Slim Margin in Georgia House for Charter Schools Amendment
Mike Klein
Georgia voters – the people whose tax dollars pay the bills at every public school system statewide – are one step closer toward being allowed to decide whether the state should have the authority to create and fund charter schools over the opposition of local school boards.
Wednesday afternoon the state House approved HR 1162 by a slim 123 – 48 margin. That is three votes more than the measure needed for two-thirds super majority passage and 13 more than a different version received during the House floor vote two weeks ago. The bill moves to the Senate where an education committee hearing is scheduled for 1:00pm Thursday.
“There have been a lot of people working hard and their efforts paid off,” said Tony Roberts, CEO at the Georgia Charter Schools Association. “This is certainly just the first battle in the war for our children to have options and choices in education which they so desperately need.”
The debate has pitted school choice advocates against a Georgia Supreme Court opinion last May that overturned the state charter schools commission. It polarized political parties with Republicans almost unanimously in support of state alternate authorization and Democrats almost unanimously in support of exclusive local school board authorization of new charters.
The test vote two weeks ago defined what HR 1162 would need to achieve two-thirds House passage. Critics demanded a much more specific definition of charter schools. That definition is now in the bill; state charter schools have been defined as public schools that are not private sectarian, religious or for-profit schools or private educational institutions.
Representatives who opposed the resolution two weeks ago also wanted assurance that local education dollars would not be used to fund state charter schools. “They will be funded only with state monies,” Speaker Pro Tem and HR 1162 sponsor Jan Jones said Wednesday.
Floor debate was scheduled for 90 minutes but lasted less than an hour. Six Democrats – three in support and three still opposed — and House Majority Whip Larry O’Neal all spoke at length about whether local school boards control public education – as the Supreme Court opinion stated last May – or whether the schools are a partnership between the state and local boards.
O’Neal said, “This is bigger than charter schools. Make no mistake; when courts invent their own words like exclusive and sole they are indeed making law. I urge you to vote yes and move this measure across the hall and one step closer to the people to let them make the decision.”
Democrat Kathy Ashe voted no two weeks ago. Over the past two weeks she spoke strongly about revisions. Her floor remarks Wednesday were forceful. “Sausage making is not always pretty but I come to the well today to say this process has worked,” Ashe said.
“I hope we talk long and hard about how charter schools are just a tiny portion of the public school system,” Ashe said. “Yes, charter schools are public schools. I hope we talk long and hard about what’s on the ballot because I want folks in Georgia to know there are going to be two ways to charter schools.
“The way it’s going to happen most frequently is with a local board saying, yes, let’s enter into a contract but in the rare occasion that there is a subject area, if there is a geographic reason to bring different school systems together to create a very special charter school, it may be that a secondary authorizer is the way to go.
“I comfortably ask you to vote for this version of 1162,” Ashe said. “Sometimes this process is ugly. Sometimes we get all fired up and say things we don’t really mean but in the long run, this process is the best way we know how to make law and 1162 is a good example of coming together for the students of Georgia.”
Her fellow Democrat Rashad Taylor was unconvinced: “This bill is about giving a new authority a new power to create schools in communities that have otherwise rejected those applications,” Taylor said. “There is nothing in this resolution, nothing that guarantees that public school funding will not decrease because of charter schools. Mr. Speaker, 1162 is a one-size fits all strategy that really doesn’t fit anything in Georgia.”
Democrat Scott Holcomb – like Ashe — voted against the resolution two weeks ago. Holcomb co-authored a Democratic alternative that incorporated the public charter schools definition and state dollars only guarantees. Wednesday he spoke in favor of the revised resolution.
“I understand many will vote against this on principle. I very much respect that,” Holcomb said. “As the parent of a public school student I want to make sure the public schools are not harmed or defunded because of this resolution. I feel comfortable that will not occur.
“It is right to want to keep control of local schools in the hands of locally elected school boards. Historically that has been our practice in Georgia,” Holcomb added. “But it is also right to want energized and motivated people to get involved in making our schools much more than satisfying the constitutional standard of an adequate public education.”
Supporters were thrilled but cautious afterward. “Now on to the Senate,” said Virginia Galloway, state director for the Americans for Prosperity Georgia chapter which supported HR 1162 passage. “We really appreciate the bipartisan support that it took to get this bill passed.”
The Georgia School Boards Association, Georgia School Superintendents Association, and the Georgia PTA oppose the charter schools constitutional amendment. Roberts at the Charter Schools Association said the Senate Democratic caucus opposes the amendment. Two-thirds approval by the full Senate would put the constitutional amendment onto the November ballot.
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
Long Awaited Criminal Justice Reform Bill Expected This Week
Mike Klein
Georgia’s criminal justice reform initiative has flown stealth-like under the radar since November when a special council delivered its report. That will change soon, perhaps this week, with the introduction of legislation that will propose the greatest change since get tough policies enacted in the 1980’s and 90’s caused the Georgia prison population to swell beyond its walls.
What you should expect from legislation – we are hearing it could be almost 100 pages long – was the focus of an American Legislative Exchange Council criminal justice reform panel held last week in Atlanta. “Eighty million dollars to build one prison in Georgia – that is the cost of bricks and mortar, not the cost of staffing,” said Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Michael Boggs.
“This may have come about as the result of a fiscal crisis in this nation and in this state. Maybe that’s why we got where we got, because we recognize we don’t have the money,” said Boggs, who serves on the state special council. “But at the end of the day, these are laudable goals.”
The goals to which Boggs referred are primarily these: Slow down exponential growth in the state prison population, treat rather than incarcerate people who have addiction issues but not criminal issues, do both in such a way that public safety is not threatened, reinvest dollars that are currently going into prisons into treatment programs, and then continually re-evaluate it.
(Click here to review the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform report.)
Criminal justice system reform has become one of the better examples of national political bi-partisanship as states realize budgets can no longer accommodate ever expanding corrections costs. Georgia’s annual expense has swollen from $500 million per year to $1.1 billion in 20 years. Almost 20 states have enacted or are currently considering substantial reforms.
ALEC, the Pew Center on the States, the National Conference of State Legislatures and other public policy organizations are all focused intently on criminal justice. Last week the Georgia Public Policy Foundation published a state-focused issues analysis that is available online.
Criminal justice reform has its own rock stars – Texas Republican state Rep. Jerry Madden and his Democratic counterpart Sen. John Whitmire. Starting five years ago they put conventional partisan politics aside to craft a new corrections model that enabled Texas to slow down prison population growth and reduce anticipated state outlays by hundreds of millions of dollars.
ALEC brought Madden to Atlanta – one of several visits he has made since last year to confer with state legislators, the judicial branch and others who are designing Georgia justice reform.
“How many of you would rather spend money on things like schools and highways or tax reduction or something other than spending it on building prisons?” Madden said. “It is easier for a Red State to do this than a Blue State. It’s easier because nobody thinks Georgia is soft on crime. I don’t believe it and nationally nobody is going to believe it.” (Madden discussed criminal justice reform at the 2010 Public Policy Foundation legislative briefing conference.)
Georgia’s prison population – less than 30,000 twenty years ago – is anticipated to reach at least 60,000 within five years if nothing about the state criminal justice system changes. Prison system expense is the second fastest growing segment of the state budget behind Medicaid. “This is sucking up a lot of our money,” state Sen. Bill Cowsert told the ALEC gathering.
Two popular get-tough ideas are being challenged; A) Do the time, do the crime, and; B) Lock them up, throw away the key. That is because another idea – you can rehabilitate almost anyone by having them do time – has proven wrong. “They don’t learn their lesson,” Cowsert said. “It is not working to just lock them up and throw away the key for a certain length of time.”
Georgia has a 30 percent recidivism rate – almost one-third of released inmates return to prison within three years of their release date. Or to consider that from another angle, our $1.1 billion annual corrections investment has a 30 percent failure rate. Recidivism rates are lower – between 7 and 13 percent – when approved offenders participate in accountability courts that are most often used with personal drug use offenders who are not considered a threat.
“We all know you don’t throw water on a grease fire,” Rep Jay Neal told the ALEC audience. “Now we know you don’t throw the addict into prison and think you’re going to correct behavior.” Mandatory treatment combined with very strict – sometimes electronic — monitoring and drug testing are possible options with incarceration still on the table for noncompliant offenders.
Georgia currently has just 33 accountability courts; one reason is because public and private sector treatment options are insufficient. “You can’t have a felony post-adjudication drug court without having treatment options,” said Judge Boggs. “In rural Georgia, that’s hard to come by.”
The state also has just 13 day reporting centers capable of serving about 200 people each.
Governor Nathan Deal’s criminal justice reform cards are on the table in his proposed budget: $35.2 million for additional prison beds, $10 million for accountability courts expansion, $5.7 million to convert three pre-release centers to residential substance abuse treatment centers and $1.4 million to fund additional parole officers.
