Budget negotiations start with 36 hours to go in 2009 session
House and Senate budget negotiators sat down for the first time Thursday with a little more than 36 hours left in the legislative session.
House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans) and Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Hill (R-Reidsville) have been getting together behind closed doors for a few days on the $18.6 billion spending plan. But Thursday was the first sighting of the pair in a public meeting, and mostly they just talked about how little time the two chambers have to work a deal.
“We’re just going to have to work at a little quicker pace than usual,” Harbin said.
Hill responded, “Well, when we had a week (to finish the budget), we took a week. When we had a day, we took a day and a half.”
Conference committees on the budget usually start off this way, but the two chambers have 25 pages of differences in their versions of the budget for fiscal 2010, which begins July 1. Among them: whether to raise health insurance costs for most of the state’s 225,000 Georgia teachers and employees. In addition, lawmakers have to figure out which schools get construction projects, which communities get library money, and which agencies get dinged by further spending cuts
Longtime former Senate Appropriations Chairman George Hooks (D-Americus) said lawmakers are playing a dangerous game waiting until the last day of the 2009 session to write and approve a state budget.
“It’s not good,” Hooks said. “It doesn’t give you any time to correct math errors, for example.”
Harbin and Hill mentioned the real reason lawmakers need to get the budget done quickly. Next week the Master’s is held, and many legislators plan to be in Augusta for the golf tournament.
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12 comments Add your comment
john
April 2nd, 2009
12:51 pm
So, is it easy to say that our elected officials are more concerned with being at the Master’s than balancing the budget? This is one of the most important budgets in a very long time, and legislators are more concerned with a golf tournament.
Joe Blow
April 2nd, 2009
1:00 pm
God forbid any of these hardworking lawmakers miss the Master’s cause they are working on the state budget. Wake up people!!!!! Stop electing these folks to office. Let’s get real. Let’s assume for a moment that being an elected official is a real job. Real jobs require an annual performance appraisal to determine if the employee is performing the tasks of the job satisfactorily. We must begin to hold these folks accountable for spending OUR money. The government has no money!!!! It’s time for a new revolution. Right is right and wrong is wrong and it is just that simple.
professional skeptic
April 2nd, 2009
1:20 pm
Again, I say to the people of Georgia: We deserve exactly what we are get, whenever we elect a bunch of bumpkins and backwoods idiots to run the affairs of our state.
CommonSenseRules
April 2nd, 2009
1:50 pm
Having sent clowns to the capitol, why would the electorate expect anything other than a circus?
Jefferson
April 2nd, 2009
1:55 pm
Those silly “R’s”
What a Waste
April 2nd, 2009
2:00 pm
Is Sonny gonna hold a prayer vigil on the Capital steps to pray for more money?
I used to work their when Zell was Guv and Hooks was the Chair…it was the first thing on the agenda. And oh yeah, they helped work up the surplus that Hew Haw Sonny decimated. What great leadership!
State Employee
April 2nd, 2009
2:27 pm
That’s something you don’t see everyday – An Honest Politician! I can’t believe they actually admitted that they were in a hurry to balance the budget so they could go to the Master’s Golf Tournament next week. That is really comforting to this state employee, who has given 11+ years of service to the State of Georgia and is rewarded with furlough days and increased health insurance premiums by lawmakers who are only out to serve their own greater good. Thanks a lot!
Get a Clue
April 2nd, 2009
2:33 pm
The good people of Georgia sent farmers and small-business owners to tend to the affairs of state. When all is said and done, there are only two questions that these constituencies want to have answered:
1. What brand of manure can be spread the farthest?
2. Who’s buying it?
BG
April 2nd, 2009
3:59 pm
I blame idiot white people who keep electing “the good ole boys”. Who else plays golf (black people generally think golf is whack) besides whites? To get elected in Georgia, all you have to do is be a so called republican/conservative (if competing against a democrat). How about doing what’s best for the interest of ALL people and stop voting for idiots just because they say they’re republican? Screw Sonny Perdue and all you racist whites who think this country and/or state is theirs! To the white people who judge blacks on the content of their character and not the color of their skin, I applaud you. I am employed by an agency where we have an abundance of lazy, white workers who do nothing but munch on popcorn all day. By the way, I am being nominated for a regional award because of my job performance. My message is to get whites to understand that there are levels of incompetence in every race and ethnicity. There are stupid whites, stupid blacks, stupid asians, etc. White people, you are not God’s gift to the world so stop acting like it!
The Snark
April 2nd, 2009
4:06 pm
No time to correct math errors, huh? That won’t bother this bunch. They spent the last three years cooking up stupid sex offender laws just to look tough, and none of them has made it past a judge.
BG: It’s 2009, man. Wake up! The race dialog in this country is nothing to be proud of, but we passed the point of your remarks a decade ago.
john
April 2nd, 2009
4:38 pm
BG, I know people just like you described, but they happen to be African-American. They vote super liberal, and always Democrat, but I do not hold them personally responsible for this mess. It’s 2009 and racial bickering is not going to get these idiots out of the Dome. Our legislators are fat cats drawing paychecks for minimal work. I can’t believe that the legislation wants to cram the last 36 hours with budget work. With the importance of this budget, it should have been priority #1. Zig Zag Zell for governor in 2010!!
One Mans Opinion
April 3rd, 2009
8:49 am
I’d like to agree with the comment from State Employee below. How does 25 years sound? We haven’t seen a raise in 2 years now. Skyrocketing healthcare expenses. Is this the best that the Ga Republicains can do?