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Monday, March 26, 2007
Jerry Keen: Budget confrontation is bad for the public and the Republican party
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a half-hour press conference on Monday, the most interesting point made by House Majority Leader Jerry Keen was that the current budget confrontation with the Senate is not only bad for the public, but bad for the state GOP.
Budget stand-offs are common affairs at the Legislature. But rarely do you see them described in terms of party welfare, and in a press conference.
Keen and other House leaders, all Republican, expressed bewilderment at a left-field move by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle to reject out-of-hand a $700 million spending bill to augment the current budget.
It’d be an understatement to say that Cagle’s decision to make the issue a very public matter of Republican philosophy has put them on the defensive.
Keen referred to the shift with skepticism. A “new religion,” was his phrase.
“Somehow, the House is being accused of being fiscally irresponsible and liberal if we appropriate priorities in March,” Keen said. “But if you wait, and spend the exact same amount of money in July, you’re a conservative. Candidly, it just doesn’t add up.
“[The Senate is] not reducing any spending at all. All they’re saying is, we like the priorities you’ve identified, but we want to put them in ’08,” Keen said. “My question for them is, when did this become conservative to do that? Sometime last week or two?”
Keen was accompanied by both House Speaker pro tem Mark Burkhalter of Alpharetta, and House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin of Evans.
For newcomers to budget politics, here’s a recap:
Every year, the governor guesses how much money the state will receive in tax revenues the next year. Because the state constitution doesn’t permit us to run deficits, state spending for that is a tad below that. Which means, unless there’s a major economic slowdown, there’s a bit of extra money at the end.
Most of this money goes to shore up school spending, which is also unpredictable. But much of it did not. When Democrats were in charge, much of the money went to what we call pork.
Republicans promised that when they were put in charge, they’d abolish supplemental spending. House Republicans, in their third year of power, haven’t done that. But Keen argues that they have made the process transparent, and raised standards for mid-year spending.
Among their points:
— As late as last year, the Senate enjoyed the fruits of the current spending tradition. Keen read out a list of project demanded for last year’s supplemental budget demanded by senators, including $750,000 to replace 50 vehicles for the state Department of Agriculture; $500,000 for a state trade office in China; and $500,000 to help local courthouses increase security.
— Cagle showed disrespect to the 30 or more House members who endured lengthy budget hearings to come up with the budget bill. Cagle might have told House members of his intentions before last week, when the House passed the measure.
“Not one time was there any mention by anybody in the Senate that they had this sort of new religion. When you look at it this way, you have to ask why,” said Keen.
— That Cagle isn’t saying he’d spend less. Just that he wouldn’t spend it before July 1 of this year. “They just want to shift when you spend. That’s a shell game. This is not a time for gamesmanship,” Harbin said.
Keen interjected: “What the Senate is recommending does not reduce spending one red cent. Not a penny. It does not, in any shape fashion or form reduce the size of government. Not one bit.”
As for Cagle? He laid low today, so far as we know.
Calvin Smyre’s back.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Rep. Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus), chairman of the House Democratic caucus and one of the most plugged-in politicians in the state, returned to the state Capitol on Monday after major back surgery.
He’s got a foam collar, and he’s not into head-only twists of the neck. In that sense, he looks a bit like a preacher in a strip club.
Smyre, former chairman of the state Democratic party, returns just in time for Crossover Day, which could be a 15-hour marathon. He’s not saying he’ll be able to sit through the entire thing.
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NRA loses senator, who says gun group acting like ‘hysterical teenaged girl’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The National Rifle Association has apparently lost state Sen. John Douglas (R-Social Circle) in its effort to drum up support for S.B. 43, the bill to permit employees to keep guns in cars parked on corporate parking lots.
Over the weekend, the NRA sent out a crush of e-mails to members, accusing many big corporations — United Parcel Service, Wal-Mart and AFLAC among them — of curtailing Second Amendment rights.
Douglas is important as a bellwether. He’s one of the most conservative Republicans in the Senate, and usually supports NRA-backed legislation. Check out this bottom-to-top exchange of e-mails between the senator and a voter in south Georgia, distributed today by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
In the finale, Douglas accuses the NRA of “acting like a hysterical teenaged girl.” We’ve removed the e-mail and street address of the voter.
Here ‘tis:
From: Douglas, John [mailto:John.Douglas@senate.ga.gov]
Sent: Sat 3/24/2007 11:28 PM
To: Keith L.
Subject: RE: SB 43
While you are contacting others, contact the NRA and tell them their bullying, threatening tactics are backfiring. I have for the past two years earned an A+ and A rating from them and supported their efforts all the way. They are accusing every major company in Georgia of being anti gun, sending out their alerts every few hours naming more companies as anti gun and acting like a hysterical teenaged girl.
They are falling on their swords over this bill and so am I. There is no way I would vote yes with the way they are conducting themselves.
I am sorry we have come to this point and I look forward to supporting logical, rational gun legislation in the future, but not SB 43. I appreciate your efforts, but the NRA is making their supporters look foolish on this one.
By the way, Sen Tommie Williams is your Senator. He is an excellent, articulate spokesman for southeast Georgia. Feel free to call on him at tommie@tommiewilliams.com
John Douglas
From: Keith L.
Sent: Sat 3/24/2007 11:21 PM
To: Douglas, John
Subject: Re: SB 43
Sorry to hear that. I’ll let others know how you feel. Thanks anyway.
From: Douglas, John John.Douglas@senate.ga.gov
To: Keith L.
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2007 8:53 PM
Subject: RE: SB 43
Don’t count on me, I dont represent Lyons and am voting NO.
John Douglas
From: Keith L.
Sent: Sat 3/24/2007 10:38 PM
To: Douglas, John
Subject: SB 43
I’m counting on you to stand up for me & get SB 43 to the floor & support it . It’s time to put a stop of having our Second Amendment rights played with.
Keith L.
Lyons, Ga.
Offered the opportunity to settle the land dispute with shotguns, the two governors apparently declined
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning, several Georgia newspapers are carrying a Associated Press report that says Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia and Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina spent an off-the-calendar Saturday quail hunting in January, weeks before they announced a proposal to build a new port owned by both states.
The price of the expedition, on an 18,000-acre tract in the Carolina low-country, was estimated at $1,000 per hunter for a half-day. There was no word on who paid the bill, or who else was in the hunting party, according to The State newspaper in Columbia, which first published the article.
The deal the two governors’ struck on the port is intended to avert a looming legal battle between the South Carolina State Ports Authority and Georgia. The Ports Authority had filed paperwork to condemn and seize land owned by Georgia, but which sits in South Carolina. Georgia uses the acreage as a site to dump silt dredged from the bottom of the Savannah River.
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