As I previously wrote, six legislators voted against the $300 million amended budget today.

They are:
- Steve Davis
- Bobby Franklin
- Tom Graves
- Doug Holt
- Barry Loudermilk
- Martin Scott

They wrote a letter explaining there actions, here is the text courtesy of Steve Davis:

During the 2007 session of the General Assembly, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to return surplus revenues back to the taxpayers of Georgia. The House stated that as fiscal conservatives, we owe this money back to the taxpayers to whom it belongs.

We members of the House of Representatives stand by the principles of lower taxes, limited government and the belief that surplus revenues, beyond the constitutional requirements, belong to the hardworking people of Georgia and should be returned to their rightful owner. The 2008 supplemental budget spends surplus revenues in further expansion of our State Government.

We believe the ever upward creep of spending encourages people to expect government to solve all their problems. We desire to reorient state spending so that it reinforces the critical virtues of self reliance and personal initiative that made America great.

We applaud the hard and unenviable work of our Appropriations Committee and its Chairman who have been working with a system that is designed to spend, not return surplus taxes. Our votes against HB 989 are not a negative comment upon the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, House Leadership, the Governor or members of the Appropriations Committee.

Therefore, in standing with true conservative values in which we believe, we the undersigned have voted against the continued spending of excess collected revenues.

Please drop these legislators an e-mail and thank them for their votes and support of the taxpayers.

No Comments »

The amended FY 2008 budget passed this morning, six legislators voted against it.

One interesting note, there was a rule change in the House that prevented amendments from being offered:

Rule 108.3 No amendment to any appropriations bill shall be in order if the amendment has the effect of both reducing one appropriation and either increasing another appropriation or adding a new appropriation. No amendment to any appropriations bill increasing any appropriation or adding a new appropriation shall be in order unless there has previously been adopted an amendment reducing some other appropriation so as to make funds available for such new or increased appropriation; and no amendment to any appropriations bill shall be in order which would cause the bill to violate the balanced budget requirements of the Constitution.

This is something that I’d expect out of Democrats, in fact I believe that Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) did try something like this on the federal level. He also wanted to wait until conference to insert earmarks into appropriations bills. A similar idea was floated by Georgia House Majority Leader Jerry Keen.

There already isn’t much transparency in the budget process here in Georgia. I guess debate is pointless too.

No Comments »

When lawmakers arrived today, the amended FY2008 budget was sitting on their desks. The budget has to sit for 24 hours after presentation and will be taken up during the tomorrow’s session.

No copies have been distributed. As soon as one comes available, we’ll get it posted.

[UPDATE] You can view the amended FY2008 budget here.

No Comments »

I got an e-mail from the Sunlight Foundation today. They have, in collusion with Taxpayers for Common Sense, launched a new site called EarmarkWatch.org:

You don’t have to be an expert on earmarks — EarmarkWatch.org gives you the power to easily research, evaluate and comment on the pet projects favored and funded by members of Congress.

Right now, you can investigate earmarks from the House Defense Appropriations Bill and the House and Senate versions of the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bills. EarmarkWatch.org will guide you through a series of steps that an investigative reporter would follow, associating different kinds of political information with each earmark, and will also show you how to use online resources to find out whether recipients of earmarks hired lobbyists, made campaign contributions to members of Congress, or won federal contracts and grants. You can also add information to earmarks others have researched, or comment on what others have found.

The site is neat. Make sure you check it out.

1 Comment »

Sonny Perdue has been wielding his pen over the last few days:

Gov. Sonny Perdue used his veto pen Wednesday to slash about $141 million in spending and kill 41 bills passed during the legislative session.

Perdue signed the $20.2 billion budget for fiscal 2008, which begins July 1, into law. It includes 3 percent cost-of-living raises for about 200,000 teachers and state workers, $40 million for land conservation and $19 million for the governor’s fishing tourism program called “Go Fish Georgia.”

But before doing that, he cut out $123 million in construction debt and $18 million in local projects.

Among the veto victims was the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in Augusta, a pet project of House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans). The state has spent about $7 million on the project during the past decade, but a Hall of Fame was never built.

Today was the last day for the Governor to veto any legislation. In Georgia when if the Governor fails to veto a bill within 40 days of legislature’s adjournment, it automatically becomes law. There is no pocket veto in Georgia.

While I like the idea of $141 million in vetoed spending, it didn’t come about honestly. It came about because Sonny Perdue had his feelings hurt when the House overrode his veto and when they refused to work out a compromise. It would have been nice if Perdue would actually do something out of principle for once…just once.

I hear that Perdue has also vetoed HB 91.

[UPDATE] Farris has blasted Perdue on the HB 91 veto over at Peach Pundit.

No Comments »

The General Assembly has adjourned Sine Die (without day), and the 2007 session is officially over. The FY2008 Budget (HB95) was worked out in conference committee late Thursday night into early Friday morning and wasn’t approved till about mid-day. The budget was over 200 pages long and then spent the rest of the day getting printed. It didn’t hit legislator’s desks till 9:30pm, when it had to sit for 1 hour according to House rules. At 10:30 debate began which lasted about 45 minutes in the House and much less in the Senate. HB95 passed the House with only three dissenting votes, and the Senate with one dissenting vote. At this time I’m not aware of anyone (besides legislators) who has a copy of the final Conference Committee Report, but word is that the Governor’s GoFish program was fully funded, and $40M was set aside for “land conservation”.

We’ll post more details on the FY08 Budget as we get them.

As for the HB94, the FY2007 Supplemental budget, that was vetoed by the Governor late Thursday night. First thing Friday morning the House overrode the veto, however the Senate refused to address the matter on a technicality: the Governor never transmitted his veto to the House. Because of this, the Governor will most likely call a special session.

Stay tuned for more information…….

No Comments »