Press Releases 2003

The first day of the 2003 legislative session did not start out well for Governor Perdue. Rep. Larry Walker at 9:30 am withdrew from the House Speakers race when several legislators who had committed to him withdrew that support. Larry was running as a coalition (Republicans and Democrats) candidate. Rep. Terry Coleman, the candidate of the Democrat Caucus, won, which means the legislature is likely to be in grid lock more often than if Larry had won.

The swearing in ceremony of Gov. Perdue at Phillips Arena was stirring. However, the three planes that flew overhead as we arrived and departed with various flag messages was a negative. The one that annoyed me the most was the banner that read, “Roy Barnes was a warm-up”; an obvious threat to Gov. Perdue. Then on Tuesday the same planes flew over the capitol while about 100 demonstrators waved the former flags.

I told one of the demonstrators that they are hurting their cause. Few, if any, of us will be intimidated into voting a certain way. Also the Governor has already committed that he will use his influence to get the legislature to put this issue on the ballot in November 2004. Our practice has been to consider ballot issues in the year they are to go on the ballot (2004). Meanwhile, we have far more pressing issues to handle such as trying to pass a balanced budget that preserves key governmental services such as public education and child safety without any tax increases and to get the Georgia economy moving forward again.

Wednesday Governor Perdue delivered his budget address. Some early reactions are self centered. As an example, some teachers are unhappy that they aren’t going to get a pay raise next year. They should consider they have had significant increases, well above inflation, for the past ten years. Also, they are teaching smaller classes, have outstanding health insurance and retirement benefits which will cost tax payers more in the next year, none are losing their jobs and education is being cut less than any other area. Finally, most will get a step increase based on an additional year of experience. Contrast this to the millions of unemployed, underemployed or those holding jobs that could be eliminated at anytime. Also, Gov. Perdue is going to involve educators in education reform and more importantly he wants more decision making at the local level and in the class room.

I am a supporter of public education and I recognize teachers have a difficult and vital job; but so do most of us. We are in a recession and those of us fortunate enough to have good jobs, including most teachers, need to be thankful for that and realize this is a time where we need to subordinate self interests when doing so could help those being hurt by the recession.

Smokers, retailers, cigarette manufacturers, etc., are up in arms about a proposed increase in the tobacco and alcohol taxes. Republicans, and hopefully key Democrats, are working to reduce the budget to avoid any tax increases. While I don’t like any tax increase if you have to have one you couldn’t pick a better one. Smokers cost tax payers billions of dollars each year in health care costs through Medicaid, Medicare and public health plans for teachers and state employees. Therefore it’s a use tax. Also this tax will stop an estimated 3500 teenagers a year from smoking due to the increased cost.

The part of the Governor’s budget that gave me the most heart burn was the reduction in the homestead exemption. We have increased this each year for the past four years. As a matter of fact the Governor’s proposed amended budget (we always make mid year adjustments to the current year budget - July 1, 2002 to June 30, 2003) provides funding for the previously agreed upon increase from $8,000 to $10,000. However, the 2004 budget starting July 1, 2003 calls for a reduction to $4,000 or an increase of $131.00 on the average property tax bill we receive next fall.

Gov. Perdue, unlike his predecessor, has invited the House and Senate to prepare an alternative budget. Since the Democrats have done budgets for decades, they should know where there are some hidden abuses on the revenue side . One example could be the 26 exemptions we have on the sales tax. On the expense side they have increased expenditures from 6.9 billion in 1992 to over 16 billion in 2003! Our House Republican Caucus has already formed task forces to try to improve on what the Governor proposed. In the last several days I’ve had a constituent call saying many gas retailers are not paying what they should in motor fuel taxes. Another claims, the Georgia Technology Authority Gov. Barnes created has millions in wasted expenditures. A consultant has told me he could save approximately $500,000,000 per year in Medicaid costs. Believe me all of these are being fully investigated.

The harsh reality is the Governor’s performance based budgeting which will expose many programs that need to be reduced or eliminated will not start to kick in until next year. Secondly, he inherited a lousy budget process. Also we are paying the price for over spending in the prior two years when we knew we were in a recession. Finally, the Governor had from Nov. 6 to Dec. 16, 2002 to prepare this budget.

Gov. Perdue did not submit a perfect budget. Hopefully the legislative process will improve upon it, as it should . Nonetheless I feel very good about our great state being led by a compassionate conservative. His life is spiritually based, he has an unblemished track record, knows state government, is very bright, believes in building coalitions and has boundless energy.

BAD START FOR DEMOCRATS

January 22, 2003

Last week I described the rough first week Governor Perdue had. However, his problems pale in comparison to those being experienced by the Democrats.

For the first time for any of them there isn’t a Democrat in the Governor’s office. This will have a rippling effect in terms of influence, getting legislation passed, being in the know, etc. Republican legislators got our first taste of this when we were invited to the Governor’s mansion at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday preceding Governor Perdue’s budget address. We were forewarned of the bad news and discussed what we could do to overcome this.

In the Senate, on the first day of the session, Democrat Lt. Governor Mark Taylor was removed from a position of power by the Republican majority. No longer will he select committee heads, delay or accelerate a certain bill, etc. He will in essence only be the “Senate Parliamentarian”.

While the Democrats in the House elected their nominee for Speaker there are many chinks in the armor. The 15 Democrats who supported the coalition candidate can not be counted on to always vote with their leadership as they have in the past. Speaker Coleman and others helped to insure this with their punitive treatment of them following the Speaker election last Monday. Further some of Speaker Coleman’s selections as Committee Chairs riled some of the remaining 92 Democrats.

The fact that all 34 committee chairs in the House are Democrats while the Republican controlled Senate selected four Democrat chairs is not going unnoticed by the public. Also, they are already seeing that the redistricting being proposed by Republicans to try and correct the maps created by the Democrats is no where near as partisan. Finally, there is a growing recognition by the public that while Governor Perdue’s budget was criticized by the press, he was handed a bad hand due to the recession and the Democrats prior mismanagement. As an aside it is encouraging to suddenly see most of us trying to cut the state budget and close revenue loopholes. I’m optimistic that we can find enough of these to avoid most, if not all, of the proposed tax increases.

By law we can only be in session 40 days. Last week we used up five of these, but really we could have done what we did in two days. Therefore, we’re already building for the last minute rush at the end of the session which results in some bad legislation.

One of the most encouraging things that happened the first week was significant changes implemented by Governor Perdue as to the ethics of his office. As one example he will not meet one on one with a lobbyist. He also will have his floor leaders introduce ethics legislation for all elected officials. This is needed to help restore Georgia citizens confidence in their elected officials. I am sorry some Republicans are not more supportive of his proposals across the board.

