January 27, 2006
Gov. Perdue’s proposal that would mandate how local school systems allocate their expenditures is raising concerns among education leaders across Georgia. Under the plan, local schools would have to spend 65 percent of their budgets on questionably defined “in-classroom activities” by the 2008 fiscal year.
Despite good intentions, this requirement would appear to contradict the governor’s previous assertion that Georgians don’t want a “busybody” government, since it gives more power to the State Board of Education at the expense of local school boards.
Local school systems already allocate an average of 63 percent of their funds to classrooms; many systems exceed that. Moreover, the state’s percentage spending on classrooms fell in each of the last three years because the governor cut $1.1 billion in funding for public schools.
The bill’s definition of in-classroom spending fails to cover many important programs, including school libraries, teacher training and curriculum development. Rural systems that must spend heavily on transportation to schools at a greater distance might also face additional budget dilemmas because of this mandate.
This week, the Senate approved legislation I co-sponsored that would prohibit the Public Service Commission from regulating the rates for new communications technologies such as digital broadband service, voice over Internet protocol, and wireless service.
Senate Bill 120, which passed by a 46-3 vote, simply prevents the government from stepping in to regulate rates and prices for these new services. As amended, the bill would not affect current state laws related to consumer protection and restraint of trade and will not remove the PSC’s authority to handle consumer complaints.
Senators also passed the governor’s proposal to reduce the state’s 4 percent sales tax on home heating fuel to 2 percent. House Bill 970 became law when the governor signed the bill Wednesday.
Yet the measure is far from a comprehensive solution to help families pay prohibitively high heating bills. Consumers would save, for example, only $6 on a $300 monthly bill. Several consumer advocates and legislators want the General Assembly to increase the $4.15 million that the governor has allocated to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program for at-risk elderly, disabled and fixed-income Georgians.
A much more far-reaching possibility for curtailing home heating costs would be re-regulating Georgia’s natural gas industry, which has been suggested by some lawmakers.
The Senate also approved and the governor later signed a revised version of the state law imposed last year to require Georgia voters to show photo identification when they go to the polls.
Last fall, a federal judge prohibited the law from being enforced in the November 2005 municipal elections. The new changes, aimed at surviving future court challenges, would provide the photo IDs free of charge to voters who do not have them and to make them accessible in each of Georgia’s 159 counties.
I voted against the measure – the most restrictive in the nation – because it still places an undue burden on senior citizens who do not have photo IDs in order to exercise their constitutional right to vote, and it does not address the real source of voter fraud, which is in the absentee balloting process.
Also, the Senate passed a bill to change how child support payments are calculated by ordering judges to consider both parents’ incomes when determining the amount of child support. While supporters say the measure will lessen an unfair burden on non-custodial parents, I believe SB 382 will penalize children and encourage court petitions from non-custodial parents seeking payment relief, despite the success of two amendments that would minimize the bill’s impact.
The original measure gave non-custodial parents a 10 percent reduction in their child support if they have more than 90 days of visitation with the child. However, the Senate amended it to raise the minimum number of visitation days to 120 before the non-custodial parent would get relief. A second amendment would let courts issue contempt citations to non-custodial parents if they don’t satisfy visitation requirements they agree to in exchange for a break on child support.
These amendments did improve the measure, but I still voted with the minority of Senators in opposition. The measure now goes to the House of Representatives for its consideration.
Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Sears gave her State of the Judiciary to Senators and House members. She reported the state of the judiciary is strong, sound and working well for the citizens of Georgia. Underscoring her address was the need to increase courtroom security throughout the state in light of the tragic shootings at the Fulton County Courthouse last year. She also asked the General Assembly to fund more Superior Court Judges to reduce caseloads.
Bible study legislation good for our schools and students
January 20, 2006
Since helping introduce Senate Bill 437, which would allow Georgia public high schools to offer an academic study of the Bible as an elective course – in a manner that complies with constitutional church/state issues and U.S. Supreme Court rulings – this week, I have received a tremendous outpouring of public support for the legislation.
But I also knew there would be some knee-jerk opposition from both political extremes before people had a chance to read the bill. So I’d like to take a moment here to briefly respond to some of the misunderstandings, partisan political attacks and legitimate questions that have been raised.
First, SB 437 merely authorizes the state Board of Education to approve a high school curriculum that would meet constitutional muster and challenge students academically should they choose to study the Bible as a literary work that is the basis for much of the American and Western civilization history, literature, music and art they are already being taught in our schools.
The legislation does not mandate or require local schools to offer the course or students to take it. It specifically does not “open the door” for any other type of Bible study or religious teaching that would violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment. In seeing the enormous educational benefits of this proposal, we worked equally hard to ensure that it would adhere to the letter and spirit of our Constitution. And it does.
This is good legislation, which would both enhance Georgia students’ educational experience – which is one of state government’s most important obligations – and protect their civil liberties. It deserves a fair hearing and bipartisan support in the state Senate.
