Georgia Legislative Watch

According to the AJC, the calendar has been set through Day 30, known as Crossover Day (in black below). That is the last day for a piece of legislation to clear one body to be considered for this year.

On Day 21 of the session, Lawmakers covers the release of February revenue numbers, legislators propose fee hike and a tax is extended to keep the Falcons in Atlanta.

Monday, Democrat Alan Powell, Independent Rusty Kidd and Republican Mark Hatfield introduced a ballot access bill that would completely eliminate the need for independent or third party candidates to gather signatures in order to appear on the ballot.

The summary of House Bill 1257 reads as follows:

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 2 of Title 21 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to primaries and elections generally, so as to remove the requirement that political body and independent candidates file nomination petitions in order to gain ballot access; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes. During the 2010 legislative session, several bills have been proposed lowering the threshold that third party and independent candidates must achieve before being awarded a spot on the ballot.

HB1257 is, by far, the most wide reaching.

The bill simply states that if you don’t want to qualify as a Democrat or a Republican, you pay your qualifying fee directly to the Secretary of State (or local election superintendent as the case may be) and you’re on the ballot as an independent.

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Revenue figures for February were released today:

Gov. Sonny Perdue moments ago released details on tax collections in Georgia from February and the news is not likely to give anyone comfort.

The numbers show that the state took in nearly 10 percent less in February than it did in the same month in 2009. Lawmakers had been hopeful that this past month would have finally shown a sign of recovery. Instead, it’s the 15th consecutive month of declining revenues.

Perdue’s office, however, says that of the $62.20 million drop in revenue, about $50 million of that is due to a spike in income tax refunds. They see another positive sign: For the first time in 17 months the Department of Revenue’s monthly gross revenue collections increased by $27 million, or 1.7 percent, when compared to February 2009.

You can view them in detail here.

The next 20 days are not going to be pretty:

Lawmakers took a two-week recess after the 20th day of the 40-day session to allow key committees to work without distractions.

“It was what the Navy calls a stand-down,” said Rep. Joe Wilkinson, R-Sandy Springs, chairman of the House Ethics Committee. “Sometimes it’s necessary so you can focus on one thing.”

The one thing was the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Daylong hearings with agency heads were designed to give members of the House and Senate appropriations committees information they needed to cope with a $1 billion revenue shortfall. Gov. Sonny Perdue recommends plugging part of that gap with higher taxes, but legislative leaders weren’t prepared to do that when the recess began and may be just as reluctant after spending two weeks getting a closer look at the budget.

The budget was the topic of debate during the last two weeks. Legislators appear to be ready to increase fees and move on other tax increase to generate revenue to meet new estimates by Gov. Perdue.

Continuing their week of releasing poll results for Georgia, Public Policy Polling has put out the numbers for the Republican primary for Governor.

These numbers show John Oxendine at the same spot that Insider Advantage’s recent poll and around the same as Rasmussen. Karen Handel makes a substantial jump, narrowing Oxendine’s lead to single-digits, Deal also makes a jump, however, this poll was done before his resignation and focus on his ethics problems.

As always, you can see a list of polling in both party primaries here.

GOP Primary for Governor
- Oxendine: 27%
- Handel: 19%
- Deal: 13%
- Johnson: 3%
- Scott: 3%
- Chapman: 2%
- McBerry: 2%
- Undecided: 32%

Insider Advantage and WSB-TV have released new polling in GOP and Democratic primaries for Governor, and undecided holds a huge lead in both parties.

Actually, Karen Handel jumped four points in this latest poll. John Oxendine also gain a couple of points. Nathan Deal and Eric Johnson stayed didn’t move. They didn’t bother to poll Austin Scott, Ray McBerry and Jeff Chapman.

This is the first poll by IA in the Democratic field since last year, but the polling has Barnes down more than Rasmussen, and undecideds are way up.

You can see all polling in both of these races here.

GOP Primary for Governor
- Oxendine: 27%
- Handel: 13%
- Deal: 9%
- Johnson: 7%
- Other: 8%
- Undecided: 36%

Democratic Primary for Governor
- Barnes: 36%
- Baker: 7%
- Porter: 3%
- Poythress: 2%
- Other: 4%
- Undecided: 48%

Tuesday was election day in House District 19. Voters in the Paulding County-based district went to the polls to elect a new state representative to fill the unexpired term of former House Speaker Glenn Richardson.

Richardson resigned after it was revealed that he had an affair with a lobbyist while pushing legislation beneficial to the lobbyist’s employer.

Three candidates were running:

J. Cash;
Ronny Sibley; and
Daniel Stout.

One candidate, Daniel Stout, walked away with nearly sixty percent of the vote thus avoiding a run-off.

Here are the unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s office: