Fresh Loaf

Total amount lobbyists spent wining, dining and wooing state lawmakers in May, June and July: $193,000

Number of days General Assembly was in session during those months: 0

Amount lobbyists for Georgia Power, and the natural gas and beverage industries spent on House Republicans’ annual retreat: $26,000

Number of lawmakers who went on a lobbyist-paid trip in July to visit Mount Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, Calif.: 4

Amount lobbyists spent to charter boats for lawmakers during a coastal conference in June: $528

Amount the Georgia Food Industry Association spent packing a state senator’s “hospitality suite”: $545

Amount lobbyists spent on one night of “entertainment” for the House Republican Women’s Caucus: $935

Amount Sierra Club lobbyists spent on lawmakers during the entire year: $0

Number of water-conservation bills that lawmakers approved this session: 0

Sources: Atlanta Unfiltered, State Ethics Commission, AJC

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MARTA will make cuts to bus and train service on August 15, a move transit officials say is necessary to pull the metro Atlanta’s largest people mover out of a budget shortfall.

Transit officials call next Saturday’s cuts some of the most severe in MARTA’s 43-year history. Bus routes 23 and 182 will be totally eliminated. More than 40 other routes will adjusted. If you feel like it takes forever for a train to arrive, well, you’re gonna have to wait a little longer. Oh, and starting Oct. 1, fares and parking fees will increase 25 cents and $1, respectively.

Why were the cuts needed? After the jump, the answer to that question, as well as a full list of bus route modifications and details about longer wait times between trains.

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A firestorm erupted last year over a proposal by state Sen. Seth Harp, R-Midland, to merge Savannah State University and Albany State University — two historically black colleges and universities — with nearby state schools to save money. The idea (which also would’ve required the Georgia Board of Regents’ approval) didn’t fly.

That hasn’t stopped Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Poythress from resuscitating the debate (or at least trying to) in a new video. Were the proposal resurrected — say maybe during a legislative session when the former general is in the governor’s office — Poythress says he’d kill it.

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Lock up your wives and daughters, mates! Walter Jones of Morris News Service and the Dalton Daily Citizen report that the Georgia General Assembly might have to return to the Gold Dome for a special session. The reason? The budget.

From Jones:

The length and depth of the current recession has prompted round after round of cutbacks in state spending, and now legislators are talking about the need for a special session to address it.

Tax collections were down in May, putting the decline at 10 percent for the 11 months of the fiscal year to date.

Economists say the recovery in the overall economy could begin in the fall, but state revenues lag, primarily because consumers continue to hold on to their money until they personally feel an improvement, say through a pay raise, bonus or promotion. The last recession resulted in depressed state revenues for about two years after the economy officially recovered.

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State Environmental Protection Division Director Carol Couch announced today that Georgia’s drought — the headline-grabbing phenomenon that forced Georgians to take shorter showers and watch our lawns turn brown — was officially over.

That also means the watering restrictions, which irked lawn-doting residents and hamstrung metro Atlanta’s landscaping industry, have been eased. (Here’s Georgia’s new outdoor watering schedule.)

Couch said she hopes residents — who surpassed Gov. Sonny Perdue’s 10 percent conservation goal — will continue using less water. But Georgians have very short memories.

Keep in mind that a drought can — and will — happen again. And Georgia lawmakers, who were quick to jump on the crisis but hard pressed to create actual reforms, squandered several opportunities to make the state better prepared when the next one arrives.

(more…)

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Business blogger Maria Saporta reports state Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, seems to be the most likely candidate to be named the next Georgia Department of Transportation commissioner.

Smith, chairman of the House transportation committee, has been interested in the DOT job for nearly two years, and it appears he will get his wish.

The deadline for applications from people interested in the DOT job was today at 5 p.m.

Word has it that Smith’s top two potential competitors did not apply for the job, meaning that he is the last man standing.

Saporta reports one of those competitors, Georgia Regional Transportation Authority Executive Director Dick Anderson, decided to stick with GRTA to try to implement the governor’s recently completed statewide transportation plan. Interim GDOT Commissioner Gerald Ross is rumored to return to his position as chief engineer.

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Georgia Trend magazine this month bestowed Georgia Power CEO Mike Garrett with the title “Most Respected Georgia Businessman.”

