Health care, education top midstate lawmakers’ to-do lists

As a new Congress starts work in Washington, Georgia’s lawmakers are working out what they should try to pack into their own 40-day legislative session.

Ask midstate leaders what the priorities ought to be during the session that starts Monday, and answers include health care and education.

Start with health care. The new GOP majority in Washington is looking to repeal at least part of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. Millions of low-income Americans have gotten health insurance under Obamacare, but its critics say the system is flawed.

Federal policy and cash will impact how many Georgians show up to hospitals without insurance and how the state might help pay for the care they will get there.

The Obamacare upheaval comes as rural hospitals in particular are getting squeezed by problems, including a relatively high caseload of patients who can’t pay for care.

“Health care could break us,” said state Sen. David Lucas, D-Macon, putting it at the top of his list of important issues that the state must address.

Republican-run Georgia has been officially skeptical of Obamacare and did not expand Medicaid eligibility under the law, as some states have done. But until it’s clear how Washington will untangle the law, Georgia is in a bit of a wait-and-see position. One possibility is that federal funds could come in a block to each state, and each state will decide how to administer health care insurance for low-income residents.

Legislators also point out that a fee worth more than $880 million to Georgians’ health care is about to expire. Known as the “bed tax,” Georgia’s hospital provider fee is collected from hospitals. With matching federal funds, it helps pay for Medicaid.

Plenty of legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle want to extend the fee in some form, though there is a chance that tax hawks might object.

State Sen. Larry Walker, R-Perry, said he would like to change the provider fee formula so that it’s more favorable to smaller hospitals that are struggling.

Next, there’s education.

Last year, Georgia voters rejected a proposal that would have let the state take over the lowest performing schools from city and county school boards. In the wake of that rejection, Republican Gov. Nathan Deal has said finding a way to deal with chronically failing schools will still be a priority. And throughout the Legislature, the referendum has focused minds on the problem of failing schools.

“We have got to provide some inspection … of why those schools keep failing and how we can help them, or we haven’t done our job,” said state Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon.

Lawmakers have discussed the idea of changing how the state divides money among schools, though Deal has reportedly said that the failing schools will be a higher priority for him this year than a funding overhaul. In 2015 a blue ribbon panel set up by the governor recommended updating the decades-old formula and spending more on students in the poorest places.

Macon Democrat state Rep. James Beverly said he’d like to “reset the formula based on where the problem is.” That is, give cash to schools where students are failing key tests and benchmarks, such as reading by third grade. The cash could pay for things like smaller classes or paraprofessionals, he suggested.

Walker, too, is looking at schools and work, and he said he’d like to see a way for high schools to award not just diplomas, but also industry-recognized technical certifications.

Indeed, that’s one of several points Senate Republicans put on their priority list.

“We’re going to continue to look for ways to make sure that folks are ready, that we have the workforce,” said state Sen. John F. Kennedy, R-Macon. His caucus also wants to prioritize cutting red tape on businesses. The caucus is betting that the right environment and the right workers will attract employers to Georgia.

Elsewhere on the education ladder, legislators are looking at the economics, too.

State Sen. Burt Jones, R- Jackson, said he and his colleagues plan a look at how to maximize lottery cash for higher education scholarships and pre-K. A new report by state auditors suggested that the lottery might yield more HOPE money if some of the prices or payouts for games were changed.

“My caveat to that would be that … in trying to come up with more funds, we also need to look at how the dollars at our higher education institutions are being spent,” Jones said.

Indeed, another state report found that the average sticker price of attending a Georgia public college increased from about $8,000 in 2006 to nearly $15,000 in 2015. The report pins much of the out-of-pocket increases to higher tuition and more fees.

Last year, a House committee approved a bill that would have legalized casinos and used some of the revenue for education. And this year, dozens of casino lobbyists have signed up to work the halls of the Legislature.

But plenty of lawmakers want more details about how casino money would be spent before they make a decision. And indeed, recent public comments from Republican leaders indicate that they’re not convinced casinos are a good move right now.

State Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, said a lot of what he’s going to pay close attention to are things that could affect the civilian or military workforce at Robins Air Force Base.

He’s not the only one paying attention to the military. Both Democrats and Republicans have recently passed bills meant to make transitioning to Georgia easier for military families. And state House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, is setting up a working group that will look for ways to make sure the state is doing all it can to ensure that bases are ready for new missions and that they won’t be candidates for closure.

And politicians who don’t serve in the Legislature still pay close attention to what it does. Laws made in Atlanta affect how counties and cities can raise money and run things.

Houston County Commission Chairman Tommy Stalnaker wants two changes that have to do with his county’s budget.

He’d like to see a rework of a law that’s apparently not paying off for Houston. In 2012, lawmakers cut a local sales tax and an annual renewal tax on vehicles and replaced them with a one-time sales tax, known as the Title Ad Valorem Tax, or TAVT.

But the new tax is not making up for the what the sales tax would have raised, according to an estimate by the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.

Over the first 10 months of 2016, the ACCG estimates that Houston is behind about $4.9 million compared to the old system, and Bibb is behind about $4.1 million.

Stalnaker also wants a rework of 911 funding. He thinks all phone bills, not just land lines, should include the $1.50 fee that helps bankroll 911 services. Nineteen Georgia local governments, including Macon-Bibb County, just filed lawsuits alleging that telephone service providers have underbilled 911 service fees from customers, resulting in an estimated $56 million in underpaid fees to help fund local 911 centers.

Macon-Bibb Mayor Robert Reichert is urging two things on the Legislature. One, he wants the state to consider passenger rail links statewide, including between Macon and Atlanta. Two, he wants the state to work with the federal government to lengthen the runway at Middle Georgia Regional Airport.

This story was originally published January 5, 2017 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Health care, education top midstate lawmakers’ to-do lists."