Fresh Loaf

There’s a much-ballyhooed bill out there that would enable counties in the metro area to establish a regionwide 1-percent sales tax. The tax would be used for transportation projects.It sounds like a good idea, and has received notable backing from the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

But at the very least, if the bill’s language isn’t changed before it moves it could prove more trouble than it’s worth.

Rep. Jill Chambers, R-Atlanta, chair of the MARTOC Committee, is worried that the bill as currently written would allow the counties to invest in transportation projects that might jeopardize Georgia’s access to precious federal transportation dollars.

The state must maintain a mix of mass-transportation measures in order to get the federal money. The bill could be a disastrous end run around rail and spell doom for Georgia’s fragile record of air-emissions compliance.

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Gov. Sonny Perdue issued the following statement Tuesday regarding the passing of Congressman Charlie Norwood:

“Mary and I extend our deepest sympathies to Gloria and the entire Norwood family. Gloria has been an incredible example of strength and dedication to us all as she stood by Charlie’s side.

“Charlie cared for his constituents in the same way he cared for his patients as a dentist, always working on their behalf and looking out for their well being.

“Charlie will be remembered for his unwavering commitment to transforming our nation’s health care system, particularly in protecting the rights of patients and improving the availability, affordability and quality of health care. He also served as a leading advocate for our country’s soldiers — active duty, veterans, and their families.

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As we wrote a couple of days ago, ‘08 presidential contender Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, already has organization in Georgia.

Today he formally announced his candidacy, and Ric Mayfield, who runs Georgians for Romney, watched the speech on Romney’s website.

“I thought he did a pretty good job,” Mayfield says.

The Georgia Republican committed to Romney based on what he described as the governor’s record of business prowess. Romney is the former CEO of Bain and Company, a management consulting firm. He is also the co-founder of Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm, and he was CEO and organizer of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

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It’s one of those crushing disappointments and irritations in life when you’re looking for objective information and instead you get stuck with a sermon.

It’s especially irksome when you’re in a moment of crisis.

Pro-life state legislators want to require doctors to offer women sonograms of their fetuses before proceeding with abortions. To that end, state Rep. James Mills, R-Gainesville, has taken the lead with what he’s calling “The Woman’s Right to Know Act.”

One of the bill’s most outspoken critics, Dionne Vann, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia, says what the legislation does is needlessly badger pregnant women.

“This bill includes no exclusion for rape or incest victims or medical anomalies,” Vann says. “The premise of the bill was to give women as much information as possible, but it doesn’t do that.”

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Peach Pundit is reporting that U.S. senators Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., have proposed legislation that would fix and fully fund PeachCare. More later.

– Max Pizarro

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Georgia was one of the only states in the country where George W. Bush could show his mug in the last election. How does Bush repay the gracious, welcoming Peach State? By refusing to provide federal dollars to keep 270,000 low- and moderate-income children covered with health insurance through PeachCare.

In fairness, Georgia shouldn’t have expected much from Bush, grand patrician cultivator of America’s entrepreneurial spirit — and by extension, it shouldn’t expect much from itself, where that spirit has taken root.

But as soon as the president said he didn’t want to use money in the federal emergency budget for PeachCare, “Our state representatives should have provided the funding,” says Lauren Waits, policy director of the advocacy group Voices for Georgia’s Children.

Georgia needs $131 million to keep all of the children enrolled.

How naïve of Waits.

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It’s early. Way early. We know that.

But so far Georgia’s two most easily accessible and best 2008 presidential-campaign websites are dedicated to two northerners: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., georgiaforobama.org, and Republican Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, www.georgiansforromney.blogspot.com.

These are local sites run by Georgia activists designed to amp up support for their respective champs. It’s interesting to see Obama and Romney partisans making such an obvious bid to compete down here two years before the general election. This is a state, after all, where two other men have staked an early claim: Republican Newt Gingrich and Democrat John Edwards.

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Hillary has the money but stands on the wrong side of the war issue. More to the point, no one knows where she stands. She voted for it before she voted against it. She’s mired in double speak, and it’s only going to get worse. Her campaign manager, Terry McAuliffe, says she won’t cave in like Kerry. But she’s going to have to go through the same contortions Kerry did to justify Iraq. So she’ll be fighting mad — and wrong.

As an opponent of the president’s Iraq intentions from the beginning, meanwhile, Barack Obama got the war right. He’s going to be that Eugene McCarthy youth-getter vote with an extra twist of excitement.

Georgians all over him.

To celebrate Obama’s official entry into the presidential race, Georgians for Obama will meet this Saturday, Feb. 10, at 6 p.m. at JCT Kitchen & Bar on Howell Mill.

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You gotta have faith.

Parents know what’s best for their kids. Not the bloated bureaucrats. Not the feds. Not the supers. Not the institutionalized automatons.

Friday morning at the Statehouse, Sen. Dan Weber, R-Dunwoody, went to the well to discuss his Charter Systems Act, which would allow local school districts to petition the state Board of Education to become charter school systems. These would be autonomous public schools geared toward producing parent-specified results. Weber’s bill approves up to five charter systems a year, with each system eligible to receive a $125,000 startup grant.

This was legislation with advocates in high places.

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The health care debate has officially begun.

In a Senate Insurance and Labor Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Judson Hill, R-Marietta, introduced Senate Bill 28, which encourages state tax exemptions for businesses that offer individual health plans, and tax breaks for those people who open personal health savings accounts.

“People need monetary incentives to stay healthy,” said Hill, arguing that his bill, laden with free-market incentives and built around the idea of individual rather than employer-based health insurance, would result in “better health care access at lower prices.”

The bill will naturally generate a lot of controversy this session.

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The first couple of weeks down at the session were a George Lucas film finale of grand ceremony, but this week the gigantic cigars started coming out, stuck into mouths with relish, as if the big shots had arrived and were ready to do business.

The mood was changing.

Sandbags were being wedged into place.

Battle lines were being drawn along party lines.

The stakes were rising.

On Wednesday the first big proper fight went down in the Senate, and as expected it was a victory for the majority Republicans. Sen. Eric Johnson’s, R-Savannah, bill enabling parents of special-needs children to use vouchers to attend private schools passed by a vote of 31 to 23.

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As the debate over Senate Bill 10 unfolded in the Senate Wednesday, state Rep. Fran Millar, R-Dunwoody, was observing with great interest. Millar, who serves as vice chair of the House Education Committee, admits he has doubts about Sen. Eric Johnson’s, R-Savannah, bill, which would enable the parents of special-needs children to use publicly funded vouchers to send their children to private schools.

After an all-morning fight (please see the following post on this page for full coverage), the Senate passed Johnson’s bill: 31 to 23 votes. Now Millar must face the issue on his side of the bicameral equation, and consider a House version of the bill with some different measures. Included in Rep. David Casas’, R-Lilburn, version is a requirement for private-school special-needs teachers to have at least a bachelor’s degree. That language is missing in Johnson’s bill, and created an opening Wednesday for Democrats attacking Senate Bill 10.

Millar has his own questions.

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