Much greater use of parole is another idea whose time might have come. Georgia has 22,000 on parole, dramatically fewer than its 156,000 on probation population. Mandatory sentences that must be fully served are the reason for the disparity. But in the wake of do the crime, do the time sentencing inmates have been routinely released without post-prison support.
“We lock them up with criminals and when they get out five years later they’re still addicted, except now they have a felony on their record which makes it more difficult for them,” Neal said, “and they spend the last five years in graduate school learning how to be a true criminal, and they weren’t a criminal when we sent them there. Then we wonder why the recidivism rate continues to be a problem.”
Neal said slightly reducing some prison sentences and combining that with mandatory parole would be preferable to simply releasing inmates into the community “with no guidance, no direction, no accountability, no supervision, you’re just turned loose.”
The special council on criminal justice reform worked for six months. “Criminal justice reform is not a one-time fix in this session of the General Assembly,” Judge Boggs acknowledged. “It is an ongoing process.” In fact, Governor Deal kept the council intact for further unspecified work ahead.
“It’s probably not going to be a package where everybody is going to say I like everything in here,” state Rep. Neal said. “We have to be careful that we don’t let individuals who don’t like one piece convince us that because of that one piece it’s not a good package.”
“The last thing we want to do is be light or easy on crime,” state Sen. Cowsert said. “We have to keep public safety as our top priority. We want to lower the crime rate in the process and we want to do this in a fiscally responsible manner.”
(Mike Klein will moderate a criminal justice reform conversation on Saturday, February 25 at the Georgia Bar Media and Judiciary Conference in Atlanta. Panelists include state Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Hunstein, state Rep. Wendell Willard and Douglas County District Attorney David McDade.)
Pig and Horse Strategy Might Boost Charter Schools Amendment
Mike Klein
Promising that Georgia would never knowingly turn a pig into a horse, House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey suggested Thursday that two changes to a charter schools constitutional amendment resolution might help secure bipartisan support. HR 1162 requires a two-thirds majority vote in the House, and then it would be sent to the Senate.
At issue is whether voters in November will be asked to decide whether the state shall become an alternate authorizer for charter schools after they are initially turned down by a local board of education, and, how to fund those new schools.
During remarks that lasted just a few minutes, Lindsey told a House education hearing that the state’s official definition of a charter school would be placed into HR 1162 – something the resolution currently lacks — which became a priority for critics who contend it could give the state too much power to authorize new charter schools and fund them with local dollars.
“No one has to worry that someone is going to later come around and try to turn a pig into a horse,” Lindsey said, “call something that clearly shouldn’t be a charter school, a charter school. We thought it was important to allay concerns like that.” House education chair Rep. Brooks Coleman asked Lindsey for brief remarks after a day of conjecture about possible compromise.
Lindsey said another change would “make sure folks are reassured that local dollars will not either directly or indirectly be used to support a school that is chartered by the state of Georgia.”
Lindsey said legislators “from both sides of the aisle” helped to craft language “so that local systems can be reassured, if the state should elect to charter a school, those funds will be from the state of Georgia and will not either directly or indirectly be pulled from local school systems.” There was no discussion about where Georgia would find those state funds.
Conjecture about HR 1162 revisions has circulated since last week when the legislation lost a House floor vote 110 – 62, needing 120 votes for a two-thirds super majority to pass. The vote was largely along party lines with heavy Republican support and heavy Democratic opposition.
Democrats offered their own constitutional amendment resolution – HR 1335 – which had a fairly timid public hearing on Wednesday afternoon. Democratic Rep. Scott Holcomb testified that he voted against HR 1162 last week because, “What we advocate is that if the state wants to have state charter schools, we think that’s great, but they should fund them.” Holcomb was a principle behind HR 1335 and he was seated in the committee room Thursday when Lindsey discussed compromise.
Holcomb released this statement on Friday morning: “Democrats are proud to enforce limits on the state with regard to charter schools. The original legislation gave the state unrestrained powers. This puts sensible restrictions on how we operate. We also unequivocally require that if the state wants to create charter schools – they must pay for them. Under the changes, no local funding can be reduced.”
Sources familiar with the plan say a new version of HR 1162 is now expected on the House floor next week. “Someone asked me when we should expect to bring the bill to the floor,” Lindsey said on Thursday. “The simple answer is, we’ll bring it to the floor when we are comfortable that we have the language right and that we have the 120 plus votes.”
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
New Possible Strategy for Georgia Health Insurance Reform
Mike Klein
A behind-the-scenes coalition that believes the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the federal health care reform law is working on a new health insurance strategy for Georgia.
