The Georgia General Assembly was gaveled into session on Monday, January 9 for its 2017 session. Traditionally, the first week of the legislative session is filled with the ceremonial (such as swearing in all of the new Senators and Representatives who are beginning a new two-year term), the practical (passing the rules for each chamber, appointing committee chairs and members) and the pomp and circumstance of a joint session for the Governor's annual State of the State Address. It's a lot like the first week of school, with folks catching up with each other about what's happened since they were last together and the teachers not assigning too much homework until everyone gets fully back into the swing of things. Legislators met Monday through Thursday before heading home to their districts for the long weekend of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday.

At the Georgia Chamber's Annual Eggs & Issues Breakfast on Tuesday, Speaker of the House David Ralston made it clear that transit would be an important issue for the legislature over the next two years. He announced his intention to create a new Georgia Commission on Transit Governance and Funding. The Commission would build on the work of the House & Senate Transit Study Committees that met in the fall of 2016 and would be working toward the introduction of legislation that would overhaul transit governance and funding. Speaker Ralston stated forcefully that "transit is going to be an important part of our transportation future here in Georgia. We have to recognize transit is not only a part of congestion mitigation, but it's economic development here in the state." 

Commensurate with that, the House has also created a new standing Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee that will handle the budgets of GDOT, SRTA and GRTA - and ultimately, would be the place where any future state funding of transit would be deliberated. The Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee of Appropriations will be chaired by Rep. Jason Shaw (R-Lakeland).

With several legislators leaving the General Assembly or moving up the leadership ladder in their chamber, leadership in the General Assembly has been shuffled a bit. A host of new committee chairmen were announced this week, including the new chairs of the Senate Transportation Committee, Sen. Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) and the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Kevin Tanner (R-Dawsonville).  

Also, the Senate amended its Rules to provide that Crossover Day (the date by which a bill has to have been passed by one chamber to be considered by the other) will now be Legislative Day 28, instead of Day 30.

The General Assembly met for four legislative days this week and will not be in session next week, as it is tradition to use the week of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday for budget presentations by state agency heads to the Joint House & Senate Appropriations Committees. The General Assembly will reconvene for Legislative Day Five on Monday, January 23 and will meet Monday through Thursday that week, as well as the following week. At this point, no legislative schedule has been set beyond Legislative Day 12.

Michael "Sully" Sullivan

President & CEO, ACEC Georgia