SWGA Politics

Ballot Access Bill Introduced in Ga House!

Last week, a ballot access bill was introduced in the Ga House that is much more compact than Senator Shafer’s Voter Choice and Ballot Access Act. Where Senator Shafer’s bill allows ballot access at ALL levels once a political body gains statewide access, this bill makes it easier for political organizations to run candidates statewide – and thereby possibly gain statewide ballot access.

This bill is Rep Bobby Reece’s HB 1141. What this bill does is essentially cuts the number of signatures required for an organization to gain statewide ballot access by a whole order of magnitude. Instead of having to get 1% of registered voters for a statewide race (roughly 50,000 signatures, per Jason Pye), this bill says that a minimum of 5,000 signatures are needed. It also says that for any other office, the lesser of 5% of the registered voters in the district or 5,000 signatures is needed.
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Bill Criminalizing Abortion Introduced

Every morning, I do at least a quick scan of LEGIS for any new bills introduced, and I read the ones that happen to catch my eye for any given reason.

This morning there were a couple that caught my eye, though only one of them is the subject of this post.

The bill in question goes by a fairly innocent name – the “Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act” -and is introduced by a “Constitutionalist” – Barry Loudermilk -that clearly can’t read the Constitution.

This bill criminalizes “intent” to perform an abortion if the “intent” is in any way based on race, color, or sex of the fetus and makes performing an abortion with this “intent” a felony.
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A Libertarian Look at the Property Tax Bill, SB 346

written by Brad Forschner

I’ve read through the new 47 page proposal to completely overhaul the property tax system. (Who else could read 50 pages of property tax law in less than a week and have a clue what it meant?) While much playing up to the media was done in the previous 12 months to hype this bill, I’ve found plenty of reasons to outright oppose it, as well as complete disappointment in our elected officials to actually address the inequalities, unfairness, and lack of uniformity within the digests. There are a few items which I could support fully, but with the bad portions in the bill, I’d rather keep the current system.

The full bill may be read here.

Below I’ve completely summarized and detailed all the changes this bill proposes as well as stating my support or opposition for such changes and reasoning why.
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Decriminalizing Prostitution? In Georgia? Well… Sorta

Senator Renee Unterman (R-Buford) has introduced a bill to decriminalize underage prostitution. Only the minor’s act is decriminalized however, as another code section is added to the
Sexual Offenses chapter of the Ga Criminal Code that basically says that even if the child you did this act with/to/against was too young to be prosecuted, you can still be prosecuted for whatever you did. Similar clauses are added in other areas where sexual exploitation is mentioned in OCGA.

I disagree with Senator Unterman’s ultimate intentions here, as she describes in this AJC article, but I do like what she is doing. Senator Unterman wants to take these minors out of a jail cell and put them in a treatment room – still under government supervision, and still being held against their will, and now with the added burden of being “re-educated” according to what the government wants these kids to do.

Of course, none of this “treatment” is mentioned in the actual language of the bill, that was simply what Unterman told the AJC. No, all the bill does is decriminalize prostitution for anyone under the age of 16. I would be in favor of this proposal even if I wasn’t in favor of repealing all laws that criminalize consensual sexual behavior (which I am), and here’s why:
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[UPDATED] Cell Phones and Cars: Thousands Violated Law Today, Made Themselves Safer

It happens every day in this State. Someone, somewhere, gets in a car to drive somewhere.

Before they do so, they connect some form of device from their phone to their ear. This device allows them to use their phone hands-free, thus enabling them to use both hands while driving. A wide variety of people do this. Soccer moms, truckers, business professionals, college students, lawyers, doctors, secretaries, maintenance men… even members of the General Assembly.

And yet, under current Georgia law, use of these hands-free devices is illegal – unless you happen to be driving a motorcycle!
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Giant Leap for Transparency

I was looking through LEGIS this morning for Constitutional Amendments when I came across one that absolutely stunned me – in a very good way.

As I’ve said before, I tend to favor small, incremental steps toward a goal rather than going for everything in one fell swoop. The analogy I most often use is 3 yard plays, every play, vs going for the endzone on every play.

A lot of talk has been going on over the last couple of years about transparency in government. By and large, most in “both” parties want to leave it at that – a lot of hot air, with nothing ever actually getting done. I say this due to the lack of bills and resolutions introduced into the General Assembly regarding these topics – quite simply, there aren’t very many, and there doesn’t appear to be much interest in moving the ones that are there.
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Teacher’s Bill of Rights

Amidst the wide variety of bills dealing with education currently floating through the General Assembly is one in particular that stands out as a cut above the rest. Its goal is simple: to give teachers basic protections they have been wanting for a very long time. Many of the issues it attempts to correct were issues I personally experienced in my year in the classroom, and this would certainly have been a very welcome law then.

The bill in question is State Senator Judson Hill’s SB 307, the “Teacher’s Bill of Rights”. Yes, it is clearly an election year ploy designed to curry favor for Republicans among a very large voter bloc in Georgia – teachers – but it is something that has been genuinely needed for quite a while, and I would rather it be passed as an election year ploy than not at all.

So what are teachers’ rights, per this bill?
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Water Savings and Conservation Act of 2010

I was specifically requested to read SB 311, David Shafer’s Water Savings and Conservation Act of 2010, and give my comments on it, so here goes:

I have no problems at all with the first two things listed as findings of the General Assembly – that local governments cannot account for roughly 18% of “surface water removed for public use” and that a significant factor in this water loss “is due to aging, faulty, or poorly maintained water infrastructure”. Those two appear to be basic facts to me, from what I have heard from talking to a variety of people across the State, including some who work in local water departments.
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A ‘Comprehensive Revision of Georgia’s Gun Laws’ a good thing?

HB 615 is being heralded as a “comprehensive revision of Georgia’s gun laws”, but it has recently come under fire from some even within the liberty movement.

I needed to look at this bill for a few reasons, and so today I did. What I found was rather interesting, and has changed my views on the bill as it exists at this moment.

First, I think that this bill will pass any Constitutionality challenge based on the requirement of a single subject, as the subject here is gun rights, and the various areas HB 615 changes are all specific instances of laws regarding gun rights.

As far as the various changes made in HB 615, the first is that the phrase “pistol, revolver, or concealable firearm” is replaced with “weapon”, allowing a greater range of weaponry to be legally carried. One problem I have with this is that “weapon” is never clearly defined, and thus a restrictive definition could be added at a later time. Other than that though, this seems like a good move.
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Georgia Health Care Constitutional Amendment

Last week, State Senator Judson Hill (R-Marietta) announced that he had crafted a proposal for a Constitutional Amendment that would protect Georgians from any “public option” health care proposal at the Federal level and that he had the support of the Senate Republican Caucus in this effort.

As always, I try to read the bill before I comment on it. I figure that I can’t ask my Representatives to do something I’m not willing to do myself, and I also like to be informed so that I can then pass the knowledge on to y’all and whoever else asks me any questions.

This morning, Senator Hill sent me the text of the bill, which you can see for yourself here.

There are no calls for “states rights”, “10th Amendment”, “nullification”, or any other such thing in this bill – though the first two were mentioned at a press conference last week, by both Hill and Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock).
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