WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE REPORT – January 19, 2007

Lieutenant governor says ‘no’ to voter ID restrictions

By Rep. Quincy Murphy

One of the most encouraging developments to take place since the beginning of the 2007 session of the Georgia General Assembly has been the announcement by new Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle that he will not bring a proposed constitutional amendment that would impose controversial voter identification restrictions to the floor of the state Senate for a vote.

During the previous two legislative sessions, bills were passed and signed into law by the governor that would have required eligible Georgia voters to present government-issued photo identification when they go to the polls to cast their ballots. For most citizens, of course, this is not a problem. But for thousands of elderly and low-income Georgians who do not hold driver’s licenses, this new restriction would have been an unnecessary impediment to their exercising their right to vote.

In addition, the new law would have been ineffective at addressing concerns over voter fraud, since the vast majority of fraud incidents have been associated with absentee voting, which this law did not address. The picture ID restriction is simply a blatant attempt to make it more difficult for certain, otherwise eligible, voters from going to the polls.

Several judges in state and federal courts agreed that this new law was unconstitutional, and the state was prohibited from enforcing it during the 2006 election cycle. Now, some of its supporters have proposed changing the state Constitution in order to make it constitutional impose this voting restriction.

Lt. Gov. Cagle has wisely determined the proposal has no chance of receiving the two-thirds majority approval that a constitutional amendment requires, and he sees no value in taking up the legislature’s time with another divisive debate over a “dead horse.” Hopefully the leadership in the House of Representatives will follow the lieutenant governor’s example of exercising common sense on this issue.

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, state government department heads addressed a joint session of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to make their requests for funding in the annual state budget for fiscal year 2008, which begins July 1, 2007. Here is a breakdown of the record $20.2 billion budget proposed by Governor Perdue in some of the major areas of state government:

• Education, $11.2 billion
• Health care and human services, $4.1 billion
• Public safety and corrections, $1.7 billion
• Governmental services, $1.3 billion
• Transportation, agriculture, economic development $995 million
• Repayment of state debt, $954 million

The state government collects revenue to pay for these programs from the following sources:

• Income Tax (Individual), 44.5 percent
• Sales Tax, 31.6 percent
• Fees & Sales, 4.6 percent
• Motor Fuel Tax, 4.4 percent
• Income Tax (Corporate), 4.4 percent
• Lottery, 4.2 percent
• Tobacco Settlement Funds, 0.7 percent
• Other Taxes, 5.6 percent
• Miscellaneous, 0.1 percent

Lawmakers will return to the Capitol for Day 5 of the 40-day session on Monday, Jan. 22. Please contact me whenever I can be of service.

• Rep. Quincy Murphy (D-Augusta) represents the 120th District (Richmond County) in the Georgia House of Representatives. Contact him at 604 Coverdell Office Building, Atlanta, GA  30334; by phone at 404-656-0265 or by e-mail at quincy.murphy@house.ga.gov.