Sine Die 2013: Ethics compromise passes, abortion and gun proposals stall

• Joeff Davis

It was a late night at the Gold Dome as Sine Die ended right around midnight. After a grueling 40th day under the Gold Dome, leaders of both chambers gaveled the legislative session to a close and state lawmakers tossed shreds of proposals, reports, and other paper documents into the air in celebration.

Aside from passing Georgia’s $19.3 million budget for fiscal year 2014, which the House OK’ed around 8:30 p.m. last night, state legislators primarily focused on ethics, abortion, and guns.

Ethics reform - House Bills 142 and 143:

A small group of lawmakers worked early in the morning of Sine Die to broker a compromise between the state Senate and House of Representatives versions of the dueling ethics bills. A $75 gift cap meant that the Senate conceded $25 while the House caved in on the gift ban originally proposed by House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge.

Unsurprisingly, there are exceptions. Among those are committee dinners and travel expenses. On the positive side, citizen activists won’t need to register as lobbyists under the legislation, unless they receive $250 or more in reimbursements.

The bill outlining lobbyist gifts unanimously passed, albeit with some additional loopholes, in the state Senate. Ralston asked his House members to move forward and also approve the ethics proposal.

“By voting for the report, because although not perfect, this measure does for the first time put limitations on spending,” Ralston said. As the Speaker indicated, the consensus among lawmakers was that something had to pass and that additional ethics reforms could be revisited next year.

“We took a small step in a state that ranks 50th in the nation for ethics laws,” William Perry, the executive director of Common Cause of Georgia, said after the session. He said good-government watchdogs would continue the push for ethics reform.