Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for October 13, 2015

On October 13, 1870, Governor Rufus Bullock signed legislation creating the Georgia State Board of Education.

On October 13, 1885, Governor Henry McDaniel signed legislation authorizing the creation of a state school of technology as a branch of the University of Georgia; the school would open in Atlanta in October 1888, and in 1948 was renamed the Georgia Institute of Technology.

On October 13, 1918, the ban on public gatherings in Atlanta to prevent spread of the Spanish flu, was extended an additional week.

On December 13, 1976, Democrat Jimmy Carter received a post-debate bump against President Gerald Ford, with polls showing Carter at 50%-40% over the incumbent, up from 47%-45% before the debate.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Legislative Special Elections on November 3 will determine who succeeds former Sen. Ronald Ramsey in Senate District 43 (DeKalb, Newton, and Rockdale Counties), former State Rep. Ben Harbin in House District 122, and early voting has commenced.

Voters are going to the polls in early voting for Douglasville Mayor and three City Council seats in advance of election day on November 3d.

Woodstock has a contested election for City Council Ward 4 between Liz Baxter (incumbent) and Tracy Collins.

In Roswell, three City Council Posts have contested elections.

Albany has opened early voting for Mayor and Ward 4 Commissioner.

In West Georgia, LaGrange, Hogansville, and West Point are holding municipal elections.

Cumming will elect two new city council members after the retirement of two incumbents who were first elected in 1979 and 1993.

In Baldwin County, the Board of Education is seeking a renewal of the penny ESPLOST sales tax for education.

Superintendent Dr. Noris Price says should the E-SPLOST pass, the money will go toward new video security systems along with repairs to damaged asphalt and improvements to the school district’s stadium.

“We also are looking at new roof systems, new HVAC systems. We’re looking at also upgrading our technology infrastructure and also making sure that we have the latest technology for our students. We have to make sure that our students are competitive, globally competitive,” Price said.

The vote would extend the current tax an additional five years or until the $37.5 million is collected to finish the proposed projects — whichever comes first.

Glynn County will vote on an ESPLOST sales tax that would last 20 business quarters or until $130 million is raised, while Brunswick votes on two council seats.

Carroll County will vote on a 1-cent ESPLOST, and so far, early voting is slow with most of the action coming in Carrollton.

In Augusta, voters will decide on a SPLOST after it failed to pass last year by fewer than 700 voters.

That May 20, 2014, vote – on the date of a mayoral election, when several candidates campaigned against the sales tax – forced the government to wait more than a year until the next general election before asking the question again.

It wasn’t the first failure of the tax. In 2004, a $486 million package that included a sports arena, amphitheater and performing arts theater was defeated by about 16,000 votes.

The new package, expected to take about five years to collect, focuses most heavily on infrastructure ($67.8 million) – primarily roads and drainage – buildings ($54.85 million) and public safety ($45.5 million), with a slightly lesser allocation for city-owned quality of life projects ($28 million).

One Tax Over the Line, led by former mayoral candidate Lori Davis, says renewing the tax after last year’s property tax increase and next year’s stormwater utility fee is too much for taxpayers to bear and will create a slush fund subject to abuse.

With little else on the Nov. 3 ballot, elections officials expect very few voters. Rich­mond County Board of Elec­tions Execu­tive Director Lynn Bailey said she expects 10 to 15 percent of Augusta voters to cast ballots.

I award one point for naming an anti-tax group “One Tax Over the Line.”

Flowery Branch’s Post 2 election hinges on growth issues, according to the Gainesville Times.

Rome has an interesting voting scheme akin to Loiuisiana’s “jungle primary” with a touch of “even weirder than the Bayou State,” while Cave Springs will elect a new Mayor and vote in two Council posts.

[In Rome, t]here are four candidates running for the three open Ward 1 spots. All three incumbents, Buzz Wachsteter, Milton Slack III and Bill Irmscher are running, along with challenger Sundai Stevenson. The top three vote-getters will be elected. All city voters can cast three votes in each ward.

The Rome City Commission also approved a single Sunday for early voting on Oct. 25 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., also at the administration building, where the local elections office is located.

Channel 13 WMAX has a listing of local races in Macon and surrounding areas in which early voting is open.

Bibb County voters will decide a school-board SPLOST. Voting there starts Monday.

In Houston County, city council races are up for grabs in Centerville, Warner Robins and Perry.

Voting there starts Tuesday, due to the Columbus Day holiday.

Baldwin County will decide whether to merge the county and the city of Milledgeville and whether to approve a school SPLOST.

And there are mayor’s races in several cities, including Eatonton, Forsyth, Jeffersonville, Montezuma, Sparta and Unadilla.

In Southwest Georgia, Bainbridge residents will elect a new City Council member. Afterwards they may start looking for a new city donkey, after the passing of George, an unofficial mascot since the early 1980s.

Presidential Politics

Voting in the Georgia Peanut Poll has now surpassed that of the long-famous Iowa straw poll, according to Twitter and Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office.

The Peanut Poll continues at the Georgia National Fair this week. So far, Dr. Ben Carson and Donald J. Trump each earned more Peanut Poll votes than all others combined, including undecided.

Republicans

Ben Carson	3,932	36.28%
Donald Trump	3,547	32.73%
Undecided	725	6.69%
Marco Rubio	612	5.65%
Carly Fiorina	530	4.89%
Ted Cruz	405	3.74%
Mike Huckabee	352	3.25%
Jeb Bush	310	2.86%
Rand Paul	118	1.09%
John Kasich	76	0.70%
Chris Christie	64	0.59%
Lindsey Graham	49	0.45%
Rick Santorum	40	0.37%
Bobby Jindal	37	0.34%
George Pataki	34	0.31%
Jim Gilmore	6	0.06%
Total Votes	10,837

Democrats

Hillary Clinton	694	39.10%
Undecided	444	25.01%
Bernie Sanders	393	22.14%
Joe Biden	155	8.73%
Jim Webb	41	2.31%
Lincoln Chafee	24	1.35%
Martin O’Malley	24	1.35%
Total Votes	1775

Dr. Ben Carson spoke at Free Chapel in Gainesville on Sunday.

From the Gainesville Times,

Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson, speaking Sunday to a Gainesville crowd, touted “true compassion” for the poor and blasted the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage ruling.

“We shouldn’t give away our values for the sake of political correctness,” he said as a packed crowd at a Free Chapel morning service erupted in applause.

Carson, who grew up in poverty to become one of the world’s leading neurosurgeons, said he had “no desire whatsoever to hurt the poor … but I believe in true compassion, providing the poor with a mechanism to climb the ladder of success,” Carson said.

“False compassion is patting them on the head and saying, ‘You can’t take care of yourself and I’m going to give you food stamps, a housing subsidy and free health care and all the things you need so you can stay dependent and vote for me.’”

2016 Legislative Preview

Normally, we’d wait until after this November’s elections for this, but a number of stories are percolating up in the local and statewide press that lead us to begin our 2016 Legislative Preview early.

A Certificate of Need (CON) must be obtained from the Georgia Department of Community Health before opening many types of healthcare facilities like a hospital, surgery center, or MRI facility. Cancer Treatment Centers of America is being accused of adopting the Uber/Lyft model of business where a company simply starts doing as it pleases and then seeks to change the law. From the AJC,

House Health and Human Services Chairwoman Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, said her committee is keeping a close eye on an upcoming vote by the Department of Community Health board on Cancer Treatment Centers of America’s plans to expand its patient base.

“I and the rest of my committee members will closely monitor the board’s action and we reserve the right to intervene or take corrective action, if necessary,” Cooper said.

The national cancer treatment company tried and failed earlier this year to get the General Assembly to approve the expansion, so it is seeking the change from the DCH board instead. That move has angered some legislative leaders, who say the company is trying to make an end run around the General Assembly.

Cooper’s counterpart, Senate Health and Human Services Chairwoman Renee Unterman, R-Buford, has already blasted the company’s attempt to get around the legislature.

DCH is holding a public hearing on the issue Tuesday and the board is supposed to take final action at its November meeting.

Two OBGYNs in Cartersville have filed a federal lawsuit contending the CON requirement is unconstitutional.

In my opinion, this is the largest issue before the Georgia state government, and will continue to be for some time, but it is an issue that flies below the radar due to its complexity.

Also on the plate for legislators is the issue of “balance billing,” also called “surprise billing.” From Georgia Health News,

Balance billing occurs when a hospital, physician or other health care provider sends a bill to a managed care patient after the patient’s health insurer has paid its share. The patient owes the balance.

Large bills can occur when an out-of-network provider charges a patient an out-of-network rate, usually higher than the rate that in-network providers charge.

A state legislative panel hearing Thursday discussed surprise billing for medical care. The subcommittee was chaired by state Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Buford), who said she has heard from many constituents complaining about medical debt, bankruptcies due to medical bills, and credit rating downgrades.

“It’s so hard on the consumer,’’ said Unterman, chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

And from Walter Jones, for Morris News,

Consumer advocates call it surprise billing.

In many states, it’s illegal. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee is considering whether to do the same in Georgia, impose other regulations or leave it to the free market.

“We have to look at this as a consumer-protection issue and not as an insurance issue, because these patients are getting bills they don’t owe,” said LeeAnne Gasaway, a lobbyist for the America’s Health Insurance Plans, the trade group for insurance carriers.

The billing happens because hospitals assign specialists based on their internal arrangements, not insurance networks. So a patient attended by an in-network surgeon in an in-network hospital has no choice over who performs the lab work, reads the X-rays or administers the anesthesia.

The entire General Assembly could grapple with these issues when it convenes in January. What the committee recommends is likely to depend on its meeting next month, said Sen. Rene Unterman, its chairwoman and a Buford Republican.

Adequate compensation is a factor in whether doctors set up practice in an area. Some rural areas already have a shortage of specialists.

“One of the things we, as legislators, are concerned about is access to care, and we are also concerned about affordability,” she said.

Trying to balance the two will be part of the challenge.

Craft Beer advocates will likely ask to revisit the “Beer Jobs Bill” passed this year after Department of Revenues rulings that the hopheads claim run counter to legislative intent.

The buzz surrounding a new law allowing local breweries to send customers home with a souvenir six-pack of their beer may be turning into a hangover.

Scott Hedeen, owner, founder and brew master of Burnt Hickory Brewery in Kennesaw, said Friday new regulations from the Georgia Department of Revenue about how the tours can operate are complicating the operation of his business.

A new law approved by the Georgia Legislature this year, dubbed the “Beer Jobs Bill,” allows breweries to charge customers for tours of their facilities. During the tours, the law allows customers to sample up to 36 ounces of their products and afterwards, they can take home up to 72 ounces of their products as a “souvenir.”

However, the Department of Revenue issued a policy bulletin at the end of September to give breweries guidance on how the new law would be regulated. According to the bulletin, brewers can charge varying fees for the tours — based on the day of the week or whether there is live music at the facility — but cannot charge different prices for tours based on what kind of beer customers may want to take home.

Through the policy, the Department of Revenue is trying to prevent brewers from affixing retail prices on their souvenirs, a step away from selling directly to consumers — a sale prohibited by law.

AirBnB and other similar services might see a movement for legislative oversight next year. This might get caught up in the issue of revisiting the hotel/motel tax passed earlier this year as part of the Transportation Finance Act and opposed by many in the hospitality industry and in local government.

The Association of County Commissioners of Georgia met in Brunswick and adopted a legislative agenda, which will result in some of their issues being priorities during the next legislative session.

The top three priorities for ACCG lobbyists in 2016-17 will be annexation, deannexation and incorporation; juvenile justice funding; and modernization and balanced funding for E-911 systems.

Other items on the state agenda include county correctional institutions, the Georgia agriculture tax exemption, insurance premium tax, local sales tax collection, juvenile court and notices in legal organs.

On the federal level, ACCG will be working on the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, federal highway trust fund reauthorization, and the marketplace fairness act.

The City of Columbus will consider its legislative agenda today.

The item that is almost certain to garner the most attention and discussion will be Mayor Teresa Tomlinson’s proposed referendum to “thaw” the city’s property tax assessment freeze. In order to get the referendum on next November’s General Election ballot, council must make the request of the delegation, who must then get it approved by the entire Georgia General Assembly.

In addition to the seven items originally proposed to be presented to the local legislative delegation, a proposal to add a $25 “technology fee” to all fines levied in Recorder’s Court and for continued support for elderly citizens were added.

Casino gambling will be a “Sound and Fury” bill, passing nothing. That’s due in part to Gov. Deal signifying his opposition to casino gambling.

Gov. Nathan Deal told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he would urge lawmakers to vote against a constitutional amendment next year that would allow casino gambling in Georgia, his most strident opposition yet to the contentious proposal.

As for the chances of the legislation passing next year without those changes, Deal said: “Don’t bet on it getting on the ballot.”