January 23, 2012
The Georgia Taxpayer Receipt Act will be a user-friendly online mechanism for taxpayers to see how the state is spending money. Specifically, the measure would allow any taxpayer to use an online tool to break out the taxes into the government departments or agencies where the money is being spent. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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January 14, 2012
Gov. Nathan Deal outlined his legislative agenda, including a proposed $19.2 billion state budget for fiscal year 2013, Tuesday night during his annual State of the State address to a joint session of the Georgia Senate and House of Representatives. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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State Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) will host a Town Hall meeting Thursday, Jan. 19, at 6:30 p.m. at Vinings Bank, 4135 Atlanta Road, Smyrna, GA 30080. Please join Sen. Stoner for a discussion of the issues being addressed by the Georgia General Assembly, and the impact of those issues on the local community.
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Proposed changes include large tax breaks for corporations and tax increases on Georgia families in the form of reinstating the 4 percent state sales tax on food. Taxes will be a hotly debated issue again this year. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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It is estimated that Georgia currently spends more than $1 billion a year and has the fourth-highest incarceration rate in the nation. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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Voters in the 10-county Metro Atlanta region will be asked to approve the T-SPLOST levy in order to generate approximately $6.1 billion over the next 10 years. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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As a result, our current Senate District 6 will lose some South Cobb precincts while extending into Fulton County and taking in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) in conjunction with Representatives Stacey Evans (D-Smyrna) and David Wilkerson (D-Austell) of the Cobb County delegation, will hold a forum to explore the various initiatives and projects contained in the proposed regional transportation project list.
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Sen. Doug Stoner receives the 2011 Environmental Leadership Award from Rob Teilhet, executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters.
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April 22, 2011
As expected, economic issues dominated the agenda at the Capitol during this year's session. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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Please join state Sen. Doug Stoner and state Rep. Stacey Evans for a post-legislative session Town Hall meeting Tuesday, May 3, at 7 p.m. at the Smyrna Community Center.
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April 19, 2011
The 2011 regular session of the Georgia General Assembly reached final adjournment late Thursday evening, with lawmakers having agreed on a number of major legislative actions while leaving other issues unresolved at this time. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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April 8, 2011
Senate Democrats have grave concerns about the latest incarnation of so-called tax “reform” legislation proposed by Republicans on the special joint tax committee. With only three days left in the current session, Democrats appointed to the committee have been excluded from all discussions regarding the legislation, so we are reacting to media reports of the most recent round of changes to the bill.
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April 1, 2011
Also, the Senate has approved an $18.2 billion annual state budget plan for fiscal year 2012. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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March 23, 2011
The Senate voted to approve legislation I co-sponsored that would authorize county and city governments to hold public referendums to allow local voters to decide whether to legalize the package sale of alcoholic beverages on Sunday Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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March 16, 2011
Also, the Senate majority passes immigration enforcement legislation. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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March 6, 2011
The HOPE Scholarship as we know it is under attack. For almost two decades, Georgia's HOPE Scholarship has ensured that students in this state had an opportunity to continue their education. That is all about to change. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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Sen. Stoner spoke from the Senate well on the Republican majority's announced intention to keep the Senate from voting on legislaton that would authorize local communities to hold referendums on Sunday package sales of alcoholic beverages. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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February 19, 2011
In her State of the Judiciary address, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Hunstein noted that while Georgia is the nation's 10th largest state, we have the fourth largest number of people incarcerated, costing taxpayers more than $1 billion per year. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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February 8, 2011
Sen. Doug Stoner (second from left) joins other officials in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Crossings at Four Corners shopping center, to be anchored by a Kroger supermarket, in Smyrna. (Photo by Laura Moon/Marietta Daily Journal)
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February 7, 2011
Legislation has been introduced in the Senate that would require public and private employers to check the citizenship status of their employees through the federal E-Verify program or face stiff penalties for failing to do so. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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February 4, 2011 The topic of education took center stage at a Thursday night town hall meeting hosted by Sen. Doug Stoner and Rep. Stacey Evans.
Stoner (D-Smyrna) is serving his fourth term in the Georgia State Senate, representing South Cobb County from Senate District 6. Evans (D-Smyrna) was elected to the State House last November and represents parts of Smyrna, Marietta and Vinings.