You think it’d be a fluff piece. But Garrett’s profile — which in the print edition is bordered by sycophantic ads hilariously congratulating the CORPORATE TITAN for this monumental achievement — is actually eye-opening.

Georgia Trend editor Susan Percy provides some additional details on the utility’s strong-arm effort to pass Senate Bill 31 during the most recent legislative session. That bill, which was recently signed by Gov. Sonny Perdue, allows Georgia Power to charge ratepayers in advance for the financing costs on two new proposed reactors at Plant Vogtle. It was widely lambasted. But bad ideas under the Gold Dome have a way of growing legs and becoming law.

Percy’s one of the first journalists we’ve seen to ask Garrett on the record about the controversial legislation — as well as the steamrollin’ way the bill was shoved down lawmakers’ throats.

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In a packed meeting at its downtown headquarters, the Atlanta Regional Commission threw cash-strapped MARTA a life preserver today, approving a reallocation of $25 million in federal stimulus dollars to help the transit agency avoid drastic service reductions.

Officials stressed the one-time funding shuffle wasn’t a bailout. Under the terms of the agreement, MARTA will shift money from its capital fund to pay for MARTA-related road projects that will benefit the region.

Today’s one-time move by the ARC proved necessary after the Georgia General Assembly failed to pass legislation earlier this year that would allow MARTA more control over its funding. MARTA officials said the transit agency risked cutting a full day of service should new funding not be secured.

The deal wasn’t met with enthusiasm from everyone.

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State Sen. John Wiles, R-Kennesaw

Georgia Republicans must get a better Gold Dome parking space the harder they slam MARTA.

From a Marietta Daily Journal interview with State Sen. John Wiles, R-Kennesaw:

Wiles does not support expanding Atlanta’s public transportation system, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, to Cobb County.

Slamming MARTA, Wiles said the transportation system is so inept that “I would not want MARTA to have to wash my car.”

Wiles said his distaste for MARTA stems from serving on the General Assembly’s MARTA oversight committee, where MARTA officials refused to answer such simple questions as how much it costs them per rider.

Nor is Wiles pleased that MARTA employs five drivers who earn more than $100,000. Cobb County’s transit system has the same union contract as MARTA does, but pays its drivers half as much as the Atlanta system. Wiles said it’s a problem of management.

Let it be noted that at a MARTA Oversight Committee hearing earlier this year, Wiles asked transit officials how much it costs the agency to serve each rider. Officials gave him an answer (the estimate given was nearly a dollar higher than the current fare.)

UPDATE: CL has discovered a photo of Wiles’ car.

(Courtesy Senate Press Office)

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Gov. Sonny Perdue last week irked many fellow Republicans when he vetoed a bill that would have slashed the state capital gains tax. Critics warned the bill would have cost the cash-strapped state between $340 million and $1 billion in lost revenues.

“I’m scratching my head…If I were the governor, I would have said, ‘Where is that? Let me get my pen.’”

— House Rules Chairman Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, in the May 11 AJC

“Cutting capital gains taxes would have encouraged more investment into the state. It is a sad day when this type of legislation gets vetoed by a Republican governor.”

— State Insurance Commissioner and GOP gubernatorial candidate John Oxendine in a May 11 press release

“If Governor Perdue vetoes it, I hope legislators will consider overturning his veto. The JOBS Act could do a lot of good for Georgia.”

— David Raynor of the Georgia chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business

“Republicans I talked to in the legislature are angry and demoralized.”

— Pro-growth, anti-tax Wall Street Journal columnist Stephen Moore, writing about Perdue’s veto

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Gov. Sonny Perdue just now issued signing statements for three bills and vetoed 16 bills.

These are always fun to read. We’re literally just opening up the attachment, but if you’d like to read them as well, check ‘em out after the jump.

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In the closing days of the most recent legislative session, the Georgia Senate overwhelmingly passed SR 632, one of those states’ rights resolutions that seem to be all the rage these days. Most of the local media ignored the legislation, mainly because there were more important things to cover. Things that matter.

