REP. STEPHANIE STUCKEY BENFIELD'S
LEGISLATIVE REPORT
Week of March 19 - March 23, 2007
WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE REPORT - March 23, 2007
By Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield
Upcoming Events
Easter Egg Hunt : I will be hosting an Easter Egg Hunt in District 85 on Sunday, April 1 from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. at Mount Patmos Baptist Church, located at 2207 Candler Road in Decatur. The event will feature a special appearance by the Easter Bunny, DJ music, dancing, prizes, free photo of your child with the Easter Bunny and Italian ice provided by Cole's Italian Ice. The event is free and open to the public.
NAACP Breakfast : The DeKalb Branch of the NAACP will hold its Annual Membership Breakfast on Saturday, March 31 at 9:00 a.m. Greater Piney Grove Baptist Church, located at 1879 Glenwood Avenue in Atlanta. The keynote speaker will be radio personality Reggie Gay on AM 1260 WTJH in Atlanta. Tickets for the event are $25.00 each or $250.00 for a table of ten.
Druid Hills Tour of Homes : The annual Druid Hills Home and Garden Tour will be held the weekend of April 20-22, 2007. I am serving as a docent for one of the homes on Sunday, April 22 from 12:30 - 5:00 p.m. and need four volunteers to help with the tour. Volunteers receive a free ticket to the tour. If you are interested in volunteering for that shift, please email me at stuckey@mindspring.com and put "DHCA Tour" in the subject line.
Supplemental budget pulled for reconsideration
The state's supplemental budget for the remainder of fiscal year 2007 was adopted by the House of Representatives on March 20, but there was a motion later in the evening to reconsider, so House Bill 94 remains in the House pending resolution of a conflict with the Senate leadership.
As adopted, HB 94 earmarks $194 million for a 2.65 percent jump in K-12 school enrollment. Addressing the federal funding shortfall in the popular PeachCare for Kids Program, which now provides over 273,000 children with health insurance, HB 94 contains $81 million for the program to keep it up and running giving Congress time to pay their portion and reimburse the state.
The House Non-Civil Judiciary Committee has favorably reported HB 662, which I co-sponsored, relating to juvenile proceedings. The bill would strengthen current law regarding dispositional hearings and the detention of delinquent or unruly children.
By a vote of 106-65, House members approved HB 185, which gives a judge the option to apply the death penalty if at least 10 out of 12 jurors in capital cases vote for that recommendation. I voted against this legislation in favor of current law, which requires a unanimous jury to apply the capital punishment. We have had too many cases in Georgia recently where it was determined years later the wrong person had been sent to prison for certain crimes, and we cannot afford to lower the standard for condemning a defendant to death row.
HB 77, which passed by a vote of 110-60, would require counties and municipalities to conduct a traffic study prior to utilizing red-light cameras in law enforcement. It also requires that 75 percent of the money collected as the result of the devices, after cost of incurred for operation has been taken out, to be used to fund a trauma care system in Georgia. I voted against HB 77 because I think the revenue generated from red-light cameras should be allocated towards public safety programs in the local communities funding the programs - not deposited in the state general fund where it is unlikely the funds will be budgeted for trauma care.
Other legislation approved by the House this week includes:
• HB 487, which would change the date of Georgia's presidential primary from March 3 to February 5 , 2008. It also would reduce the requirement to win an election and avoid a runoff from the true majority to a plurality of 45 percent.
• HB 16, which would ensure the same whistleblower protections that state employees enjoy, who file a complaint of fraud, waste, and abuse in state programs and operations, would be extended to all employees at the local level.
• HB 147, which would require that women seeking an abortion have to be offered an opportunity to first see a sonogram of the fetus. I oppose HB 147 and spoke out against it on the House floor. I am disappointed that my colleagues in the Legislature choose to focus their energies on measures designed to shame and traumatize women instead of working on policies to help women prevent unintended pregnancies.
• HB 429, which would require physicians who provide prenatal care or delivery to test mothers for HIV unless the mother specifically declines the test. The bill requires that a woman be informed of the test and of her right to refuse.
• HR 102, which would authorize the Department of Corrections to compensate Robert Clark, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 23 years, in the amount of $1.2 million over a 15-year period. As the author of a similar measure to compensate Clarence Harrison $1 million in 2005 for the 17 years he served for crimes he didn't commit, I strongly support the state compensating Clark for the time he served in Georgia's prison system.
• HB 227, which would establish a state-level franchise authority for cable television service, allowing providers to obtain a single franchise rather than having to apply for local government franchises in each community served.
There is growing opposition to two bills under consideration, namely HB 610, which would allow for excessive tree-cutting around billboards along Georgia's interstates, highways and roads, and HB 340, a plan to reduce eligibility for PeachCare from 235 percent of the poverty level to 200 percent, thus keeping thousands of children of Georgia's working families out of the program. Both of these measures are scheduled to be voted on by the Georgia House today.
Legislation that would have repealed the state's prohibition of "payday lending," and strictly regulating the practice, failed to receive the necessary 91 votes for approval. The House vote on HB 163 ended in an 84-84 tie. Due to a procedural move, the measure will be reconsidered by the House today. I voted against HB 163 in the House Banks and Banking Committee and remain strongly opposed to efforts to allow payday lenders to return to our state.
Tuesday, March 27, will be the 30 th legislative day of the 2007 session. That is "cross-over" day, the final day in which legislation can be moved from the House to the Senate, or vice versa, for consideration by the other chamber before the end of this year's session.
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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