Local lawmakers set to-do lists
♦ The coming week will see the focus expand beyond the state budget.
The Georgia General Assembly reconvenes Tuesday, following a week of budget hearings that included joint House and
Senate sessions and the start of subcommittee deliberations.
Lawmakers will first work on amendments to departmental budgets through the fiscal year that ends June 30, based on updated revenue projections. They’ll then turn to the “big budget” funding operations from July 1 through June 30, 2022.
“We’re going to play through this amended budget very very quickly,” said Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, who convened on Friday
the first meeting of the human resources subcommittee she chairs.
The session, held via Zoom, focused on requests from Commissioner Judy Fitzgerald of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities and Department of Veterans Services Commissioner Mike Roby.
During her presentation, Fitzgerald said they’ll be asking for funds to resume maintenance at two closed state mental health facilities — Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital in Rome and Southwestern State Hospital in Thomasville.
Dempsey indicated support, and a desire to find permanent uses for the facilities that would take them off the state’s books.
“I want to say how important I still feel those hospital properties are; you know one is very much my heart,” she told Fitzgerald. “But I know those dollars need to be moved back into services for y’all so I hope there’s a resolution there soon.”
Dempsey also said she intends to champion Fitzgerald’s request for new funding for a feasibility study on creating an Intellectual/ Developmental Disabilities Behavioral Health Crisis Center.
The proposal is for a treatment center staffed specifically with people trained and certified to assist adults with behavioral issues and cognitive deficits.
Fitzgerald said the existing mental health crisis centers are set up for those with psychiatric or addictive disorders. The IDD BHCC is a new concept, she said, designed for people who may be living in group homes or with aging parents.
“When an individual like that goes into crisis, the proper place to serve them is not our crisis unit,” Fitzgerald said.
She envisions a central facility serving the entire state — “They’re expensive,” she said — with a workforce and programs targeted for developmentally disabled people.
“We would be able to give them the appropriate short term treatment so they can return to their community setting,” Fitzgerald said.
Tuesday will mark the point where lawmakers also can turn their attention to other types of legislation, and several of Floyd County’s delegates already have irons in the fire.
Rep. Eddie Lumsden, RArmuchee, has not yet called a meeting of the Insurance Committee he chairs, but he dropped House Bill 98 on Jan. 14, during the first week of the session.
The measure would amend provisions for teleconference committee meetings with a requirement that they offer “full participation.” That means they would be conducted under the same rules for meetings where legislators are physically present, including an opportunity for public comment.
HB 98 is cosponsored by three other committee chairs and the House Majority Caucus secretary/treasurer. It is expected to be assigned to a committee Tuesday.
Rep. Mitchell Scoggins, R-Cartersville, said he is working on some bills he plans to introduce in the near future.
The retired probate court judge is partnering with the Council of Probate Court Judges of Georgia on legislation to remove that court’s responsibility of designating temporary guardians for minors.
“It puts it in Juvenile Court where it belongs,” Scoggins said. “It’s the only thing Probate Court does with minors and Juvenile Court has the arm of DFCS to investigate what would be best for the child.”
He also wants to waive state income and capital gains taxes on payments property owners get when their land is condemned under eminent domain. He said the tax is a second blow for someone who didn’t want to sell their property for the offered price.
“I’m also kicking around a little election bill that would require the secretary of state to mandate county election offices purge their voter rolls every quarter,” Scoggins said.
Culling the names of people who have died or moved every three months would ensure the records are always up to date in case of a special election, he said.
A provision would also bar third-party absentee ballot requests that come from out of state — “What I call ballot harvesting,” he said.
However, Scoggins said he would hold off on that bill until he sees what the new House Special Committee on Election Integrity is proposing. The sophomore lawmaker said he requested a seat on that committee and was disappointed not to be assigned.