Columbus, Georgia

PROPOSED

Georgia Chamber of Commerce

2004 Legislative Agenda



JUDICIARY

Civil justice reform; Support the remaining legal reforms outlined in SB 133.

1. More specific expert witness rule.

2. Eliminate Joint and Several Liability ? apportion damages according to

liability between defendants.

3. Recognize Comparative Negligence ? apportion damages according to liability

between defendant and plaintiff.

4. Cap on non-economic damages (med-mal only)

5. Allow periodic payments by defendant.

6. Venue changes to ensure defendants are not removed to counties other than

their county of residence or registration.









Support





Offer of Settlement; Provide for financial incentive to encourage plaintiffs

and defendants to reach a compromise settlement.

Support

Protection for hospital Emergency Rooms; Provide lawsuit liability protection

in emergency room cases. Support

Punitive damages cap increase; Increasing the cap on punitive damages increases

cost of doing business in Georgia. Plaintiffs have other means of recovering

damages available to them.

Oppose

HB 131 ?Neighborhood Protection Act?/Citizen Suit Remedies; Allows a citizen to

sue the owner of neighboring property for conduct that adversely affects or is

likely to adversely affect the environment. Remedies currently exist for

individuals whose property has actually been damaged from the activities of a

neighboring property owner. Citizen suit remedies will result in duplicative

enforcement against industry and local governments.





Oppose

COMPLIANCE

Equitable and reasonable registration fees; For all organizations registering

with the Ethics commission regardless of whether they are for profit or not for

profit.

Support

Additional restrictions on registered lobbyists; i.e. ?no cup of coffee rule?

and disclosure of fees and salaries. Oppose

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, TAXES & TOURISM

Tourism Funding; Increase funding for tourism advertising within the GA Dept.

of Industry, Trade, and Tourism

Support

Capital gains tax reduction; Lower the state capital gains tax rate. Support

Inventory tax exemption; Allows local governments to exempt items that are part

of a business? inventory from local ad valorem taxes to encourage industry

location.

Support

Increase retailer?s rebate; Increase the amount of the rebate retailers are

given for filling out the state?s sales tax paperwork from 3% to 4.5% of the

first $3,000 collected monthly.

Support

Residential property tax freeze; Freeze the value of an individual?s home for

tax assessment purposes at its current level. The residential property tax

freeze would shift future tax increases to business and industry.

Oppose



Georgia ports authority; Continue state appropriations for infrastructure and

facility improvements required for this vital resource to remain competitive.

Support

Cap on sales tax on energy used in manufacturing process; Mitigate double

taxation on energy used in the manufacturing process.

Support

BEST Legislation; In addition to income tax incentives, include tax incentives

on payroll taxes since many facilities are not income producers initially.

Support Concept, but keep intact the existing Georgia Port tax incentives.

Biotech tax exemptions; Provide tax exemptions for certain biotechnology

research, product development, or manufacturing companies to encourage industry

location in Georgia.

Support

EDUCATION

Education Reform; Support the ?No Child Left Behind? and ?A+ Reform Act?

legislation and the strong accountability, yet flexibility, of their

implementation.

Support

Education funding; Support adequate funding for education; oppose attempts to

cut funding in K-12 education.

Support



ENVIRONMENT

Water legislation; Support a statewide water management plan with adequate

funding, but oppose any changes to the ?Water Rights? laws or any attempt to

include a public trust doctrine.

Oppose attempts to expand to public trust doctrine

EPD funding; Support adequate funding for the

Environmental Protection Division. Support funding for EPD that must come from general

revenue and not through new fees on business

Hazardous and Solid Waste Trust Funds; Support continued funding of solid and

hazardous waste trust funds and oppose diversions of dedicated fees to other

budgetary items.

Support

Confidential environmental audits; Voluntary environmental self-audits should

be recognized as privileged information not required to be disclosed to the

public or a regulatory agency.

Support

Environmental equity; Ensure that all Georgians are equally protected from

environmental hazards through sound scientific analysis of risks and consistent

nondiscriminatory enforcement of existing laws and regulations, not by allowing

lawsuits based on potential use of a property.



Support

Local enforcement of state environmental statutes and regulations; Would lead

to duplicative and possibly contradictory enforcement.

Oppose

State preemption of local zoning authority; Local governments are the

constitutionally mandated decision-makers in zoning matters.

Oppose

Fiscal note on environmental mandates; Requires a fiscal note outlining

projected compliance costs on all state environmental legislation that affects

business.

Support

GENERAL BUSINESS, TRANSPORTATION & TECHNOLOGY

Confidential personnel audits; Personnel Audits performed by companies to improve performance should remain

privileged information and not subject to disclosure to the public or a

regulating agency.

Support





Transportation infrastructure financing; Support efforts to establish adequate

funding mechanisms for LARP, urban and rural transit systems, state matching

funds, a state infrastructure bank, railroads, and other transportation

infrastructure needs.



Support

Commuter rail; It is appropriate to expend public monies to help develop such a

system with the realization that the existing railroad network in Georgia is a

private industry and that agreements must be worked out with the railroads and

the state to allow commuter service on the freight railroads.



Support

Transportation general obligation bonds; Recognizing the debt service on

transportation bonds, it is appropriate for the General Assembly to continue to

address the situation so as not to hamper economic development throughout the

state. Discussions of alternative modes of transportation should continue.



Support

HEALTH CARE

Rural hospitals; Support policies, programs, and payments for continued

viability of rural, critical access, and safety net hospitals.

