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Legislature Adjourns |
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The
General
Assembly adjourned at midnight last night ending the
2006 session. This year's session will be remembered for a
number of accomplishments. Governor
Sonny
Perdue successfully pressed for a reduction in public
school class size and a mandate to spend at least 65% of
education dollars in the classroom. A 4% pay raise for
teachers was included in the state's record-setting $18+ billion
budget. The governor also successfully pressed the General
Assembly to pass an eminent domain bill addressing the taking of
property for redevelopment purposes. Earlier in the
session, the General Assembly adopted a mandatory photo
identification requirement for voters and passed a bill dealing
with illegal immigrants. GBA successfully fought to keep
our members out of the immigration bill and a provision that
would have required financial institutions to collect a 5% fee
on certain international wire transfers was dropped. A
major change in calculating child support payments was enacted,
and harsher sentences will be handed down to sex offenders as a
result of legislation passed in the closing hours of the
session. All seats in the General Assembly as well as all
the constitutional officers are up for grabs as this is an
election year. With the primary slated for July 18, we
will begin to see the campaigns begin in earnest. In fact,
GBA BankPAC received the first request for a contribution from a
candidate at 4:35 this morning!
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Eight
Bills on GBA Watch List Received Final Passage |
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There were few high
profile banking-related bills like those that have dominated
some years in the past but nevertheless, the 2006 session was a
busy one with a number of bills passing in which GBA member
banks had an interest. The eight bills that received final
passage are:
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Insurance
Proceeds
H.B. 1304 by Representatives Knox, Brown and Meadows.
Among other things, the bill provides that neither the cash
surrender values nor the proceeds of life insurance policies
and annuity contracts shall be liable to attachment,
garnishment, or legal process in favor of any creditor of the
person for whose use or benefit the policy or contract was
executed. GBA worked with Rep. Knox and Senate Insurance
Committee Chairman
Ralph Hudgens to modify language in the bill to ensure
bank security interests were protected.
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Health Insurance Risk Pool
H.B. 320 by Representatives Forster, Knox, Meadows,
Dodson, Watson and Maxwell. Sets up a risk pool that would
cover uninsured individuals for health insurance. The pool
would have been funded by a fee on each covered employee in
traditional health insurance plans like the plan our members
use through the GBA Insurance Trust. GBA opposed the bill as
introduced and working with a coalition of other industries
coordinated by the
Georgia
Chamber of Commerce, the funding mechanism was
deleted from the bill.
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Social Security Numbers
S.B. 588 by Senators Rogers, Shafer, Staton and Hill.
Prohibits the use or display of social security numbers except
in specified circumstances. In a last ditch effort to revive
his legislation that would allow consumers to put freezes on
their credit reports, Rep.
Rob Teilhet attempted to
attach his bill to this legislation as it was being considered
the final day. Speaker
Glenn Richardson ruled
Rep. Teilhet's attempted amendment to be non-germane to the
bill.
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Manufactured Home Titling
S.B. 253 by Senator Smith, Weber, Carter, Meyer von
Bremen, and Hamrick. Amends the current law dealing with
converting a manufactured home from personal to real property
by adding a new term, "Certificate of Permanent Location," and
further provides for how the document is to be recorded and
replaced.
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Notice of Real Estate
Settlements
H.B. 1282 by Representatives Ralston and O'Neal.
Creates a "Notice of Settlements" form that any party to the
transfer of ownership of real estate or who creates a lien or
mortgage on the property by way of a deed to secure debt,
mortgage, or other instrument may file with the Clerk of
Superior Court and if a lien is filed during the 45 day
existence of the Notice of Settlements and the title has not
changed hands, the lien will attach to the property.
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Mortgage License Exemption
S.B. 505 by Senators Balfour, Unterman and Shafer.
Provides for the exemption for licensing as a mortgage broker
or lender if the company is a financial institution and the
individual is an exclusive agent for the financial institution
and the institution takes responsibility for the individual's
actions.
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Escrow Deposit Accounts
H.B. 1273 by Representative O'Neal, Talton and
Morris. Amends the current statute requiring tenant escrow
deposits to be placed in a bank account to remove the
provision that requires the landlord to inform the borrower of
the account number. The requirement to notify the tenant of
where the account is established remains in effect.
