This week’s Courier Herald column: When part of a governing majority, members of the political party in charge get both credit and blame for the state of current events. Georgia’s Republicans have run for re-election several times sharing the success stories of economic transformation in the aftermath of the great recession. Many that have taken
Email in-box reminds us that we’re still in session, but still also in a pandemic: While we’re all trying to work and re-establish normalcy as much as possible, it’s also time to remember that we each have some personal responsibility to keep Covid-19 from spreading.
The Georgia Budget & Policy Institute published a letter urging the governor and legislators to raise new sources of revenue. Thirty-six other signees joined the left-leaning organization including: the League of Women Voters of Georgia, the International Rescue Committee and Open Hand Atlanta. An odd mix to be sure. Charlie has a good primer on
This week’s Courier Herald column: Georgia’s legislature will reconvene Monday to finish the 40-day session that was abruptly suspended March 13th – officially the 29th legislative day – as the state began to shut down for the Covid-19 pandemic. With 11 business days remaining, legislators must pass a budget prior to the July 1st beginning
The House and Senate have agreed to return to finish the 2020 session on June 15th. Legislators have 11 business days remaining in the session, and a budget must be passed before the end of the fiscal year which is June 30th. An adjournment resolution spelling out specific session days following the 15th remains a
Georgia may soon take its name of the short list of states without a hate crime statute – especially given the newly announced support from two powerful lobbying arms in the business community. In 2019, the Georgia House of Representatives voted to approve a bill that would increase penalties for crimes committed against certain classes
The House and Senate Appropriations Committees will have another joint meeting this morning, held virtually, at 11:15 am. You can observe this meeting by clicking here. The committees met last week to begin the adjustments needed to the spending plans in progress before the Covid-19 suspension of the General Assembly in March. Members submitted questions
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston’s office distributed a report that frames guidelines developed by the House Committee on Reopening in consultation with the Georgia Building Authority, the Georgia Department of Public Health, and others. You can read the full Speaker’s memo here, and you can read the full committee report here. Some highlights: Public areas
We get a lot of press releases from individual legislators here. We don’t post most of them, as our space is limited and many are often just PR vehicles or for bills being dropped that have no chance of moving. I’m sharing two today because they are the opposite of those. The shooting of Ahmaud
On the heels of yesterday’s April revenue numbers (down 36% year over year), members of the House and Senate will have a joint legislative committee meeting this morning at 11:15am, virutally. You can watch the meeting here. The legislature must pass a budget prior to the end of the fiscal year, which is June 30th.
