Perdue Busy as Deadlines for Bills and Resolutions Nears
By midnight Wednesday, Gov. Sonny Perdue must make a final decision on bills and resolutions sent to him from the Georgia General Assembly, which wrapped up the 2009 session in early April.
Perdue took action on several bills of note Monday, signing SB 200, a hodgepodge transit governance bill he advocated before lawmakers made changes, into law.
Originally, SB 200 proposed gutting the board that oversees the Georgia DOT and giving most of that power to a new state transportation authority. Instead, lawmakers passed changed SB 200, leaving the DOT board in place but creating a director of planning to be nominated by the governor and approved by the House Transportation Committee.
Lawmakers, along with the planning director, will have power over millions for specific road projects.
Perdue also signed HB 261, which would provide an $1,800 tax credit over three years for home purchases.
The governor issued three signing statements for bills he signed and issued 16 vetoes, notably HB 481, which would have cut Georgia’s capital gains tax and created new tax breaks for businesses. Click here to read more about the signing statements and vetoes.
Also of note out of Perdue’s office Monday – the announcement of state revenue figures for April ‘09. The news is troubling: For April ‘09, the state’s net revenue collections totaled $1.399 billion, down from $1.76 billion in April ‘08 for an eye-popping decrease of 20.6 percent. The percentage decrease year-to-date for Fiscal Year ‘09 compared to Fiscal Year ‘08 is 9.5 percent.