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Showdown on gay marriage ban expected Tuesday
Posted at: Friday, February 27, 2004, 05:01 PM
The next big showdown over gay marriage at the Capitol is likely to take place Tuesday.
House Rules Chairman Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) said he expects the House Monday to decide whether to reconsider its vote Thursday defeating the proposed gay marriage amendment. The House voted 117-50 in support of the proposed amendment. However, the measure failed by three votes to get the required 120 votes needed to put it on the ballot. Twelve legislators had excused absences or did not vote.
The motion to reconsider the measure needs only a majority in the 180-member House — 91 votes — to pass. If it does, Smyre said the amendment will probably be taken up by his committee Tuesday, and added to the House schedule to be debated Tuesday afternoon.
The amendment to ban same-sex marriages has already passed the Senate, so if it is approved by the House it will go on the November ballot for voters to consider. It does not require the governor’s signature.
Both sides in the debate are expected to crowd the halls of the statehouse Monday to lobby lawmakers on the issue.
— James Salzer, ajc.com
Permalink | Categories: Gay Marriage Ban
Perdue lowers revenue estimates — again
Posted at: Thursday, February 26, 2004, 03:48 PM
For the second time in two months, Gov. Sonny Perdue has lowered his estimate of how much money the state will take in from taxes and asked for more spending cuts.
Perdue’s announcement came less than a hour after the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $16 billion mid-year budget for fiscal 2004 that includes millions of dollars in local construction projects in the districts of Republican leaders.
Perdue lowered the revenue estimate - the amount of money he expects the state to raise and spend - by about $500 million in January and recommended more than $300 million in spending cuts for the second half of the fiscal year, which ends June 30. Many of those cuts were for school and health care programs.
He sent top budget writers of the House and Senate a letter Thursday lowering the revenue estimate from taxes another $109.5 million for the rest of the fiscal year, despite an uptick in the economy.
“Although revenue collections for the month of February are not yet complete, early indications are that they will fall below the amount needed to avoid further budget cuts,” Perdue wrote. “Due to the seriousness of our budget situation, my office has been monitoring revenue day-to-day rather than month-to-month.”
The size of the needed cuts are mitigated by $89 million from a new nursing home tax Perdue’s staff forgot to put into the budget. The Senate’s mid-year budget plan puts that money into a reserve account.
So Perdue is only recommending $20 million in additional spending cuts, with most of it coming from proposed Georgia Ports Authority projects, University System employees health insurance plan reserves and the judicial system.
Still, the second drop in the governor’s revenue estimate shows the state is in a precarious fiscal position. State tax collections were down for two years before picking up last fall. However, they are not growing nearly fast enough to meet the fiscal 2004 budget approved by lawmakers last April. In addition, reserves, which stood at $700 million when Perdue took office in January 2003, were expected to be down to $50 million even before the latest bad news.
“We need to be very, very careful about what we do with the funds we have left,” said Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Hill (R-Reidsville).
— James Salzer, ajc.com
Permalink | Categories: State Budget
House rejects gay marriage ban
Posted at: Thursday, February 26, 2004, 03:28 PM
The Georgia House of Representatives rejected by three votes a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage Thursday evening. The measure failed by a 117-50 vote.
A two-thirds majority, or 120 votes, was required for passage of Senate Resolution 595.
A second vote is likely on the issue. Rep. Bill Hembree (R-Douglasville) asked that the resolution be reconsidered on Monday. House members must vote by a simple majority, or 91 votes, to reconsider the resolution.
Twelve members of the House were not present for the vote. The House speaker only votes to break a tie. A loud cheer came from the House gallery, where onlookers gathered to see the debate, immediately after the votes were tallied. House Speaker Terry Coleman (D-Eastman) immediately threatened to remove visitors if they weren’t quiet.
After the vote, Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Decatur) hugged Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates), the General Assembly’s only openly gay member. Both Benfield and Stuckey gave passionate speeches against the bill prior to the vote.
Two amendments that would have removed language in the resolution that some contend takes away domestic partnership rights for same-sex couples failed to get approval as well.
Legislators debated the bill for 3-and-a-half hours, invoking quotations from Abraham Lincoln, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King Jr., Benjamin E. Mays and other leaders.
Earlier, the first speaker of the GOP-sponsored measure was a Democrat who urged its passage.
Mike Boggs (D-Waycross) said lawmakers had an opportunity to protect the state against “activist judges” who might try to overturn the state law that bars same-sex marriage.
“Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, we have seldom had an opportunity to stand up for things that are common-sensical, things that stand up for Christian values,” Boggs said.
He was followed by Republican Bill Hembree, of Douglasville, who concurred with Boggs.
“Stand up in the defense of marriage,” said Hembree, after reading the definition of marriage from a dictionary as between “husband and wife.”
Hembree and other supporters repeatedly urged the chamber not to change the bill, and to vote for the bill so “the people can decide.”
Rep. Bob Holmes argued against the bill, saying “activist judges” often issue rulings that are in the public’s best interest. He cited rulings pertaining to the Voting Rights Act, guaranteeing voting rights for African-Americans.
