Conclusions:
HB 41: OPPOSE Rating: 3
HB 42: SUPPORT Rating: 7
HB 43: OPPOSE Rating: 2
HB 44: SUPPORT Rating: 9
HB 45: OPPOSE Rating: 3
HB 46: SUPPORT Rating: 6
HB 47: SUPPORT Rating: 10
HB 48: OPPOSE Rating: 4
HB 49: OPPOSE Rating: 3
HB 50: SUPPORT Rating: 10
Commentary:
HB 41 would ban public retirement systems from investing in companies ‘that produce, sell, or market songs with lyrics containing the word ‘nigger,’ ‘whore,’ or ‘bitch’ or any form of such words’. In other words, this bill is flat-out censoring. Because it restricts free speech rights, I most strenuously OPPOSE this bill.
HB 41: OPPOSE
Rating: 1
HB 42 criminalizes mortgage forclosure fraud. By and large, Section 1 of this bill, with the exception of the last sentence, would automatically rate this bill as an OPPOSE, because most of Section 1 is progressivist/Statist BS. That said, the bill criminalizes what I think constitutes actual fraud – specifically, someone commits mortgage forclosure fraud when they “Knowingly uses or facilitates the use of any deliberate misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission for the purpose of obtaining remuneration from a homeowner where such homeowner’s residence is subject to the mortgage foreclosure process and in reliance upon such deliberate misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission, the homeowner pays such person any amount to prevent or forestall the foreclosure when, in fact, such person is not reasonably able to prevent or forestall the foreclosure”. I Again, while I find the vast majority of Section 1 (the ‘intent’ of the General Assembly) absolutely repugnant, I do like what the bill actually does and therefore I will SUPPORT this bill
HB 42: OPPOSE
Rating: 7
HB 43 would force scrap metal processors to keep a copy of the drivers’ license, as well as the full name, date of birth, current address, and tag number of any non-liscensed seller they buy metal from, as well as a general description of what they are buying. It would also prevent them from buying from anyone under 18 years old. It also adds gender neutrality in Code Section 43-43-5, which closes a possible loophole for females that violated that law. Because it restricts the right of private contract unnecessarily, I must OPPOSE this bill.
HB 43: OPPOSE
Rating: 2
HB 44 is the House version of Senator David Shafer’s SB 1, the Zero-Based Budget Act. This version begins the process in 2010, rather than the 2011 from SB 1, notes that no program will be subject to zero-based budgeting more than once every 3 years (under Shafer’s plan, theoretically every program could be zer-based every year), and adds that the Department of Education (in addition to the Board of Regents that SB 1 specifically notes) shall also be specifically subject to each of these requirements. I SUPPORT SB 1 and this one is actually even better. Therefore I SUPPORT it as well.
HB 44: SUPPORT
Rating: 9
HB 45 forces everyone to provide verification of citizenship to vote. In general, this is a perfectly valid thing that the Secretary of State’s Office has recently been screwing up. That said, I do have three specific reasons to OPPOSE this bill: The first is due to the clause (in the proposed subsection (g)(1)) that “In the event the applicant does not respond to the request for the missing information within 30 days following the sending of notification to provide adequate proof of citizenship, the application shall be rejected.” In other words, if crap happens and you can’t get to the local election office in 30 days for whatever reason – say you just started a two week vacation when this letter arrives at your house, followed by three weeks of training for a new job, for example – you will be denied your right to vote. The second reason to OPPOSE is because it violates the US Constiution’s Article VI, Section 1 clause that “”Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.” via the proposed subsection (g)(4). The final direct reason for OPPOSing this bill is because due to the proposed subsection (g)(5), every time you move to another county, you would have to resubmit proof of citizenship. This is a direct assault on the voting rights of ANY migratory citizen, be they urban (and suburban) poor or US citizens who happen to be migrant workers. Because of these reasons, while voter verification in general is a very good thing, I must OPPOSE this bill.
HB 45: OPPOSE
Rating: 3
HB 46 codifies the sales tax exemption on diesel fuel for agricultural, timber harvesting, mining, and construction purposes Governor Perdue put in place by Executive Order last year, through this past May. This is one that I don’t have a real reason to oppose, and therefore I will SUPPORT even though I tend to favor outright general tax cuts and not simply special interest tax exemptions.
