Budget Day 2- January 23, 2008

Tonight on Lawmakers, Budget Briefings continue before the Joint Appropriations Committee, a Senate committee conducts hearings on Brain Fingerprinting, and the Grady Coalition holds a press conference.

Heads of the University System of Georgia, the Departments of Education, Technical and Adult Education, and Transportation testified today before the Joint Appropriations Committee. University System Chancellor Erroll Davis fielded questions from the committee about the shortage of physicians in Georgia. It is estimated that 50 percent of doctors educated in Georgia move their careers to other states. State School Superintendent Kathy Cox said that funding for Georgia’s public schools is not meeting the requirement set forth in the current funding formula. Representatives from the Superior Courts, the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council and the Court of Appeals also testified.

The Senate Brain Fingerprinting Study Committee held hearings today. Creators of a new technology that may prove useful in law enforcement demonstrate the “brain fingerprinting” before the study committee. Lawmakers’ Minoo Hosseini has more.

Rep. Joe Heckstall and Sen. Vincent Fort held a press conference today to call for state funding for Grady Hospital, Georgia’s largest public hospital. More on that story in tomorrow’s Lawmakers broadcast.


Watch Lawmakers tonight at 7PM online or on GPB television. This episode of Lawmakers repeats tomorrow morning at 5:30AM on GPB TV.