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Sunday, April 1, 2007
Cal Warlick cartoon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Merry Xmas, teardrop tats don’t make cut
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For the second year in a row, state Rep. Clay Cox (R-Lilburn), couldn’t get the Georgia Legislature to pass his proposed law making it legal to say “Merry Christmas” in public schools.
Rep. Melvin Everson’s bill to allow inmates to tattoo teardrops underneath their eyes (though that probably wasn’t the Snellville GOP House member’s intent) didn’t make it, either.
But Braselton and Lilburn will hold referendums within the next two years on allowing their cities to create “tax allocation districts,” which allow areas that need redevelopment to finance street lights and such with future tax collections. Voters in Lawrenceville and Norcross have a good shot at voting on TADs, too.
The reason why the Christmas and tattoo bills are dead (for now) and the TAD bills still are kicking is because Tuesday was the deadline for legislation to be passed by either the full House or Senate to have a chance of getting enacted into law.
The Braselton and Lilburn TAD bills have already passed. The Senate approved the Norcross version and the House adopted the Lawrenceville TAD bill.
Now we can’t really read last rites over any bill that didn’t make the deadline. Sometimes in the final hours of a legislative session, lawmakers can bring their dead bills back to life by simply stealing another bill, stripping it of its contents and inserting their bills in the shell left behind.
It isn’t fair. It isn’t nice.
But it does happen.
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