This week we are not in session. This provides time for the Appropriations Committee to start reviewing the amended 2003 budget and the 2004 budget proposed by Governor Perdue.

I still have some slots available for Pages for this session. You must be at least 12 years old. If interested call my Legislative Aides, Elizabeth Montgomery or Meg McLeod at 404-656-0177.

During the session I can be contacted at the above number or you can e-mail me at jbrown@legis.state.ga.us.

Week Three

January 30, 2003

A year ago when I reported on Governor Barnes’ State of the State speech the article was titled, “Barnes Sugarcoats State of State”. Increasingly we are finding out how true this was and that the actions he took compounded the budget crisis that we are in today. Please consider that he put $400,000,000 of expenses into bonded indebtedness. Further, he reduced by $100,000,000 the state’s contributions to the Teacher Retirement plans to reduce expenses. Also, he took $200,000,000 from what should have been budget year 2003 monies into 2002 to cover a shortfall. Finally, only 7 states had a higher increase in general fund expenditures from 1997-2002.

Governor Perdue gave his State of the State Monday night and there was no such sugarcoating. Again, he stressed the harsh realities of our budget and the effect the recession is having on our state. That said he still gave us a vision of all of the many positives that we have as a state and how this can be parlayed into a bright future.

Also, in the article a year ago, I said the following, “the truth is that Medicaid is $400,000,000 over budget, gives those who pay nothing for it more choices than those who pay for their health insurance and it requires no personal responsibility.” The situation has only gotten worse with Medicaid and also with Peach Care for kids, State Employee Health plans for state employees, teachers and the retirees and the plan we have for college and university employees/retirees. I am chairing a task force within our caucus to look for savings in those areas. As previously reported there can be substantial savings without reducing the quality of care. One huge need is to cap non economic damages in medical mal practice suits. The absurd jury awards are increasing the cost of healthcare and driving out doctors.

The above ties to my comment in last week’s article, “I’m optimistic that we can find enough of them (expense reductions and closing revenue loop holes) to avoid most, if not all, of the proposed tax increases.” Good news! Governor Perdue in his State of the State speech recommended that we keep the Homestead Exemption for 2004 and future years at $10,000 and that it be soundly funded vs. how Governor Barnes did it. Contrary to what Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor said this was not a change of mind by Gov. Perdue. He invited us to find savings in the budget because he nor we, and certainly not you, want tax increases. Already we have found $285,000,000, which he is using to fund the homestead exemption.

Finally, in the article a year ago I mentioned the need for much stronger ethics laws. I am delighted to tell you that this week the Perdue administration introduced four pieces of legislation intended to do exactly that. I whole heartedly support them.

The customary practice of cramming most of what we do into the final days of the session created yet another problem. We had good intentions with the predatory lending bill that we passed last year. However because Governor Barnes insisted on certain provisions and we really didn’t have time to give it a full airing, we have created a true mortgage problem in this state. On a positive note new legislation, that I think will be passed very quickly, should correct this problem. Nonetheless the problem of the moment should have never happened.

By the time you read this, we will have completed ten days of our forty day session and have yet to do anything of significance except hear the Governor’s budget and State of the State speeches and to organize ourselves. Therefore, we’re heading for exactly the same situation described above.

If you would like to communicate with me you can call at 404-656-0177 or email me at jbrown@legis.state.ga.us. If you’re coming to the Capitol, please let me know so that we can get together. I have had a lot of visitors already.

HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE

February 5, 2003

This week I heard the report of the Legislative Task Force on Health Insurance Options for Small Businesses and the Working Uninsured. In my opinion, their recommendations call for too much government and miss some very obvious solutions - some listed below. Previously on January 31, Don Howard wrote, in the LaGrange Daily News, an article entitled: Change Health Care Delivery. Basically, he called for outright socialization of health care.

In regards to Don’s proposal, look at Medicaid, Medicare and Canada/England, etc. who have socialized medicine. This should give all of us pause before wanting more government in health care. Instead for the balance of this article, I will present proven improvements, many of which you can do something about.

First, a tremendous amount of our health care costs are caused by lack of personal responsibility. Obesity, lack of exercise, smoking, excessive drinking, etc. are examples. There are reputable studies that say this accounts for almost 50% of total health care cost!

Secondly, I’ve seen estimates that upwards of 17% of the total health care cost is because of lack of tort reform. This includes the cost of malpractice insurance which has been going up as much as 50% a year, driving doctors out of practice and closing hospitals. The threat of lawsuits causes extra exams and procedures being ordered by the doctor despite not being medically needed. However, if he or she had not ordered such and a problem later developed, there could be liability. We need our Representatives and Senators in Georgia to pass meaningful tort reform this session!

In his book, Saving Lives and Saving Money, Newt Gringrich says, “the principle of the third party payer system is profoundly wrong.” He advocates that patients and providers deal directly without a third party. The recently enacted Health Savings Accounts could aid this, IF we can get the high deductibility insurance at a more reasonable cost. Allowing individuals the same tax breaks for their insurance premiums as companies receive for supplying health insurance to their employees, allowing individuals to buy health insurance as part of a pool, having a high risk pool and getting rid of some of the mandates passed by the Georgia Legislature (we are up to 28) which drive up the cost of health insurance for small businesses would make health insurance more affordable.

There are a number of best practices, free market solutions and examples of providers more reliant on computer versus paper than most that are working in various locations in our state.

I have written repeatedly that Medicaid is out of control. Why? Because Georgia is long overdue to go from a fee for service model to a management model for the Medicaid population. Had we done this last year when I first proposed it, much of the consternation by local school boards over $255,000,000 being moved down to the local level for payment would be a mute point. Also on average Medicaid recipients abuse the health care system. This needs to stop!

I believe that many of the Task Force recommendations, and Don Howard’s in particular, would make a bad situation worse. We need to get behind the suggestions above that others are already doing for a true transformation of our health care system.

If you would like to contact Representative Brown, please visit his website (www.repjbrown.org), call his office at the capitol (404-656-0177), or email him (jbrown@legis.state.ga.us).

February 6, 2003

Last week, I reported on a meeting that I had with a health care expert who claims the state could save $500,000,000 per year on what we pay out for Medicaid, Peach Care for Kids and state employee health benefit plans. Since then I have spent over 30 hours in Appropriation Committee hearings and in meetings, with other legislators, Department of Community Health, budget analysts, consultant, lobbyists, etc. to determine the validity of such claims.

