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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2007 > March
March 2007
Coretta portrait proposal hopes looking dim
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A proposal to hang a portrait of Coretta Scott King in the state Capitol suffered another setback Friday morning when its sponsor failed to show up on time for a committee meeting on the resolution.
And now the fate of House Resolution 376 is unclear.
House Special Rules Committee Chairman Calvin Hill (R-Canton) held out the possibility it could get another chance in his committee, but he said he “wouldn’t want to hazard a guess” about the chances of it passing the Legislature this year.
Hill’s panel adjourned just moments before Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam (D-Riverdale) walked into meeting room Friday morning. She said she was late because of heavy traffic.
Abdul-Salaam caught Hill’s attention as he was leaving: “You are all finished?”
Hill responded: “We adjourned… We called the bill and you weren’t here. It’s seven minutes after. And we met at 8 o’clock. My committee members all left. They all had other meetings.”
Abdul-Salaam: “The traffic out there is horrendous. I got out of my car on Trinity [Avenue] and ran down here.”
Abdul-Salaam failed to show up at another Special Rules Committee hearing on her resolution on March 19, citing an illness.
Abdul-Salaam cried foul after the committee members left Friday morning. “They do not intend to honor Mrs. Coretta Scott King,” she said in an interview. “It might embarrass them. It might make them look like they have a heart.”
Moments later, she added: “There is a mean spirit down here. There really is.”
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Senate, House prepare for budget battle
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Senate leaders set up what could be a lengthy fight with the House this morning by producing a mid-year budget that cuts out local projects, funding for the KIA car plant, and some of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s top priorities.
Among the casualties in the $700 million mid-year spending plan produced by the Senate is Perdue’s “Go Fish Georgia” fishing tourism program and his push for $50 million to buy land for conservation.
The Senate version of the budget that runs through June 30 includes $81 million more for the financially ailing PeachCare health insurance program for children of the working poor, and $6.2 million to keep the public defenders system afloat. It has $164 million to pay to educate the extra children who started school in Georgia last fall, $11 million in emergency funding for tornado-damaged Americus, $181 million to pay off debt on money borrowed for construction projects, and about $20 million for reserves.
What it doesn’t contain is tens of millions of dollars for other projects promoted by Perdue and House leaders.
Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah), said many of those projects would be considered when lawmakers take up the $20.2 billion budget for fiscal 2008, which begins July 1. But senators, and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle wanted to make a statement that local projects don’t belong in a mid-year budget meant to pay for emergencies or problems that pop up during the course of a year. And Johnson said there is no guarantee those other projects will ever be funded.
“Obesity is the number one problem with health care in America. Obesity is probably the number one problem with government also,” said Johnson, who was joined at a morning news conference by several other Republican and Democratic senators.
Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown (D-Macon), said, “These priorities are the priorities we can support.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to pass the mid-year plan this afternoon. It will then go to the full Senate. After it passes, House and Senate leaders will begin hammering out their differences.
Those negotiations, crucial to programs like PeachCare that are facing funding shortfalls, may drag on because House members say they were sandbagged by the Senate. House leaders say they didn’t know the Senate would largely gut the mid-year spending bill until just after the House passed it last week.
Senators complained that the House used the mid-year budget to add local projects, known as pork, often in the districts of the chamber’s leaders. For instance, the House added nearly $6 million for local museums, $1 million for the Tour de Georgia, $125,000 for a West Georgia tourism group, $19,000 for library equipment on tony St. Simons Island, and $350,000 for a new animal hospital at Zoo Atlanta. House leaders noted that they also added money for necessities, like new state trooper cars.
The Senate budget also cuts out $13 million for Perdue’s “Go Fish Georgia” program, $50 million he wanted for land conservation, and $40 million to help get the Kia car plant in West Georgia up and running. Senate leaders said putting off the $40 million until fiscal 2008 won’t endanger the project.
“What the Senate said today is the same thing they have said for the last two weeks,” said Clelia Davis, spokeswoman for House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram). “They want to spend money in July and claim they’re fiscally conservative, but if the House spends it in March, we’re not conservative.
“It is nothing but a shell game. How does shifting the same amount of spending by 4 months make the Senate conservative and the House not conservative?”
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House approves resolution on Sudan
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s House approved a resolution Tuesday calling on President Bush and Congress to press for the end of human rights abuses and violence in Sudan.
House Resolution 273 refers to the bloody civil war in Sudan’s Darfur, citing estimates that more than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict while hundreds of thousands more have been forced from their homes.
The resolution also urges the Securities and Exchange Commission to guide Georgia’s public pension fund managers in not investing in companies connected to terrorism.
“We have genocide. We have a civil war in the Sudan, particularly in Darfur,” Rep. Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta) told the House before his resolution was approved on a 165 to 0 vote. “This is more horrendous then you can imagine. Women and children are being slaughtered.”
Brooks’ resolution on Sudan now goes to the Senate for consideration.
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House votes to allow larger high school classes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A substitute House bill passed Tuesday does away with the planned class reduction for high schools.
Class sizes in grades 9-12 were to be reduced to 28 students under legislation that passed seven years ago. Implementation was delayed due to concerns about the cost of making the change.
The new legislation would allow up to 32 students in a high school math, science, social studies or language arts class. The proposal says the maximum class size can be 40 percent higher than what the state funds — one teacher per 23 students.
The bill, which now goes to the Senate, was a substitute for legislation that would have delayed the 28-student cap for two years.
Rep. Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth), chairman of the House Education Committee and sponsor of the substitute, said the new proposal gives schools more control over class sizes.
Coleman, a former principal and assistant school superintendent, said small class sizes are not as important in high school as they are in the lower grades. Class size reduction already is in effect for grades kindergarten through eight.
He said meeting the 28-student cap would be costly in terms of building more classrooms and hiring more teachers.
“We should not run the schools from the House of Representatives,” Coleman told his colleagues.
Rep. Steve Davis (R-McDonough), a supporter of the substitute, said the reduction would put 800 more Henry County students in trailers and cost nearly $4 million.
But reduction supporters said the state has a budget surplus topping $500 million, so it can afford to help local schools systems fund the smaller classes.
“This vote is about keeping campaign promises,” Rep. Kathy Ashe (D-Atlanta) said. “We need to go ahead and get the job done.”
House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) backed Coleman’s proposal.
“I don’t think there is a bit of research that indicates a difference between 28, 29 and 30,” Richardson said. “That’s all this boils down to is local systems.”
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Education
Brown’s bill on names advances in Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of the quirkiest bills filed this year passed the Senate with no opposition late Tuesday evening.
The original version of Senate Bill 191 would have barred the state from naming anything in honor of Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown (D-Macon), who introduced the legislation. Brown said serving his constituents is enough of an honor.
But several lawmakers expressed reservations, saying the bill would usurp home rule and apply to only one person.
Instead, a Senate committee revised the bill so that it would require the secretary of state to maintain a list of people who do not want any public building, road, interchange, bridge or other public property named in their honor.
Any state agency or jurisdiction seeking to name public property in honor of someone would be required to first consult the list, called the State Memorials Registry.
The Senate approved the bill 53-0, and it now heads to the House for consideration.
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House endorses HERO scholarships for spouses
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bill that would provide scholarships to surviving spouses of Georgia National Guard soldiers or reservists killed in combat unanimously passed the House Tuesday.
House Bill 131 would provide $2,000 a year for up to four years to spouses wanting to attend college. It now goes to the Senate.
The legislation would expand the HERO scholarship, which currently covers only children of soldiers.
Earlier this month, Coweta County Solicitor Robert Stokely, whose son, Michael, was killed in Iraq in 2005, told the House Higher Education Committee the legislation would help spouses rebuild their lives.
“We shouldn’t let that hope and promise for a better future die with that soldier,” Stokely said.
Permalink | | Categories: Education
Bills would make more students eligible for HOPE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bills that would make more high school students eligible for the lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship were approved separately in the state House and Senate today.
Senators also approved a resolution that would limit lottery funding to HOPE grants and scholarships and to pre-kindergarten classes, making capital projects and technology spending for grades kindergarten through 12 ineligible.
Today is “crossover day,” meaning legislation that passed crossed over to the other chamber and stayed alive.
The House passed a bill 164-1 that would allow homeschooled students, students from nontraditional schools, and holders of a general equivalency diploma to qualify for the HOPE Scholarship if they scored in the 85th percentile on a national test, such as the SAT or the ACT.
Currently, a student who didn’t graduate with a B average from a traditional high school cannot get the scholarship until completing 30 semester hours in college and earning a 3.0. For many of those students, getting HOPE money retroactively is a financial hardship.
In the Senate, a bill unanimously passed that would weight honors courses, helping more students qualify for the HOPE Scholarship.
HOPE eligibility changes this year to a 3.0 grade point standard rather than a numerical grade of at least 80. Unlike in previous years, the Georgia Student Finance Commission will calculate the grades.
As it stands now, honors courses will not be weighted because there are no minimum state standards for those courses. Without those extra half credits, a higher percentage of students is likely to fall below the HOPE standard than in previous years.
“Students will not qualify for HOPE as a result of their desire to challenge themselves and take more difficult courses,” Sen. Michael Meyer von Bremen (D-Albany), sponsor of Senate Bill 75, told fellow lawmakers.
Meyer von Bremen’s bill also would require the state to develop minimum standards for honors courses by the end of 2009.
He said his bill is intended to correct an “inadvertent mistake” made when lawmakers raised the HOPE eligibility standard.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Education
HOPE Chest amendment approved by Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Senate overwhelmingly approved a proposed constitutional amendment this afternoon to keep lawmakers from using lottery revenue for local pork projects.
The proposed amendment, which passed 45-8, mandates that lottery revenue be used only for the HOPE scholarships, pre-kindergarten classes, and reserves for the programs. The HOPE Chest amendment, promoted by Gov. Sonny Perdue, failed last year in part because Democrats who created the HOPE scholarship didn’t want to give him political ammunition while he was running for re-election.