HB 46: SUPPORT
Rating: 6
HB 47 is one where I had to search very carefully to find the change – which was just a single character from existing law. What this bill does is change the maximum penalty for a person who knows they have HIV or hepatitis and assaults a police or correctional officer with the intent to transmit the virus from 20 years to 30 years. I tend to favor draconian punishments for actual violations of the Punch Principle, assuming due process was followed, and this is no different. Therefore I SUPPORT this bill.
HB 47: SUPPORT
Rating: 10
HB 48 is one of those that you really have to watch out for. On its surface, it appears to force any franchise ‘fee’ collected by a utility on behalf of a city to be clearly labeled a franchise ‘tax’ and can never be referred to as a franchise ‘fee’. It further states that this tax will be labeled as such on the utility bill, along with noting exactly which city it is for. That, in and of itself, is a very good thing – so good that I was willing to rate this as a 9 or maybe even a 10. And then I understood what the proposed 46-34-2(7)(b)(iii) is saying. What that particular section is saying is that any business that manufactures or processes a tangible personal product – basically dang near anything you buy other than a house – they are excluded from having to pay this franchise tax. This section alone is worthy of making this bill an OPPOSE due to its exemption of businesses. Because it is simply this one section that warrants the OPPOSE status, I rate it at a 4.
HB 48: OPPOSE
Rating: 4
HB 49 essentially allows the Georgia Board of Physician Workforce to accept “donations, gifts, and contributions from any source” to “study issues relevant to medical education”, implement “initiatives designed to enhance the medical education infrastructure of this state”, and “meet the physician workforce needs of Georgia communities”. That first clause about accepting donations, gifts, and contributions from any source has me a bit skeptical of this bill, and it just isn’t passing the smell test here. Maybe I’m being overly pessimistic, but I’m going to OPPOSE this bill for just that reason – too much potential for corruption.
HB 49: OPPOSE
Rating: 3
HB 50 basically says that if someone dies as a direct result of something that happened in another county, the other county’s coroner or county medical examiner has to be notified. This makes sense to me, and therefore I SUPPORT this bill.
HB 50: SUPPORT
Rating: 10
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State House Bills I Find Interesting (HB 41 – HB 50)
Conclusions:
HB 41: OPPOSE Rating: 3
HB 42: SUPPORT Rating: 7
HB 43: OPPOSE Rating: 2
HB 44: SUPPORT Rating: 9
HB 45: OPPOSE Rating: 3
HB 46: SUPPORT Rating: 6
HB 47: SUPPORT Rating: 10
HB 48: OPPOSE Rating: 4
HB 49: OPPOSE Rating: 3
HB 50: SUPPORT Rating: 10
Commentary:
HB 41 would ban public retirement systems from investing in companies ‘that produce, sell, or market songs with lyrics containing the word ‘nigger,’ ‘whore,’ or ‘bitch’ or any form of such words’. In other words, this bill is flat-out censoring. Because it restricts free speech rights, I most strenuously OPPOSE this bill.
HB 41: OPPOSE
Rating: 1
HB 42 criminalizes mortgage forclosure fraud. By and large, Section 1 of this bill, with the exception of the last sentence, would automatically rate this bill as an OPPOSE, because most of Section 1 is progressivist/Statist BS. That said, the bill criminalizes what I think constitutes actual fraud – specifically, someone commits mortgage forclosure fraud when they “Knowingly uses or facilitates the use of any deliberate misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission for the purpose of obtaining remuneration from a homeowner where such homeowner’s residence is subject to the mortgage foreclosure process and in reliance upon such deliberate misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission, the homeowner pays such person any amount to prevent or forestall the foreclosure when, in fact, such person is not reasonably able to prevent or forestall the foreclosure”. I Again, while I find the vast majority of Section 1 (the ‘intent’ of the General Assembly) absolutely repugnant, I do like what the bill actually does and therefore I will SUPPORT this bill
HB 42: OPPOSE
Rating: 7
HB 43 would force scrap metal processors to keep a copy of the drivers’ license, as well as the full name, date of birth, current address, and tag number of any non-liscensed seller they buy metal from, as well as a general description of what they are buying. It would also prevent them from buying from anyone under 18 years old. It also adds gender neutrality in Code Section 43-43-5, which closes a possible loophole for females that violated that law. Because it restricts the right of private contract unnecessarily, I must OPPOSE this bill.
