The House passed out the Conference Committee Report on the Supplemental Budget which has approximately $700 million in bond projects (but less than what Governor Barnes had proposed). There are still dollars in the Budget for the rural hospitals to fund grants to help them (this is $5 million). Surprising was the inclusion of $175,000 for life-flight helicopters. Governor Barnes had proposed to cut such funding and the Conference Committee put monies back into the Budget for Georgia Baptist and Savannah Memorial Hospitals. More budget details will be reported in tomorrow’s Gold Dome Report.

Rep. Kathy Ashe and Rep. Henrietta Turnquest presented the Governor’s initiative, HB 1402, which proposes to create a prestige license plate for breast cancer so that monies raised from the sales of these plates can go towards funding care and treatment for indigent women through the Indigent Care Trust Fund. Rep. Ashe showed House members a ‘mock’ version of the proposed plate and passionately explained her feelings as to why there was a need for more awareness of this deadly disease.

Rep. Ashe also had another bill on the calendar which related to MARTA. Rep. Ashe currently has regulations which mandate a split between expenditures for operational costs and capital outlay or expansion projects. In order to fund operational costs’ shortfalls, MARTA must either reduce services, impose a sales tax increase within participating counties or increase user fares. Rep. Ashe’s bill, HB 1245, proposes additional adjustments to the funding formula so that during the next five years it would spend 55% of the total funds on operations costs and only 45% on capital projects. Republicans took Rep. Ashe to task over the legislation – primarily because this was one of the biggest initiatives she has undertaken since changing parties. The vote in the end was 98 to 64 with the bill passing.

There were other health-related bills on the House calendar, HB 1622 and HB 1400. HB 1622, which passed, makes it a felony for someone to practice "dentistry" in the State without having a license to do so. HB 1400, which provides for the transportation for emergency mental health evaluations between facilities in order to allow for the use of private transportation, was presented by Rep. Skipper and also cleared the House.

The Senate worked for hours on the Supplemental Budget today. The Conference Committee Report was presented by Sen. George Hooks. A number of questions were raised with many Senators taking the Well regarding the proposed compromise.

Sen. Tom Price raised questions concerning the actual debt proposed – citing the amounts of debt from November 2001 to present. Debt has increased by more than $1.3 million during that time. Sen. Price raised opposition to the expenditure of $1.8 million in attorneys’ fees for the redistricting issue and $5.5 million for license plates. He cited that the State should be considering funding Babies Born Healthy; Family Caregivers; waiting list expansions; the foreign language program in schools, Bioterrorism initiatives, and State employees who cannot get insurance coverage for their children in the PeachCare program even though they have incomes of up to 150% of the Federal Poverty Level. He also cited expenditures for statutes which caused him to repeatedly state that Georgia’s General Assembly seemed to want to fund "attorneys, statutes, and license plates."

Sen. Eric Johnson also took the Well and stated that not a single cut is necessary due to the State’s large surplus. He expressed that this was a time to help fund programs rather than cut such. He seemed to be concerned too with the $1.3 billion in new debt proposed in the Supplemental Budget.

Sen. Steve Thompson and Sen. George Hooks took the Well supporting the initiatives made in the Conference Committee. Sen. Hooks reminded Senators that Babies Born Healthy was already being funded $2.6 million; that the State’s reserves were in good shape; the State was paying its bills; that it had a good bond rating; and that State employees were getting a raise.

In the end, the Senate adopted the Conference Committee Report on HB 1001 by a vote of 33 to 20.

Another bill on the Floor was SB 469 concerning the licensing of crematories in Georgia. Sen. Richard Marable presented a Substitute bill resulting from the hearing held where family members (from the Tri-State Crematory situation) were present. Sen. Marable explained that the family members’ concerns were addressed as best as possible in the Substitute. Some of these include the tagging of bodies, dealing with DNA issues, requirements concerning maintenance of crematory equipment, inspection of such facilities, etc. The Senate voted against the Committee Substitute and voted for an amendment proposed by Sen. Seth Harp and adopted the Floor Substitute presented by a vote of 52 to zero. The bill was then subject to Senate Rule 143 due to the length of the Floor Substitute and forwarded back to the Senate Rules Committee.

