Legislative Update – Week Two

Holiday Shortened Budget Hearings Week

Due to Monday’s MLK Birthday holiday this week’s legislative committee activity was limited to only four days.  And because the legislature was in recess, these days were not considered legislative days.  Only the Joint House-Senate budget committee held hearings during the week.

As noted in last week’s RBC Weekly Legislative Update, the joint budget committee took up the amended FY13 budget which ends June 30, 2012.  Governor Deal recommended reducing the states overall budget for this fiscal year by $26 million.  However a few state agencies received additional funding for the year.

The Department of Education asked for an extra $155 million primarily to hire additional classroom teachers needed to address Georgia’s growing K-12 student enrollment.  The Department of Community Health added an additional $227 million primarily for the cost of operating Medicaid. And the Department of Driver Safety asked for $1.5 million more to cover the additional cost of complying with new federal “Real ID” requirements.  (Georgia is one of only 13 states in compliance with the federal Real ID law.)

State Representatives and Senators Return to Business January 27

The full House and Senate will return from their week long recess on Monday, January 27 at 1:00 p.m. for their 5^th legislative day.  Unless the House and Senate agree on a different operating schedule, all week days going forward will count as legislative days with weekends being in recess.  If no further recesses are agreed upon by both legislative bodies, the session would end March 18.  However, that is highly unlikely.

Have a great week.

The Regional Business Coalition of Metropolitan Atlanta (RBC) is an organization of over a dozen of the largest and most active Chambers of Commerce throughout the metro Atlanta region.  RBC member chambers represent over 15,000 member companies who employ millions of metro Atlanta residents.  The RBC’s primary goal is to represent the interests of RBC Chamber members on regional public policy issues impacting our transportation, water and air quality and to advocate for solutions that improve metro Atlanta’s quality of life and economic vitality.  This weekly update is prepared for RBC member Chambers by Terry Lawler, RBC Executive Director, who can be contacted at tlawler@atlregionalbusiness.org or 770-310-1864.