The Cause at the Dome
CC GA Recap of Legislative Activity
through April 3, 2009
Our legislative work - as far as direct work on bills -is done for this year. Here's a final summary.
The Georgia General Assembly wrapped up late Friday night (finishing off in grand flourish with Sine Die). For those of you not tuned into leg-speak, the Latin phrase means without date - or more precisely, expanded to mean adjournment without a fixed date to meet again. 2009 session wrapped up right around midnight on Friday the 3rd.
Jim more than earned his pay this last week, as the last three legislative days ran late into the evening on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Breaks were taken Tuesday for last chance committee meetings to pass bills and Thursday for the budget conference committee and an organizational day to prepare for Sine Die.
On Wednesday April 1, April fools day, we got our last set of reforms from our top ten list into legislative play. Our "Common Cause Ethics Bill" was introduced by Judiciary chairman Wendell Willard - HB 855 was structured in a hurry and has some missing language, which will need to be fixed next year, but it addresses campaign limits, campaign to campaign transfers, limits on lobbyist gifts and extension of the revolving door prohibition on lobbying by salaried members of the Executive branch.
On Friday April 3rd, the 2009 budget was agreed to about 7 pm. Then, the circus we call the legislative process began in earnest, as they closed in on the final 5 hours to make major decisions on key legislation for the year. We were there doing what we could to keep alive our reforms requiring mandatory local ethics boards. As many of you know, there has been a flurry of activity in the last two weeks, lobbying to get these reforms attached to other legislation. This strategy was our only option when it became clear that Speaker Richardson was not going to allow our SB 96 a committee hearing in the House.
Senate Bill 168was the vehicle we chose to use in our strategy. This bill was sponsored by Senator Renee Unterman, and provided for some simplification of the campaign contributions and disclosure reporting process, which we were supportive of. It also had language added in the House at the Speaker's request to put in place a mechanism to investigate the legislative tax delinquents (as a reaction to the recent scandal where 22 members of the legislature are reported to be out of compliance in paying their Georgia income taxes).
Because there were two versions of SB 168 in the final hours, that presented an opportunity to add language with our provisions for local ethics panels in the conference committee that would resolve the differences. SB 168 was disagreed to by the Senate. The House “refused” the bill, thus throwing it into conference. We worked hard to get Senators to support us in getting the provisions of two Senate ethics bills (SB96 and SB17) attached.
This conference was not held in public, so the best we could do was notify the Lt. Governors Chief of Staff and principal sponsors of the two bills (Reed and Harp) to work the conferees. The conferees were Senators Unterman/Johnson/Hooks and the House members were Wilkinson/Scott/Roberts. About an hour before the close of the session Joe Wilkinson made a motion to approve the conference committee report (CCR) and said that the report was the same as what had passed the House earlier in the day (the original bill by Senator Unterman and the House leadership's version of the "legislators tax arrears" issue). That turned out not to be the case.
Jim Kulstead has since has time to review the final language. After review of the CCR it is clear that a revised version of Senator George Hooks' Bill (SB 70) was added in conference to effect certain campaign contributions to certain state regulators. Billed as "Play to Play" reform, in fact it appears to be more of a back room deal to hurt Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine's fund-raising abilities in his campaign for Governor. Austin Scott, who is also running for Governor, and George Hooks appointment to the CCR was a good clue of why SB 70 made it into the report. Our efforts to do the same with SB 96 language fell short, most likely because our advocates were not willing or able to convince the Senate conferees to face down the House.
So, at the end of the day, our valiant effort to get the local ethics panels passed in 2009, assisted by many in our circle, fell short, and will have to wait for next year.
Our public comment on the final results of ethics legislation in 2009 will be strongly critical, in that all they really accomplished was to create a process where legislators who don't pay their taxes can be investigated and dealt with in secret, and to pass a law in the wake of the Blagojevich scandal that doesn't offer any real reform, but seeks to penalize one candidate to the advantage of others.
Looking forward to 2010, we have a rich set of opportunities. In addition to HB 855, SB 17 and SB 96, we have Independent Redistricting (HR 229), Judicial Election Reform (HB 601) and local non-partisan races (HB 130) in play for 2010.
House Bill 63 - the TAD-enabling legislation was one bill we
supported that did pass. This bill pertained to Amendment #2 to the State
Constitution that passed in the November election. Common Cause assisted in
getting the sponsor House Rules Chairman Earl Ehrhart
to keep retroactive language out of this bill which would have prohibited local
school boards including
The Senate Finance committee reinserted this language, but the Senate amended the bill on the floor on April 1, thus allowing a small window of time for the school boards to revise or rescind those decisions before the Governor signs the bill into law. The bill went to conference, but the review language remained in the bill. We believe that the Atlanta School Board is attempting to hold a special meeting to review their options, and we don’t know at this time when the Governor plans to sign this bill.
One of the bills we opposed was passed by both houses. SB 86
requires proof of citizenship to register to vote. The final version of the
bill was less onerous that the bill originally submitted, but nonetheless puts
some extra hurdles up for all newly registering
Jim Kulstad did an outstanding job this session, and extend thanks also to various members of our board and others in the Common Cause Community who assisted in our efforts in this year's session. I feel good about the legislation carrying over. We are well positioned for 2010, a year in which almost all the statewide offices will be open, and one in which we have a good chance of passing significant reforms.
Bill