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Mechanic and Materialmen
Liens
S.B. 530 by Senators Weber and Seabaugh. Amends the
current provisions of the law dealing with mechanics and
materialmen to allow a lien to attach to property for
improvements done at the request of a tenant or subcontractor
acting on behalf of the owner; the lien could also extend
improvements authorized by the tenant or subcontractor to the
adjacent easement or public right of way.
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Knox
Rogers
Ralston
O'Neal
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Forster
Smith
Balfour
Weber |
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ATM Bills
Did Not Pass/Hearing Most Likely |
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Two bills were
introduced this session dealing with automatic teller machines
(ATMs).
S.B. 513 was introduced by Senators Wiles, Rogers, Hill
and Chapman and would have required ATMs outside buildings to be
equipped with emergency buttons that would call 911 in an
emergency. The bill also would have set a fine for anyone
sending false alarms.
H.R. 1183 was introduced by Senators Wiles, Hill
and Rogers and would have created the Senate Study Committee on
Remote Service Terminal (ATM) Safety. The resolution called for
the study committee to meet up to five times and report a
recommendation to the General Assembly in 2007. Sen. Wiles
pushed hard for both bills to be adopted but neither received a
vote in the
Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee.
We understand the Senate leadership has authorized Sen. Wiles to
hold a hearing in his district on the issue of ATM safety and
GBA will be in discussions with Sen. Wiles to offer our
assistance in helping him and others understand the issue.
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Wiles |
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Banking Committee
Chairs Play Pivotal Role |
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Our thanks to Rep.
James Mills (R-Gainesville), chairman of the
House Banks
and Banking Committee and to Sen.
Bill Hamrick (R-Carrollton), chairman of the
Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee for
the pivotal roles each played this year in chairing their
respective committees. The committees dealt with a variety
of issues and held hearings on virtually every bill assigned to
them. Throughout the session, each was accessible and gave
GBA a fair hearing on the issues in which we had an interest.
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Mills |
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Title Pawn
Bill Not Enacted/GBA Opposes Expansion |
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You have read about the legislation
considered by the
House and
Senate this year that would have
changed the title pawn industry. The versions of the bills
were substantially different. One bill would have required
the
Georgia Department of Banking and Finance to regulate
the title pawn industry. Another would have required title
pawn dealers to return to the consumer any excess proceeds if a
vehicle were sold for more than the pawn amount. Still
another version would have given the
Governor's Office of
Consumer Affairs a greater role in enforcement. In the
end, none of the bills passed. GBA has monitored the bills
since last year as we were concerned about getting brought into
the discussion dealing with interest and usury. While
those discussions never arose, GBA actively lobbied against an
effort that surfaced last week that would have allowed a
consumer to pawn a vehicle that a lender had a lien on.
That concept would have been a substantial change from current
law and we were glad the provision was not adopted. We do
expect this issue to resurface in the 2007 session of the
General Assembly.
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GBA Monitored
More Than Three Dozen Bills |
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Throughout the
session, the Georgia Bankers
Association followed a number of bills carried over from the
2005 legislative session and all the new bills introduced in the 2006 session. All the
2005 bills were eligible for
consideration at any time and many were of serious concern.
Please click
here to see the bills that were on our watch list.
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GBA's
Lobbyists |
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GBA was
represented this year at the Capitol by our three lobbyists:
Joe Brannen,
Elizabeth
Chandler
and Don
Browne so
give them a call if you have questions about any legislation.
Joe
Brannen, Direct phone, (404) 420-2026
Elizabeth
Chandler, Direct phone, (404) 420-2027
Don Browne,
Phone,
(404) 522-1501
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GBA Keeps You
Informed |
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GBA’s
e-Legislative
Update is intended to keep you apprised of the bills that the GBA
is tracking on the industry’s behalf and was sent on Fridays
during the session. On Fridays when the Update was not
mailed, it was be sent electronically to those provided us
with their email addresses. The ‘State Issues’ section of GBA’s
website, is linked to the website maintained by
the General Assembly
and assures that you will have the latest version of any bill that was
tracked by the GBA.
The
e-version of GBA's Legislative Update was published regularly
during the 2006 session of the Georgia General Assembly. Please let GBA's
Lydia
Thomas know of others you would like added to our distribution list
for next session's mailings.
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Serving the needs of
Georgia Bankers since 1892
Search I
Staff I
Contact Us
Georgia Bankers Association - 50 Hurt
Plaza, Suite 1050, Atlanta, GA 30303 • Phone 404.522.1501 • Fax
404.522.9848
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