Every Monday, be on the lookout for legislative updates from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce (Georgia Business Action Network). For additional information, including legislative priorities, bill tracking, and information on contacting your elected officials, visit www.gachamber.com and click on Government Affairs.
2010 is the second year of a two-year term and several bills that have carried over from 2009 will be addressed as well as newly introduced legislation. Both chambers return to work today after a week of budget hearings.
2010 Budget
Governor Perdue sent his proposed Amended Fiscal Year 2010 Budget and Fiscal Year 2011 Budget to legislators on January 15th. The Amended FY2010 Budget is $17.4 billion – having been reduced $1.2 billion from what was originally passed due to lower than anticipated state revenues over the past year. The FY2011 budget totals $18.4 billion, and assumes that the state's economy will stabilize and begin to improve.
There are a number of proposals in both budgets that the Georgia Chamber will be watching closely, including a proposed "bed tax" that would be assessed on a hospital's net patient revenue. The Chamber has opposed this proposal in the past and is hopeful that a different solution to meeting the state's heath care budget needs can be identified.
Transportation
As the 2009 legislative session came to a close, a conference committee of House and Senate members was unable to reach an agreement regarding transportation funding. Since that time, leaders from both Chambers have been working toward accomplishing that goal in 2010. An announcement by Governor Perdue earlier this month has added momentum to the discussion - he has proposed $300 million in bond projects and expressed his support for a regionally based one-cent sales tax for transportation improvements. Additional details will be provided once the bill is introduced.
Education
Senate Bill 84, which addresses K-12 school improvement by clarifying roles and responsibilities, defining qualifications and establishing training requirements for school board members, will be heard by the House Education Committee this week. Governor Perdue has expressed his support for this bill, which passed the Senate in 2009. It includes the recommendations of the Commission for School Board Excellence, on which the Georgia Chamber participated in 2008.
At the Eggs & Issues Breakfast earlier this month, Governor Perdue announced that he would introduce legislation to add a performance-based pay option to the current salary system for teachers. If passed, the new system would be implemented in 2014. The Georgia Chamber is supportive of innovations like this that will encourage excellence in schools.
Water
In response to Judge Magnuson's ruling in July along with the ongoing negotiations with Alabama and Florida, the legislature is expected to consider important legislation to deal with Georgia's water needs based upon the recommendations of the Water Contingency Task Force.