Perdue originally proposed the amendment after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in late 2004 that the state had spent more than $1.8 billion in lottery proceeds for things other than HOPE scholarships and pre-kindergarten classes. Included were satellite dishes, computers, school construction and other hometown projects. Those expenditures have been discontinued under Perdue.
“This is not about the past. It is not about placing blame on what was spent,” said Sen. Joseph Carter (R-Tifton), the measure’s sponsor. “It is about the future.”
The Senate approved the proposal today after amending it to reverse part of a 2004 HOPE reform law that called for reducing book and fee payments to students if lottery revenues declined. Democrats have opposed any cuts in payments to students the past few years. However, since lottery revenues have continued to climb, student book and fee payments haven’t been cut.
Carter said that if his measure is approved, lawmakers would have to vote in the future if book and fee payments to students should be cut.
The proposal now moves to the House for its consideration.
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House votes to reduce PeachCare eligibility
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After a long, sometimes emotional debate, the Georgia House passed a bill today that will make fewer families eligible for the state’s health care program for the children of the working poor.
The bill, sponsored by House Speaker Glenn Richardson, R-Hiram, was approved by a vote of 101-63, over the vehement objections of every member of the Democratic leadership.
The bill would reduce eligibility standards from 235 percent of the federal poverty level to 200 percent and charge PeachCare enrollees extra premiums for dental and vision coverage, both of which are now provided.
However, no child now covered will be dropped from the rolls, Richardson said, but will be “grandfathered” into the new program.
PeachCare now covers 308,000 children of Georgia’s working class families, and Democrats argued forcefully that reducing eligibility standards would prove catastrophic, not just to families but to the state’s treasury.
Just before the vote, Richardson chided some opponents for telling “cutesy jokes” to try to make their point that changing eligibility standards would be dangerous.
“It is time to quit playing games,” the speaker said before the vote.
Consumer advocates blasted the vote.
“The House took an unnecessary step backward today, forsaking children’s health by cutting PeachCare eligibility for hard working families who cannot afford private insurance,”said Lauren Waits, policy director for the Voices for Georgia’s Children advocacy group.
“We look to the Senate now to protect those kids and hold the line, ensuring that every child who is eligible for PeachCare today remains eligible in the future, as Congress reauthorizes this valuable investment in coverage that is paying off for so many Georgia kids.”
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Senate bill requires notaries be legal residents
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Notary publics would have to prove they are legal U.S. residents under a bill approved Tuesday by the state Senate.
SB 50, which passed 55-0, is designed to cut into the document fraud that allows illegal immigrants to gain public benefits in Georgia, said Sen. John Douglas (R-Social Circle), sponsor of the bill. Notaries also would have to be able to read and write English under the measure.
The Senate has already passed several other bills targeting illegal immigrants, including ones that would: increase penalties for document fraud; require a Georgia driver’s license to obtain a Georgia tag; and clarify that judges and parole board members can consider someone’s immigration status in their rulings.
Permalink | | Categories: Immigration
House sends spending plan to Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia House issued a stinging rebuke to the state Senate over their budget standoff today before voting to send its midyear spending plan to the upper chamber.
House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans) said the Senate’s actions concerning the budget are about “politics, ambition and leverage.”
“We cannot let short-term, shortsightedness guide public policy,” Harbin told the House moments before it voted 162-0 to send the budget to the Senate. “This House has not passed an irresponsible budget. This House has passed a budget that the people of Georgia can be proud of.”
The two chambers got into a power struggle last week after Republican Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle announced the Senate would strip House-backed projects from the plan.
The House reacted to Cagle’s announcement by yanking back the budget it had just approved, using a parliamentary technique that allowed them to ask for a vote to be reconsidered. Harbin withdrew his motion to reconsider the budget vote today and then asked the House to send the spending plan over to the Senate with a note attached: “Urgent attention required.”
Cagle issued a statement shortly after the House took action today.
“I want to commend the House for choosing the responsible course of action and moving the supplemental appropriations bill,” Cagle said. “This is positive news for the millions of Georgians who are counting on us to fund PeachCare, keep our schools operating, and provide disaster relief to several areas in our state.
“The Senate will have our version of the budget publicly available in less than 24 hours. I look forward to working closely and cooperatively with the House to resolve our different positions on state spending.”
Such budget tiffs are common late in legislative sessions, when House and Senate members stake out their positions for the biggest money battles of the session. This year the stakes are a bit higher because PeachCare and the public defender system are running out of money.
Senators say they support funding for PeachCare and public defenders, but they don’t want the midyear plan to include most other, non-emergency spending. The midyear budget for fiscal year 2007, which runs through June 30, includes $700 million in additional spending.
For instance, the House included $5 million for Gov. Sonny Perdue’s “Go Fish Georgia” fishing tourism program, nearly $6 million for several museums around the state, $1 million for the Tour de Georgia bike race, and $350,000 toward a new animal hospital at Zoo Atlanta.
In a statement Wednesday, Cagle said the Senate didn’t necessarily object to House projects. Senators just wanted to hold off funding them until next year.
The problem is that Cagle and the Senate didn’t bother telling the House or Perdue about their philosophical position on the midyear budget until the day the House approved the budget last week, only a few weeks before the end of the session.
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Senate approves mental health commission
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Senate today voted to create a commission that would study ways to improve care in Georgia’s troubled state psychiatric hospitals.
The measure, Senate Resolution 363, passed unanimously without debate on “crossover day,”; the deadline for bills to have cleared at least one chamber to be considered for final passage during this legislative session.
Sen. Johnny Grant (R-Milledgeville) filed the resolution in response to a series of articles in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which revealed a pattern of neglect, abuse and poor medical care in the seven state hospitals that contributed to at least 115 suspicious deaths since 2002.
The resolution would create a legislative commission that would spent two years looking at the state hospitals’; chronic overcrowding and understaffing, at diverting more patients to community-based services and at requiring insurance plans to provide the same coverage for mental health care as for other medical treatment.
The panel - consisting of legislators, a judge and citizens representing hospital patients and law enforcement agencies - also would consider reorganizing the Georgia Department of Human Resources, the agency that operates the state hospitals.
Advocates for people with mental illness applauded the Senate’s vote, which sends the measure to the House for consideration.
“I really do believe that if they do this commission the right way, they will actually see how disjointed the mental health system is,” said Ellyn Jaeger, of the Georgia chapter of Mental Health America. “It’s in serious need of fixing, and you can’t fix it until you understand it.”
Later today, the House may take up additional bills aimed at revamping the mental health system.
One, House Bill 535, would set up an ombudsman who could investigate complaints about treatment in state mental facilities and a 15-member committee to oversee that work. A subcommittee that included at least one psychiatrist and two other physicians would review deaths in state hospitals and other mental health facilities, as occurs in Illinois and New York.
Lawmakers created the ombudsman’s position in 2000 but have never approved a budget for the office.
Rep. Mark Butler (R-Carrollton), the House bills’ sponsor, said he hopes to work with the Senate during the remainder of this year’s session to craft a single mental health bill that both chambers find acceptable.
Lawmakers are working on the bills as the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department considers whether to investigate conditions in Georgia’s state hospitals, as advocates requested after publication of the Journal-Constitution articles in January. Federal intervention in other states has forced improvements in care, hospital construction and renovations costing millions of dollars. Justice Department officials have said they are reviewing the request for an investigation.
Read the AJC series: Danger and Death in Georgia’s Mental Hospitals
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Private cities measure fails
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A resolution that would allow Georgians to decide whether private “development districts” can tax homeowners in new planned communities to pay for roads, sewers, and other improvements failed by one vote in the state Senate today.
Lawmakers voted 37-15 in favor of Senate Resolution 309 —- one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to send the proposed constitutional amendment to the House for consideration.
Initially, the Senate seemed poised to pass the two private development district proposals up for debate today. The Senate voted 37-17 in favor of Senate Bill 200, a measure that lays out the rules and regulations for the private development districts. But SR 309, the proposed constitutional amendment that Georgia voters would have to approve for the development districts to exist, received only 37 votes - one less than the 38 necessary for passage.
Sen. Johnny Grant (R-Milledgeville), the bill’s sponsor, argued that the proposals, if approved, would be a benefit to cash-strapped governments because development districts allow for infrastructure to be paid for by private developers instead of taxpayers.
“It should be one of the tools available to local governments,” Grant said.
The legislation had the backing of several of the state’s largest private developers, home builders, real estate agents and contractors. Development districts lower the costs of building out large planned communities, and allow developers to transfer those costs to homeowners.
Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown (D-Macon) spoke against the bill and resolution.
“This bill is a radical departure from the way people have done development business in Georgia,” Brown said.
“It does not kill this bill to hold it over. As it stands now, we are moving rapidly on a bill that I think potentially could do a lot of harm to the people of Georgia.”
The Senate at 1 p.m. voted in favor of reconsidering SR 309. Typically, a bill or resolution that is up for reconsideration goes back to the general calendar for a vote the next legislative day. However, because today is the deadline for a bill or proposed constitutional amendment to pass one chamber, the Senate voted in favor of suspending a procedural rule to allow for a reconsideration vote on SR 309 today. Sen. Steve Thompson (D-Powder Springs), who supports the development district legislation, made a motion to table the bill for the moment, because it appeared the resolution still did not have the 38 votes necessary for passage.
The reconsideration vote could come up at any time today.
Similar legislation failed last year.
Senate begins long day with skirmish
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The 30th day of the 2007 Legislative session kicked with off with a political skirmish in the Senate between metro Atlanta’s Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
Several Democrats raised concerns about two measures that were not expected to create debate. Yet, the Senate spent about 30 minutes arguing over the proposals - before taking up the main calendar, which is jam-packed with nearly 70 bills.
Today is “cross-over day” in the General Assembly, the legislative deadline for a bill to pass one chamber. Lawmakers are expected to work late into the evening debating and voting on a crush of legislation.
SB 306, sponsored by Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth), creates a Fulton County Water Authority. Several lawmakers, including Sen. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta) and Sen. Horacena Tate (D-Atlanta), said they did not have enough time to review the bill. The proposal would take the water and sewage distribution and treatment services handled by the city of Atlanta and Fulton County and turn it over to a new authority.
