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Wednesday, January 24, 2007
If it still twitches and doesn’t reek, it ain’t dead
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A dead bill has a certain smell to it, so pungent that it empties the largest room.
Lawmakers who shouldered it deny their burden ever existed. Lobbyists who suckled the creature until it could toddle to committee submit DNA samples to prove they were neither mother nor father. Party hacks call to swear it was nothing but a 30-page typo.
By all those measurements, S.B. 26, which would allow grocery stores to sell beer and wine on Sunday, is not a dead bill.
The legislation has been shuffled to a Senate committee headed by David Shafer of Duluth, a leader of the state GOP’s libertarian wing, who wants to study the measure. He’s blogged an explanation here, based on Gov. Sonny Perdue’s talk radio comments on the bill earlier this month.
“Although ‘doomed’ is not the word that I would used, I will say there is virtually no interest among legislators in pursuing this issue after the governor’s comments last week. There are simply not the votes - or the will - to override a gubernatorial veto,” the senator wrote.
Others with a knowledge of Senate operations have likewise told us the bill isn’t moving this year.
And yet.
Earlier this week, Perdue seemed to backtrack — at least a bit — on his blanket opposition. Compare this Q100 sound bite with this video clip that Denis O’Hayer of 11Alive snared this week.
And this morning, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce endorsed S.B. 26. This is a group of conservative men and women who — with the occasional exception — don’t buy term life, and don’t publicly aggravate governors who have already put their foot down.
The fact that restaurants already serve alcohol on Sunday, that neighboring states allow grocery stores to sell six-packs of beer and bottles of wine, and that the legislation mandates local referendums all made the decision easy, a chamber spokesman said.
The ultimate decision rests within the Republican leadership of the Legislature.
Democrats at the state Capitol must have their fingers crossed. Many will vote for S.B. 26 if it comes up, but they may hope it doesn’t. The issue could come in very handy later on.
A very smart fellow — meaning neither of us — pointed out the familiar dynamics of the Sunday sales issue.
A significant slice of Christian conservatives object, strenuously. But an overwhelming majority of voters favor the measure, particularly north of I-20. Supporters aren’t necessarily irreligious, but neither do they like government telling them what they can’t do.
It sounds a bit like 1990, when Zell Miller pitched the lottery.
Full text of ethics complaint against state Rep. Larry O’Neal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The documents associated with today’s complaint against state Rep. Larry O’Neal of Warner Robins can be found here and here.
A link to the full story can be found in the item below.
Fire up the committee again, Eric: Dems to file another ethics complaint
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Only a week after the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee dismissed a complaint against House Speaker Glenn Richardson, Democrats are back with another.
This time, it’s a complaint against state Rep. Larry O’Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. The topic is the legislation giving a tax break to Gov. Sonny Perdue. A first thought: The issue could make it even more awkward to bring up “private cities” legislation that would allow developers to levy their own taxes in carved out districts.
The filer is Edward Chapman of Atlanta, who says he’s bringing the matter up as a private citizen — but acknowledges that he’s a former research specialist for the state Democratic party.
Chapman alleges that O’Neal “used his position as a member of the House to bestow a financial benefit upon a client of his private law practice” — i.e., the governor.
The complaint against Richardson was dismissed for lack of evidence. In this one, Democrats have been more thorough. The nine-page submission includes a list of potential witnesses. The governor is among them.
The full story can be read here.
Blogwatch: Lawmakers won’t be able to resist playing with a $19 million tackle box
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We don’t always agree with Bill Simon, author of the Politicalvine.com blog. But on this matter he may be truly prescient.
Look for Gov. Sonny Perdue’s $19 million bass fishing proposal to drop by at least $1 million, Simon recently wrote. Then watch that cash drift over to the State Ethics Commission like an orphaned floating dock, to replace the $1 million that Perdue trimmed from it.
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Because Washington isn’t the friendly place it used to be
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After last night’s State of the Union speech, Gov. Sonny Perdue said he liked President Bush’s thoughts on health insurance, but that Georgia needs $131 million in immediate help to keep the state’s insurance program for children afloat.
The governor said he talked Tuesday with Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt about the matter.
“I reminded him that we are continuing to look for the federal government to fulfill its financial commitments so that Georgia’s children can continue to have the health insurance coverage they need,” Perdue said, according to the Associated Press.
This will please state legislators of both parties. A Republican governor lobbying a Republican administration in Washington is good and proper and diplomatic.
Contrast that with the fact that even Republican state lawmakers were a bit chagrined when they learned that — last week — Perdue sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, calling for a solution.
“We are at a point now that requires the leadership of Congress to make funding…a priority,” Perdue wrote last Friday. “The clock is ticking. Simply put, Georgia’s program will be bankrupt in March.”
A bipartisan team of state lawmakers from Georgia had visited Pelosi’s office only the day before. They ran into a wall of resentment that the governor’s letter may have only aggravated.
Fixing the insurance problem, which extends to a total of 18 states, will cost about $1 billion. Democratic leaders in Washington were quite forceful in declaring they viewed the dilemma as one of several problems that a Republican Congress had left at the doorstep of the new management.
