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Political Insider

Legislature about to go into a deep freeze

8:50 pm February 17, 2010, by jgalloway

We’ve picked up reliable word that the Legislature is about to go into cold storage while lawmakers try to work with Gov. Sonny Perdue to resolve the 2011 budget.

After Thursday, the General Assembly will adjourn for more than two weeks, until March 8, while budget writers try to reconcile the governor’s budget with three variables upon which he’s based his budget: A hospital bed tax yet to be passed, a bill to allow the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority to pump money into the general budget, and a predicted 4 percent growth rate starting in July.

The long recess is sure to have implications in the 2010 governor’s race. State officials are prohibited from raising cash as long as the Legislature is in session. The recess could delay the end of the session well into April.

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40 comments Add your comment

frugal voter

February 17th, 2010
9:05 pm

They can’t raise money but they can still go hunting while on hiatus.

Dick

February 17th, 2010
9:06 pm

Look into cuts in the prison system and medicaid. Some prisoners (child support, etc) would be under house arrewst with ankle monitors. This would save money. WE need to make fathers of the kids being born to single mothers support their kids, this would take them off of peach care as well as medicaid. We then could put a 20 cents increase on tobacco products sales taxes, 75 cents sales tax on beer and $1.50 sales tqax on liquor.distilled spirits.

ACC 12 Booster

February 17th, 2010
9:20 pm

By the looks of it Jim, seems like their brains have been in “cold storage” for quite a while, many years, in fact. I guess they just decided to stop pretending like they’re doing something and just make their permanent recess official.

rukidding

February 17th, 2010
9:40 pm

Tough choices on the budget. The longer they in session the better.

Mariposa

February 17th, 2010
9:56 pm

I hope all the commenters that aren’t happy with the General Assembly consider running for office. We have real problems that need solutions, but part of the problem as I see it is that no one wants to serve the public. Let’s have some new blood! Go independent!

Harry

February 17th, 2010
10:11 pm

The budget could be balanced like magic. Just put public workers on social security and sunset all state and local governmental defined benefit pension plans – but such a move requires political courage, which may be asking too much.

The Cynical White Boy

February 18th, 2010
5:15 am

Now y’all quit bad mouthing our Governor. He’s spent millions buidling those nice new fishing ramps, and he just wants to “GO FISH”.

OnceUponATime

February 18th, 2010
5:59 am

That 4% predicted growth rate is a bit optimistic, isn’t it? I predict it leads to the same problem we had last July.

americanrascal

February 18th, 2010
6:52 am

Deep freeze to resolve budget? WRONG!

This is really about dragging out the General Assembly so that the Govs negotiators can try to hammer out a water agreement with AL and FL and get it in front of the General Assembly before “quittin time”. Then he can ram it through both bodies with a straight up or down vote near the end of the session with no debate! If he doesn’t “getter dun” before the end of the assembly there is no water agreement legacy for Mr Perdue

Brace yourselves — someone in Georgia is going to get hosed real bad in that scenario!!

Sic semper tyrannis

February 18th, 2010
6:58 am

Republicans and Tea Partiers should be eager to take this opportunity to dissolve state government and return to quieter, simpler times: establish a tribal system of government, a hunter-gather economy and a law of ‘only the strong survive”. Let’s see how well soccer moms and helicopter parents can protect their young from waves of gun toting rednecks coming out of the woods in search of yuppie game.

OR we can sell off some state parks and timberland, consolidate office space, get rid of all state aircraft, including helicopters, close the Business Development office, parole all nonviolent offenders from prison and raise the gas tax a dime. Either way, someone’s going to have to make some hard choices.

Mel

February 18th, 2010
7:41 am

I once had a Georgia state senator tell me, “The issues don’t amount to squat. As long as I’ve got enough money to shake in their face, nobody will dare run against me.” Elect whoever you want. It’s all about the money and until that gets fixed, nothing else will.

Willis

February 18th, 2010
8:02 am

Dick, good idea to let the convicts out of jail with ankle bracelets so they can get jobs and support their kids in order to reduce Peachcare and Medicaid. How many are you willing to hire?

Ticked Off

February 18th, 2010
8:06 am

Whatta you mean….”About to go into deep freeze”? They’ve been in deep freeze forever. They better get moving and do something constructive or some of them may be really freezing their buns off next year after the election.