“It is going to ruin the city’s water system,” Sen.Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) said after the vote. “It will take away $70 million from the city of Atlanta. It’s not good for the city, or ultimately,the region.”
The measure passed 32-24, and heads to the House.
SB 312, also sponsored by Shafer, would give Fulton County Superior Court judges a raise. Sen. Fort said he did not think judges wanted such a back-door approach to pay raises. That measure also passed and heads to the House for consideration.
A few minutes later in the morning, the Senate approved several non-controversial resolutions, including: SR 47: Expresses profound regret for Georgia’s participation in eugenics; SR 270: Urges the Capitol Arts Standards Commission to authorize the placement of a statue honoring former governor and U.S. Sen. Zell Miller on the Capitol grounds; SR 246: Creates a Joint Study Committee to review and offer recommendations to improve the state’s indigent defense system, which is facing a funding crisis; and SR 355: Creates a Joint Study Committee to look at overhauling the state’s Medicaid program.
Author=Sonji Jacobs
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Payday lending falls short in House
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia lawmakers today rejected a bid to legalize payday lending.
The state House voted 82-77 for House Bill 163, but that was short of the 91 votes needed to send the measure on to the Senate.
Georgia legislators shut down the payday lending industry with a tough law passed in 2004.
The industry markets high-interest loans that are advances on a worker’s next paycheck. The cost of borrowing is usually greater than 300 percent annually.
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House will put off action on tax proposals
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s House Republican leaders announced today they are putting off decisions on several major tax cut proposals until next year, including Gov. Sonny Perdue’s campaign promise to cut taxes on retirement income for the elderly.
They say they want to study those proposals — along with proposals to increase taxes for transportation projects and one to eliminate the car tag tax — over the summer and fall and then consider “major tax reform” legislation during their next 40-day session starting in January.
“The House has invested a tremendous amount of energy and time behind the scenes to come up with comprehensive tax reform,” House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island) told reporters this afternoon. “Before we move with any major new tax proposals or credits — anything that is major — we feel like the prudent thing to do is wait.”
“When we come back in January,” Keen added, “you are going to see for consideration a major tax reform proposition out of the House that will really give you something to talk about.”
House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) recently started working with a pair of consultants on overhauling Georgia’s tax system: Arthur B. Laffer, an economist and former adviser to President Reagan, and Donna Arduin, a former fiscal advisor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Among the ideas they have discussed is a proposal to wipe out property taxes across the state in favor of a 5.75 percent flat income tax and a 5.75 percent sales tax. Right now, Georgians essentially pay a 6 percent income tax and 4 percent sales tax, along with local property taxes.
“We will probably be introducing a bill — which clearly will be designed to be used next year and to be talked about this summer as the mechanism to do this — probably right toward the end of the session,” Richardson told reporters this month. “I never planned to vote on it this year. I want to put the bill out there. I’m going to study it, have hearings on it, have input.”
Richardson also said he doesn’t anticipate the Legislature dealing with several proposals to increase taxes for transportation projects this year.
“I’m not going to muddy the waters right now on the tax discussion transportation,” Richardson said. “We may muddy it altogether but not separately.”
During his reelection campaign last year, Perdue promised to eliminate the state income tax on retirement income for upper-income Georgians older than 65. Seniors who work past 65 would continue to pay state income taxes on the wages they earn. However, any income from investments and 401(k)s would not be taxed under Perdue’s plan.
“There is still plenty of time left and the governor believes this is more than a campaign promise to be kept: it is the right thing for the people of Georgia and we’re going to keep working for it,” Perdue spokesman Dan McLagan said.
House Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta), meanwhile, is proposing to eliminate the car tag tax, a measure that could save taxpayers $600 million annually when fully phased in. His proposal will also wait until next year, Keen said.
“It is a top priority of mine,” said Burkhalter, who joined Keen at the news conference. “And I will do everything I can to make it a priority of the House as we study the [tax] system.”
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Fulton DFCS director removed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The manager of Fulton County’s child protection office was ousted from that post Friday afternoon, days after a report that strongly criticized operations there.
The head of the county office of the state’s Division of Family and Children Services, Kenneth Joe, is being replaced by his superior, Mary Dean Harvey. She is director of the state agency, which oversees county offices throughout Georgia. Harvey also will retain her position as statewide director.
A report released this week from the Office of the Child Advocate was highly critical of Fulton County DFCS and pointed out that many case workers in Fulton complained that Joe’s management style was too severe and belligerent and contributed to an exodus of employees. The Child Advocate’s investigation began after the death of 2-year-old Nateyonna Banks in November. The report concluded that children in the Fulton County system are in danger and it called for immediate improvements.
In addition to Joe’s removal, other changes announced at a news conference today included recalling up to 25 retired case workers to help with Fulton’s case overload.
An audit released Wednesday blasted the Fulton County DFCS office, which is responsible for protecting children from abuse and neglect. Fulton DFCS leaves abused children in homes without checking on their safety, places children with drug abusers and others who have not been sufficiently screened, and labors under a backlog of about 300 cases, according to the report from the Office of Child Advocate, which monitors the state’s child welfare efforts.
Georgia Senate Democrats today followed up on the critical audit by saying Gov. Perdue has not fulfilled his promise to fix the state agency. They also called for similar audits of all Division of Family and Children Services offices in the state.
Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) said, “This report raises serious questions, not only about DFCS in Fulton County, but what DFCS is doing around the state. We need a comprehensive statewide review of the department to determine if the kind of malfeasance going on in Fulton is going on around Georgia.”
Sen. Horacena Tate (D-Atlanta) laid blame for the problems in Fulton at the feet of the governor, saying that Perdue had long ago pledged to fix DFCS but has failed.
“It’s now up to the Democrats to take action and we plan to aggressively push for a statewide review to protect Georgia’s children,” Tate said.
The senators also called for more funding for the state Office of the Child Advocate to further review other DFCS offices.
Perdue released a statement earlier this week saying that while DFCS has largely improved, more work needed to be done. He said his office would review the audit with DFCS officials and take appropriate action.
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House votes for earlier primaries
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia took a big step Tuesday toward holding its presidential primaries earlier next year when the House of Representatives voted to join many other states signing up for a national primary day.
House Republican leaders said Georgia should move its nominating contests up from the first Tuesday in March to Feb. 5 so the state could have a bigger impact on the race for the White House. The measure now goes to the Senate for consideration.
Nine other states have already scheduled their primaries and caucuses for the same day, including Alabama. California is one of the most recent states to move its primaries to Feb. 5. Thirteen more states are considering doing the same.
Proponents worry Georgia will be an afterthought among presidential candidates if the state waits until March to vote.
“We want to make sure that Georgia voters have input in the nomination of presidential candidates,” said Rep. Austin Scott (R-Tifton), who sponsored the legislation for the date change. “By moving it forward, we will ensure the major candidates will come to our state and seek the support of the voters.”
Critics say the move to what has been called a “mega-primary” will hurt candidates who don’t have the money to campaign simultaneously in numerous states. Others say the change would shrink the time community groups have to register voters.
“It’s fair to say that it will make American democracy very unpredictable. This is unprecedented,” said former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, a Republican presidential candidate who met with GOP legislative leaders in the state Capitol on Tuesday.
“One scenario is that the advantage goes to the richest person, or the person the press supports — which means the American people will not really have an opportunity to decide this based on philosophy or issues,” Gilmore said.
The House approved the date change on a 154-11 vote.
Republican Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said through a spokeswoman, “I am supportive of moving Georgia’s presidential primary to early February because we need to be more relevant than we are right now.”
Some political experts say moving the primary date makes sense for Georgia so it won’t risk being left out of the nominating process.
“If you bring a closer in and you are five runs down, it doesn’t really help much,” said Alan Secrest, a Democratic pollster who worked on former Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor’s unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign last year.
Georgia’s impact could be minimal on Feb. 5, however, because of the large number of states in the race, said Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
“How are the candidates going to get to know Georgia? The candidates can’t be everywhere in a week. It’s not possible,” Sabato said. “At best, this will be an airport-to-airport campaign. It is scheduling insanity.”
There is also a scenario in which it could be better for Georgia to wait until March, said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster.
“It’s a gamble,” Ayres said. “If one or both nomination fights are still open after the Feb. 5 primaries are over, then it takes Georgia out of what could be an exceedingly critical position.”
“It is still possible Georgians will be sitting around after Feb. 5, thinking ‘Why didn’t we stay where we were so we could really decide the nominee?’ “
Another provision in the Georgia bill would reduce the number of votes candidates must receive to win primaries and elections, from more than 50 percent to more than 45 percent. The change would not apply to municipal elections.
Staff writer Jim Galloway contributed to this article.
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House votes to ban reporters from floor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s House of Representatives voted today to ban news reporters from its floor while it is in session, a move critics say erodes access to the state’s elected officials.
Under existing House rules, reporters are permitted to walk onto the floor only briefly to seek an interview with a lawmaker outside the chamber.
House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) introduced the rule change to ban reporters from the floor during the period starting 30 minutes before the House convenes to adjournment.
Reporters seeking interviews with lawmakers while the House is in session will now be required to do so through official pages.
Democrats and even some Republican lawmakers were scratching their heads over Richardson’s surprise proposal, wondering why he introduced it.
Richardson was sharply critical of news reporters early in the General Assembly’s 40-day session, complaining some have been lingering on the floor too long during the session. No specific incident prompted the proposed rule change, however, said his spokeswoman, Clelia Davis.
“What this resolution does is put Georgia in line with every other state that I have been able to examine and the Senate across the hall,” Richardson told the House moments before it approved the rules change on a 132-29 vote.
House Minority Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin) voted against the measure.
“This continues to close access and accountability of what we do here in the House,” said Porter, co-owner and executive editor The (Dublin) Courier-Herald. “This group of Republicans … obviously doesn’t want to have access for accountability to the public that the print serves.”
