Since 1971, Georgia Public Broadcasting Television has produced a special newscast every day the Georgia General Assembly is in session.  “Lawmakers” begins its 39^th season tonight at 7 PM on GPB.  Lawmakers will repeat on GPB Radio at 8 PM and on television the tomorrow morning at 5:30 AM on GPB and 7 AM on GPB Knowledge. 

 Aside from highlights of the day’s House and Senate action, Lawmakers is working on stories about the Four T’s: Taxes, Transportation, Trauma and Teachers.  We expect all of these issues to be very important this session. 

 TAXES

We’ll have information about several measures that failed to gain passage last year: elimination of the ad valorem tax on cars, reducing State income taxes and freezing property tax assessments, and we’ll include new proposals like HB 39, a bill that has been prefiled by Representative Ron Stephens to assess a $1 per pack tax on cigarettes.

 TRANSPORTATION

We’ll also be taking a look back at last year’s action in the Transportation arena in regard to the T-SPLOST, that’s the Transportation Special Local Option Sales Tax, which was aimed at providing funding solutions for local traffic woes.  We’ll also talk about recently released opinion polls that say the majority of Georgians want immediate action to solve transportation problems.  I’m sure that conversations about light rail and expanding mass transit will also come into play. 

 TRAUMA

With the third T, Trauma, we’ll be taking a look at Georgia’s lack of a Statewide Trauma Care network.  Currently, there are no trauma centers south of Macon to almost the Florida State line.  There are several issues that pose problems here: funding, staffing and emergency transport to name a few.

 TEACHERS

The final T is Teachers but really that is education in general.  We’ll talk about Governor Sonny Perdue’s request for a 2% reduction in State funding for public schools, charter schools, school vouchers and class sizes.  The State Board of Education voted yesterday to allow school systems to raise the maximum class size by 2 students in core subjects for elementary and middle schools as a cost saving measure.  That means the maximum size for kindergarten would increase to 20 students; grades 1-3 would increase to 23; and grades 4-8 would increase to 30. Core classes cover English, math, science, social studies and foreign languages.  

IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW WITH LT. GOVERNOR CASEY CAGLE

Monday evening we will also broadcast an exclusive interview with Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle.  Lawmakers’ David Zelski had the opportunity to talk with the Lt. Governor about his expectations for the session.