Columbus, Georgia

ACCG Legislative Update

March 28, 2002

SIX DAYS AND COUNTING...

In what has become the longest legislative session in 30 years,

Tuesday marked the 33rd day of Georgia's 40-day session. The 33rd day is

significant in Georgia's legislative process because all bills are required to

make it out of their originating chamber by the 33rd day or they die. However,

this does not necessarily mean that the issue contained in that bill won't crop

up somewhere else. Surprise amendments often show up during the final,

fast-paced days of the session, and can be attached to bills addressing the

same general topic as the amendment. Vehicles are typically sought by

legislators whose bills have died in the committee process. The final days of

the session can be particularly dangerous as legislators and lobbyists are on

the prowl for bills to use as vehicles. ACCG will be working to ensure that

legislative language to which ACCG is opposed is kept from being attached to

bills that are up for a final floor vote. So when will it end? The rumors are

flying with whispers of going six days in a row next week and ending on

Saturday April 6th, to other suggestions that peg sine die for April 10th.

Your guess is as good as ours.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & TRANSPORTATION

[Staff: Althea McCoy]

HB 1284 Adding Roadways to Developmental Highway System (Rep. Tommy Smith)

This bill would add the following roadways to the Developmental Highway System,

also referred to as the Governor's Road Improvement Program (GRIP): U.S. 23

from its intersection with U.S. 1 in Bacon County to its intersection with U.S.

341 in Jeff Davis County; U.S. 301; and the Rome Bypass from U.S. 411 to SR 20.

Status: Passed House; pending in Senate Transportation Committee



HB 1382 Provisions for Maintenance and Elimination of Railroad Crossings (Rep.

Mickey Channell)

HB 1382, which would provide a much-needed process for resolving disputes

between local governments and the railroads, was amended by Sen. Eric Johnson

in the Senate Transportation Committee to provide for the shifting of railroad

crossing maintenance costs from railroad companies to local governments.

Counties, cities and the state would be required to spend taxpayer dollars to

help the railroads maintain all of their crossings located throughout the

state. While current Georgia law holds railroads responsible for covering all

of the expenses associated with maintaining a crossing, this amendment would

require taxpayers to subsidize the railroads' maintenance costs, which could

become very expensive. ACCG is concerned that counties will not be able to

cover these costs considering the inadequate amount of local transportation

funding available and the significant backlog in road maintenance needs that

they are already facing.

Status: Passed House; favorably reported by Senate Transportation; pending in

Senate Rules Committee

Action Alert: Please contact your Senators and urge them to remove the Senate

Transportation Committee amendments to HB 1382. However, we would still like

to see the House version pass the General Assembly.



HB 1587 Waiver of Requirements for Allocating State Transportation Funds (Rep.

Jimmy Skipper)

Status: Passed House; pending in Senate Transportation Committee

HR 1074 Create Joint LARP Study Committee (Rep. Gerald Greene)

Status: Passed House; favorably reported by Senate Transportation; pending in

Senate Rules Committee



SB 386 Exempting Trucks Carrying Concrete from Weight Limitations (Sen. Nathan

Dean)

Status: Passed Senate; favorably reported by House Transportation Committee;

pending in House Rules Committee

Action Alert: Please contact your House members with comments on this bill as

soon as possible. ACCG opposes this legislation.



GENERAL COUNTY GOVERNMENT

[Staff: Jim Grubiak and Kelly Pridgen]

HB 696 Open Records: Exemption for 911 Records / Requests in Writing (Rep.

Ken Birdsong)

HB 696 would allow records of a 911 system containing information which would

reveal the name, address, or telephone number of a person placing a call to a

public safety answering point to remain confidential. The bill would also allow

a public agency to require that requests for public records be in writing,

except for copies of minutes or agendas of meetings.

Status: Passed House; favorably reported by Senate Public Safety Committee;

pending in Senate Rules



HB 1087 Agricultural Nuisance (Rep. Robert Ray)

Status: Passed House; favorably reported by Senate Agriculture Committee;

pending in Senate Rules

Action Alert: Please let ACCG and your legislators know if you have any

problems with this legislation

HB 1128 Sovereign Immunity Waiver (Rep. Tom Bordeaux)

A committee substitute has been reported out of the Senate Insurance and Labor

Committee. The substitute includes an immunity waiver phase-in beginning in

2005 and running through 2008 when the waiver caps will be $500,000 per person

bodily injury, $700,000 bodily injury per occurrence, and $50,000 property

damage per occurrence.

Status: Passed House; favorably reported by Senate Insurance and Labor

Committee; pending in Senate Rules

HB 1154 Timber and Pulpwood Harvesting Ordinances (Rep. Johnny Floyd)

As revised, counties would still be able to require timber harvesters to post a

surety bond or a letter of credit, but would be prohibited from requiring a

cash bond or cash deposit.