“This goes beyond the notion of preventing same-sex marriage,” Holmes said. “We’re not talking about special privileges … we’re going to constitutionally discriminate against this segment of the population.”
Holmes disputed Republican assertions that a constitutional amendment would provide more protection than the current state law against a ban being overturned by the courts.
Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Decatur) said the amendment would threaten domestic partner benefits many large Georgia companies, such as Coca-Cola and BellSouth, offer members of gay couples.
She also asked if legislators thought the amendment would make gay couples go away.
“If anything, it will make them stronger,” Benfield said.
Rep. Kathy Ashe (D-Atlanta), the 10th speaker on the resolution, said she hoped one day politicians would move past “attacking gay folks for political advantage.”
“Tonight, if we move this resolution forward I will go home and cry. I will cry for the lost hopes and dreams of thousands of my constituents who simply want to live their lives the way so many of us do every day.”
“Nobody can stand here and say that anyone is harmed by two loving individuals pledging their love for one another. … People who are not harming anyone deserve to be left alone. I thought both political parties believed that. Today, that lie is being exposed.”
Rep. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta) said members would live to regret a vote in favor of the ban. Like previous speakers, she invoked the legacy of civil rights legend Martin Luther King Jr.
“Folks, this is the same thing as when legislatures put Jim Crow laws and codified them in their law books. You’re saying that people because of their status are not allowed to have the same rights as us.”
In a passionate speech, Rep. Alisha Thomas-Morgan (D-Austell) chastised Republicans for seeking to interfere with Georgians’ lives and in their bedrooms.
“How is it when you talk about less government, you want to talk about what people can do?” she said.
Thomas-Morgan said she is a Christian and opposes “this hateful bill.” She said she consulted her pastor and he told her to vote her conscience and he would support her.
“I urge you to have some guts,” she told her colleagues. “Have some courage.”
By about 5 p.m., 17 House members had spoken on the resolution in more than two hours of debate. Six had spoken in favor of it, 11 against.
Rep. Larry Walker (D-Perry), who is not running for re-election after 31 years in the legislature, said he supports the resolution but announced he would offer an amendment that he said would strengthen it. The change would drop language saying “no union between persons of the same sex shall be recognized by this state as entitled to the benefits of marriage.” The language has raised questions about whether companies and local governments would be able to offer health benefits to domestic partners.
Under Walker’s change, the resolution would say only, “the state shall recognize as marriage only the union of man and woman. Marriages between persons of the same sex are prohibited in this state.”
A hush fell over the chamber as Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates) took the podium to speak. Drenner is the only openly gay legislator in the General Assembly. She spoke in largely personal terms, telling colleagues she didn’t expect to change minds but wanted them to know more about her.
Drenner noted that she was raised Southern Baptist and is a mother. She wasn’t raised to be gay, and isn’t raising her children to be gay. She said she’s more than just a gay legislator.
“I have a tag line: the only openly lesbian legislator. That’s what I have become as a result of this. I wear that label, but I am more than that label. I represent 45,000 people just like you do,” she said.
Drenner went on to condemn Senate Resolution 595, saying President Bush declared war on gay people when he announced this week that he would support a ban in the U.S. Constitution.
“This amendment does not create more jobs, it does not improve education, nor does it provide access to affordable housing and healthcare,” she said. “It seeks to vilify and persecute an already oppressed minority.”
The bill passed a crucial committee vote this afternoon.
By a 23-6 vote, the House Rules Committee passed Senate Resolution 595 to the House floor for debate. If it passes without change in the full House, where it needs the vote of 120 of 180 members, it would be placed on the November ballot for a vote.
Rep. Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus), chairman of the House Rules Committee, asked for a roll-call vote on the resolution.
The committee’s secretary then read each member’s name. Twenty-three members said “yes” while only six said “no” to the amendment; one member was absent.
“S.R. 595 is voted out of committee and onto the general calendar,” Smyre said after that vote. “Now, for the bill to go on the floor for debate.”
By a voice vote, House Rules members then immediately voted to discuss the bill before the full House, which was to convene at 2 p.m.
The Rules Committee, which had quizzed the Senate sponsor during an early-morning meeting, took only a few minutes to pass the resolution. Rep. Bob Holmes (D-Atlanta) attempted to add an amendment that would strike out part of SR 595, but it failed.
Some people opposed to the resolution contend that it would deny domestic partnership benefits to same-sex couples. Republicans have said the resolution would have no effect on such benefits given by private businesses.
Earlier, Smyre also promised changes to the resolution. That would necessitate its reconsideration by the state Senate, which has already passed the ban.
“We will come back and perfect the legislation,” Smyre said.
At this morning’s session of Rules, Democratic House members blasted the proposed constitutional ban as flawed and questioned the sponsor’s motives.
Sen. Mike Crotts (R-Conyers), the resolution’s sponsor, said he was not surprised by the meeting’s tone.
“It went pretty much like I expected it,” Crotts said. “They are under fire on this issue, and the people in the state want to vote on it.”
