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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2009 > February > 24
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Teacher bonuses still in play
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The fight over whether to keep bonuses for Georgia teachers with national board certification continues.
The House academic support education subcommittee tabled HB 243, which would eliminate the 10 percent salary increase about 2,500 Georgia teachers currently receive.
Rep. Jimmy Pruett (R-Eastman) filed the legislation on behalf of Gov. Sonny Perdue, who has said eliminating the bonuses could save the state about $12 million. The state is facing a $2 billion deficit.
But House Education Committee Chairman Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth) offered a substitute bill to continue the bonuses for teachers who already receive it. No new certificate recipients would get the money, under Coleman’s bill.
“I guarantee you, we think you deserve it,” he said to the nationally certified teachers who packed the meeting. “We’re trying to stop what is happening.”
Coleman was unsure where the $12 million would come from to pay for the bonuses.
Teachers overcrowded Tuesday’s meeting asking Legislators to vote again the bill filed by Pruett and requested time to study Coleman’s substitute bill.
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards runs that certification program. The rigorous program often takes more than a year to complete.
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House advances scholarship credit bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The House has voted 98-69 this afternoon to approve legislation that changes how the state’s new tuition tax credit program works.
But the vote potentially sets up a showdown between Rules Committee Chairman Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs), the sponsor of HB 100, and Gov. Sonny Perdue, who has his own bill making more substantive changes to the program.
HB 100 would make it easier for small businesses to take advantage of the tax credit program, which gives credits against income taxes for individuals and corporations who contribute cash to organizations that give scholarships for students to attend private school.
Ehrhart, who sponsored the bill last year creating the program, also would streamline the process for scholarship organizations to form and for donors to get approval for the tax credit.
The state has capped at $50 million the total amount of tax credits available.
Perdue’s bill, which is being sponsored by his floor leader, Rep. Jim Cole (R-Forsyth), makes major changes to the program, including limiting eligibility to students who qualify for free or reduced-cost lunch. It would also cap the total value of the scholarships available.
Cole’s bill has yet to be taken up in committee. But opponents of HB 100, including many Democrats, urged their colleagues to defeat Ehrhart’s bill in favor of Cole’s.
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Senate passes bill cracking down on illegal immigration
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Local governments that don’t take steps to make sure they do not hire illegal immigrants or give them welfare benefits, could face a loss of state dollars, according to a bill that passed the state Senate Tuesday.
Senate Bill 20 also prohibits local governments from declaring themselves as sanctuary cities, and directs them to cooperate with federal agents in enforcing immigration laws.
Failure to do any of those requirements could result in withholding of state funding or state-administered federal funding.
Bill sponsor Chip Pearson (R-Dawsonville) said there are about 60 cities nationwide that have declared themselves sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants. There are none so far in Georgia and he hopes it will stay that way.
Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur) spoke against the bill, which passed 37 to 9.
There are no sanctuary cities in Georgia, Jones said, therefore the bill is unnecessary. It also has no enforcement mechanism, Jones said.
Sen. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta), said that such legislation sends “increasingly hostile messages” to the state’s international community and will hurt the economy.
Senate Bill 20 adds some teeth to a Georgia law passed two years ago that cracked down on illegal immigration. Compliance with that law _ the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act _ has been lacking critics say.
So far, only a dozen municipalities and agencies statewide have signed up for a federal database that lets them check legal status of immigrants before giving benefits, even though Georgia law requires them to do so.
And many county and city governments took more than a year to sign up for the federal E-Verify program, which allows employers to check the legal status of new hires.
There are still many smaller cities that have not signed up for E-Verify, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution review of Department of Homeland Security documents.
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Bills would give lawmakers subpoena power
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A rash of bills introduced in the Georgia House this week would give state lawmakers and committees the power to compel testimony and subpoena information.
HB 490 would allow any legislative committee that is created by House and Senate rules to issue subpoenas and would impose criminal penalties for failure to comply. HB 510 would do the same, only it would limit the power to House and Senate appropriations committees.
HB 490 is sponsored by Rep. Kevin Levitas (D-Atlanta), but has the backing of Rep. David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge), the vice chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Ben Harbin (R-Evans), the chairman of appropriations.
HB 510, sponsored by Rep. Mark Butler (R-Carrollton) and also has Harbin’s support.
There is also a House resolution, HR 335, that would call a constitutional amendment to enact the changes.
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State cuts few jobs, but furloughs 25,000
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Big businesses across the country are laying off workers in droves but, despite facing a $2.6 billion shortfall, state government has been more benevolent.
Through last week there have been a little over 300 RIFs, or reductions in force, in state government this fiscal year, according to reports filed with State Personnel Administration. The biggest chunk of those job cuts have come at the Department of Human Resources, but several other agencies also reported layoffs.
The state has about 100,000 employees.
Meanwhile, agencies have reported that 25,000 employees have been or would be taking furloughs, days off without pay, to help the state make ends meet.
About half of those are Department of Corrections employees. Many agencies, from the Department of Juvenile Justice, DHR and Pardons and Paroles to the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Technical and Adult Education, also have reported furloughing staffers.
State Personnel officials said the numbers they have don’t tell the whole story. For instance, the University System of Georgia, which has 40,000 employees, hasn’t made any reports to state personnel officials. Individual schools in the system have laid off a small number of employees.
As for furloughs, System Chancellor Erroll Davis told lawmakers last month he was “philosophically opposed” to them. Considering the fact that many businesses are dumping workers and many state agencies are furloughing employees, that didn’t sit well with legislators.
Within a few weeks of Davis making that statement, top lawmakers said they expect all agencies to force workers to take days off without pay over the next few months.
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Bill would allow use of multiple standard parking spaces for the disabled
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Disabled Vietnam veteran Jim Cherry almost got a ticket when he took up a few regular parking spaces because there were no more handicapped spaces.
His wife parked his van diagonally, and that led to trouble in the parking lot of a Stone Mountain restaurant last year.
State Sen. Steve Henson (D-Tucker) has introduced a bill in response that would make it legal for a disabled person to use more than one regular parking space when in a pinch.
Senate Bill 153 says such use of parking spaces would not be a violation of any parking law.
In that incident last year, a restaurant patron got angry.
“Somebody saw what we did and got irate and the next thing you know the police are there,” Cherry said.
“I asked them to go ahead and give me a ticket and I’ll make an issue of it that way,” Cherry said.
The police did not issue a ticket, but Cherry followed through and asked for a law.
Cherry, who uses a van that is equipped with a cargo door and a lift for his wheelchair, says such vans need to park so there’s lots of room to get out the side door.
“It requires almost a diagonal parking process,” he said. The Southeastern Paralyzed Veterans Association supports the bill, Cherry said.
Henson said he’s not sure if the police have issued many tickets in such cases, but he doesn’t want there to be doubt.
“In most cases I don’t think people would ticket a car that’s got a handicapped tag that’s taking up two spaces,” Henson said.
“But I want to make sure it’s cleared up.”
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