News feed [Jan. 24, 2002A]

January 24, 2002 News Feed
(Please feel free to personalize)
Greetings, this is Rep. _____________.
After three long days in which House members pored over a massive and arduous budget document, many House lawmakers have gone home today hoping for an extended weekend to catch up on missed work and to recharge their batteries before getting back to the rigors of the everyday session.
Many issues await lawmakers upon their return. Topics such as predatory lending, nursing shortages, and teen drivers' education are ever present in legislative conversations.
Other issues seem to have gained new legs. Last summer's elevated natural gas rates, in spite of decreasing wholesale costs, have raised new questions about whether some type of re-regulation should be implemented.
Likewise, a budgetary crunch may lend a financial advantage to an idea that many members already were seriously considering. Last session, Speaker Tom Murphy introduced HB 498, a plan to abolish local Mental Health/Mental Retardation boards. Many lawmakers feel the boards are little more than a hurdle, and a bureaucratic layer between the citizens who need service and the funding source. They suggest the very existence of MH/MR boards soak up state dollars which could be better spent on treatment and services for the mentally impaired. Others, however, argue such boards allow for families and persons receiving service to have an input into the overall system operation. During the last session, a compromise was reached in the House keeping the boards intact, but making the system more financially accountable by shifting many of the monetary functions to the state Department of Human Resources. That compromise did not clear the

Senate, but may see new life in the upcoming days.

Furthermore, a number of measures are beginning to clear committee and

are therefore available for consideration by the full House. One of those, HB 1000,

is a Supplemental Appropriations measure that will allow the sale of more than

$620 million in bonds to be used in the construction of new classrooms throughout

the state necessary for compliance with the new class size stipulations in Georgia's

education reform package.

All these things and many more await lawmakers as they return on Monday,

January 28, for the sixth legislative day of the session.

Reporting from your state capitol this is Rep._________. If you have any

questions or comments please do not hesitate to call me at (404) 656 (

).