The Senate also debated SR 861 concerning an adjournment Resolution presented by Sen. Terrell Starr. The proposal was for the Legislators to adjourn on March 19, 2002 and not return to work until Monday, March 25, 2002. The rationale behind this was for work on the FY 2003 Budget – really an attempt not to work on Reapportionment until the federal court rules on the maps. Sen. Eric Johnson took issue with this Resolution stating that the Senate had only worked through three bills and it was 4:00 p.m. and that it needed to be conducting more of the State’s business.

Two bills on the Senate’s calendar which were not addressed were HB 360, Rep. Manning’s ‘abandoned’ baby bill, which proposes to allow mothers to leave their unwanted babies at a healthcare facility (hospital, birthing center, county health center, or institutional infirmary) during the first seven days of life without criminal action as long as the baby is unharmed. Also, the Senate did not reach SB 451, Sen. Carol Jackson’s proposed amendments to the current hospital lien law which would require that a notice be sent to persons prior to the filing of a hospital lien and that such lien would be filed within 30 days of discharge.

The House Industry Committee had a Subcommittee meeting this morning on two bills of interest. HB 377 and HB 1634 were discussed in an early morning meeting to hammer out various details of each bill.

HB 377, a holdover bill from 2001 introduced by Rep. Tyronne Brooks, proposes to require that tire manufacturers disclose certain information concerning adjusted tires to the State. Rep. Brooks introduced this legislation in response to the death of his friend and colleague Earl Shinholster. The bill was presented in a new Substitute at the morning meeting and was later tabled by the full House Industry Committee in its afternoon meeting. Rep. Brooks argued that he was trying to get all this information available to the consumers so that they could make informed decisions about their tire purchases. The bill would relate to all tires – not just new tires.

The tire manufacturers were working hard to kill the bill if an amendment could not be made, as the industry believes that the TREAD Act passed in 2002 requires that the manufacturers provide the federal government with a huge volume of information, some of which is very confidential (including warranty information, numbers of tires with defects, numbers of accidents involved, etc.) and business-specific information such as engineering design. The rules and regulations for this TREAD Act will not be finalized until June 2002. A representative from the Rubber Manufacturers Association was present to argue the case for the tire manufacturers. In this bill, it would require the same data reported to the federal government to also be reported to the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.

In the original proposal, tire dealers (retailers) would have also had to disclose this information to the general public. The dealers were later exempted in the version which went before the full Committee. The full Committee also had a lengthy discussion about the bill and asked the relevance of passing a law in Georgia when a federal law was addressing the concerns. As the bill is currently tabled and is now out of time to make it through the full Committee process, it will either have to be introduced next year or have the language attached in another bill in the same Code section during the final days of this Session.

The Health and Ecology Committee also met today with several bills on its agenda. One of the bills that it addressed was Sen. Price’s SB 378 concerning the signed acknowledgement by an insurance plan enrollee of the restrictions and limitations on the choice of providers that such plan may cover. The Committee disagreed with Sen. Price that health plans directly limited choice of providers. Instead, the members believed that the plans limited choice through reimbursement policies and amended the bill to reflect this. In an earlier Subcommittee meeting, the bill was presented in a substantially modified Substitute that dealt only with the language required to appear on enrollment forms as the acknowledgment. In the afternoon meeting of the full Committee, the bill was again amended. The end result is that a managed care plan must provide a "statement to appear on every enrollment form or enrollment change form printed in font size 12 or greater and placed adjacent to the area designated for the enrollee’s signature: 'For reimbursement, your health plan may restrict your choice of who may treat you/your family and/or where you/your family may be treated.'" These forms would also be required to state precisely "how and where such restrictions may be specifically identified." Additionally, the information may be published by the managed care entity on an Internet service site and made available at no cost to enrollees.

Also, the Committee passed out HB 828 which proposes to create a licensure process for orthotics, prosthetics, and pedorthics.

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee also met. SB 491 was presented by Sen. Faye Smith which concerns the licensing requirements for professional counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists in an effort to provide an exemption from such requirements for certain persons providing certain disaster relief services (such as the American Red Cross). The exemption would not be for any continuous period in excess of 21 days. The bill also defines "disaster": "the occurrence of or imminent threat of a condition that causes or poses a high probability of a large number of deaths in the affected population, a large number of serious or long-term disabilities in the affected population, or widespread exposure to an infectious or toxic agent that poses a significant risk of substantial future harm to a large number of people in the affected population or any event that causes human suffering or creates a human need which the victim or victims are unable to alleviate without assistance." Originally, there were concerns raised by the Dept. of Human Resources as well as other groups – these were addressed in the Substitute presented, which passed without other discussion.

