Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for March 25, 2015

The British Parliament closed the Port of Boston on March 25, 1774, passing the Boston Port Act in retaliation for the destruction of $1 million worth of tea in the Boston Tea Party.

Horton Smith won the first Masters tournament on March 25, 1934.

On March 25, 1937, Governor E.D. Rivers signed legislation creating the Georgia Department of Labor; in 1945, the Commissioner of Labor was upgraded from statutory office to Constitutional.

Atlanta Braves Pitcher and new member of the Baseball Hall of Fame Tom Glavine celebrates his 49th Birthday today.

Flannery O’Connor was born on March 25, 1925 in Savannah, Georgia. She would come to be recognized as one of the greatest American fiction writers. O’Connor graduated from the Georgia State College for Women, now called Georgia College and State University. She returned to Milledgeville in 1951, living at the family farm, called Andalusia, until her death at age 39 in 1964.

At GCSU, the Flannery O’Connor Room is located in the GC Museum, the Flannery O’Connor Collection includes manuscripts, and the College includes a program in Flannery O’Connor Studies.

O’Connor died of Lupus, which also killed her father.

Under the Gold Dome Today

8:00 AM	HOUSE AGRICULTURE & CONSUMER AFF	403 CAP
8:00 AM	HOUSE INSURANCE	606 CLOB
8:15 AM	SENATE APPROPRIATIONS	341 CAP
8:15 AM	SENATE VETERANS	125 CAP
9:00 AM	HOUSE RULES	341 CAP
10:00 AM	HOUSE FLOOR SESSION (LD 36)	CHAMBER
12:00 PM	SENATE RULES UPON ADJOURNMENT	450 CAP
1:00 PM	SENATE INSURANCE AND LABOR	125 CAP
1:00 PM	SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY	310 CLOB
1:00 PM	SENATE EDUCATION AND YOUTH	307 CLOB
1:30 PM	HOUSE JUDICIARY NON-CIVIL	132 CAP
2:00 PM	HOUSE Env’tal Quality Sub Nat’l Resources	230 CAP
2:00 PM	HOUSE GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS	406 CLOB
2:00 PM	SENATE JUDICIARY	310 CLOB
2:00 PM	SENATE FINANCE	MEZZ 1
3:00 PM	HOUSE EDUCATION	606 CLOB
3:00 PM	House Fleming Sub House Judiciary Civil	403 CAP
3:00 PM	SENATE STATE INSTITUTIONS AND PROP	125 CAP
3:00 PM	SENATE JUDICIARY NON CIVIL	307 CLOB
3:00 PM	SENATE TRANSPORTATION	450 CAP
4:00 PM	SENATE REG. IND. AND UTILITIES	310 CLOB
4:00 PM	SENATE STATE AND LOCAL GOV’TAL OPS	MEZZ 1

Senate Rules Calendar

HB 393 – Motor vehicles fair practices; restrictions on ownership, operation, or control of dealerships by manufacturers and franchisors; provide exception (As Passed House) (PUB SAF-1st) Martin-49th

HB 91 – Education; eliminate Georgia High School Graduation Test; provisions (As Passed House) (ED&Y-40th) Coleman-97th

HB 160 – Game and fish; trapping of raccoons in certain counties; repeal a provision (As Passed House) (NR&E-17th) Dunahoo-30th

HB 199 – Timber harvesting; require notice only in an approved form; provisions (As Passed House) (NR&E-7th) Corbett-174th

HB 215 – Equalized Homestead Option Sales Tax Act of 2015; enact (As Passed House) (Substitute) (FIN-40th) Jacobs-80th

HB 276 – Alcoholic beverages; modernize certain terms; provisions (As Passed House) (Substitute) (RI&U-17th) Harrell-106th

HB 325 – Safety belts; definition of term passenger vehicle; modify (As Passed House) (PUB SAF-49th) Hitchens-161st

HB 520 – LaVista Hills, City of; DeKalb County; incorporate (As Passed House) (Substitute) (SLGO(G)-40th) Taylor-79th

HB 515 – Tucker, City of; DeKalb County; incorporate (As Passed House) (Substitute) (SLGO(G)-41st) Mitchell-88th

House Rules Calendar

Modified Open Rule

HR 620 – Local boards of education; provide educational awareness regarding renewable energy; urge (NR&E-Drenner-85th)

HR 642 – Joint Study Committee on Postsecondary Education and Employment Options for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities; create (Substitute)(HEd-Dempsey-13th)

