Press release [Mar. 10, 2006]

For Immediate Release: March 10, 2006

CONTACT INFORMATION michelle hitt
404.656.5020 mhitt@actmajority.com

HOUSE FUNDS STATE PRIORITIES AND DELIVERS EMINENT DOMAIN PROMISE
By Representative Glenn Richardson, Speaker of the House

Education, education, education those were Governor Perdue's priorities outlined at the beginning of this legislative session and the priorities we funded in the House this week. As the House completed work on the budget, we were able to fund our state's education needs, give pay raises to teachers and law enforcement, fund the Katie Beckett Program through 2007, and still had enough to begin rebuilding our state reserves. With the budget finally behind us, we moved on to eminent domain and delivered on our promise to protect private property rights.

I am proud to report that 74.6 % of all new state revenues are being spent on our state's educational priorities. We authorized $500,000 to give every teacher in the state of Georgia a gift card to purchase class room supplies during the tax free holiday. After passing the Governor's "Truth in Class Size" legislation, we funded that initiative to reduce class sizes in Georgia. We added $1 million in grants to support a reading initiative at an innovative public/private partnership program in Catoosa County. We funded 8 new capitol construction projects at our universities and 7 new projects at our technical colleges. Technical schools will also receive $5 million for new equipment and $7 million for repairs and maintenance.

Recognizing that many of our most valued public servants are not compensated at their worth, we funded $364 million in pay raises for teachers and public school employees. We also provided $6.4 million to give Georgia's 11,276 law enforcement and correctional officers a much deserved raise.

Under the leadership of Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin, we were able to fund the Katie Beckett Program through 2007. This is an extremely important program that provides help for families of children with long term disabilities or complex medical needs. We also funded dental care for PeachCare and lowincome, pregnant women, $4.5 million to help our state's trauma centers, and a reimbursement increase for pediatricians and speech pathologists serving Medicaid patients.

After all of this great work was done and in addition to the many other important projects we were able to fund, we still were able to begin rebuilding our state's reserve fund depleted during more difficult times. Much like ordinary Georgians, we believe it is important for our state to be financially prepared to meet the needs of our citizens especially during unexpected circumstances.

While you may wonder how we ever had time to do anything else this week after the budget, the House did move on eminent domain keeping our promise to protect private property rights. We passed a bill this week that will prohibit the taking of personal property for private, economic development. House Bill 1313 ensures elected officials retain oversight of eminent domain. We defined "public use" as possession of land by the general public, public utilities, uses for roads, defenses, travel and trade. We also defined "economic development" as increasing the tax base but not constituting a public use. We narrowed the definition of "blight" to provide that the term only apply to individual pieces of property instead of large areas of a community. We took a giant step forward and I am confident we will send a strong bill to the Governor for his signature before this legislative session concludes.

Still to come is work on the impact of illegal immigrants on state services, protecting the HOPE scholarship and allowing faith based organizations to contract with the state for services provided to our state's needy citizens.

As always, if I or my staff can be of any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me at my office at the Capitol at (404) 656-5020.

Georgia House of Representatives | Office of the Speaker | Room 332 State Capitol | Atlanta, Georgia 30334 404.656.5020 | 404.656.5644 fax