Passing the Half-Way Mark...Hurry Up and Wait

This week begins the sprint that follows the passing of the 20 th day of the 40 day session.

The upcoming legislative days are expected to be a little more hectic as bills continue to be heard in spurts of committee activity. Finally. Or regretably, depending on how you look at it. Some wish they would just take care of the budget and not do much else. You know the old joke about "lock up the women and children, they are not safe during session".

But very few bills have passed both chambers thus far. One, that was supposed to protect the homeowners property tax grant, was really a smooth head-fake. You get the grant this year, but it goes away next year...likely never to be seen again. You see, after 2009 instead of a set grant, the "possibility" of a grant hinges on a complicated formula that triggers a grant only when state revenue increases at certain levels. By most accounts it will be impossible to reach the trigger levels. What was promoted as a love letter turned out to be a Dear John.

S.H.O.T. 's across the bow - Short Here's Our Take stream:

- Revenue is desperately needed but no action yet taken on Pass the Buck (HB 39) to bring in another $1 in per pack sales. No action yet taken on Sunday Alcohol Sales (SB 16) which would bring in additional revenue in the localities that vote to do so. And maybe one of several versions of eliminating the seatbelt wearing exception for pick-up trucks will pass. And that bill alone would bring Georgia over 4 million in Federal Highway Safety Funds. But will it pass the House? Surprise, it's not the slam dunk you would think.

- SB 31, we're told, is greased to override the great public outcry against it. Having already passed the Senate this bill starts charging Georgia Power consumers now for the future construction of nuclear power plant construction. The plants haven't even been approved. And if they are, construction isn't scheduled until 2016. And then, cost over-runs get billed to the customer too. Didn't Madoff get arrested for this kind of "deal"?

- Sen. Steve Thompson calls SB 31 "The Lobbyist Employment Act".

- And wouldn't you have guessed, Gov. Perdue's current Chief of Staff had a 39 year career with Georgia Power. No, not in some accounting cubicle, but as the company's chief lobbyist! Good grief.

- Initial Republican leadership reluctance to show any public salivating over federal dollars coming from the Recovery Act, has begun to disovle. Talk now about how to use those dollars to relieve the budget deficit is getting serious. Advocacy groups are pressing for allocation toward the services that were cut in Perdue's proposal. First clue on how that turns out will be in the Supplemental budget that comes up this week. The Supplemental is what makes adjustments for FY 2009. The BIG Budget is the FY 2010 proposal that will correspond to the arrival of the biggest federal dollars.

- We can't see the genie going back in the bottle, but...Speaking of embracing federal Recovery money, the first leadership announced plans for using the influx did not include any expression of thanks or recognition that it came from Congressional Democrats.

- Leadership squabbles of the last couple of years have been largely hidden this time. Watching the Governor, Speaker and Lt. Governor feuds were about the only fun to be had for the previous sessions. Now there are a lot more joint announcements with a tip-toeing around differences. This can't last much longer, right?

- One mistake that could be costly would be leadership making a symbolic "conservative" stand against changing Ga law to accommodate the Recovery Act increased unemployment benefits. Perdue hints that he may not accept money intended as a subsidy to the unemployed to keep their health insurance. This is called COBRA, which allows continuation of insurance at a premium rate. To allow people to take the subsidy for more than 3 months would require a GA bill to extend the coverage time. Without the subsidy, the COBRA payments would consume 85% of the average family unemployment benefit. And who, being unemployed, could ever afford to accept the 15% left to live on? So without a change in law most all would have to let their insurance lapse. That results in more costs to the health care system and peoples individual health. What a viscious cycle. Pay now or pay more later. For those that still pray, pray now for Federal health care reform ASAP.