WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE REPORT – March 31, 2006

Budget deal approved in session’s final hours

By Rep. Hugh Floyd

Holding with tradition, the final gavel of the 2006 session of the Georgia General Assembly came down just before midnight on Thursday, the 40th and final day for consideration of legislation this year.

As usual, one of the last pieces of legislation to win final approval was the $18.6 billion annual state budget for fiscal year 2007. Conference committee members from the House of Representatives and the Senate worked out their differences, and both houses overwhelmingly approved the spending plan.

The record budget amount, which is up more than $1 billion from the current year, includes a 7 percent pay raise for state Public Safety officers, including State Troopers, and a 4 percent pay raise for public school educators, as well as raises of 2 to 4 percent for other state employees. The measure also includes funding to provide home-based care for more seniors and disabled Georgians.

Although I voted for the budget in its final form, I remain concerned that it piles on an inordinate amount of additional bonded indebtedness. Also, more cuts and mandates are imposed on public school systems, which will shift the tax burden to local property taxpayers. In the future, we must work toward greater fiscal responsibility at the state level to meet the needs of all Georgians.

In my next report, I will provide a comprehensive wrap-up of the major issues that were addressed during the 2006 session. Here are some of the highlights of the final legislative week:

The House and Senate worked out a final compromise on legislation aimed at keeping dangerous sex offenders behind bars. House Bill 1059, now awaiting the governor’s signature, would mandate that sex offenders who receive life sentences serve at least 25 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole (up from the current 14 years), followed by permanent electronic monitoring.

At the request of the Georgia Sheriffs Association, the conference committee adjusted the residence restrictions for sex offenders who are released from jail. These offenders would be prohibited from living or working within 1,000 feet any location frequented by children, including school bus stops. The bill previously spelled out a 1,000-foot restriction from any bus stop, and the sheriffs argued this would cause more offenders to relocate to rural counties where there is no public transit system.

The amended bill also broadened the so-called “Romeo and Juliet” language to exclude teenagers who engage in consensual sex from felony charges. This misdemeanor provision would apply in cases of statutory rape or sodomy when the person convicted is no more than four years older than the victim, and the victim is at least 13 years old.

The General Assembly agreed on two steps that would curtail the Perdue administration’s plan to seize the estates of nursing home patients as a means of recovering Medicaid benefits. The legislation receiving final approval includes a provision that I supported in the House, raising the exemption level to estates valued at $100,000 (up from $25,000) and a Senate-inspired proposal applying the program only to those who go on Medicaid after May 1, so as not to retroactively impact existing nursing home patients.

I am also pleased that House members soundly defeated a proposal, brought to the floor on the 40th day, which would have allowed developers to build houses within the protective buffers of Georgia streams that feed into drinking water reservoirs. Supporters tried to salvage Senate Bill 510, which would have seriously degraded water quality by putting septic tanks too close to streams, with last-minute amendments they said would protect water quality. But House members weren’t buying that legislation in any form, and it failed by a vote of 30-139.

The House and Senate gave final approval to SB 529, dealing with illegal immigration. Provisions in the final bill that came out of conference committee, most of which if signed by the governor would take effect until 2007 in 2008, require that persons applying for government services must provide documentation proving they are legal residents of Georgia, employers working on government projects must verify the legal status of their new employees, contractors employing immigrants who do not have a taxpayer identification number must withhold 6 percent state income tax for their 1099 tax forms and employers who hire illegal residents cannot claim the wages paid to these employees as a tax deduction. The compromise version of SB 529 does not include an earlier provision that would have imposed a 5 percent fee on wire transfers of money outside the U.S. by undocumented immigrants.

A House majority also approved legislation that would revise the way child support payments are calculated in divorce custody cases. SB 382, if signed by the governor, will require that the incomes of both parents will be taken into account when a judge calculates what the monthly child support payments will be. Supporters of the bill say it will bring about long-needed changes in the method by which child support payments are handled and will be less traumatic for the children involved in a divorce.