The Senate and House Appropriations Committees held two days of hearings this week on Gov. Perdue’s proposed $18.6 billion fiscal year 2007 budget, which is 8.2 percent higher than last year’s spending blueprint. Last week, I discussed the proposals for K-12 education. Here is how the budget breaks down in some other key categories:
Higher education. The $1.9 billion proposed University System budget is $300 million larger than the 2006 appropriation and includes a 4 percent pay hike for faculty and employees, costing $47 million; $38 million for a nanotechnology facility at Georgia Tech; and $37.5 for a teaching lab at Georgia State.
Adult and technical education. The governor wants to spend $47.8 million on major capital projects at the Okefenokee, Savannah, Lanier (Forsyth campus) and Chattahoochee (Paulding County campus) Technical Colleges. His choices bypass colleges in Atlanta and Columbus that had been deemed as higher priorities by the Department of Adult and Technical Education.
Health care. Part of the $10 billion Department of Community Health budget is slated for health care initiatives in the Medicaid and PeachCare programs and the State Health Benefit Plan. United Healthcare’s new contract with DCH to administer the benefit plan raised concerns among state workers because some doctors and hospitals they use were excluded from United’s provider network. On Tuesday, DCH Commissioner Rhonda Medows told Appropriations Committee conferees the issue was being addressed. Last week, I co-sponsored legislation to give lawmakers, employees and health care providers a bigger voice on any future changes to the Health Benefit Plan.
Transportation. The governor’s “Paving the Way Home” program involves $234 million in already-earmarked federal funds that during the next two fiscal years (2006 and 2007) would go to Georgia cities and counties for high-priority transportation projects. Federal taxes on motor vehicle fuels would pay for this. The Local Assistance Road Program proposal takes $60 million from the total in each year to resurface and patch deep holes in roads, while $57 million in state funding is allocated in both years to pave rural dirt roads, improve intersections and resurface and repair existing roads.
Social services and public safety. The governor is seeking $45 million to buy more than 4,300 more beds for State prisons and $8 million more to absorb fuel price hikes at correctional facilities. Social safety net requests include $285 million in tax relief for seniors; a new child care tax credit; $2.8 million in state funds (plus another $3.1 million in federal funding) to hire 175 more child welfare caseworkers; and $1.3 billion in state monies (up $28.2 million from FY 2006) toward a requested $2.9 billion total Department of Human Services budget.
State Health Benefit Plan needs public oversight
January 13, 2006
Gov. Sonny Perdue’s executive order last year to award the State Health Benefit Plan (SHBP) contract solely to United Healthcare has been the source of much concern among the educators and other state employees who are members of the plan, as well as health care providers across the state.
These 600,000 state employees and their families had virtually no input on the decision. For that matter, neither did Georgia taxpayers or the 56 Senators and 180 House members who represent them in the state legislature. United Healthcare, after all, is the same company fined $2.3 million by the state Insurance Commissioner for failing to provide timely reimbursements to hospitals, doctors and other health care providers.
The effect has been higher insurance costs for the SHBP members and a reduced number of providers in the plan’s network. Most members of the General Assembly and even state Department of Community Health (DCH) board members were caught off guard by the governor’s move to circumvent the normal oversight process.
In the long run, maybe the governor’s action will turn out to be a good one. Maybe it won’t. The point here is that this is the kind of action that should be taken only after an appropriate amount of input and scrutiny from the groups affected and their elected voices at the Capitol.
This is why, during the first week of the General Assembly’s 2006 session, I helped introduced legislation that proposes corrective measures. I co-sponsored Senate Bill 410, which would create a joint legislative committee to study the State Health Care Benefit. This committee’s sole purpose is to receive feedback from employees across Georgia on their current plan. The panel would meet on a quarterly basis and will make recommendations based on feedback on how to improve the current health plan.
I also co-sponsored SB 411, which would provide for public meetings around the state to receive public comment on the plan, and SB 412, which would form a State Health Benefit Plan Advisory Committee composed of educators and state employees covered by the plan, for the purpose of making annual recommendations to the governor and the legislature.
Many of you have expressed your concerns to me about the changes to SHBP. I will keep you posted on the progress of this legislation that addresses the need for everyone with a stake in the plan to have input on these types of decisions.
The first week of the 2006 session also revealed the governor’s proposed state budget plan for fiscal year 2007, which for the first time during his administration reflects a significant investment in public education. During the previous three years, the governor initiated a total of nearly $1.1 billion in education funding cuts, resulting in delays in reducing class sizes, little or no increases in teacher pay and local property tax increases in some 83 school districts across the state. Even in his new proposal, the governor is slashing another $169.7 million in the state’s basic funding formula for schools.
But the election-year budget plan the governor presented to lawmakers Wednesday does include additional funds for education, including a 4 percent pay raise for educators and a $100 “gift card” for every teacher that will enable them to buy classroom supplies for their students. The governor also proposed an increase in classroom construction spending and funds to pay for class size reductions in grades K-8. During the previous three years, the governor and his supporters in the General Assembly enacted legislation that delayed class size reductions that were mandated by the state’s education reform act.
It’s good to see that in this election year Gov. Perdue has come to partially understand the priorities of education funding that we Democrats in the legislature have always promoted. I hope that we will see a sustained commitment to supporting public education here in Georgia from the governor and the Republican majority throughout this session.
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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