Rep. Matt Ramsey Praises Signing of HB 123, Closing Loophole in Georgia's Child Molestation Statute

Yesterday, Governor Sonny Perdue signed House Bill 123 into law. This legislation was authored by Representative Matt Ramsey (R-Peachtree City) to close a loophole in Georgia’s child molestation statute.

House Bill 123 fixes a problem created by a mid-nineties Georgia Supreme Court ruling in which the Court, in a close decision, interpreted the statutory definition of child molestation to require that a perpetrator be physically present with a victim in order to be prosecuted for child molestation.

“The Court’s ruling created a barrier that limited prosecutors' ability to go after predators that subject children to lewd acts via electronic means such as webcams or live streaming video. It was an unusual result in that it meant an offender that commits a lewd act in the presence of a child can be prosecuted for molestation, whereas another person who induces a child to watch the exact same act on a webcam cannot, despite the fact that the impact on the child is the same. HB 123 corrected this flaw,” said Rep. Ramsey. “Our laws must keep up with technological changes and in this case that means closing a loophole that allows predators to use technology to prey upon our children.”

Rep. Ramsey was joined at the signing ceremony by two of the legislation’s co-sponsors, Representative Mark Williams (R-Jesup) and Representative Kevin Levitas (D-Atlanta). Judge Christopher Edwards, District Attorney for the Griffin Judicial Circuit Scott Ballard and his Chief Assistant District Attorney Randy Coggin were also present at the signing.

“I truly appreciate Judge Edwards for bringing the issue to my attention and to Scott Ballard and Randy Coggin for their efforts throughout the legislative session, including participation in several committee hearings, in support of this bill,” said Rep. Ramsey.

The legislation was carried in the Senate by State Senator Ronnie Chance and passed the House and Senate overwhelmingly with bi-partisan support.

Session Wrap Up

The General Assembly adjourned for the year on April 3. I have previously written an update on several initiatives that were passed during the last week of the session. However, I wanted to follow up with information on some additional measures that were passed by the General Assembly and are on the Governor’s desk awaiting signature. Facing the toughest economic times in recent memory, the 2009 General Assembly Session proved to be a successful one for Georgians. In addition to passing a balanced budget and addressing the governance of DOT, the legislature addressed several important policy areas, including tax relief, education and our state’s trauma network.

Over the past year a statewide task force of educators, policy makers, school administrators and other education policy experts have worked to identify issues that need to be addressed in Georgia’s public education system. One of the most critical problems identified by the task force is a shortage of math and science teachers. In recent years, Georgia has beefed up its math and science curriculum to ensure our students come out of high school ready to compete in college and in the job market in a world that gets more levered to technology every day. However, currently there is a shortage of between 15%-20%, depending on the subject, of the number of teachers necessary to teach this new math and science curriculum. According to the task force, the shortage of math and science teachers is, by far, the greatest area of needs in terms of teacher recruitment. To underscore the problem, Georgia’s colleges last year only produced one physics teacher and nine chemistry teachers.

To address the issue, several legislators, including myself, introduced a measure to provide pay incentives to math and science teachers in an effort to encourage college students that excel in math and science to consider teaching as a possible occupation, rather than other opportunities. This is a market-based, common sense approach to employee recruitment that has been used successfully in the private sector forever. Simply put, if you have a need that is not being met at a given salary and benefit level, you must enhance the salary and benefits to incent additional prospective employees to consider the position. This will benefit all of Georgia’s students as they move out of high school and into college or the workforce. Further, this is an economic development issue, in that it will help make sure Georgia continues to have the kind of technically proficient workforce that will entice technology based companies to invest in and bring jobs to Georgia in the decades to come.

