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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May
11,
2007
Forty Days
(RINGGOLD) – State Representative Ron Forster
Forty legislative
days. That’s what it takes each year to iron
out the business of the state. It was a year
beset with budget problems but a year that had
some great legislation to better help the people
of Georgia. The budget issues
have been fairly well debated in our newspapers,
in our coffee shops, and at the dining room
tables. It started with a PeachCare for Kids
shortfall created by the federal government
where they failed to live up to their promises.
The good news that we didn’t hear much of is
that both the mid-year 2007 budget and the
Fiscal Year 2008 budget had some great funding
initiatives.
Our mid-year
budget had emergency funds for the
Sumter County tornado victims and fully
funded PeachCare for 2007. The 2008 budget
allowed for a three percent pay raise for
teachers and state employees. It also had pay
raises for our state troopers and bus drivers
and public school employees. We put $42.3
million for land conservation, fully funded
PeachCare for 2008, and fully funded adult
literacy programs and our technical schools. We
put in $75.5 million for state universities and
colleges and $242 million for K-12 enrollment
growth. We also had additional funding for
child advocacy centers and programs for tracking
internet predators. Overall, they were two
pretty good budgets.
Some other
highlights included another sales tax holiday
for school supplies set for August
2-5, 2007 and energy efficient products sales
tax holiday set for October 2-5, 2007. This
program is widely popular with parents buying
back to school clothes and supplies for their
children and mirrors what some of our next-door
neighbor states are doing.
Education always
is at the forefront of our minds when we
consider legislation and this year was no
exception. We returned local control to school
boards to determine their class sizes as we
learned that this was becoming a “budget buster”
for many school districts. We also passed
legislation requiring school councils to be
composed of a majority of parents.
We passed
legislation that would extend
Georgia’s HERO scholarship, a program of free
tuition to Georgia’s Colleges and Universities
for our men and women serving in the National
Guard and Reserves who have spent considerable
time in fighting the Global War on Terror. The
new bill would provide that tuition assistance
to surviving spouses of those who have paid the
ultimate sacrifice in support of their country.
We exempted the
state sales tax for bio-fuels construction
materials for any bio-fuels facility primarily
dedicated to producing and processing ethanol,
biodiesel, butanol, and their byproducts. We
also provided a sales tax exemption for parts
for maintenance and repair of aircraft not
registered in this state. This coincides with
what other southern states have done allowing us
to be competitive with them.
To make our great
state a bigger player in selecting the President
of the United States, we moved
Georgia’s presidential primary to February 5.
This will allow Georgia to have a key
presidential primary along with several other
states early in the process thus making
candidates campaign for our votes versus the
race being decided prior to the Georgia
presidential election.
Because the ports
of Georgia are truly a state
economic multiplier, we increased the amount of
river pilots for several locals throughout the
coast of Georgia to insure that port traffic
moves smoothly. There was other key legislation
that passed either the House or Senate that will
be considered when we reconvene next January.
Thank you for
placing your trust and confidence in me to serve
you. It is an awesome responsibility that you
have given me and a privilege to represent you
in the Georgia General Assembly. For that
reason, I am deeply humbled. If you would like
to reach me, please call me at
706.937.4304 or write with me concerns State Rep
Ron Forster P.O. Box 100 Ringgold GA 30736 or
email Ron.Forster@house.ga.gov.
####
Cordially,
Ronald L. Forster
Chair, Interstate Cooperation
Representative HD-3
P.O. Box 100
Ringgold, GA 30736
706-937-4304 (ofc/fax)
http://www.gasrd3.org
Notice: This communication contains
information that may be confidential.
Except for personal use by the intended
recipient, or as expressly authorized by
the sender, any person who receives this
information is prohibited from
disclosing, copying, distributing and/or
using it. If you have received this
communication in error, please
immediately delete it and all copies,
and promptly notify the sender. Nothing
in this communication is intended to
operate as an electronic signature under
applicable law.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April
23,
2007
Finished
in
Atlanta
(RINGGOLD) – State Representative Ron Forster
It’s over! The clock has run out
on the 2007 General Assembly session and we have
completed the people’s business. It has been a
tough session with highs and lows for all
members as we have watched the legislative
process. Our forefathers had it right when they
designed our system of government with many
checks and balances that allows usually only
well vetted legislation to be passed by the
House of Representatives and the Senate. Even
to the most casual observer, it is difficult to
pass any legislation and have it signed into
law. The separation of powers portion of
Georgia’s constitution got a real workout this
session. The 2007 session of the Georgia General
Assembly was my toughest ever.