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January 30, 2011
Also, the Senate voted unanimously to override former Gov. Sonny Perdue's veto of legislation adopted last year that would have required the state to implement a zero-based budgeting process. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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Students from Imagine International Academy in Smyrna visited the Capitol last week. Sen. Stoner welcomed Chastity Feggins, Alanix McKenzie and Devin Hart, along with Regional Director Carmen Hurst, to the Senate chamber.
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January 24, 2011
The Appropriations Committees of the House of Representatives and Senate met jointly Jan. 18-20 for hearings on the state of Georgia's amended budget for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, which ends June 30, and the annual budget for fiscal year 2012, which begins July 1. Read more in Doug's latest newsletter.
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Sen. Doug Stoner is sworn into office for the 2011-12 legislative term by Georgia Supreme Court Justice David Nahmias.
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Marietta Daily Journal, 1/16/2011
Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna), Rep. David Wilkerson (D-Austell) and Rep. Stacey Evans (D-Smyrna) visited the Marietta Daily Journal to discuss the current legislative session, weighing in on such things as a proposed sales tax on groceries, teacher evaluations and Senate leadership stripping Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle of power. Click here to read the full interview.
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January 15, 2011
The 2011 legislative session is now under way, with newly inaugurated Gov. Nathan Deal having presented his budget propsals and the special Tax Reform Council making its recommendations. Senate committee assignments have also been announced. Read more in Doug's Jan. 15 newsletter.
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State Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) has been elected to serve as chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus for the 2011-12 term of the Georgia General Assembly.
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State Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) has been recognized among the “Most Influential Georgians of the Year” in the sixth annual listing published by James magazine.
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Friday, March 26, will be the 30th legislative day of the 2010 session of the General Assembly. This is known as "cross-over day" because it is the final day for the Senate to pass legislation in time for it to be considered by the House of Representatives during this session, and vice versa.
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This week, I co-sponsored legislation that would establish a state commission to review the health insurance benefit and provider mandates that Georgia's small businesses are required to offer their employees.
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SB 22 establishes the Georgia Coordinating Council for Rural and Human Services Transportation, which will be charged with finding efficiencies in providing and funding transportation services for rural citizens, the elderly and disabled.
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In a threatening move toward Georgia's financially struggling hospitals, Gov. Sonny Perdue announced Thursday his plan to cut Medicaid reimbursement rates by 10.25 percent and eliminate a sales tax exemption for non-profit hospitals. These actions will cost hospitals a total of $274 million during fiscal year 2011.
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The Appropriations Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives just completed two weeks of hearings on the annual state budget for fiscal year 2011, for the purpose of considering more cuts to the $18.2 billion spending plan proposed by Gov. Sonny Perdue.
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Senate Bill 386, under consideration in the Senate Education & Youth Committee, would impose a so-called "merit pay" system for Georgia's public school teachers and administrators that would be largely tied to students' scores on standardized tests, rather than each educator's level of experience.
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During the first week of Senate and House Appropriations Committee hearings on the fiscal year 2011 budget, it was reported that the University System of Georgia has already cut $360 million from its budget since July 1, 2008.
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The Georgia Senate voted Thursday to approve a $17.4 billion amended state budget for the remainder of fiscal year 2010, which ends June 30. The revised budget is reduced by $1.2 billion from the original budget for this year and reflects a 23 percent decline in state revenues over the past two years.
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This week, Governor Perdue finally announced his support for giving MARTA some much-needed flexibility by authorizing the transit agency to use more than 50 percent of its sales tax revenues to pay for operating expenses, a crucial action for the future of the system.
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This week, I introduced the Georgia Transportation Jobs Development Act, a legislative solution to the transportation funding problem that has caused Georgia to fall behind other states in recent years.
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On Thursday, the Senate Transportation Committee favorably reported legislation I introduced that would establish the Georgia Coordinating Council for Rural and Human Services Transportation.
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A series of Appropriations Committee hearings Jan. 19-21 began the legislative process for amending the state budget for the remainder of fiscal year 2010, which ends June 30, and the budget for fiscal year 2011, which begins July 1.
