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Friday, Dec. 12, 2008

Midstate gives legislators wish list for 2009

The state budget may be in tatters because of a sliding economy, but that doesn’t mean the wants are in decline.

From keeping the sports and music halls of fame in Macon viable to more money for education, mental health, passenger rail service, jails, hospital subsidies and local property tax coffers, it’s going to be a battle in Atlanta this year to add just about anything to the budget or even protect what’s already there.

Local leaders will ask anyway, and they sat down Thursday with the state legislators who represent Bibb County.

“It’s going to be a tough session because of the budget,” delegation leader and state Sen. Cecil Staton, R-Macon, said. “But we’ll do the best that we can.”

Protecting the sports and music halls has emerged as a top priority for local officials who don’t want to see years’ worth of improvements in downtown Macon take a big hit if the halls move or close. But the museums’ operating budgets have been targeted by legislators from other parts of the state who are looking for cuts.

And with a $1.6-billion-plus deficit predicted for this year’s budget, Macon’s legislators said they expect those efforts to increase.

That’s why city and county leaders plan to ask the delegation to approve an extra penny in hotel/motel sales tax charges to help support the museums. That would show more local initiative to help fund the halls by raising taxes on visitors, not necessarily residents.

State Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, said it’s going to take something like that to keep the halls running, but some of his fellow legislators feel the state is turning its back on commitments it made to the halls years ago when they were built.

“We need to be pushing on the state to live up to its commitment,” said state Rep. David Lucas, D-Macon. “I don’t hear anybody saying anything about the Ag Center in Perry. ... It’s not paying for itself.”

The Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter in Perry is, like the halls of fame, state funded. But it has a larger impact on tourism than the halls, and happens to be in Gov. Sonny Perdue’s home county. The sports and music halls, on the other hand, are “easy targets,” Staton said.

Another top priority for city and county elected officials is protecting the state’s homestead exemption grant. That funding allows local governments to give property owners a tax break, and the state sends a check to pay for it. But because of the ongoing budget problem, Perdue has held back the money this year.

Legislators have promised their best to restore the money, but nothing’s guaranteed. If the money isn’t put into the budget, cities and counties would have to raise taxes or cut expenses to fill holes in budgets that they passed expecting the funding.

For Bibb County alone, that amounts to about $2 million this year, Commissioner Elmo Richardson said Thursday.

Other items on the wish list for local leaders meeting with the delegation Thursday include:

Ÿ Speed up funding for the Interstate 16/Interstate 75 interchange project, which the Georgia Department of Transportation may split into phases over the next several years because of its high cost. Some estimates for the project have been in the neighborhood of $300 million, and the DOT has its own budget crunch.

Ÿ More money for the school system. Bibb County schools Superintendent Sharon Patterson said the school needs more money for teachers, school nurses and the reduction of class sizes. Already, the system has dipped heavily into its reserves, and school board President Lynn Farmer said the system projects “that we won’t be able to make our September payroll if these things continue.”

Ÿ Support for passenger rail service, which the DOT is slated to begin operating in the next few years. A train for commuters is planned to connect Griffin to Atlanta, but locals are hoping more money can be found to bring the train to Macon. NewTown Macon President Mike Ford said Thursday he’d like to see the commuter line extended to Houston County.

Ÿ More money for mental health. This has been an ongoing complaint for mental health providers and Bibb County Sheriff Jerry Modena, who ends up treating the mentally ill at the Bibb County jail at a substantial cost. Perdue’s administration has pushed to privatize services for the disabled, drug addicted and mentally ill, and that strategy simply won’t work, said Frank Fields, the retiring director of River Edge Behavioral Health, which handles drug and mental health treatment in the Macon area.

“This privatization of the mental health system is wrong, and you are the ones that are going to end up carrying the burden when it all comes home to rest,” Fields told legislators.

Ÿ More money for the local jail. Modena said it costs the county about $54 a day to house a state prisoner. The state pays the county $20 a day, he said. The difference for Thursday alone, given the number of prisoners at the jail, was $8,000, Modena said.

Ÿ More money for trauma care. The state allocated money this year to help hospitals, including The Medical Center of Central Georgia, fund expensive emergency room operations that lose money. But despite several efforts, only one year of funding passed. Medical Center CEO Don Faulk and other called for a dedicated revenue stream to help hospitals make ends meet and still provide top-notch emergency care.

Staton, who has spent a lot of time on the issue, said it will be difficult, taking “a full-court press” from supporters.

There was also some discussion about property tax reform, which is likely to lead to a cap on annual property tax reassessments next year, legislators have said. That would keep cities, counties and school boards from raising taxes significantly based on an increase in property values, as opposed to increases in the millage rate.

Such a change would eschew local government control and free market principles, Macon Mayor Robert Reichert complained. Reichert asked that the change, if passed, be limited only to residential properties, leaving commercial ones subject to increase or decreases based on the real estate market.

The current legislation doesn’t account for that, and legislators offered no promises.

To contact writer Travis Fain, call 744-4213.