GEORGIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
ROOM 505, LOB 30334
404-656-5082     1-800-282-5800

Daily Report Number 35
March 22, 2004

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The House and Senate were able to close the book on one major chapter of this year’s session. House lawmakers voted 159-8 to accept the conference committee’s recommended compromise between the House and Senate versions of the FY 2004 amended spending plan. House budget negotiators were able to ensure that many House budget priorities made their way into the finalized document.

Children always top any House priority list. Reflecting this reality, House and Senate lawmakers overwhelmingly agreed with the Governor’s recommendation to spend an additional $17 million to fully fund PeachCare, which provides quality health insurance for the children of Georgia’s working poor. Furthermore, House budget negotiators stood firm on the House position to secure another $166,000 to restore funding to help low-income and at-risk mothers to deliver healthy babies.

The budget compromise also reflected a number of House originated positions in the area of healthcare. House and Senate budget writers agreed to restore approximately $1.3 million needed to save the state’s emergency dental program from elimination. Supporters of the emergency dental program pointed out that it is only used in cases of dire emergency, and in some cases with the patient’s life in danger. Without it, they say, Georgians who cannot afford dental insurance would have no choice but to suffer through their dental problem. House and Senate lawmakers also teamed up to find more than $1.2 million to save the Central State Hospital’s Medical Surgical Hospital and its 32 state employees from the chopping block. Finally, House and Senate budget negotiators stuck by the House plan to restore more than $400,000 of the Governor’s proposed cuts for the Mercer and Morehouse medical schools.

Realizing that out of work Georgians are facing a tough job market these days, House and Senate negotiators agreed to earmark $100,000 to reduce the Governor’s recommended cuts to Georgia’s QuickStart program. QuickStart, which works with new industries to provide specialty job training for potential workers, is seen as a valuable tool for recruiting new business to this state. Likewise, conferees added back some $115,000 of the $190,000 which the Governor had cut from the state Department of Labor’s job training and education program.

Finally, with Georgia’s libraries absorbing so many cuts over the last two years, House negotiators fought to find $250,000 to soften the blow from the Governor’s recommended reduction in funds for the state’s libraries.

With February revenue estimates down from the previous year’s collections, Governor Perdue decided to lower the revenue estimate by more than $100 million. Among other things, this forced House and Senate lawmakers to delete hundreds of million dollars in bond projects which would have gone to build roads, upgrade technical schools, upgrade sewer and drinking water systems, and a myriad of other local development concerns. House and Senate budget writers hope to include many of these worthy ventures in the FY 2005 budget plan.

Other aspects of the finalized FY 2004 Supplemental Budget include:

• $25,000 recommended by House conferees to reduce cutbacks to the state’s adult literacy program.
  
• $354,608 to agree with the Senate recommendation to fully fund the Katie Beckett Waiver Program which helps parents with children who are severely mentally disabled.
  
• $50,000 to restore funds for the “Three O’clock Project,” which helps to steer at-risk children away from drugs by promoting academic excellence and a healthy lifestyle.

The first, SB 457, is designed to improve the way Georgia’s law enforcement entities help those who have been victims of sexual assault. The bill would require each judicial circuit to establish a sexual assault protocol for dealing with the victims of sexual assault, and for investigating and prosecuting the offenders.

The protocol would be adopted by a local protocol committee made up representatives from the local police, sheriff’s department, district attorney’s office, magistrate court, and the county board of health. To ensure the best interests of the victim is being represented, the protocol committee would also include a representative of a local sexual assault or rape crisis center, as well as a health care professional who performs sexual assault examinations.

Although each protocol may vary slightly from circuit to circuit, the twofold underlying purpose is constant. Aiming to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of handling sexual assault cases, the protocol must ensure coordination and cooperation between all agencies involved. Furthermore, to protect the victim all approved protocol documents must attempt to minimize the stress which can be created by the legal and investigatory process.

Once the committee has decided upon a protocol, it will be printed and distributed to each agency in the county handling the cases of sexually abused or exploited children.

Also, in addition to the protocol establishment, SB 457 requires all investigative agencies to inform any victim of sexual assault of their rights, including the right to have the state pay the costs for any sexual assault examination.

Finally, SB 457 would change Georgia law to allow nurses who are trained to perform sexual assault examinations to testify as expert witnesses in court.

House members are united in their desire to protect women and children from the vile characters who would prey upon them. They therefore voted 160-0 to pass SB 457 and send it on to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law.

The second piece of the Lt. Governor’s legislative package to receive passage today was SB 482, which passed by a vote of 158-0. Currently, Georgia law requires that convicted felons, upon completion of their sentence, provide a DNA sample to be catalogued in the state’s criminal database. This would not only help to solve any unresolved cases, but serve as a police aid to catch the person for any future criminal acts. However, the legislation does not allow for DNA samples from those who will never be released from prison. Hoping to expand the registry, and possibly solve many more cases, SB 482 would require persons serving on death row, or life imprisonment sentences to provide DNA samples as well. As currently written, the law has already led to the resolution of more than 280 criminal cases. Supporters of SB 482 expect that number to rise once the GBI receives DNA profiling on Georgia’s most hardened criminals.

Other items receiving passage on the House floor today include:

• SB 356 (144-7)- seeks to create a registry to track carbon-dioxide credits which are sold by greenspace landowners to large corporations in Georgia.
  
• SB 411 (156-0)- would place a size limit on all types of supersedeas bonds which are required of corporations who lose civil action suits before they are allowed to appeal the verdict.
  
• SB 480 (143-1)- seeks to allow land which is used for Forestry purposes to be deeded to state government and considered as Greenspace.
  
• SB 496 (156-0)- would allow the state Adjutant General to appoint certain state National Guard officers as Deputy Adjutants General to serve at the pleasure of the Adjutant General.
  
• HR 1307 (155-0)- urges the Department of Human Resources and the Department of Community Health to develop a plan for moving people who are currently on the waiting list for community based mental health services into community based service slots.

Georgia House of Representatives
Public Information Office

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