Georgia Legislative Watch

State Sen. David Shafer has proposed a resolution that would solve a border dispute that that is more than 100 years old:

Desperate for water amid a historic drought, some Georgia lawmakers are trying to reopen an 1818 border dispute with Tennessee.

They have set their sights on a stretch of the 652-mile long Tennessee River that flows tantalizingly close to the Georgia line - and by some historic accounts, should be within Georgia’s borders.

“It’s never too late to right a wrong,” said state Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth.

Shafer’s Senate resolution says a flawed survey in 1818 mistakenly marked Georgia’s border one mile south of the 35th parallel - and thus excluded the Tennessee River from Georgia’s reach.
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The resolution would not change Georgia’s borders, but it would create a “boundary line commission” that aims to resolve the dispute. It was co-sponsored by all of Georgia senators, and a similar proposal was introduced in the House.

The border debate centers on an 1818 survey that has entered the folklore of north Georgia. As the story goes, surveyors charting out the 35th parallel were either frightened by a nearby Indian party or simply used flawed math to draw the line.

The resolution, which can be viewed here, creates a commission to review the disputed boundary.

Shafer addressed the issue in the Senate today:

However, our friends from Tennessee are are hostile to the idea. As one legislator put it, “If they ever tried, the governor, and me, and everybody else would be waiting for them.”

The Senate voted to disagree with the House’s new version of HB 89. They will now move into conference where three members from each body will try to construct a bill that everyone can live with.

The inside politics were that the vote that took place yesterday was not supposed to happen until early next week, but at the urging of Georgia Carry after the Speaker called the vote, State Rep. Tim Bearden proposed his amendment. Many members were surprised by the amendment due to the threat of the State Senate to kill the bill if any changes were made in the House.

God only knows if the bill will make its way back through.

Today the State House voted to approve HB 130,which would allow individuals to freeze their credit in the event of identify theft. The bill passed by a vote of 162 to 2.

The Joint Committee on Transportation Funding has released its final report:

Transportation advocates were hoping that a long awaited study committee’s report would endorse one of two competing tax plans aiming to relieve Atlanta’s gridlock.

But when the dust cleared Wednesday, both proposals remained standing. The Joint Study Committee on Transportation Funding failed to anoint either one, recommending instead that lawmakers introduce both the plans.

It could set up a showdown in the statehouse, where legislative leaders have promised that some sort of taxing scheme would be passed this year.

Business groups back a plan that allows multiple counties to band together and levy their own taxes to fund transportation projects in their districts. It also has gained key support in the Senate.

A separate tax scheme backed by state planners calls for a 1 percent sales tax hike to raise $22.2 billion over 10 years for projects ranging from new highways in metro Atlanta to paving dirt roads in rural Georgia.

Both proposals would likely require a constitutional amendment and a referendum before they can take effect. But the report did little to settle the debate over which should be adopted.
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The committee chimed in on other transportation issues as well. It urged lawmakers to “re-examine the role of transit” in statewide transportation plans and supported an effort to build a high-speed train that would run on a magnetic levitation system between Atlanta and Chattanooga.

The two tax plans were introduced in the last session. HB 442, the statewide one-cent sales tax (a tax increases of $22.2 billion over ten years), was introduced by State Rep. Vance Smith. HB 434, the regional sales tax for transportation projects, was introduced by State Rep. Chuck Martin.

As I noted in my legislative preview, the legislation proposed by State Rep. Martin seems more politically viable. Many leaders are not going to vote to pave the way for a $22 billion tax increase, regardless of whether or not voters have the final say so.
The full report can be read here.

I’ll get the video of the press conference up later.

[UPDATE] Here is the video…

The State House has passed the new sex offender bill:

The House’s 141-29 vote aims to a fix a law adopted in 2005 banning sex offenders from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of just about anywhere children gather - schools, churches, parks, gyms, swimming pools or one of the state’s 150,000 school bus stops.

In November the state’s high 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.

House Republican leaders quickly vowed to retool the measure in hopes of answering the court’s concerns. The proposal approved Tuesday would allow 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 work near such a center.

“This really comes down to: ‘Do you really want to reinstate residency restrictions in Georgia?’” said state Rep. David Ralston, a Blue Ridge Republican who sponsored the bill. “That’s kind of what it’s about. That’s as simple as I can put it to you.”

The article notes what I had been told by several legislators:

[T]he measure adopted Tuesday failed to address other challenges to the law that was supposed to go into effect in July 2006.

A federal judge initially delayed its enforcement by ruling that the school bus stop provision could not be enforced unless school boards officially designated them. Few boards have since done so.

That lawsuit is still pending, along with another challenge against a provision that could evict offenders who live near churches. And critics, including state Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan, have promised the legal challenges will continue if the concerns are not addressed.

It looks like legislators may be addressing the issue in special session this year or when the new session begins next year.