Fresh Loaf

This could be interesting.

From the office of state Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown of Macon comes a press release titled “Mending Georgia Power.”

The Georgia Power tax-bill, SB31, sailed through the chambers of the state assembly this session. Emphasizing the need to limit the damage of the Georgia Power tax, Senator Robert Brown will be holding a press conference tomorrow, March 19th, at 11:30 A.M. in the Senate Press Office. Senator Brown will discuss legislation addressing issues that have surfaced in the wake of Georgia Power’s evasion of Georgia’s process for regulating utility companies.

SB 31, if you recall, would allow Georgia Power to charge customers in advance for two new proposed nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. Critics opposed the bill because it placed the burden of a costly and unpredictable technology on the shoulders of ratepayers and not the company’s shareholders, among other reasons. The bill passed both the Senate and House.

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Names of state legislators who failed to file or pay state or federal taxes — 22 at last count — are now rolling out. Chief among them: Senate Minority Leader Rob Brown of Macon.

The Macon Telegraph’s Travis Fain has the news — and even makes Drudge:

Nearly 10 percent of Georgia state legislators are late filing or paying their state taxes, and state Sen. Robert Brown is apparently among them.

Brown, D-Macon, said Wednesday he’s not sure whether he actually owes the state or federal government any money because he hasn’t filed tax returns. He said he’s gotten extensions, but he declined to give more information or say for what years he received filing extensions.

More info at the Telegraph’s site. Pay no attention to the raging commenters, a hallmark of every Drudge-linked article.

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SPARE $2 BILLION? Perdue delivers bad budget news to lawmakers

It’s a shame Gov. Sonny Perdue’s penchant for prayer doesn’t work as well for deficits as it did for drought. If that were the case, Georgia would literally be swimming in greenbacks.

With revenues plummeting in an economic landscape akin to Mad Max, the state is currently facing a $2 billion shortfall, the deepest hole anyone at the Gold Dome says they’ve ever seen. In response last week, Perdue delivered a cost-cutting whack, slashing nearly all state agencies and programs — many of which state Democrats say help the most vulnerable of Georgians in this most precarious of times.

The Department of Labor, the state agency that’s been the first stop for pink-slipped residents? Nearly 13 percent cut. The Public Defender Standards Council, the arm of government that provides indigent defense attorneys in an attempt to ensure justice for both defendant and victims? Almost 11 percent cut. The departments of Education, Community Health and Human Resources? Cut, cut, and cut. State employees’ salaries? Frozen — and vacant positions eliminated.

Add to that the $350 million slashed from K-12 educational funding, and you’re left with a budget that has little wiggle room. From lobbyists to lawmakers, behind-the-scenes staffers to Gold Dome shoeshine men, everyone we queried agrees: The 2009 legislative session will be about money, and what little of it the state has.

(more…)

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