Numerous impressions, realities, observations and frustrations are emerging. No question, our budgets for health care are exceedingly complex. This is compounded by my time constraints and lack of expertise. The time constraints include the fact that myself and others within our caucus looking into other budget areas have legislative sessions, committee meetings, constituent work, receptions, answering e-mails, doing homework on legislation, etc. plus most of us have jobs back home that require some daily attention. This is one reason most of us in the legislature gravitate to one or two areas where we try to develop a knowledge base; mine has become health care. Nonetheless, we all have to vote and be informed on a myriad of other areas.

Contrast my time and expertise constraints with a complex subject and that those who run the effected agencies are full time and specialize. Further, there are advocacy groups and lobbyists, with interest in the way things are which obviously is threatened by any attempt at reducing or eliminating a budget item. An expression I heard this week: “was the juice worth the squeeze” this says that each of us needs to make sure the end result was worth the effort.

My efforts received coverage in the Atlanta Journal and on GPTV. This in turn produced some opposition to what I am doing and some new found friends with further ideas of how we can reduce health care expenditures within the state budget. One brought me four ideas he claims would save $40,000,000 per year. Another represents a company that took over a state run mental health hospital and vastly improved outcomes i.e. average length of stay was over 6 years before they took over. They reduced it to under one year and saved money.

The most disappointing but in retrospect not surprising event of the past few days was a blistering e-mail sent by a former bureaucrat in the areas of my budget cutting focus to one of the people giving us ideas. He attacked the person’s integrity, totally dismissed every idea this person had presented and belittled his knowledge and experience. Further, he sent copies to a number of key people.

Listen, I’m not so naive as to believe that we can achieve all, or for that matter, many of the suggestions we are receiving. There are federal regulations, some of which are outrageous, over statements of savings, inaccurate assessments of the present, etc. Nonetheless, there are some ways we can save big dollars in healthcare if we join forces and do some in a logical, well thought out manner that builds consensus; the above referenced e-mail not withstanding.

Through all of this progress is being made and, gratifyingly, some of those who should have been doing it in the past are joining us now. This is good news for Georgia! If we stay with it, increase our expertise, develop a better budget process and do as suggested above it will happen.

If you need to contact Rep. Jeff Brown you may do so by calling the LaGrange office at 706-884-3232, or call the Atlanta office at 404-656-0177 or via e-mail jbrown@legis.state.ga.us

February 13, 2003

To explain why I voted for the amended 2003 budget, which is something I had not planned to do, I want to use a sports analogy. I’m a player on team Georgia House. My coach is our Minority Leader, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland whom I have supported including encouraging him to run for that position. The General Manager of this team is Governor Sonny Perdue. My voters represent the ownership. Moving up the decision tree chain, I have political principals; largely reflective of what the Republican party stands for. On a few votes I must go with deeply held spiritual values regardless of the other decision factors.

Thursday, I “took one for the team”, as the expression goes. Wednesday night I had just finished several hours of writing up my final report on budget cutting proposals in the health care area that I have previously reported on. The last thing I did before going to bed was to outline the speech that I planned to give Thursday morning at 8:00 a.m. in our Caucus meeting, specifically held to discuss the vote later that day on the amended budget.

The eight reasons I wrote for voting ‘no’ were:

1. The process that we go through in the House Appropriations Committee is exceedingly poor. Despite the state being in a budget crisis, the House Appropriations Committee, in essence, did nothing with the Governor’s proposed budget.

2. It would be a concession that the House Republican Caucus couldn’t reduce the budget by 5%. I was going to make the point here; look at what we have done in three short weeks as a Republican Caucus to find possible cost savings. However, we basically ran out of time.

3. I would, in essence, be saying the Democrats really tried hard to cut this budget; they did not.

4. The Republican controlled Senate couldn’t significantly reduce or eliminate the $94 million shortfall.

5. Collectively, we can’t find $94 million in savings.

6. We can’t cover this shortfall by going into the rainy day fund and buying more time to look at the truly larger problem which is the 2004 budget.

7. This budget still has pork in it, albeit a lot less than we usually see.

8. I and all other House members have two more votes on this amended budget. That is when it comes back from the Senate with the inevitable changes which we could vote to accept. However, we always disagree and it goes to conference committee and then we have an up or down vote on what they agree to.

I decided to go to the well and make these points and hope that the Press would start talking this way versus continuing to blame Governor Perdue for this budget predicament. Secondly, at our Caucus meeting Thursday morning, it was pointed out that voting for this budget was not voting for a tax increase. That will be a separate vote later. Interestingly, if that fails and the amended budget is passed then by law we have to dip into the rainy day funds further than what had been planned which isn’t all bad.

For many of the factors mentioned above I did not have to go further up the decision chain than what my coach and general manager requested. As you can see some votes are exceedingly complex and have a lot of competing influences. However, in the end you have to vote red or green.

What amazes me is that 12 Republicans voted against their Coach and General Manager’s wishes BUT voted for the Roy Barnes budget last year; a tax and spend budget despite being in the middle of a recession!

To contact me during the session call me at 404-656-0177 or e-mail me at jbrown@legis.state.ga.us.

Week Five

February 20, 2003

Just like many of you, I go from one important issue to another important issue that requires a lot of my time while handling the myriad of day to day activities. So far this session, I have had two of those important issues; the wrapping up of the final report on the sub committee, I headed, looking at prescription drugs for low income seniors and looking into the budget for cost cutting ideas in health care.

The new important issue for me is HB 237 which is basically a water management bill. The LaGrange Daily news had a brief editorial against this bill on Saturday, 2/8/03. I appreciate the Upper Chattahoochee River Keeper in their River Chat Winter 2003 issue saying of me that I’ve, “been a vocal advocate for the Chattahoochee”. It’s because of that that at this point in time, I oppose some key elements of this bill. To learn more about it I have been talking to numerous parties on both sides of the issues.

As I said at the start, there are a host of other things that go on at the same time. Let me bring you up to date on a few. On a positive note; revenues for the state were up slightly in January versus January 2002. Contrast this to the fact that we were off 3.2% for the first six months of our fiscal year, (FY 2003 started July 1, 2002). Hopefully, this is a sign of the recession abating.

A tax amnesty bill was recently filed. Basically if you are past due with the state of Georgia, penalties and interest would be waived. This has my full support. This was last done about 10 years ago and raised about $50 million.

Speaker Coleman has a real problem on his hands trying to balance between the Black Caucus and the white Democrats. This split appears to be delaying passage of the predatory lending bill. Quite frankly, we should have had that done by Tuesday (2-18-03) which was the last day we were in session until Wednesday (2-26-03). This delay is going to affect hundreds of people, many of whom can least afford it.

