February 14, 2005 House Update
From Stephanie Stuckey Benfield
Please note, due to the increasingly high volume of responses to my weekly legislative survey, I will be adding this feature to my website, www.stuckey.org, to make it easier to record and tally responses. This feature is under construction, so there will be no survey question this week, but it should be up and running by next week.
TORT REFORM (SB 3): Significant tort reform legislation passed the House on Thursday. Key provisions include: (1) Caps jury awards for non-economic damages (i.e., “pain and suffering”) at $350,000; (2) Abolishes joint and several liability and allows juries to apportion liability on a percentage basis. Also, plaintiffs cannot recover if they are found to be more than 50% liable for their injuries; (3) Abolishes “vanishing venue”, which means that if all defendants who reside in the county where an action is pending are discharged from liability, the non-resident defendant may require that the case be re-filed and re-litigated in his/her home county; (4) Refusal to Settle: if a party refuses to settle, he/she will have to pay both parties’ legal fees if a judgment is not at least 25% more favorable than the settlement offer; (5) Expert Witnesses: Requires the state to adopt the federal witness rules outlined in the U.S. Supreme Court case Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, which allows courts to hold pretrial hearings to qualify experts and their testimony; (6) ER Liability: ER doctors would only be held liable for “actions showing gross negligence”; (7) Statements of apology from a doctor to a patient would not be admissible as evidence of liability; and (8) Exempts hospitals from liability for medical malpractice committed by a doctor employed as an independent contractor. A key amendment raising the cap on pain and suffering to an aggregate limit of $750,000, with exemptions for catastrophic injury, death and permanent vegetative state failed by only one vote. Rep. Benfield voted for the amendment and against SB 3. SB 3 was sent to the Senate, which voted to disagree with the House version by a vote of one. SB 3 will be reconsidered by the Senate next week.
MIDYEAR BUDGET (HB 84): The $16.5 billion midyear budget adjusts state spending based on revenue collections. The largest funding item is $106 million for statewide schools to account for increased enrollment (equivalent to $5 per student), although about $190 million in cuts to local schools were not restored. Other budget items include: $1 million for a web-based statewide SAT prep program, $1.9 million for Medicaid Services, funding for an additional 1,754 slots in Georgia’s Pre-K program, $100,000 for the 3:00 Project after school program, $209,371 to DeKalb County schools to correct a student count error, $25,000 for the DeKalb Rape Crisis Center, $250,000 for child advocacy centers around the state, and $22 million in pork projects for top GOP leaders. HB 84 passed the House last week by a vote of 165-5.
DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP BAN (HB 67): Prohibits local governments from fining organizations that choose not to confer the same benefits to unmarried persons as they do to married persons. At this time, HB 67 only affects the City of Atlanta’s Human Relations commission’s decision to fine the Druid Hills Golf Club for refusing to extend spousal privileges to same sex couples. Passed the House 124 to 39 on Feb. 7. Rep. Benfield voted “no”.
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILIATION (HB 10): Criminalizes female genital mutilation performed on women under the age of 18. Passed the House on Feb. 9. Rep. Benfield is a co-sponsor.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SECRECY (HB 218): Exempts from open records and open meetings any discussion or document that any agency engaged in any activity deemed “economic development” until negotiations are complete. For example, information about whether a landfill, pig farm, or sewage sludge disposal plant is relocating to a community would be shielded from the public until a deal is struck between the local government and the industry. Rep. Benfield spoke out against HB 218 and voted against this regressive measure, which passed the House on Tuesday by a vote of 118-52.
CORPORATE TAX REVISIONS (HB 191): Revises Georgia’s corporate tax code by moving from a 3-tiered system based on sales, property and payroll to one based only on a corporation’s Georgia sales. The measure, which primarily benefits Georgia companies with a high volume of out-of-state sales, will save Georgia corporations $972.3 million over ten years. This loss will be offset in part by payroll growth, which the state auditor projects at $696 million over ten years. HB 191 also closes a loophole allowing corporations to shift income out of state to avoid state taxes, which is expected to bring in $250 million over ten years. Passed the House by a vote of 169 to 2 on Feb. 8.
FAITH BASED INITIATIVE (SB 4): Gov. Perdue’s proposed constitutional amendment to allow religious organizations to accept state dollars suffered a set back on Feb. 10 when the State Senate voted his proposal down over objections to using state funds for private school vouchers.
TAX BREAK FOR TEACHERS (HB 263): Allows teachers to deduct $250 worth of school supplies from their state income taxes, amounting to a tax savings of about $15/year. Passed the House unanimously on Feb. 9.
LABOR CONTRIBUTIONS (HB 153): Limits contributions that labor organizations can make to political organizations.