Support

ICAPP; Program to address the health care workforce shortage. Support

Nursing cancelable loans; Georgia Student Finance Commission budget request for

nursing cancelable loans. Support

Tobacco settlement proceeds; Support a substantial portion of the proceeds

toward health care. Support

Maintain Medicaid reimbursement rates; No decrease in Medicaid reimbursement

for hospital inpatient and outpatient services; no decrease in Medicaid

reimbursement for physicians.

Support

Cost Review on mandated benefits; Require all health care mandate bills be

submitted for a cost analysis and receive a fiscal note prior to consideration

of the legislation.

Support

HB 806, SB 50; Consumer Choice of Benefits Health Insurance Plan Act allows

policies and contracts to be offered by insurers to group or individual policy

holders that exclude in whole or in part state mandated health benefits.



Support







Mandated benefits; Support free market choice of health care plans based on an

employer?s right to offer the product which best suits individual needs and

affordability. Contents of these voluntarily provided health care plans should

not be determined by legislative mandates. Oppose mandated benefits.



Oppose

WORKERS? COMPENSATION & LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT

HB 404; provides that if an employer or the employer's workers' compensation

insurer fails to respond to a written request by an authorized medical provider

for advance authorization for medical treatment or testing within five business

days, the requested treatment or testing shall be considered preapproved. It

further specifies that if the employer or its insurer denies the procedure they

must notify the workers' comp board within 5 days and the board must hold a

hearing within 30 days of receiving the notice. If the administrative law judge

reverses the employer?s decision, the employer must comply with the reversal

within 10 days or be assessed up to 20% of the reasonable medical charges for

the denied treatment. The board may then assess an additional $500 penalty

against an employer or its insurer, which fails to comply within 30 days.











Oppose

HB 591; Allows employees to collect unemployment benefits while looking for

part-time work. Oppose

Exclusive remedy; Uphold workers? compensation as the exclusive remedy for

workplace injuries. Support

Indexing benefits; Statutorily indexing the maximum income benefits under

workers? compensation creates an entitlement with no control mechanism.

Oppose

Employment at will doctrine; Just as employees have no legal obligation to

remain with a company, companies should be able to hire and fire without

government interference, so long as they do not discriminate against protected

classes.



Support

Psychological injury in the workplace; Allows ?psychological injury? to be paid

by workers? comp, without accompaniment of a physical injury. Such broad

interpretation would encourage abuse of the system.

Oppose

Right to work; Employees should have the right to work in a union covered job

regardless of whether or not they join a union.

Support

Increase in Minimum Wage; Provides all City of Atlanta employees and all

businesses contracting or subcontracting with the City of Atlanta with a base

pay of $10.50 an hour with full benefits or $12.00 an hour without benefits. The Georgia

Chamber opposes any state or city wage that exceeds the federal minimum wage.

Unemployment insurance expansion; Expansion of the unemployment insurance fund

beyond its original intent of providing a bridge for employees who lose their

job due to no fault of their own and are actively seeking re-employment.



Oppose

FEDERAL AFFAIRS

Efficient facilities initiative; The Georgia Chamber supports efforts to

transform the U.S. military into a force compatible with America?s national

security needs for the 21st century. Until an analysis is complete, the Georgia Chamber

is opposed to base closures in Georgia

Mitigate nursing allied healthcare shortage; Support Congressional action to

aid in the critical shortage of nursing and allied health professional that

results in increased health care costs and limited access.

Support

Medical liability legislation S 607/HR 5/S11; The Georgia Chamber supports the

?HEALTH Act? which takes significant steps toward stabilizing the medical

liability system and safeguarding patients? access to care while helping to

contain skyrocketing health care costs. HR 5 passed the House on March 13,

2003. Senate vote fell shy of the 60 needed to break a filibuster.





Support

Patients? bill of rights; Legislation must include the following points:

1. Employers must be protected from lawsuit liability 2. External Review must

be Mandatory

3. Punitive damages must have a reasonable cap



Support

Expand health care coverage and access; Support programs that reduce the number

of uninsured Americans (currently 43 million Americans, 1.2 million Georgians)

Support













HR 1829/S 346: Federal prison industries competition in contracting act;

Requires the Federal Prison Industries to use competitive procedures regarding

the purchase of prison-made products by Federal departments. S 346 was referred

to the Subcommittee on Financial Management, the Budget, and International

Security of the Committee on Governmental Affairs on September 24, 2003. HR

1829 was reported by the committee on Judiciary on September 25, 2003.





Support

Future energy act HR 6; Increases domestic energy supplies and security,

expands and encourages conservation, upgrades America's energy infrastructure,

and encourages investment in new technologies. Passed House; Senate vote fell

shy of the 60 needed to break a filibuster.



Support

Pro-union legislation; Allowing collective bargaining among state and public

safety employees creates a significant threat to Georgia's Right to Work laws

and opens the door to public unions, which would encourage private industries

to follow.



Oppose

Class Action Fairness Act, S 274/ HR 1115; Moves large, multi-state class

action lawsuits from state to federal court, preventing widespread ?venue

shopping? by trial lawyers. HR 1115 passed the House on June 12, 2003; Senate

vote fell shy of the 60 needed to break a filibuster.



Support

HR 57; Because of Senate rules, the tax relief measure that phased out the

estate tax will expire at the end of 2010. HR 57 makes repeal of the death tax

permanent.

Support

TEA-21; Increases funding to meet highway and transit needs and greater equity

for donor states like Georgia. Support

Bankruptcy Reform HR 2120; Revises the banking and bankruptcy insolvency laws

with respect to the termination and netting of financial contracts.

Support