There seems to be a bit of consensus starting to build that the pre 1956 flag may be a compromise. Interestingly, some research found that Thurbert Baker a black legislator then and now Attorney General, Tyrone Brooks, a member of the House and a long time Civil Rights leader among others, had recommended this many years ago.

The redistricting efforts going on in the Senate and soon in the House may face grid lock. Remember that it takes both houses to pass it and that the Democrats in the House, who constitute the majority, were elected in these districts. Believe me, self preservation for many of them is far more important than the fact that by just about everybody else’s opinion in this state, they were grossly unfair to the voters.

Since the budget still dominates much of our attention, let me give you my current thoughts on that. I think we need to pass the amended ‘03 budget which passed out of the House last week within the next two weeks and do so without any tax increases. I would then like to see us adjourn until late May and then finish the ‘04 budget. In the interim we should get into depth on what we have started in regard to unearthing those 6 to 8 hundred million dollars of expenditures that could be eliminated without reducing vital services; the fat, that’s been very cleverly hidden for decades. The truth is that we don’t have time now to do this if we continue with the session and have to vote on the ‘04 budget in several weeks. The likelihood of what I’m proposing actually happening is slightly above zero.

Among the nice things about some time off from the legislative session is that I can get caught up in my full time job and attend local activities. On Wednesday I was at the grand opening of T-Mobile National Fulfillment Center. It was a real coup for LaGrange to get this world class company with its 200+ employees. Thanks go to many including the LaGrange Industrial Development Authority and the Georgia Department of Labor. However, much of the credit can go to the employees who started working in LaGrange for Powertel that ultimately became T-Mobile. As T-Mobile V.P. Davey Solomon said, “you could see in their eyes the passion to do right.”

At Rotary we heard a presentation by Southface Energy Institute on energy saving ideas for our homes. Go to their website at www.southface.org for this and much more. There are a lot of things we can do to reduce home energy costs and to improve the air quality of our homes.

Emerging Trend

February 27, 2003

Gratification can come in a number of different ways. One way that I’m experiencing it right now is after saying for nine years that the budgeting process is poor, both parties are agreeing. Tuesday I attended a sub committee meeting of the Appropriations Committee on Community Health which is my area of responsibility for the Republican Budget Cutting Task Force. I couldn’t believe my ears when the Chairman said that instead of proposing their final recommendations for the 2004 budget that they needed more time. Further, he said they need to get into the “continuation” budget. Remember I have said for years that we do not look at 90% of the budget which in state terminology is the continuation part of the budget. Further, he said they need to look at some programs with the possibility that some may need to be eliminated.

Last week I proposed that to really do what I just described was going to take some time and that we should therefore take off for a month to do so. I went on to say that, “the chances of that happening were slightly above zero”. It’s still improbable but the odds have improved as various people involved with the appropriations process recognize that we can’t be in session and at the same time get in depth with the budget. We couldn’t pick a better year in which to finally dive into the budget because the alternative is to raise taxes.

More good news on the budget front is that the Senate Republicans with the amended ‘03 budget found savings of $91,000,000 of the $94,000,000 short fall. Also, we as a Republican House Caucus submitted our proposed savings to the Governor’s office and they totaled $631,000,000. Let me be the first to say that some of these are just not going to be doable, some of them may be unintentionally over stated, some of them may start to produce savings down the road but not in budget year ‘04 which starts July __ our present challenge. Nonetheless, both of these actions are exactly what we need to see a lot more of and very quickly for more efficient government, doing away with unnecessary programs, scaling back others, etc while not reducing vital services. Again the alternative is to increase taxes, which is particularly hurtful in the middle of a recession.

Another trend that is emerging is the slow but sure dismantling of much of what Governor Barnes did during his four year term. Just today (Thursday) the House passed by an overwhelming majority the restoration of the Fair Dismissal Act for Teachers which he had basically removed in his Education Reform bill. Other examples include back under the Department of Education. Also, Governor Perdue’s floor leaders introduced legislation making a lot of additional changes to Governor Barnes Education Reform bill. Other things that are being attempted include redistricting, the flag issue, predatory lending, etc. Obviously, having a Democratic House and a Republican Senate reduces the likelihood that all of this will be passed. However, some will by the legislature i.e. the Fair Dismissal Act and some will be by executive order such as the restoring functions to the Department of Education. Other examples include wholesale changes to various boards such as the school board which were desperately needed. These are done through the Governor’s appointment powers (he has over 3,000 appointments).

A third trend is the disturbing growth of bills that are engrossed when they are introduced. Several years ago the House leadership under Tom Murphy changed the rules to make engrossment easier. Basically, when a bill is engrossed it cannot be changed so in the end the committees and then the House and Senate have to vote on it up or down. The reality is that there are very few bills that need to be engrossed because this significantly reduces the legislative process. It’s like the original flag vote, redistricting, etc. where the majority in the House had a disregard for the legislative process.

During the session I receive an average of about 100 e-mails per day. Quite frankly, I delete a significant number of them because they do not appear to be from a constituent. Please write in the subject heading “constituent of Rep. Jeff Brown” or at least put your name, address and phone number at the end of the e-mail. Finally, wherever possible, don’t have attachments but instead incorporate the attachment into the body of the e-mail. I appreciate comments that I do a good job of responding to e-mails. Nonetheless, I may have inadvertently eliminated some of your e-mails because you didn’t do the above and I didn’t realize that you were a constituent.

Responses to E-mails

March 6, 2003

Last week I suggested how you might get a better response from me and for that matter, most recipients of e-mail. Well apparently some of you took this to heart because I had more e-mails than usual. I disagree with several of the messages and that is the theme of this week’s article.

First, I’ve gotten a lot of e-mails about budget cuts and the effects they are going to have on various services. One constituent had heard from an administrator that statewide the $2.9 million reduction in that department’s budget (the total ‘04 projected budget for that department is $314,000,000 of state funds vs.$290,000,000 in ‘03) would eliminate 188 instructional positions and turn away approximately 2800 students due to an inability to staff classes.

My response was, “it amazes me that bureaucrats too often take budget cuts to the level where the public is hurt the most. Why not take the dollars out of administration, cars, other non classroom expenses, contracts, per diems, etc.? Give me five days with no interruptions, some staff help and the Office of Planning and Budget (OPB) assistance and I’ll find $2.9 million in savings without affecting classroom instruction. I say this for a number of reasons including that without much time or staff and OPB help two weeks ago I presented $321 million of possible savings in the Department of Community Health”.

