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Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Senate folds Isakson’s tax break for homebuyers into stimulus package
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Associated Press just filed this:
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Wednesday night to give a tax break of up to $15,000 to homebuyers in hopes of revitalizing the housing industry, a victory for Republicans eager to leave their mark on a mammoth economic stimulus bill at the heart of President Barack Obama’s recovery plan.
The tax break was adopted without dissent, and came on a day in which Obama pushed back pointedly against Republican critics of the legislation even as he reached across party lines to consider scaling back spending.
“Let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the essential,” Obama said as Senate Republicans stepped up their criticism of the bill’s spending and pressed for additional tax cuts and relief for homeowners. He warned that failure to act quickly “will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession.”
Democratic leaders have pledged to have legislation ready for Obama’s signature by the end of next week, and they concede privately they will have to accept some spending reductions along the way.
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who advanced the homebuyers tax break, said it was intended to help revive the housing industry, which has virtually collapsed in the wake of a credit crisis that began last fall.
The proposal would allow a tax credit of 10 percent of the value of new or existing residences, up to a $15,000 limit. Current law provides for a $7,500 tax break for the purchase of new homes only.
Isakson’s office said the proposal would cost the government an estimated $19 billion.
It’s not clear how permanent this union is. The AP report says the Isakson’s proposal may be changed or even deleted as the stimulus measure makes its way through Congress over the next 10 days or so.
A press release from the Georgia senator’s office on Wednesday evening included this final line:
“Isakson has not made a decision regarding his vote on the overall economic stimulus legislation.”
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Georgia Power bill cruises past Senate committee
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Senate committee just gave 8-2 approval to a Georgia Power bill that would permit the utility to charge ratepayers for the cost of financing two new nuclear units for seven years before they go on-line in 2017.
The measure is the most heavily lobbied of the session and lobbyists for and against packed the room.
A Senate floor vote won’t come before Monday.
While in the end passage was assured, signs of nervousness among Senate Republicans were clear.
Bart Gobeil, chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, monitored the 90-minute committee hearing.
Senate Rules Chairman Don Balfour, who controls the flow of legislation in that chamber, is the bill’s primary sponsor. He implored his colleagues to approve the committee substitute to keep up with economic development challenges posed by neighboring states.
Revisions included assurances that the Public Service Commission could adjust the portion of the nuclear plant tariff on the elderly and the poor. But no one was sure how many people might be covered by the new language.
Georgia Power officials denied that any favors had been cut to large industrial users and maintained that most of their customers would pay proportionately the same rate, though a PSC staff report had indicated otherwise.
Eric Johnson of Savannah, a 2010 candidate for lieutenant governor, made the motion for passage. He sat next to David Shafer of Duluth, also a GOP candidate for the position — who by virtue of his position as chairman of the Senate regulated industries committee did not participate in the vote.
The bill has the strong support of the lieutenant governor, but some of the toughest questions posed Georgia Power officials came from Tommie Williams of Lyons, the Senate president pro tem and the ranking member of the chamber.
Williams pointed out what he considered complicated and fuzzy language in the legislation, and that the utility was likely to win federally guaranteed loans for the project, at extremely favorable rates. The benefit of those low interest rates would be passed on to consumers after several years, Williams noted — after the utility enjoyed a substantial “float.”
Williams supported a substitute version authored by Democrat Doug Stoner of Smyrna, who complained about the rush-order placed on the legislation — and confusing language in the bill.
“I’m not saying it’s doubletalk, but it seems that way to me,” Stoner said.
Williams eventually voted for Balfour’s measure — but his questioning indicated some resistance to the bill within the Senate GOP caucus. Democrats Stoner and Gloria Butler of Stone Mountain cast the only dissenting votes.
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Mag-lev must be served straight, no chaser
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Senate Transportation Committee this afternoon took up a resolution in support of a high-speed, mag-lev train between Atlanta and Chattanooga. S.R. 117 dubs the line “the Plane Train.”
During discussion, the irascible John Douglas of (R-Social Circle), advocate of a still-unbuilt commuter rail line headed south, wondered out loud why Atlanta would ever send a new train to the Tennessee border.
“They won’t even give us a drink of water,” he said.
After the transportation committee passed S.R. 117, chairman Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), the sponsor of the measure, made sure that reporters understood that trains and disputes over access to the Tennessee River don’t mix.
“That’s not part of this,” Mullis said.