The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg caught wind of SR 632 and has opined on his blog:

My most recent Comment was a series of small jokes riffing on a big joke, namely a moronic suggestion by the governor of Texas that his state might secede from the Union on account of the tyranny of slightly higher marginal tax rates for the rich. It was a thin reed to build a whole piece on, but it was all I had.

I should have looked harder. I’m usually a careful reader of Talking Points Memo, but I had somehow missed Brian Beutler’s April 16th post, in which he brings the startling intelligence that the Georgia state senate, by a 43-1 vote, has passed a resolution that mixes three parts inanity and one part prospective treason into a Kompletely Krazy Kocktail of militia-minded moonshine and wacko white lightning—a resolution that not only endorses defiance of federal law but also threatens anarchy and revolution.

Worth checking out.

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Imagine that. Somewhere in the legislative process, a piece of chest-thumping Dixieland legislation about the Civil War morphed into — a bill about Civil Rights?

Last week, Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a bill sponsored by state Sen. John Bulloch, R-Ochlochknee, that designates April as “Confederate Heritage and History Month” — a 30-day tribute to one of the country’s darkest periods and the first holiday of its kind in the country. I know, you’re shaking your head, saying “Oh, dear God, those mouth-breathing lawmakers are at it again.” Quite understandable if you just look at the name of the monthlong holiday.

But the actual language of the bill that ultimately passed might surprise you. And for all the negative publicity the bill had the potential to attract (and oddly enough didn’t), you wonder why lawmakers decided not to point out an olive branch — designating a Savannah museum as an “official Georgia historical civil rights museum” — that was inserted into the bill.

First, let’s take a look at the bill when it was first introduced:

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Plant Vogtle

The Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation and its president John Sherman filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Fulton County Superior Court over Senate Bill 31, a controversial piece of legislation that allows Georgia Power to begin charging customers in advance for two new proposed nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle.

The lawsuit names the Georgia Public Service Commission, the quasi-judicial state agency that decides how much you pay for your electricity, and Gov. Sonny Perdue, who signed the bill on April 21, as defendants.

During the legislative session, a diverse group of critics called the bill unfair because some industrial customers are exempt from the rate hike. They also said the issue belonged in the Georgia Public Service Commission, where a full-time staff examines and studies the complicated issue of nuclear financing. Georgia Power hired more than 70 lobbyists the push the bill.

In court documents, the foundation’s attorney John Woodham — the lone-wolf barrister who successfully fought the Beltline’s main funding mechanism all the way to Georgia Supreme Court — calls the bill unconstitutional on numerous grounds.

View the 53-page lawsuit here (PDF). It’s a long and complicated read for those not learned in the language of legalese. But it lays the groundwork of what’s sure to be an interesting battle over one of the past legislative session’s most controversial issues.

(Courtesy Nuclear Regulatory Commission)

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Effective immediately, companies wishing to do business with the state of Georgia — and be paid with your tax dollars — best not have ties with Sudan.

Gov. Sonny Perdue today signed a bill that prohibits the state from contracting with companies that conduct business or have ties to the African country’s oil, power, mineral and military sectors. Profits from the sectors are widely believed to help perpetrate genocide in the nation’s southern region of Darfur.

Since 2003, more than 400,000 people have been killed and 2.3 million displaced by genocide in the African nation’s southern region of Darfur. The atrocities, which have been condemned by the United States, are carried out by militias funded by the Sudanese government.

“What this says is very simple,” state Sen. David Adelman, D-Decatur, the bill’s sponsor, said after its signing. “If your business or any of its affiliates are engaged in any business activities with the government of Sudan, you cannot do business with the state of Georgia.”

Companies that plan to do business with Georgia state agencies are now required to disclose international business contracts during the Request for Proposal, or RFP, process. If a company falsifies or fails to accurately disclose its ties with Sudan, it could be fined $250,000 or double the bid it submitted to the state, whichever is greater. The company could also lose the contract and be ineligible to bid on state projects for three years.

(more…)

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On April 16, President Barack Obama gave rail lovers some long-awaited good news: As part of the president’s stimulus plan, he offered $8 billion to begin linking major U.S. cities with high-speed rail lines — and an additional $5 billion more to improve rail service over the next four years.

“We need high-speed rail,” Obama said. “It’s happening right now. It’s been happening for decades. The problem is, it’s been happening elsewhere, not here.”

