The Republican-dominated Georgia Legislature gets back to work Monday, facing the likelihood of more budget cuts, a key decision on a hospital fee that bolsters the state’s massive Medicaid program and a decision on whether to support a new Atlanta Falcons football stadium. Other major issues likely to be taken up in the 40-day session include caps on lobbyists’ gifts to legislators and changes to the juvenile justice system. Here’s a recap of the big issues and their prospects:
Budget/taxes
Background: Lawmakers face another year of spending cuts and state agencies another relatively lean year with few new initiatives. Budget battles in Washington may delay the session. Gov. Nathan Deal and legislators won't know until halfway through the session whether Congress will approve federal spending cuts, an important issue because about half of state spending comes from federal programs. State leaders will also have an eye on the economy: Sluggish tax collections — mostly sales and income taxes — could force even deeper cuts, although revenue picked up in December.
Prospects: Lawmakers are required to pass a balanced budget every year. It is the one thing you can bet on.
Key players: Deal, Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Hill, House Appropriations Chairman Terry England, House and Senate leadership
Hospital ‘bed tax’
Background: Legislators must decide whether to renew a 2-year-old hospital provider fee. Commonly called a "bed tax," the fee helps the state draw more than $500 million in federal matching funds to help prop up its ailing Medicaid health care program for the poor. After months of heated negotiations, hospitals have agreed to a fee extension with some tweaks to the formula that determines how funds are redistributed to hospitals. Advocates say letting the fee expire in June could limit access to critical medical care for thousands of Georgians if some hospitals are forced to cut services and others, especially in rural Georgia, close.
Prospects: Hospitals are onboard, but the Georgia Hospital Association is bracing for a potentially larger battle: winning the support of conservative lawmakers who balk at renewing taxes of any kind. Last year, national anti-tax activist Grover Norquist urged Georgia legislators to vote against extending the fee. Norquist said it would break the promise many Republican leaders, including the governor, made to not raise taxes.
Key players: Deal, who supports renewal; the Georgia Hospital Association; Piedmont Hospital and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (both are key players in the negotiations among hospitals)
Falcons stadium
Background: Falcons owner Arthur Blank wants to build a new home for his NFL franchise. He's agreed to preliminary, nonbinding terms with the Georgia World Congress Center to build a $1 billion retractable-roof stadium downtown, which would include using up to $300 million in state-issued bonds backed by hotel/motel tax revenue. But the deal would require a legislative vote to increase how much money the World Congress Center may borrow upfront to begin construction. Lawmakers from both parties have expressed concern over giving a billionaire team owner a handout at a time when education and health programs are being cut.
Prospects: Too close to call. Many lawmakers won't say publicly how they intend to vote or are calling for more time to evaluate the situation. The Falcons, meanwhile, have said they could look at a suburban location as an option, but that comes with its own risks. Most new stadiums are built with public support, and the metro's suburban areas do not offer the tax base that Atlanta does. State leaders fear a flashy new suburban facility would compete with the state-run Georgia Dome, leaving taxpayers on the hook for any shortfall.
Key players: Blank; Frank Poe, the executive director of the Georgia World Congress Center; Rich McKay, the Falcons' president; House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge; Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, the incoming president pro tem and a member of the World Congress Center oversight committee
Ethics
Background: Republican and Democratic voters last summer overwhelmingly backed an end to unlimited lobbyist gifts to lawmakers — although those results are nonbinding. The Senate is expected to back a self-imposed rule capping gifts at $100, led by Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, the legislative leader of a coalition of tea party and watchdog groups. As for the House, Ralston has called a cap gimmicky and countered with an outright ban, but he's been silent on the topic for months. Other ethics topics — including campaign finance and the state's weak and underfunded ethics commission — could also be on the table.
Prospects: Voter discontent means some sort of legislation is likely. Whether it will effectively cap gifts remains to be seen. Passage of broader ethics reforms are a long shot, but the state ethics commission may get more money and some authority to interpret ethics laws.
Key players: Ralston; McKoon; Senate Minority Leader Steve Henson, D-Tucker; House Ethics Chairman Joe Wilkinson, R-Sandy Springs; Common Cause Georgia Director William Perry; tea party activists Julianne Thompson and Debbie Dooley
Immigration
Background: A key part of Georgia's immigration law has created massive backlogs in state license renewals for thousands of nurses, insurance salesman and other professionals. At issue is a provision that requires people to present a form of "secure and verifiable" identification — such as a driver's license or passport — every time they apply for public benefits. Passed in 2011, the law is aimed at blocking illegal immigrants from receiving benefits to which they are not entitled. State Reps. Dusty Hightower, R-Carrollton, and Debbie Buckner, D-Junction City, have separately filed legislation to tweak the law so applicants would be required to submit proof of citizenship only once.
Prospects: Good. The author of the original law, state Rep. Matt Ramsey, R-Peachtree City, has said he is open to improving it. Ralston has made similar remarks.
Key players: Buckner, Hightower, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, Ralston, Ramsey and Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens
Guns
Background: Georgia is already considered among the nation's most friendly states for gun owners, a reputation enhanced when lawmakers voted in 2010 to expand where those with concealed-carry permits could take their guns. Churches, colleges and schools were excluded from that law. Now, in the wake of the recent Connecticut school shootings, some lawmakers want no restrictions at all. State Rep.-elect Charles Gregory, R-Kennesaw, has filed four bills that would sweep away any restrictions on carrying firearms in Georgia and would also bar the governor from suspending gun sales during an emergency. State Rep. Paul Battles, R-Cartersville, has filed a bill that would allow school administrators to carry concealed weapons in buildings, at school functions and on buses.
Prospects: Iffy. While many state lawmakers boast of their support for the Second Amendment, there is little appetite among leadership for grandstanding gun legislation — particularly after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. Less controversial bills, including one proposed last year to allow hunters to use silencers on their guns, are more likely to win passage.
Key players: Senate and House leadership
Education
Background: After a nasty fight last year over a proposed constitutional amendment to boost the state's ability to sponsor charter schools — which voters passed in November — education will take more of a back seat this year to budget issues. But that doesn't mean less controversy. A high-profile Atlanta legislator, Republican House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey, wants to propose a so-called "parent-trigger" bill, allowing parents to petition to have their traditional public school changed into a charter school. And a working group of lawmakers, educators and administrators is expected to push the Legislature to allow greater flexibility for high-performing schools, even as budget constraints limit the state's spending on public schools.
Prospects: Mixed. Lindsey has clout. The working group, officially known as the state Education Finance Study Commission, includes members picked by Deal and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and has worked over the past two years to fine-tune its findings. Public schools advocates — including Georgia teacher organizations — are still angry over how the constitutional amendment was handled, however, and it is not clear whether both sides are ready for Round 2.
Key players: Lindsey; Rep. Brooks Coleman, R-Duluth, House Education Committee chairman; Sen. Fran Millar, R-Dunwoody, Senate Education and Youth Committee chairman; the Professional Association of Georgia Educators; the Georgia Association of Educators; and the Georgia School Boards Association
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