2013 Session of the Georgia General Assembly Gets Underway

State legislators returned to the Capitol on Monday, January 14 to kick off the 2013 session of the Georgia General Assembly.  While House and Senate members marked four days off of their official forty day calendar, this year’s legislative calendar is not expected to move quickly.  Governor Nathan Deal was optimistic during his annual State of the State address; however, the state budget cannot be finalized until decisions at the federal level are resolved.

The House and Senate have released their committee appointments for the year.  As legislation moves through the committees, individuals from your local delegation can play a key role. Therefore, it is important to check committee assignments and know where your legislators are assigned to serve.  

·        Georgia House of Representatives Committees

·        Georgia Senate Committees

This year, ACCG is introducing a new way to share more in-depth information on important legislation. Each week, the ACCG policy staff will record “The County Scoop” video segments from the Capitol.  These short videos are designed to help county officials better understand how legislation is progressing and to provide more details than can be included in the written legislative update.  To watch this week’s County Scoop, click on the arrows in each of the boxes where you see the policy staff below.  The County Scoop is also available from ACCG website at www.accg.org. 

Highlights from the Governor’s State of the State Address

Read the State of the State Address

• The Governor highlighted the success of criminal justice reform and encouraged legislators to support juvenile justice reform legislation this year. Recommendations include community-based, non-confinement correctional methods.  ACCG will continue to track this legislation closely to ensure that increased costs are not passed on to the counties.
• He expressed concern over the growth in Medicaid.  Even without expanding the Medicaid requirements under the federal healthcare reform, Georgia expects the number of people on Medicaid to increase by 100,000.  This is projected to result in an increased cost of $1.7 billion over the next 10 years. He also called for legislature to authorize the Board of Community Health to collect a provider fee for the hospitals to help cover the expected Medicaid shortfall and keep hospitals solvent.
• He announced an additional $50 million for the Port of Savannah harbor deepening project. This brings the total state investment to $231 billion.  The Port of Savannah is an important economic driver for Georgia and the entire eastern seaboard.
• He encouraged legislators to focus on re-establishing public trust and stated changes made to the ethics code of conduct should apply equally to state and local elected officials.  ACCG will share the details of any proposed legislation as soon as it becomes available.

• Increase of $18 million to the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
• Inclusion of funding generated from the Hospital Provider Payment included in the Department of Community Health.
• Continued funding for the county jail subsidy through the Department of Corrections in the amount of $14 million.
• New funding in the amount of $5 million to the Governor's Office of Children and Families to fund the creation of community-based juvenile incentive grant funding programs to provide fiscal incentives to create and utilize community based programs for juvenile offenders.
• Maintains Forestland Protection Grants at a funding level of $14.2 million.
• Reduces Local Maintenance Improvement Grant program from $110,642,250 FY13 to $107,470,000 for FY2014.