REP. STEPHANIE STUCKEY BENFIELD'S
LEGISLATIVE REPORT
Legislative Wrap Up - 2007 Session
By Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield
This has been an extremely long legislative session, but I am honored and grateful to represent the people of House District 85. Although the General Assembly adjourned our 2007 session at midnight Friday, April 20, all indications are that Governor Perdue will call lawmakers back for a special session in the near future.
On the 40th and final day of the session, the House and Senate agreed on HB 95, for the $20.2 billion annual budget for fiscal year 2008, which begins July 1. The leadership of the House and Senate and the Governor, however, failed to reach an agreement on the supplemental budget to allocate spending for the remainder of fiscal year 2007. The supplemental funding will be implemented through line item vetoes to the FY07 budget and transferring any surplus funds to the state's rainy day fund.
Meanwhile, the House agreed to a Senate amendment for HB 712, which I co-sponsored. The bill would provide for a nonbinding, advisory referendum for residents of the DeKalb County School System regarding whether school uniforms should be required by the DeKalb County Board of Education for students in kindergarten through ninth grades and subsequently phased in through grade 12.
After a long, odd day of discussions private and public, both chambers unanimously approved compromise legislation, HB 214, to extend the lease of the Jekyll Island's governing body and, possibly, its residents for an additional 40 years. The legislation includes provisions to prevent the arbitrary sale of any land, establish an important oversight committee, and protect the South end of the island so that untold generations can enjoy the pristine natural resource.
Lawmakers also agreed upon language for HB 147. The bill requires that in all cases in which a woman is seeking an abortion, a medical provider must offer her a chance to view the ultrasound image and hear the fetal heart before the pregnancy is terminated. I voted against this measure, since I think it intrudes upon the doctor-patient relationship.
The Georgia Legislature failed to reach consensus on the Speaker's proposed measure to limit enrollment in the PeachCare for Kids insurance program. As a result, the eligibility level for PeachCare will fortunately remain at 235 percent of the poverty level instead of being cut to 200 percent. However, the freeze on new enrollments put in place by Governor Perdue, sadly remains in effect.
The House adopted SB 10 by a vote of 91-84. If signed by the governor, parents would be able to use state money to send their special needs children to private schools. Opponents such as myself believe that K-12 education has already endured too much of a decline in funding and vouchers will take away even more needed dollars from public schools.
The House passed legislation that would give developers the power to build planned communities with tax-exempt bonds without the authority to tax homeowners. House members removed "taxing" language from SB 200 and its companion constitutional amendment, SR 309. Yet, lawmakers preserved another section in the legislation giving the so-called infrastructure development districts the authority to raise a flat fee from homeowners. The districts could use the "special assessment" revenues to pay off debt on bonds issued to build roads, sewers and other infrastructure supporting their communities. I opposed SB 200 and SR 309 and think there are too many unanswered questions for these proposals to move forward.
Other legislation approved by the House of Representatives during the final week of the session included:
SB 148, which would promote nondestructive stem cell research in Georgia. The bill would require all state hospitals by June 30, 2009, to inform pregnant women that they can donate placenta, umbilical cords and amniotic fluid to either public or private banks for medical research. Georgians who contribute to stem cell research would be eligible for a state tax break. The bill also would establish a 15-member state commission that would oversee a system of umbilical cord blood banks and seek grants for nondestructive stem cell research.
SB 72 , which includes two other proposals related to education. SB 72 allows administration managers to be employed in addition to, or en lieu of, assistant principals to handle business operations at schools. The measure also includes provisions of HB 603, which allows school districts to permit alternative teacher certification programs for certain candidates, and HB 208, which changes the composition of school councils.
SB 157, which would require the Department of Community Affairs to establish a grant program to fund E-85 projects, which will convert storage areas for gasoline into storage areas for E-85, a fuel that is 85 percent ethanol. The goal of SB 157 is to spark consumer interest in using alternative fuels.
Legislation that would have allowed judges to impose the death penalty with a less-than-unanimous recommendation of the jury failed to win final approval. HB 185, which had passed the House earlier in the session and would have authorized a death penalty recommendation of at least a 10-2 jury vote, was defeated unanimously in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Finally, I'm pleased that the House passed HR 352, which I authored, to establish a Study Committee on Eyewitness Identification Procedures in Georgia to address the problem of wrongful convictions based on faulty witness identifications in criminal cases. I will be chairing the study committee which will meet over the interim between the 2007 and 2008 legislative sessions.
Although the Legislature will be in recess until January of 2008, I continue to work hard to represent the interests and needs of House District 85. Feel free to call on me any time if I can be of help to you. My home number is (404) 377-7014, and my cell number is (404) 964-7025. Thank you for giving me the privilege of serving in the Georgia House.
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.
Friends & Neighbors of Stephanie Stuckey Benfield
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