Press release [May 4, 2004E]

House Information Office Room 505, Legislative Office Building
Atlanta, Georgia 30334 404-656-5082 1-800-282-5800

5-2031-5189

May 4, 2004

For Immediate Release

Special Session of General Assembly Convenes

Rep. Howard Says Work will be Quickly Completed

Atlanta - On Monday, Governor Sonny Perdue convened a special session of the Legislature requesting lawmakers to consider a bill to provide funding for Georgia's newly established indigent defense program. The 2005 Appropriations Act, recently passed in the 2004 legislative session, anticipated $57 million in new revenue through fines and fees generated with the initiation of the new program. In the final moments of the session, the Governor refused to accept compromise language to HB 869, the bill that established funding for the courts to administer the program. Because of disagreement on language in the bill on who oversees the program, it failed to pass and the funds could not be collected.

Governor Perdue, who determines agenda items for the special session, has proclaimed indigent defense as the only issue to be brought up. It will cost about $45,000 per day to hold the session, and some lawmakers have suggested the Governor should have modified the 2005 budget to put it in balance rather than call the special session.

"A compromise has been reached and thankfully we should only be in session for five days, which is the shortest amount of time it takes a bill to get through the House and Senate," said Representative Henry Howard (D-Augusta). " We need a budgt to keep state government in operation. Prisons, hospitals and schools would all be in jeopardy without the passage of a budget."

The 2005 budget includes $204 million restored for K-12 education over the Governor's proposal, $368 million dedicated to the Medicaid program that provides care for the elderly and poor, $116 million restored for books and fees covered through the HOPE scholarship, a
-more-

continuation of the state's property tax relief program for homeowners, almost $1 billion in bonds for construction projects, 2 percent pay raises for state employees and teachers that will begin in January and $1 million for the daily operations of a commuter-rail link between Atlanta and Lovejoy.
Other highlights include new funds for Georgia's public libraries and the Georgia Quick Start Program, which works with new industries to provide specialty job training for potential workers. Also passed were $60 million in bonds for major repair and renovation projects throughout Georgia's University System; $21 million in bonds for the Department of Technical and Adult Education and $13.7 million in bonds to construct and equip a new classroom building for Heart of Georgia Technical College.
Howard commented, "The issues could have easily been addressed in other ways but we will do everything we can in the House to complete the people's business in the shortest amount of time possible."
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For further information please contact Rep. Howard at 404/656-9198.