Almost certainly, this summer’s biggest headline will be the Supreme Court decision to uphold or overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which President Barack Obama’s administration counts as one of its finest achievements. Two federal appellate courts upheld the law and one rejected it. Supreme Court arguments are scheduled for the final week of March.
Federal law trumps state law, so nothing in the evolving state strategy could be implemented in Georgia if the Supreme Court upholds the federal health care reform law. The Georgia Public Policy Foundation has hosted meetings of interested parties working on state health insurance reform options, but the Foundation has not assisted with drafting legislation nor has it taken a position on possible legislation.
A staggering 1.8 million Georgians have no health insurance. They are not in group plans. They do not have individual plans. One-in-five men, women and children living in Georgia have no health insurance.
Coalition principles include restructuring the private market to increase competition and improve portability, protection against loss of coverage, and improved affordability for people and small businesses. A core strategy is the expansion of defined contribution plans administered by employers.
Employers who cannot afford to offer health insurance will be able to make a defined contribution to a tax-free Health Reimbursement Account or HRA. Employees may use these pre-tax dollars to pay insurance premiums. Pre-tax dollars in health savings accounts, another type of tax free account, could be used for deductible co-pay charges and a wide variety of wellness programs.
Consumers who do not have access to employer health plans would be allowed to deduct 100 percent of health insurance premium expense from their state income tax. Current law does not allow for that deduction. In addition, the proposal would allow small businesses to take advantage of “list billing” that would allow employees to pay for their individual health policy premiums with pre-tax dollars.
All of these efforts address the tax inequity of the current system that critics contend needlessly places the cost of health insurance beyond the reach of many families.
Small firm employers often find it almost impossible to offer comprehensive major medical insurance benefits. The strategy proposes several ideas. Companies with 10 or fewer employees could receive state tax credits for each employee who is enrolled 12 consecutive months in a major medical program. Credits would be available for three years. The entire program would end after ten years.
The strategy includes a focus on keeping currently insured Georgians insured. Small businesses and their employees would have the same access and protections available to large firms and their employees. People who lose jobs after age 55 would have better access to COBRA extended coverage. They could purchase extended coverage until Medicare eligibility at age 65.
Another idea addresses health insurance access for employees who leave small firms. Currently small firm employees are eligible for just three months while large firm employees can extend and pay for insurance coverage for 18 months. The proposal would equalize both groups at 18 months.
Another effort would focus on providing access to primary care for the uninsured. A new “Georgia Charity Care Network Tax Credit” would be similar to the existing private school tax credit. The credit could be taken by an individual or corporation that makes a cash contribution to an approved charity health care network. There would be maximum annual contribution levels and the program would be capped at $2 million maximum per year for three years.
Federal health care reform requires that Georgia must create an insurance marketplace or the federal government will impose one in 2014. A state health insurance advisory committee report published in December said the state should opt for its own program, but it stopped short of saying the General Assembly should begin to plan for that program now. Georgia is waiting on the Supreme Court ruling.
The coalition believes a private, free market health exchange would provide all the benefits of a government-run model, but without the drawbacks. Georgia, which leads the nation in health information technology, is home to several companies already providing similar services.
A regional health insurance idea would enable Georgia to partner with four or more states to create a large private marketplace. Major medical and group insurance carriers whose policies are approved in any member state would be able to offer those policies in other member states. Georgia’s insurance commissioner would be authorized to explore major medical partnerships with other states. Any plan approved by a partner state would be available to consumers in the other partner states.
One feature of federal health care reform enables children to remain on their parents’ health insurance policies until age 26. The Georgia twist would revise that to “tax dependent” children. The distinction is that insurance eligible young adults must be dependents, not just grown children who have begun their independent lives, except where they are riding on parents’ health insurance policies.
Several other strategies are being considered. One would create a high risk pool for people with pre-existing conditions, which would help stabilize the individual and small group market. Pre-existing conditions restrictions would be standardized to not more than 12 months in group and individual plans. Expanded physician choice options would benefit health care consumers.
Overall, the emerging Georgia health insurance strategy is not an attempt at medical care reform – who gets medical treatment, how much they get and who decides their treatment. All of the ideas currently being discussed pertain only to insurance factors. By one estimate, it might be possible to reduce the number of uninsured, non-Medicaid eligible Georgians from 1.8 million to 600,000.
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
Georgia Charter Schools: Entrenched Status Quo Won Out Over Enlightenment
Mike Klein
Two weeks ago hope and change seemed possible. Two thousand students, parents and start-up charter school supporters gathered on a sunny winter morning outside the State Capitol to rally on behalf of the principle that equal opportunity begins in school. Now we know that too few inside the great stone building cared to hear their message. Entrenched status quo has won out over enlightenment.