Status: Passed House; favorably reported by Senate Natural Resources

Committee; pending in Senate Rules

HB 1343 Georgia Clean Communities Act of 2002 (Rep. Mark Burkhalter)

This legislation would reduce the penalty for the first offense of littering

from a criminal misdemeanor to a civil penalty of $200 in an effort to

encourage greater enforcement of the anti-littering laws. Subsequent offenses

would be a misdemeanor punished by a fine between $200 and $1200, as well as by

ordering the offender to remove litter from any public beach or park or up to

one mile of public road right of way. The House committee substitute removed a

proposed provision that would have allowed local governments to adopt an

ordinance calling for a 3% litter removal and beautification fine add-on fee to

traffic violations that could have been used to fund litter removal programs,

beautification programs and related educational programs.

Status: Passed House; pending in Senate Transportation Committee

HB 1505 Dedicate Court Fines and Fees to Indigent Defense (Speaker Tom Murphy)

This bill would require that 25% of all revenues generated by court fines and

forfeitures, after expenses of the court system are paid, would have to be used

to fund indigent defense services.

Status: Passed House; pending in Senate Appropriations Committee

HB 1514 Blanket Public Official Bonds (Rep. Ray Holland)

HB 1514, per ACCG policy, would clarify current law that authorizes counties to

purchase a blanket bond in lieu of a series of individual bonds for persons

required by law to be bonded.

Status: Passed House; pending in Senate Judiciary Committee

HB 1669 Local Assistance Grants: Audits/Liability (Rep. Michelle Henson)

Per ACCG policy, this bill would lower the cost to counties of administering

local assistance grants by eliminating the audit requirement for smaller

grants. The bill would also limit the exposure of counties from any misdeeds of

a non-profit recipient of a grant awards.

Status: Passed House; pending in Senate Banks & Banking Committee

HR 1105 Joint Construction Codes Study Committee (Rep. Johnny Floyd)

This resolution would create the Joint Construction Codes Study Committee to

examine the current construction code system that sometimes has conflicting

codes and is overseen by three different state agencies: the Department of

Community Affairs, the Insurance Department and the Department of Labor. This

thirteen member committee includes seven representatives from counties and

cities, as well as members of the construction community, to be appointed by

the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of the House.

Status: Passed House; pending in Senate Finance & Public Utilities Committee

SB 32 Creation of County Boards of Elections and Registration with Opt-out

Provision (Sen. Robert Brown)

Status: Passed Senate; favorably reported by House Governmental Affairs

Committee; pending in House Rules

SB 365/SB 396/HB 1170 Open Records: Public Facility Emergency Plans (Sen.

Richard Marable / Sen. Phil Gingrey / Rep. Lanett Stanley-Turner)

SB 365 would require state agencies to prepare emergency plans to respond to

acts of terrorism as well as to natural disasters. In addition, the bill would

exempt those plans from the open records laws for obvious reasons. Rep. Lanett

Stanley-Turner's HB 1170, which would allow local governments to exempt

security plans and vulnerability assessments for any public utility, building,

facility, function or activity from the open records act, was added to SB 365

in a subcommittee of House State Planning & Community Affairs to improve its

chance of passage. Sen. Phillip Gingrey's SB 396 would also allow records which

would compromise the security of public facilities against terrorist attacks to

remain confidential.

Status: SB 365 passed the Senate; pending in House State Planning & Community

Affairs. SB 396 passed the Senate; pending in House Public Safety Committee

SB 449/HB 981 Public Officials on Military Duty: Meetings by Conference Call/No

Abandonment (Sen. Nathan Dean /Rep. Charles Bannister)

Per ACCG policy, this bill authorizes county officials to participate in

official meetings of the board of commissioners from remote locations by

telephone or other telecom methods when on ordered military duty.

Status: SB 449 passed Senate; pending in House Judiciary Committee

Indigent Defense - The House gutted additional funding for indigent defense in

the 2003 state budget. Please contact your Senators immediately and ask them to

reinstate additional funding for indigent defense.



HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

[Staff: Suzanne Nieman]

HB 498 Mental Health, Mental Retardation, Substance Abuse System (Rep. Tom

Murphy)

Status: Passed House & Senate; Conference Committee appointed

HB 1400 Transportation of mentally ill, mentally retarded and substance abuse

patients (Rep. Jimmy Skipper)

This legislation relates to emergency and non-emergency transportation of

mentally ill, mentally retarded, and alcoholic or drug dependent individuals

who are patients or clients in a facility. The legislation includes HB 381,

sponsored by Rep. Chuck Sims, which clarifies the sheriff's role in the initial

and subsequent transportation of an individual

Status: Passed House; pending in Senate Health & Human Services Committee

SB 501 Licensure of air ambulances (Sen. Carol Jackson)

Air ambulance services would be licensed by the Emergency Health Section of the

Division of Public Health of the Department of Human Resources (DHR) with this

legislation. Currently air ambulances that are used for the emergency

transportation of patients are not regulated and licensed.

Status: Passed Senate; pending in House Health & Ecology Committee

SB 510 Removal of DFCS Board members (Sen. Jeff Mullis)

This legislation provides for the suspension of Department of Family and

Children Services board members upon indictment for any crime involving moral

turpitude.

