For 40 days, members of Georgia's House of Representative and Senate battled over myriad issues, everything from the state's budget to a prohibition on the involuntary implanting of microchips in humans. All of this being done in the wake of a troublesome ethics scandal involving the former speaker of the House and the worst economic environment in generations. The following is a sampling of some of the legislation that passed, plus a few bills that did not. There were hundreds of pieces of legislation developed this year.
For a complete review of this year's legislation, please visit the Georgia General Assembly's website at www.legis.state.ga.us/.
State budget
Lawmakers OK'd Georgia's $17.9 billion budget for 2011. It trims about $600 million from education and is likely to mean furloughs, layoffs and increased college tuition. Included in the 2011 budget, which kicks in July 1, are about $96 million in fee increases and a tax on hospital revenue designed to raise more than $200 million.
Ethics
SB17 is considered a sweeping piece of ethics legislation by Georgia lawmakers. The bill would broaden the authority of the state Ethics Commission; tighten reporting requirements for lobbyists and legislators; increase lobbying fees and fines for lobbyists and legislators who break the law; make it a crime to use state agencies or authorities to attack or harass someone; and prohibit sexual harassment.
Transportation
HB 277 would allow regions such as metro Atlanta to submit a transportation project list and a 1 percent sales tax to voters in 2012 for their approval. The bill is a victory for business groups that fought years for transportation funding. It’s a mixed bag for mass transit advocates, who said it treated MARTA unfairly but were glad it would create a major funding source that could be spent on projects other than roads, unlike the state gas tax.
HB 1446 and part of HB 277 would raise the tax cap so Clayton County, which canceled its bus service this year, and call a referendum and a County Commission vote on whether to raise a sales tax to join MARTA, said Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam. Some commissioners who voted to cancel the service expressed concerns about such a move, though.
SR 821 would go to the voters for a referendum on whether the state Department of Transportation should be allowed to sign multiyear contracts without having the money for the entire contract amount set aside at the beginning. Sponsors say it could free up millions of dollars, but the governor's office expressed fiscal concern.
SB 305 would raise the cap for the amount of “design-build” work that the DOT can contract by bundling the design work with the construction contract, rather than bidding out the construction alone by low bid. The DOT’s planning director says it would make for more efficient and cheaper projects when engineering can be done simultaneously with construction, since each of those parts of the work and the bureaucratic bid process can often take years. Large contractors who tend to win low bids prefer the construction to be awarded separately in a low-bid system.
Water
SB 370 calls for state standards requiring water utilities to detect leaks. And beginning in 2012, builders would be required to use "efficient water fixtures" in all new residential and commercial construction. Builders would also be required to use "submetering" for new apartment buildings to measure water use for each unit.
Additionally, the Water Stewardship Act would direct eight state agencies to develop incentives for communities to conserve water. For example, water-saving communities could find it easier to obtain lower-interest state loans and apply more frequently for state grants. The bill would also set up a joint House and Senate committee to find new sources of water, including building reservoirs or expanding existing ones.
Education
SB 84 would tighten ethics and training requirements for local school board members. It would give the state power to step in when a school system risks losing accreditation, including the removal of board members.
HB 977, a feel-good political bill, would bar school systems from using state funds to raise administrators' pay if they furlough teachers and other employees the same year. Systems also would be required to hold a public hearing on such raises, even if the school board uses only local money to pay for them.
SB 299 would change the state's policy on "zero tolerance" discipline in schools, giving them more discretion in how they handle disciplinary cases. It was inspired by the case of a Morgan County student who was kicked out of school after accidentally bringing a fishing knife to class.
HB 908 is a budget-related bill that would allow school systems to expand class sizes over the next three years to save money.
Driving and texting
HB 23, sponsored by Rep. Matt Ramsey (R-Peachtree City), would ban Class D drivers, mostly teenagers, from talking on cellphones while driving.
SB 360 would ban texting by all drivers. Sponsored by Sen. Jack Murphy (R-Cumming), the bill will be known as the Caleb Sorohan Act, named after a Morgan County teenager who died while texting and driving.
Carrying a firearm
SB 308, sponsored by Sen. Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg), would let licensed gun owners carry them in bars where the owners allow it and in the parking lots of colleges, courthouses and jails. It would eliminate the ban on guns within 1,000 feet of schools and colleges.
Property tax reform
SB 346, written by Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), would require that every property owner receive an annual Notice of Assessment guaranteeing a right to appeal. Assessment notices must contain an estimated property tax. The appeal period is widened from 30 to 45 days.
Seat belts
HB 22 would require pickup truck drivers to abide by the same seat belt requirements that have applied to car drivers in Georgia since 1988.
Animal cruelty
HB 788, known as Grace’s Law, would prohibit the use of gas chambers at animal shelters in Georgia effective Dec. 31. It would mandate euthanasia by injection, which supporters of the bill said is more humane.
Roadkill
SB 474 would allow drivers to keep any bear or deer that they run over. The so-called "Roadkill Bill" was written by Sen. Don Thomas (R-Dalton).
Health care
This bill would prohibit mandatory participation in any federal health care system and was attached as an amendment to SB 411, the Healthy Georgians Act of 2010. The amendment was part of language originally crafted by Sen. Judson Hill (R-Marietta), who said his amendment would protect Georgians' rights on their health care choices.
Reservoirs
Legislation that could lead to more reservoirs statewide and cost the city of Atlanta millions in revenue passed Thursday. HB 406 was intended to help build a reservoir in south Fulton County, but it was broadened. The city of Atlanta lost assurances it would hold onto $125 million a year in new sales taxes to make up for the loss of revenue from water customers in south Fulton.
Issues that failed
Abortion
A revision of a controversial abortion bill was thought to have gotten a big final push on Thursday from House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge). The legislation, however, never got to the floor. Ralston told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week that an abortion bill that was before the House, SB 529, was unacceptable as written. He proposed an alternative he thought was more constitutionally sound and not designed to encourage a court fight.
It has been at least five years since abortion was a dominant issue during a legislative session. In February, Georgia Right to Life began a push for legislation that would make it a 10-year felony for a physician to perform an abortion if the patient discloses that she is having the procedure because of objections to the race or gender of the fetus. It also would make it a crime for the physician to perform an abortion if the patient were coerced into ending a pregnancy.
The original bill, HB 1155, never made it out of House committee. Supporters in the Senate, however, picked up the mantle and in late March passed SB 529.
Microchips
Sponsored by Sen. Chip Pearson (R-Dawsonville), SB 235 sought to prohibit the requiring of a person to be implanted with a microchip. It did not make it past Crossover Day.
Education
HB 521 was a key initiative of Gov. Sonny Perdue that would have made student performance part of teachers' job evaluations. Perdue initially also wanted to mandate that teachers' pay depend on how students performed on tests, but that bill, SB 386, failed to get out of committee.
Taken together, HB 1121/HB 1111 would have made it unlawful to tamper with state tests or help others cheat on them. Perdue endorsed the bills, but lawmakers balked at some of the penalties, which included finding violators guilty of a misdemeanor and taking away their pensions.
Milton County
HR 21 would have allowed for the re-creation of Milton County out of what is now north Fulton County.
