Crossover day deadline nears in Georgia Legislature

ATLANTA - Activity in the General Assembly is building up to Thursday's midnight deadline for bills to survive the balance of the session.

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Crossover day, the 30th day of the session, is the deadline for bills to have passed the chamber where they originated and crossed over to the other chamber. The House has considered few Senate bills and vice versa because leadership in each chamber is racing to consider as many of their colleagues' bills as possible before the deadline.

Legislators are going to be working into the night this week. Nine Senate and 16 House committee meetings are already set for today. Hundreds of bills must win approval in the committees they were assigned to before heading to the floor for votes by the full House or Senate.

"You may be on one committee that's meeting at the same time that you're requested to be before another committee that's considering one of your bills," said Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens.

The Legislature will be in session today and Tuesday, pause for committee action Wednesday, then deliberate late Thursday, possibly until midnight.

Among the bills awaiting action are four proposed by Gov. Sonny Perdue that would remove the sales-tax exemption on supplies bought by nonprofit hospitals; make tampering with school tests a crime; create a transportation sales tax; and propose a constitutional amendment to allow future governors to appoint the commissioners of labor, insurance and agriculture and the superintendent of schools.

Also pending are a revision of rules on where permit holders can take their guns and an expansion of taxpayer-funded vouchers to private schools for children with a parent in the military.

Next year's budget isn't bound by the crossover deadline. Rep. Ben Harbin, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said he remains hopeful, but negotiations have bogged down with hospitals. Perdue proposed taxing them 1.6 percent or cutting their Medicaid payments.

One bill that has already crossed over to the Senate and could come up for final passage is a prohibition on the government release of crime-scene photos that show a nude body or mutilation. The House quickly passed the measure after Hustler magazine asked for photos of Meredith Emerson, who was killed in 2008.