Golick confident feds will deliver on PeachCare
January 29, 2007 at 9:07 am by Web Editor in News
Rep. Rich Golick, R-Smyrna, does not favor acting now with state legislation to pay for a potential federal government shortfall of funds for PeachCare.
The assistant House floor leader for Gov. Sonny Perdue says the federal government owes Georgia $130 million to pay for the health care of 270,000 children. The feds will come through, Golick says, nullifying a code-red scramble for funds on the state level.
But Rep. Kathy Ashe, D-Atlanta, who sits on the House Committee for Children and Youth, isn’t so sure. She wants the state to put legislation in place that would act as a safety net in case the feds don’t deliver the money.
Golick disagrees.
He wants to wait it out and force Washington to assume its cost
burden. Rushing state legislation to do the federal government’s job
would remove necessary pressure.
"It’s critically important for us to hear something in the next 30
days," Golick says. "The responsible tack is for us to let the process
play out. I have every confidence the federal government will come
through. In the meantime, it’s troubling that we have to focus our time
on other people’s responsibilities."
Still in what he describes as "the words stricken, punctuation added
and differences made in committee" stage of the legislative session,
Golick filed a bill this week that would grant protections to local
employees who blow the whistle on their bosses or corrupt public
departments.
"Public employees in general are doing the right thing," Golick
says. "This just gives local communities peace of mind that those
people working on their behalf are not compromised."
House Bill 16, as it’s currently called, was originally part of
Perdue’s ethics-reform efforts back in 2003 but didn’t make the cut.
This time, "I think it will receive a good reaction in the House,"
Golick says. "I think it’s a good government measure that will maintain
public confidence."
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