Not a great deal occurred today. The House and Senate did agree that they would adjourn on Friday, January 17, 2003 and not reconvene until Monday, January 27, 2003, in an effort to get work done on the State’s Budgets for 2003 (Supplemental) and 2004.   

Rep. Tom Buck was named as the House Appropriations Chairman.  Rep. Buck is a Democrat from Columbus who has previously served as the Ways and Means Committee Chairman.  Rep. Gail Buckner was also named as Administrative Services Committee Chairman, which is a new Committee designed to deal with Representatives’ problems relating to office space and staffing.  Speaker Coleman is expected to announce the remainder of the Committees by the close of the day.  Office space locations will also be finalized by the end of the business day.  

During the week of January 20, 2003 , the Joint House and Senate Appropriations Committee will host meetings on the Budgets.  Those meetings are expected to get under way on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 following the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday.  No schedule for the hearings has been published as of print time.  

          Georgia Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Fletcher will provide a State of the Judiciary address to a Joint Session on July 31, 2003 .  

Newly Introduced Legislation  

SB 3 – Sens. Meyer von Bremen and others authored this “Financial Disclosure Reform Act of 2003” which provides for more ethics in State government which in turn requires the State Ethics Commission to have additional duties.  Some of the provisions in this measure are:  

1)       Public officials, and candidates for office, are to disclose monetary fees or honorariums of more than $101.00, which are accepted by a public officer who holds office on a full-time basis from speaking engagements, participation in seminars, discussion panels, or other activities that that are not related to official duties of the public officer or the office of that public officer, with a statement identifying the fee or honorarium accepted and the person or entity which provided such to the public official (or candidate).

2)       Candidates for public office or public officers are also to disclose any direct ownership interest or purchase option, as of December 31 of the covered year, when that property has a fair market value in excess of $20,000.  

3)       The person making this filing must also disclose ownership interest or knowledge of any business or subsidiary in which the filer’s spouse or children, siblings, and parents, jointly or severally own a direct ownership interest which interest is more than 5% of the total interests of the business or has a fair  market value of more than $20,000 or if the filer’s spouse, any child, sibling, or parent serves as an officer, director, equitable partner, trustee, or consultant.  

4)       Fiduciary relationships are also to be reported.  

The bill also expands the definition of a “lobbyist” as found in O.C.G.A. § 21-5-70 to include a person, who for compensation, either as an individual or as an employee of another, “undertakes to influence a public officer or public body in the selection of a vendor to supply any goods or services to any state agency but does not include a person solely on the basis that such person participates in preparing a written bid, written proposal, or other document relating to a potential sale to a state agency.”  

SB 7 – Sen. Carol Jackson’s bill dealing with the regulation and licensure of air ambulance services has now been assigned to the Senate’s new Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.  This regulation and licensure would be inserted in Chapter 11 of Title 31.  

HB 2–5; 7–10 – Rep. Franklin’s tax bills have been referred to Ways and Means Committee.  

HB 83 – Rep. Parham introduced this bill.  It is okay to eat your burger and fries in the car, but don’t use your cell phone!!  Rep. Parham proposes to create a prohibition from using cell phones and radios unless such is a “hands free” mobile telephone.  There are exceptions when the mobile telephone is being used for the sole purpose of communicating with any of the following regarding an emergency situation: “an emergency response operator; a hospital, physician’s office, or health clinic; an ambulance company or corps; a fire department; or a police department.” Further, police officers, fire department personnel, or operators of  emergency vehicles are exempt from this proposal if they are using radios or telephones in performance of their official duties.  

HB 85 – Rep. Dean proposed this Tax Code amendment which authorizes the imposition and levy of certain local excise taxes upon cigars and cigarettes.  This would authorize counties and municipalities to impose a tax of $3.00 per box of 20 cigars or cigarettes, with similar rate for other size packages.  The tax would apply on each transaction or event which is taxable.  Further the county or municipality which levies such an excise tax would only impose such tax by ordinance.  The proceeds of the tax would be required to be expended solely upon a capital outlay project(s) which would be specified by such ordinance.    There are limits proposed that this tax can only be imposed for a period of time not to exceed five (5) years.  Counties or municipalities may re-impose such, though, in five year increments.  The monies collected would be disbursed with one percent going to the State’s general fund in order to defray costs of administering this and the remainder would go to the governing authority which imposed the taxes.  

