With the last of the free barbecue from sine die cleared away, we take a look at the winners and losers from the 2011 regular session of the Georgia General Assembly.
Winners
Gov. Nathan Deal
Georgia's new governor got what he needed from the Legislature with cuts to the HOPE scholarship and an agreement on his first budget. He also charted a new course on water, with money and legislation to promote development of regional reservoirs.
Deal's promised corporate tax cut was left out of legislation to overhaul the state's tax structure, but the door is still open for the governor to assert his influence there, too.
House Speaker David Ralston
Credit Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and the leadership in the Senate with making Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, look like King Solomon by comparison. While the other chamber squabbled, Ralston was a steady hand in the House, overcoming early ethical questions about a lobbyist-funded trip to Europe.
House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams
The Democrats might have been a footnote without their new leader in the House. Abrams, D-Atlanta, rallied her membership and impressed her GOP opponents. Abrams, a tax attorney, lanced a GOP tax plan with a pointed spreadsheet showing it would raise taxes on most middle-class taxpayers. The episode left Republicans with egg on their face and House Democrats feeling strangely relevant.
Rep. Matt Ramsey, R-Peachtree City
Ramsey emerged the victor with the approval of his tougher version of immigration legislation. For much of the session, immigration rights advocates made him into the poster child for intolerance while lobbyists for agriculture and the hospitality industry tried to derail the plan for financial reasons..
Grocery stores
Kroger, Publix and the like came out as big winners. First, the General Assembly passed a bill allowing Sunday alcohol sales to be decided by local election, giving grocery stores a chance to keep their profitable beer and wine aisles operating seven days a week. Markets scored a second victory when a proposal to apply a state sales tax to groceries was scrapped.
Special interests
A regular winner under the Gold Dome, niche groups with powerful lobbies or big phone banks walked away from the session with trophies.
Delta Air Lines and Gulfstream Aerospace each had their tax breaks extended, and a new tax credit was carved out for tourism developers. Private developers got a special law that will allow them to partner with local governments to build regional reservoirs and take their profits from water bills.
Advertising companies won with a bill that will allow them to cut trees so their billboards can be seen more easily.
A long list of professional and civic groups, including veterinarians and the Girl Scouts, got themselves excused from a package of changes that would have required them to charge a sales tax on their goods or services. (Note to the auto mechanics: Hire a lobbyist.)
Losers
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Senate Republicans
Much of the drama of the session centered on the power struggle in the Senate, about which most Georgians couldn't care less. In January, GOP leaders in the Senate, led by Senate Pro Tem Tommie Williams and Majority Leader Chip Rogers, stripped Cagle of most of his powers to control business in the chamber.
The result was an often-confusing leadership arrangement that split loyalties and led to frequent closed-door meetings that became the butt of jokes in the House. The Senate adjourned without a final settlement of this palace war.
Illegal immigrants
With the passage of House Bill 87, immigrants in Georgia may well expect extra scrutiny in encounters with local police. The bill empowers local police to look into the immigration status of certain suspects. It also put more requirements on employers to verify applicants are in the country legally.
Ethics coalition
A partnership between Common Cause, tea partyers and the League of Women Voters to enact new ethics rules in the General Assembly appeared to have little impact. Lobbyists continued to fawn over lawmakers with expensive meals and tickets to sporting events despite calls for reform.
Tax council
The Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness released a bold set of recommendations to overhaul the state's 1950s-era tax code. Lawmakers decided some of them were too bold and pared them down to a much more modest proposal to lower the income tax rate, give breaks to business and apply the sales tax a little more broadly. Even that proved too much as lawmakers put the brakes on an overhaul until at least this summer.
"B" students
Changes made to the HOPE scholarship out of financial necessity mean that students will have to hit the books even harder. With the changes, only
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