WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE REPORT—March 30, 2007

 

House adopts supplemental budget proposal

 

By Rep. Hugh Floyd

 

The House of Representatives approved a supplemental budget proposal last week, increasing fiscal year 2007 spending by $700 million.  Among the local line items proposed are $2.5 million for community health centers across the state, including one for Norcross.

 

The midyear appropriations bill (HB 94) also includes a $194 million earmark for the 2.65 percent increase in public school enrollment; $11 million in tornado disaster relief for Americus; $9.6 million in additional funding for the Public Defenders System; $1 million for the Tour de Georgia bicycle race; $7 million for antiviral pandemic flu vaccination; $4.7 million for the Local Assistance Road Program to repave Georgia roads and $100,000 for an outside audit of the state electronic voting system.

 

The Senate will now consider the supplemental budget while budget writers continue to work on the state spending plan for fiscal year 2008, which begins July 1.

 

Tuesday, March 27 was “crossover day” for the 2007 session of the Georgia General Assembly. As the 30th legislative day of the session, it was the deadline for measures to be sent from either the House of Representatives or the Senate for consideration by the other chamber this year.

 

Among the measures approved by the House was legislation would disqualify thousands of Georgia children from health care coverage under the PeachCare for Kids program. I voted against House Bill 340 because lowering the eligibility level to 200 percent of the federal poverty level from the current 235 percent is not necessary to sustain PeachCare’s financial viability.

 

HB 340 would actually allow the Department of Community Health to reduce the rate to 185 percent if it so desires.  HB 340 would also require families to pay a premium for dental and vision care when the existing program provides it for free.

 

Congress is delivering the action its leaders have promised to meet the federal funding shortfall for PeachCare. This should not be an occasion to kick Georgia’s working families out of the program.

 

Legislation that would postpone a state mandate to reduce class sizes in Georgia schools, was also approved by the House majority.  The House adopted HB 291, which would create the Georgia Arts Alliance, the development of a cultural policy for the State of Georgia, and the development of a Future Art and Music Teachers Pilot Program. 

 

 

 

The House passed HB 2 by a vote of 156-14.  This bill would require a municipality, with an independent school system, to first receive consent from the county governing authority before annexing any land from said county.  If the consent is refused, then both parties would seek arbitration as requested by the municipality. As a member of the subcommittee that handled this legislation, I worked to reach an effective compromise between advocates for city and county interests.

 

Also this week, the House approved Senate legislation that would authorize optometrists to prescribe a limited number of eye medications. House members amended SB 17 to include a longer list of medications and a compromise version will have to be worked out between the two chambers. Georgia is the only state in the nation that does not grant optometrists these prescriptive rights.

 

Among the legislative proposals that did not make it out of the House on crossover day included HB 163, which would repeal the state’s ban on “payday lending.” For the second time in a week, it was narrowly voted down. Not even coming up for a vote in the House were HB 610, which would allow for excessive tree-cutting around billboards along Georgia’s interstates, highways and roads, HB 195, which would have exempted all retirement income from state income tax, and HB 337, which would have dramatically changed Georgia’s Certificate of Need law for construction of health care facilities. These bills and others will be studied later in the year and be eligible for consideration in the 2008 legislative session.

 

• Rep. Hugh Floyd (D-Norcross) represents the 99th District (Gwinnett County) in the Georgia House of Representatives. Contact him at 611 Coverdell Office Building, Atlanta, GA  30334; by phone at 404-656-0314 or by e-mail at hughfloyd@mindspring.com.