Also, Senate Health and Human Services passed HB 585 by Rep. David Graves. This bill proposes to require that pharmacy benefit managers ("PBMs) be licensed in Georgia. Specifically, it proposes that " every pharmacy benefit manager shall be licensed to practice as a pharmacy in this state and shall comply with those provisions of 26-4-110, except subsections (h), (i), and (j) thereof. As a condition for licensing, every pharmacy benefit manager shall permit the board or agents or employees thereof to inspect the premises of such pharmacy benefit manager whether those premises are located within or outside this state." The following are the subsections which do not apply in O.C.G.A. § 26-4-110:

"(h) Every pharmacy licensed under this chapter shall have a prescription department which shall be kept clean and free of all materials not currently in use in the practice of compounding or preparing a medication for dispensing. The space behind the prescription counter shall be kept free of obstruction at all times.

(i) During hours of operation, every pharmacy licensed pursuant to this chapter shall have a prescription department under the personal supervision of a duly licensed pharmacist who shall have personal supervision of not more than one pharmacy at the same time, provided that nothing in this chapter shall be construed to prohibit any pharmacist from having personal supervision of a pharmacy located in a hospital, nursing home, college of pharmacy, or a pharmacy owned and operated directly by a health maintenance organization. Every pharmacy licensed under this chapter, except those located within and owned and operated by a duly licensed and accredited hospital, nursing home, or college of pharmacy or a pharmacy complying with subsection (j) of this Code section, shall have a prescription department open for business at all times that the business establishment is open to the public, except that during temporary absences of any licensed pharmacist not to exceed three hours daily or more than one and one-half hours at any one time the prescription department shall be closed and no prescription shall be filled or dispensed.

(j) If a pharmacy is located in a general merchandising establishment, or if the owner of the pharmacy so chooses, a portion of the space of the business establishment may be set aside and permanently enclosed or otherwise secured. Only that permanently enclosed or otherwise secured area shall be subject to the provisions of this chapter and shall be registered as a pharmacy. In such case, the area to be registered as a pharmacy shall be permanently enclosed with a partition built from the floor to the ceiling or otherwise secured in a manner as provided by the board through rules and regulations."

The Department of Community Health is continuing to work with Rep. Graves on the issue as it was one of the major hindrances to the legislation passing through the Committee process earlier. This bill passed by Committee Substitute.

In a late afternoon meeting, the Senate Insurance and Labor Committee "passed" SB 508 which is the Governor’s bill concerning employment law issues. This was by far the most controversial hearing of the day. A Substitute form of the bill was presented by Sen. Connie Stokes with assistance from the Governor’s Office. Also, Department of Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond made some remarks to the Committee. The bill proposes an additional tax break to employers with a four-year implementation. Georgia has one of the most solvent "unemployment trust funds" in the country. There is language in the bill which would allow the Governor to suspend this tax cut if he or she felt such were necessary. There are also provisions in the bill concerning payments to be made for victims of domestic violence who involuntarily leave their jobs due to such reasons. Commissioner Thurmond explained that only about $500,000 annually would be needed in order to help these victims of domestic violence. It was the inclusion of the monies for domestic violence victims which caused the greatest concern. Commissioner Thurmond explained that the "redact funds" from the federal government (which are actually paid to government by employers) would come back to Georgia as a result of legislation passed by President Bush. Georgia will be receiving about $240 million which will be paid into the State’s general treasury.

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s CEO, Lindsay Thomas, spoke out in opposition to the bill. His organization believes that these benefits will be paid by employers for a group which has a social and cultural problem in nature. He did state that the Chamber and its members were sensitive to the domestic violence issue and that dollars should come from the general fund not from the "redact" dollars. Mr. Thomas indicated that by adding the language to help persons who are separated from their employment due to domestic violence reasons would end the "sanctity" of this fund. Further, Mr. Thomas cited that Georgia had "right to work laws." In a vote to pass the bill, it came out 5 to 7 but the Chairman declared that it had passed and left the room. This was seen by the business community as perhaps an effort by the Governor to railroad his legislation through the process. After the meeting, the media was swarming the Third Floor of the Capitol in an effort to get reaction to this meeting.