"Sine Die." The first session of the 150th General Assembly was gaveled to adjournment (sine die) at midnight on April 3, after completing the final legislative day. While some important measures were approved during the forty-day session, leadership in both the House and Senate failed once again to take action to address critical issues for Georgians, such as funding sorely needed transportation projects and providing long-term support for Georgia's statewide trauma care system.

Below is a summary of how major issues fared this year. (For access to the bills mentioned here, as well how members voted on particular bills, go to http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/.)

As with every session, the main issue on the legislative agenda was passing a balanced budget, which is the one task our state constitution requires the General Assembly to complete before it adjourns each year.

Crafting a budget was especially difficult in light of the current economic climate, but just as many families are learning to live on less, the state, too, had to trim its own spending, even in important areas.

Faced with revenue shortages statewide, the legislature had to make some very difficult decisions about what and how much to fund. The $18.6 billion budget plan passed uses $1.3 billion in federal stimulus money to balance Georgia's spending and includes $1 billion in funding cuts.

The budget restores cuts proposed by the Governor to Medicaid and to provider fees, which could have had a devastating impact on hospitals and on providers of medical treatments for those in need. However, the budget does not include the $480 million necessary to fund the Homeowners Tax Relief Grants (HRTG), which are contingent on an annual appropriation from the General Assembly. I believe taxpayers, especially in challenging economic times, are entitled to this relief, and I will work diligently next session to see that HRTG funding is restored in next year's budget.

For a third straight year, the leadership in the General Assembly failed to bring a compromise version of a desperately needed transportation funding bill before both the House and Senate for a vote.

House leadership favored a statewide one-cent sales tax plan that would have raised $25 billion over ten years for transportation projects. The Senate, however, proposed allowing contiguous counties to band together and to vote on a regional-use penny sales tax instead of a statewide one. In the end, neither leadership group was willing to cooperate enough to allow for a vote to be taken on a compromise measure.

It remains crucial for our state's economic development, as well as for our quality of life, to pass a plan to begin addressing the extremely serious transportation problems confronting us. As a member of the House Transportation Committee, I will continue to press for a balanced solution and for final action to be taken. I will also continue to work to ensure that our area is fairly represented in transportation issues. This session, I led a successful fight in committee to thwart efforts by rural legislators to usurp control over transportation spending decisions of Georgia taxpayer dollars.

Unfortunately, the only major transportation bill passed by the General Assembly this session, Senate Bill 200, was not a good one. SB 200 overhauls the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDoT) by creating a new transportation department within GDoT headed by the Governor's appointee. I voted against this bill for several reasons.

First, the legislature had only a few weeks to consider this major initiative, which was not introduced until late February, during the second half of the session. (By way of contrast, the General Assembly has been debating funding measures for three years now.)

Second, the bill cedes far too much power to the Governor, his (or her) new appointee at GDoT and a handful of legislators. Although I believe the GDoT board has been mostly dysfunctional, at best, and that major changes are in order, such a serious undertaking regarding such an important department requires careful and deliberate review by the General Assembly, which members of the House and Senate were not afforded.

Third, establishing an additional layer of bureaucracy within GDoT could create enormous funding needs for this new department within a department. I hope that the General Assembly will revisit this issue next year in a more considered and constructive manner

Although providing adequate and dedicated funding for a statewide trauma network was a stated priority of General Assembly leadership, no measure was passed this session for the Governor's approval that would achieve this goal.

A "super speeder" bill was approved, the proceeds of which are "intended" to help fund the trauma care system. The bill would not, however, guarantee the much-needed systematic funding of a trauma network because the money raised through extra fines provided for in the bill would not be dedicated for trauma care funding. (Under the measure, an extra $200 will be tacked on to fines for speeders going over 85 mph on a four-lane road or 75 mph on a two-lane road .)

The legislature must stop giving lip service to this critical need and instead take action to provide a long-term funding mechanism to ensure that Georgians sustaining a traumatic injury can receive proper care.

Taxes
One of our goals during this session was to provide some form of economic relief to individuals and businesses. To that end, we passed several tax relief measures:

• House Bill 233 prevents tax assessors from increasing property tax values for tax years 2009- 2011.
• Senate Bill 240 (a bill I authored and introduced by the Senate Majority Leader at my request) allows a taxpayer to challenge his or her assessment through a loser-pays binding arbitration process, thus avoiding the standard taxpayer-unfriendly appeals process. I was the House sponsor of this measure.
• House Bill 481 (the "Jobs, Opportunity, and Business Success Act of 2009"), which I co-sponsored, promotes commerce and employment in Georgia by providing incentives and credits to businesses, such as phasing out corporate income taxes, reducing the capital gains taxes, eliminating state inventory taxes, temporarily suspending filing fees for new businesses, and granting a $2,400 tax credit for hiring unemployed individuals.

