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SNOW AND A NEW ADMINISTRATION
Every 15 years or so, winter storms wr’l
dump snow and ice all over Metro Atlanta.
State and local government agencies always
seem to be caught unprepared when these
storms hit, which means that half of Georgia
is usually shut down for a week until the ice
melts. That was the case last week as one gov
ernor was leaving office and a new governor
was on the verge of replacing him. A massive
snow storm lashed the northern part of the
state and made it impossible for most people
to get to the state capitol.
Bad weather or not. the Georgia constitu
tion and state law require that a new governor
take the oath of office on the second Monday
in January as the General Assembly convenes
for its yearly session. Legislators had no
choice but to show up Monday morn
ing, during the worst of the winter
storm, and get ready to hear the
new governor take the oath of
office. Most of them made it.
Many lawmakers got a room in
a downtown hotel so that they
would be within walking dis
tance of the capitol. State Patrol
officers and Department of Natural
Resources employees used their
vehicles to provide personal taxi service
for legislators who needed a lift. You could
call it democracy by four-wheel drive.
Several minutes after 10 a.m. on Monday,
201 of the 236 members of the Senate and
House of Representatives were seated in their
respective chambers and able to punch the
buttons on their antique desks for the first
roll call of the session. They got right down
to business as the Senate proceeded with
something that had been in the works for
sevc^ 1 months: the parliamentary neutering
of Lt Gov. Casey Cagle. Many of the Senate's
36 Republicans were miffed at the way Cagle
had acted during the emotional debate on a
hospital bed tax last session. Cagle's tactics
for keeping senators in line had included
stripping two of them of their committee
chairmanships.
Senate Republicans took revenge by imple
menting what they euphemistically called
a "power-sharing'' agreement. Under this
new arrangement, Cagle was stripped of his
authority to appoint committee chairmen and
members, one of the most significant powers
a lieutenant governor has. Cagle was obviously
not happy with the new rules, but he and the
Senate leaders behaved politely while the vote
was taken.
The House and Senate had to complete
their organizational business quickly, because
Nathan Deal needed the House chambers fof
his inauguration. The truncated ceremony
was a family affair, for the most part. Deal
was sworn in by his son, Superior Court Judge
Jason Deal, and the governor's daughter,
Katie, provided a nicely done rendition
of the song "Georgia on My Mind."
Deal then delivered an inaugu
ral address that was short and to
the point. He thinks government
could be a tittle smaller, schools
aren't performing as welt as they
should, and the HOPE scholarship
program needs t*j be saved "for
future generations."
Two days later. Deal provided a
few more details about his plans in the
"state of the state" speech. He promised the
budget would be balanced despite the loss
of more than $1 billion in federal stimulus
money, and he said he would try to avoid mak
ing further cuts in K-12 education.
Colleges and technical schools won't be
so lucky: Deal proposed slicing nearly $350
million from their budgets over the next 18
months, with most of the cutbacks in student
instruction. You might ask: what good will
it do to save HOPE scholarships if there are
no instructors to teach the students who get
them?
Those are all questions that will be
answered in due time. But first, we've got to
get rid of that snow and ice.
Tom Crawford Icrawford@gareport com
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JANUARY 19,2011 • FLAGPOLE.COM 7
