AJC Article

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Dear Families and Friends:

Please see below article that ran in the Atlanta Consititution. It talks about the budget proposal to move Age, Blind and Disabled into a managed care plan.

Heidi Fernandez April is Autism Awareness Month Parent and Advocate "Knowledge is Power" "To the world, you may be one person, but to one person, you may be the world."

Property tax cut on Perdue's deskGovernor has reservations as lawmakers pass midyear budget deal that also funds PeachCare and indigent defense system.By SalzerThe Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 04/14/07

Gov. Sonny Perdue will now decide if Georgia homeowners receive a property tax cut of about $100 this year.

The House and Senate on Friday overwhelmingly approved a midyear budget deal for fiscal 2007 —- which ends June 30 —- that includes a $142 million property tax cut.

The measure also provides money to keep two financially struggling programs running through June 30: $81 million for the PeachCare health insurance program for the working poor and $8.5 million for the indigent defense system.

Four hours after backing the deal, the House approved a $20.2 billion budget for fiscal 2008, which begins July 1. The Senate will take that up next week, when the General Assembly is expected to conclude this year's legislative session.

Earlier, the midyear budget with the tax cut passed the House 166-0 and the Senate 48-0. The deal still must be signed into law by the governor, and he expressed reservations about the tax cut after it was hastily put together Tuesday night.

It's not clear how homeowners will get their money if Perdue signs it into law.

House Speaker Glenn (R-Hiram) said he hopes counties send homeowners checks. However, that would cost counties thousands of dollars in printing, postage and staff time to figure out how much each homeowner should get. On the plus side for lawmakers, constituents are more likely to remember the check at election time.

An alternative would be for counties to include a credit on this year's property tax bills when they go out. Such credits are often not noticed by taxpayers, however, and lawmakers would get less of a political boost.

"We're still working on the details," said.

The tax cut was touted by the top budget writers of both chambers Friday as a way to give back excess money collected from taxpayers.

"You are giving tax relief to the citizens of Georgia. It's something you can all be proud of," House Appropriations Chairman Ben Harbin (R-) told his colleagues.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Hill (R-Reidsville) called it "a tax cut our state can afford."

Later, the House passed a fiscal 2008 budget that puts more money into schools, continues the government's construction spree and spends millions of dollars to promote fishing.

The measure includes $18 million of the $19 million Perdue requested for his "Go Fish Georgia" program to promote fishing tourism. That would include money for new boat ramps, a fish hatchery and a visitors center.

However, the House gave Perdue none of the $50 million he requested for land conservation.

House leaders reduced the size of the austerity spending cut Perdue had proposed for school districts, lowering it from $140 million to $100 million. Well over half of the $1 billion the state would borrow for construction would go to schools, and both the k-12 and college systems would receive record funding.

One of the most controversial changes would be in Medicaid, the state-federal program that provides health care to about 1.3 million poor, disabled and elderly Georgians.

persuaded colleagues to put Atlanta-area residents in programs for the elderly, blind and disabled into cheaper managed care systems. He said that step, basically a pilot program, would save Medicaid $80 million: $30 million in state funding and $50 million from the federal government.

The state officials who run Medicaid say such a move is hasty, however. Lawmakers acknowledge they don't really know how much moving more Medicaid recipients into managed care would save.

State Community Health Commissioner Rhonda Medows said it's "premature to proceed with further expansion of managed care in Medicaid." She said the department has less than a year's experience with current attempts to use managed care to deliver services in Medicaid.

"The $80 million [$30 million in state funds] proposed in 2008 would be a direct cut to the Medicaid program," she said.

Staff writer Bill Hendrick contributed to this article.

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE TWO BUDGETS

Midyear budget for fiscal 2007, approved by House and Senate:

> $142 million property tax cut

> $81 million to prop up PeachCare health insurance for children

> $8.5 million for public defender program

Fiscal 2008 budget, approved by House:

> $18 million for fishing tourism

> $1 billion for construction projects, mostly schools

> $10 million extra funding for Georgia Gwinnett College

> $30 million saved by putting Atlanta-area residents receiving Medicaid programs for the elderly, blind and disabled into managed care