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Friday, April 4, 2008
2008 session: Two stubborn, one impatient
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Reflections on this year’s General Assembly, and primarily the House of Representatives:
• From a conservative’s point of view, there’s real reason for hope, despite the fact that Gov. Sonny Perdue, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson are an ill fit. Two are stubborn and one is impatient to be governor. Too bad. At their core, both the House and the Senate have a cadre of capable and eager legislators inspired to make a difference. There’s energy and a willingness to embrace new ideas in how best to design government. Education. Health care. The tax system. Regulation. The role of government.
• It’s a great time to be there. There’s something revolutionary about it, and it’s fun watching roles and leadership skills evolve. State Rep. Bob Smith (R-Watkinsville), for example, or State Rep. Jill Chambers (R-Atlanta) have a similar passion about transparency in government. Their efforts are individual and creative, like lab researchers trying to find a cure for an exotic disease. Their approaches may hit a dead end. But they — and others on other issues — are determined and spirited and willing to work hard. It’s refreshing.
• The same can be said of the now-defunct 216 Policy Group, a network of principled conservatives, many of them young and new, who read bills and applied a four-way test: Does it promote smaller government, lower taxes, personal responsibility and lead to “liberty and justice for all” ? The group, led by State Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ranger), struck an independent course sometimes at odds with House leadership.
Friday they threw in the towel and disbanded, their numbers having been whittled from about 30 last year to about a dozen this year. It’s a real loss. The majority does need to build around core principles and assess policy on that basis.
• He’s often the liberals’ favorite whipping boy, especially when he gets out front on legislation, but House Rules Committee Chairman Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) is developing real finesse as a leader. He smoothly helped guide passage of an important education bill introduced by Rep. David Casas (R-Lilburn) (HB1133) to give tax credits for gifts to a scholarship fund for children in need of an alternative to bad public schools. Ehrhart is the real-deal conservative.
• Against well-funded and intense opposition, Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-Marietta) and Sen. Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) advanced health care “certificate of need” deregulation further than has ever been possible in this state. Impressive.
• Though they’ll wander in the wilderness for another eight to 10 years, Democrats are in recovery. Some of the new and emerging Democrats in the House show real promise, among them: Kevin Levitas, Margaret Kaiser and Stacey Abrams, all of Atlanta, and Virgil Fludd of Fayetteville and Amy Carter of Valdosta. Republicans should not get too careless or cocky in power. This group tells me that Democrats will find the mainstream and be competitive again.
Among Democrats, I regret the retirement of Rep. Bob Holmes of Atlanta, an old friend and nemesis. As a friend, I regret that his taste of power as chairman of the Education Committee, at the end of the Democrat’s reign, came so late and was so brief. As one with whom I rarely agreed on policy, I was delighted that it came late and was brief.
• My appreciation of Rep. Larry O’Neal (R-Bonaire), chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, grew exponentially this session, primarily for his handling of Speaker Richardson’s property tax legislation. It was a flawed bill, widely unpopular. O’Neal was loyal but determined not to push out a flawed bill, even one from the boss. Under pressure, he was fair and courteous, precisely the right leader for a red-hot issue.
• Two other chairmen deserve praise, too. House Transportation Committee Chairman Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain) and Senate Chairman Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) earned full pay this year and last as they patiently worked overtime to “do something,” as they’d been charged, about the state’s transportation needs, including financing.
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Cuba, wine whims, schooling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:
Progress after Fidel. Ordinary Cubans are now allowed to stay in the hotels they own. And buy an electric motorbike previously denied them because charging it up could collapse the power grid. A Cuban earning the average state salary could afford to stay in a four-star hotel once in 216 years.
Just as the JFK conspiracy theories die down, the Princess Diana conspiracy theories live on. An official inquest, which had cost $5.8 million through February, finds that, no, Prince Philip did not order her execution. So don’t expect to read any other spooks-did-it stories.
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin approaches the profile-in-courage moment for Democrats. That’s the moment when they agonize publicly —- before raising taxes.
What in the world is my state doing regulating how much wine any resident can buy from any winery anywhere in the world? Republicans who run Georgia should question every regulation — many of which are simply to protect monopolies from competition — with the idea of getting rid of them altogether. A just-passed bill would let Georgians buy up to 12 cases a year from out of state without going through a distributor.
Rather than adding a $10 tax to vehicles to fund a state trauma network, the Legislature should just continue collecting the quarter-mill in local property taxes, amounting to about $30 per homeowner, that the governor had proposed eliminating. That’s $90 million. And by all means, never dedicate a tax to a specific purpose, lest the claimants think they are entitled to every penny raised. All funding needs should compete for every dollar. “I’m not interested in creating an entitlement program,” said Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle. Don’t. Directly, indirectly or otherwise.
Fairness, slowly, comes to home schoolers. Awaiting the governor’s signature is a bill that makes home schoolers who score in the 85th percentile on the SAT or ACT eligible for HOPE grants upfront.
Fulton County tax commissioner Arthur Ferdinand appeals a court decision directing him to distribute school funds to tax allocation district projects, like Atlantic Station. He’d declined to divert about $30 million, citing a Georgia Supreme Court ruling. Ferdinand’s right. The county may have to raise taxes on other property owners by $30 million, but the court decision was clear. It’s unconstitutional.
If you missed Sunday’s @issue section on the death of Martin Luther King Jr. 40 years ago today, go back and find it. It was spectacular. Beautiful photography and presentation and, even after 40 years, the first-person accounts of those intimately connected with the tragedy are compellingly told. If you read one thing about the 40th anniversary, make it that.
Amid the squabbling that is this year’s General Assembly, a moment of piercing truth from House Speaker Glenn Richardson. Faced with a series of resolutions urging this and that, including commuter rail to Macon, Atlanta and Athens, Richardson admitted: “We do these to appease people.” They have no force of law. They mean nothing. And they’re presented as uncontested resolutions, meaning there’s no point in talking about them. They’re legislative clutter.
Front-page headline: “Infighting may doom tax cuts.” If it does, Georgia needs new blood under the Gold Dome. Cagle and Richardson have one day to deliver. Today. Two years of games on tax cuts is enough.
One more reason not to prefer Barack Obama for president: He promises that Al Gore will have a major role in his administration addressing global warming.
If indeed Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is a champion of charter schools, he surely could not have planted what State Rep. Jan Jones (R-Alpharetta) calls a “poison pill” in a bill that would expand the charter-school option for parents. Education could be one of the major successes of this session, though killing House Bill 881 would be a huge setback. It establishes the principle that the money follows the child and discourages local boards from stonewalling charter-school efforts.
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