Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed legislation Tuesday that would have allowed private probation companies to keep secret from the public details such as how many people they supervise and how much they collect in fines.
The legislation, House Bill 837, was one of 10 bills that he vetoed as the last day that he could sign or scuttle legislation. While the governor signed dozens of pieces of legislation into law, the handful of vetoes he issued highlight the rare public differences between the GOP governor and the Republican-led Legislature.
The probation bill gave Deal one of his trickiest decisions. Supporters said it would help private probation companies avoid frivolous litigation that could jeopardize the industry, while opponents warned it amounted to a gift to help shield the lucrative firms from more scrutiny.
Deal said he was worried about the "red flags" raised in a recent state audit that found courts provide little oversight of private probation companies and the firms often fail to supervise the low-level offenders they should watch. He also expressed concerns that the language went too far.
“I favor more transparency over private probation services and therefore I am not in favor of this information being exempt from the Georgia Open Records Act,” he said in the veto statement.
His other vetoes covered bills that didn't attract as much public scrutiny. He tossed Senate Bill 281, which would have required the state-sponsored insurance plan to offer more products, on grounds that his administration has already made changes to the program to add more options.
He also scuttled legislation that would have increased the daily expense allowance for members of several state boards and create a statewide registry of business trade names to be housed and maintained by the judicial system. Both proposals, he said, could threaten taxpayer dollars.
A pair of measures that were aimed at settling an annexation dispute between the cities of Brookhaven and Chamblee also got the red pen treatment as the deadline approached. Deal said in his veto statement that he feared the legislation could pre-empt an ongoing court fight.
The probation measure, though, sparked the greatest debate. Several supporters of the legislation did not immediately return calls seeking comment. But critics of HB 837 celebrated the governor’s decision.
Sarah Geraghty of the Southern Center for Human Rights, an Atlanta-based civil rights group, said Deal displayed “great wisdom” with the move.
“This bill would have expanded the reach of the private probation industry and given it the cloak of secrecy,” Geraghty said. “Governor Deal has shown a great deal of integrity.”
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