THIS WEEK’S LEGISLATIVE ISSUES
QUOTE TO PONDER

This Year the Georgia Retail Association tracked 137 bills that would, if enacted into law, have some impact on the retail sector. A list of bills that we tracked during the 2009 Session of the Georgia General Assembly and their fate can be found at: http://www.georgiaretail.org/governmentaffairs/documents/15CRRDetail_April_24_2009.pdf

Please remember, bills introduced in 2009 remain alive for the 2010 session.

Governor Considering Vetoes – Please Help

With the state’s $2 billion plus shortfall, threats of vetoes over three important pieces of legislation are worrisome. Please fax your support for HB 120 (Sales Tax Holiday), HB 481 (Jobs Act) and HB 482 (Eliminating the Inventory Tax) to Governor Sonny Perdue at 404-657-7332. For details on these bills please link to: http://www.georgiaretail.org/governmentaffairs/documents/15CRRDetail_April_24_2009.pdf

With the 2009 Session of the Georgia General Assembly over we ask that you take time to tell us how we did.
1. Did we address the legislation that was important to your business?
2. Did we get the information to you in a timely manner?
3. Is our format user friendly?
4. Did having a separate Capitol Retail Report and a more comprehensive Capitol Retail Report Detail version available on the GRA website work?
5. Can you suggest ways to improve our communications?
6. Would you like to have the information available on Facebook or Twitter?
7. Did you respond to any of the requests for action?
8. If you did not respond to requests for action will you tell us why and what we can do to make that function more user friendly?

Pharmacy Bill Reported as Passed, Died on Day 40

Last week we reported that SB 49 was passed by both houses of the Georgia General Assembly, and that is true. However, the two houses passed bills with the same number, but with different language and the Senate did not have a chance to vote on the House changes. Therefore the bill did not pass.

SB 49 – Limiting a Pharmacist from Substituting a Drug as Part of Immunosuppressive Therapy. This bill was originally the Georgia Registered Nurse Practice Act, but was gutted and the current, adopted language inserted by the House. The bill, if signed by the governor, will prevent a pharmacist from substituting any primary immunosuppressant pharmaceutical that is prescribed as a part of immunosuppressive therapy for a patient who has received an organ or tissue transplant without first notifying the patient or his or her designee. They will be required to notify the prescribing physician prior to the substitution by means of phone, facsimile, or electronic transmission. The prescribing physician shall indicate on the prescription the diagnosis 'for organ or tissue transplant patient.
http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/fulltext/sb49.htm
Status: Passed by both houses with different language, dies without Senate agreement to the changes made in the House

Carbon Taxes and Your Electric Bill

If and when utilities are forced to charge a carbon tax, as suggested by members of Congress, retailers are likely to get hit the hardest. And as manufacturers buy credits for the emissions they produce, consumers will get pinched again when they purchase goods.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a 15 percent cut in emissions would cost the average family at least $680 each year. The CBO estimates $50 billion to $300 billion a year would be collected, with an unspecified amount pledged to offset the higher energy bills of lower income families.

According to Department of Energy data, Georgia does not have abundant solar energy like the Southwest, the wind turbine generation in the Great Plains, nor abundant geothermal. So, here in Georgia, the inequities of a one-size fits all federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) will be felt even greater. Like 25 other states, Georgia receives 50 percent or more of its energy generation from coal. If RPS legislation is limited to wind, solar, biomass or geothermal, Georgia's electricity costs will definitely go up.

While companies in Georgia will expand their use of renewable generating sources, such as biomass, the state cannot come close to meeting the mandates now being considered by Congress.

Federal Deficit Trends Continues, Grows

In 43 of the last 48 years the federal government spent more than it collected. Even this terrible performance has been accomplished only by using dubious accounting practices. Over the past eight years the federal government's budgeted expenditures have exceeded its revenue by an aggregate of $2 trillion, which represents about 20 percent of our current national debt.

Unfortunately, in government jargon the so-called deficit in a given year is not the same thing as the additional indebtedness incurred by the government in the same fiscal year. Consistently the annual increase in the national debt has vastly exceeded the less relevant annual budget deficit. For instance, in the 2008 fiscal year ended September 30, 2008 the government reported a deficit of $455 billion, but during that year it actually borrowed an additional $1 trillion, net of repayments. This is a result primarily of the government borrowing $183 billion from the Social Security Trust Fund (FICA taxes collected in excess of benefits paid in 2008), and of $379 billion of supplementary non-budgeted expenses for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus the funding of economic stimulus measures and earmarks.

Our current national debt of $10 trillion is approximately 52.4 percent owned by entities such as the Federal Reserve Bank and the trust funds of Social Security and other U.S. government retirement and insurance funds. About one quarter is owned by foreign investors including governments, 7.4 percent by state and local governments, and the remaining 15 percent by individuals, mutual funds, insurance companies and depository institutions.

QUOTE TO PONDER

"It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error." Justice Robert H. Jackson

Thank you,

John C. Heavener, MSM, CAE
President, Georgia Retail Association

For More Information Contact:
johnh@georgiaretail.org
Telephone – 770-484-3449, ext. 21
Toll Free - (877) 427-3824
Fax – 770-484-5727
www.georgiaretail.org

About GRA: The Georgia Retail Association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, independent stores, and grocery stores has been serving the state’s business community since 1961. The Georgia Retail Association represents an industry with more than 71,300 retail establishments, and more than 715,000 employees - about one in five of Georgia’s workers – with annual sales of more than $115 billion.

Printer Friendly CRR April 24, 2009