Tight Budget Pushes Other Issues Aside

State Senator Bill Hamrick in the Senate plenum, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2009. (Photo: Dave Bender)

The $2.2 billion dollar budget shortfall is pushing a lot of controversial issues to the sidelines.

Lawmakers say things are different this year than any other year. The Republican controlled legislature has never faced such drastic cuts to balance a state budget.

Almost nonexistent are controversial bills on immigration and gun control. State Senator Bill Hamrick sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee. He says the energy to tackle less urgent issues just isn't there:

"It really is mentally draining when you work on this in the legislature all day and then you go home and talk to people in the grocery store who have been laid off," Hamrick says.

Some lawmakers are banking on money from Washington to help them through this budget year and take the pressure off. Other are working on Governor Perdue's recommended budget, which so far includes no new federal funds.

Families of crime victims testify before senate c'tee

Family members and crime victim advocates on Thursday testified before the Senate Victim’s Rights Study Committee in Douglas County.

The panel is charged with examining how Georgia’s criminal justice system deals with those left behind when a loved one is the victim of a violent crime.

Heard county resident Kelly Wiggins testified before the panel, which met in the Douglasville County Courthouse.

Wiggins' testifies before the panel: allowing pretaped testimony will allow "closure" for grieving families. (Dave Bender)

Wiggins' sister Marie was shot to death in Douglas County in 2004.

Wiggins implored the panel to consider pretaped video testimony for family members traumatized in court trials:

“…it would give people in the future, and parents the opportunity to say, ‘You know what? That was my right. That’s the only right I have as a victim to speak. And I did it. I couldn’t speak words at the time, but I did it in advance and the jury heard, in my own words, how this crime has affected me.’ It’s really, really important.”

Carrollton Republican Senator Bill Hamrick chairs the five-member committee, which was established in May, 2008. The committee will report its findings to the 2009 General Assembly.

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