LIVING WAGE (HB 59): Invalidates the “living wage” policy adopted by the Atlanta City Council that urges businesses to voluntarily offer wages of $10.50/hour.
TRAINING WAGES (SB 92): Allows employers to hire workers under the age of 20 and pay them a “training wage” for up to 90 days. At $4.25/hour, the “training wage” is 90 cents below the federally mandated minimum wage. Passed the Senate 49 to 5.
DELTA TAX BREAK (HB 341 ): Several House Republicans are vying to help Delta Air Lines by putting a $15 million annual cap on what airlines would have to pay in state jet fuel taxes. Delta is the only airline buying enough fuel in Georgia to benefit from the tax break.
SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH (HB 282): Allows small businesses making capital investments of less than $410,000 to write off up to 25% of those expenses in the current year. HB 282 targets small businesses by reducing the tax write offs for businesses making capital investments greater than $410,000. HB 282 also provides administrative relief by making tax filing easier for small businesses. HB 282 is expected to bring Georgia in line with federal tax law and bring more than $25 million in tax savings over 3 years to small businesses.
COLLEGE DONOR SECRECY (HB 340 ): Closes records of donations to public colleges from public scrutiny. Approved unanimously by the House Higher Education Committee last week with no debate!!
COLLEGE CRIME STATISTICS (SB 153): Would require that campus crime statistics and police logs be open to the public. SB 153 was filed in response to a sexual assault incident at Mercer University, where the university refused to release campus crime statistics to the assault victim.
ONLINE LOTTERY (HB 346): Would make Georgia the first state to establish online accounts to buy lottery tickets.
PARTY SWITCHING (HB 365): Would require legislators who switch parties immediately after an election to vacate office. Rep. Benfield is a co-sponsor.
EXECUTION DOCTORS (HB 57): Would prohibit the challenge of physicians’ medical licenses for participating in executions. The GA Dept. of Corrections states that the costs of hiring doctors to attend executions has gone from $850 to $18,000 per execution due to increased costs of liability insurance to protect physicians from license challenges.
SCHOOL SCIENCE CURRICULUM (HB 179): Requires Georgia schoolteachers to teach only “facts” in their science classes and omit all theories (ie, evolution).
DEKALB SCHOOL BOARD RAISE: 5 members of the DeKalb School Board passed a resolution last week asking the General Assembly to double their base annual salary from $12,000 to $25,000. This would be their first pay raise in about 20 years. The DeKalb House delegation has formed a study committee to look at the salaries of comparable metro school boards and make a recommendation to the full delegation. Rep. Benfield has been appointed to serve on this committee.
FLEX LANES (HB 273): Allows the GA DOT to route vehicles down emergency lanes and paved shoulders to ease traffic congestion.
VIDEO GAME BAN (SB 105 & 106): Prohibits the sale and rental of “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel” games to minors. Also requires video game retailers to post the rating system for electronic games.
ONLINE PREDATORS (SB 162): Allows investigators with a search warrant or subpoena to get information from Internet companies on members suspected of online stalking. SB 162 would also shield ISPs that provide personal information to law enforcement from civil liability and allows interstate cooperation on investigations.
SCHOOL ACTIVITIES (SB 149): Requires students to obtain parental permission before attending any school activity, including football games, orchestra recitals and chess tournaments. The bill is aimed in particular at informing parents if their children are joining gay-straight alliance clubs.
RAISES FOR CERTIFIED TEACHERS (HB ): To curb the increasing costs of providing a 10% pay raise to all teachers earning national board certification, HB would limit the pay raise only to teachers working in schools that have been on the list of low-performing schools for two or more consecutive years, starting on July 1, 2006. Casas
HOPE LIMITS (HB 299): Stops HOPE Scholarship payments after a student reaches 127 credit hours (current HOPE payments allow up to 150 credit hours). There are 191 bachelors programs in Georgia that require more than 127 hours, including landscape architecture, pharmacy, music and biological engineering majors.
CLEAN AIR (SB 90): Bans smoking in all public places, except private homes, some hotel rooms and nursing homes. Violators could be fined $50-$100, and the building owner could be charged $100 for the first offense and up to $500 for more than two violations annually. Passed the Senate Health and Human Services Committee and is expected to be voted on soon by the full Senate.
Please visit www.nohawks.com, a website designed to get out the message of how un-American the new Republican controlled Georgia House is.
Please feel free to contact Rep. Benfield with any questions or comments at stuckey@mindspring.com or (404) 656 0245 (Capitol Office) or (404) 377 7014 (Home).
Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Atlanta) represents the 85 th District (DeKalb County) in the Georgia House of Representatives. Contact her at 512 Coverdell Office Building, Atlanta, GA 30334; by phone at 404-656-7859 or by e-mail at stuckey@mindspring.com.
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