As 2nd term opens, Deal shifts priorities away from campaign pledges

Since he took his oath of office last Monday, the governor has assigned a study commission to work on remaking the education funding formula, delaying a legislative debate on a pivotal piece of his re-election platform until at least 2016.

He also wants to put off for a year his proposal to vastly expand the ethics commission, which he invoked whenever his Democratic critics questioned his office’s role in an ethics probe into his first gubernatorial campaign.

In both cases, he has said more time is needed to vet weighty decisions he once said would take place in 2015. It also reflects a shift in his top priorities since he won 53 percent of the vote in November against Democrat Jason Carter.

Since his swearing-in ceremony in the crowded chamber of the Georgia House, he has staked his political clout behind two initiatives that he gave far less attention on the campaign trail.

He now casts a constitutional amendment to give the state broad new powers to intervene in struggling schools as an imperative to pass this legislative session. During his bid for re-election, he said he wanted lawmakers to only study such an idea in 2015.

And he told lawmakers it would be “unacceptable” if they failed to find a way to raise new revenue for roads and rail projects this year, a call to raise taxes or levy new fees for transportation projects that he didn’t make on the campaign trail.

The timing is partly rooted in election-year politics. Detailing his proposal to give the state the power to take over failing schools before the election could have stirred up more Democratic opposition. And avowing support for new taxes or fees for infrastructure could have alienated fiscal conservatives who are the cornerstone of Georgia’s Republican base.

Deal and his allies also cast it as part of the give-and-take of the legislative debate. Deal attributed his support for the transportation initiative as a result of "changing circumstances," including a fast-growing population. His education proposal, he said, was initially slated for his first term before his advisers urged him to wait.

The governor’s Democratic critics pounced on the delays.

“It’s unfortunate that he isn’t following through on his ethics commitment,” said state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta. “And it makes me question the timing. I don’t believe that this controversial constitutional amendment just came about. They were planning it long before November.”

They are among several Deal policy shifts in recent weeks. In another notable move, the governor pledged to sign legislation that would decriminalize possession of a particular cannabis oil aimed at treating debilitating seizures despite raising concerns about it last year.

Platform mainstays

Few issues played a more prominent role in Deal's re-election pitch than a vow to recalculate the complicated school funding formula, a 30-year-old law that has long vexed governors. His campaign platform made it a priority to "update the 1985 school funding formula to meet the needs of a 2015 classroom."

That pledge, though, would cost a considerable chunk of political capital and threatened to inflame tensions between urban, suburban and rural school districts fighting over a bigger piece of Georgia's budget. By late last year, he was hinting that it could take several years to hash out the debate.

This month, he formally postponed the fight when he said he would assign a task force of educators, administrators and other experts the delicate task of reviewing not only the funding mechanism but also other hot-button items, such as new classroom guidelines and the future of a popular private school scholarship program.

An underlying reason for the delay, Deal said, is his desire for lawmakers to focus their time on his soon-to-be-introduced constitutional amendment.

“We all understand that it needs a two-thirds vote, and that requires a lot of effort,” the governor said in an interview. “And we’re prepared to devote it.”

In contrast, the governor's ethics proposal has been on the table since he introduced the idea in April, days after a jury sided with a former ethics commission head who claimed she was forced out because she too aggressively investigated complaints involving Deal's 2010 campaign.

His idea was to expand the five-member commission to a body of 13 people — four from each of the three branches of government and a chairman whom the members would appoint themselves. The members would not be allowed to hear any cases involving their branch of government.

While it wasn't exactly stump speech fodder, Deal brought up the proposal regularly to counter assertions from his Democratic challenger, Carter, that his office was too cozy with ethics investigators probing his first campaign for governor. In a debate with Carter, he called it an "inherently bad" agency that needed a shake-up.

The proposal faced immediate resistance from the former head of the watchdog agency, who said it would make the commission far too big, as well as some leading Republican legislators. House Speaker David Ralston said he supports more funding for the agency but not an expansion of its board.

Deal's budget proposal does, indeed, include about $1 million extra to hire four more attorneys and four more investigators. But his legislative package will not include his pledge to expand the board, he said, because the commission is showing signs of progress after a years-long funk that included multiple lawsuits and led to the ouster of its former chief.

“I am willing to do that because I believe if they show good faith, we should reward them with hard work,” he said. “And they obviously have made a significant difference without a change in the makeup or expansion of the ethics commission, they’ve made significant progress. We just don’t want them to sit and languish.”