Brock Clay Capitol Report, Crossover Week

Crossover week in the Legislature commenced with a flurry of activity as lawmakers rushed to get their most important legislation passed before the Day 30 deadline. On Tuesday, the House and Senate passed the $18.9 billion midyear budget, complete with funding for the Homeowner's Tax Relief Grant. The Governor has stated he will accept $1.1 billion in federal stimulus money, which will provide $527 million for Medicaid and $427 million for education. Earlier this week, rumors started flying around that the Georgia House was considering reinstating the $.04 sales tax on groceries. If you'll remember, this measure was removed from the books in the late 1990s by then - Governor Zell Miller. Many have advocated for the reinstatement of this tax to raise revenue from out - of - state shoppers and illegal immigrants. The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Chuck Sims (R - Ambrose), Vice Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. He has sponsored similar legislation in the passed, but curiously enough, House Bill 67 made it out of the House Ways and Means Committee earlier this week, giving rise to rumors that the bill might actually pass. However, on Tuesday, Speaker Pro Tempore Mark Burkhalter (R - Alpharetta) and Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R - Woodstock) stated in no uncertain terms that the Legislature had no intention of reinstating that sales tax.

Earlier this session, Rep. Tom Graves (R - Granger) introduced the Jobs Opportunity and Success (JOBS) Act of 2009. This legislation, in the form of House Bills 481 and 482 , would do the following: create and preserve jobs by phasing out the corporate income tax; eliminating the sales tax deposit; eliminating the state inventory tax and giving businesses a $500 credit toward unemployment insurance tax and $2,400 income tax credit for each eligible employee hired. Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers joined Rep. Graves in support of the JOBS Act. With 98% of the employers in Georgia classified as small businesses, this is a step in the right direction. "After all," as former President Calvin Coolidge put it: "...the chief business of the American people is business." On Thursday, the JOBS Act passed the House by a vote of 164 - 4.

This week, the fight over embryonic stem cell research rapidly heated up as Senate Bill 169 as the Senate Health and Human Services Committee passed the revamped measure by a vote of 7 - 6. The new version of the legislation would essentially define an embryo as a human being, and comes on the heels of President Barack Obama's decision to lift the federal ban on funding embryonic stem cell research. Proponents of the legislation argue that it would not hurt the stem cell research industry in Georgia, citing the fact that it would not restrict projects involving current stem cell lines and lines brought in from out of state. Critics of the legislation say that it effectively would eliminate the practice of in vitro fertilization in Georgia. The Senate began debating this legislation mid - afternoon on crossover day, and after an hour of initial debate, voted to table the bill by a vote of 30 - 26. After a short period for caucus meetings,the Senate reconvened, removed the bill from the table, and subsequently passed the bill as amended by a vote of 34 - 22. The amended version of the bill removed all references to in vitro fertilization, and prohibits researchers from mixing human and animal genes. It also madates that all embryos be created for the purpose of making babies.

The House and Senate considered measures this week that would require health insurance to include ABA (applied behavioral analysis) coverage for austism. The Georgia Chamber and NFIB spoke against the efforts as a mandate on small businesses that would increase costs and jeopardize benefits for their employees. Austism Speaks had representatives who advocated for the coverage of these treatments which they argued helped children where traditional methods had failed. Each chamber's bill was considered and passed the Senate Insurance and House Insurance Sub-Committee levels; however, the Senate bill exempted the state's employees, small businesses under 25 employees and Medicaid. The Senate's version of the bill, Senate Bill 161 went to the Senate floor on Thursday, where it was tabled indefinitely. Senate President Pro Tempore Tommie Williams (R - Lyons) asked the Lt. Governor to appoint a study committee that will meet over the summer of 2009 and make recommendation to the Legislature for future legislative action.

In 1995, the Legislature passed telecom deregulation legislation that, among other things, established a Universal Access Fund which was paid into by the larger telecom providers to subsidize the operations of smaller rural providers. Many contemporary critics of the system who supported House Bill 168 say the system was designed for landline based systems and therefore has become a slush fund for the executives of those small companies. House Bill 168 does away with the Universal Access Fund. Opponents of the measure criticize it as a power grab by telecom giants that would crowd out developing companies in a difficult economic environment. The measure passed the House by a vote of 123 - 42.

The House voted 113 - 53 on Monday to approve House Bill 160, a plan that would add an additional fine on certain driving violations in Georgia. Those who are caught driving faster than 75 MPH on two lane roads or 85 MPH on four lane roads will pay an additional $200 on top of any other fines and penalties. Backers of the measure point to prevention of irresponsible behavior coming from the extra fine, and also a reduction in traumatic injuries due to behavioral adjustments that will hopefully be stimulated by the measure. Portions of this measure have been pushed strongly by Governor Sonny Perdue as a funding source for Georgia's trauma network.