In the closing
days of the session, we have passed some very
important legislation. We overwhelmingly passed
a bill that would allow optometrists to
prescribe and administer oral antibiotics to
treat ocular surface disease and lid disease.
The bill, Senate Bill 17, was passed 155-2 and
now goes to the Governor for his signature.
Another bill heading to the Governor is House
Bill 357, a tax code reform bill that would
update the Georgia tax code to be
more inline with the federal tax code.
We have passed the
Georgia HERO Scholarship bill, H.B. 131, the
bill that would allow the surviving spouse of a
Georgia national Guardsman or
reservist to be entitled to attend a state
school on a HERO (Helping Educate Reservists and
their Offspring) scholarship. This was
particularly important as one of the father’s of
a Georgia Guardsman who paid the ultimate price
in Iraq, promised his son that he would look
after his wife. He walked the halls of the
capitol with his son’s boots over his shoulder
talking to legislators about the importance of
passage of this bill. It too goes to the
Governor for his approval.
We passed S.B. 60
that would establish the Georgia Trauma
Commission. This is extremely important as this
legislation comes from an exhaustive 2006 study
committee that reviewed the State’s trauma care
network. This is the first step in finding a
way to enhance Georgia’s hospitals
for trauma care. The bill passed 158-1.
In an effort to
insure that prescription narcotics are carefully
controlled, we passed Senate Bill 205, a bill
that would create the “Prescription Medication
Integrity Act.” The act requires that each
person engaged in the wholesale distribution of
prescription drugs maintain inventories and
records. It will also conduct a study of the
distribution of prescription drugs and will
establish a mandated implementation date for
electronic pedigrees. The pedigree will include
all necessary identifying information on each
sale from the manufacturer to the sale to the
pharmacists.
We passed a bill
that will keep more serious offenders of our
laws in prison. By passing H.B. 197, we have
terminated the defendant’s ability to have a
three-judge panel review the prison sentence on
all sentences of 12 years or more. Current law
allows for the review but we believe that the
review process only weakens the original process
of the judicial proceedings. This bill now goes
to the Governor for his review and signature.
We had reached an
agreement on the Fiscal Year 2007 mid year
supplemental budget. The mid-year budget is one
of two budgets the General Assembly reviews each
year. In January, we began to review that
budget to see if we are short money for
mandatory programs like education and
healthcare. In this year’s supplemental budget,
we agreed to spend $81 million to fund our
successful PeachCare for Kids program that
provides health insurance for children of
low-income families. We also spent $8 million
for the public defenders program and $40 million
to aid the start up of a new Kia auto
manufacturing facility.
We agreed to send
some excess revenues back to the providers of
the funds, and that would be you, the taxpayer.
We are giving back $142 million in a one-time
tax refund of property taxes. That will amount
to almost a $100 refund on the average to
Georgia homeowners. However the Governor
Vetoed it. The Speaker call for a Veto override
and we in the House did our job, unfortunately
the Senate did not. The Georgia Constitution
states that the supplemental budget is optional
not required, so it seems that we may not have
one this year. I’ll write more on this next
week.
For questions
comments or suggestions please feel free to call
me
in Ringgold at 706.937.4304 or
write with me concerns State Rep Ron Forster
P.O. Box 100 Ringgold GA 30736 or
email Ron.Forster@house.ga.gov.
####
Cordially,
Ronald L. Forster
Chair, Interstate Cooperation
Representative HD-3
P.O. Box 100
Ringgold, GA 30736
706-937-4304 (ofc/fax)
http://www.gasrd3.org
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Mar 21, 2007
Blowing Smoke
(RINGGOLD) - State Representative Ron Forster
Why is it that rich liberals think they are the ones
to help "the poor and
needy"? And normally their solution is to tax
middle income America to
"spread the wealth". Let us look at the Truth
through statistical and
historical analysis to determine what we should do
on the issue of the
government regulation of wages provided to workers
in a privately owned
business (minimum wage).
The Truth of the Natural Price (Wage) of
a Free Market: It seems most
liberals also never read a book by Adam Smith "An
Inquiry into the Nature
and Causes of the Wealth of Nations". Smith says,
if a product shortage
were to occur, that product's price in the market
would rise, creating
incentive for its production and a reduction in its
consumption, eventually curing the shortage. The
increased competition among
manufacturers an
increased supply would also lower the price of the
product to its production
cost plus a small profit, the "natural price." Smith
believed that while
human motives are often selfish and greedy, the
competition in the free
market would tend to benefit society as a whole
anyway.
