Georgia Legislative Watch

Todd Long, Gov. Sonny Perdue’s choice to be the new State Planning Director, cleared sub-committee this afternoon and his nomination will move to the House Transportation Committee next week.

As I reported three weeks ago today, SB 200, the Transportation Reorganization bill, gave the House Transportation Committee a very unusual power – the power to confirm one particular appointment of the Governor. Normally in the General Assembly, as in the US Congress, the Senate has the confirmation power and the House of Representatives doesn’t [...]

Rep. Jay Roberts will replace Vance Smith, the recently appointed GDOT Commissioner, as chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

State Rep. Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain) has been selected as the new GDOT Commissioner. His first day will be June 25th, meaning that there will be a special election in House District 129.

Gov. Sonny Perdue isn’t going to call a special session to deal with MARTA:
Gov. Sonny Perdue’s staff has met with MARTA officials to try to solve the transit system’s funding problems.
But the governor suggested Tuesday that it was unlikely he would heed MARTA’s call for a special session to deal with transportation issues.
He said “special [...]

MARTA officials want a special session to deal with funding issues:
MARTA board members on Monday called for a special legislative session to avert what they called the economic calamity of shutting down service at least one day a week.
“If something is not done about these issues that were neglected this session, at some point it’s [...]

The 3:30pm meeting of the conference committee trying to workout an agreement on transportation funding went nowhere:
In a meeting in the morning, the two sides were far apart and the comments were calm, but pointed.
At 3:30 p.m., negotiators tried to strike a more conciliatory tone, but it fell apart quickly.
Sen. Jeff Mullis, (R-Chickamauga) the lead [...]

House and Senate conferees left the table earlier without any concessions:
The Senate insisted on its regional plan for a penny sales tax. The House insisted on its statewide plan. Both sides gave good arguments for their positions. Neither budged.
Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), the lead negotiator for the Senate said repeatedly that the Senate would [...]