By “elsewhere,” the president was referring to Europe and Asia. But he could just as easily have been talking about Southeastern states other than Georgia. Thanks to a lack of vision, little to no funding, and an almost cartoonish addiction to roads, the Peach State’s far behind many of its neighbors when it comes to rail.

Transit and transportation advocates say if the state’s leadership doesn’t work to catch up, Georgia could miss out on a nationwide rail renaissance.

Click here to continue reading this story.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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EJ and a pretty lady

Proving himself to be a man of character — 136 of them, to be precise — state Sen. Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, announced his candidacy for governor moments ago by way of Twitter. Johnson had been running for guv lite, but those plans were upended when that job’s current occupant, Casey Cagle, abandoned his own campaign for governor a couple of weeks back.

Here’s Eric’s full text:

I have decided to run for Governor. Leadership is about trust. I hope to earn the trust of the people of Georgia. Keep me in your prayers.

He came in four under par and still managed to get in a religious reference. Nice.

Anyway, the senator’s news isn’t a big surprise. He’d put himself in a bit of an awkward place by resigning his position of Senate President Pro Tem before the beginning of the 2009 General Assembly, saying he wanted to devote his time to running for lieutenant governor.

From all appearances, the move backfired: Johnson’s visibility dropped and potential rivals found it easier to undercut his effectiveness. His school voucher bill — the vehicle on which he hoped to ride into the Governor’s Mansion — went nowhere.

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Plant Vogtle

It’s quite common for journalists to “bury the lede” — that is, to downplay the real news and stick it in the far recesses of an article. Sometimes it’s on purpose, but usually it’s avoided.

To “bury the lede” on a press release? Kind of bizarre. But it happened today when Gov. Sonny Perdue announced he’d signed a bill that would mean more money for the state’s unemployed — and even up to 13 extra weeks of benefits to help them through hard times. It all comes from federal funds, so it wouldn’t mean a tax increase on Georgia businesses. Sounds good, right?

Perdue followed up that little bit of sunshine with a long list of legislation he also inked today with his Juan Hancock. Among them: Senate Bill 31. That’s the WTF legislation that allows Georgia Power to start charging customers for some costs of two proposed reactors at Plant Vogtle years before the white elephants are completed. It was widely maligned and derided by everyone from conservative bloggers to the AARP. Apparently the only people in favor of the plan were the free-market drumbeaters at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation and lawmakers coached in talking points by 70 lobbyists hired to peddle the bill.

Its signing into law wasn’t very surprising, really. (Perdue’s chief of staff is a former Georgia Power “vice president of governmental and regulatory affairs,” or, in English, “lobbyist”). But it’s just kind of funny that one of the hot-button bills of the session — one that would “create jobs” and “be good for Georgia” — didn’t merit its own press release. And the fact that a recent lawsuit filed by Atlanta attorney John Woodham and the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation about the bill didn’t even make Perdue wince or explain the decision.

After the jump, the full announcement about the state unemployment legislation Perdue signed. But first, the full list of all the other bills Perdue signed today. Play along with us as we sort through the pile and see what they were! At the top of the screen, select whether it’s “HB” for “House Bill” or “SB” for “Senate Bill” and then enter the number in the field. It’s fun! Kind of.

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A Democrat state representative serving the Reynoldstown, Cabbagetown and west DeKalb neighborhoods resigned from office today, citing concerns that her new job as a Fulton County prosecutor presented a conflict of interest under Georgia law.

Robbin Shipp, who’s served one term in the Georgia General Assembly, submitted her resignation to Gov. Sonny Perdue this morning.

Georgia law prohibits lawmakers from also working in state government. The Fulton County district attorney’s office is an arm of the state’s judicial branch.

Shipp joined the DA’s office as a senior assistant district attorney in October 2008 after serving as Grady Health System’s general counsel. At the time, she says, both she and DA Paul Howard inquired with the State Bar of Georgia if her dual roles as prosecutor and state representative posed a conflict of interest. She says the state bar issued unofficial opinions that said she was in the clear.

During the legislative session, however, Attorney General Thurbert Baker’s office raised concerns with Howard about her service in the General Assembly.