Tax relief for Georgians was a key issue for the General Assembly this year. It is critical in these difficult economic times that we provide measures aimed at helping financially strapped families and businesses, while encouraging economic activity, job growth and increased investment in our economy. The General Assembly passed a measure that will prevent property tax assessments from increasing at all over the next two years to help Georgians who are already struggling with out of control property tax bills. In addition, the House and Senate passed the Jobs Opportunity and Business Success Act (JOBS Act), which was introduced as a package of legislation to create, expand and attract jobs for Georgians. By combining a series of tax cuts, fee suspensions and incentives to hire unemployed Georgians this legislation actually encourages private sector economic activity, rather than the federal government’s version of a stimulus plan that seemed only focused on using taxpayer dollars to stimulate the growth of the size of the federal government.

Finally, the General Assembly worked to provide for a more robust trauma care system in this state. Georgia has the worst per-capita access to Level I trauma care in the southeastern United States. We are losing thousands of lives every year in Georgia because individuals involved in traumatic accidents are not treated quickly enough to mitigate the physical harm caused by the accident. In that regard, the Legislature and Governor Perdue worked together to craft the “Super Speeder” legislation that provides for enhanced fines for excessive speeding, reckless driving, habitual DUI offenders and other dangerous driving activities that are the leading causes of traumatic accidents on our roads. As one of Governor Perdue’s floor leaders, I was significantly involved in the passage of this legislation out of the House. The increased fines are intended to make drivers think twice before excessively speeding or engaging in other dangerous driving activities that endanger all of our families every day on Georgia’s roads. The additional funding derived from the violators of these laws will be used to help fund a statewide trauma care network that will benefit any Georgian that suffers a traumatic accident.

I believe the legislature implemented a number of common-sense measures this session that will benefit millions of Georgians. The information above is but a few of these bills. I welcome any questions from constituents on these or any other matters relevant to our state government. As I’ve said before, thank you so much for the opportunity to serve this great community in the General Assembly.

Matt Ramsey

Final Report of the Current Session

The Georgia General Assembly adjourned the final day of the session on Friday night at 11:59 p.m. It was a hectic final week with several important pieces of legislation getting enacted, while several others were held over to next year. I wanted to give a brief overview about the final week of the session and follow up with a more comprehensive wrap up in the weeks to come.

First, the General Assembly passed the final $18.6 billion FY 2010 budget on Friday evening by an overwhelming bipartisan vote in favor of the House/Senate Conference Committee’s final budget. As I have constantly stated, it was a very difficult budget cycle as the state endeavored to deal with rapidly decreasing revenues that necessitated nearly $3 billion in cuts. However, we were able to balance the budget without raising taxes, unlike countless other states going through similarly difficult times, by making difficult choices and shrinking the size of government. While the cuts will certainly be felt throughout every sector of state government, I strongly believe the final budget document protects to the greatest extent possible critical state missions such as education and public safety, while focusing the largest reductions on other areas of the state budget. As I stated, I will provide a more detailed report on the final budget in the weeks to come and welcome any questions or comments.

Two of the most important pieces of legislation to pass the General Assembly were major restructurings of our state’s two largest agencies, the Department of Human Resources and the Department of Transportation. Since being elected in 2007, I have repeatedly written about my concern over mismanagement of the DOT. I strongly believe our current system is broken, which is partially evidenced by our hopelessly overburdened transportation infrastructure in Metro-Atlanta. The current system was set up several decades ago and provides an unelected Board of thirteen individuals, with no direct accountability to the citizens of Georgia, complete and total power over every aspect of planning, funding and project delivery. In my opinion, it is good ol’ boy politics at its worst and has led to the DOT over-obligating itself to the tune of several billion dollars. The legislation passed last week will provide those that are directly accountable to Georgia’s voters, the Governor and members of the General Assembly, a greater voice in our state’s transportation system. The planning and funding process will be completely transparent, rather than the current system where the process occurs in a Board Room and is often based solely on political favors and clout.

The General Assembly also provided for a significant reorganization of the Department of Human Resources, a department that provides for an incredibly wide array of services to Georgia’s most vulnerable citizens, including abused and neglected children and the elderly. The reorganization will help to ensure a more streamlined and transparent service delivery system by breaking the massive agency into three smaller more focused and targeted agencies. It is the result of a year long Health and Human Services task force that focused its efforts on determining a more effective way to serve Georgia’s citizens.