HB 89 – Rep. Dean has also authored this amendment to the Tax Code at O.C.G.A. § 48-4-42  to change the provision relating to the redemption of property sold for taxes.  This would relate to sales made after July 1, 2003 .  Instead of a premium of 20% being imposed, a ten percent premium would be imposed during the first year or fraction of a year which elapses between the date of the sale and the date on which the redemption payment is made.  

HB 90 – Reps. Boggs, Bordeaux, and Moraitakis have authored this amendment to O.C.G.A. § 15-2-8(5) so as to require persons wishing to practice law in Georgia to not only submit their fingerprints to the Supreme Court but the Supreme Court must submit them to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a national check.  

HB 91 – Rep. Oliver has authored this proposal to enact the “2003 Fairness in Arbitration Act.”  This would be created at O.C.G.A. § 9-9-6 (b).  This is an effort to provide for a “challenge to the neutrality of an arbitrator” by establishing a discovery period on the issue.  

HB 93 – This is an additional definitions’ amendment for the Tax Code proposed by Reps. Buck and Royal.   This amendment relates to O.C.G.A. § 48-13-5(2) and gives a new definition for “gross receipts.”  Such would exclude inter-organizational sales or transfers between or among certain parent corporations, wholly owned subsidiaries of the parent corporation, and any corporation in which such parent corporation or one or more of its wholly owned subsidiaries owns stock possessing at least 30% of the total value of shares of all classes of stock of such partially owned corporation.  

HB 96 – Reps. Ray and others have proposed this Tax Code amendment in O.C.G.A. § 48-8-3(74) so as to exempt “sales of liquefied petroleum gas or other fuel used in a structure in which plants, seedlings, nursery stock, or floral products are raised primarily for the purposes of making sales of such plants, seedlings, nursery stock, or floral products for resale.”  

HB 98 – Reps. Lunsford and others have proposed this legislation which amends Chapter 20 of Title 50 in order to authorize the establishment of one or more legislative Nonprofit Contractor Oversight Panels.   The panels would consist of three members of the Senate and three from the House, with co-chairs from each chamber.   Panels created will have the authority to:  “1) Require any nonprofit organization which receives or expends State funds to appeal before the panel through one or more organization representatives; 2) require any nonprofit organization which receives or expends State funds to provide to the panel any financial records provided for in this chapter or any other financial records of the organization related to the organization’s receipt or expenditure of State funds; and 3) make recommendations to the General Assembly, State agencies, and the State auditor with respect to the State’s relations with any one or more nonprofit organizations.”    If a nonprofit does comply with the panel’s requests, then the panel can notify the State auditor and the State auditor is then required to notify the appropriate State organization which makes payments to the nonprofit to cease all payments to the nonprofit organization.  

HB 100 – Reps. Mosley and others have offered this Tax Code amendment for O.C.G.A. § 48-7-27(a)(12) in an effort to exempt the military salary of Georgia citizens on active military duty during any month in which such citizen resided outside the State.”  This would be applicable for tax years on and after January 1, 2004 .  

HB 101 – Reps. Ray, Royal, Purcell, Floyd, and James introduced this amendment to the State’s Health Benefit Plan in an effort to authorize the Department of Community Health to contract with any agricultural commodity commission to provide for the inclusion in such plan any of the Commission’s employees and retiring employees and their spouses and dependents.  Such amendment is proposed at O.C.G.A. § 45-18-7.8.  

HR 23 – Reps. Day, Stephens, Cooper, and Lunsford authored this Resolution which urges the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia to allow children of POST certified law enforcement officers or of firefighters, who have died while carrying out their duties, to attend a state college or university tuition free in order to obtain an undergraduate degree.  

HR 26 – Reps. Day, Stephens, Snow, Jackson, and Henson have proposed an amendment to the State’s Constitution in an effort to waive tuition for children of law enforcement or firefighters, who died in the line of duty, so those can attend on a tuition-free basis at all units of the University System of Georgia.  This would amend Article VIII, Section VII, Paragraph IV (currently, only the elderly are eligible to attend on such basis).  

HR 27 – Reps. Mosley and others have proposed this Resolution in an effort to urge the United States Congress to reaffirm our country's history as a Judeo-Christian nation.  This is based on the recent opinion from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which held that the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag in public schools is unconstitutional, an infringement upon freedom of religion because of the words “under God.”