Legislators are taking a break from session until Thursday.
During the long Easter break, Senate committees will meet to discuss the fiscal year 2009 budget the House passed Thursday. The Senate is expected to vote on its version of the budget Friday.
Reduced revenue estimates set the budget process back a bit, but legislators said they hope to be out by early April, although a calendar hasn’t been set officially past Thursday.
When the House and Senate begin session Thursday, it will mark the 35th legislative day of the 40-day session.
BORDER RESOLUTIONS REACH FINAL PASSAGE
Senate legislation to create a boundary commission to resurvey the Georgia-Tennessee border passed a House committee Thursday, and the identical House resolution already has passed a Senate committee.
Neither measure has yet gotten final legislative approval.
Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, said lawmakers planned to pass the legislation through both chambers again by the end of session “to make a point.”
Georgia legislators have made no secret that the interest in reclaiming a 1.1-mile-wide strip of land between the current border and the 35th parallel supposed to be the state boundary is to gain access to the Tennessee River as Georgia endures a historic drought.
DEMOCRATS SUPPORT TSPLOST — WITH TRANSIT
Sporting all shades of green for the dual purpose of St. Patrick’s Day and a cleaner environment, mass transit supporters rallied Monday outside the Capitol and said they favored current regional transportation funding proposals in the Legislature.
Public transit groups and Democratic leaders said they support a measure that passed the Senate and now is in the House to create a special purpose local option sales tax for transportation purposes because it allows the money to be used for any project, not just roads.
“In negotiating this, we want to make sure mass transit can be an option,” said House Minority Leader Rep. DuBose Porter, D-Dublin. “There’s a commitment from the Democratic caucus to involve mass transit in whatever comes out of the House.”
However, the proposal in the House, which passed committee earlier this month and is expected on the floor this week, doesn’t include any dedication of the SPLOST to transit. The Senate’s proposal that passed last month mandated 10 percent of the money raised by the local 1 percent increase in sales tax be used in transit projects in the region.
Rep. Porter said despite that, transit proponents will support whatever constitutional amendment for a TSPLOST is compromised on by House and Senate leaders — as long as using the regional tax for transit is an option.
INFRASTRUCTURE BANK APPROVED BY SENATE
The Senate passed unanimously Tuesday a Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank that would provide low-interest loans to local governments working on road projects.
Gov. Sonny Perdue already has set aside $50 million in next year’s budget for the fund, which the House passed overwhelmingly last month. However, the measure will return to the House for final approval before Gov. Perdue can sign it into law because the Senate made some changes, including an amendment to exclude “freight” and “transit” projects from being eligible for the loans.
The proposal for the bank came from the recommendation of the Joint Study Committee on Transportation Funding that met this summer and was co-chaired by Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, who sponsored the legislation in the Senate.
“This is just another tool in the tool box” of transportation funding, he said.
SENATE OKS INDIGENT DEFENSE REFORMS
The Senate passed its version of reforms to the state’s fledgling public defender system, which the Legislature formed four years ago, and has faced scrutiny for allowing costs to rise uncontrollably.
The House passed reforms last month. The bill will probably end up in conference committee to quickly work out some differences, said Sen. Preston Smith, RRome, who headed up an oversight committee on the indigent defense system.
The changes to the system should give counties, which pay two-thirds of public defender costs, more control and reduce costs in conflict of interest cases and capital punishment cases, lawmakers said.
THOMAS DRIVES PICKUP SEAT BELT LAW
Sen. Don Thomas, R-Dalton, said he’s determined to have Georgia join the rest of the nation in requiring pickup drivers to wear seat belts.
A bill passed the Senate last year but still hasn’t had a hearing in the House committee. And with the session coming to a close, those who support the law are getting creative.
On Thursday, one of many amendments attached to a Senate bill that required red-light cameras be approved by the Department of Transportation also included language to require pickup drivers to wear seat belts. The amendment was eventually withdrawn.
Although Sen. Thomas signed the amendment, he said it’s probably best to persuade the House committee to take up the bill that already passed through the Senate.
Plus, passing the seat belt law, which has faced opposition because some lawmakers claim it’s an unnecessary overreach of government, could bring as much as $20 million in federal funding, which could go to Georgia’s struggling trauma system, Sen. Thomas said.