Not Quite

February 18th, 2010
8:14 am

Harry – it takes more than political courage to do what you propose. Any legislation affecting retirement has to be studied during the summer and therefore can only reasonably be proposed in the first year of a two year session (we are in year two right now).

Road Scholar

February 18th, 2010
8:21 am

“Legislature about to go into a deep freeze”

How can you tell? No more discussion or passing bills on abortion, guns, …until you fix transportation, the budget, water, the states economy, education and you can end furloughs.

Harry

February 18th, 2010
8:24 am

Not Quite, Thanks for the info.

UGA1954

February 18th, 2010
8:30 am

The “deep freeze” will have an impact on those who are running who did not think it was a good thing to quit the jobs they were elected to in order to run for Governor. There was speculation even before the legislature convened that this would happen and that the Governor himself would assure it in order for his “boy” to rise in the polls. Though he has not come out and publicly endorsed a candidate, rumors are flying as to whom he supports. This could end up biting him and his “boy” in the rear.

tinhat

February 18th, 2010
8:30 am

So … how soon will the the Oaf, er, Ox be resigning as Insurance Commissioner?

UGA1954

February 18th, 2010
8:38 am

Tinhat, my response is simply, “not soon enough.” He should have already resigned, years ago, and done us all a favor. LOL!! However, he’s not who I am referring, too.

UGA1954

February 18th, 2010
8:40 am

As an aside, the budget should have been the first priority of the legislatures. That and ethics issues should have been given the utmost attention!! Some of the other things that have come up, not so much.

UGA1954

February 18th, 2010
8:45 am

Mel, I agree with you about the whole money thing. I think it would be a refreshing change for someone to actually win an election without having the election bought and so many favors owed. In this day with the economy in the tank, I would actually consider voting for the one who raises a smaller amount than the others, who took no money from lobbyists, and who got his money the old fashioned way with people, ordinary people, just giving their hard earned money because they believe int he candidate. Either that or the Bloomberg method, paying for it yourself, and owing no one anything but a job well done!

AGE

February 18th, 2010
8:52 am

@Henry. Just for your info, State employees have been full contributors to Social Security since 1966.

Mr. George Jung

February 18th, 2010
9:08 am

Seems like other issues like transportation and water could be address while budget analysis go over the books. This people can’t do two things at once I see. I’ll be remembering this in November and I won’t be casting a vote for my indumbent (purposely misspelled) representatives. They have done nothing.

GoOx

February 18th, 2010
9:27 am

My man Ox can weather the delay in fundraising. Look at the last disclosure people are flocking to support his campaign. Given his statewide name ID, and his ability to raise money, he will beat Roy in November.

UGA1954

February 18th, 2010
9:28 am

Amen, Jung, amen! They should be doing as you said and working on something while the budget analysis process goes on. There is absolutely no need to cost the taxpayers additional money for a long protracted session when they could be walking and chewing gum at the same time. After all, it’s not like the budget issue just crept up on them — they should have made it their priority, not some “pants on the ground” crap.

d

February 18th, 2010
9:37 am

Oh,I can’t wait to see what crazy crap they will come up with next. Two weeks to make a bigger mess, boy that makes me feel good. They have done so well the last eight years messing the state up, what’s another two weeks. It will give time for the other legislators to run around with Hooter girls.

potstirrer

February 18th, 2010
9:43 am

10-4 UGA1954! Your elected officials have their “brains” on the ground for passing a “no microchip in my brain” law but yet struggle to pass a balanced budget. How about reducing medical care for illegal immigrants for starts! Require some form of “ID” other than a drv lic to medical care. How about a voting card for starts?
I do not care for tax increases but its time to review the sin taxes for a limited time. How about allowing medical cannabis then taxing it?
Just ideas, but its a start..

UGA1954

February 18th, 2010
9:52 am

Another thing, while I’m on a tear, why were there rumbles of an extended session back in early fall? One simple reason, to help the person the Governor wants to win the Republican nod. Coincidence that it’s turned out that way — I think not. It has been so predictable and calculated.

Mr. George Jung

February 18th, 2010
9:56 am

While they dither, how about passing Sunday liquor sales? Short, to the point, would increase tax revenue, period.

RUKidding

February 18th, 2010
10:59 am

Guess this means Ox is going to have to wait a little longer to use his give me money because your scared of me fundraising tactic.

William W Lee

February 18th, 2010
11:01 am

It seems like the legislature has the notion that the public is the bank for the government. They run low in their budget and rather than make serious cuts they simply invent new ways to get more money out of the people.