Finally, I have received a great deal of interest and wanted to provide an update on legislation I authored to add cell phone use to the list of restrictions placed on under-18, Class-D license holders. The legislation passed the House Motor Vehicles Committee unanimously, passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support, passed the Senate Public Safety Committee Unanimously, but got hung up in the Senate Rules Committee in the final days of the session without getting to the Senate floor for a vote. In the end, it was a numbers game whereby many bills didn’t make it to the House or Senate floor due to time simply running out on the session. To use a football analogy, we moved the football down inside our opponent’s five yard line but didn’t quite get it into the end zone. However, the good news for supporters of the legislation is that this is a two-year session, and the bill will still be on the five yard line when next year’s session convenes.

I am very proud to report that legislation I authored to address a gap in our child molestation statute is on its way to the Governor for signature. In addition, legislation I introduced to protect parties from costs resulting from meritless lawsuits was adopted and on its way to the Governor for signature. Also, legislation I worked on to provide our school systems greater flexibility from state mandates to help in the current economic crisis was also adopted by the House and Senate and awaits the Governor’s signature.

I look forward to providing additional information on this and other legislation addressed by the General Assembly in the weeks to come. Let me also say thank you to the numerous citizens that wrote and called me during the session. I truly enjoy the interaction with constituents and the input is absolutely invaluable.

Week 1 Report

Last week the 2009 Georgia General Assembly was gaveled into session. The first day the entire body was sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. It is truly an honor to serve this community, and again swearing the oath to uphold the Constitution was an incredibly humbling moment.

Let me again thank the voters of Fayette County for the opportunity to serve this wonderful community. It was a particularly exciting day for me, as my wife and five-year-old daughter accompanied me to the swearing in. My daughter held the Bible for me when I was sworn in, which was a really exciting moment for my family, although, the high point for my daughter was pushing the “yes” button and lighting up the green light next to my name in the chamber when we took a roll call attendance vote to begin the day.

The first week of a two year session is typically light on legislative business. That is primarily due to the fact that people are just beginning to introduce bills and committees are not constituted until the end of the week when the Committee on Assignments makes committee assignments. I was excited to learn that I will again get to serve on the Non-Civil Judiciary Committee. This committee writes all the legislation that deals with criminal justice issues. It is a wonderful committee, as it allows me to work on critical community safety issues.

This week, I introduced legislation to deal with a problem created in the child molestation statute by the Georgia Supreme Court. In a controversial and close decision, the Court recently construed the child molestation statute in a way that, in my opinion, ignores the Legislature’s intent and puts numerous child molestation prosecutions in jeopardy. My bill will address the problem created by this ruling and ensure prosecutors have every tool necessary to go after these predators. It will be heard by the Judiciary Committee on which I serve.

I was also excited to learn I will be serving on the Defense and Veterans Affairs Committee, under the leadership of my friend Chairman John Yates. Chairman Yates has long been an advocate for the rights of the brave men and women that serve or have served our country in the armed forces and I look forward to working with him in that effort. I will also be serving as the Secretary of the Human Relations and Aging, which works on issues created by our rapidly aging population, and on the Regulated Industries Committee.

The big event of the week from a substantive policy standpoint was Governor Perdue’s “State of the State” speech on Wednesday. It is the first opportunity for the public and members of the General Assembly to hear Governor Perdue’s legislative agenda for this session. He outlined proposals in areas such as tort reform, local school board governance and reform of the Georgia DOT. I look forward to seeing the details of all of his proposals as the session gets underway and we begin to see the nuts and bolts of these measures.

Governor Perdue also outlined his requested budget. Obviously, the biggest challenge facing the legislature this year will be addressing our massive budget shortfall created by declining revenues. We are required by the Constitution to balance the budget, and that is exactly what we will do. While we will be undergoing significant belt-tightening, which will certainly be felt across all sectors of state government, we should all take heart that Georgia is a state that lives within its means. Now that Governor Perdue has proposed his budget, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees will meet this upcoming week to begin hearings as they start the process of writing the budget. I will provide updates as details of the budget begin to come out.

