ATLANTA – The
Georgia House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed two bills Tuesday that
would give the General Assembly more say over state spending and revenue
decisions.
The measures
sped through the House just one day after they were introduced because they had
the backing of Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge.
Ralston and
Gov. Brian Kemp have been at odds over the budget process since last August,
when the governor ordered across-the-board spending cuts to help offset the
impact of slowing tax collections. The speaker had the House Appropriations
Committee hold hearings on the proposed reductions in September, only to see
Kemp instruct executive branch agency heads not to appear.
Earlier in
this year’s legislative session, the House took a break of a week and a half to
focus solely on Kemp’s budget recommendations after Ralston complained the Governor’s
Office of Planning and Budget (OPB) hadn’t provided enough information on the
spending cuts the governor recommended when he presented his mid-year fiscal
2020 and fiscal 2021 budgets to lawmakers.
House Bill
1111, which cleared the House 144-14 on Tuesday, would limit the governor’s
ability to withhold funds appropriated by the General Assembly. He could only
do so when tax collections are trailing more than 1% behind revenue estimates
and would have to inform the legislature of his actions.
House Bill
1112, which passed 138-28, calls for the creation of a five-member state
council of economic advisors, three to be appointed by the governor, one by the
lieutenant governor and one by the speaker. The council would set a range
within which the governor would set a revenue estimate for the state.
“It does not
take away the governor’s executive authority to set the revenue estimate,” said
Rep. Clay Pirkle, the bill’s chief sponsor. “It puts some additional eyes on an
important process.”
The
legislation also would require executive branch agencies to share information
on their budgets with the General Assembly at the same time they give it to the
OPB and give lawmakers the right to review any proposed redirections of
budgeted funds to another purpose.
During a
brief debate on the House floor, Rep. Don Parsons, R-Marietta, said he was
concerned lawmakers might use the deliberations of the proposed council of
economic advisors and the additional scrutiny the bills would give the General
Assembly to play politics with the appropriations process.
But Pirkle,
R-Ashburn, said the legislature would take its additional responsibilities as
“a solemn duty.”
“This is a
policy decision,” he said.
Several of
Kemp’s floor leaders in the House voted against both bills, which now move to
the Senate.
ATLANTA – Georgia
voters will decide this fall whether to require that dedicated state funds be
spent on their intended purpose.
The state
Senate voted unanimously Monday to put the proposed constitutional amendment on
the statewide November ballot, giving final passage to a measure that
originated in the Georgia House of Representatives.
Committing
dedicated state money such as Georgia’s Solid Waste and Hazardous Waste trust
funds to their intended use was a longstanding priority of the late state Rep.
Jay Powell, R-Camilla, who died unexpectedly last November. As chairman of the
House Ways and Means Committee and later the Rules Committee, Powell opposed
the legislative practice of diverting those monies into the state’s general
fund budget absent a financial emergency.
“It would
bring a level of accountability to these fees and truth in taxation back to the
dedication of these fees,” Rep. Andrew Welch, R-McDonough, said on the House
floor last week.
Although the
Senate at one point in this year’s session favored limiting the legislation to
the Solid Waste and Hazardous Waste trust funds, senators on Monday agreed to a
House proposal applying the constitutional amendment to all dedicated revenues
derived from state fees or taxes.
The
legislation includes substantial limits to make sure dedicated funds don’t grow
too large and can be put to general use in emergencies.
Under the
constitutional amendment, dedicated funds could not exceed 1% of total state
revenues from the previous year. In a financial emergency, the governor and
General Assembly would have the authority to temporarily suspend the dedication
of funds.
“This is
true middle ground in the appropriations process,” Welch said.
As a
constitutional amendment, the legislation does not go to the governor to be signed
into law. Its passage Monday guarantees its placement on the general election
ballot Nov. 3.
Coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Classes are being suspended Tuesday for one of Georgia’s
largest public school districts after a teacher working at two schools in
Atlanta tested positive for coronavirus.