According to a survey of 336 labor economists, all
members of the American
Economic Association, Seventy-Five (75) percent of
respondents said that a
living wage would require employers to hire
entry-level employees with
greater skills and experience than current
standards; since labor will cost
more, employers will demand more efficiency and
production from employees.
In addition, ONLY SEVEN (7) percent of those
responding agreed that the
living wage is an efficient means of fighting
poverty. ["The Living Wage:
Survey of Labor Economists", The Employment Policies
Institute (EPI)].
When liberals give us a picture of the typical
minimum-wage worker, they are
(more often than not) blowing smoke. They portray a
mother (or father) with
at least two children, who are unable to make ends
meet on the $10,700
provided by the minimum wage [the poverty line for a
family of three $17,170
- 2007 HHS Poverty Guidelines]. Although this may be
true in some cases, the
fact is the great majority of "minimum wagers" are
much different.
The total number of workers in America over the age
of 16 is ~152 Million
[USDOL Bureau of Labor Statistics]. The total
number of people on the
federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour is much fewer
than most people
imagine: as of 2006, only around 2 million workers.
Fifty-Three (53) percent
are under the age of 25--most of them students or
weekend workers; and Sixty
(60) percent work only part-time. Within this
majority pool of youth
"minimum wagers," two-thirds (66%) come from
families with at least one
other family member earning income. Four-fifths
(80%) belong to families
above the poverty line. In fact, the average income
of the family of a young
individual earning minimum wage is just over
$64,000.
The Truth of the Typical Minimum-Wage Worker: the
majority of minimum wagers
are youths, most of whom come from well-off
families. Meanwhile, a hike in
the minimum wage will hurt low-skilled workers most
because those jobs will
be increasingly difficult to find. The median hours
worked by the highest
earner of a poor household was 1,720 --
significantly less than full time:
2,080 hours per year.
Even The Association of Community Organizations for
Reform Now (ACORN), a
liberal workers' rights organization, has sued the
State of California in an
attempt to AVOID having to pay its own employees the
state's $4.25 per hour
minimum wage (increase in 1997). In its legal brief,
ACORN said "that the
more it must pay each worker, the fewer workers it
can hire" ["Living Wage"
Kills Jobs, Idea House, National Center for Policy
Analysis, 1997].
Look at how Georgia's economy has grown. The states
that are mandating
minimum wages higher (to significantly higher) than
the federal limit are
losing jobs and they are coming to Georgia. And the
free market is causing
the wages of Georgians to increase as the supply and
demand for those jobs
grow. But hey don't just take my word for it -
research it yourself. I
believe in the Truth, and the Truth can't be bad for
business.
For questions comments or suggestions please feel
free to call me at the
Capitol 404-656-3947 or write with me concerns
State Rep Ron Forster CLOB
Rm 614 State Capitol Atlanta Georgia 30334 or email
Ron.Forster@house.ga.gov.
####
Cordially,
Ronald L. Forster
Chair, Interstate Cooperation
Representative HD-3
P.O. Box 100
Ringgold, GA 30736
706-937-4304 (ofc/fax)
http://www.gasrd3.org |
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State Representative Ron Forster's
Capitol Update
March 4, 2007
We have completed 24 days of the state
constitutionally-mandated no more
than 40 legislative day session. The situation is
progressing positively on
the budget front, especially in light of the
shortfall for the PeachCare
health insurance program for children. Indications
from the U.S. Congress
are that they will make up a portion of the
shortfall, but to what amount is
uncertain. That will be a positive outcome to what
could have been a budget
nightmare with this program that provides health
insurance to children of
poorer families. Congress has about a billion
dollars of unspent S-Chip
monies available from states that did not use their
allotment last year.
The most controversial issue taking place currently
under the "Gold Dome" is
Certificate of Need (CON). CON is the process in
which a hospital or
medical facility must receive a CON from the state.
The process was adopted
in the early 1990's as an attempt by the federal
government to keep
healthcare costs lower by only allowing medical
facilities that were needed
based on a formula of potential patients in an area
and how many similar
services were being provided. The federal
government did away with the
program after it was determined that it didn't lower
healthcare costs and
left it to the individual states to determine if
they wanted to do away with
the CON process. Most states did away with CON or
greatly reduced its
impact. Georgia did not. The impact for us is a
cumbersome process in
which the ability to create new health businesses,
open new hospitals,
expand current ones, or offer new services is
slowed, stifled or outright
denied.
