The Cause at the Dome
CCGA Recap of Legislative Activity,
Feb. 23-27
The General
Assembly continued its 3-day week, with session days Tuesday through
Thursday. Committee meetings are held on Monday, with Friday a day to go back
to the district for many legislators.
Much of the high
profile news from the capitol this week centered on the passage of the
"Georgia Power" bill, SB31,
which gives the utility rights to charge its rate payers up front for its
investment in additional nuclear power plants. The bill passed the House
this week without changes, so it will go to the Governor shortly to become law.
The vote
in the House was quite interesting, not along party lines at all. An eclectic coalition against, but the majority solidly for this
controversial legislation. Common Cause did not engage in the debate on
this bill. Without considering whether it is a good decision or not, it was an
exceptional display of one of
We had some good progress on Top Ten
Reforms this week:
Senate
Bill 96, which requires local government to instate ethics panels, passed
out of the Senate Ethics Committee on Thursday. Next stop -
rules committee, where we expect no problems.
Rep. Edward
Lindsey's judicial election reform bill HB
601 was dropped on Wednesday. This is the legislation that came out of the
study committee in December. We will be following this bill as it goes through
the committee process.
The enabling
legislation for last fall's Constitutional Amendment 2 (The TAD amendment)
emerged in its new form on Wednesday. HB 63 has undergone a substantial rewrite
from the original bill as sponsor Earl Erhart tried
to accommodate a number of stakeholders who - well - "have a stake"
in the issue. The substitute for HB 63, not yet on-line, is a total re-write of
Title 36, chapter 44, the Redevelopment Powers Law. This substitute bill was
heard by a Governmental Affairs sub-committee on Wednesday. They passed the
bill on to full committee with commitments that a number of questions raised
could be resolved by modifying language. Bill Bozarth testified before the
committee. What we see is a bill that is a good step in limiting the
definition of property that qualifies for TAD funding, but is still more open
than we would like. We will continue to follow the bill in full committee
next week.
The Independent
Redistricting legislation HR
229 gets its first committee hearing on Monday 3-2. Common Cause and John
Sours.