Day 8- January 28, 2009

Tonight on Lawmakers, a plan to create a special local tax to ease Georgia’s transportation problems, property owners may be in danger of losing their homestead tax relief grant and a House Committee hears testimony about a recent peanut butter recall.

The Senate Transportation Committee today gave do pass recommendations to Senate Bill 39 and Senate Resolution 44. These are the pieces of legislation that propose a special local option sales tax to help ease Georgia’s transportation woes. Similar legislation in 2008 for a T-SPLOST (transportation special local option sales tax) failed in the final hours of the session. Lawmakers’ Valarie Edwards has that story.

Are property owners in danger of losing their homestead tax relief grant? Governor Sonny Perdue has recommended that legislators cut the grant, which would create $429 million in revenue for the State, but could cost homeowners $200-300 each. Lawmakers’ Minoo Hosseini has the details.

Representative Winfred Dukes told our Nwandi Lawson today that the Democrats have a proposal that would put that homeowners' tax relief grant (HTRG) into the State Constitution. We’ll have a preview of what that legislation could mean.

WACG Augusta Bureau Chief Mary Ellen Cheatham continues GPB Radio’s “Money Crunch” series. She’ll tell us how homeowners and County Commissioners in Augusta are reacting to the possible loss of the HTRG.

Senator George Hooks took the well this morning to announce ethics legislation that he plans to introduce in the near future. He says the bill would fix a loophole dealing with campaign contributions that Senator Hooks says have been a point of contention in the recent scandal involving Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture is pushing for new legislation after the investigation of a Blakely peanut plant revealed that the plant had knowingly shipped peanut product containing salmonella. Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin spoke to the House Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee this morning. Lawmakers’ Tiana Fernandez has more.

And the State of Technology forecast for Georgia. Lawmakers’ Emily Banks has the details.

All that and more tonight on Lawmakers at 7 PM.

Lawmakers repeats on GPB Radio at 8 PM tonight and on GPB television at 5:30 AM tomorrow morning. You can also catch a repeat of Lawmakers on GPB Knowledge at 7 AM tomorrow. GPB Knowledge is available to those with digital television receivers at .3 of your local GPB transmitter, for example 20.3 in Augusta, or 8.3 in Atlanta.