Georgia Legislative Watch

The Georgia Senate barely passed Senate Bill 454, a bill that would permit the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sunday in “public stadium, coliseums, and auditoriums,” on a vote of 30 “yeas” to 20 “nays.” Twenty-nine votes were needed to pass the legislation.

Gwinnett state Sen. Renee Unterman, the chief sponsor of the legislation, described S.B.454 as a “simple bill” that only changed two words. Georgia law currently allows only cities that have previously approved Sunday alcohol sales to pass an ordinance permitting the sale of alcohol in “public stadiums, coliseums, and auditoriums owned or controlled by it or by a public authority and having seating capacity in excess of 2,500 people on Sunday between the hours of 12:30 P.M. and midnight.” Senate Bill 454 would extend that privilege to counties.

“Baseball, beer, and peanuts are as American as apple pie,” Sen. Unterman said.

The measure is in response to the recent announcement that the Richmond Braves would be moving to Gwinnett County in 2009.

Prior to the close vote, Sen. Seth Harp said a vote for the bill was a vote in favor of expanding Sunday alcohol sales and also spoke positively of the effort to allow local cities and counties to decide, by referendum, whether to allow the purchase of alcohol on Sunday.

“The website [Vote Sunday Sales.com], as of this morning, has 40,000 signatures,” Sen. Harp told his colleagues. The Midland Republican said the sale of alcohol on Sunday should be something that each individual community should choose.

On a vote of 103 to 61, the Georgia House of Representatives failed to give House Resolution 413 the two-thirds majority needed for passage. H.R.413 is a proposed amendment to Georgia’s Constitution that would make English the official language of the state and prohibit any language other than English to be used in the official transaction of government business.

Republican state Rep. Timothy Bearden of Villa Rica introduced the legislation citing polls that said 85% of Americans and 77% of Hispanics believe English should be the official language of this government.

“We’re not trying to prohibit any other languages,” Bearden said.

State Rep. Pedro Marin (D - Duluth) addressed the House in both English and Spanish saying, “The proficiency to speak English should not be a deterrent for those wanting to interact with government.”

Speaking in Spanish, Marin concluded his remarks saying “I too am an American.” Click here to read about this bill

On a vote of 51 to 2, the Georgia Senate today passed House Bill 989; the supplemental budget for fiscal year 2008.

While the vote in favor of the budget was lopsided, the debate itself did not go without any fanfare. State Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Ellenwood) introduced an amendment that would restore $30 million in equalization funding to education.

Jones’ amendment failed on a vote of 17-36. Before the vote, Senate President Pro Tempore Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) took issue with Sen. Jones’ claim that “in practice, [the supplemental budget] represented a $30 million cut [in education].”

“There are zero cuts in the fiscal year ‘08 budget,” Johnson said. “The debate on equalization grants does not belong in the ‘08 budget. It’s appropriate for ‘09 not ‘08.”

H.B.989 now goes to a conference committee where negotiators from the House and Senate will craft a compromise on spending for the rest of fiscal year 2008.

In a press release issued jointly by House Democratic Leader DuBose Porter and Senate Democratic Leader Robert Brown, attention was brought to House Bill 1057; a bill that would “put a stop to school cuts and take the burden of $1.5 billion in property tax shifts off local government.”

According to the Democratic leaders, HB 1057 would reward city and county school systems that lower their property taxes by increasing their funding for public education. Under the Democratic plan, a total of $600 million over the next two years would be used to fully fund the Quality Basic Education formula that funds public education. For example, under HB1057, if the Atlanta Public School system lowered their property taxes, they would receive a refund from the state for $7,963,680 to be used towards education.

“It’s not too often in politics that you find a win-win scenario, but the Democratic plan is just that,” said House Democratic Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin). “We keep our promise to Georgia’s students to give them a world-class education and schools we can finally be proud of, we put an end to $1.5 billion in education cuts forced on families by the Republicans, and we provide some fiscally sound tax relief for homeownership. This is true property tax relief.”

“This is a win-win situation; we invest in education without burdening the local taxpayer,” said Senate Democratic Leader Robert Brown (D-Macon).

State Rep. Kevin Levitas (D - Atlanta) has teamed up with fellow Democrat Alan Powell and Republicans Harry Geisenger & Tom McCall to introduce a constitutional amendment that would “end back door tax increases.”

According to Levitas, the proposed amendment, House Resolution 1170, would “effectively freeze a home’s value for property tax purposes at the original purchase price of the home or the 2002 assessed value.”

If a county wants to raise taxes, then it will have to do so directly and uniformly, rather than using inconsistent increases in individual property assessments to accomplish that goal,” Levitas said.

State Rep. Alan Powell also spoke favorably of HR1170 saying, “Property taxes have risen at an alarming rate. Enough is enough; it is time to cure the system.”

If approved by a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, HR1170 would be placed on the November General Election ballot for approval by the voters.