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Friday, March 23, 2007
Lobbyist alert: Cagle on budget, red-light cameras, and the gun-in-parking lots bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle told reporters just before noon that he’s still determined to strip excessive spending out of a 2007 budget bill, but that he wouldn’t escalate the confrontation by blocking House bills from moving through the Senate.
Cagle told House GOP leaders of his intentions soon after the House passed the $700 million supplemental budget. They immediately pulled the bill back, said they would hold it — and the larger $22 billion budget for 2008 — until the final days of the 40-day session.
And they promised that Senate bills in their possession would be frozen in place.
Cagle said he planned no “tit-for-tat,” and in fact had nice words for House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s bill to limit the use of red-light cameras across Georgia. “I do question whether the red-light cameras are being used for safety, or for raising revenue,” he said.
But most curiously, Cagle said that if House Republicans didn’t send them a budget bill, he would send them one. He declined to explain what he meant by that. Constitutionally, revenue bills must originate in the House.
Despite the crowded calendar, Cagle also predicted that a bill to permit employees to keep guns in cars parked on company property would come to the Senate floor on Tuesday. It’s a hot issue within the GOP camp, and could eat up precious time on the day when all bills with a future must pass one chamber or another.
On the governor’s legislation for a constitutional amendment to limit the use of lottery money solely to the HOPE scholarship and pre-K programs, Cagle said he was working with Democrats on a compromise. The measure requires passage by a two-thirds vote.
And on the bill to permit the sale of beer and wine on Sunday: The lieutenant governor wouldn’t say whether the legislation would make it to the floor for a vote, but said Republicans in the Senate had noted with interest the defeat of a bill this week to allow limousine companies a greater hand when it comes to selling alcohol in their vehicles.
Blogwatch: Putting a premium on an incumbent insurance policy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bloggers on both the right and the left are worked up over the election bill that passed the House on Tuesday, and not because it would permit Georgia’s presidential primary to be moved up to Feb. 5.
H.B. 487 would permit victory to be declared in three-way races when the leading candidate reaches the 45 percent mark.
Both Decaturguy and Jason Pye damn the legislation as an incumbent insurance policy. They make virtually the same points.
Says Decaturguy:
Don’t think this is a big deal? Well, in the 2006 election cycle, most notably, Cynthia McKinney wouldn’t have had to face a run-off with Hank Johnson (she got 47 percent in the primary) and would probably still be the representative from the Fourth District today. And Democrat David Burgess would still be on the Public Service Commission (getting the most votes with 48 percent in the general election).
Says Pye:
But I’d like to remind Georgia Republicans that without a run-off against David Burgess and Chuck Eaton, which the Libertarian candidate caused, the Republicans wouldn’t have picked up that PSC seat. One could argue that Eaton’s win in the run-off dealt a very big blow to Georgia Democrats.
