The quiet before the...

Legislators are trying to communicate with their constituents in new ways...like Blogs.

After rising about 6 a.m., the Duluth Republican takes a half an hour or so to write and post an update on his blog at www.davidshafer.org, giving readers his views about the coming legislative day or explaining one of his bills...

Rep Chambers press release mentioned the issue of Peach Care...

The looming PeachCare for Kids insurance program was the focus of Thursday’s session. PeachCare is funded 73 percent with Federal funds. The House unanimously passed a resolution urging Congress to fully fund this program or risk having 270,000 children in Georgia lose their health care insurance. Currently, 17 states are facing a shortfall of Federal funding. In the past, Congress has redistributed funds from states with a surplus to states with a shortfall. Programs funded by federal/state matching funds are prohibited from being funded with 100 percent state funds...

This week will focus on the budget - which is where our issue will be resolved! The Governor has made his recommendations, and now it is up to the House and Senate.

"This is our chance to directly talk to department heads to start to develop our opinion of what the budget should look like," said Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Hill, R-Reidsville.

Republican leaders have drastically scaled down the meetings, which often lasted for several days under Democrats. Now, only the heads of major agencies step into the limelight, shortening the process to just two days.

Meanwhile, budget writers have plenty of money to deal with; Mr. Perdue's proposal broke the $20 billion mark for the first time in state history, coming in at $20.2 billion. Legislators have to stay within the revenue estimate Mr. Perdue gives them because of state law requiring a balanced budget.

"I think that's the good news, is that we are growing, (but) we've got a lot of needs we need to meet," said House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin, R-Evans...