After a week of long budget hearings, the Legislature was back in session on Monday, with budget woes fresh on their minds and ethics reform on the list of priorities, Lawmakers were back to work.

Governor Perdue announced his plan to shift money from lottery funds, $34 million, to pay for grants and scholarships that are currently funded by taxpayers, lessening HOPE funds even further. Meanwhile, Speaker Ralston told House Appropriation Committee members to move forward with the current budget without the anticipation of the new revenue that the Governor foresees in his budget from the 1.6 percent provider fee. 

House

The House took up no business yesterday; however, today they will take up the first Rules Calendar of the 2010 Session.

Senate

The Senate also took up no business yesterday, but will hold their first Rules Committee meeting of the 2010 Session today.

New Legislation

HB 954 – Rep. Powell (R-Camilla) offered an amendment to O.C.G.A. § 19-6-5, relating to factors in determining amount of alimony. In this change the determination will not take into account previous marriages or past relationships.

HB 955 – Rep. Marin (D-Duluth) proposed amendments to Title 49, relating to social services, so as to authorize the Department of Community Health to seek federal funds to provide medical assistance and health care benefits to qualified alien children and pregnant women under Medicaid and PeachCare. These changes would allow for qualified aliens admitted to the United States to be eligible for medical assistance five years after date they were admitted.

HB 956 – Rep. Powell (D-Hartwell) brought the following change to amend O.C.G.A. § 5-6-48, relating to grounds for dismissal of appeal. This change would allow for certain appeals improperly filed may be dismissed by the court. This would occur when an appeal was filed as a notice of appeal, but should have been filed as an application for appeal.

HB 963 – Rep. O'Neal (R-Bonaire) proposed amendments to Chapter 5 of Title 48 which would change certain provisions regarding affidavit requirements for the homestead exemption from ad valorem taxes for educational purposes for persons 62 years and older, whose income does not exceed $10,000. This change would exclude the total amount of income received from all sources by each individual member of the owner's family residing within the homestead.

HB 967 – Rep. Gordon (D-Savannah) offered amendments to Part 1 of Article 2 of Chapter 5 of Title 48, relating to ad valorem tax exemption of property. These changes offer that local tax officials will provide the new owner of real property with the basic homestead exemption application upon the purchase of the property.

HB 972 – Rep. Mitchell (D-Stone Mountain) proposed amendments to Part 1 of Article 7 of Chapter 14 of Title 44, relating to foreclosures. These changes would provide owners notice no later than 90 days. During the 90 days, the homeowners shall have the option to stop the foreclosure by paying the full amount of past due payments and the creditor will stop the foreclosure process. If this occurs then the homeowner may resume making payment s under the terms of the contract.

HB 975- Rep. Anderson (R-Grovetown) authored a new code section, § 48-5-48.5, relating to ad valorem property tax exemptions. These changes would provide an exemption for the full value of certain new constructions of single-family residences.

SB 319 – Sen. Staton (R-Macon) proposed changes to O.C.G.A. § 20-2-1010, which would expand the definition of textbook to include computer hardware and technical equipment necessary to support the use of non-print or digital content.

Committee News

House Appropriations Subcommittee- Zero Based Budget Coordination

The Zero Based Budget Coordination Subcommittee met Monday morning passing out Sen. Goggan's (R-Douglas), SB 206. This Bill requires that the Governor's budget report, prepared by the Office of Planning and Budget is provided to the General Assembly within five days after organization; include a tax expenditure review for the state.  The report must detail for each tax expenditure item: the amount of tax revenue foregone for a three-year period; the citation of the statutory or other legal authority and the year it was enacted or became effective; a statement of the intended objective of the tax expenditure; an analysis of whether the tax expenditure is achieving its goal; and the effect of the expenditure device on the distribution of the tax burden and administration of the tax system.

Senate Ethics

The Senate Ethics Committee met briefly yesterday before the Joint House and Senate Ethics Committee meeting. Common Cause Georgia, a good government group, testified to the Committee about what they would like to see in terms of ethics reform. Former Fulton County Lawmaker, Bob Irvin and Mr. Bill Bozarth stated that tough regulations on campaign finance, gift limits of $50 from lobbyists and limits on the amounts of inter-campaign transfers would be a start to ethics reform. Additionally, Common Cause would like to see leftover campaign funds be donated to charities and an independent ethics panel that is not tied to the Legislature. Furthermore, go beyond the law and have the General Assembly adopt a code of ethics because the public expects more than just living within the law, as well as the elimination of the pay to play mentality.

Joint House and Senate Ethics Committee

Common Cause Georgia also testified before both Committees. Bob Irvin with Common Cause went over many of the same aspects of ethics reform that he presented to the Senate Committee. Mr. Irvin, a former Republican Legislator, did emphasize that Republicans lost their drive for ethics reform when they came into the majority. Chairman of the House Senate Committee Joe Wilkinson (R-Sandy Springs) rebuked the claims citing the 2005 ethics reform that was adopted, which brought vendor lobbyists into the scope of transparency.

Bill Jordan, the past Chair of State Ethics Commission, spoke to the Committee on behalf of the current Chairman Jim Gatewood, due to the fact that Mr. Gatewood was unable to attend the meeting. Mr. Jordan explained the way the Ethics Commission functions to both Committees. Touting what the Commission has added, such as an advisory process, expediting the process (from filing to probable cause within 90 to 100 days), transparency was also expanded with ethics reports available online. As a disclosure agency, Mr. Jordan stated that the Commission still has some issues with ambiguous language within ethics laws, he urged the Committees to tighten up this language.

Robert Highsmith, Executive Partner of the Atlanta Office of Holland and Knight, spoke to the Committees on ethics. He addressed the changes that the 2005 ethics reform Legislation brought about; limits on heavily self-funded campaigns, increased the fine limit to $5,000, added electronic filings, included vendor lobbyists and required registration of Lobbyists.

Mr. Highsmith asked the Committees what kind of conduct that they would like to prescribe. He warned that limits could pose some unintended consequences. He suggested the consistently late filers me punished more severely.