On Wednesday the state House rejected HR 1162 which sought to place a constitutional amendment question on the November ballot that would ask voters: “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow state or local approval of public charter schools upon the request of local communities?” The measure fell ten votes short of the 120 two-thirds majority it needed.
Georgia is precariously close to earning a reputation – if it has not already earned that onerous reputation – as a state that prefers education entitlement to innovation.
The establishment of charter schools – as one vehicle to improve education everywhere, for all kids –was forcefully championed by former President Bill Clinton. During the Clinton administration charters grew from literally just a handful to thousands nationwide. And whatever else you might think about President Barack Obama, his administration has been an equally forceful supporter of charter schools.
Georgia has 1.65 million public school students. Fewer than 30,000 attend start-up charter schools. Fewer than 4 percent attend any charter school. Whatever threat charter schools pose to traditional public education, it is hard to imagine that their success would topple the existing business.
And isn’t that what this is really all about, the public money of public education. Public education spending — K-12 and higher education — accounts for more than half of the state’s $18.6 billion budget. Local property tax dollars add billions more dollars to public education spending. Money = control. Control = power. Nobody in power willingly cedes power. It is a rule of politics and war: Never cede power or surrender territory.
Therefore, we have wealthy public school districts, whose superintendents earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, arguing that the establishment of a few start-up charter schools constitutes a threat to the financial monopoly that controls public education. The monopoly is a partnership of convenience between school boards, teacher organizations and politicians who support status quo.
At least temporarily, they have won. What now? One of the bill sponsors moved to reconsider the motion, so that means the House will have at least one more chance to reverse course.
Start-up charter school supporters, thousands of families, Governor Nathan Deal’s office and others with a dog in this fight have worked on the constitutional amendment strategy since May when the Georgia Supreme Court overturned the state charter schools commission. Now they have only whatever time remains in the current General Assembly, probably two months, to address this problem.
The 2008 Legislature was correct when it created the state charter schools commission as an alternate authorizer after local school boards reject charter school applications. The Supreme Court was wrong. And the 2012 Legislature, to date, is wrong to reject the constitutional amendment option that would enable voters to decide the question.
(Update: Thursday morning the House voted 114 – 49 to reconsider which means HR 1162 will receive a second vote.)
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
Hundreds in Georgia Prisons Remain Locked Up After Earning Parole
Mike Klein
Georgia penitentiaries continue to feed, clothe and pay medical expenses for hundreds of inmates who were approved for parole but cannot be released because they have nowhere to live. About two-thirds are convicted sex offenders. About one-third require mental illness treatment but otherwise they are not considered a threat to public safety.
“We have got to do something about the housing situation, about the need for these individuals to have stable housing in order to be able to assimilate back into communities,” state Rep. Jay Neal said during a hearing that he chaired this week. Testimony was heard from officials at state pardons and parole and community affairs, the Clayton County sheriff’s office and Support Housing Atlanta.
Having nowhere to go means inmates approved for parole have no family able or willing to take them, and no publicly supported housing facility willing to accept them. One of the challenges associated with Georgia corrections reform is, where will released inmates go when they leave prisons?
The 2011 state special council on criminal justice reform delivered its report before Thanksgiving. The emphasis was on establishing alternatives to incarceration to reduce budget devouring prison system costs. The new Legislature has been in town nearly a month. The committee that will turn the special council recommendations into a bill is currently drafting the legislation.
Governor Nathan Deal
Governor Nathan Deal’s criminal justice reform cards are on the table: $35.2 million for additional prison beds, $10 million for accountability courts expansion, $5.7 million to convert three pre-release centers to residential substance abuse treatment centers and $1.4 million to fund additional parole officers. Those priorities were named in his State of the State address and also in his proposed FY 2013 budget.
Moving away from a strategy that emphasized incarceration to one focused on alternative treatment for non-violent persons who do not pose any public safety threat means the state criminal justice system must change the tools it needs. Beds would be reserved for bad guys. Other people who need treatment more than incarceration would be placed into community settings
This week a House committee met for 90 minutes to discuss the lack of available housing statewide for paroled inmates. State parole director Michael Nail told the committee Georgia currently has 367 former sex offenders and 147 people with treatable mental illness needs who are still locked up even though they served all required time and were approved for release from the prison system.
How long might they stay locked up? Most inmates are freed within 30-to-45 days after the parole board grants release. That is not the case for hard-to-release inmates. Nail said, “We’ve had inmates (who) have been there two years beyond their parole date simply because they have nowhere to go.”