I’ve also received a lot e-mails about Senate Bill 23 which has been dubbed for years the “Woman’s Right to Know” bill in regard to information that they would be required to receive before getting an abortion. Many of these e-mails contained incorrect information in that they claimed Georgia Law already calls for this. I corrected that, pointed out that every other surgical procedure does receive such information and then posed the question, “don’t you find that strange?”

Some of these e-mails had a sub theme of separation of church and state. I have asked the people making such assertions to show me where in the U.S. Constitution such is printed and how this has any bearing on SB23.

One of the e-mails said, “a person’s spiritual life and their politics are two distinctly different things”. I said, in response, “I believe the Bible does not call for us to compartmentalize our lives as you suggest”.

A third set of e-mails over the pass several weeks came from the nursing home industry. They’re complaining about the Medicaid cuts for nursing homes. Interestingly, over 80% of all nursing home residents in Georgia are being fully paid for by Medicaid. By the way, Medicaid is 60% federal and 40% state tax dollars. Regardless you and I are paying for all of it. I believe that a number of people have transferred their assets to their families so that they can go into the nursing homes without cost. I strongly object to this and I am pursuing a remedy.

Further, I believe that nursing homes have a fair number of Medicaid residents that don’t need that intense a level of care. We have tried for a long time to create an Assisted Living Level Two level of care just for this reason. For the same total tax dollars we could provide for more people because there would be fewer in the more expensive nursing homes. However, since it cost less money to house those who don’t need this level of care in nursing homes, the industry fights us. As an aside one of my fellow legislators has been saying to those who write to him with the same complaints that the earnings of the top five publicly owned nursing home companies are at record levels.

I wholeheartedly encourage communications from my constituents. However, as evidenced above, I’m not going to just play the political game of acknowledging I have received them and doing nothing. Reminds me of the response of one famous politician when asked a tough question said; “well some of my friends are for it and some of my friends are against it and I’m for my friends”.

At times, there is erroneous information in these e-mails; often because they are being told by lobbyists what to write while they really don’t have a clue. Admittedly some of my responses may inadvertently contain inaccurate statements or take a position that is contrary to yours. I only hope that we can have a dialogue and that you don’t decide to vote against me at some point because of a position I once took on one subject (remember in 9 years I’ve cast over 10,000 votes). That really turns out to be self defeating for all of us.

Water and Trash

March 14, 2003

We are not in session the weeks of March 17 and 24 to give the Appropriations Committee additional time to try and find enough cuts to avoid new taxes to balance the budget. I gave my list of $321,000,000 of possible savings in health care to the committee.

I will use this week's articles to catch you up on several important water issues and to comment on how we are not keeping Troup County clean and beautiful.

Last week I arranged a meeting for Dr. Art Holbrook, our local water expert/advocate, with Governor Perdue. Art presented some good information and the Governor was receptive. He then turned to Art and said, "I would like you to propose a solution to the Tri State Compact negotiations" (these involve Georgia, Alabama and Florida and have been going on for five years.) To the Governor's credit he has taken this issue out of the hands of those previously negotiating the state's position and has met with the Governors of the other two states. They have agreed to have more meetings.

Art and I met with the LaGrange City Council to discuss this. Next week we meet with the Troup County Commissioners. Thanks to the cooperation of both bodies we are in a rather unique position to respond to the Governor's request. Obviously he will look at other options but I have never felt better about this area's input being considered.

The second issue involving water is HB237. This bill proposes sweeping changes to how we manage water in Georgia. It calls for a top/down management system with the Director of the Environmental Protection Division in a very powerful position. Also, there are insufficient provisions for inter- basin transfers, a cost of $37,000,000, a lack of provisions for water conservation, and of most concern, the ability of approximately 1200 holders of permits to withdraw water to sell these rights.

I aggressively oppose the selling of permits. Some of those who support this contend such an issue lends itself to "market solutions". While I am a free enterprise guy given my former employment with Milliken and that I own a company with 100 employees I'm the first to admit "market solutions" aren't always the answer; as examples: Enron; healthcare; city of LaGrange residents paying one third less for their natural gas than the "market solution" in Atlanta and predatory lending. Core values should always prevail in one's thinking but guidelines such as market solutions should be tested in each situation.

I believe water is a public resource that shouldn't be awarded to the highest bidder. Unfortunately, an amendment in support of this failed by a vote of 77 to 91 and the bill passed. It now goes to the Senate. Meanwhile the Senate is considering their own water bill; SB180 which I could support.

My second theme this week is trash which is a huge problem in Troup County but too often goes ignored. In my travels I have seen few areas with as much litter as my home county. This culminated the other day when I was returning home and noticed someone had dumped a used hot water heater along side Cameron Mill Road. I have asked Police Chief Lou Dekmar to have a detective take finger prints and track down the culprit. We passed a law several years ago raising the fine for littering to $1,000.00. I hope the police find this person, charges he/she, the judge imposes the maximum fine (I've been told the courts often only give a "slap on the wrist" for this violation) and that the media gives wide coverage.

Perhaps you think I am over reacting. Do you understand what our littering says about our county? how it negatively effects economic development (better jobs)? and its effect on crime? In regard to this last point there's an excellent book, "Tipping Point", that shows New York City's dramatic decrease in crime started with a crack down on graffiti.

You can help by joining the Keep Troup Clean Great American Clean Up, Saturday, April 12, 2003 from 8:00AM-1:00 PM. For more information please call 884-9922. Also you can educate your circle of friends why littering hurts all of us and report littering.

Why I Voted ‘NO’

March 27, 2003

Several week ago, I mentioned taking one for the team when I voted for the amended ‘03 budget. Well this time I felt my vote for HB379 to increase tobacco taxes moved up the decision ladder such that my political principles including less government and lower taxes, were more important than voting for the Governor’s bill. I still firmly believe we can reduce the size of state government without cutting vital services and therefore eliminating the need to raise taxes.

On Tuesday I sent an e-mail memo to the Republican House Caucus members, Governor and his Chief Financial Officer explaining why I was going to vote no on the tobacco tax increase. (If you would like a copy of that memo and/or a memo that I sent several weeks ago outlining over $300,000,000 of possible savings in the ‘04 budget in the Department of Community Health which includes Medicaid, State Health Benefit Plans and PeachCare you can e-mail me at jbrown@legis.state.ga.us and I will mail a copy to you.) In the “why no” memo I said that Governor Perdue very correctly said that if we do not support this tobacco tax increase bill then we need to show him where there are $348,000,000 worth of cuts which is the estimated amount of the additional revenues that would be generated by this tax increase. I then went on in that memo to reference the $640,000,000 of possible cuts that our Caucus prepared and listed 10 more possible savings.

