The Cause at the Dome

CC GA Legislative Activity, March 13th

The General Assembly "crossed over" on Thursday - its 30th day, meaning any bill not passed by either chamber cannot become law this year - unless of course they choose to use one of their procedural maneuvers to make an exception. Yesterday was a text-book exercise in maneuvering, as bills voted down found new life in the last minutes.

One such maneuver was a bill in the House that would alter the chairmanship rotation in the Public Service Commission failed narrowly, was reconsidered, then a couple of minutes of arm twisting ensued, and the bill then passed with the Speaker casting the deciding vote. That was one we think is bad legislation, and will work against in the Senate in the remaining days.

Our main bill on crossover day, SB 96, went through without problems!

That means our scorecard reads as follows:

Two bills important to us, HB 63, the TAD enabling legislation, and SB 96, to create local government ethics boards, are in play to become law this year. Other bills that affect the ethics code section and provide small improvements, SB 17 and SB 70 are also in play to become law.

Our other issues, campaign finance/ethics reform, judicial election reform, local non-partisan elections, and independent redistricting will carry over to next session. We will work in the last days of the session to move these bills to their next stages.

We will continue to support our coalition partners in opposing the two proof of citizenship for voter registration bills going through the process for passage by the other chamber.

All in all, we are still positive on the degree of focus we are getting on our issues in this climate where the budgetary focus sucks a lot of oxygen out of the room for other business.