House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island) said he knew of no other legislative body that “allows direct access to the members on the floor by the media while they are in session.” The U.S. Congress and Georgia’s Senate, Keen said, do not allow the same media access to the floor now granted in the House.
Senate rules ban reporters from the floor during the session. Reporters can seek interviews with senators through the Senate press office when the Senate is in session.
Still photographers and television cameramen would still have access to the House floor during the session under the rules change.
“It is not to restrict the media’s access to a member,” Keen said during a House Rules Committee hearing on the resolution Tuesday. “In trying to maintain order and the proper atmosphere for debate that takes place, I believe the speaker’s amendment to the rules is a good one.”
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Sentencing bill passes Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s 49 district attorneys would be able to pursue sentences of life without parole against murderers who have not been convicted of a previous violent felony without seeking the death penalty under a bill that passed the Senate Tuesday.
The chamber approved Senate Bill 145 by a vote of 49-3. The measure now heads to the House for consideration.
Sen. Preston Smith (R-Rome), the bill’s sponsor, argued that the measure would give prosecutors the option of seeking a sentence of life without parole without having to initiate a lengthy and time-consuming capital punishment trial.
“In cases where it is not possible to seek the death penalty, the family members of a victim who has been murdered should be assured that the murderer will not be back on the street,”; Smith said after the vote. “This gives prosecutors the ability to lock up a murderer and throw away the key.”
The only paths to life without parole currently are through a jury’s decision in a death penalty trial, a negotiated sentence for a guilty plea when the prosecutor has sought death, or a prosecution against a murder defendant if he or she has a prior violent felony conviction. Otherwise, prosecutors only can try for death or life with parole.
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House approves mid-year budget
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The House overwhelmingly approved a $19.4 billion mid-year spending plan that helps keep PeachCare and the public defender system in the black.
It also includes an extra $167 million for schools to help pay to educate the rising number of students in Georgia classrooms.
The mid-year plan, which runs through June 30, was approved 171-1 this afternoon. It would pump an extra $81 million into PeachCare, which provides health insurance to about 300,000 children of working poor families.
The midyear budget includes money to both fill a shortfall in the program and to make up for a spike in the number of children being covered.
“This is a budget you can be proud of,” said House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans). “This budget meets the needs of our children’s health care program, a program that has been a shining example to the nation.”
The mid-year budget now goes to the Senate, which is also expected to back the extra PeachCare funding.
Harbin said the Legislature is hoping Congress will act in coming weeks to reimburse the state for the shortfall. PeachCare is a joint state-federal program. Lawmakers delayed the end of the 2007 session in hopes Congress would come up with some extra money.
Congress has agreed, as part of an Iraq war spending bill, to provide the funds for Georgia and 13 other states that have come up short. However, that probably wasn’t going to happen before Georgia’s PeachCare was scheduled to run out of money. So state officials agreed to shift Medicaid money into PeachCare until the federal funding comes through.
The midyear spending plan also includes almost $9.6 million to keep the state’s public defender system afloat. The shortfall has threatened to delay several cases. The murder trial of accused courthouse killer Brian Nichols was among those put off because of the funding crisis.
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Stem cell bill passes Senate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia women would be encouraged to donate post-natal tissue and fluids for non-embryonic stem cell research under a bill that passed the Senate this morning.
Senate Bill 148, sponsored by Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth), gained approval by a vote of 39 to 15. The bill establishes a Newborn Umbilical Cord Blood Bank, or a network of banks, overseen by a 15-member state commission. All state hospitals would be required by June 30, 2009, to inform pregnant women that they can donate placenta, umbilical cords, and amniotic fluid to the bank.
Typically, post-natal tissue is simply discarded as medical waste. Those fluids and tissues contain non-embryonic stem cells that can be used to treat several diseases.
Shafer named his bill in honor of Keone Penn, a sickle-cell anemia survivor from Snellville treated with non-embryonic stem cells.
“My bill is designed to do one thing: promote non-destructive stem cell research,” Shafer said. “It does not prohibit any kind of research. It does not discourage any kind of research.”
Several lawmakers, however, expressed concern about the bill’s language. The measure does not ban or prohibit embryonic stem cell research, but states that the public policy of Georgia will be to encourage the donation, collection and storage of non-embryonic stem cells for scientific treatment and medical research.
The bill also states that embryonic stem cell research has been “hampered by difficulties” and that embryonic stem cells have a tendency to “to form tumors.”
Sen.David Adelman (D-Atlanta), a strong supporter of both embryonic and non-embryonic stem cell research, asked lawmakers to remove the language in the bill that “discourages promising research and steals hope.”
“What I’m asking you to do is to remove the language that will take away some of the hope held out by many Georgians who are suffering some of the worse debilitating and degenerative diseases known to mankind,”Adelman said.
Shafer, who is opposed to embryonic stem cell research, declined to remove any of the bill’s language. Embryonic stem cell research requires the destruction of a human embryo at an early stage of development- a process that some people believe destroys a human life, and is therefore, unethical.
Several groups such as Georgia Right to Life and the Georgia Christian Alliance said they supported Shafer’s bill earlier this year during lengthy committee hearings on the issue.
The Georgia Biomedical Partnership, a private non-profit association representing the life sciences industry in Georgia, opposed the measure.
“We wholeheartedly support the efforts of SB 148 to establish a newborn umbilical cord blood bank and provide access to this tissue and blood for research and medical treatment,” wrote Charles Craig, the association’s president.
“We oppose references in the bill to embryonic stem cell research as unnecessary to the bill’s purpose and in some cases unscientific.”
Embryonic stem cells - despite the controversy around the issue - have not cured any disease yet. However, many scientists believe the regenerative abilities of such cells eventually will yield cures to diseases such as cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Nonembryonic stem cells have effectively treated diseases such as anemia, leukemia, lymphoma and sickle-cell disease. But some scientists say such cells are limited in their ability to treat a wide-range of diseases. A scientific panel recently determined that a 2002 study that found adult stem cells might be as useful as embryonic ones was flawed.
Shafer introduced a similar bill last year that created considerable controversy. The parts of the bill that established an umbilical cord blood bank received near universal support from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Georgia’s scientific community, advocates for patients with degenerative and chronic diseases, and conservative Christian groups.
A ban on human cloning - a process not yet achieved and widely denounced by scientists and religious leaders alike - also won wide support.
But a section of the measure that would have banned therapeutic cloning —- a process that many scientists argue may someday hold the cure for degenerative diseases and spinal cord injuries —- concerned many individuals and patient advocacy groups. Shafer eventually removed the controversial language, and the bill passed the Senate and then the House on the final day of the session.
The measure needed to come before the Senate for a final rubber-stamp of approval - but the clock ran out.
Gov. Sonny Perdue issued an executive order that resurrected some parts of the bill, but that order will sunset at the end of the year.
Senate Bill 148 now heads to the House for approval.
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Subcommittee backs flexibility on grad coaches
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
High schools with 95 percent graduation rates, and combined middle school/high schools, would not be eligible for graduation coaches under budget recommendations approved today by a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.
The proposal also would give school systems the flexibility to move around graduation coaches to better serve at-risk students. That means some eligible schools would not have a coach while others could have more two or more coaches.
The Education Subcommittee also recommended budgeting $5 million to help start-up charter schools and restoring more money to Quality Basic Education, the state funding formula.
The state now provides about $1 million in grants for new charter schools, far less than the total amount requested by charter start-ups.
QBE has been under-funded for five years. Gov. Sonny Perdue has recommended restoring almost $30 million to the formula in the FY 2008 budget; the subcommittee wants to add another $7 million.
Just 12 high schools had graduation rates of 95 percent or better in 2006. Forty-five schools are combined middle-high schools. Making those 57 schools ineligible for a graduation coach would save an estimated $3 million.
But Rep. Jan Jones (R-Alpharetta), the subcommittee chairwoman, said the intent of the recommendation is not to save money but to give school systems the ability to double up coaches at schools with disappointing graduation rates.
Cobb County, for example, would be able to move the graduation coach at Lassiter High School, where the graduation rate last year was 94.2 percent, to Campbell High School, which had a 63.2 percent graduation rate.
The subcommittee’s recommendations now go to the “green door” budget committee, made up of House leaders.
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House favors ban on marijuana-flavored candy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s House of Representatives has approved a ban on the sale of marijuana-flavored candy to children.
People caught selling the sweets — nicknamed “chronic candy” — to minors could face a $1,000 fine under House Bill 280.
The candy comes in the form of lollipops and gumdrops.
It is produced in Germany and Amsterdam and packaged to resemble a “nickel bag of marijuana,” said Rep. Judy Manning (R-Marietta), the bill’s sponsor.
Supporters of the bill say the candy serves as a gateway to illegal drug use.
“It is detrimental to our children,” Manning told the House today before the chamber approved the measure on a 133-26 vote.
It now goes to the Senate for consideration.
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Committee favors relaxing rules for construction crews
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Construction crews would no longer need to be trained in keeping dirt out of nearby streams under a bill that passed the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee today.
Rep. Tom McCall (R-Elberton) introduced House Bill 463 on behalf of a constituent who is president of the state plumbers association. He said his bill protects small businesses.
McCall also wants to make sure “the guy running a backhoe for 40 years and can’t read or write wouldn’t lose his job.”
Environmental groups oppose the bill, saying it breaks a promise made to them four years ago when they agreed to help the development industry reduce the red tape.
Neill Herring, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, said “Obviously its a controversial bill. Its chances of passage on the House floor in its current form are not that good. There’s some attempt at compromise being talked about by both sides.”
The state’s Environmental Protection Division director has spoken out against the bill.
In 2003, the two groups collaborated on amendments to the state erosion and sedimentation law. In return for less paperwork and fewer requirements to monitor nearby streams, home builders and other contractors agreed to educate their workers on how to properly install silt fences and retention ponds, and use other devices to prevent mud from running off construction sites.
By January, more than 30,000 architects, landscape designers, electricians, plumbers, backhoe operators and other contractors had attended one or two-day seminars and passed the test for state certification. The state spent $900,000 creating the curriculum and setting up the classes.