HB 43: OPPOSE
Rating: 2
HB 44 is the House version of Senator David Shafer’s SB 1, the Zero-Based Budget Act. This version begins the process in 2010, rather than the 2011 from SB 1, notes that no program will be subject to zero-based budgeting more than once every 3 years (under Shafer’s plan, theoretically every program could be zer-based every year), and adds that the Department of Education (in addition to the Board of Regents that SB 1 specifically notes) shall also be specifically subject to each of these requirements. I SUPPORT SB 1 and this one is actually even better. Therefore I SUPPORT it as well.
HB 44: SUPPORT
Rating: 9
HB 45 forces everyone to provide verification of citizenship to vote. In general, this is a perfectly valid thing that the Secretary of State’s Office has recently been screwing up. That said, I do have three specific reasons to OPPOSE this bill: The first is due to the clause (in the proposed subsection (g)(1)) that “In the event the applicant does not respond to the request for the missing information within 30 days following the sending of notification to provide adequate proof of citizenship, the application shall be rejected.” In other words, if crap happens and you can’t get to the local election office in 30 days for whatever reason – say you just started a two week vacation when this letter arrives at your house, followed by three weeks of training for a new job, for example – you will be denied your right to vote. The second reason to OPPOSE is because it violates the US Constiution’s Article VI, Section 1 clause that “”Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.” via the proposed subsection (g)(4). The final direct reason for OPPOSing this bill is because due to the proposed subsection (g)(5), every time you move to another county, you would have to resubmit proof of citizenship. This is a direct assault on the voting rights of ANY migratory citizen, be they urban (and suburban) poor or US citizens who happen to be migrant workers. Because of these reasons, while voter verification in general is a very good thing, I must OPPOSE this bill.
HB 45: OPPOSE
Rating: 3
HB 46 codifies the sales tax exemption on diesel fuel for agricultural, timber harvesting, mining, and construction purposes Governor Perdue put in place by Executive Order last year, through this past May. This is one that I don’t have a real reason to oppose, and therefore I will SUPPORT even though I tend to favor outright general tax cuts and not simply special interest tax exemptions.
HB 46: SUPPORT
Rating: 6
HB 47 is one where I had to search very carefully to find the change – which was just a single character from existing law. What this bill does is change the maximum penalty for a person who knows they have HIV or hepatitis and assaults a police or correctional officer with the intent to transmit the virus from 20 years to 30 years. I tend to favor draconian punishments for actual violations of the Punch Principle, assuming due process was followed, and this is no different. Therefore I SUPPORT this bill.
HB 47: SUPPORT
Rating: 10
HB 48 is one of those that you really have to watch out for. On its surface, it appears to force any franchise ‘fee’ collected by a utility on behalf of a city to be clearly labeled a franchise ‘tax’ and can never be referred to as a franchise ‘fee’. It further states that this tax will be labeled as such on the utility bill, along with noting exactly which city it is for. That, in and of itself, is a very good thing – so good that I was willing to rate this as a 9 or maybe even a 10. And then I understood what the proposed 46-34-2(7)(b)(iii) is saying. What that particular section is saying is that any business that manufactures or processes a tangible personal product – basically dang near anything you buy other than a house – they are excluded from having to pay this franchise tax. This section alone is worthy of making this bill an OPPOSE due to its exemption of businesses. Because it is simply this one section that warrants the OPPOSE status, I rate it at a 4.
HB 48: OPPOSE
Rating: 4
HB 49 essentially allows the Georgia Board of Physician Workforce to accept “donations, gifts, and contributions from any source” to “study issues relevant to medical education”, implement “initiatives designed to enhance the medical education infrastructure of this state”, and “meet the physician workforce needs of Georgia communities”. That first clause about accepting donations, gifts, and contributions from any source has me a bit skeptical of this bill, and it just isn’t passing the smell test here. Maybe I’m being overly pessimistic, but I’m going to OPPOSE this bill for just that reason – too much potential for corruption.
HB 49: OPPOSE
Rating: 3
HB 50 basically says that if someone dies as a direct result of something that happened in another county, the other county’s coroner or county medical examiner has to be notified. This makes sense to me, and therefore I SUPPORT this bill.
HB 50: SUPPORT
Rating: 10