ATLANTA — Top Republican leaders tried to show unity Wednesday as Gov. Sonny Perdue gathered them to review accomplishments of the legislative session that ended last week.
But the differences that pitted House Speaker Glenn Richardson and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and doomed many legislative initiatives seemed to persist as the rivals flanked Gov. Perdue for the news conference.
It was the governor’s first in-depth public discussion of the session since his return from a trade mission to China.
He blamed shoddy legislation in part for why Republicans did not deliver the “uniform agenda” they laid out in January of water, health care, transportation and trauma.
“Bills were not crafted as carefully as they could’ve been ... were modified and shouldn’t have been,” Gov. Perdue said.
He said the failures should not detract from the successes, including passage of the statewide water management plan and $120 million in new reservoir funding to address Georgia’s water needs — needs exacerbated by exceptional drought and rapid growth.
Despite Republican control in the General Assembly, though, divisions between the House and Senate characterized the legislative session.
Gov. Perdue seemed the peacemaker Wednesday as he stood between Speaker Richardson and Lt. Gov. Cagle, the leaders of the two chambers, but harsh words the two had for each other as the session wound to a close weren’t exactly forgotten.
The House speaker had challenged his rival to “be a man,” while the Senate leader described Rep. Richardson as a bully who was “blinded by ego.”
“When the game is going on, spirits run high, we all say things,” Rep. Richardson, R-Hiram, said about his suggestion Lt. Gov. Cagle should be ousted. “Tensions were high, and I was trying to make something happen.”
He had campaigned nearly a year for property tax reform, which was whittled down to a plan to end the state’s annual ad valorem tax on personal vehicles before it fizzled.
Late in the session, Lt. Gov. Cagle had pulled the wraps off his own tax reform proposal, trimming the state’s income tax by 10 percent over five years, and his lieutenants stood by that proposal.
In the final hours, negotiations stalled, and the tax reform failure brought down with it legislation to provide badly needed funds for transportation and the state’s trauma care network.
Lt. Gov. Cagle noted Wednesday, “Obviously, the governor, speaker and I will disagree. There’s a right way to go about it and a wrong way to go about it.”
Gov. Perdue chimed in that “name calling” was inappropriate, even while “on the field.”
He did try to highlight legislative accomplishments by signing some legislation into law.
They included a bill to create a state transportation infrastructure bank to make low-interest loans to local governments for road projects, and a bill to let schools enter charter contracts with the state, getting flexibility on requirements like class size in exchange for more accountability on student performance.
The schools bill was an initiative of the governor’s education task force, but critics said the task force failed in its objective of overhauling of the state’s school funding formula.
Task force officials said they’re close and will present those changes by next session.
A lawsuit by more than 50 rural county school districts against the state, claiming the Quality Basic Education formula doesn’t provide an adequate education for all schools, is scheduled for this fall.
Rep. Tom Dickson, R-Cohutta, who is a member of the governor’s task force, said he was disappointed the panel couldn’t come up with an alternative funding mechanism for schools, but he added the school contract legislation is a step in the right direction.
“It’s an important piece, but I don’t think any piece is any more critical than the other,” Rep. Dickson said. “What it does is define the relationship between the state and the local school system.”
