This Bill was offered by Speaker Tom Murphy, Representative Bill Cummings and me. This Bill affects Paulding County as directly as any Bill which might be adopted by the Legislature. The Bill creates a new judicial circuit to be created to be known as the Paulding Judicial Circuit. Currently, Paulding County is in a judicial circuit known as the Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit. The Tallapoosa Circuit is comprised of Paulding County, Polk County and Haralson County. Four judges and one district attorney take care of the Superior Court needs of all three counties. Due to exceptional growth of all counties, but especially of Paulding, after discussions with county officials, the members of the local legislative delegation have agreed that Paulding County should have its own judicial circuit. Under this Bill, Paulding County will have two judges and ultimately, the remaining Counties of Polk and Haralson will continue to be designated as the Tallapoosa Circuit but will have only two judges. The current judge who lives in Paulding County, Judge Bill Foster, will remain a judge in the Paulding Circuit. The new judge’s position will be appointed by the Governor, with an effective date of the appointment to be July 1, 2002. The current district attorney for the Tallapoosa Circuit, James Osborne, will continue to serve as the District Attorney for the Paulding Judicial Circuit, with a new appointment of a district attorney for the Tallapoosa Circuit. This appointment will take effect also on July 1, 2002. While there will be some additional costs, these will be absorbed by the State. The end result should be that Paulding with two judges and one district attorney, will have more time to devote to court needs in Paulding County so that litigants and criminal cases may be disposed of in a more timely fashion. As a supporter of this Bill I voted in favor of the same which passed the House on a vote of 166 Yes to 0 No.

This Bill was implemented to answer the media described "problem" with car insurance effective January 1, 2002. Under previous enactments, the General Assembly has put in place a system whereby car owners in the future will not be required to keep proof of insurance in their vehicles. Instead, a state-wide data base will be used to determine if a car is or is not insured. Because of problems in implementing the database, currently the State does not have this information in the computer system. This Bill clears up any question as to what will happen in the interim. Until January 31, 2003, an owner of a motor vehicle will be allowed to continue to carry their insurance card as proof of insurance. I voted in favor of this Bill which passed on a vote of 166 Yes to 0 No.

This Bill is a retirement Bill aimed at helping teachers who are near retirement to purchase additional creditable service years. This Bill allows a teacher who has attained twenty-five years or more of service, at their own personal expense, to purchase three years of additional creditable service by payment of the total cost of the years of retirement. What this would mean is if a teacher has been teaching for twenty-seven years and wishes to retire early for some reason, they can purchase with their own funds three more years of service and have thirty years towards retirement. This would be no different if the teacher continued to work for three more years and the payments were made by them and the State as in the present manner. I voted in favor of this Bill which passed on vote of 166 Yes to 0 No.

This Bill relates to retirement for public school employees. Public school employees generally include lunchroom workers, bus drivers and custodial staff. Under current law, a public school employee’s maximum retirement benefit is capped at $12.00 per month for each year of service. In other words, if a school worker provides thirty years of service, their maximum retirement benefit is $360.00 per month – an incredibly low amount for so many years of service. This Bill raises the cap for this class of employees to $20.00 per month for each year of service. Let me point out one very important point. This has not been funded and probably will not be funded immediately. Before anyone can receive any more than $12.00 per month for a year of service, funding must be approved in the budgetary process. However, this Bill simply raises the maximum amount so that if funding is approved, the amount can be raised. I voted in favor of this proposal which passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 163 Yes to 0 No. I sincerely hope, even in difficult budget times, that we can find some additional funding for these employees of the public school system.

During this week the Governor delivered his State of the Budget Address. As the press has regularly pointed out over the last few weeks, it appears that Georgia will have less money to appropriate than it did the previous year. Hence, while no dramatic action is anticipated, spending will be very carefully observed during this next fiscal year. I will provide additional details on the budget process during my next report.