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Representative Ron Forster |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Merry Christmas in February2006 General AssemblyFebruary 06, 2006 -- Ringgold, GA – With the completion of this week, the Georgia General Assembly has finished thirteen days of the forty legislative days we are given by constitutional law. Last year we actually finished the “people’s business” in 39 days, the first early adjournment in recent memory. The biggest issue we are tasked with is the two budget bills we must complete every year. This year is no different. The first budget bill that we review is the Fiscal Year 2006 Budget. We are tasked with determining if the budget is fully funded especially in regards to mandated programs like education and Medicaid. The second budget is the Fiscal Year 2007 budget which becomes effective on July 1, 2006, the start of the state fiscal year. This budget will comprise of $17 billion in state programs including education, roads, and health care. One of the most important bills in which we will debate this session came to the House floor on Thursday. It was House Bill 1059, the sexual predators’ bill. The first thing the bill does is put teeth in the sentencing of sexual predators that prey on our children. It will require lifetime probation for offenders convicted of serious violent felonies after a minimum of 25years in prison. It also creates a new crime of aiding or harboring a sex offender. It also strengthens the existing law requiring predators to re-register every six months and sets residency, workplace and loitering restrictions. This may well be one of the toughest sexual predator laws in the country, and it is one we need so to protect our children. This bill passed 144-27. One bill in which we debated and I fully supported is House Bill 950, a bill that prohibits governmental entities in the state of Georgia from restricting or prohibiting a public employee or public school student from verbal expressions relating to the celebrations or observance of any public or legal holiday. Affectionately known as the “Merry Christmas” bill, we easily passed this bill 136-25. What I find amazing is that 25 state representatives wanted to extinguish our freedom of speech and prohibit the saying of Merry Christmas. In a related bill we codified the ability of counties to post religious documents in a historical educational context and directed the state Attorney General to defend those counties that display documents that are sued by anti-religious entities such as the American Civil Liberties Union. That bill passed 146-20. We also strengthened the rules that notary publics are required to follow. We basically have changed the wording and now fully require all notaries in Georgia to be at least 18 years old, a resident of the state of Georgia, a resident of the county in which they are appointed, have an operating telephone number and be able to read and write English. The minor change was unanimously endorsed. We passed H.B. 718, a pretrial intervention and diversion program bill that will now direct the fees collected for pretrial intervention programs to be given to the jurisdiction prosecuting the case rather than the county that the crime was committed. Fees collected for these pretrial intervention programs can run up to $300. The bill easily passed by a 158-3 margin. On the lighter side, we honored Paula Dean, the world-famous cook that now resides in Savannah. Her restaurant and cooking shows have become a major tourist attraction for the state. She originally hailed from the Albany area before creating the Lady and Sons Restaurant in Savannah. I believe we all need to be informed about how our elected officials are representing us. I am getting an inside view that I want to share with everyone. Representative Ron Forster is serving his third two year term in the Georgia House of Representatives. He Chairs the Interstate Cooperation committee and also serves on the Public Utilities & Telecommunication, Appropriations and Insurance committees. In 2004 the American Legislative Exchange Council named him legislator of the year. His email address is ron.forster@house.ga.gov and he has a website at www.gasrd3.org. #### For More Information Contact:
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