alliance. Gov. Sonny Perdue also opposes it, although in recent days, he has backed off comments that lawmakers interpreted as a promise to veto the bill.
Both Richardson and the presiding officer of the Senate, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, said Friday that they wouldn’t get involved in the bill’s movement through the General Assembly.
Richardson said it would get a vote in the full House if it passes the Senate and is recommended by a House committee.
He called the current Sunday sales ban a “time-honored tradition” in the South, although Georgia is now the only Southern state to have a complete ban on Sunday sales.
“As a general rule, most people go to church of whatever faith on Sunday … and we don’t sell beer on Sundays,” Richardson said. “It’s just one of those traditions. And I don’t think Republicans are doing anything other than trying to very carefully measure if we want to put that out there and let the citizens end that tradition.”
Cagle said the bill “presents a little bit of a concern, or a little bit of a struggle, personally for me, being a Southern Baptist.
“The truth of the matter is, having the local option in there in the bill is difficult to deny the people of Georgia the ability to express their views on it.”
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Liquor Laws
Lawmakers angered over traffic nightmare
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Anger over Thursday morning’s traffic nightmare lingered in the State Capitol today, prompting a stinging rebuke for the Atlanta Police Department, a little levity and a few ideas.
State Rep. Edward Lindsey (R-Atlanta) started things off by taking to the floor of the House of Representatives and blasting the city police chief for his response to the gridlock.
“My question to my beloved chief of police, Chief (Richard J.) Pennington, is where were you?” Rep. Edward Lindsey (R-Atlanta) said. “Yesterday, you let down the citizens of Atlanta, our commuters, and our guests to these great conventions. This is simply unacceptable for the great international city that I am so proud to represent.”
The police department had no immediate response to Lindsey’s remarks, which drew cheers and applause from lawmakers.
A long-scheduled poultry convention and a motivational event downtown contributed to Thursday’s mess, backing up traffic on local highways for miles. Lindsey said his trip from his home in Brookhaven to the State Capitol took about an hour and 45 minutes when it normally takes 20 minutes. Other morning commuters said it took them two to three hours to travel from the suburbs downtown.
In an interview after his speech, Lindsey said he was “outraged” and “embarrassed” by the police department’s response to the traffic.
“This was not something unexpected,” Lindsey said of the downtown events. “Everybody in town knew they were coming. … What I don’t understand is why at every major intersection we did not have our police out in force directing traffic and moving the traffic through the city.”
Not all lawmakers agreed with Lindsey’s speech on the House floor.
“I don’t think it was a fair statement,” said State Rep. Roger Bruce (D-Atlanta). “Hopefully, the police department learned from the experience, but I wouldn’t beat up on them about that.”
House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) also weighed in on the traffic debacle, saying Lindsey was expressing frustration from metro Atlanta motorists who say police don’t always plan adequately for big events.
“I see that happen at a lot of events,” Richardson said. “Seemingly at big sporting events, there is no rhyme or reason. One day you go left, the next day you go right.”
The state can’t continue to lay down asphalt, Richardson said, and think it’s going to solve metro Atlanta’s transportation problems. He called for more public-private projects to create truck-only toll lanes and high occupancy toll lanes. Like many Republican lawmakers, Richardson says commuter rail is not the answer.
“If we have 18 lanes going to Gwinnett County, they will be full,” he said. “I am convinced laying down steel tracks from one defined location to another is not the answer. I think commuter rail has seen its day as a transportation solution.”
Also today, sate Rep. Bob Holmes (D-Atlanta) briefed fellow lawmakers on a bill he is sponsoring that would allow counties to increase sales taxes by 1 percent — through voter referendums — to pay for transportation improvements. The tax revenues could go toward a variety of projects, including buses, trains and even sidewalks and bicycle paths.
Holmes, who has been working on the legislation since last year, said it could help offset a shortfall in state transportation funds.