Last year, the Legislature created a CON study
committee which held hearings
and issued a report. From that process, several
bills have been introduced
including one form Governor Sonny Perdue. The bills
range from the total
repeal of CON to an adoption of the CON study report
findings. The House of
Representatives has created a special CON committee
to hold hearings and
vote on CON bills in the House. The Senate is
sending their CON legislation
to their Health and Human Services Committee. In
the next few weeks we will
start seeing the direction that the legislature may
want to take, but for
now, it's an open debate.
We handled several pieces of legislation tied to law
enforcement. House
Bill 168 made the requirements for associate
juvenile court judges the same
as juvenile court judges including being 30 years of
age, been a citizen of
the state for at least 3 years, and having practiced
law for 5 years. We
approved a raise for district attorneys making their
pay more in line with
Superior Court judges in H.B. 319. We also passed
H.B. 155, a bill
requiring a mandatory background check for owners of
personal care homes,
private home care providers, community living
arrangements and child welfare
agencies. The bill also makes it unlawful for an
owner to operate any of
these businesses with a criminal record. All of
these bills easily passed
and now head to the Senate.
To help our continued desire to always protect
society's most vulnerable
from unscrupulous individuals, we passed H.B. 233,
legislation that added
the term "exploitation" in the long-term care code
section. The language
would include "exploitation" as the improper use of
a disabled or elder
person's resources and property through undue
influence, coercion,
harassment, duress, false representation or false
pretence. Please do not
hesitate to let me know your position or feelings on
these or any other
issue.
I am getting an inside view to let you know what is
going on. You can reach
me at 404.656.3947 in Atlanta or 706.937.4304 when I
am back in Ringgold.
Or e-mail me at
Ron.Forster@house.ga.gov .
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Jan 29, 2007
2007 Georgia General Assembly
WK2
(RINGGOLD)
– State Representative Ron Forster
The
Georgia General Assembly is in full swing as we
have been in session for nine legislative days.
As many of you know, by the Georgia
Constitution, we can meet for no more than 40
days. The House of Representatives and the
Senate have spent the better part of the week
holding Committee meetings. This is part of the
Republican agenda of allowing more bills to be
debated in committees where they can have more
time for a careful studying of the legislation
before it is moved to the full body for
deliberation. It is part of the “checks and
balance” of the legislative process to insure
only the most worthy of legislation is debated
and passed by their respective bodies. In
addition, the committee process also allows for
bills to be amended and corrected before the
full debate. We also have adopted a Republican
principle of “less government is better” and
thus we are not interested in passing
legislation for the sake of passing legislation.
One piece
of legislation that was readily passed in
committee was House Resolution 50, a resolution
of the House of Representatives that asks the
Attorney General of the
United States to not allow the hostile takeover
of Delta Airlines by USAir. The wording of the
resolution truly shows that we as a body of
Representatives are greatly opposed to the
pending takeover efforts and we believe that the
economic base of Georgia would be greatly hurt
by a successful hostile takeover. As many of
you can imagine, Delta Airlines is one of the
largest employers in the state and uses
Hartsfield Jackson International Airport as its
main hub. It is through Delta that we can claim
the title of “world’s busiest airport.” It has
passed unanimously out of the Economic
Development & Tourism Committee and is expected
to be passed next week by the full House.
One other
piece of legislation making its way through the
committee process is House Bill 132. This piece
of legislation, while not much interest for most
of the state of Georgia,
is incredibly important. It raises the number
of licensed river pilots from 17 to 21 for the
Port of Savannah, increases from 6 to 8 for the
Port of Brunswick, and provides for three at the
Port of Doboy and Darien, 2 for the Great
Satilla River, and 2 for the Port of St. Marys.
This is a true reflection of the importance that
our ports play and as the use of the ports have
rapidly increased proving to be a leading
economic mainstay for the state. Our ports
serve as trade import and export locations for
massive amounts materials and products.
Much time
has also been spent by the Appropriations
Committee in preparing the Amended Fiscal Year
2007 Budget that began
July 1, 2006. As I discussed before, the
supplemental budget allows us make corrections
to the FY 07 budget, usually adding more money
for education and healthcare costs. As a Member
of the Appropriations Committee I have been
diligently participating in the committee
proceedings.
For
questions comments or suggestions please feel
free to call me at the Capitol 404-656-3947 or
write with me concerns State Rep Ron Forster
CLOB Rm 614 State Capitol
Atlanta
Georgia 30334 or email Ron.Forster@house.ga.gov
####
Cordially,
Ronald L. Forster
Chair, Interstate Cooperation
Representative HD-3
P.O. Box 100
Ringgold, GA 30736
706-937-4304 (ofc/fax)
http://www.gasrd3.org
Notice: This communication contains
information that may be confidential.
