Recent Headlines

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Craig Schneider reports that Georgia's top public health official resigned Thursday as the state struggles to find the money to fund her agency. As commissioner of the Department of Community Health, D...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Aaron Gould Sheinin reports that Gov. Sonny Perdue said he will use nearly $350 million federal stimulus funds budgeted for the next fiscal year to help fill the gap in the current, fiscal 2010 budget....

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Aaron Gould Sheinin reports that cuts to higher education would not be as severe as feared, but hospitals would face hundreds of millions in new fees and taxes under Gov. Sonny Perdue's revised budget ...

Macon Telegraph
Travis Fain reports that legislation that would allow increased class sizes, and other bills meant to save public schools or teachers money, made it through committee Thursday at the Capitol and are a big step closer t...

Macon Telegraph

Travis Fain reports that the state Senate approved a major overhaul to Georgia’s property tax system Thursday, continuing a multi-year effort to hold down the taxes local governments depend o...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jim Tharpe reports that a controversial proposal to carve a new Milton County out of north Fulton County cleared a legislative hurdle Thursday, but it could be headed for a head-on collision in its fir...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rachel Tobin Ramos reports that Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport soon will seek concessionaires to help the city put on its best face for globetrotting travelers. The Atlanta airport will issue...

Augusta Chronicle
Walter C. Jones reports that the simmering budget crisis facing the state and the University System of Georgia was hardly mentioned Tuesday or Wednesday during the Board of Regents' monthly meeting. It was referred t...

Athens Banner-Herald
Walter C. Jones reports that the University System of Georgia ordered an audit of every employee's health insurance dependent coverage in hopes of saving nearly $4.5 million.

Albany Herald
J.D. Sumner reports that Georgia’s top lawyer says the state must hand over $18 million in disputed sales tax revenue to local governments in the midst of a crippling state budget crunch. The opinion from Attorney ...

Gainesville Times
Ashley Fielding reports that a bill that would fund transportation projects through sales taxes is a moving target, lawmakers say. House Bill 1218 would give residents of 12 districts in the state the opportunity to ...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jim Tharpe and Nancy Badertscher report that a bill that state lawmakers say will create a “culture of conservation” and potentially help douse Georgia’s water war with Florida and Al...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Staff reports that the pace at the Legislature is picking up as lawmakers try to get their priorities passed. Their next deadline is Day 30, by which time bills must have passed one chamber to remain v...

Athens Banner-Herald
Blake Aued reports that religious conservative activist Ralph Reed will not run for Congress, he announced Wednesday. Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition who now is a political consultant, had bee...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nancy Badertscher reports that the Legislature is temporarily moving to a three-day work week and now expected to end the 40-day session in mid- to late April, House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. S...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Jim Tharpe reports that more than 100 protesters showed up on the steps of the state Capitol on Tuesday with a simple message for the lawmakers inside: No new taxes. Period. The no...

Macon Telegraph
Travis Fain reports that h undreds of state fees likely are headed up — and some of them way up — as state leaders zero in on at least one piece of a much larger budget puzzle. It also looks like the annual...

Macon Telegraph
Thomas L. Day reports that six of the seven candidates for the Republican nomination for governor took part in a debate in Centerville on Tuesday, marking the first face-off between the GOP candidates in Middle Georgia...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ariel Hart reports that Gov. Sonny Perdue’s proposal for transportation funding is running into serious issues in the House Transportation Committee, where the proposal was debated again Tuesday....

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ariel Hart reports that the House Transportation Committee has passed a bill that would reduce Transportation Board members’ terms from five years to two. The bill (HB 1234), sponsored by Rep. Ma...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jim Tharpe reports that health care advocates on Monday urged Georgia lawmakers to pass a dollar-a-pack cigarette tax as a way to save lives, reduce teen smoking and partially close an estimated $1 bil...

Marietta Daily Journal
Kathryn Dobies reports that anti-smoking advocates and Georgia health care providers conducted a rally at the state Capitol on Monday to promote a proposed $1 per pack tax increase on cigarettes. Representatives...

Athens Banner-Herald
Morris News Service reports that local school boards would have until October to adopt a code of ethics, and members who violate it could be removed by the governor, according to legislation the House approved Mon...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ernie Suggs reports, under a revised version of a controversial Senate gun bill, the University System of Georgia would be allowed to determine whether guns would be allowed on its campuses. But univer...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Leon Stafford and Nancy Badertscher report that the Georgia House passed legislation Monday that’s viewed as critical to negotiations to keep the Atlanta Falcons playing in downtown Atlanta. The ...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Aaron Gould Sheinin reports that, if there is a linchpin to the 2010 legislative session, the moment when the speculation over sink or swim ended, it most likely was when e-mail in-boxes all over the G...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nancy Badertscher and James Salzer reports that, after several years of steep state budget cuts and a drop in local property tax revenue caused by the recession, dozens of school systems, most of them ...

Augusta Chronicle
Rob Pavey reports that a bill that would place stricter regulations on interbasin water transfers is scheduled for introduction in the General Assembly this week.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ernie Suggs and Nancy Badertscher report that they say it was not a “break,” but the two-week stretch that state lawmakers took to work on the budget has come to an end and the General Asse...

Athens Banner-Herald
Morris News Service reports that the second half of the 2010 legislative session begins today with the toughest decisions still pending. Lawmakers took a two-week recess after the 20th day of the 40-day session to...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
James Salzer reports that the state will collect $960 this year from a $10 licensing fee it charges airports to “foster safer operating conditions.” “It’s a joke,” said Se...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Craig Schneider reports that Grady Memorial Hospital, on the verge of financial collapse about two years ago, has reached financial stability and improved patient care, hospital officials said. That as...