The teacher who contracted COVID-19 likely came into contact
with students and other employees while working at two middle schools in the
southwest metro Atlanta area, said Fulton County Schools Superintendent Mike
Looney.
Looney said the teacher “felt ill at work” last Friday and
was taken to a local hospital. He declined to give identifying details about
the teacher or where the person was hospitalized.
Looney said he did not know how many people the teacher had
interacted with since contracting the virus or the teacher’s movements within
the local community. He added the district “had not seen an uptick” in student
absences lately.
“At this time, because we have now a faculty member that has
had a lot of contact with students and employees … we felt it was prudent to
pause, to get additional information and to clean,” Looney said.
The schools where the teacher worked include Bear Creek
Middle School in Fairburn and Woodland Middle School in East Point, Looney
said. Both cancelled classes early on Monday.
A third school, Creekside High School in Fairburn, also
closed early Monday since it is located close to the two middle schools, Looney
said.
The district includes more than 100 schools in Fulton County
with about 93,500 enrolled students and 14,000 employees, according to the district’s
website.
Looney said he made the decision to close all schools in the
district all day Tuesday to clean and sanitize them. The closure will also give
county and state health officials time to assess the extent of contact the
teacher had with other people, he said.
At a news conference Monday afternoon, Georgia Schools
Superintendent Richard Woods said state education officials are not
recommending any other school districts to close right now.
“Georgians can be confident that the safety of our schools are our highest priority,” Woods said.
Gov. Brian Kemp gives an update on coronavirus in Georgia on March 9, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Speaking Monday afternoon, Gov. Brian
Kemp said another person from South Korea traveling through Hartsfield-Jackson
Atlanta International Airport was “displaying symptoms” of coronavirus at the
airport. Officials are awaiting the results of his testing, Kemp said.
The governor stressed more people are
likely to test positive for the virus as state health officials ramp up
testing.
“As the cases become more numerous across
the country, we are definitely going to see more cases in Georgia,” Kemp said.
The state lab has tested between 50 and 60 people so far after receiving 2,500 diagnostic kits last week from the federal government, said Georgia Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey. She said health officials are seeing a pattern of the virus largely affecting elderly people and those with chronic health issues.
On Monday, state and federal officials
geared up for Dobbins Air Reserve Base to temporarily host 34 Georgia residents
and several others from the East Coast aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship,
where dozens of passengers have tested positive for the virus.
The 34 Georgians who arrive at the
Marietta-based facility after disembarking in Oakland, Calif., will be
monitored in their homes so that they will not have to remain quarantined on
the military base, Toomey said.
“This ensures the safety of the public,
but it will also give them the comfort of their homes,” Toomey said.
Elsewhere, state health and
emergency-preparedness officials have readied a quarantine site at Hard Labor
Creek State Park in Morgan County. Seven trailers meant to house
coronavirus-afflicted persons have already been delivered to the park and “are
operational now if they’re needed,” said Georgia Emergency Management Director
Homer Bryson.
Bryson said state Department of Natural
Resources officials picked the roughly 5,000-acre park south of Athens due to
its central location in the state and the ability to isolate the trailers from
the rest of the property. The trailers are owned by the state Department of
Public Health, which purchased them “with this intent in mind,” Bryson said.
Toomey added the trailer-quarantine site
will host infected persons who are not from Georgia or the U.S. and lack a
situation “conducive for home monitoring.”
Georgia joined a growing list of states with confirmed COVID-19 cases earlier this month after a father and his son from Fulton County tested positive for the virus following the father’s trip to Milan, Italy.
The novel strain of coronavirus is
thought to spread largely by “respiratory droplets” when someone coughs or
sneezes after symptoms are present, according to the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms appear within two to 14 days of
contraction and include fever, coughing and shortness of breath.
State Epidemiologist Cherie Drenzek
stressed people can only contract the virus from someone who is displaying
symptoms.
“Individuals that are not showing
symptoms of COVID-19 disease do not pose a risk,” Drenzek said.
