The 27th Legislative Day has passed and the Georgia General Assembly has been put on hold until the federal government comes through with their commitment for the PeachCare for Kids program. We are short about $57 million dollars for our PeachCare program, which is the state-federal program that provides health care for children in Georgia whose families’ income levels are too high to qualify for Medicaid but too low to afford health insurance. As many as 270,000 children and their families may find themselves affected by the funding deficit. The deficit is due to the effectiveness of the program as Georgia registered many families who fit the program’s need-based requirements. The Congressional leaders from Georgia, as well as, Governor Sonny Perdue have asked for funding and have received verbal commitments for help. To give the federal government more time to fund the shortfall, we are taking the next few weeks off from official “legislative days” to allow the process to work. However, saying that, during the brief hiatus, we will still be working on many issues like the 2007 mid-year budget, the 2008 budget, certificate of need issues, as well as, several other key initiatives.
In other key legislative action, we passed several education initiatives. The first was House Bill 311, legislation that would be more inclusive for our soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who have been called up to serve in the war on terror. H.B. 311 would move the date to qualify for Georgia HERO education scholarships back to September 11, 2001, the day the global war on terror began. We also made it easier for parents and guardians to deduct contributions from college savings plans by removing the requirement that the beneficiary must be claimed as a dependent on the Georgia income tax return. It also removes the maximum federal adjusted gross income amounts and the requirement that the parent or guardian be the account owner of the designated beneficiary’s account. Both these bills passed unanimously. For those children who come to the State Capitol to serve as pages, we overwhelmingly passed language that would make this absence from school count as a field trip versus an excused absence.
We have set our 2007 sales tax holiday for school supplies and energy efficient products. This year’s school sales tax saving weekend will be August 2 through August 5. The products exempt during this time are clothing and footwear with a sales price of $100 or less, computers and computer accessories with a sales price of $1,500 or less, and general school supplies with a sales price of $20 or less. The energy efficient products sales tax holiday will be October 4 through October 7. The products which will be exempt during this time are energy efficient products with a sales price up to $1,500 which are purchased for home or personal use. These products may include dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, refrigerators air conditioners, and ceiling fans. This bill, H.B. 128, also passed unanimously.
In House Bill 357, we extended certain tax provisions that expired for 2005 tax returns. If we hadn’t passed this legislation, certain provisions that were excluded on federal tax returns would not be exempt on state returns. The items included were the above-the-line deduction for higher education expenses; the up-to-$250 above-the-line deduction for out-of-pocket educator classroom expenses; the research and development tax credit; the work opportunity tax credit; fifteen-year depreciation for qualified leasehold improvements and for qualified restaurant improvements, certain environmental remediation costs; and medical savings accounts. This bill passed unanimously.
In an effort to bring our municipalities in to the same laws that counties face, we will now require tow trucks operating wholly within cities to now have insurance, register with the Public Service Commission, and subject to the same regulations, including maximum tariffs charged, as tow trucks that operate in counties or counties and cities.
If you would like to reach me, please call me at (404) 656-7573 or write me at: State Rep. John Lunsford, 401, State Capitol, Atlanta, GA 30334 or e-mail me at john.lunsford@house.ga.gov