Lawmakers rush to beat legislation deadline

Georgia Times Union

Monday, college students from across the state plan to demonstrate at the Capitol against budget cuts as a handpicked group of corporate financial experts offer recommendations for trimming spending.

Legislators won't be around Monday, but protest organizers had already made their plans by the time they learned the General Assembly would be in recess.

During the balance of the week, legislators will be in session four days as they rush to beat an internal deadline to keep their bills alive.

March 25 is "crossover day" in which bills die if they fail to pass in the chamber where they were introduced and "crossover" to the other chamber. After that point, the Senate will only consider bills from the House and vice versa.

"What I think you'll see next week is a whole lot of committee activity," House Majority Leader Jerry Keen said Friday.

One committee working in overdrive will be the House Appropriations Committee that must prepare a balanced budget for the full House to vote on. Part of that process will be to figure out how the rank-and-file Republican legislator wants to address the revenue shortfall that Gov. Sonny Perdue officially announced Friday. Should it be through tax hikes, fee increases spending cuts or a combination?

"Now the tough part is just making those decisions," said Keen, R-St. Simons Island.

Crime-scene photo privacy

Tuesday, the House is expected to consider a bill proposed by House Speaker David Ralston and sponsored by Rep. Jill Chambers, R-Atlanta, that would prohibit government agencies from releasing investigators' crime-scene photos of an injured or killed victim without family permission. Credentialed journalists could still inspect the photos under supervision of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

The bill is in response to a request by a freelance writer on assignment from Hustler magazine who asked for all the files - including the photos - of the murder of Meredith Emerson, a recent graduate of the University of Georgia who was kidnapped, beaten and beheaded in 2008.

Sometime during the week, the Senate is expected to vote on a controversial bill to expand where people with permits may legally carry concealed weapons. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg, said he intends to remove confusion about where guns can be taken. The bill would allow them in parks, churches and the portion of airports not under federal control.

Also in the Senate, a group of seven experts knowledgeable about corporate finance will present a list of recommended savings for the state. Ideas are likely to include outsourcing certain clerical functions, according to one of the members of the task force picked by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Kelly McCutcheon, president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

"I think there will be some very constructive ideas. They won't solve all the problems," McCutcheon said. "There are some significant savings over the next four or five years."

 

Posted via email from Jim Nichols for GA State House