Patients who require mental health treatment are a special challenge. The systemic approach to help them is a larger question than the impact it has on criminal justice reform. Georgia and the federal government entered into an October, 2010 consent decree that requires the state to transfer mental illness patients out of hospitals and into community settings. The state must be able to serve 9,000 persons on a strict timetable that concludes not later than July 1, 2015.
Paul Bolster is director of Support Housing Atlanta. Support Housing conducted a survey of mental health patients being held in several metropolitan area county jails. Bolster said inmates were asked where they would live if they were released. Twenty percent said they would be immediately homeless and 12 percent more said they did not know.
State Parole Director Michael Nail
“Thirty-five hundred people with serious mental illness will be discharged from metro jails within a year’s time to, probably, homelessness,” Bolster told the House committee. “This explains why you have recidivism.” The survey was conducted in Cobb, Gwinnett and DeKalb county jails, and statistics were incorporated from Fulton County.
Clayton is Georgia’s third smallest county by land mass, but it has the state’s fifth largest county population. Last year the county processed 26,000 prisoners. Those inmates consume between $7-to-$8 million annually in medicine and other health care expenses. About 900 of the jail’s 1,700 capacity prisoners require mental health services and between 300-to-400 require intensive mental health treatment. Sheriff Kem Kimbrough said those services could be provided at less expense outside a jail setting.
Kimbrough’s varied assignments have included work on the implementation of mental health community service boards and he holds an Emory University law degree. “We’re spending god awful amounts of money to keep them behind bars when the reality is we could probably spend less to support them in treatment, support them in housing, get them back out into the community and maybe even rehabilitate them into quality citizens,” said Kimbrough.
Governor Deal and the special council on criminal justice reform advocated expansion of accountability courts, including drug courts, that substitute strict monitoring and treatment programs for incarceration when the offender is not a public safety threat. The Clayton drug court program has 30 participants.
“We could have up to 300 folks that would meet drug court parameters but for one component, one very key factor, that they have stable residential housing outside the jail,” Kimbrough said. “That is the number one thing that gets them knocked out. If they don’t have a place to stay that is stable then they are not eligible for the drug court program.”
Clayton County Sheriff Kem Kimbrough
Pardons and parole, in partnership with corrections and community affairs, operates a program known by its acronym RPH – Residential Problem Housing. RPH residence slots – don’t call them homes, folks do not get their own home – are available to paroled offenders who have mental health treatment or substance abuse backgrounds, but slots are not available to convicted sex offenders.
RPH began to place former offenders in 2006. It uses primarily federal funds to pay $600 per month for room-and-board for three months to help paroled offenders return to the community. Almost 600 people have been placed in RPH housing at a total cost of $874,000. “That’s a lot of money but if this program did not exist and these inmates stayed incarcerated, it would have cost $5.3 million for that time frame,” parole director Nail said. Currently the state has 44 licensed RHP facilities.
Successful re-entry into the community reduces recidivism, the rate at which prisoners return to jail. Having somewhere to live is considered essential for transition to have a chance.
“We can get you clean, sober, on your meds and everything else, and then we send you back to the house where there is no order, all the people around you are engaged in drug activity, no one is checking on you to make sure are taking your meds,” said Clayton Sheriff Kimbrough. “All of those things are going to put that person right back into the mix. They are coming back to the county jail.”
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
Charter Schools Amendment Magic Number: 120 Votes
Mike Klein
Legislation that would ask voters to decide whether the state or local boards of education should be able to authorize start-up charter schools moved out of the House education committee Thursday by a 15-to-6 vote. The next stop is an uncertain future before the full House where it needs two-thirds approval by members voting on the question. With 180 members, the magic number is 120.
Thursday’s committee vote approved a constitutional amendment ballot question that asks voters to reinstate an alternate authorizer for start-up charter schools; in this case, the state itself. The state had the authority under a commission created by the 2008 Legislature.
But several local school boards sued and the Supreme Court overturned the commission last May. Charter supporters almost immediately began working a new legislative approach that became HR 1162.
“I think this is a good bill,” House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones said after she described revisions made to HR 1162 as late as Thursday morning. “The most requested change was that we not put into the state Constitution how special schools could be funded, “Jones said. “The second most requested change was that we remove the clause that said for the purpose of raising student achievement.”