SR 266 – Property Conveyance; authorizing 10 counties (Substitute) (SProp-Dunahoo-30th) Jeffares-17th

SR 267 – Public Property; granting of nonexclusive easements for the construction, operation, and maintenance of facilities, utilities; 24 counties (Substitute)(SProp-Dunahoo-30th) Jeffares-17th

Modified Structured Rule

SB 88 – Labor and Industrial Relations; provide for the payment of wages by creditto a payroll card; provisions (Substitute)(I&L-Hamilton-24th) Jones-25th

SB 169 – Highways, Bridges, and Ferries; revise what constitutes part of the state highway system; appropriation of funds to Dept. of Transportation (Substitute)(Trans-Roberts-155th) Gooch-51st

Medical Marijuana House Bill 1 Passes Senate

House Bill 1, which will allow medical marijuana for eight diagnoses, passed the State Senate yesterday by a 48-6 vote. The next step for the bill will take place around 11 AM today, when State Rep. Peake (R-Macon) takes to the well of the House to present the bill’s changes and ask his colleagues to agree to the Senate changes. If the House votes in the affirmative, the bill will have passed both chambers and will be sent to Gov. Nathan Deal for signature. I’m told the Governor may sign it as early as Friday.

WABE’s Michelle Wirth has details on the real effect this legislation may have,

Supporters say it will allow at least 17 families who left Georgia to get the oil for their children to come home.

That’s the case with Vince Sievert. His daughter has epilepsy. His wife and daughter have been living in Colorado since last year where the oil is legal.

“It means a lot. It’s difficult just the separation, but even more so just to be able to have them here again, to be able to care for them, to be able to love on them,” says Sievert.

But the cannabis oil won’t be produced in Georgia. Instead, residents would have to get it from other states and would need permission from a doctor. They would also need to register with the state’s health department. The bill says the cannabis oil can contain up to 5 percent THC. It would also need to contain an equal amount of cannabidiol.

From the Associated Press,

Georgia would become the 37th state to have some sort of medical marijuana law. Peake said 23 states and Washington, D.C., have laws allowing the use of marijuana extracts with no limits on the levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient. An additional 12 states allow medical marijuana only for epilepsy and limit THC.

Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford and chairman of the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee, said “perfection of the bill will come with policy regulations” and that “we have not opened the door” to a system like Colorado’s, where marijuana is legal.

“This is a truly an emotional bill,” she said. “These people with these conditions, it gives them hope.”

Peake said “this is a monumental day in Georgia” and that he supports Deal’s efforts for a clinical trial, which is already under way. He said 17 Georgia families, “medical refugees” who moved to Colorado for treatment, may be able to get treatment here in 30 to 60 days.

“If this improves the quality of life for one day for one child, it’s worth it,” Peake said.

Religious Freedom Act in House Committee

Yesterday, a subcommittee of House Judiciary heard testimony for and against Senate Bill 129, Sen. Josh McKoon’s Religious Freedom bill. From Jonathan Shapiro at WABE.

After nearly three hours of testimony, Chairman Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, said the panel would meet again Wednesday and decide whether to send the bill to the full Judiciary Committee. If it attracts support, the full House could consider the bill as early as Tuesday, the second to last day of this year’s legislative session. The Senate already approved the bill earlier this month.

Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, responded to critics who argue his bill is a thinly veiled attempt to discriminate against gays and lesbians on religious grounds.

“Senate Bill 129, like the federal counterpart, does not provide any new rights to people of faith to refuse service to any person,” said McKoon.

Speaking on behalf of the advocacy group Georgia Equality, former Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers conceded he didn’t know of any cases where similar legislation was used to discriminate against gays and lesbians, but he maintained the bill still opened the door to abuse.

“It will give the opportunity to exclude in the name of religion and I think that’s a disaster. I think that is an unmitigated disaster for this state.”

From the Chattanooga Times-Free Press,

Republican Rep. Barry Fleming of Harlem, who earlier called the proposal “the most important bill” he’ll vote on, criticized Bowers and other opponents for not having examples of negative effects in other states.

11Alive asked McKoon whether sufficient time exists to pass the bill this session,

“We are basically two steps away. We’ve got to get it out of this committee, then out of rules and on to the floor. There’s time to do it. Obviously we are running short but there is still time,” he said.

McKoon hopes the subcommittee will vote in favor of the bill on Wednesday.