Under McCall’s amendment, most of those workers would not need the certification. Only one person in charge of the residential or commercial construction site would need the certification, and that person would not have to be at the site.
Rep. John Heard (R-Lawrenceville), an architect, said he was certified and found the course helpful.
“The intent is to keep silt contamination out of streams,” Heard said. Plan designers and construction crews are “the front-line source of defense.”
Heard and Reps. Bob Holmes (D-Atlanta) and Brian Thomas (D-Lilburn) offered amendments to McCall’s bill that would have required trained professionals be on site whenever crews clear cut trees, dug trenches or moved dirt, but all failed by votes of 10 to 11. The bill passed by a 13 to 7 vote.
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Committee backs concealed guns bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bill allowing motorists to conceal weapons anywhere inside of a vehicle cleared another legislative hurdle today.
Current Georgia law requires that loaded weapons inside motor vehicles be placed in a glove box, center console or exposed to plain view, unless the motorist holds a firearms permit.
House Bill 89, sponsored by Rep. Timothy Bearden (R-Villa Rica), would allow anyone eligible for a permit — including those with no felony criminal record or history of mental illness — to hide a firearm anywhere inside of a motor vehicle.
The Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police is opposing the bill, and some of its members testified against it in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The committee voted 7-4 to move the bill forward to the Senate Rules Committee, which decides which bills go on to a vote of the full Senate. The bill has already passed the House.
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King portrait action delayed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A proposal to hang a portrait of Coretta Scott King in the state Capitol could come up for a vote in a House committee as early as next week.
A vote was scheduled for today, but it was canceled after Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam (D-Riverdale) didn’t show up to present the measure at a House Special Rules Committee hearing.
Committee chairman Calvin Hill (R-Canton) said Abdul-Salaam left a telephone message for him this morning, saying she could not make it to the hearing because of an illness.
The committee “very likely” would have passed the resolution had Abdul-Salaam showed up to present it, Hill said. He added that he might schedule a new hearing for the bill next week.
Abdul-Salaam’s resolution calls King a hero who “played a leading role in advocating social change across the nation.” The measure calls on the Capitol Arts Standards Commission to authorize hanging a portrait of her on the second floor of the Capitol building next to one of late husband Martin Luther King Jr.
Similar legislation died in the House last year after critics raised concerns about hanging portraits of people who are not elected and not from Georgia in the Capitol building.
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Exonerated prisoner closer to compensation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s House of Representatives has approved $1.2 million in compensation for Robert Clark, who was exonerated by DNA evidence after spending more than 23 years in Georgia prisons for a rape he did not commit.
The money — to be paid to Clark over the next 15 years— is meant to compensate him for the time he spent in prison, his lost wages and emotional distress.
Clark, 46, who spent time in the state’s toughest prison in Reidsville, has said he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia as a result of his incarceration. He also contracted Hepatitis C while getting a tattoo in prison, according to the Georgia Innocence Project.
Clark watched the vote in the House of Representatives chamber from the balcony. “I feel great,” he told reporters as he left Capitol after the vote. “I’m adjusting. It’s slow, but I’m adjusting.”
Clark told reporters he intends to buy a house now. He also plans to continue working in construction despite the state compensation, so he can save for his retirement, said Lisa George, communications director of the Georgia Innocence Project, which is helping Clark adjust to life after prison.
“It’s a struggle every day,” George said about Clark’s efforts to get on with his life after prison. “The guy was 21 years old and an eighth-grade drop out when he went into prison. Obviously, he didn’t get the skills he needed in prison to walk back out on the street in 2005 and function the way both personally and professionally a middle-aged man would.”
Clark’s case stems from the brutal robbery and rape of a 29-year-old woman outside in 1981. She was abducted outside an East Atlanta fast food restaurant and then taken to Cobb County where she was raped repeatedly.
Clark was found guilty — after being identified by the victim — during a 1982 trial and sentenced to two life sentences plus 20 years in prison for rape, kidnapping and armed robbery.
Clark, who maintained his innocence from the day he was arrested, filed a petition for DNA testing under Georgia’s post-conviction testing law. The test concluded his DNA did not match the sperm from the victim’s rape kit.
Nationwide, 197 people have been exonerated by DNA to date, according to the Georgia Innocence Project. Six of them are from Georgia. Clark would be the third to be compensated by the state.
The House gave Clark a standing ovation before voting 132-25 for the resolution, which was sponsored by Rep. Larry O’Neal (R-Bonaire). The resolution now goes to the Senate for consideration.
“I am most amazed by Mr. Clark’s demeanor and attitude,” O’Neal said. “He is not angry. He is not bitter. And he is not vindictive. He is just grateful to be alive, free, working and back with his family.”
Immediately after the House voted for his compensation, Clark said: “This is so great. I just wish my mother were here to see it,” according to George, who was sitting next to him in the balcony.
Clark’s mother, George said, passed away at age 88 in 2004 while Clark was still in prison seeking his exoneration.
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HIV tests for pregnant women backed by House
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia doctors would be required to offer HIV tests to pregnant women under a bill that won approval in the House of Representatives today.
House Bill 429 would also require doctors to refer infected women to counseling and medical services.
Women would have the option to refuse the HIV tests. But their refusals would be recorded in their medical records.
Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-Marietta) told the House she is sponsoring the bill to protect babies from HIV. Her bill passed on a 140-14 vote. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.
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House OKs plan on ultrasound for women seeking abortion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A woman seeking an abortion in Georgia would be offered the chance to view an ultrasound image of her fetus under a bill passed by the state House today.
The chamber approved House Bill 147 by a vote of 116 to 54 after a lengthy debate by lawmakers.
“If all of us — no matter where we’re at — if we hate to see an abortion take place no matter what, why not support a bill that gives a woman all the facts before she makes such a critical decision?” said state Rep. James Mills (R-Gainesville), the bill’s sponsor.
Lawmakers have changed the bill’s language significantly since Mills introduced the measure. Initially, the bill would have required doctors to perform an ultrasound and then offer a woman the chance to see the images. The ultrasound is no longer mandatory under the bill.
At another point, lawmakers included language that would have required a woman to have 15 minutes of reflection time prior to an abortion. That language was removed.
State Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Atlanta) thanked Mills for working with lawmakers on the bill’s language but spoke against the measure, arguing that it interferes with the doctor-patient relationship. She said her main concern is that the bill may be confusing to women.
“I don’t think this bill prevents unintended pregnancies,” Benfield said. “In my opinion this is not going to have a big impact. Let’s work on making birth control less expensive and more widely available. Let’s fully fund family planning clinics in Georgia.”
Georgia Right to Life has lobbied in favor of the bill since last year, while abortion-rights groups such as Planned Parent of Georgia have opposed the measure and argued for lawmakers to support comprehensive sex education and family planning services as a more effective way of preventing abortions.
A similar proposal sponsored by Sen. Nancy Schaefer (R-Turnerville) is in the Senate Rules Committee. Senate Bill 66 also may come to the floor for a vote soon. The Senate last year approved a more restrictive ultrasound measure that would have required women to have a sonogram prior to an abortion.
Permalink | | Categories: politics
House to vote on mid-year budget today
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A mid-year budget that bails out both the PeachCare health insurance program for children and the indigent defense system won approval from the House Appropriations Committee this morning.
The $19.4 billion mid-year spending plan, which runs through June 30, is expected to win approval of the full House Tuesday.
It contains $73 million to fill a shortfall in PeachCare, which provides health insurance to about 300,000 children of working poor families. It also includes an extra $8 million for the program because of a sudden increase in the number of children on PeachCare. That run-up occurred when the Department of Community Health said it was shutting off new enrollment earlier this month because of the funding shortfall, said House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans).
Harbin said the state is hoping Congress will act in coming weeks to reimburse the state for the original $73 million shortfall. PeachCare is a joint state-federal program. Lawmakers delayed the end of the 2007 session in hopes Congress would act, but so far, that hasn’t happened.
“Hopefully, this is going to settled before we get out of here,” Harbin said.
The mid-year spending plan also includes almost $9.6 million to keep the state’s public defender system afloat. The shortfall had threatened to derail murder trials across the state.
While solving two major funding problems, the mid-year budget also provided money for pet projects for key lawmakers.
For instance, the spending plan adds an extra $300,000 Harbin supported for the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in Augusta and $5 million in design money for a new Medical College of Georgia dental school facility in Augusta. Harbin represents suburbs of Augusta. The mid-year budget includes $19,000 for library equipment on St. Simons Island, home of House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island), as well as $1 million to build a new driver’s license facility in nearby Brunswick.
The plan has $125,000 for the Historic Chattahoochee Commission, which promotes tourism and historic preservation along the Lower Chattahoochee River Valley. The money was requested by House Transportation Chairman Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain). Another $100,000 would go to Robins Air Force Base’s aviation museum, spending backed by House Ways & Means Chairman Larry O’Neal (R-Bonaire).
After passing the House, the measure will head to the Senate for its consideration.
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Slavery apology gains new support
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State lawmakers who are seeking an apology over Georgia’s role in slavery say they have gained a powerful Republican ally who will introduce a resolution in the Senate.
State Rep. Al Williams (D-Midway) said he and Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) are preparing to introduce identical resolutions in the House and Senate that seek reconciliation over Georgia’s history with slavery.
The exact wording for the resolutions has not yet been worked out, Williams said.
Williams and Johnson met with Rep. Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta) and Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond this afternoon about the legislation. Johnson invited Thurmond to help facilitate the meeting.
Johnson’s involvement comes as the Senate is considering declaring April to be Confederate History and Heritage Month, a development that has offended civil rights leaders.
“It is hard to commemorate the Civil War and not talk about slavery,” said Williams, who said he is the great-grandson of a slave.
Williams said he doesn’t plan to introduce his resolution Monday as he originally planned because it still needs work.
“We are not there yet,” said Williams, the head of Georgia’s Legislative Black Caucus whose district overlaps with Johnson’s.
Johnson could not be immediately reached for comment today. But he was preparing to talk about his plans during a news conference later in the afternoon.
