Legislative Briefing

A week for toasting Medicaid

What kind of week was it beneath the Gold Dome?

It was the kind of week when cash sent from Washington to boost Medicaid could turn into state-sponsored property tax cuts.

It was the kind of week when you wanted to wash down a peanut butter sandwich with a cold glass of beer bought at a Publix on a Sunday afternoon.

It was the kind of week to redo the DOT.

Stimulating tax grants

Talk about having your tax-cut cake and eating it, too. Although Georgia’s Republican leaders say they don’t much like the federal stimulus package, they apparently know how to use a pile of extra money when it shows up at their doorstep. Stimulus money from Washington directed to the state’s Medicaid payment program means the state can juggle enough other cash to pay for property tax relief grants to local governments. Legislators doled out the grants last year, but the budget crunch meant they might have been forced to take them back. The grants translate more or less into $200 to $300 in property tax relief for individual homeowners. Stimulus cash also may mean some state agencies won’t have to cut their budgets as much as they thought.

A Sunday puzzle

Here’s a chance to learn to think like a legislator while sitting comfortably in your own home. Simply contemplate the various points of view espoused to legislators last week on the question of selling alcoholic beverages in stores on Sunday.

The lawmakers were told that Sunday alcohol sales are:

a) an unholy attack on the Sabbath and a rip in America’s moral fabric.

b) an archaic prohibition of reasonable commerce.

c) a way to encourage drunken driving and teenage drinking.

d) an unholy attack on the cutting-edge thinking of the 19th century.

Choose one or more answers, find a friend and argue. And argue. And argue. And … well, you get the idea.

Now try to figure out how you would vote should the issue ever actually come up.

Winners …

Milton County. Milton went belly up in the Depression, but now its boosters want their county back. They say they want to leave Fulton County, which saved Milton’s bacon back in the ’30s, so they can shift control of zoning, taxes and other matters north of the Chattahoochee River. The House State Planning and Community Affairs Committee approved 7-1 a proposal to bring Milton back. Still, it’s a long way from a done deal: It still needs a constitutional amendment, approval by the Legislature and backing by the voters.

Losers …

The state Public Defender Standards Council. The Senate moved to strip the outspoken public defenders board of its power. Board members have criticized the state for not providing enough money to defend poor people accused of crimes. Lawmakers responded that the board is dysfunctional and doesn’t work well with others.

The DOT board. The big three of Georgia government —- Gov. Sonny Perdue, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson —- joined forces to promote a sweeping change in how Georgia decides to spend transportation money. If approved by lawmakers, their proposal would take power from the state Transportation Board, which controls its own budget and is run by 13 commissioners elected by state legislators. The new plan would create an 11-member authority appointed by the big three themselves and then would allow the General Assembly to approve a road budget like the budgets of any other state agency.

Quote of the week:

“Whether you’re O.J. or No-J, if you got a million dollars, you’re probably going home.”

Sen. Kasim Reed (D-Atlanta), noting during debate on the state public defender system that good legal defense can cost a lot of money

Also overheard

“It’s not the peanuts. The peanuts are good. The farmers are doing a good job.”

Farmer Ken Hardy of Hawkinsville, who has seen his boiled peanut sales drop 30 percent in the past three weeks and who joined a group of boosters at the Capitol to demonstrate Georgia’s goobers are safe.

Freebie of the week

> Peanuts, of course. Farmers and food industry lobbyists provided samples of peanut products last week as the Capitol hosted Peanut Power Hour. Giveaways included peanut butter and apple slices, roasted peanuts, boiled peanuts and peanut butter crackers. The idea was to boost consumer confidence, as none of the items were included on the recall list stemming from the nationwide salmonella outbreak traced to a Georgia peanut processing plant.

Coming up this week

> A proposal to allow Georgia Power Co. to start charging in 2011 for construction of a future nuclear power plant may go before a House committee. If the committee approves, the bill could go to the full House. The House also may take up the midyear budget.

> A proposal to expand Sunday alcohol sales could go to a Senate committee.

—- Compiled by staff writer Joe Earle from reports by D.L. Bennett, Ariel Hart, Mary Lou Pickel, James Salzer and Aaron Gould Sheinin