Facebook and Politics an explosive mix

A Facebook post about politics apparently led to a real-world confrontation in South Georgia.

A city councilman in the Telfair County hamlet of Jacksonville was jailed this week for allegedly pulling a gun on another man at a store there last month.

John R. Dopson, 54, was charged Thursday with aggravated assault, authorities said.

A confrontation between Dopson, a frequent critic of Telfair officials on social media, and the other man happened Feb. 12, said Eve Rodgers, special agent in charge of the GBI’s Eastman office.

The other man, 68, whose name wasn’t made available, and Dopson were at Boone’s Grocery when “a verbal altercation of sorts” broke out, one that appeared to stem from Facebook postings made by Dopson, Rodgers said Friday.

File Under Irony

The former top investigator for the Georgia State Ethics Commission has pled guilty to fraud that occurred while he was a Dunwoody police officer, according to AtlantaUnfiltered.com.

File Under Told Ya So

Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson wants to remove a property tax assessment freeze that prevents homeowners from being charged higher property taxes, according to WTLV-38 in Columbus.

Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson has made it no secret she wants to end the city’s current property tax freeze.  She asked the Butler Center for Business and Economic Research to provide an analysis of the effects the freeze has had on the city.

“A couple of years ago we were asked to analyze the effects of the property tax freeze on revenue” say the Columbus State University’s Dr. Ben Blair, Director of Butler Center.

Blair is breaking his analysis down into 4 different parts, but he says one of the most important is the effect of inflation on frozen property taxes.

“You pay a thousand dollars every year. while the same time you are paying that thousand dollars the prices of goods and services are going up, so the city in order to provide the same amount of goods and services needs to get extra revenue from somewhere. Because you’re just paying 1000, but the prices have gone up to 1200. They have to get that 200 dollars extra somewhere,” says Blair.

So while the freeze may seem like a benefit to individuals because their paying less money for what an actual service cost, Blair says the city has to get the money from some where so they tax in other ways.

“That’s why you see things like the LOST and SPLOST,” says Dr. Ben Blair.

So to fix this problem long term, according to Blair the Mayor proposes to “sunset” or get rid of the property tax freeze for new home owners after a future date to be determined, but they would get an extra $6500 in homestead exemption.   Those who currently have the freeze will keep it, but not everyone thinks thawing the freeze is a good idea.

“Every homeowner that buys a house has the piece of mind of knowing that his taxes will not be increased because someone opinion” says former Columbus city council member, Jack Land, who proposed the original property tax freeze in 1982.

DeKalb County Government Reforms

Three bills to protect DeKalb County taxpayers were passed by the Georgia Senate yesterday.

The independent auditor position, mandated under House Bill 599, would be responsible for finding fraud and improving government efficiency. The position has been discussed by the DeKalb Commission for years without it being filled.

The Board of Ethics measure, House Bill 597, gives the authority to appoint board members to outside community organizations rather than the DeKalb Commission. The legislation also removes from the Board of Ethics its power to remove elected officials from office, an ability the board never used.

The purchasing policy legislation, House Bill 598, requires sealed bids for all purchases exceeding $50,000 and commission approval for all purchases exceeding $100,000.

These initiatives arose from months of efforts by two groups: the DeKalb Operations Task Force, a group of lawmakers and community leaders appointed by Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May to recommend reforms; and Blueprint DeKalb, a citizen group that sought to improve the county’s governance.

Decaturish.com brings some local reactions to the legislation.

[DeKalb County Commissioner Kathy] Gannon said in [a] news release, “What is particularly remarkable about these reforms is that a group of DeKalb citizens researched the problems, drafted recommendations based on best practices and pushed for their enactment by the General Assembly. With the problems facing DeKalb, it is reassuring that a group of engaged citizens can bring about important changes such as these.”

DeKalb Strong, a group opposed to the cityhood and annexation process, also hailed the passage of the bills.

In an email, DeKalb Strong said, “Our thanks to Blueprint, for helping to craft these recommendations, Sen. Elena Parent and Rep. Scott Holcomb, for sponsoring them, and all of you, for your tireless calls and emails that helped get these bills though the General Assembly.”

The Georgia Senate will debate and vote on Cityhood bills for LaVista Hills and Tucker today. The Senate maps for cityhood differ from the House-passed versions.

Last night, Jodie Fleischer of WSB tweeted the following:

DeKalb official Morris Williams resignation letter says he’s retiring effective immediately- after 17 yrs w/ county. No reason given.