[January 20, 2012] | During our first week in the 2012 session we started the day as we always do with the Pastor of the day. On Wednesday our own Pastor Max Caylor was the pastor of the day. He did an outstanding job bringing our focus on why we were there and how service to our communities is important. The prayer Max gave that day was said to be one of the best in years. On the same day we honored Larry Munson, a great Georgian.
Many Committees met this week to begin the process of discussion and review of bills and resolutions. We made our first vote of 2012 on HB253. HB 253 will allow the Commissioner for the Department of Public Safety to sell or trade surplus motor vehicles and use the proceeds to purchase new motor vehicles further allowing us the ability to modernize our fleet.
The second vote of the week was HB 712. This is the redistricting plan for the Pickens County multi-person county commission seats. We held many community meetings this fall showing where the two districts would be and their boundaries. This passed 142 to 0 and now goes to the Senate.
Week two is Budget Week. The Georgia Constitution requires us to balance the budget each year, and this week we began an essential part of that process by holding a series of joint House and Senate appropriation committee meetings. These meetings serve as an opportunity for us to hear budget request explanations from leaders of state agencies. They also give us a chance to better analyze the requests and help ensure tax dollars are utilized efficiently. The meetings began on Tuesday with a budget briefing from Governor Nathan Deal..
For the next three days department heads came before this joint meeting to explain how they were going to balance their budget and answer questions from the Assembly members. I was impressed at the detail appropriations members knew about these budgets and the questions asked of the department heads. When adjusted for inflation, per-capita spending in the budget recommendation for FY 2013 is 20.5 percent less than FY 2002 spending levels.
Now that this week?s joint appropriations committee meetings have ended, my fellow state representatives and I will spend the next few days reviewing the finer details of the Amended FY 2012 and FY 2013 state budgets. Then, since all fiscal bills are required to originate in the House of Representatives, the House Appropriations subcommittees will begin to delve even further into the governor?s budget proposals. Once the subcommittees pass their respective portions of the budget, the whole House Appropriations Committee will review and pass balanced budgets out of committee for both the remainder of Fiscal Year 2012 and upcoming Fiscal Year 2013.
As we move on to the next legislative week, I hope you will feel free to visit me if you are ever in Atlanta this legislative session. I?d love to see you and hear any questions or concerns you may have about issues facing our community, as well as the state as a whole. You can also call my capitol office at 404-656-0188 or email me at rick@rickjasperse.org. Thank you for allowing me to serve as your Representative.