Committee members took the measure apart, almost line by line.
Rep. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta), said Crotts’ contention that the bill protects the state from “activist judges” who would want to change the current law is weak and that the bill would put the state more at risk of legal action.
“While you claim that you are not prejudiced and you love black people and you go to church with black people, you want to pass a bill saying that some people should be excluded from the Constitution,” Orrock said. “That is not equal protection.”
“Equal protection is what we have,” Crotts shot back. “They want special rights.”
Smyre adjourned the meeting after 50 minutes to allow members of the committee to convene with the full House, which started at 10 a.m. Smyre said the committee meeting will resume later in the day but he was unsure about a vote.
House Majority Leader Jimmy Skipper (D-Americus) said several legislators had called in and were having trouble making it to the Capitol because of the weather. Only three of the 30 members of the Rules Committee were absent, however.
The proposed amendment, which if it passed the Legislature would have to be voted on by the public in November, would define marriage in Georgia as a union strictly between a man and a woman.
Democrats make up 23 of the 30 committee members, but they said they had no unified position on the resolution.
Smyre is chairman of the Rules Committee, which decides which bills make it to the House floor for debate. He did not allow public comment during the committee meeting.
He said his office has received a total of more than 2,000 calls on the issue.
The Rules Committee must take two votes to consider whether SR 595 will make it to the full House for debate. The first positive vote would put it on the general calendar. The second, which leaders said would not come before next week, would put the measure on the Rules calendar, which is the agenda for the full House.
In committee, a simple majority is required for passage of the resolution, which already has passed the GOP-controlled Senate.
But on the House floor, a constitutional amendment requires approval by two-thirds of the 180 members, or 120 votes. Democrats control the House 108-71, with one independent.
Democrats might alter the legislation in the Rules Committee and place the legislation’s final fate — assuming it passed the full House — in the hands of a six-member conference committee that could further change or kill the measure.
The Republican resolution passed the GOP-held Senate, where 38 votes were required, 40-14. The party holds a 30-26 majority there.
— Ernie Suggs and Carlos Campos, ajc.com
Permalink | Categories: Gay Marriage Ban
House committee vote roll call
Posted at: Thursday, February 26, 2004, 03:21 PM
The House Rules Committee voted Thursday 23-6 to send Senate Resolution 595, the proposed state constitutional ban on gay marriage, to the floor of the full House:
Terry Barnard (R-Glennville) YES
Ken Birdsong (D-Gordon) YES
Tom Bordeaux (D-Savannah) NO
Tom Buck (D-Columbus) YES
Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta) YES
Tom Campbell (R-Roswell) YES
Buddy Childers (D-Rome) YES
Scott Dix (D-Lilburn) YES
Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) YES
Carl Von Epps (D-LaGrange) YES
Bob Holmes (D-Atlanta) NO
Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons) YES
Bob Lane (D-Statesboro) YES
Jimmy Lord (D-Sandersville) YES
Randall Mangham (D-Decatur) YES
Bobby Parham (D-Milledgeville) YES
Butch Parrish (D-Swainsboro) YES
DuBose Porter (D-Dublin) YES
Nikki Randall (D-Macon) NO
Robert Ray (D-Fort Valley) YES
Glenn Richardson (R-Dallas) YES
Jay Shaw (D-Lakeland) YES
Jimmy Skipper (D-Americus) YES
Jim Stokes (D-Covington) YES
Doug Teper (D-Atlanta) NO
Larry Walker (D-Perry) YES
Lynn Westmoreland (R-Sharpsburg) YES
Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta) NO
Cavlin Smyre (D-Columbus), chair, NO
Lanett Stanley-Turner (D-Atlanta) ABSENT
— Carlos Campos, ajc.com
Permalink | Categories: Gay Marriage Ban
Carter endorses present flag
Posted at: Thursday, February 26, 2004, 03:39 AM
Former President Jimmy Carter endorsed Georgia’s current flag Wednesday as the state prepares for an emotional referendum on the banner.
“The debate over Georgia’s flag has gone on for too long,” Carter wrote in a statement.
In his statement, Carter joined lawmakers in worrying that Southern heritage supporters may try to spike the vote by choosing the 2001 blue flag, hoping that would keep the issue alive.
“More votes for the ‘blue’ flag could lead to a situation in which this contentious issue is brought to the forefront again,” Carter wrote.
Southern heritage groups insisted they won’t mess with the referendum, saying they won’t even participate because it doesn’t include the 1956 rebel version.
“It’s an invalid, rigged referendum,” said Jeff Davis, director of the Southern Heritage Coalition. “This issue will never be settled until the people have a fair vote on all the flags, and I think President Carter knows that.”
In his statement, the former Georgia governor pleaded with people to let the matter go, saying another flag debate would hurt the economy.
“Another round of bad publicity over our most recognizable symbol could be harmful to Georgia’s efforts to recruit new business,” Carter said.
Carter’s choice has also been endorsed by Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue and the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials. The state NAACP has backed the 2001 blue flag.
— The Associated Press
Permalink | Categories: Georgia flag