Taxes
As in previous sessions, legislative activity regarding education was somewhat of a mixed bag. Some of the positive measures include:

• House Bill 280 seeks to address the shortage of science and math teachers by providing them with the same compensation received by fifth-year teachers.
• House Bill 149 (the" Move on When Ready Act") allows high school juniors and seniors to receive high school credit for college-level work completed at post- secondary institutions.

Legislation. In addition to the tax-arbitration bill discussed above (SB 240), I was able to help pass a number of measures on a broad range of subjects, including public safety, elder care, agriculture and commerce.

On the public safety front, I was the House sponsor of a measure to punish more stringently those convicted of vehicular homicide and was the author of another bill (introduced by the chairman of the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee on which I serve) to correct a horrendous decision by the Georgia Supreme Court that had made it virtually impossible to prosecute kidnapping cases.

Some of the other measures I was able to help pass include a bill which protects Alzheimer's patients from abuse, neglect, and exploitation; legislation to protect business agreements from overreaching by activist judges; a bill to permit standards to be set for agricultural products "made in Georgia" and a measure to enhance the safety of motorists and pedestrians sharing the road.

Food Safety. As an active member of the House Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee, I was appointed by Committee Chairman Tom McCall to co-chair a special investigation and oversight subcommittee on consumer safety. The subcommittee is charged with evaluating all aspects of the production, distribution, delivery and safety of consumer products, including, but not limited to, agricultural products in the state of Georgia. We have held several hearings and listened to testimony from a number of Department of Agriculture officials to explore last year's salmonella outbreak and other issues related to food safety. The subcommittee will continue its work over the summer.

Seat Belts. I fought hard this session to end Georgia's dubious distinction as the only state with a seat belt law that provides an exemption for pickup trucks. In addition to saving lives and reducing injuries, removing this unneeded exemption would yield millions of dollars for Georgia in federal transportation funding that is currently being withheld because of the exemption. Further, removing the exemption would save additional millions by reducing unnecessary state expenditures on costly items like uninsured stays at public hospitals, costs related to summoning additional public safety, rescue and EMS personnel to fatal accident scenes as well as other related expenses. At present, we taxpayers are footing this massive bill for the failure of others to buckle up.

New Law Protects DeKalb Taxpayers. An ill- conceived attempt by the DeKalb County Tax Assessor's Office to artificially inflate property tax values in the County was thwarted by a new law passed by the General Assembly this session.

Senate Bill 55, which I voted in favor of and which was signed into law by the Governor on April 14, requires tax assessors to consider foreclosure sales, bank sales and distressed sales when determining property values. As late as Thursday and unlike other counties across the state, the DeKalb Assessor's Office expressed its intent to ignore these mitigating factors, which would have resulted in artificially high property valuations. In light of the new law, however, the Assessor's Office was forced to reverse its position, which is great news for County taxpayers.

Annual Tucker Road Race. The Tucker High School Marching Band is sponsoring the first event of the Tucker Day Celebration on Saturday, May 9. The Race will consist of a 5K and a 1 mile Fun Run beginning at Tucker High School. For more information or to register, go online to www.active.com, or pick up a registration form in the main office of the high school.

Tucker Business Association. The next regular meeting of the Tucker Business Association will take place, Thursday, May 21, at 7:15 a.m. at Matthews Cafeteria on Main Street in Downtown Tucker.

Give an Hour. The Tucker Civic Association is encouraging area residents to "Give An Hour" of volunteer time to monthly service projects:

• APRIL: Give An Hour for Henderson Park. Sunday, April 26, 3:00-4:00 p.m., at Henderson Park. Clean up litter and debris. Bring your work gloves and sun screen. For more information contact Bruce Nutter at parks@tuckercivic.org or 770-601-5693
• MAY: Give An Hour for Fitzgerald Field. Sunday, May 3, 3:00-4:00 p.m. Meet at the field, 4877 Lawrenceville Hwy. Clean up debris, trim bushes, weed, etc. Bring work gloves, yard tools, and sun screen. For more information, contact Ron Wilkinson, TCA District 4 Rep at 678-620--2473 or ronwilkinson1@yahoo.com.