I also said that the cuts so far had basically been across the board but now it’s time to go to the Office of Planning & Budget, departments heads and outside consultants on a high priority basis to demand reductions that do not reduce vital services. Given that our budget has grown by 250% in the last 10 years while we’ve only had a 25% increase in the population it boggles the imagination that we can’t come up with the savings that are necessary.

Some legislators may have voted no as an automatic reflex to any type of tax increase. They’re free to vote the way they want as I am free to vote my conscience. However, the Governor said if we are voting against this it would be responsible for us to find the equivalent in savings. I believe I’ve done this.

In regard to that last statement, several of us had a meeting with the Office of Planning & Budget on Monday evening where they gave us their analysis of our $640,000,000 of possible cuts. As I’ve said all along we make absolutely no claim that this is a totally accurate number since we don’t have the time nor expertise. However, coming out of that meeting, I feel it’s safe to say that over $300,000,000 is reality based for the ‘04 budget.

Some who voted against the tax increase did so because of a pledge that they signed with the Americans for Tax Reform, saying that they would not vote for any type of tax increase. Interestingly, the founder of this organization is reported to be using his influence to bring questionable visitors to the administration in Washington according to Mona Charen a syndicated columnist. So I sent an e-mail to Grover Norquist, the ATR founder, earlier this week, referenced that column and said that if Mona’s report is accurate withdraw my name from his organization because I do not want to help build his influence. Just before my article was to be distributed he sent me a long e-mail countering this. More later.

This vote (it was defeated 127 to 44) was an extremely serious one because it could put us into gridlock and jeopardize the passage of a budget on a timely basis. Passage soon is necessary for school systems throughout the state since about 2/3 of their funding comes from the state and they need to be doing their budget preparations for the start of a new fiscal year, July 1. There are a number of other problems caused by delaying the budget.

Unfortunately, the Democrat controlled House Appropriations Committee is not doing its job of cutting the budget. Instead they want the Governor to be the scape-goat for any type of tax increase. As one example the sub-committee of Appropriations that looks at the Department of Community Health budget was presented a budget of $1,730,000,000 which is the budget where I detailed over $300,000,000 of possible savings. The net of their efforts was to add $3,000,000. As I’ve said all along this committee, who should be the budget experts, don’t really understand budget details.

The second thing that made the vote yesterday so critical is that it could reflect poorly upon Governor Perdue. Certainly this is not something that I want to do given that this he’s our first Republican Governor, inherited financial mismanagement from the prior administration, we’re in the middle of a recession, he’s only been in office nine weeks and by just about everybody’s admission is a sincere and honest person. However, it’s those traits plus his intellect, energy and knowledge of state government that will exert themselves as we work our way out of this difficult budget crisis.

THERE ARE DIFFERENCES!

April 4, 2003

For the first time in over 130 years, Georgians are able to see first hand how Republicans in the majority govern vs. Democrats as we have a split legislature. Unless there’s an unexpected rush of significant bills next Monday and Tuesday in the House (the last two days a House bill can pass the Democrat controlled House) there will be a stark difference between what the House has passed and the Republican controlled Senate.

The Senate has already passed legislation on ethics reform, education reform, redistricting principles, Women’s Right to Know, new Senate districts map, tort reform, charter school reform and a child endangerment bill. One particularly egregious misuse of power is the Democrats holding up legislation in the House that would have delayed for one year the continuing reduction in class sizes mandated by former Governor Barnes’ Education Reform Bill. Unless they have a last minute reprieve, local school systems will have to raise $250,000,000 to accommodate the mandated lower class five.

When the House passed the amended 2003 budget there were basically no cuts beyond what the Governor had recommended despite the House having two additional months to find savings. Meanwhile, the Senate presented a balanced budget by recommending over $90,000,000 in cuts.

Since we didn’t pass the Tobacco Tax increase, the House is forced to propose cuts in the ‘04 budget which starts July 1, 2003 of over $600,000,000 since they must present the Senate with a balanced budget. In conversations with Republican Senators I feel confident that they will do a better job of cutting the budget without cutting vital services, given their track record since January 13, 2003.

Beyond the Republican/Democrat variable, there is a distinct difference in seniority. The key Democrat leadership each has decades of seniority, i.e., House Speaker Terry Coleman 30 years, House Appropriations Chairman Tom Buck 36 years and House Majority Leader, Jimmy Skipper 12 years. In the Senate, President Pro Tem Eric Johnson has 9 years, Senate Appropriations Chair Jack Hill has 13 years and Senate Majority Leader Tom Price has 7 years of seniority. This among other things makes a case for term limits. Also I believe that it shows those entrenched in power don’t know how to operate in a new environment, i.e. recession, split legislature, etc.

Yet another variable has a lot to do with principles. While there are differences within each Caucus Republicans, far more so than Democrats,0 are for less government, lower taxes, free enterprise, more personal freedoms and more personal responsibility. Perhaps the “Dixiecrats” were once close to such principles but most of them have died, left elected office or switched to the Republican party. Today there is a significant difference between the Republican and Democratic parties and the 2003 legislative session is an evolving testimony to that.

We go back in session Monday and as it stands now we will be in session all week. Adjournment is presently scheduled for April 18, 2003 which makes this the latest session in decades. As usual we’ll have more legislation to vote on in these last nine days than we had in the first 31 days; one reason we pass some bad legislation.

For the next two weeks I can be contacted at 404-656-0177 or via e-mail at jbrown@legis.state.ga.us.

RATIONALIZING. . .

April 11, 2003

All of us at one time or another rationalize or use the end to justify the means and/or only see things from our perspective. However, in the legislature we seem to have far more than the normal amount of these behaviors.

This week we’ve had several classic examples. Most classic is the flag issue. The truth of the matter is, Governor Barnes crammed this down the throats of the legislators. Nonetheless, those who were happy with the result of getting rid of the confederate battle emblem use the rationalization that there was a greater good served. I don’t believe that you abrogate the democratic process. Ironically, we could have settled this issue using the democratic process if Barnes had included us in the process.

As an aside, there’s a huge risk that the confederate battle emblem could win in the July ‘04 referendum. However, I am far more optimistic than those who make such a prediction. I believe if the Senate passes what we passed and it is signed into law by the Governor the voters in March will support this new flag by an overwhelming majority and there will not be a July referendum.

