House rushes to finish midyear budget
Morris News Service
Athens Banner-Herald
February 01, 2010
ATLANTA - Observers say legislation will be introduced in the Senate today to reform property tax assessments, while House members this week will try to finish work on midyear budget adjustments.
Assessments became an issue last year as land prices fell during the recession and homeowners complained local governments were slow in updating their tax digests to reflect new, lower values.
Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, said his bill is designed to provide tax relief to homeowners without changes so sudden that they jar cash-strapped school systems or city and county governments.
"Property owners are going to like it," Rogers said, but local governments should be content with it. "We hope we're not going to duke it out with them."
Meanwhile, the House plans to tackle the midyear budget, because state representatives know once they get through with that, they'll face the much tougher job of fine-tuning the state budget for fiscal-year 2011, which starts July 1.
Gov. Sonny Perdue has recommended his ideas for cutting spending and raising various taxes and fees, and legislators who don't like them will have to come up with their own solutions for a revenue shortfall of more than $2 billion.
House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, R-St. Simons Island, predicted the subcommittees in the House Appropriations Committee will hold hearing after hearing on the midyear budget this week.
"We want to move that amended budget as quickly as we can because that FY11 budget is going to take a lot of work," Keen said.
House committees will hold hearings this week on other noteworthy bills, including House Bill 565 by state Rep. Wayne Howard, D-Augusta, to create the Commission for the Blind and the Visually Impaired.
Howard's bill will go before the House Committee on Human Relations and Aging on Thursday.
Also Thursday, the House Committee on Budget & Fiscal Affairs Oversight will hold a hearing, but won't take a vote, on legislation to shift the state government from continuation budgets to zero-based budgeting.
Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Monday, February 01, 2010
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/020110/gen_557257217.shtml
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