Highlights
Georgia legislators tackled a number of important bills Tuesday, trying to work out the big questions before the measures rush through on the chamber floors on the last day of the session Thursday.
The House focused on more than 20 bills, including Sunday alcohol sales, the 2012 budget and an ethics amendment on lobbying. The Senate also looked at the $18.3 billion budget and tax breaks for major Georgia companies.
In addition, both chambers worked to iron out key differences on a final immigration bill.
Early in the day, the House zoomed through bills that would allow more of Georgia's elderly to reside in assisted-living facilities rather than nursing homes and require drugs with pseudoephedrine, a decongestant in many cold medicines, to be sold in pharmacies.
Senate
Senate Bill 280: Revise provisions regarding property held by congregations and religious societies and allow conveyances of property to congregations and religious societies to be legal in Georgia.
SB 281: Require taxes imposed on cigars after Jan. 1, 2012, to be collected and paid through the use of stamps and require stamps to be affixed to cigars by April 10, 2012.
SB 282: Enact the Nurse Licensure Compact, which would allow registered nurses to obtain multistate licenses to practice as a nurse.
SB 283: Create the Georgia Department of Public Transit to consolidate transit under a statewide agency and alleviate the gridlock traffic situation around the metro Atlanta region.
SB 284: Enact the Georgia Land Bank Act to create and operate land banks that would address the issue of vacant, abandoned and tax delinquent properties in Georgia.
Senate Resolution 590: Urge the Georgia Department of Education to implement cardiopulmonary resuscitation classes in public schools.
House
House Bill 639: Under the Crime Victims' Bill of Rights, provide consequences for the failure to notify a victim about parole or clemency proceedings.
HB 640: To provide internal consistency, change certain language regarding the exhaustion of rights by claimants against insolvent insurers.
HB 641: Revise and modernize provisions relating to juvenile proceedings and create the Office of the Child Advocate for the Protection of Children.
HB 642: Combine certain executive branch agencies and create the Georgia Services Administration as a successor agency to the Department of Administrative Services.
HB 643: Require a secondary metals recycler to maintain fingerprints of the people delivering the regulated metal property for recycling.
House Resolution 810: Create the House State Health Insurance Plan Alternative Funding Study Committee to investigate alternative funding, cost management strategies and reinsurance options for the State Health Benefit Plan.
Both chambers also passed various resolutions to recognize special days and people.