Yet another example of these behaviors was the Chairman of the Rules Committee complaining bitterly that he had never seen in his 29 years the Senate declare midnight to be the end of the legislative day. He went on to say that a lot of good bills died because of that. I countered and said that surely he didn’t want us to continue legislating after midnight given that we’d already done 14 hours of it. He also failed to mention that as Chairman of the Black Caucus, it was his members that took almost six hours to go to the well and make many of the same points repeatedly about the flag; time that could have otherwise been used to pass legislation. Even more pertinent is the fact that most legislative days leading up to day 33 on Tuesday, when the Senate did such a dastardly thing, we had very few bills come out of his committee for debate on the floor but instead did the typical last minute rush on day 33. As one example, on day 25 there were 51 bills that could have been considered but only 2 were. However, on day 33 his committee added 7 bills on the calendar at 11:45 p.m. and they were all voted on by midnight!

I also feel that those who advocate a tax increase are using the end to justify the means (we must have a balanced budget) or rationalizing (we don’t have enough time to find the type of savings I’ve been proposing). I have said in a number of my weekly press releases that we can cut the budget a lot more without effecting vital services. The House didn’t even pass a balanced budget. The Senate did a better job but in my opinion could do even better. One area that could have huge savings without cutting vital services is the University System but strangely they are basically off limits.

Wednesday night at a committee dinner the Chairman of the Health & Human Services Committee kept talking about the committee being non-partisan and the evening being non-partisan, took three shots at the Republican controlled Senate complaining about various programs being cut back by the Senate and the inhumanity of these cuts. What he failed to point out was that the House presented to the Senate a budget that is $138,000,000 short of being balanced while they could have presented a balanced budget with cuts from a the bloated budget that they’ve controlled for decades that wouldn’t hurt anybody; but let’s not confuse him with facts.

Yes, at times we all use the end to justify the means, rationalize and/or only see things from our perspective. In the early 80's when I was a Business Manager for Milliken, then Divisional President, Tom Malone became so exasperated with such behavior that he installed in every conference room the word FACTS. If all of us, and especially Georgia State government, would use more facts, versus rationalization, using the end to justify the means and /or seeing things only from our perspective the greater good would be served.

Should you need to contact Rep. Brown you may do so via e-mail at jbrown@legis.state.ga.us or call his office at 404-656-0177.

NOT IN MY BACK YARD

April 17, 2003

The expression, “Not in my back yard”, has been around for a long time. Basically it describes a phenomena that things are fine unless it affects me. Certainly in the legislature we see this displayed minute by minute.

Let me take an e-mail that I just received from a teacher. It reads as follows, “I am seriously troubled by the legislature’s inability to find money to add another step to the salary schedule for teachers. Now I hear that an increase in health benefits premiums is being considered. Give me a break. I’ve served this state as a teacher for 22 years. It owes me more than this kind of treatment.”

My response was as follows, “If I’m not mistaken, the step schedule has been the same for decades. Why when we are in a budget crisis would you expect an increase in it now? In regard to the step schedule most teachers indeed will receive an increase in school year 03/04. Teachers such as you can get a 10% increase if you become Nationally Board Certified and/or get an increase by further education. Also in regard to benefits we are close to restoring the Fair Dismissal Act. The benefits just listed are not available to most of us in other walks of life

Yes the cost of your health insurance is going up but so is it for just about everyone else. Until we take more responsibility for our own health this will continue to happen. Nonetheless your health insurance will cost less than most because 75% of the cost is paid for by the taxpayers of this state.

To all competent teachers my sincere appreciation! I wish we were in a better financial position so we could give you well deserved raises in 03/04. I am proud that in the prior 8 years that I served in the legislature we have given higher total increases than any other state.

I don’t mean to pick on this particular teacher and perhaps you’ll even disagree with my answer. Nonetheless, it is very common behavior and many politicians cleverly and easily use it. Let me give you an example. One of the ways that we can balance this budget is in the Medicaid area. Earlier this week a Senator suggested $165,000,000 of cuts in Medicaid. One House member said, “it’s an outrage that the Senate would go after the chronically ill, the poor people, the elderly of Georgia. It shows a lack of sensitivity. It lets me know they haven’t reached the level of seriousness we need to deal with this budget crisis.

Last week I talked about the need for more facts. Here are some facts in regard to Medicaid. The budget is growing by over 10% per year. Secondly, we offer more than $800,000,000 of non federally mandated benefits to out $1.2 million Medicaid recipients. A part of the Senate proposal is to raise from $.50 to $1.00 the co-pay for prescription drugs. Also, there were aspects of managed care in these cuts that in reality would improve health incomes for the effected recipients. I could go on with a long list but the point is this representative understands the constituency who receives Medicaid and easily inflame them and others with his sweeping albeit incorrect charges. This undermines Senate Republicans who trying to balance the budget. It is becoming increasingly ?? that a number of legislators want a tax increase so they can avoid any budget cuts.

The University System apparently is hear in mass all of a sudden because of rumors that there might be cuts in their budget. They’re no different that just about any other department.

I guess I live in a unreal world but wouldn’t it be wonderful if everybody would say “you know we’ve got a problem and here’s what I can do to help solve that problem in my own area. Instead we see the types of behaviors described above.

WHY I VOTED NO AGAIN

April 18, 2003

By one vote the budget impasse may be broken as the House on Thursday (Day 38 of 40) voted 91 to 84 (must be a majority of the 180 members) for a tobacco tax increase that is half the original increase.

I assume the Senate will suspend their rules (they require a bill from the House to be there by day 33) and it will pass.

Many of the House Democrats who had joined with the majority of the Republicans to soundly defeat the original Tobacco Tax Increase bill supported the reduced tax while Republicans picked up an additional no vote.

The Democrat leadership used their typical scare tactics of health care being denied, hospitals closing, etc. if the budget were balanced only with spending cuts. While this is blatantly untrue this tactic and several others swung just enough votes. One tactic that no longer was used was to try and convince us that the tax increases would reduce smoking because obviously a much lower tax would not have that effect and I question whether the higher one would have done so.

Two asides about this vote. One is it is highly unlikely there were 175 of 180 members on the floor for the vote. We have always had members voting other members machines which is a clear violation of House rules but it is rarely upheld. Second I or any other member could have asked for reconsideration of the vote given how close it was. Be assured, had the vote gone the other way the Democrats would have so moved. I did not do so because I felt I had gone far enough challenging what the Governor wanted by speaking in the caucus, twice on the House floor, challenging speakers in the well, press releases, letters to the administration, etc.

NOTE TO MEDIA: since the inclusion of the letter below makes this a very long article you could end this article by saying: I wrote a 4 page letter to Gov. Perdue which contains the essence of why I would vote no for any tax increase at this time. If you want a copy of this letter email me at jbrown@legis.state.ga.us or call my secretary at 404-656-0177. OTHERWISE the article goes on as follows:

Below is a letter I sent to Gov. Perdue earlier this week. It contains the essence of why I would vote no for any tax increase at this time.

