WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE REPORT - March 27, 2009
Many decisions due in final week of 2009 session
In the remaining days of the 2009 session of the Georgia General Assembly, final action on the annual state budget for fiscal year 2010 and major decisions on transportation funding and oversight are still at the top of the agenda.
As I reported last week, the House of Representatives majority passed an $18.6 billion budget proposal on March 19, but the Senate has yet to send its plan back to the House. When the Senate does finalize its budget, the Appropriations Conference Committee will have only a short time to work out differences between it and the House plan before final adjournment of this session, which is scheduled for Friday, April 3.
Meanwhile, there are still major disagreements between the House and Senate on the transportation issues of funding and governance. On Wednesday, the House voted to approve a compromise version of HR 206 and HB 277, which would allow voters to decide on a statewide 1 percent sales tax to generate $25 billion to fund transportation projects over the next 10 years.
The amended version of the legislative package provides that if the statewide referendum fails, then counties would be authorized to implement a regional sales tax, which matches the Senate's preferred approach. But the Senate rejected that compromise on Thursday, meaning that a conference committee must work out a final agreement before April 3, or the legislature's chance to come up with a transportation funding solution in this session will be lost.
Gov. Perdue's proposal to strip the state Department of Transportation (DOT) board of its authority and replace it with a new State Transportation Authority, whose members would be hand-picked by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker, has yet to reach the House floor for a vote. Many lawmakers feel moving away from the current process of the legislature electing the DOT board members by congressional districts would weaken the voices of many areas of the state, and this particular plan appears to be losing support in the House as the session draws to a close.
For the second time this session, House members rejected a proposal to double the homestead exemption from $2,000 to $4,000, which opponents said would have forced local governments and school boards to choose between eliminating vital services and raising tax millage rates. SB 83 failed to receive the needed two-thirds majority approval in the House on Wednesday and is dead for the 2009 session.
The following legislation originating in the Senate was approved by the House last week:
SB 13, which would allow a sentence of life without parole to be imposed, even when prosecutors do not seek the death penalty. Currently life without parole is allowed only as an option in death penalty cases.
SB 14, which would prohibit anyone on the national or state sex offender registry from being eligible for election to or service on local school boards.
SB 44, which would require school systems to give preference to products manufactured in Georgia when purchasing supplies, equipment and food.
SB 61, which would establish the Life Settlements Act, providing oversight and regulation of life settlement contracts and requiring brokers to be licensed and regulated by the Georgia Department of Insurance.
SB 69, which would require citizens to report suspicions of sexual exploitation of children.
SB 155, which would remove buffer zones from streams carrying mostly rainwater. I voted against this proposal because it offers too broad an exemption from environmental protection measures.
SB 165, which would authorize the Department of Community Health to obtain income eligibility verification from the Department of Revenue for Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids applicants.
SB 170, which would prohibit companies that do business in Sudan from submitting proposals for Georgia state contracts in the future.
House members also approved an amended version of HB 233, which would freeze property valuation reassessments for the next two years. The Senate agreed to final changes, sending the bill to the governor for his signature.