The most significant revisions from an earlier version are contained in Section 3. The version approved in committee states, “Special schools may include charter schools; provided, however, that special schools shall only be public schools.” The previous sentence said: “Special schools may include but are not limited to, schools for the deaf and the blind, special school districts for incarcerated juveniles, any type of charter schools, vocational schools, and schools that offer virtual instruction; provided, however that special schools shall be only public schools.”
The version approved Thursday also specifies that, “The state is authorized to expend funds for the support and maintenance of special schools in such amount and manner as provided by law.”
House and Senate passage – with two-thirds super majorities in both chambers — would result in this question being placed on the November ballot: “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow state or local approval of public charter schools upon the request of local communities.”
The proposed ballot question that was debated in committee last week said, “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended for the purpose of raising student achievement by allowing state and local approval of public charter schools upon the request of local communities.” Jones said ballot question changes were made after a request from the Democratic caucus.
Atlanta Democrat Margaret Kaiser supported the resolution. “I had a wonderful conversation with Michael Lomax who is president of the United Negro College Fund. What he said is that we often let the perfect ruin the good,” said Kaiser, who said she’s had the “good fortune” to have her children attend a locally authorized charter school. “So what we are doing here is it perfect? No. Or what the local school systems (want)? It’s not perfect but we have a good opportunity to allow for an alternate authorizer.”
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
Tax Foundation: Georgia 34th for Best Business Tax Climate
Mike Klein
This morning the conservative Tax Foundation released its comprehensive analysis of state tax structure policies that impact business growth. The message for Georgia: We Can Do Better. Georgia is ranked No. 34 nationally, unchanged from one year ago. Georgia lawmakers continue to struggle with how to enact comprehensive revenue neutral tax reform.
The Tax Foundation annual report compares states against each other in five tax categories: corporate, personal income, sales, unemployment insurance and personal property. Georgia collects all five; some states do not. With no personal income tax, Florida ranked fifth nationally. Three states have no personal or corporate income taxes. Some states impose no sales tax.
The Tax Foundation wrote, “The lesson is simple: a state that raises sufficient revenue without one of the major taxes will, all things being equal, have an advantage over those states that levy every tax in the state tax collector’s arsenal.” The Foundation ranked Georgia ninth best for corporate income tax, 12th for general sales tax, 22nd for unemployment insurance tax paid by employers, 39th for personal property tax and 40th for individual income tax.
The Tax Foundation said ten southern states rank ahead of Georgia: Florida (5), Texas (9), Tennessee (14), Missouri (15), Mississippi (17), Alabama (20), Kentucky (22), West Virginia (23), Virginia (26) and Louisiana (32). (By virtual of editorial discretion Missouri is included here because next year it plays Big Boy Football in the Southeastern Conference.) Only South Carolina (36) and North Carolina (44) finished lower than Georgia among southern states.
It would be somewhat surprising if the General Assembly does not agree this year to eliminate the sales tax on energy used in manufacturing. All the momentum is in that direction. Governor Nathan Deal made it a priority. He also wants sales and use tax exemptions for construction materials used in what the Governor has described as “projects of regional significance.”
Much less clear is whether the Georgia Legislature can agree on changes to general sales and personal income taxes, which likely would be tied in a revenue neutral conversation. The state unemployment taxes structure is perhaps the thorniest briar in the patch.
Georgia has borrowed $721 million from Washington since December 2009 to help pay monthly unemployment benefits. Some perspective on that number; Georgia’s emergency fund is $328 million, less than half the amount owed to the federal government. This year Georgia will also make a $33 million interest payment that will not reduce the principal amount.
Unemployment insurance benefits are funded by taxes on employers. States set tax rates and they determine the maximum taxable wage base. Georgia’s maximum tax rate is tied for lowest in the country and the wage base is almost lowest in the country. More taxes paid by Georgia businesses and reduced unemployment benefits are both possible this year.
The Tax Foundation said last year the index was downloaded 487,000 times, cited in hundreds of news reports and mentioned by four governors in their State of the State addresses. Here is a link to the 2012 Tax Foundation business tax climate index report.
Georgia Tech: “This Time We Are In the Room”
Michael Meyer, Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Georgia Tech’s Michael Meyer was understandably still pretty excited when we spoke this week while he attends a conference in Washington, D.C. Meyer will coordinate the Georgia – Florida – Alabama, ten-university national transportation research center housed at Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
“I’ve been at Georgia Tech for 23 years. When we won the (regional) transportation center four years ago, that was a foot in the door to let folks know we really are good at what we do,” Meyer said. “This time we are in the room. I’m at this conference and everyone up here is basically saying, Georgia Tech was the big winner.”
