David's blog

Thank you to the members of the Belvedere Civic Club and the residents of Clairmont Place for their hospitality this week.

I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the annual Chicken Dinner Fundraiser in support of the Belvedere Civic Club which was held at Knollwood Elementary School on Monday evening. Anne Brown, Nadine Ali and the rest of the team are doing a great job building community in Belvedere.

Many thanks also to Mary Nell and Bill for inviting me to address the Wednesday morning coffee at Clairmont Place. The turnout was great. I look forward to visiting with you again soon.

EMS Award

I am pleased to be a recipient of the 2007 Star of Life Award from the Georgia Association of Emergency Managment Services providers. I remain committed to the establishment of a statewide trauma care network for Georgia.

GCV Award

I have also again been honored wtih the Georgia Convervation Voters 2007 Environmental Leadership Award. I was very happy to play a role in protecting Georgia's precious natural resources during the recent Session.

Summer 2007

The Governor's decision to rescind his veto of the 2007 mid-year budget helped the state avoid a Special Session of the General Assembly. I will be traveling throughout the district this Summer listening to voters. Early this summer, I am scheduled to deliver the Commenement Address at Decatur High School, visit the Belvedere Civic Club's annual chicken dinner, and address the Commerce Club on the subject of local government and my Township proposal. If you would like me to visit your community please contact my Senate office at 404-463-1376.

It now seems certain we will have a Special Session in 2007. So, after one of the longest Regular Sessions in Georgia's history, the legislature will be forced to come back to re-write the 2007 Supplemental Budget. Next year, I intend to introduce a Resolution which if passed will allow the voters to decide whether to amend Georgia's Constitution limiting the length of Regular Sessions of the General Assembly. The inefficiency of the last five years is astonishing. If we amend the Georgia Constitution so that Regular Sessions cannot go past March 10, we can accomplish just as much. And, we would save taxpayer money and limit some of the opportunities for michief that occur during long recess periods. I think the voters want us to come to work in January, work hard and effiently, then go back to our communities.

The General Assembly is in recess for the next two weeks. The stated purpose of the recess is to provide more time for the Governor to press Congress to allocate additional money to the Georgia S-CHIP program - PeachCare for Kids. PeachCare for Kids is one of the most successful state programs in recent history. It provides health care coverage to the children of lower middle class working families. Because of increased costs associated with a growing number of Georgians participating in PeachCare for Kids, budget analysts are predicting an approximately $130 million shortfall for the current fiscal year. Congress should, and almost assuredly will, provide long term support to Georgia and the other states who are suffering budget shorfalls as a consequence of growing demand for S-CHIP benefits. However, Georgia must work on a short term solution that does not do harm to the working families who depend on PeachCare. Potential short term solutions include migrating some of the PeachCare participating to Medicaid programs and using some of the state budget surplus to bridge the gap until a more permanent solution comes from Washington, D.C.

The two week recess will not likely produce a purely Washington, D.C. solution. I am hopeful the Governor and the state budget writers will make good use of the recess to devise a Georgia solution.

As previously mentioned on this blog in June, I am pleased to have been appointed to the Georgia Capitol Arts Standards Commission. I'm the only Democratic Senator to have been appointed. This Commission was established last year. However, it has not yet met because the Governor did not make his appointments until today. (I was appointed by the Senate Committee on Assignments.) In light of the interest in erecting new statues on the Capitol grounds, I expect a meeting will be scheduled in the near future.