April 15, 2003

Honorable Sonny Perdue

Governor, State of Georgia

203 State Capitol

Atlanta, Georgia 30334

Dear Governor Perdue:

Please believe me, I want you to succeed as Governor because among other reasons, I totally agree with Mike Bowers’ editorial that if you don’t the Republican cause will be set back for years. However, the budget is dividing us. Many of us believe there is a significant difference between Republican and Democrats primarily on principles such as less government and lower taxes. In that regard, the following are questions/comments about reducing the budget where most of us have not heard compelling, if any, answers:

9. You have been quoted as saying the Senate proposal for a balanced ‘04 budget without tax increases is unacceptable. Is that accurate? If so, why?

10. I understand that without an alcohol and tobacco tax there is a $400,000,000 shortfall. How does this suddenly grow to $800,000,000 or the latest rumor of $1,250,000,000?

3. Early in the session we submitted over $600,000,000 worth of savings, taking you up on your offer to show you how we could avoid a tax increase. Finally, on March 24^th we had a session with the Office of Planning & Budget. While they rightfully challenged some of the savings, particularly in the DCH budget area that I had responsibility for, we never received a detailed response. I sent a letter on March 28^th to Scott Frederking as a follow up and copied a number of people including Hank Huckabee. This was then followed up on April 9^th with yet another letter with some additional information. Why haven’t I received any answers/replies to those letters?

4. In the letter of April 9^th I included a proposal from Coventry Health Care of Georgia projecting a savings of $74,000,000 in ‘04 in the State Health Benefit Plan. Why hasn’t anyone shown an interest in these savings?

5. On March 7, 2003 I brought to Jim Lientz, CMS Health Integrated. He was interested in their proposal and turned it over to DCH. Quite frankly, I thought that a number of the questions that DCH initially posed were stalling tactics. This was then followed by a meeting they had last week with CMS and again it appears to be stalling. Please bear in mind that there are no costs to the state, it’s a trial program so I think I’m correct when I say it will not require a waiver nor competitive bidding and can be up and running in 30 days. Why is this stalling being allowed to happen? Remember with only 1500 of the 58,000 sickest of the sick who spend almost half the total Medicaid dollars in this trial CMS is projecting savings of $12-$16 million dollars in the first 6 months!

6. On March 26^th you and Hank Huckabee were copied on a memo as to why I did not support the Tobacco Tax increase. In that letter I posed ten additional savings that were not previously addressed in our $640,000,000 of savings. Why have none of these been addressed?

7. I’m in possession of a letter that Senator Mitch Seabaugh sent to Rep. Lynn Westmoreland. Here he is talking about savings of over $109,000,000 by not making contributions to the Liability Self Insurance, State Employees Insurance Department, Property Insurance and the Workman’s Compensation funds. He says that all are fiscally sound and that withholding ‘04 contributions, which by the way can only be done prior to July 1, 2004, would have no adverse effect. What is you position on these possible savings?

8. He also mentioned something that apparently the three prior Governors have done, which is to withhold at least a part of our contributions to the State Retirement Plans since they are over funded. What is your position on this?

9. It appears that the Regents budget has become very bloated. I feel that they should further reduce their budget. One possibility is to cap freshman admissions at a lower level than presently budgeted. Now that our technical schools have college status let the less academically qualified who would then be denied admissions start there. Another option is to increase the Tuition Equalization Grant to help them attend our private colleges who have long made the claim that they could handle 10,000 additional students with no increase in faculty or buildings. Another option is to further increase tuition. The Christian Science Monitor 2/18/03 listed the top 12 states doing such increases. They ranged from 13% to a high of 24%. Georgia was not listed.

10. The nursing home industry has created a very clever way of helping out their budget crisis by assessing themselves approximately $90,000,000 and receiving over $230,000,000 in return from the Feds. We have approved supporting legislation in the House. Have we looked at other such possibilities?

11. I asked Bill Tomlinson, several weeks ago, to show me specific cuts that came from the Executive Branch vs across the board decreases. My assumption is that there has not been much of this.

12. Why are furloughs off the table?

13. Why is “securitization” of GEFA bonds off the table?

14. We passed HB504 which would add $9,000,000 in revenues to the ‘04 budget. Has this been included in your estimates?

15. Same question in regard to HB735 which would add $1,520,724 in revenues.

16. Rep. Bob Smith has a proposal to sell over 6900 acres of DOT land acquired for over $10,000,000.

17. Rep. Earl Ehrhart working with ALEC proposed a co-pay for Medicaid. His projected savings in ‘04 were over $100,000,000. This was inadvertently left off our possible savings of over $300,000,000 in DCH. Do you support this?

18. We pay over $140,000,000 per year in rent. Given our reduced size and a surplus of office space a 10% reduction would be reasonable. Do yo agree?

19. I understand that last week the DCH board approved a 20% increase in the premiums to be paid by those in SHBP and increased co-pays, etc. Are these savings reflected?

20. As an employer I support refunding to the State withholdings on the same basis as I do for federal withholdings. While it will affect my cash flow, it is not my money. Further, I support paying everyone 7/1/04 vs. 6/30/04. I understand these two changes would result in approximately $350,000,000 in savings and revenues. What is your position on each?

In summary please consider the following:

11. The above only scratches the surface of possible budget cuts that do not reduce vital services.

12. I believe I speak for a number of people within the Republican Caucus who have the above type of questions and unless they are factually addressed we will continue to oppose any type of tax increase.

13. I think Jim Wooten said it well on Sunday when he said, “Republicans need to govern on principles which endure versus expediency which bites back”. As referenced above, we traditionally have been the party of less government and lower taxes. Why aren’t there greater efforts being expended by your administration to make this a reality?

14. According to USA Today 33 states, some of which are controlled by Democrats, are handling their budget problems without a tax increase. Why are we in the minority when our financial situation is better than most?

15. If we can use some of the budget reductions in the House and Senate approved budgets and some of the above we can pass a balanced budget. If the savings don’t start to materialize and/or the revenue projections are not being met into the ‘04 budget then we can look at tax increases. In my opinion it is far too early to do so now.

16. Let’s limit the initial debate on the tobacco tax increase to the financial need for such. Most of Rep. Richardson’s presentation on this bill was health related. Your administration, as evidenced by all of the above questions, has yet to convince the majority of the Republicans in the legislature of the need for a tax increase.

7. The moment we pass a tax increase the pressure will be off budget cutting. Why do that when we’ve just begun?

8. In the end Rep. Tom Knox’s comment in a Caucus meeting several we