(more…)

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Note to lawmakers: Perhaps using one of the metro region’s most important assets as a bargaining chip isn’t that great of an idea? Maybe?

From Friday’s Atlanta Business Chronicle:

If Atlanta’s rapid transit system is forced to eliminate a day of service, business leaders say, it will be a severe economic blow to a city already stung by a deepening recession.

…

“It would be devastating for the Atlanta economy and therefore the state of Georgia’s economy if MARTA has to restrict services on any day,” said A.J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress, the alliance of downtown businesses. He called the state’s failure to resolve the problem a “travesty.”

…

“If MARTA has to furlough its trains and buses for one day a week, the ripple effect would be tremendous,” Metro Atlanta Chamber President Sam Williams said. “I’ve talked to several big employers who say their businesses would be drastically affected. This would certainly send a message nationwide that Georgia has another problem and can’t solve it.”

The paper also quotes officials from AT&T, UPS and BellSouth — all of whom say MARTA service cuts could impact their workers. There’s also a good list of statistics outlining the role MARTA plays in shuttling residents and visitors around the region.

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And while we’re on the topic of saving MARTA, the transit agency is asking your opinion on potential cuts it might have to make to offset its budget shortfall.

There are a whole host of questions — asking if you’d mind if MARTA sold advertising on Breeze Cards, closed bathrooms, etc. If you’ve got something to tell them, there’s an online way to do it.

Check it out here.

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Transit supporters take note: grassroots coalition Save MARTA is asking you to hop on the bus or train next Friday to raise awareness about the people mover’s woes.

From the event’s Facebook page:

In light of impending MARTA service cuts due to state level legislative action and inaction, Metro Atlantans are coming together to support the transit system by celebrating Ride MARTA Day on Friday, April 17. On Ride MARTA Day, participants will all ride MARTA at least once, per their usual commute or replacing their usual mode of transportation. Participants will ride at the time of their choosing. In other words, all you need to do is ride the bus or train on Friday, April 17.

The purpose of Ride MARTA Day is to bring all concerned Metro Atlantans into a community building activity that will boost ridership, expose new riders to useful routes, express solidarity with MARTA workers and regular commuters, and demonstrate that, as the backbone of our transportation system, MARTA must be fairly funded.

Atlanta City Councilmember Kwanza Hall is scheduled to participate. As of this writing, there are 118 confirmed guests for the event. UPDATE: The event also has an official site. Check it out here.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Save your energy, gents — the 2010 governor’s race is going to be a long and tiresome slog.

From the AJC’s Gold Dome Live:

In a post-General Assembly session interview with the AJC this week, Oxendine, who holds a law degree, took some pointed shots at the way Cagle, who doesn’t have a college degree, thinks.

“The Legislature and the presiding officers, and more so with Cagle, would rather have the status quo than have somebody else get their way,” Oxendine said. “If change means somebody else’s idea, he (Cagle) would rather have the status quo.

“The status quo is the easy way to govern. It doesn’t take a lot of thinking, it’s not brain surgery. To do things differently requires intellectual thought and sometimes he may prefer the easy way out. I think sometimes he just prefers the easy way out, of saying, ‘I’ll stick with the status quo, that way I don’t have to think hard.”

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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After we spoke with lawmakers who attended last Wednesday’s sitdown with Gold Dome Republicans about helping MARTA avoid drastic budget cuts — a meeting during which one lawmaker allegedly said he “[lived] closer to Disney World than any MARTA station” and occasionally rode the metro region’s largest transit agency to “ball games” — we’re now able to report the elected official’s name.

State Rep. Jerry Keen, R-St. Simons. He’s also the House Majority Leader. Lobbyists this session showered him with everything from Cirque du Soleil tickets to a $303.60 dinner. What he really could use next year is an eTicket.

Keen, sadly, did not return our calls. (Keen does not return calls to CL. Ever.) We tried to be “journalists” and get his take on it, but oh well.

(Photo illustration by Brooke Hatfield)

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It appears state Rep. Steve Davis has encountered Internet gridlock.

This morning, the Republican lawmaker from McDonough’s Twitter account mysteriously regurgitated nearly an entire legislative session’s updates.

This is one screenshot. I will save you the horror of viewing the rest.

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