After all, we know that companies, of any kind, don’t pay taxes. Increases in taxes to companies are increases in expenses, and all they do is increase the cost of whatever it is they provide. So, if you increase taxes on a hospital, the hospital increase the cost of the medical treatment it provides. So either the patient pays more, or more is charged against the insurance provider, which in turn results in higher insurance premiums.

No matter how you work it, we end up paying for the increases. We are the bank for the government. But you see it’s not a tax on us (if it’s not directly charged to us)!

Burningman

February 18th, 2010
12:49 pm

I knew someone would blame the Go Fish program for the budget problems. Yea Cynical, I think we spent about $2 Billion dollars on that!

No one thing will come close. Mr. Potato Head & legislators should actually put some effort into building many of these suggestions into a budget package. If they would ignore texting laws and hosting Mr. ‘Pants on the Ground’ guy and other stuff, they may actually come up with a good idea.

Dr. Phil

February 18th, 2010
1:13 pm

Undoubtedly the next two weeks will be one of the more productive periods for those rascals.

Base

February 18th, 2010
4:59 pm

Sonny and the crooks will manipulate the numbers.

Wounded Warrior

February 19th, 2010
12:28 am

they are taking 2 week furlough. where else can you work 40 days and make $40k? They have to come back next year to gerrymander–err redraw congressional districts. They have to do that after this done counting folks is done.

Bubba

February 19th, 2010
1:13 am

There are so many weird angles in the legislature. One is the court-packing bill, SB 429 ( http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2009_10/fulltext/sb429.htm) introduced on 2/17 by Preston Smith, et al.

This smacks of FDR’s court packing plan in the 1930s, which Republicans bitterly criticized when a Democrat President tried it, but have revived to let a Republican Governor do it in Georgia in 2010.

This bill would increase the Supreme Court from 7 to 9 (so that Gov. Perdue would have appointed 4 of 9 Justices before he leaves office), increase the Court of Appeals from 12 to 15 judges, and increase court filing fees $100 to be paid into the general fund and “may” but not necessarily would be used to support court operating expenses. The courts have not asked for such increased staffing. Legislators want to cut court budgets, and the sponsors of this bill have actually called for eliminating Superior Court judgeships where the real need for increased staffing exists and cutting judges’ salaries in mid-term.

Since each new appellate judgeship costs about $1 million including office space, support staff, etc., the bill would increase appellate court budgets by at least $5 million while they are furloughing court staffs and pushing all judges to take furloughs.

And that’s not even considering that the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals courtrooms and conference rooms would have to be radically remodeled to accommodate the increased numbers of judges.

Part of the story of this may be that Senator Preston Smith wants to create an appellate judgeship opening for himself. That’s the same Preston Smith who could not make a go of practicing law in Rome, went through a divorce as messy as that of former Speaker Richardson, went to work for a medical malpractice insurance company, and has in the past practically begged Gov. Perdue to give him a steady paycheck as a judge. (http://www.romenews-tribune.com/view/full_story/3418759/article-Smith-removes-judge-reques—Local-New?)

His sponsorship of the bill is a transparent attempt to create a paying job for himself at the taxpayers’ expense while he and his colleagues have been busy cutting court budgets to the marrow.

Of course SB 429 and the legislative recess may also be a shot across the bow of the Supreme Court, which is considering a case challenging constitutionality of the damages cap in medical malpractice cases that Sen. Smith rammed through the Senate without any real debate in 2005.

Bubba

February 19th, 2010
1:20 am

Lest anyone forget the history of FDR’s attempt to pack the U.S. Supreme Court, or miss the parallel to SB 429 that was introduced in the Georgia Senate this week, see http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA02/volpe/newdeal/court.html .

Disgusted

February 19th, 2010
8:05 am

I’m all for the idea of raising the so called “sin” taxes – as long as they are applied to the sins of gluttony, greed, sloth, pride, envy, lust and anger….and not just on alcohol and tobacco. Think of it – the legislature might end up being taxed more than a smoking alcoholic.

Base

February 20th, 2010
5:17 pm

Get behind closed doors so Jerry Keen and the boys can do some dirt!

Mike

February 22nd, 2010
9:30 am

Oxendine & Barnes are front runners in the race for governor. Please Georgia voters, we can’t elect either of these political sleazes.