Jan. 27, 2012
Back to this week's e-Bulletin
Legislature Back In Session This Week
The
Georgia General Assembly took a week off for the Martin Luther
King, Jr. Day and to have a series of budget hearings to hear
from the Governor and agency heads about their priority
programs. While revenues to the State have continued to be more
positive recently, the leadership is taking a cautious approach.
When he spoke at our Legislative & Economic Forum a couple of
weeks ago, the Governor emphasized that he intends to work toward building
the "rainy day fund," which was essentially depleted during the
downturn. Zero-based budgeting is getting a much harder look
this year and the Legislature is asking agencies to not build
their budget requests on what they've historically been
appropriated, but to look closely at various programs to ensure
their continued need and effectiveness.
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GBA Priority
Garnishment Bill Passes House The House overwhelmingly passed this week H.B. 683, the bill that overturns a State Bar of Georgia-requested and Supreme Court of Georgia-approved rule that requires a garnishment from a court of record to be answered by a lawyer. Most banks and other businesses have been answering these garnishments with staff, and we forcefully made the point that there was simply no justification to add additional legal fee expenses to what is essentially an administrative function. We worked with a committee of the State Bar that developed this bill that will allow garnishments to be answered by non-lawyers, The bill was introduced by House Judiciary Chairman, Wendell Willard, (R-Sandy Springs) and he ably managed the bill on the floor. Our attorney friends in the Legislature had to endure some good-natured ribbing about their fees in general; however, all the attorneys but one on the Judiciary Committee voted for the bill knowing it could potentially cut into their revenues. That one attorney, Rep. Mark Hatfield (R-Waycross) was not concerned about the loss of fees, but had a minority report issued against the bill and he pressed members strongly to oppose it on the floor. He had a theory, that others disagreed with, that the bill would somehow not allow individual business owners to pass this administrative task on to employees. The final vote was 150-20. The bill is now pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee which we hope will consider it soon. |
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No Additional Action Yet on Foreclosure Registries In our last e-Legislative Update, we told you about a bill GBA had been working on with a coalition of other interested organizations dealing with foreclosure registries. The bill, H.B. 110, is designed to create uniform statewide standards for any municipality or county that decides to create a foreclosure registry. The registration fee would be capped at $175 and failure to register was capped at $500 per month to a maximum of $2,000. We mentioned to you that representatives of county and municipal governments objected to certain provisions in the legislation. We've been meeting with the governmental representatives and find that we can still accomplish what we need if their changes are included in the bill. However, other parties want to expand the reach of the bill and ban additional vacant property ordinances that are also becoming more common. The House author, Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Atlanta) also favored including vacant properties in the new statute. Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee Chairman Jack Murphy (R-Cumming), who is handling the bill in the Senate, is weighing all the options and we should know more soon about his plans. |
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Some Bills We're Following Advanced This Week or Were Heard in Committee Committees are continuing to meet on all the bills that have been referred to them. This week, we saw action on a several bills we've been following:
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Ralston Wants to Reduce Regulatory Burden Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) has been an outspoken proponent of ensuring that Georgia's business community has the most efficient set of laws and subsequent regulations on the books to allow these businesses to spend time on growing their business rather than filling out needless paperwork. This week in an unusual appearance before a committee, Speaker Ralston met with the House Special Committee on Small Business Development and Job Creation chaired by Rep. David Knight (R-Griffin) and charged them with a big task of hearing from all areas within the business community and taking action to reduce regulatory burden. The committee quickly got to work hearing from representatives of business interests. If you have recommendations of state-level burdens that affect your bank, please share those with us so we can pass them along to Chairman Knight and Speaker Ralston. |
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New
Bills Added this Week to Our Tracking List We saw several bills introduced this week that we've added to our tracking list. Obviously not all bills introduced will pass, but as decisions are made at the committee level on the fate of these bills, we'll let you know.
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Other
Legislation We Expect to Surface This Session
There are several other pieces of legislation we expect we will
be involved with this session, so please watch future editions
of our Legislative Update. Here are just a few:
Banking Department Housekeeping Bill. Two issues of interest to banks will be in the bill. One would allow banks with Department approval to sell shares for less than par and the other would allow, also with Department approval, a bank to pay dividends from sources other than retained earnings. GBA will support.
Derivatives Within Bank Lending Limits. At last count, we only had 19 Georgia-chartered banks with any sort of derivatives exposure. The Dodd-Frank Act requires derivatives exposure to be counted within the banks legal lending limits or banks can no longer participate in the derivatives market after Dec. 31, 2012. The Comptroller of the Currency will be issuing guidelines for nationally-chartered banks, but it will take a change in state statute to give state-chartered banks this same opportunity. GBA will support.
Subcontractor Notification. We expect legislation to be offered on behalf of various subcontractor groups that would require lenders to notify subcontractors if the bank decides to cease funding the bank's client these subcontractors are performing work for. The bill will be loosely patterned after similar requirements in Florida that applies to residential construction. We expect the Georgia version to also apply to commercial construction. GBA will oppose.
Additional Renter Rights in Foreclosure. Legislation was introduced last session, HB 445, by Rep. Andy Welch (R-McDonough) that would give rights to renters in a foreclosure beyond those in Federal law. We understand another bill is forthcoming that is expected to go even further than Welch's bill. GBA will oppose
Foreclosure Process Halted While Modifications Under Consideration. We expect to see legislation introduced that would prohibit lenders to dual track a foreclosure while a modification is under consideration. GBA will monitor.
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GBA at the Capitol Stay tuned and follow our updates on the GBA’s State Issues Page on our website as it’s updated daily. If you Tweet – follow us on Twitter – we’ll be Tweeting significant events as they occur. GBA will be well-represented again this year at the Capitol with Elizabeth Chandler, GBA’s Senior Vice President of Government Relations, coordinating our lobbying efforts. With questions about the session, bills of interest or anything related to the process, just give her a call at 404.420.2027. |
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50 Hurt Plaza, Suite 1050 | Atlanta, Georgia 30303 | 404.522.1501 |