Boy scouts embarked on the Capitol en masse today, 270 of them to be exact, in celebration of Boy Scouts of America 100 years of Scouting Day. Meanwhile, the House took up the Amended FY 2010 Budget, setting a more sobering tone in the Chamber.

HB 947, the FY 2010 Amended Budget, cleared the House this morning by a vote of 122 to 44 after Rep. Ben Harbin (R-Evans) and Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee presented the proposal to his colleagues.  It was argued by the majority party that this Budget was "less government; less spending." There was a good bit of discussion and reductions taken with additional furlough days to State employees; Rep. Michele Henson (D-Stone Mountain) inquired of the actual amount of "savings" that the State would gain with these furloughs.  Chairman Harbin indicated that in total $290 million was saved for these furloughs, but on a per day basis, for every day the teachers were furloughed provided $33 million in savings. 

There were various changes highlighted, based on the work of various Subcommittees:

Department of Community Health

- contract adjustments such as an 8 percent cut to Babies Born Healthy, bringing this    contract in line with other contracts which have been cut

- added funding for the State portion for disproportionate share hospitals (adding 33 non-deemed facilities to be eligible) bringing total funding to almost $15 million

- additional cuts to both Mercer and Morehouse for their grants to train physicians

- added funding with collection of hospital overpayments in both the Medicaid and PeachCare programs

Department of Human Services

- Child Advocacy Centers' funding (to be released which been held)

- Child Care Licensing funding with federal adjustment

The DeKalb Delegation was concerned about $5 million funding being cut from their county's budget.  Others raised concerns about the funding for "halls of fame" while the State was furloughing teachers.

Rep. David Lucas (D-Macon) asked that the House think about legislation which would come before the body (hopefully as indicated by Rep. Lucas) that would permit a dedication of one cent of the hotel-motel tax with that funding going towards the halls of fame (making them self-supporting).

Committee News

House Judiciary- Civil

The Committee took up HB 1040 today. They decided to work from a Committee Substitute on the Bill.  The Committee proposed to rewrite the language for the amendment offered, which its author Rep. Kevin Levitas (D-Atlanta) agreed with.  After further discussion, HB 1040 passed unanimously.

In a second proposal before this Committee, HB 885 would amend Georgia's Civil Practice Act permitting litigants to apply to magistrate court on motion and for good cause shown.   Rep. Oliver inquired if the Bill would essentially throw out all current Magistrate Court Rules; it was argued that it would codify the case of Hale v Roberts to which Reps. Levitas and Oliver disagreed.

House Ways and Means- Public Finance Subcommittee

The Subcommittee took up SR 277, the Georgia Trauma Trust Fund, authored by Sen. Gregg Goggans (R-Douglas).  Dr. Leon Haley, an emergency department physician, spoke in support of SR 277 citing that this measure would bring ongoing sustainable funding, in a State with only 17 trauma centers. He also emphasized that many of these centers are more than 100 miles away from some areas of Georgia

Many from the medical community spoke in support of the SR 277 and thanked Sen. Goggans for his work. Earl Rogers with the Georgia Hospital Association, asked for support of the measure, stating that the $80 million it would produce would go a long way to fund the trauma system.

Rep. Austin Scott (R-Tifton) suggested that the effective day be for the 2011 tag year, thus add language that this begin January 1^st.  No vote was taken on SR 277 today; it will be brought back up in next weeks meeting.

House Ways and Means- Full Committee

The Committee assigned the following Bills to respective Subcommittees today:

• HB 1139, authored by Rep. James Mills (R-Gainesville), which provides that property tax assessors would have to send notice to property owners regardless of increases in property value. HB 1139 was assigned to the Ad Valorem Tax Subcommittee.
• HB 1145, offered by Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah), provides for a credit for Georgia corporate income tax credit in relation to the development of rails in the State. HB 1145 was assigned to the Income Tax Subcommittee.

HB 984, presented by Chairman Larry O'Neal (R-Bonaire) eradicated an entire Code section to remove a county income tax provision, where a county could impose and income tax on a county by county basis. The Committee passed HB 984 unanimously.

Senate Health and Human Services Committee

Rep. Fran Millar (R-Dunwoody) presented a Committee Substitute to HB 194, which would permit that when a drug substitution is made that both the brand and generic drug product would be provided on the prescribed medication with an explanation of "generic" or similar language to indicate that the substitution of the drug had been named.  This would occur unless the practitioner indicated that the name of the drug may not appear upon the prescription label.   In the Committee Substitute, it also added an exception to this for medications dispensed for in-patient hospital services or in specialty packaging for dosing purposes.  Rep. Millar explained that he brought HB 194 because of a constituent's concern and he described the legislation as a "consumer friendly bill."  The Committee Substitute was amended to reflect that that the effective date would be October 1, 2010 rather than October 1, 2009; the Bill then passed out of Committee as amended.

Sen. Buddy Carter (R-Pooler) presented the annual dangerous drug update, SB 353, which passed as a Committee Substitute.  The changes were made relating to prescription medications which were moved to "over the counter products" and including Prevacid and Capseicin.

SB 289, the Bill by Sen. Dan Moody (R-Roswell), which would clarify services and treatment for categorically needy and medically fragile children and current requirements relating to administrative prior approval for services and appeals for these services and treatments, was held.  Sen. Moody explained that meetings with the Department of Community Health's Care Management Organizations ("CMOs") had been held to try and work out some of the concerns that providers have.  Sen. Moody acknowledged Wellcare's efforts; however, additional meetings will be held on Monday of next week with the Medical Directors from each of the CMOs, and hopefully, the legislation will then be perfected.  Sen. Moody indicated that his intention was that SB 289 would then be back before the Committee after those discussions and possible changes.

SB 367, by Sen. Don Balfour (R-Snellville), also cleared the Committee despite the objections of the Medical Association of Georgia.  Physicians from Medimmune and Grady Hospital testified in support of the legislation which would permit both inactive and active versions of the nasal spray flu vaccine to be used in Georgia as other states presently permit.  Georgia presently only allows "inactive" vaccine in flu mist form to be used.  By adding both types, it was argued would expand access to the medication.  Physicians argued that their disagreement was because the Bill passed last year would permit the administration of flu vaccine without a patient-specific prescription.

Senate Education and Youth

The Committee met early this morning discussing several pieces of legislation. SB 298 was first on the agenda. This Bill would require that a first aid course be present in secondary health education in schools. Sen. Seay (R-Riverdale), the author of the Bill, stated that this would teach kids the knowledge that they would need for emergency situations. The Committee unanimously voted SB 298 out of Committee.

SB 386, proposed by Sen. Balfour (R-Snellville), provides for teacher performance pay incentives. Sen. Balfour believes that there should be correlation between student performance and teacher pay. This Bill would not take away minimum salaries, nor would it take away salaries for teachers with advanced degrees already in place, this measure would apply to new teachers in 2012. The new performance pay would be fifty percent based on teacher evaluations and fifty percent based on student performance. These evaluations would come from teacher peers and principals. Student performance would be based on CRCT test performance.