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Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House leaders said this week they have abandoned plans for a constitutional amendment for a statewide sales tax for transportation, which the House passed last year.
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A number of new Georgia laws that were passed during the 2009 legislative session and signed into law by Gov. Sonny Perdue took effect Wednesday, July 1.
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There are more than 400,000 Georgians who filed their state tax returns before the April 15 deadline who have yet to receive a refund of the amount they overpaid in state taxes in 2008. The state Department of Revenue admits that it will be as late as November before it works through its backlog and all the refunds are distributed.
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When our state’s legislative leaders decided to slap a utility rate increase on consumers to help Georgia Power with the future financing of a nuclear plant expansion, they rushed to get it done in a couple of weeks’ time.
But when it comes to helping those who fight Atlanta traffic to get to work every day and the communities across the state in need of better roads, a similar sense of legislative urgency was nowhere to be found.
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In the final week of the 2009 session of the Georgia General Assembly, lawmakers approved an $18.6 billion budget for fiscal year 2010 and passed a package of tax cuts designed to spur the economy. But for the second year in a row, the Senate and House leadership failed to agree on a solution for Georgia's transportation funding problem.
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As the debate continued this week over the future of transportation funding in Georgia, the Senate held its ground on the position that a regional solution paid for by dollars raised within those regions is the appropriate direction to take.
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On Wednesday, the Senate passed legislation that would make it easier for college students to continue using HOPE Scholarship funds for book purchases and related fees.
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In response to reports this week in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Senate Intermodal Rail & Transit Subcommittee Chairman Senator Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) is calling for a subcommittee hearing on MARTA’s dire financial situation.
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More than 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Another 1.5 million are Parkinson’s disease patients. Hundreds of thousands more are living with the results of spinal cord injury or disease, with that number growing by 30 newly injured people each day.
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The state Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to approve a proposal that would provide a dedicated revenue source for the Georgia Trauma Trust Fund to expand and enhance trauma care in our state.
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By a slim majority Thursday, the state Senate approved legislation that would reorganize the state's transportation agencies and likely weaken the process of representative government.
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Over my objection Wednesday, the Senate Transportation Committee favorably reported legislation that would reorganize the state's transportation agencies and potentially weaken the process of representative government.
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It seems that hardly a day goes by during the current legislative session without a majority of either the Senate or the House of Representatives passing legislation that claims to help Georgia taxpayers but in reality merely passes the buck to the local level of government.
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The Senate voted on a property tax relief measure this week, approving legislation that would hold down increases in valuation assessments by local tax officials.
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On Wednesday, Feb. 11, the Senate unanimously adoped legislation I introduced which urges President Barack Obama and his administration to continue the uninterrupted production of the F-22 Raptor.
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Across the state of Georgia, the lack of adequate funding to improve our transportation system is a problem. But the specific needs and urgency for improvements are different in various regions of the state.
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Over my objection, the Senate Regulated Industries & Utilities Committee has favorably approved legislation that would allow Georgia Power to increase customer rates while restricting the Public Service Commission's decision-making authority on the issue.
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On Wednesday, the Senate began the process of dealing with Georgia's transportation funding crisis when the Transportation Committee favorably approved legislation I co-sponsored.
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According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia's public schools stand to receive more than $1 billion in additional federal money as part of President Barack Obama's stimulus bill, approved Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Last year's failure of the General Assembly to pass legislation I co-sponsored, providing a transportation funding solution through a regional, local option sales tax, has contributed to an increasingly bleak financial picture at the Department of Transportation.
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The President has stated repeatedly that his policy agenda for leading our nation will have little or nothing to do with political views or partisanship. If federal funding requests from Georgia make good sense toward forging a stronger economy, rebuilding our infrastructure, dealing with our health care crisis, and supporting initiatives that create jobs, then there is no reason for our state’s leaders to be so pessimistic.
I look forward to working with the Obama administration on behalf of Cobb County’s and the state of Georgia’s needs these next four years, and letting the new President know our state will be a “team player” as he leads the nation back to a brighter economic future.
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District 6
P.O. Box 1781
Smyrna, GA 30081
Phone: 770.436.0699
Fax: 770.436.0699
Email: doug.stoner@senate.ga.gov
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