Over the past several weeks, transportation has been one of the biggest issues facing the Legislature. Currently, there are competing proposals from both the House and the Senate dealing separately with the issues of governance and funding. Senator Jeff Mullis, the Republican chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, has proposed a regional type funding proposal in Senate Bill 39 and Senate Resolution 44 . Under Senator Mullis' plan, the 10 counties in the Atlanta MPO (Atlanta Regional Commission) would join together in one region, and the rest of the state of Georgia would be free to vote on transportation projects on either a county by county basis, or join together in regions. This plan would raise approximately $10 billion over the next ten years. There are no projects guaranteed, but project lists would have to be agreed upon by counties who wished to join together. Under the Senate plan, the money would be administered by the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Rep. Vance Smith, the Republican chair of the House Transportation Committee, has proposed a different funding proposal which would propose a statewide 1% sales tax that will raise roughly $25 billion over the next ten years. His legislation also contains a very specific set of projects that would be completed with that money. The bill also establishes that every city with 15,000 people or more will receive $1,000 per person for local transportation projects (i.e., a city with 40,000 people will receive $4 million a year for the next ten years). His legislation also sets up an 11 member legislative oversight committee to make sure the funds are spent correctly. Of those 11 members, 5 must come from the ARC region and 5 must come from at least 75 miles outside the ARC region.

Last week, the House passed Chairman Vance Smith's House Bill 277 by a vote of 149 - 18 and the accompanying constitutional amendment, House Resolution 206 passed by a vote of 153 - 15. Last Wednesday, Lt. Governor Casey Cagle surprised many stakeholders in the transportation committee by assigning those measures to the Senate Finance Committee, rather than what many assumed would be the logical destination, the Senate Transportation Committee. On Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee met and quickly substituted the original language of the TSPLOST legislation for the House legislation and passed it into the Senate Rules Committee.

After the debate on House Bill 277 and House Resolution 206, the House took up Senate Bill 39. After Senate Bill 39 and Senate Resolution 44 (the accompanying constitution amendment) passed the Senate by votes of 52 - 3 and 53 - 2 respectively, the House Transportation Committee stripped the TSPLOST language and replaced it with the language of Senate Bill 120. Senate Bill 120 had been previously introduced by Senator Doug Stoner to eliminate the requirement that MARTA spend at least 50% of their revenue on capital expansion. The "new" Senate Bill 39 passed the House on Tuesday 122 - 42. The bill currently sits in the Senate awaiting a motion to agree or disagree.

Senate Bill 200 is the transportation governance legislation that would transition a large part of the transportation planning and funding responsibility from the Georgia Department of Transportation to a newly created State Transportation Agency. Last Thursday, the Senate passed it by the slimmest of margins, a final vote of 30 - 25. The bill now proceeds to the House, where many observers speculate it may face serious opposition, both from Democrats and rural Republicans who worry that the proposed system will heavily favor metro - Atlanta. The bill is scheduled for a hearing in the House Transportation Committee on Monday. House Bill 605 (a companion governance measure), sponsored by Rep. Jerry Keen (R - St. Simons) and Rep. David Ralston (R - Blue Ridge), was heard in the House Transportation committee, but not voted upon, therefore rendering it dead for the 2009 session.

Last week, Governor Sonny Perdue cut his proposed budget for trauma care in the face of a wilting revenue estimate. His previous budget proposal had proposed $60 million for the Georgia Trauma Care Network Commission, and the revised budget numbers have cut that number to $23 million. The Georgia Trauma Care Network Commission is yet another victim of the slashing the state of Georgia is currently doing in the face of an additional budget deficit of $1.6 billion.

On Tuesday, the Senate passed Senate Resolution 277, which proposes an amendment to the Georgia Constitution to add a $10 surcharge on all car tag purchases. The proceeds of that surcharge would be used to fund Georgia's trauma network. Senator Greg Goggans (R - Douglas) is the sponsor of the resolution and the Chairman of the powerful Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the budget for the Department of Community Health. The resolution passed the Senate by a vote of 48 - 8.

In the meantime, Representative Harry Geisinger (R - Atlanta) and Representative Tom Rice (R - Norcross) have continued to work on a trauma funding mechanism contained in House Bill 480. This legislation would eliminate the unpopular "birthday tax," and also eliminate sales taxes on the purchase of automobiles. Instead, it would institute a one time title transfer fee of 7% capped at $2,000.00. A portion of those funds would be returned to local governments, and a portion will be sent to the state treasury. For the previous fiscal year, approximately $50 per title transferred will be appropriated for the Georgia Trauma Care Network Commission; however, that amount will be capped at $150 million. Thursday, this bill passed the House by a vote of 133 - 39.

Remember, Legislative Day 40 and Sine Die is April 3, 2009.


And in other news...

This week, long time GOP leader Randy Evans announced that he would not seek reappointment as the General Counsel for the Georgia Republican Party. Anne Lewis, the Deputy Counsel, will be his likely successor.

Former Georgia state legislator Mary Squires has announced that she will run as a Democrat for the office of Georgia's Insurance Commissioner.

Today in History: Cambridge College was renamed Harvard University, and the German-born English astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Georgium Sidus, later known as Uranus.

When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find an ill man curled up next to a motor home trying to steal gasoline and plugged his hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges, saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.

Have a great weekend.


Seth Millican
Brock Clay Public Affairs