A few examples that raised questions about conflicts of interest in the past decade:
- A law quietly pushed by House Ways & Means Chairman Larry O'Neal, R-Warner Robins, providing a tax break on land sold by his Houston County neighbor, Gov. Sonny Perdue, wound up being an issue in the governor's 2006 re-election campaign.
- In 2009, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that one House leader in the mobile home business was sponsoring legislation to prohibit communities from putting restrictions on modular homes, while another lawmaker who was CEO of a private probation company filed legislation to limit oversight of the private probation business. The bills stalled or were withdrawn.
- That same year, U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal got unwanted headlines as he began his race for governor when the AJC reported that he personally intervened with state leaders to preserve an obscure state program that granted him a regional monopoly. Deal and his business partner provided a location for rebuilt salvaged vehicles to be inspected, a 20-year business arrangement that earned them a reported $300,000 a year.
- In 2014, the AJC reported that a lawmaker whose family is in the auction business sponsored legislation that may have forced cities, counties, sheriffs and businesses to hire licensed auctioneers when they sold inventory or property. The bill stalled.
A key Georgia Senate panel stalled an insurance agents commission bill pushed by a powerful House leader Monday, the day after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution raised questions about the measure.
Monday's decision may have ramifications for legislation for the rest of the session — which ends March 24 — because the bill's patron is House Rules Chairman John Meadows, R-Calhoun, a longtime insurance agent. Meadows' committee decides which bills get voted on by the House.
House Bill 838 stalled after more than half the members of Senate Insurance Committee present for the meeting recused themselves from voting because they have connections to the industry and may have a conflict of interest on the measure. The rare mass recusal left only three members available to decide the issue, none of whom wanted to move it forward.
The same senators who recused themselves Monday regularly vote on other industry legislation.
The bill would guarantee a minimum 5 percent commission for agents who sell group health policies. It also would set a 4 percent minimum commission for individual health benefit plans.
The legislation was sponsored by freshman state Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, who is not in the insurance business.
But the AJC reported on Sunday that it was the idea of Meadows, who said agent commissions have dropped by almost 50 percent since he began selling policies 38 years ago.
Meadows said he offered insurance companies a chance to help craft the bill, but they declined. Health insurers said they offered a nonlegislative fix as well, but that didn’t work out.
Ethics watchdogs, and some lobbyists, called it an in-your-face example of the kind of conflicts of interest that have gone on at the Capitol for decades.
Georgia’s conflict-of-interest laws are weak. Some would say nonexistent. Members can recuse themselves from voting on issues when they have a conflict. Some do. Many don’t. And members don’t publicly investigate such conflicts. They generally only play out in the media.
The rules basically dictate that unless a bill solely benefits a member’s business, recusal isn’t necessary. House members recused themselves 18 times during the 2015 session, the most recent data available. In the Senate, members asked to be excused from a vote on seven occasions.
Meadows did not appear at Monday’s Senate hearing. Blackmon told the panel that the bill was needed to help insurance agents, who run important small businesses.
State Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, a member of the committee, asked, "Is there anywhere else in the (state) code where we guarantee a payment like this?"
Senate President Pro Tem David Shafer, R-Duluth, also a member of the committee, responded, "Don't we have a minimum wage?"
Blackmon and lobbyists for agents said the measure was needed in part because the Affordable Care Act mandated that insurance companies spend at least 80 percent of the money they take in from premiums on health care costs and quality improvement. The other 20 percent can go to administrative, overhead and marketing costs, and agents’ commissions are being cut as companies seek to keep most of that 20 percent.
The bill is far from dead. Senate Insurance Committee Chairman Charlie Bethel, R-Dalton, said he may call another meeting later this week. And senators are unlikely to want to deal with the consequences of killing a bill being pushed by a House leader who helps decide which of their bills live or die.
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