Status: Passed Senate; pending in House State Planning & Community Affairs

Committee



NATURAL RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT

[Staff: Chris DeVinney]

HB 1406 Hazardous Waste Trust Fund Reauthorization (Rep. Tom Shanahan)

This bill increases the funding mechanisms which support the Hazardous Waste

Trust Fund (HWTF) and reauthorizes them until 2013. The funding mechanisms

include a fee paid per ton of solid waste that is disposed in Georgia, and fees

paid on hazardous waste generation, handling and reporting. Solid waste fees,

where local governments typically pay into the HWTF due to publicly-owned

landfills, will increase from $.50 / ton to $.65 / ton in 2003, and will

increase again to $.75 / ton in 2008. All landfills will be able to keep 2% of

this fee to offset administrative costs of collecting it on behalf of EPD. In

addition, half of the revenue collected annually from the solid waste fees will

be earmarked to go specifically to clean up publicly-owned hazardous sites

(such as landfills which have contaminated groundwater associated with them.)

This bill also changes the current brownfields law by allowing limited

liability for purchasers who redevelop and clean up contaminated properties by

meeting soil standards. As an incentive for redevelopment, groundwater cleanup

would not be required on these properties.

Status: Passed House; favorably reported by Senate Natural Resources Committee;

pending in Senate Rules Committee

HR 1111 Property Tax Break for the Cleanup of Environmentally Contaminated

Property (Rep. Tom Shanahan)

This bill proposes an amendment to the constitution to create a separate class

of property for ad valorem tax purposes for those properties containing

environmental contamination. If passed in a statewide referendum, new owners

of contaminated property, who were not responsible for creating the

contamination, could recover their costs for cleanup by receiving a temporary

exemption from increased property assessment resulting from the value of the

cleanup. The rationale behind this proposal is that this would provide an

incentive to redevelop "brownfields" in Georgia.

Status: Passed House; favorably reported by Senate Natural Resources

Committee; pending in Senate Rules Committee

PUBLIC SAFETY

[Staff: Clint Mueller]

SB 515 Changes to State Firefighter Standards (Sen. Jeff Mullis)

This bill requires all volunteer firefighters to complete the basic

firefighters training course conducted by or through the Georgia Fire Academy

within 12 months after being employed or appointed as a firefighter. This bill

also increases the minimum pumping capacity of a fire truck to 750 gallons per

minute at 150 PSI, though this standard would not apply to existing trucks that

are in use. Finally, the bill allows the Georgia Firefighter Standards and

Training Council to enforce these standards by bringing a civil action to

enjoin a fire department from performing any or all firefighting functions

until they come into compliance.

Status: Passed Senate; pending in House Public Safety Committee



REVENUE & FINANCE

[Staff: Clint Mueller]

HB 337 Limitations on Tax Sales (Rep. Glenn Richardson)

This bill would prohibit tax commissioners from selling tax executions (fi

fas). Once a tax sale is completed the tax commissioner would be required to

file an interpleader action in superior court for the payment of any excess

funds. The superior court would have to determine who has a rightful claim

against the funds. This bill also reduces the redemption fee from 20% to 10%

in the second year after the sale.

Status: Passed House; favorably reported by Senate Banking & Financial

Institutions Committee; pending in Senate Rules Committee



HR 1073 Create Separate Class of Property for Low Income Building Projects

(Rep. Tom Buck)

This bill would authorize a statewide referendum to let voters decide if the

constitution should be changed to treat low income building projects as a

separate class of property. ACCG believes the federal and state income tax

credits that developers already receive provide more than enough incentive to

build low income housing, and HB 1073 creates an unneeded property tax

subsidy. Last year the federal government allotted $12,438,266 of Section 42

low income housing tax credits to Georgia. The Department of Community

Affairs, which administers the program in Georgia, had $39,322,839 in requests

from developers. The demand for these credits exceeds the available supply

three fold, and an additional property tax break is not needed to make their

projects feasible.

Status: Passed House; favorably reported by Senate Finance & Public Utilities;

pending in Senate Rules Committee



HB 1278 Removing Members of the Board of Tax Assessors (Rep. Anne Mueller)

This bill would change the due process for removing members of the board of

assessors to allow the county commission to remove a member for due cause after

notice has been given and an opportunity for a hearing before the commission

has taken place.

Status: Passed House; pending in Senate Finance & Public Utilities Committee

HB 1444 Hospitals Eligible for SPLOST Funds (Rep. Hugh Broome)

This bill was amended to allow counties to use SPLOST to fund capital projects

for hospitals which are owned, operated, or leased by or from a county or a

hospital authority.

Status: Passed House; pending in Senate Finance & Public Utilities Committee

ACCG STAFF MEMBERS AND ASSIGNED ISSUE AREAS

Jim Grubiak - General County Government

jgrubiak@accg.org

Kelly Pridgen -

Courts

kpridgen@accg.org

Chris DeVinney - Natural Resources & Environment

cdevinney@accg.org

Althea McCoy - Transportation & Economic Development amccoy@accg.org

Clint Mueller - Revenue & Finance / Public Safety

cmueller@accg.org

Suzanne Nieman - Health & Human Services

snieman@accg.org

Mari-Leigh Beckworth - Legislative Intern

mbeckworth@accg.org