A spat among Fulton County lawmakers has spilled statewide and now threatens to affect cities and counties across Georgia.
Local-level legislation, dealing with issues such as the expansion of city limits and court appointments, normally glides through the House, often on unanimous votes.
Monday, House Republicans used their legislative muscle — nearly two-thirds of the membership — to scuttle a number of such bills sponsored by Democrats, four days after they originally passed the House.
House Republicans are holding up the bills until Democrats vote in favor of House Bill 541 — a proposal that Fulton voters should decide whether to double the county’s property tax homestead exemption. The bill fell one vote short of passage last week. Fulton government leaders say doubling the homestead exemption would cripple county finances.
The brouhaha is just the latest, and most visible, in a series of skirmishes to emerge out of Fulton since the GOP gained a slim majority of the county’s legislative delegation following the last election. Since then, it has set about to restructure the county’s government. Supporters say it would give north Fulton more equal representation in the county’s government, but critics say it would make it difficult for the county to provide needed services.
“All we’re asking is to have local legislation in Fulton County, that is important to the long-term health of our county, to be respected by the body,” House Majority Whip Ed Lindsey, who led Monday’s effort, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
But that leaves hanging bills that would create a second judgeship in Bibb County State Court; another that makes changes to that county’s civil services board; two Senate bills dealing with Hancock County; a House measure to allow Albany to levy an excise tax; and another that changes the city limits of Hinesville.
Hinesville Mayor James Thomas said his city needs to extend its city limits to prepare for the growth of Fort Stewart. To accommodate the Army’s expansion, Thomas said Hinesville needs to grow in order to provide city services to a larger area.
The inability of Fulton lawmakers to agree will have serious ramifications, Thomas said.
“What they’re doing there is they’re hurting us as a city,” Thomas said. “They’re also hurting our soldiers. Many of them want to get city services.”
HB 541 is sponsored by Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, R-Milton. It would require voters to approve the exemption’s increase in a 2014 referendum. It would cost the county an estimated $40 million to $50 million in annual property tax revenue.
Other Republican-backed bills include one to redraw Fulton’s County Commission lines to add representation on the Northside. The Fulton commission has seven seats, two of which are countywide. Of the five districts, 1 1/2 take in north Fulton.
In largely Republican north Fulton, lawmakers and taxpayers have long said their money has gone to benefit the less afluent and more Democratic south Fulton, all while their power to influence policy has been limited. Most of Fulton is now incorporated into cities, which they see as a justification for scaling back the county budget.
But opponents counter that county taxes still fund libraries and health care, including Grady Memorial Hospital, and that the cuts Republicans propose will be devastating.
Lindsey and other Republicans say House tradition is that legislation affecting a local jurisdiction is approved by the full House if a majority of the county’s delegation approves. But House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, said each member has an obligation to vote for or against a bill on its merits, and she claimed that Republicans in the past have defeated local bills with which they disagreed.
Local bills are normally voted on en masse. If, for example, there are eight such measures ready for a vote of the House, all of them typically are voted on at once. Thursday, only the Fulton County bill required a supermajority of 120 votes, two-thirds of the House’s membership, to pass. Instead, it received 119, which means it failed while the other bills passed. Lindsey used a parliamentary procedure, a common tactic, to have the House reconsider those votes.
The bottom line, for Abrams, though, is one of numbers. Republicans hold 119 of 180 seats in the House. Democrats have little power except when it comes to bills that require a two-thirds vote. Lindsey and the Republicans on Monday reminded Democrats of their status.
Rep. Rusty Kidd, the lone independent in the House and often a GOP ally, said Monday that he had intended to vote for HB 541 last week but was delayed from reaching the House floor.
Kidd, of Milledgeville, apologized Monday for missing the vote and “putting us through all these gymnastics.”
Lindsey and the Republicans, Abrams said, should be able to manage 120 votes with Kidd’s help. She said Republicans, who “jerry-rigged a system to their every advantage” should not expect Democrats to help them.
“We lose every day,” she said. “We’ve never attempted to manipulate the system.”
Monday’s session ended with all these bills, including the Fulton measure, tabled. That leaves them in a parliamentary limbo. A lawmaker may make a motion to remove a bill from the table at any time. And Lindsey’s goal is not to kill any of the bills. He simply wants to send a message to Democrats: Vote for HB 541 or watch your local bills languish.
“The vote was to make sure all those local bills are still in play while we talk to our friends on the Democratic side to restore the respect that has been shown to representatives of local delegations,” he said.
When the revote might happen is not clear. Local bills are not subject to the Crossover Day rule that says legislation must pass one chamber by the end of Day 30 of the 40-day session to have a reasonable chance to pass. Monday was Day 31. The House bills caught up in Monday’s spat must get to the Senate by Day 37 to meet the Senate’s rules.
But Lindsey’s trouble is not just with Democrats. Although there are 119 Republicans, four had excused absences Monday and two others missed at least one key vote for unknown reasons.
“On any given day there are always going to be a few people missing,” he said. “We’ll be counting heads.”
Sen. David Lucas, D-Macon, who sponsored the Hancock County bills, was not amused that his proposals are now sitting on a theoretical desk in the House.
“That’s all tied to Atlanta and Jan Jones,” Lucas said. “It’s a bad precedent.”
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