Last week, the General Assembly officially convened its 2011-2012 Session on the Constitutionally mandated second Monday of January, received the State of the State Address in its second business day on Wednesday, then scheduled its next official day of business for Monday, January 24th. Leaders of both chambers also announced this Session’s Committee assignments, which held a few surprises. Two of the more interesting for the Libertarian Party were that two strong social conservatives were removed as Chairmen of influential House committees, to be replaced by more fiscally-oriented conservatives.
The Assembly will not have floor sessions due to the Martin Luther King Jr holiday this week, but will hold the first official budget hearings after Governor Deal introduced his budget proposals for both the rest of Fiscal Year 2011 and Fiscal Year 2012 during his State of the State Address. Among the topics surely to be examined is the Department of Corrections budget. As was mentioned in last week’s Legislative Update, Speaker Ralston called for an examination of how we treat drug offenders before the Session began, and this call was repeated in Governor Deal’s Inaugural Address. The Libertarian Party of Georgia will be examining Governor Deal’s budgets and working to come up with concrete recommendations to lower spending, and if you would like to help please email me at the address at the end of this update.
As expected with the Session officially underway, many more bills began to be introduced, and the Legislation website got a surprise upgrade last weekend. Now it is easier than ever before to track a bill by author, committee, chamber, or even Session back to the 2001-2002 Session. One bill introduced this week was a proposed Constitutional Amendment by freshman State Rep Buzz Brockway (R-Lawrenceville), HR 20, that would limit spending to a rate of inflation plus population growth. Rep Mike Jacobs introduced HB 44, which would eliminate a mandate on any store with shopping carts that they maintain three separate signs stating that it is illegal to steal a shopping cart. Finally, HB 47, a bill to implement the insurance exchanges mandated by Obamacare, was introduced by Rep Matt Ramsey (R- Peachtree City), with Majority Caucus Chair Donna Sheldon (R- Dacula), Majority Caucus Secretary Allen Peake (R – Macon), Majority Whip Ed Lindsey (R- Atlanta), Rules Chairman John Meadows (R – Calhoun), and Retirement Chairman Howard Maxwell (R – Dallas) co-sponsoring.
