REPORT FROM THE CAPITOL--DAY THIRTY-NINE, 2008
by Herbert Garrett on 4/2/2008

Both the House and the Senate, to no one's surprise, tackled lengthy calendars on this penultimate day of the 2008 session of the Georgia General Assembly.  The 63 bills addressed by the House were virtually free of education legislation, but the House did find time to disagree with the Senate changes to HB 1209, the Governor's bill based on meetings held by his Education Finance Task Force.  This bill now goes back to the Senate, which will undoubtedly insist on their position, and a conference committee will be appointed to work out the differences in this sure-to-pass-in-some-form legislation.

 

The Senate's original calendar for the day contained 52 bills (They completed 38 before calling it a day.) and included several bills of interest to educators.  Passed by the Senate on this thirty-ninth day were:

 

  • HB 637 -- changes requirements of the state's norm-referenced testing program
  • HB 602 -- allows local board members to sell products or goods to their own local boards under certain circumstances and restrictions
  • HB 1300 -- changes the requirement that a system's school year must end on a Friday in order for that system to choose not to make up four school days per year lost to inclement weather
  • HB 881 -- the bill creating the now-infamous "Georgia Charter Schools Commission," a state-level, appointed commission empowered to create charter schools in systems (over the objection of the elected local board) and award local tax dollars to those schools  [Editor's note:  This bill, which passed only by a 29-18 vote, was amended significantly in the Senate to (1) mandate that no "commission charter schools" could be established in charter systems, and (2) empower the state-level commission to reduce the amount of local funding awarded to commission charter schools after considering the impact on the local system.  These amendments did not appear to be well-received by House charter advocates, making it highly likely that the House will disagree with the changes.  A House-Senate conference committee on this bill appears inevitable.  Click here to see how senators voted on this bill.]

 

Left hanging by the Senate in the short list of bills not addressed on this day were HB 1321 (deals with penalties for students who falsely report inappropriate behavior by educators), HB 905 (the BRIDGE bill), and HB 1286 (requires schools to close on Veteran's Day each year).  It is likely the Senate will finish this calendar (and, pass these bills) on Day 40.

 

The issue of tax reform again appeared front and center, with House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons) holding a morning press conference to express his dissatisfaction over the ability of legislators in the two chambers to reach agreement on tax cuts.  And, as the day wore on, the Senate officially "disagreed" with the House changes to their changes to HR1246.  As predicted by most, this issue will be debated and decided (unless there is an absolute deadlock) by a 6-person House-Senate conference committee, whose report would be voted upon by both chambers on the last night of the session (as will the conference committee report on the FY09 Budget, assuming that agreement is reached in those contentious negotiations).

 

Ah, the Georgia General Assembly ...