Trauma Care An Economic Issue

A group of business leaders is pressuring the General Assembly to improve Georgia' trauma care system. They say it's not just a health issue, it's also about economic development. Members include Senator Don Balfour and Medical College of Georgia President Dr. Daniel Rahn. The group says Georgia will have trouble attracting business if we can't guarantee their employees will have access to emergency care. The group plans to work with lawmakers over the next several weeks. Experts studying the issue estimate that $80 million is needed each year to adequately fund a statewide network.

Changes to GAs gun bill possible in '09

Changes to the state's gun laws could be in the works as the State Senate Firearms Committee looks at re-writing House Bill 89, passed earlier this year. One proposal under consideration … speeding up the application permit process. In a working copy of a revised gun bill, the Senate is considering cutting in half the number of days probate judges must get permits to would-be gun owners after fingerprints have been cleared by the FBI and the GBI. Current law says ten days. The proposal now being considered is five days. If a licensed is not issued within five days, the gun owner can sue.

William Self is Bibb County's probate judge. He also chairs the Georgia Probate Judges Council. He opposes the switch.

"I am quite frankly gentlemen, at a complete loss to understand why probate judges became the apparent enemies of gun rights' advocates."

Testifying before the Senate Firearms Safety Committee on Tuesday, Self asked lawmakers to remove the threat of lawsuits from gun enthusiast now hanging over the heads of the state 159 probate judges.

"This is the only statue I know of in the entire state of Georgia which purports to award attorneys fees to a plaintiff without any defense whatsoever if 10 days have expired from receipt of the reports."

Among other changes the committee will consider is including some misdemeanor offenses currently now trigger a reject on a gun permit application.

"There are literally hundreds of misdemeanors under GA law, which even with multiple convictions, do not by themselves disqualify an applicant, such as assault and battery, third degree cruelty to children…"

Here's how state Senator Don Balfour of Snellville responded to the testimony.

"Some of those things seem like whoa, we missed that one? Wow. Some of those we ought to think about putting under there."

The Senate committee now wants a list of misdemeanors to consider as part of the law. Meanwhile another idea is to leave judges completely out of the gun license procedure and hand it over to the Secretary of State. One drawback say Probate Judges is that the Secretary of State's office is not a law enforcement agency. Finally, a representative from the Georgia Council of Probate Court Judges asked the committee to consider raising gun permit application fees above the current $15, to cover actual administrative and processing costs. The Senate committee is expected to make recommendation to changes in Georgia gun laws by January.

State House slows down Senate bills to send message

House Rules Committee Chairman Earl Erhard, a Republican from Powder Springs, says he'll slow down consideration of Senate bills until the chamber decides to take up the veto overrides the House passed on the first day of the session.

Tomorrow's House callendar includes only 3 Senate propositions. Erhard said he hopes that Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle and Senate Rules Committee Chairman Don Balfour get the message that the House wants to see movement on the veto overrides which were passed about 60 days ago.

"I'm not sure we can get it any clearer each day that deliberations are one thing, and outright stall in another," Erhard sais.

The House argues that the Georgia Consititution requires veto overrides to be immediately considered by the other chamber. The Senate has only voted on one of the overrides so far.

Jekyll Island bill clears Senate with safeguards; faces challenge in House-UPDATED

A bill that could lead to more development on Jekyll Island cleared the Georgia Senate, but not before senators adopted amendments to severely limit growth on the island’s ecologically important south end.

The underlying bill simply extends the Jekyll Island's Authority lease to manage and oversee construction on the island, where the buildings are widely considered to be rundown.

But the Authority is considering development plans that could include new luxury condos that eclipse the public facilities on Jekyll's ecologically sensitive south end, where a soccer field and educational center now stand.

That could be an economic boon to the state-owned island, according to Sen. Don Balfour (R-Snellville). He says convention planners have told them they bypass Jekyll in favor of seaside resorts in Florida that have better facilities.

"The average Georgian isn't going there," he said.

But another Gwinnett County senator, Renee Unterman (R-Buford) warned against rampant growth.

"Here in north Georgia, it looks like New Jersey," Unterman said. "Do we want take those same standards and put them on coastal Georgia?"

She noted that lobbyists representing developers, including those with ties to the Ritz-Carlton Lodge in Greensboro, were on the other side of the chamber door, awaiting the vote.

"The alligators are out there and they’re snapping…because there's big, big, big money involved," Unterman said.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers successfully pushed through a series of amendments that would give lawmakers a greater say over the Authority’s plans, and forbid more people from moving permanently to the island.

"We have the opportunity to protect something we don't have the money or manpower ever to recreate," said Sen. Jeff Chapman (R-Brunswick), who sponsored the amendments.

This version of the bill differs dramatically from the version that passed the House a few weeks ago.

Note: Early Friday afternoon, the House disagreed with the Senate. A conference committee will try to hammer out a compromise, which both chambers will vote on.