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Hard times in the newspaper biz just touched the ‘12 presidential race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The New York Times political blog, The Caucus, has this:
David Yepsen, the long-time chief political columnist for the Des Moines Register, is taking a job as director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute in Southern Illinois. His decision to leave his perch comes at a time when the Gannett Company, which owns the Register, has been forcing reporters to take unpaid furloughs, as it, like other newspapers, struggle to adjust to an economic crisis.
Every fourth year, when Iowa becomes the most important state in the union, Yepsen became most important journalist in the country, tracking down presidential wannabes through cornfields and coffee shops.
The NYT added this:
There was a reason that that Hillary Rodham Clinton, when she was running for president, made a point of having dinner with Mr. Yepsen at a Des Moines restaurant at a time when he was writing columns that - presciently - questioned whether she understood the politics of the state.
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Twittering the session away
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now, some of you Twitter, and some of you don’t.
The idea is to send personal thoughts to a group of friends or associates in short, 140-character bursts. Barack Obama converted it into a powerful campaign tool.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle has just started Twittering. According to his last three posts, covering some 20 hours, he’s very much into recruiting day.
This last one was from 10 minutes ago, with the state Senate about to convene, and a previous reference to Tech:
Back to work. Counting on my fellow football fans throughout GA to keep me up to date today. Looking forward to seeing UGA’s results too.
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On Gov. Sonny Perdue and hometown curiosity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Travis Fain has this up on Lucid Idiocy, the Macon Telegraph’s political blog:
A bunch of folks from Gov. Sonny Perdue’s home of Houston County were in Atlanta [Tuesday] for a luncheon.
I spoke to several of them, and no matter how many questions there are this year about state government, there’s one question everyone wants an answer to.
What did Gov. Sonny Perdue spend that $21 million loan on?
I used to work in Houston County, covering government there. And when Alan Judd at the AJC broke the story on Gov. Perdue’s loan I shook a lot of the trees I knew of down there.
And no one knows anything. But they all want to know. And they want to know how he managed to get the loan on significantly more generous terms than they could get for themselves. And these are his friends.
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Sadie Fields on stimulus plan: No how, no way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson made something of a local splash, lobbying for an expansion of tax credits for home purchases as part of President Obama’s stimulus package.
Isakson didn’t commit to it, but he held out the possibility of supporting it. He has terms that need to be met — the first being the home purchase credit, to start rebuilding the nation’s housing industry.
But last night, Sadie Fields of the influential Georgia Christian Alliance sent a message to followers, basically declaring that no terms would be acceptable:
Please contact Senators Isakson and Chambliss and ask them to vote against any version of this bill. Conservative principles do not change based on the language of a bill. What Bush did - and Obama is trying to expand upon - is nothing less than a government out of control - taking over the economy - then it is Katy bar the door.
“Once the government controls the economic well-being of the people the will to resist other government controls wanes. To whatever extent the state controls our economy ultimately directs every other aspect of our lives as well.”
It’s not an easy time to be a Republican.
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A bill ‘relating to the distribution of unclaimed cadavers’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of the bulletin boards in the state Capitol announced a ghoulish topic on Tuesday.
The Senate Public Safety Committee would meet to discuss a bill “relating to the distribution of unclaimed cadavers.”
First thought: This fight between state Sens. Eric Johnson and David Shafer to become the next lieutenant governor has turned into a gory, 3-D date movie.
Second thought: We had zombie legislators long, long before we had zombie banks.
But no.
Evidently, the funereal laws of Georgia will not allow the average Joe to keep spare — let’s say discarded — body parts. For most people, this is not an inconvenience. Dr. Frankenstein aside, they have all they need, even if such appendages are wrinkled, creaky or pocked like cottage cheese.
But down in Columbus, two organizations train dogs to sniff out the corpses of those killed in disasters. Two trainers asked Sen. Seth Harp (R-Midland) — hasn’t he been in the news enough lately? — to submit S.B. 38.
“You have to have an actual human body part to train the dog. Their noses are very, very sensitive. And having a human body part that is decaying, that gives off the smell — that’s how they train the dogs. Unless you do that, it doesn’t work. There’s no substitute,” Harp said.
S.B. 38 would permit certified groups to possess body parts and, presumably, hide them places far away from you and me. It was given the go-ahead by the Senate Public Safety Committee.
Photo credit: Richard Watkins/AJC
