By: Sen. Ross Tolleson
Atlanta (February 13, 2009) – This week the State Senate has been adjusting to a few changes in the schedule. According to Georgia’s Constitution the General Assembly can only convene for a maximum of 40 days a year. This forces the General Assembly to do the people’s work in a timely matter. As I told you last week these are extremely tough budget times for our state, and as a result we are making a few changes to our schedule. In keeping with the laws set forth in the state Constitution, we will still only meet for 40 days. What we are doing though, is only having session on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and leaving Monday and Friday for budget hearings. This allows the Senators the ability to go through the budget and make the tough calls that need to be made. On day 35 the General Assembly will adjourn until June 22. This will allow us five days to make any changes, good or bad, to the budget at the end of June. The economy is so uncertain right now, no one is able to predict what is going to happen between now and June. The main reason for this is if the General Assembly were called into a Special Session it would be a lot more expensive and just plain irresponsible during these tough budget times. Just like your family, Georgia can not spend more money then it takes in.