Before today, Williams was circulating a four-page draft of a proposed resolution that would acknowledge the history of slavery in America “with contrition” and call for “reconciliations” among all Georgians.
The draft traces the history of slavery from ancient times to the arrival of slaves in Jamestown. It also refers to slavery’s role in the Civil War, the subsequent lynchings of African-Americans and the system of Jim Crow laws that were designed to enforce racial segregation.
“In Georgia,” the resolution reads, “the vestiges of slavery are ever before African-American citizens, from the overt racism of hate groups to the subtle racism encountered when requesting health care, transacting business, buying a home, seeking quality public education and college admission, and enduring pretextual traffic stops and other indignities.”
Williams announced last week he would introduce the resolution after the Georgia NAACP called on Gov. Sonny Perdue to issue an apology for the state’s role in slavery and Jim Crow laws. Perdue has so far declined to comment on the NAACP’s request.
“It’s symbolic. But it shows that we as legislators will not ignore the existence of this evil,” Williams, head of Georgia’s Legislative Black Caucus, said of the draft in an interview earlier this week. “Some of the great healings of all time come about because of symbolic gestures.”
Williams said he modeled his resolution on one that passed the Virginia legislature late last month. But unlike Williams’ resolution, the Virginia legislation uses the words “profound regret” in connection with slavery.
The chances of Williams’ resolution passing the House this year appear slim, however, since it is meeting with resistance from House Republican leaders who say they are concerned about apologizing for something they were not involved in. Plus, Williams has little time to move his resolution through the Legislature, which has passed day 27 of its 40-day session.
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Committee backs reduced taxes for retirees
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue’s plan to eliminate state income taxes on upper-income retirees won easy passage this afternoon from a key House committee.
The measure, which passed the House Ways & Means Committee, now heads to the House floor for a vote. Republican leaders are strongly in favor of the tax break, which was part of Perdue’s platform last year when he ran for and won re-election.
Under the bill, state income taxes on retirement earnings — such as stocks, pensions and 401 (k)s — would be eliminated. Seniors who work would continue to pay state income taxes on their earnings.
A law passed in 2003 will already exempt the first $35,000 in retirement income per person when it is fully phased in next year. Social Security is already generally not taxed, so under current law, many seniors with retirement income up to $55,000 or so or couples with twice that income will already be exempt from paying state income taxes.
The new law exempts retirement income above that.
A study by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, which supports higher social service spending, estimated only seniors in the top 10 percent of income would benefit from Perdue’s latest measure. The study said 96 percent of the tax cut would go to seniors with incomes of $100,000 or more.
The idea of the tax break is to make Georgia a haven for retirees and let the state compete with places like Florida, which doesn’t have a state income tax.
Perdue’s latest bill — to eliminate income taxes for upper-income retirees — would save retirees and cost state coffers about $140 million a year. However, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rick Golick (R-Smyrna), said it could boost the state’s economy by letting the state attract and retain high-income retirees who would spend money here.
“From an economic development standpoint, it will more than pay for itself,” Golick said.
Rep. Stacey Abrams (D-Atlanta), a member of the committee, said more retirees would mean higher government expenses for such things as health care for the elderly.
“This revenue projection doesn’t anticipate costs the state will incur over the next 10-15 years,” said Abrams, who voted against it.
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Bill on extracurricular activities for home schoolers is tabled
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A proposal in the Senate to allow home-schooled children to participate in extra-curricular activities at public schools suffered a setback Wednesday.
Senate Bill 85 was tabled in the Senate Education and Youth Committee after a ”do pass’’ recommendation failed to gain a second.
Sen. Nancy Schaefer (R-Turnerville), the sponsor, fears time has run out for her legislation. “It may not come up again this year,” she said.
Schaefer’s bill would have allowed home-schooled children to play sports at public schools and participate in cultural activities such as band and drama.
Home-school parents, fearful of government intrusion into their lives and a backlash against home schooling, testified the bill isn’t needed because they don’t feel discriminated against.
Similar legislation, House Bill 359, is in the House Education Committee.
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Home schoolers could get new route to HOPE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Home-schooled youngsters who scored in the 85th percentile on a national achievement test, such as the SAT or ACT, would qualify for a HOPE Scholarship before starting college, according to legislation that passed out of the House Higher Education Committee Wednesday.
Unlike high school graduates with B averages, home-schooled students receive first-year HOPE money retroactively after completing 30 hours in college and carrying at least a B.
Rep. John Lunsford (R-McDonough), the bill’s sponsor, said “what’s more important is what you’ve learned or absorbed,” not where you were educated. Lunsford’s bill also would apply to students who hold a general equivalency diploma.
His proposal now goes to the House Rules Committee.
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Study committee would weigh reproductive technology issues
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a resolution Wednesday that would create a study committee to examine whether the state needs new laws on property rights relating to reproductive technology involving frozen sperm and embryos.
Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) proposed the study committee because questions have arisen relating to ownership rights of donated sperm and frozen embryos in divorce actions. In addition, the resolution states there are some legal questions about whether a deceased donor of sperm or eggs should be recognized as a parent or whether children created from frozen sperm or embryos after a parent has died can claim inheritance rights, life insurance proceeds or Social Security benefits.
The study committee, if it is approved, must issue its findings and any recommendations by the start of the 2008 Legislative session. Senate Resolution 280 now goes to the Senate Rules Committee.
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Bill proposes revisions in sex offender law
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A proposal to make changes to Georgia’s strict sex offender law passed a Senate committee Wednesday.
Senate Bill 249, sponsored by Sen. Jim Whitehead (R-Evans), would strengthen some provisions in the law, while relaxing others.
Last year, the Legislature passed a law prohibiting sex offenders from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of churches, schools, day care centers and other places where children congregate. SB 249 would require sex offenders to register in the counties where they go to school and work, in addition to where they live. They would also be required to submit palmprints, in addition to their fingerprints.
But the bill would also allow judges to ease residency restrictions on some registered sex offenders who are disabled, are seriously ill or live in hospices or nursing homes and do not appear to pose a threat of future crimes. Sex offenders 75 and older who are at least 10 years removed from their release from prison, or placement on parole or probation, can also be considered by judges for the eased restrictions.
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Stiffer penalties for bomb hoax move ahead
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Anyone caught staging a bomb hoax would face stiffer minimum penalties under a bill that cleared a legislative hurdle in the General Assembly Wednesday.
Rep. David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) wants to require a minimum one-year prison sentence — with a maximum of five years — for those convicted under House Bill 653.
When courts order defendants to pay restitution under the legislation, judges would be able to consider costs incurred by local and state police, emergency officials, and nonprofit organizations.
The House Non-Civil Judiciary Committee passed the bill Wednesday, sending it to the House Rules Committee for consideration.
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Amended bill would let 11 jurors decide death penalty
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bill that would allow only 11 jurors — instead of all 12 — to recommend a death sentence has moved a step closer toward a vote in the House of Representatives.
Existing law requires a unanimous jury decision to impose a death sentence. House Bill 185, however, would allow judges to impose the death penalty if 11 of 12 jurors make such a recommendation.
Supporters say the bill would prevent a lone juror from sabotaging a death penalty sentence in murder cases. Opponents argue the bill would put death penalty decisions in the hands of elected judges who could be swayed by politics.
As introduced by House Majority Whip Barry Fleming (R-Harlem), the original version of the bill would have allowed nine jurors to recommend the death penalty.
The House Non-Civil Judiciary Committee amended the bill Tuesday, however, raising that number to 11. The panel then approved the bill and sent it on its way to the House Rules Committee, which sets the agenda for House floor votes.
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Slavery resolution will call for ‘contrition’ and ‘reconciliation’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s House of Representatives would acknowledge the history of slavery in America “with contrition” and call for “reconciliation” among all Georgians under a resolution a state lawmaker is preparing to introduce Monday.
A draft of Rep. Al Williams’ (D-Midway) four-page measure traces the history of slavery from ancient times to the arrival of slaves in Jamestown. The resolution also refers to slavery’s role in the Civil War, the subsequent lynchings of African-Americans and the system of Jim Crow laws that were designed to enforce racial segregation.
“In Georgia,” the resolution reads, “the vestiges of slavery are ever before African-American citizens, from the overt racism of hate groups to the subtle racism encountered when requesting health care, transacting business, buying a home, seeking quality public education and college admission, and enduring pretextual traffic stops and other indignities.”
Williams announced last week he would introduce the resolution after the Georgia NAACP called on Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue to issue an apology for the state’s role in slavery and Jim Crow laws. Perdue has so far declined to comment on the NAACP’s request.
“It’s symbolic. But it shows that we as legislators will not ignore the existence of this evil,” Williams, head of Georgia’s Legislative Black Caucus, said of his resolutioin. “Some of the great healings of all time come about because of symbolic gestures.”
Williams’ said he is seeking cosponsors for his resolution, which he plans to introduce in the House on Monday, the day the chamber reconvenes after a two-week break. He said he is also seeking a lawmaker who will introduce identical legislation in the Senate.
Williams’ resolution also makes an apparent comparison between slavery and the Holocaust.
“The crimes and persecution visited upon other people during World War II are acknowledged and embraced lest the world forget,” it reads, “yet the very mention of the broken promise of ’40 acres and a mule’ to former slaves or of the existence of racism today evokes denial from many quarters of any responsibility for the legally sanctioned deprivation of African-Americans of their endowed rights or for contemporary policies that perpetuate the status quo.”
Williams said he modeled his resolution on one that passed the Virginia legislature late last month. But unlike Williams’ resolution, the Virginia legislation uses the words “profound regret” in connection with slavery.
The chances of Williams’ resolution passing the House this year appear slim, since it is meeting with resistance from House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram.) Richardson has said he is not certain it should be the government’s role to apologize since “nobody was in office” when slavery existed. Plus, Williams has little time to move his resolution through the Legislature, which has passed day 26 of its 40-day session.
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State will plug PeachCare gap with Medicaid
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue announced Tuesday that he and the Republican leadership in the General Assembly have come up with a “temporary” fix for the PeachCare health crisis.