Except for personal use by the intended
recipient, or as expressly authorized by
the sender, any person who receives this
information is prohibited from
disclosing, copying, distributing and/or
using it. If you have received this
communication in error, please
immediately delete it and all copies,
and promptly notify the sender.
Nothing in this communication is
intended to operate as an electronic
signature under applicable law.
_______________________________________________
FORSTER mailing list
FORSTER@lists.catt.com
http://lists.catt.com/listinfo.cgi/forster
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Jan 29, 2007
2007 Georgia General Assembly Begins
(RINGGOLD)
– State Representative Ron
Forster
Last week,
the Governor unveiled his Amended Fiscal Year
2007 and his Fiscal Year 2008 budget
recommendations. The General Assembly reviews
two budgets a year. The first is the review of
the FY 2007 budget which begins July 1 every
year. In January, we begin to review that
budget to see if we are short money for
mandatory programs like education and
healthcare. The second budget, or what we call
the “big budget,” is used to set spending policy
to fund the state government for the upcoming
fiscal year. The Governor each year introduces
his mid-year corrections and his policy and
program funding for the next year. We, the
General Assembly, are tasked with reviewing the
budget and making changes where we see fit. It
is part of the oversight responsibility that the
citizens have to insure that the Governor is
doing the right thing.
Education
is one of the biggest programs that we are
required to fund. The Governor has requested
$152.5 million in funds for the Quality Based
Education formula to recognize a 2.65%
enrollment growth in our schools. He also
requested $417 million in bonds to build more
schools. There was a line item of $178 million
for teacher pay raises keeping Georgia’s
teachers the best paid in the Southeast. That
is a 3% pay raise across the board beginning
September 1, 2007.
He also requested $89.5 million for step
increases, with an additional 3% pay raise for
our best teachers. It also included an
additional $228 million for construction at
higher education facilities.
Healthcare
is the other big spending program with much of
it s spending dedicated to federally-mandated
programs. The state budget for just state
employees’ healthcare is $176 million with an
additional $100 million set aside to help fund
state employee retirements. The budget also
requested an earmark of $16 million to fully
fund the purchase of antiviral medications to
treat a pandemic flu and $9 million for
additional operating costs at state hospitals.
In the
Governor’s attempt to reduce taxes, he has
allocated $142 million over 5 years to eliminate
income taxes on retired seniors over the age of
65. To help spur economic development which in
turns creates jobs, the Governor has set aside
$40.5 million for the West Point Development
Authority to be used on expenses for the new KIA
car assembly plant in
West
Georgia. His
budget also seeks to expand the state’s overseas
marketing budget by 135% by investing $1.5
million in marketing initiatives.
In the law
enforcement arena, the Governor has asked for
$15 million to fund an additional 1,200 prison
beds and an additional $24 million in bonds to
fund an additional 1,000 beds. He also wants
$1.4 million to add 15 new Georgia
Bureau of Investigations Meth Force agents. He
also has asked for an additional $50 million for
undeveloped land under the Land Conservation
Act.
As the
General Assembly is responsible for the funding
of the state government, we will be reviewing
the budgets thoroughly. This week, members of
the House and Senate Appropriations Committees,
a committee in which I serve, met to hear from
the various department heads on what they were
asking for in the Governor’s budget and to
answer questions that we have of their
departments. This exercise in good government
will take several weeks before we come back with
our recommendations and changes.
For
questions comments or suggestions please feel
free to call me at the Capitol 404-656-3947 or
write with me concerns State Rep
Ron Forster CLOB Rm 614 State
Capitol Atlanta Georgia 30334 or email Ron.Forster@house.ga.gov
####
Cordially,
Ronald L. Forster
Chair, Interstate Cooperation
Representative HD-3
P.O. Box 100
Ringgold, GA 30736
706-937-4304 (ofc/fax)
http://www.gasrd3.org
Notice: This communication contains
information that may be confidential.
Except for personal use by the intended
recipient, or as expressly authorized by
the sender, any person who receives this
information is prohibited from
disclosing, copying, distributing and/or
using it. If you have received this
communication in error, please
immediately delete it and all copies,
and promptly notify the sender. Nothing
in this communication is intended to
operate as an electronic signature under
applicable law.
_______________________________________________
FORSTER mailing list
FORSTER@lists.catt.com
http://lists.catt.com/listinfo.cgi/forster
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