ATLANTA – Republican
leaders in the Georgia House of Representatives doubled down Monday on the
promised second phase of a state tax cut launched two years ago.
House Ways
and Means Committee Chairman Bret Harrell introduced legislation to reduce
Georgia’s personal income tax rate from the current 5.75% to 5.375%. Heading
into this year’s legislative session, House GOP leaders were expected to propose
cutting the tax rate to 5.5%.
“We will
keep the promise we made to Georgians in 2018 and more,” House Speaker David
Ralston said Monday during a luncheon speech at the Capital City Club in
Atlanta sponsored by the Atlanta Press Club.
The personal
income tax cut is part of a comprehensive tax reform bill that also would
provide an earned income tax credit to working families but leave Georgia’s
corporate income tax rate untouched at 5.75%.
“We want
working Georgians, Georgia families, to realize the maximum benefit from this
income tax cut,” Ralston said.
Legislative
Democrats and some Republicans in the state Senate have warned against a
further tax cut while the state struggles to bring in enough revenue to provide
vital services. Tax collections have been coming in well below expectations for
most of the past year, in part because of the 2018 tax cut, which reduced the
income tax rate from 6.0% to 5.75%.
But Harrell,
R-Snellville, said some new revenue increases would help offset the $250 million
to $270 million impact of the tax cut, including collecting taxes on sales through
third-party “marketplace facilitators” including Amazon and Google the
legislature passed in January and a bill that would prohibit taxpayers from
deducting federal income tax payments from their state income taxes.
“When people
sit down and look at how state [revenues] are actually performing … it will
reduce any likelihood of [pushback],” Harrell said.
Ralston also
unveiled during Monday’s speech the introduction of two bills aimed at asserting
the House’s authority as a co-equal branch of state government with the
governor’s office.
The measures
would limit the ability of the executive branch to withhold funds appropriated
by the General Assembly and require executive branch agencies to provide
budget-related information to the state House and Senate at the same time it is
provided to the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget (OPB).
Earlier in
this year’s session, Ralston blamed a lack of timely information from the OPB for
forcing the legislature to take off a week and a half so the House could focus
solely on the budget.
“It is my
sincere hope this will help us avoid some of the problems we had earlier this
session,” the speaker said.
Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) sponsored a resolution banning lies before the Georgia Senate. (Official Georgia Senate photo)
ATLANTA – Liars got a gut punch from Georgia state senators, who unanimously agreed Monday they are fed up with falsehoods in their chamber and in legislative committees.
Under a resolution by Senate Rules Committee
Chairman Jeff Mullis, members of the public who testify at Georgia Senate
meetings would be bound to tell only the truth or face a temporary ban.
Lobbyists, activists, experts, government
officials and just generally concerned Georgia citizens often weigh in on bills
and issues at hearings held by Senate committees.
These hearings are the most public way
for people opposed or supportive of legislation to air their thoughts before
lawmakers, who must give the green light before a bill can advance further in
the Georgia General Assembly.
The resolution by Mullis, R-Chickamauga,
would make it so that people testifying before the Senate are “most strongly
requested” to tell the truth.
The resolution does not explicitly state
lawmakers themselves also need to tell the truth.
Anyone caught fibbing would be cited for
contempt and barred from giving testimony for the rest of an annual legislative
session. Mullis’ resolution originally banned liars for life, but that severe
punishment was stripped from the final version.
Mullis said Monday the point of his
resolution is to make sure lawmakers have the most accurate information
possible when voting on changes to Georgia law.
He said only factual untruths will be
prohibited. Opinions of all stripes can still range freely.
“Don’t you think it’s important for us to
have the truth when we’re trying to put good laws together so we have the right
information?” Mullis said.
A handful of Democratic senators backed
Mullis’ bill on the Senate floor in a show of bipartisan support for the
truth-telling pledge.
“Hopefully, this will make a change in
what people say to us and make sure it is truthful,” said Sen. Horacena Tate,
D-Atlanta.