Perdue, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson said in a joint statement that they will keep the PeachCare program from going broke by temporarily using state funds earmarked for Medicaid, which is aimed at paying medical bills for the poor.
PeachCare enrollments were frozen as of Monday, and state officials have said repeatedly that Georgia’s funds for the insurance program — which serves about 280,000 children of the working poor — would run out at the end of March.
Legislators in Georgia and 13 other states are hoping Congress will appropriate money to cover the shortfall in the federal-state healthcare programs for children.
“This would not move children into the Medicaid program; it would simply change state law to allow Georgia to borrow state funds already slated to be used to pay for Medicaid to cover PeachCare costs in this interim period,” the statement said.
The Repupblican leadership said any Medicaid funds used for PeachCare would be repaid to the state when Congress approves a fix to the federal-state State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
The statement came one day after House Democrats, reacting to what they called a “lack of leadership” by Republicans, called for Medicaid funds to be shifted to PeachCare.
Sen. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta) called that a “simple option” that would ease the anxiety of the thousands of families who’ve heard repeatedly that funds are running out for their insurance.
Last week the U.S. House Appropriations Committee said the House version of a supplemental appropriations bill would include an additional $735 million to meet shortfalls in the SCHIP program.
“Congress recent action gives me confidence that using these funds as a stopgap is appropriate to meet the needs of our children,” Perdue said. “This will allow us to keep this important program intact while we wait for our federal partners to finish their work in Washington.”
Perdue has repeatedly bugged Congress to act to fix the shortfall. He said Tuesday that his plan would change the wording in an amended general appropriations act in three places to allow Medicaid funds to be used to temporarily meet the costs of the PeachCare program.
Permalink | Comments (66) | Categories: Health Care
Sunday liquor sales clears committee, but don’t toast yet
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A key Senate committee approved legislation Tuesday morning that would allow local voters to decide whether grocery and convenience stores stores can sell beer, wine and liquor on Sundays.
The measure was approved by a 4-3 vote of the Senate Regulated Industries and Regulated Committee. It now goes to the Senate Rules Committee, which will decide if it will go to the full Senate for a vote.
Senate Rules Chairman Don Balfour (R-Snellville), a supporter of the bill, predicted the Senate will vote on the measure in coming weeks.
“It will come out of my committee,” Balfour told reporters.
Some Republicans have been skittish about having GOP lawmakers vote on the bill, fearing electoral retribution from liquor opponents. Christian Coalition officials have let lawmakers know they will use any liquor votes in their election-year scorecards.
Two Senate Republican leaders on the committee, Senate President Pro-tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) and Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons), skipped the vote. Contacted this morning, Johnson said he was at his job in Savannah. He said he opposes the bill, but he hopes the full Senate gets a chance to vote on it.
The bill had stalled in the Regulated Indusries and Regulated Committee for nearly two months, despite the backing of the powerful grocery and convenience store lobby.
It is strongly opposed by Christian Right groups, who don’t think there should be liquor sales on the Sabbath. Also, some liquor store owners oppose it because they don’t want the expense of having to be open on Sundays.
Restaurants and bars that sell food already can sell liquor on Sundays if local voters approve.
Permalink | Comments (153) | Categories: Liquor Laws
Power restored to state office building
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Limited power has been restored to the east tower of a downtown state government office building two days after an incident that left two workers injured.
The workers were doing preventive maintenance Wednesday afternoon on cooling equipment at the James H. Floyd Veterans Memorial Building near the Capitol when a gear malfunctioned, damaging a transformer and cutting power to the 20-story tower for about two hours, according to Ericka Brown Davis, spokesperson for the Georgia Building Authority.
The incident, which included a flash fire, occurred around 4 p.m., shortly before many state employees headed home. Since then, many state employees at the “Sloppy Floyd” building have had to work outside of the office because of limited power to operate lights, computers, elevators and air conditioning. Only two elevators were working Friday.
“Most of our employees are working from an alternate work site,” said Dana Tofig, spokesman for the Department of Education, which has offices on floors 15-20. The department normally has about 400 employees in the building but “a fairly large percentage” weren’t there two days after the accident, Tofig said.
Temperature reached into the 70s on Thursday, causing discomfort for many of those still in the building. “I understand it was pretty miserable,” said Beth Brown, spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources, which has space on floors 10-14.
Corrections, Pardons and Paroles, Veterans Services, the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Georgia Building Authority also have offices in the east tower.
One of the injured workers has returned home and the second one continues to receive medical attention but is stable, Davis said.
Why the gear failed is being investigated, she said.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Miscellaneous
Spending plan includes local projects
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House leaders who have complained for weeks about the federal government not supplying enough money for PeachCare were considering adding local pork projects to the mid-year budget this morning.
The General Assembly put a hold on the 2007 session in hopes Congress would come up with $131 million needed to help keep PeachCare in the black. The PeachCare program provides health insurance to 273,000 children of working poor families.
Lawmakers are concerned that they won’t have enough money to fund the program if Congress doesn’t come through with extra funding in the next few weeks. House leaders have been trimming the mid-year budget to save money in case the state has to put more money into PeachCare.
However, when House leaders met this morning to put final touches on their chamber’s mid-year spending plan, they were presented with a long list of local projects requested by prominent lawmakers. Such local projects are commonly referred to as pork.
A House budget subcommitte recommended $125,000 for the Historic Chattahoochee Commission and $5 million for a national infantry museum, both requested by House Transportation Chairman Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain).
Another $300,000 would go to the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame at the request of House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans).
Still another $100,000 would go to help operate the Warner Robins Air Force base museum, a pet project of House Ways & Means Chairman Larry O’Neal (R-Warner Robins).
Atlanta would not be left out. The subcommittee recommended $350,000 for a proposed new animal hospital at Zoo Atlanta.
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Committee wants to ease path toward teaching
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The House Education Committee passed a bill today that would allow professionals with advanced degrees to teach in high school before first gaining full certification.
House Bill 603 would help address the state’s teacher shortage, one of the sponsors, Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates), told the committee.
The Georgia Professional Standards Commission, the state organization overseeing teacher certification, opposes the bill.
The state already provides ways for career-changers to become certified teachers, the commission’s executive secretary, F.D. Toth, told the committee.
“I just don’t see where it’s needed,” Toth said.
The bill says a person holding a master’s degree, a doctoral degree or a juris doctor degree could begin teaching while taking up to three years to acquire certification.
The bill now goes to the House Rules Committee.
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Bill would limit pressure on teachers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bill that would make it an ethics violation to pressure a teacher to change a grade passed out of a House subcommittee today.
The Grade Integrity Act of 2007 says a school board, superintendent or administrator cannot force a teacher to change a grade if the teacher followed the rules. An administrator can still change a grade, but who made the change will be noted in the student’s records.
A popular Dacula physics teacher was fired in 2005 when he refused to change a grade for a student who slept in class. Gwinnett School Board policy forbids using grades to punish students. Teacher Larry Neace argued sleeping in class was an academic not a disciplinary problem.
Senate Bill 9 now goes to the House Education Committee for a vote.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Education
Former speaker assists ag commissioner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin has hired former House Speaker Terry Coleman as a consultant.
Irvin confirmed today that he named the fellow Democrat as a part-time special assistant in January, paying him $2,000 a month. Coleman, of Eastman, is helping Irvin set up meetings with state lawmakers and is assisting with the Agriculture Department’s programs and budgets, Irvin said.
Irvin said he values Coleman’s 34 years of experience serving in the House. Coleman served as House Appropriations Committee chairman for 12 of those years. Irvin said he plans to keep Coleman on the payroll at least until the end of the state’s 40-day legislative session, which is scheduled to run at least until late April.
“He has been a great value to the department up until this point,” said Irvin, who won reelection in November. “I am lucky to hire him for the very little money I am paying him.”
Coleman said he most recently helped Irvin respond to a major animal cruelty case in Pike County, where Irvin declared a state of emergency. In all, the state removed 99 horses and 29 dogs from a 600-acre farm in that case.
Coleman joked that his new job could help him get politics out of his system.
“I wanted to continue to see friends and stay involved,” said Coleman, who served as House speaker in 2003 and 2004. “It’s pretty hard to go cold turkey after 34 years.”
Coleman is not ruling out another run for public office. But he says he has no immediate plans to put his name on a ballot.
“You never say never,” he said.
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Bill against dog fighting clears House committee
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bill that would toughen Georgia’s anti-dog fighting law cleared a key legislative committee today and is moving toward the full House for a vote.
Current law targets only people who cause dogs to fight for sport or gaming purposes or who run such events. House Bill 301 would broaden the law to apply to people owning, training, transporting and selling canines for dog fighting or betting on such events.
Those convicted of breaking the proposed law would be guilty of a felony and face up to five years in prison and/or a minimum $5,000 fine. A second conviction would carry up to 10 years in prison and/or a minimum $15,000 fine.
State Rep. Bobby Reese’s (R-Sugar Hill) bill also targets spectators at dog fighting events. Those convicted under that provision of the bill would be guilty of a misdemeanor.
The House Non-Civil Judiciary Committee approved the legislation. It is now on its way to the House Rules Committee, which sets the agenda for House floor votes. A similar bill passed the Senate on March 1.
Permalink | | Categories: politics
Health care study group gains consideration
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Senate Health and Human Services Committee unanimously approved a resolution today to set up an eight-person study committee on health care.
Sen. Judson Hill (R-Marietta) said health care is in crisis with 1.7 million Georgians uninsured.
His resolution would set up the Joint Study Committee on Health Care Transformation, made up of four members of the House and four from the Senate.
Permalink | | Categories: Health Care
Bill boosts protection of foster parents
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bill that would give foster parents additional protection and rights cleared the Senate today by a unanimous vote of 56-0.
The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Steve Thompson (D-Powder Springs), gives foster parents the ability to request an administrative hearing if they believe their rights have been violated by the state.
