Georgia Legislative Watch

The House Judiciary Committee (non-civil) moved a new version of Georgia’s sex offender bill through its first legislative hurdle:

Georgia lawmakers on Wednesday moved again toward imposing strict residency requirements on sex offenders, but resisted calls to change other parts of the law that could face legal challenges.

By a 9-4 vote, a House judiciary panel approved changes designed to appease the state’s top court, which overturned the strict new residency requirements in November. But sponsors refused to address other parts of the law, which critics said could ultimately do more harm than good by rendering vast residential areas off-limits to sex offenders.

“If someone wants to incorporate those concerns in a bill, we will hear that,” said state Rep. David Ralston, the proposal’s sponsor. But he added, “I didn’t think it was appropriate to reopen the entire law.”
[…]
In November the Georgia Supreme Court overturned portions of the law, ruling that it failed to protect the property rights of offenders, who could be forced to move if a facility catering to children pops up near their home.

The latest version of the bill aims to get around the court’s concerns by allowing a sex offender who owns his or her home to stay there if a center where children gather later opens up nearby. It carves out a similar exception for sex offenders who have established employment.

I believe the bill is HB 908.

That is the amount of the new budget proposed by Governor Sonny Perdue:

For the budget year beginning July 1, 2008, and ending June 30, 2009, the governor proposes a budget of $21.4 billion, an increase of about $1.2 billion - or 5.6 percent - from the present spending level.

The Governor is purposing:

• - $50 million for loans to local governments for transportation projects
• - $53 million for the state’s trauma network
• - $30 million to buy undeveloped land for environmental protection
• - $17 million in subsidies to provide insurance to employees of small businesses
• - $21 million to improve the state’s mental hospitals
• - $52 million to dredge the Savannah Harbor
• - $25 million to improve the infrastructure of Jekyll Island
• - $14.2 million for VIP, a program to get parents involved in their children’s education

You can view the rest of the Governor’s recommendations here.

In case you missed it, here is the transcript of Governor Sonny Perdue’s State of the State address to the Georgia General Assembly. I hope to have the video posted this evening. The Governor’s recommendations for the FY 2009 budget can be found here:

Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, President Pro Tem Johnson, Speaker Pro Tem Burkhalter and members of the General Assembly…

My fellow constitutional officers…Justices of the Supreme Court and Judges of the Court of Appeal…members of the Consular Corps …

Other distinguished guests and my fellow Georgians … as we gather in these chambers today I come before you to speak about our present, and of our future. But first, I want to share with you a story of our past.

I give you a snapshot of Georgia in the 1880’s – at the midpoint of our fledgling state’s history, halfway between our founding in 1733 and where we stand in 2008. Although their spirits were buoyant with hope for the future, the challenges of rebuilding created a stark reality for Georgians.

In 1889, Henry Grady, one of the great fathers of the New South, spoke these words:

“I attended a sad funeral once in Pickens County. They buried a fellow near a marble quarry; and yet the tombstone they put above him was from Vermont.

They buried him in the heart of a pine forest, and yet the pine coffin came from Cincinnati.

They buried him by an iron mine, and yet the nails in his coffin were from Pittsburgh.

Click here to read about this bill

There are rumors that two Republican House members are throwing around the possibility of impeachment resolutions against Casey Cagle for violating the state constitution by refusing to take up veto overrides immediately.

[UPDATE] Here is more from the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

Rep. Ron Forster, R-Ringgold, was incensed by the Senate action. He said he has written to the attorney general inquiring about whether it was constitutional for Lt. Gov. Cagle not to act on the override votes Monday.

“You can’t thumb your nose at the constitution,” Rep. Forster said. He said he was drafting a possible impeachment measure against Lt. Gov. Cagle while he waits for a response from the attorney general.

Here is the video from Lawmakers on HB 89: