Sen. Frank Ginn: Patience and Caffeine: Essentials for the Final Days

Your Georgia Desk:

Patience and Caffeine: Essentials for the Final Days

By: Sen. Frank Ginn (R – Danielsville)

The 30^th day of the legislative session—Crossover Day—is always one that requires a lot of patience and even more caffeine. This is a significant deadline for the Georgia General Assembly because it’s the last day for legislation to pass the chamber in which it was introduced. This means that any bill that does not pass its original chamber will not move on in the legislative process and must be re-introduced in 2015. While many legislators and advocates are happy to see their bills receive a passing vote on Crossover Day, there are just as many who are left disappointed. While it’s disheartening to see a bill not pass on Crossover Day, there is a silver lining in the form of more time to revise and strengthen these proposals.

However, it’s sometimes a good thing when a bill fails to meet the Crossover Day deadline. While there are many bills of positive impact introduced each year, there are also bills introduced that will cause more harm than good. These types of bills threaten to increase the tax burdens on individuals and families, unfairly restrict businesses and industries, and cause unintended consequences that could take years to resolve. This is why the Georgia General Assembly sends each bill through a careful vetting process in both the House and Senate.

The Senate will only consider House bills from now until the end of the legislative session, which means we are now working to give the second seal of approval needed in order for bills to be signed into Georgia law by Governor Deal. Conversely, the House is now only considering Senate bills, which means any bill amended by the House must come back to the Senate for approval of the changes.

One of the bills now being carefully reviewed in the Senate includes HB 744, the Fiscal Year 2015 General Budget, which was approved by the Senate late last week. The $20.8 billion budget includes several major line items, including:

• ·         $539 million increase for K-12 education, with $101 million for enrollment growth and training
• ·         $314 million to increase instructional days, reduce teacher furloughs or increase teacher pay
• ·         $14 million in capital funding to expand technology infrastructure
• ·         $3.6 million in technical education for books to dually enrolled students, the development of digital curricula in the area of 21st century manufacturing and other critical needs industry areas used by dual enrollment programs
• ·         $700,000 for the training and hire of a state autism coordinator, early intervention providers and support team members for earlier detection and diagnosis
• ·         $5 million for the expansion of the community-based Juvenile Incentive Funding Grant, adult felony drug and mental health accountability courts, and expansion of the family dependent drug courts
• ·         $3.2 million for Sparsity Grants for 22 newly qualified school systems and a “hold harmless” 21 existing school systems – which means these schools will receive the same funds received the previous year and that any funding changes will happen after this budget cycle
• ·         $1.2 million to implement the new fund distribution formula but provide a “hold harmless” for one year at public libraries

Due to small differences in the House and Senate versions of HB 744, the appropriations bill will now go to conference committee. The committee will resolve differences and finalize one version of the bill backed by both the House and Senate.

The Senate also received a visit from the Savannah River Caucus of the South Carolina Legislature last week. As the chairman of the Senate Economic Development committee, I am proud of the Georgia General Assembly’s efforts to build good working relationships with those who share some of our state’s greatest assets and natural resources. The Savannah River Caucuses of the Georgia General Assembly and the South Carolina Legislature regularly meet to promote mutual interests and find solutions for the areas surrounding the Savannah River Basin. I’d like to thank Rep. Alan Powell (R – Hartwell) and Rep. Tom McCall (R – Elberton) for their vision to create the Savannah River Caucus and their work to bring these two states together.

The Georgia Savannah River Caucus recently introduced a House resolution urging the U.S. Corps of Engineers to use adaptive management practices on the river’s connected lakes. Adaptive management practices allow us to improve current environmental management policies while also learning more about the subject—in this case, that subject is the Savannah River Basin.

Only a few days remain in the 2014 legislative session, but there are still plenty of bills left for debate, and each one will impact every Georgian in some way. If you have any concerns about a certain bill, please speak up by calling or emailing my Senate office. I am never too busy for your questions or feedback. As always, it is an honor and a privilege to represent District 47 at the Georgia State Capitol.