Senate Bill 188, which now goes to the House, also gives the same protection to foster parents who are caring for privately-placed children.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: politics
Charter school systems bill moves forward
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Senate Bill 39, which would allow school systems to convert to charter status, passed today in the House Education Committee and now goes to the Rules Committee.
The legislation could greatly increase the number of charter schools because one application would cover multiple schools.
Permalink | | Categories: Education
Crackdown on dog fighting advances
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Senate lawmakers today approved a proposal by Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) that cracks down on people who engage in various aspects of dog-fighting.
Senate Bill 16 expands current law to prohibit Georgians from raising and training dogs for the purpose of dog-fighting.
It also bans people from betting on dog-fights and organizing such events.
A person who receives a first conviction for breaking the law could face between one and five years in prison, a minimum fine of $5,000, or both.
SB 16, which passed 54-0, now heads to the House for approval.
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Bill allowing reviews of teen sex offenses moves forward
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bill that would allow judges to re-visit the sentences of certain teenaged sex offenders got approval in a Senate committee today.
Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Atlanta) sponsored Senate Bill 37 after meeting with Genarlow Wilson, a Douglasville man serving a 10-year prison sentence for aggravated child molestation after having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old when he was 17.
The bill would allow judges to modify the sentences of some 1,100 young people convicted of certain felony consensual sex crimes between teenagers that the Legislature last year deemed as misdemeanors under a so-called “Romeo and Juliet” provision in the law.
But the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, because Sen. President Pro Tempore Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) has come out strongly against it.
Permalink | | Categories: politics
Burkhalter moves to phase out car tax
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A high-ranking House Republican leader filed a major car tax cut measure this week that would save taxpayers $600 million annually when fully phased in.
House Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter’s (R-Alpharetta) bill would exempt motorists from paying the auto tag tax on up to $7,500 of the fair market value for their cars and trucks starting in 2009. Over half of the vehicles in Georgia would be totally exempt from the tax at that time, Burkhalter said.
The exemption would steadily rise over the next few years until the tax is fully phased out in 2012.
The taxes motorists pay are based on 40 percent of a vehicle’s value and the local tax millage rate. The state would reimburse local governments for their lost revenue under House Bill 585.
Burkhalter announced on the first day of this year’s 40-day legislative session that he would be filing the legislation.
“To me, this is the most tangible, immediate tax relief we can give taxpayers,” Burkhalter said in an interview today. “They will notice it right away, particularly since it is paid on their birthday.”
His bill has been assigned to the House Ways and Means Committee.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: politics
Bill banning red light cameras stopped
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A legislative committee gutted a proposal to ban red light cameras in Georgia this week, signaling the traffic devices are here to stay for now.
The House Motor Vehicles Committee revised the bill Wednesday to continue allowing the stoplight cameras while placing new restrictions on them.
Under the revised House Bill 77, counties and cities would keep money to cover the costs of operating the cameras and less than 25 percent of the remaining money raised, and the rest would go to the state’s general fund to support Georgia’s trauma care system.
The legislation would also require cities and counties to perform traffic engineering studies before installing the cameras. Those studies could help them come up with alternatives to the cameras, such as redesigning intersections, the bill suggests.
Several state lawmakers and privacy advocates, including former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, have argued the cameras are unconstitutional. Critics have also alleged the devices are nothing more than revenue generators for local governments.
The proposal faced major opposition, however, from Gov. Sonny Perdue’s Office of Highway Safety, municipal leaders and police, who say the cameras are making Georgia’s roads safer.
The revised bill is now headed to the House Rules Committee, which sets the agenda for House floor votes.
Meanwhile, one of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Cassville), is sponsoring new legislation that would lower the maximum fine cities and counties can charge red light runners caught by the cameras, from $70 to $35.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: politics
Bill would require seatbelt use in trucks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Almost every year in recent memory, a state legislator has floated a proposal to require adult passengers to wear seat belts in pick-up trucks.
And every year, those proposals quietly disappear - leaving safety advocates shaking their heads in frustration.
Not this year. The Georgia Senate on Thursday voted 45-10 in favor of a bill that would get rid of the state’s seat belt exemption for pick-up trucks.
“There’s a time to buckle up and there’s a time to unbuckle,” said Sen. Don Thomas (R-Dalton), the bill’s sponsor. “The time to buckle is before you start the engine. The time to unbuckle is after you stop your engine.”
There are more than 1.5 million pickup trucks on Georgia’s roads, but both Democrats and Republicans for years have stifled attempts to require adults who ride in pickup trucks to wear seat belts, arguing that such a law would infringe on the personal freedom of Georgians.
House and Senate lawmakers who represent rural areas also have argued such a measure would be a hassle for farmers, who use pick-up trucks for agricultural work.
“If you are driving a vehicle and going from field to field….this would require that every time you get into your vehicle you have to buckle a seat belt,” said Sen. John Bulloch (R-Ochlocknee), a pecan farmer, who opposed the bill.
Thomas said that Georgia and Indiana are the only two states that allow the seat-belt exemption for adults in pickups. If Georgia gets rid of the exception, the state likely would be eligible for a one-time allocation of $20.7 million in federal funds.
Several groups have expressed their support of SB 86 this year, including the American Automobile Association, Ford Motor Company and the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Freshman Sen. Jack Murphy (R-Cumming) said that as a conservative and a person who values personal freedom, he had concerns about the bill. But he spoke in favor of it, saying that Georgia either has a seat belt law, or it does not.
“We need to send the right message to our young folks that whatever we’re required to do, they’re required to do,” Murphy said. Minors are required to wear seat-belts in pick-up trucks under current law.
SB 86 now heads to the House for approval, where it likely will face a tougher battle. Last year, a similar seat belt measure passed a House committee but did not make it to the floor for a vote. At the time, House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) said he was not a fan of mandating seat-belt use in pick-up trucks.
So far this year, Richardson has not voiced opposition to getting rid of the seat-belt exemption for pick-up trucks, but he has not come out in support of such measures either.
Would you like to share your opinion on this proposed legislation with capitol reporter Sonji Jacobs? If so, please e-mail her at sjacobs@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (80) | Categories: Public safety
Senate votes to ease grandparents’ path to custody
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia Senate voted today in favor of a measure that would allow grandparents to care for their minor grandchildren without court approval. Instead, the child’s parents could give the grandparents authority by simply signing a legal document.
The bill also would establish a subsidy program, managed by the state Department of Human Resources, to help low-income grandparents who have legal custody or guardianship of their grandchildren and participate in programs designed for grandparents raising grandchildren.
Grandparents who have an annual income of less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $40,000 for a family of four, would be able to use the subsidy to purchase items such as food, books, clothes and medicine and cover living expenses such as rent, car repairs and gasoline.
Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Buford), the bill’s sponsor, said lawmakers should not be concerned about creating another government-based subsidy program.
“If these children did not go to their grandparents, they would be going into foster care,” Unterman said. “This is a pro-family bill that allows these families to stay together.”
Senate Bill 88 passed by a vote of 55-1. Sen. Bill Heath (R-Bremen) cast the only dissenting vote against the bill. He questioned whether grandparents who have raised children who have made poor life choices should be entrusted to care for their grandchildren.
Unterman and several other lawmakers countered that parents can not control their children and that even people raised in good homes can grow up and make bad decisions.
The effective date of the bill, if it gains final approval, is July 1, 2007. Unterman said the DHR budget already has $1.2 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds set aside for the program.
In addition:
— A bill that would give foster parents additional protection and rights cleared the Senate by a unanimous vote of 56-0. The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Steve Thompson (D-Powder Springs), gives foster parents the ability to request an administrative hearing if they believe their rights have been violated by the state. Senate Bill 188 also gives the same protection to foster parents who are caring for privately-placed children.
— The Senate voted 49-6 for a proposal by Sen. John Douglas (R-Social Circle) to amend Georgia’s Constitution to allow members of the state Senate to serve for four years. Under Senate Resolution 279, senators from even-numbered districts would be elected to a four-year term beginning in 2010. Senators from odd-numbered districts — such as Douglas — would be elected to four-year terms beginning in 2012.
The proposal is silent on terms for House members. State Rep. Mike Keown (R-Coolidge) has filed a similar proposal in the House. That resolution proposes four-year terms for all legislators.
SR 279 now goes to the House. It also would need final approval from Georgia voters, who have twice rejected attempts to lengthen the terms of their state representatives and senators, most recently in 1988.
Permalink | | Categories: politics
House wrestles with women sports programs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Rep. James Mills made an unusual admission on the House floor this morning. “I hope I never have to wrestle a woman,” Mills (R-Gainesville) declared, prompting laughter from fellow House members.
He made those comment while talking about his resolution urging Georgia’s university system to start up intercollegiate wrestling programs.
Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Atlanta) rose on the House floor and reminded Mills that females wrestle, too.
“This is gender-neutral,” Mills responded about House Resolution 246. “It would be my hope that any athlete who wants to excel in this area would have the same opportunity. At the same time, I hope I would never have to wrestle a woman.”
None of the 35 institutions in the state’s university system offer competitive wrestling programs, the resolution says.
“Georgia is blessed with a number of outstanding high school wrestling programs which produce extraordinarily talented young wrestlers,” the resolution says.
“The lack of opportunity for competition in intercollegiate wrestling and the lack of scholarship opportunities result in talented student-athletes leaving the State of Georgia to pursue their sport in colleges and universities in other states.”
The House passed the resolution without a fight.
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House OKs tax break for Georgia Aquarium
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia Aquarium could receive a tax break of about $7 million for its planned expansion under a bill that passed the state’s House of Representatives today.
House Bill 148 would waive sales tax on construction materials for the aquarium over the next four years.
That could amount to about $7 million in savings on $100 million of steel, mortar and other materials, said the bill’s sponsor, House Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta).
The aquarium, which had plans to expand even before it opened in 2005, has 1.5 acres of land on its western edge that officials are eyeing for expansion. They estimate that the tract could accommodate about 180,000 square feet of construction — roughly one-third of the aquarium’s 550,000 square feet. The aquarium has not yet identified any new animals or proposed exhibits for the expansion.
The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.
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