Week Four of the General Assembly:
Water Guidelines Issued, Transportation Initiatives Get Moving

Water
   With the landscape industry in dire straits, Governor Perdue announced more flexibility in outdoor watering restrictions. Although local governments will still be expected to meet a 10 percent water use reduction, the baseline to be used will be the period from April to September of 2007. Subject to local government approval, flexibility will also be given to allow outdoor watering of plants only 25 minutes per day on an odd/even schedule by hand with a garden hose. Sprinkling can be used for new professionally installed landscape up to three days per week from midnight to 10 a.m. for a period of 10 weeks based on the odd/even schedule, provided the person performing the watering has participated in the Outdoor Water Use Registration Program to understand proper water use. 
   Private and public swimming pools will also be allowed to operate if local governments agree. In making this decision, the Governor considered the amount of water used to fill pools (seven million gallons a day out of 800-900 million gallons used daily) as compared to the negative impacts of not having pools open, such as stagnant water and concerns with West Nile virus, adverse effects to pool equipment, and the loss of healthy recreational opportunities for youth.
   Legislation that would fast track the permitting of reservoirs passed the Senate last week. Senate Bill 342 provides that local governments can receive up to 20 percent of the costs of obtaining permits for constructing and improving dams and up to 40 percent of the costs of permitting new public reservoirs through the US Army Corps of Engineers process.

Transportation
   The Cobb Chamber of Commerce supports legislation that would provide for the creation of more sources of revenue to fund transportation initiatives in Georgia. Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle has pledged support for the ability of local governments to band together and adopt a regional sales tax initiative for transportation projects. Such a proposal is being pushed by more than 30 organizations that make up the Get Georgia Moving coalition. Senate Resolution 845, proposed by Jeff Mullis, will be heard this afternoon in the Senate Transportation Committee. This Constitutional Amendment would allow counties to conduct a one cent sales tax for transportation and would require the General Assembly to enact legislation in 2009 spelling out how the tax could be used in a voluntary regional approach. Eighty percent of the funds collected from a multi-county or regional area would be expended in that area and not less than 10 percent would be spent by the state for mass transit networks.
   One day after Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle and the Senate proposed their transportation funding plan, House Transportation Chairman Vance Smith introduced the House’s approach to fixing the funding crisis.
   As expected, the House legislation calls for a constitutional amendment to be held in November of 2008 for a one percent sales tax across the state. The portion of the tax that is raised from the sale of gasoline (approximately $150-200 million) would be used to fund local road projects through the Local Assistance Road Program (LARP) and State Aid programs. The portion generated through the rest of the sales tax (approximately $1.5 billion) would go to the Georgia Department of Transportation which would then be required to spend 90 percent of the money in the region that generated the funds. The remaining 10 percent would be available for inter-regional projects. The regions would be organized by Regional Development Center (RDC) Districts. The funding would be available for all transportation projects and programs.
   House Bill 1139 and HR 1226 were assigned to the House Transportation Committee and are expected to receive hearings Wednesday afternoon.  [Source: The Regional Business Coalition. The RBC is comprised of 16 local chambers of commerce and business organizations in the metro Atlanta region representing over 16,000 businesses. To learn more, please visit www.rbcatl.com.]

Tax Reform
   State Senator Chip Rogers’ tax reform bill, SR 796, was passed by Committee Substitute in the Senate Finance Committee. Backed by Lieutenant Governor Cagle, the resolution would amend the state constitution to freeze property values at their 2008 values yet allow for moderate increases of no more than two percent a year for residential properties and three percent for non-residential properties unless it is improved or sold, in which case those increased values would be added to the 2008 base. School systems could increase mileage rates only after voter approval and that of the local delegation. Local jurisdictions can increase assessments more than the respective two and three percent provided a fixed amount is established along with a uniform process for assessment and have received the approval of a majority of voters and the local delegation.

Certificate of Need
   State Senator Tommie Williams has filed a new version of a similar bill he introduced last year related to the Certificate of Need program for health care facilities. Specifically, SB 433 allows “Destination cancer hospitals” to be exempt from going through the Certificate of Need process provided they have less than 50 beds and a minimum of 65 percent of the patients come from out of state. Although this bill is currently under review, it is the standing position of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce to oppose legislation that might weaken the Certificate of Need process and undermine the financial viability of community hospitals which might already provide such services.

Trauma Care
   The House Appropriations Committee approved much of the Governor’s proposed supplemental budget requests, including $50 million for trauma care expenses. Grady Hospital would receive a significant portion of those dollars. The Supplemental Budget was passed by both the House and Senate.