As state lawmakers return to the Capitol this morning expect to see a repeat of some of the issues from last year.
Education reform will again be a top priority of Gov. Nathan Deal who saw his constitutional amendment to take over failing schools soundly defeated at the polls in November.
“My priority is the same this year as it was last year--and that is to deal with the worst situation we have in K-12 education and that is chronically failing schools,” he says.
Deal says in a year’s time, the number of such schools in Georgia has increased by 26 to 153.
He plans to back a bill in the House that would give the State Board of Education more authority in dealing with chronically failing schools and allow students to transfer or offer them vouchers if improvements aren’t made.
But Deal could face opposition by some in his own party after he vetoed several pieces of key legislation last year including one to allow guns on college campuses.
He vetoed the measure over concerns that concessions weren’t included for colleges with daycares or those where dual enrollment high school students attended.
House Speaker David Ralston says another version of the bill will be back this session.
“I believe very simply that bad guys are going to take guns wherever they want to take them... I’m not worried about people that are law abiding citizens,” he says.
Ralston says another bill important to him, and one also vetoed by Deal that would have allowed firemen to seek worker’s compensation for a work-related cancer diagnosis, will also be back.
“I think a state that’s number one in the nation in which to do business ought to take care of its public safety employees. And so, we’re going to pass another bill,” he tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish.
Senate Republicans, proud that their former colleague U.S. Rep. Tom Price has been tapped as Health and Human Services Secretary, will create a “repeal Obamacare” task force.
“(We’re) looking at ways in which we can bring about a health care system that is more affordable and acceptable to the individuals within our state,” says Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
Another priority of Senate leaders will be to increase the profitability of the Georgia Lottery in an effort to boost the HOPE Scholarship.
Majority Leader Bill Cowsert (R-Athens) suggests cuts to the lottery’s administrative staff and lower payouts for prizes.
“If we can increase profitability even by one percent, that’s an additional $40 million that can go back to fully restoring HOPE,” he says.
Leaders in neither the House nor the Senate appear poised to resurrect last year’s religious liberty bill which was also vetoed by Deal.
Cagle says he’ll leave it up the federal government to deal with the issue.
“We have a new president--a president who, I think, is going to appoint a justice who is conservative and much of the fears that existed prior to that may have subsided to some degree,” he says.
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