Legislative Update Number 2007.10 -- March 23, 2007
State action needed after Fulton DFCS audit
By Rep. Pat Gardner
Along with other members of the Fulton County legislative delegation, I am very concerned about the shocking results of a Georgia Office of the Child Advocate audit of the county’s Department of Family & Children Services (DFCS).
The report, which characterizes the DFCS performance with language such as "high failure rate,” “obviously poor casework,” and “inexcusable,” comes after Governor Perdue and other leaders failed to implement measures to help protect Georgia’s most vulnerable children. It has been nearly three years since Perdue announced a major DFCS overhaul and his reform efforts, like DFCS itself, have failed miserably.
It is time now for the Governor and members of the legislative leadership to take action, including a comprehensive statewide review of DFCS to determine if this colossal failure to protect our children is going on around the state.
The state’s supplemental budget for the remainder of fiscal year 2007 was adopted by the House of Representatives on March 20, but there was a motion later in the evening to reconsider, so HB 94 remains in the House pending resolution of a conflict with the Senate leadership.
As adopted, HB 94 earmarks $194 million for a 2.65 percent jump in K-12 school enrollment. Addressing the federal funding shortfall in the popular PeachCare for Kids Program, which now provides over 273,000 children with health insurance, HB 94 contains $81 million for the program to keep it up and running giving Congress time to pay their portion and reimburse the state. It also includes funding to set up six new Federally Qualified Health Centers(FQHC) around the state and funding for expanding three of these community centers to include much needed mental health services. As a member of the Health Subcommittee on Appropriations, I believe in this use of our tax dollars since they draw significant federal dollars once they are established.
By a vote of 106-65, House members approved HB 185, which gives a judge the option to apply the death penalty if at least 10 out of 12 jurors in capital cases vote for that recommendation. I voted against this legislation in favor of current law, which requires a unanimous jury to apply the capital punishment. We have had too many cases in Georgia recently where it was determined years later the wrong person had been sent to prison for certain crimes, and we cannot afford to lower the standard for condemning a defendant to death row.
HB 77, which passed by a vote of 110-60, would require counties and municipalities to conduct a traffic study prior to utilizing red-light cameras in law enforcement. It also requires that 75 percent of the money collected as the result of the devices, after cost of incurred for operation has been taken out, to be used to fund a trauma care system in Georgia.
Other legislation approved by the House this week includes:
- HB 487, which would change the date of Georgia’s presidential primary from March 3 to February 5, 2008. It also would reduce the requirement to win an election and avoid a runoff from the true majority to a plurality of 45 percent.
- HB 16, which would ensure the same “whistleblower” protections that state employees, who file a complaint of fraud, waste and abuse in state programs and operations enjoy, would be extended to local government employees.
- HB 147, which would require that women seeking an abortion have to be offered an opportunity to first see a sonogram of the fetus.
- HB 429, which would require physicians who provide prenatal care or delivery to test mothers for HIV unless the mother specifically declines the test. The bill requires that a woman be informed of the test and of her right to refuse.
- HB 102, which would authorize the Department of Corrections to compensate Robert Clark, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 23 years, in the amount of $1.2 million over a 15-year period.
- HB 227, which would establish a state-level franchise authority for cable television service, allowing providers to obtain a single franchise rather than having to apply for local government franchises in each community served.
There is growing opposition to two bills under consideration, namely HB 610, which would allow for excessive tree-cutting around billboards along Georgia’s interstates, highways and roads, and HB 340, a plan to reduce eligibility for new PeachCare recipients from 235 percent of the poverty level to 200 percent, thus keeping thousands of children of Georgia’s working families out of the program. It requires premiums for dental and vision services and substantially changes the program to mirror the state health benefits plan instead of Medicaid.
Legislation that would have repealed the state’s prohibition of “payday lending,” and strictly regulating the practice, failed to receive the necessary 91 votes for approval. The House vote on HB 163 ended in an 84-84 tie. There will be reconsideration of that vote so we will have an opportunity to defeat it again.
Tuesday, March 27, will be the 30th legislative day of the 2007 session. That is “cross-over” day, the final day in which legislation can be moved from the House to the Senate, or vice versa, for consideration by the other chamber before the end of this year’s session.
- Rep. Pat Gardner (D-Atlanta) represents the 57th District (Atlanta and DeKalb County) in the Georgia House of Representatives. Contact her at 604 Coverdell Office Building, Atlanta, GA 30334; by phone at 404-656-0265 or by e-mail at pat@patgardner.org.