The $7 million public-private partnership brings together seven Georgia universities plus two from Florida and one from Alabama. The project focus will be on transportation infrastructure, safety and economic development from more than just a local perspective. That means best business practices to reduce fatalities, how to evaluate infrastructure priorities and much more.
Meyer posed his own questions: “How do we define success. Is it the amount of vehicles or people who can be handled? Is it the level of satisfaction or the level of dissatisfaction? What we have to offer is a national and international perspective on what has worked or not worked elsewhere.” Atlanta HOT lanes – subject of recent debate – will be on the table for review.
Meyer said the immediate challenge will be coordinating researchers from the ten universities and designing their unique projects. He noted Georgia State has an expertise in finance while the two Florida schools – Central Florida and Florida International – are noted for research into how people respond when they use driving simulators. The project is funded for two years with half from a federal grant and half in matching funds. The Woodruff Foundation stepped up with $300,000. “Woodruff was a fantastic shot in the arm,” Meyer said.
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
Governor Deal Defends $19.2 Million Budget During Capitol Hearing
Mike Klein
Governor Nathan Deal opened three days of House-Senate appropriations hearings by taking exception to media reports that suggest his budget is a significant spending increase.
Deal proposed a $19.2 million Fiscal 2013 budget, up from $18.3 million this year. Increases would fully fund anticipated K-12 enrollment growth, required pension and the state employee health care benefit obligations, improve Medicaid funding and enable the state to purchase new prison beds “for those who truly need to be locked up,” the Governor said.
“Other than funding these areas of growth, my budget calls for funding increases of three-tenths of 1 percent,” Deal told assembled legislators at the State Capitol, “not the figure that you have seen in some of the media reports.” Deal added $4.2 million to support residency slots for physicians, $10 million for One Georgia rural economic development, $10 million for accountability courts and $3.7 million for school nurses.
The Governor said 14,000 state positions were taken off the books since last year and the total state workforce is down 7.7 percent since 2001 to about 96,800 employees. “When adjusted for inflation per capita spending in my budget recommendation for fiscal year 2013 is 20 and one-half percent less than Fiscal Year 2002,” Deal said. “In that same time period state population grew by approximately 1.5 million. Therefore, we are providing more services with fewer resources.”
Governor Nathan Deal
The State Personnel Administration would be phased out under Deal’s 2013 budget with its staff and resources transferred to other state agencies. There would be sweeping changes at the Department of Labor. DOL state funds would be reduced by $23.3 million and many services would be transferred to other agencies. Deal has also proposed selling state fixed wing aircraft and transferring Georgia Aviation Authority budget, staff and resources to other agencies.
“There are no new taxes being proposed and this is small government that is focused on doing the things that government is expected to do and to do them well,” Deal told legislators.
Using phrases like “relatively good news for a change” Georgia state fiscal economist Kenneth Heaghney testified that recovery to pre-recession levels is still three years away, the state housing industry is still weak and Europe could be a big drain on the U.S. and Georgia economies for years to come.
Heaghney presented a mixed but overall an upbeat report. “All in all, the news has been good,” the Georgia State University economist told the Senate-House Joint Appropriations Committee. “The outlook is positive. We do expect the economy to strengthen.” He said state monthly tax revenues have been consistently stronger and that trend is expected to continue.
State Economist Kenneth Heaghney
Heaghney said several factors will determine the pace of recovery. “Consumers are still trying to adjust to declines in their housing wealth and their equity wealth. We see Europe probably falling into recession,” he said. “China’s growth is slowing so there is a slowdown in the overall global economy. There are still headwinds and we expect the recovery to be improving but still not the kind of robust growth we’ve seen coming out of other recessions.”
Heaghney said the national economy ended last year with upticks in GDP growth and lower jobless claims along with improvement in manufacturing, professional and business services, education and health care sectors. He said the U.S. broader national economy was resilient despite oil price instability, European and U.S. debt crises and the Japanese earthquake.
Heaghney predicted state government revenue will not return to pre-recession levels until Fiscal 2015. Here is what he said about the state housing downturn: “It’s really tough to find any good news in Georgia.” Heaghney said real estate values declined 3 percent nationally last year but 12 percent in Atlanta. “That suggests that probably distressed sales are making up a bigger portion of the market.” Heaghney predicted bank foreclosures will increase going forward.
Despite those realities, Georgia continues to demonstrate slow but steady economic growth. State government month-to-month revenue increased for 18 straight months until last month when it posted a decline because of unusually high December 2010 corporate audit payments. Fiscal year revenue is up 5.2 percent with an expectation that it will continue to improve.
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
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