“The thing that is needed now is to further mitigate this growing transportation crisis that we have here,” Holmes said before briefing a delegation of Atlanta area state lawmakers about his bill. “People cannot afford to spend hours in traffic. This provides local communities who lack the funds an independent source of revenue.”
Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), chairman of the Transportation Committee, took a more tongue-in-cheek approach when he stood on the floor of the Senate and addressed Thursday’s traffic jams.
“As you see today,” Mullis said slyly, “the roads are clear and I would like to commend the members of the Transportation Committee for taking their picks and shovels and making that happen.”
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: politics
Senator wants restrictions on social networking sites
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Georgia senator worried about the safety of young teenagers who log on to Internet social networking sites such as MySpace.com and FaceBook.com has proposed a bill that would force such companies to tighten up their access to minors.
The measure would make it illegal for the owner or operator of a social networking Web site to allow minors to create or maintain a Web page without parental permission. Senate Bill 59 also would force MySpace.com and FaceBook.com to allow parents or guardians to have access to their children’s Web pages at all times.
Sen. Cecil Staton (R-Macon), the bill’s sponsor, said that while he believes parents should be actively involved and aware of their children’s activities, the social networking companies also should be held accountable for the safety of minors.
“I would reject the argument that these companies have no responsibility to address this problem,” Staton said. “I think when it comes to minor children, for someone to suggest a parent doesn’t have a right to be involved when these dangers are there — I would simply reject that.”
Staton cited statistics on dozens of teens who have been molested — or murdered, in some instances — by people they met through MySpace.com, according to law enforcement officials.
If owners or operators of a company failed to comply with the proposed law, they would be guilty of a misdemeanor on the first offense. A second offense would be a felony and could lead to imprisonment for between one and five years and a fine up to $50,000 or both.
Staton said the bill does not tell the companies exactly how to ensure that minors don’t log on without parental permission. The companies can figure that out on their own, he said.
“They can find a way to do this,” Staton said. “That’s my challenge to them.”
Earlier this month, MySpace.com announced a plan to offer free parental notification software, according to the Wall Street Journal. That software would enable parents who use it to know the name, age and location their kids are using on the Web site. But it does not allow parents to read their children’s e-mail or see their profile pages — falling short of what Staton’s bill would require.
House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) said his children use MySpace.com. But he said he and his wife have blocks on some Web sites and keep an eye on what their children see on their computers.
“The development of computer technology, Web sites, MySpace, is part of the evolution of this electronics age,” Richardson said. “Mommies and daddies ought to be regulating what their children see. I don’t know how the government can regulate the Internet.”
Lt. Governor Casey Cagle said he applauded Staton’s intentions but thought enforcement of the bill would be difficult. However, he said he would not interfere in allowing the measure to go through the Legislative process.
Staton, the chair of the Science and Technology Committee, is expected to hold hearings on the bill, perhaps as early as next Wednesday.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Categories: politics
Bill would ban teens from using cellphones while driving
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Teenagers would be banned from talking on their cell phones while driving under a proposal introduced Friday by a bipartisan group of House lawmakers.
The measure, introduced by Republican state Rep. Len Walker of Loganville and several Democrats, bans 16- and 17-year-olds from using cell phones and handsfree headsets while driving.
“This is a bill that will save lives,” said state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, a Decatur Democrat who co-sponsored the proposal. “It seems like a no-brainer to me.”
She said she was urged to expand the measure to all drivers, but decided against it because she said she talks on a cell phone while driving.
“I didn’t want to be hypocritical,” she quipped.
The measure is one of several driving-related proposals brought forward this session.
Oliver has also introduced a bill with other Democrats that would require passengers of pickup trucks to wear seat belts.
A survey released Thursday by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance Co. said that nearly 90 percent of 5,600 teens surveyed reported seeing peers drive while talking on cell phones and more than half spotted drivers using hand-held games, listening devices or sending text messages.
Permalink | Comments (56) | Categories: Public safety
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