It is my intention to again write regular columns in an effort to keep the community informed during this session of the General Assembly. As always, please never hesitate to write or call with any questions or opinions. Let me also say a special thanks to all that have responded to the citizen survey that I mailed out in December. In this difficult time where resources are limited and government certainly cannot be all things to all people, I believe it is more important than ever for policy makers to reach out to their constituents for input on their priorities. I have been extremely impressed by the rate of response and very much appreciate all of the thoughtful comments and opinions. This information will be invaluable to me during this and future sessions.

General Assembly Session Rapidly Approaching

After a year dominated by difficult and hard fought elections, January will see a new President, Congress and Georgia General Assembly sworn into office. The challenges resulting from our current economic condition that are facing both the federal and state government are daunting. It will be important that elected officials on all levels of government leave the acrimony of the campaign trail behind to focus on the critical issues facing our state and nation. In Georgia, the gavel will come down on a new session of the General Assembly on January 12.

The number one issue that we will be confronting when the legislature convenes is the state budget. Due to the economic downturn in recent months, the revenues have been much less than anticipated by the Georgia Department of Revenue, meaning a significant budget reduction will be necessary. Depending on how the revenue numbers look in November and December, it will likely be somewhere between 6 and 12 percent out of a $21 billion state budget. No doubt, this will be a difficult process and hard decisions will have to be made. However, there is some good news. Georgians should take heart that they live in a state that lives within its means. Just like all of our families and businesses, when less money comes in, less money is spent. Georgia does not borrow money to engage in deficit spending and heap debt obligations on our children like the federal government does year in and year out. Our constitution requires that that the budget be balanced and that is what Georgia’s government will do. In a time when we read almost daily about huge taxpayer bailouts and an ever increasing federal deficit, we should all be proud to live in a state that coded fiscal responsibility into its constitution.

I am personally working on several pieces of legislation for introduction this session. I am working closely with Senator Ronnie Chance and other legislators on a bill addressing the metal theft problem that has become endemic in Georgia in recent years. Individuals, churches, businesses and other property owners are suffering thousands of dollars in property damage at the hands of copper thieves. Our goal in crafting this legislation is to give law enforcement the additional tools they need to help stem the tide of this problem.

I am also working on a law clarifying the definition of child molestation in Georgia. Our Supreme Court, in a close decision in a recent case, significantly limited the scope of the child molestation statute in Georgia in a way that severely limits efforts to prosecute child molesters using new technologies such as web cams to target our children. We cannot let the law fall behind the times as the proliferation of new technology gives predators more ways to prey on Georgia’s children. In my opinion, the majority of the Court in this decision ignored both the legislature’s intent and the plain meaning of the statutory language and the issue needs to be clarified through legislation.

I have also pre-filed legislation to ban cell phone use by drivers subject to graduated license restrictions (under 18) in Georgia. Studies show over 50% of all 16 and 17 year olds text while driving and over 90% talk on cell phones while driving. Another study showed that 16 year old drivers were 4.5 times more likely than adult drivers to fail to identify and react to dangerous situation on the road due to the distraction of cell phone use while driving. The focus of our graduated license law that was passed in 1997 is to provide teens with a training period, absent distractions, to more safely learn how to drive. Eliminating cell phones is the next logical step in this law. I believe there is certainly merit in considering limiting cell phone use by all drivers, but frankly, I would not be optimistic it would pass this year. Given the incredible success our graduated license law has had on reducing crashes in young drivers (37% reduction in fatal crashes for 16 year olds), the case is more compelling to address the issue with the most inexperienced and vulnerable drivers first. If the law is enacted and proves successful it will bolster the case for further efforts to reduce distractions among all drivers. Over 100 teens were killed in traffic accidents in Georgia last year. That is unacceptable and we can and must do better.

In addition to the budget, there will be significant debate this year on issues such as transportation, trauma care and education policy during the legislative session that begins in January. I look forward to interacting with the residents of Fayette County throughout the session on all issues pending before the General Assembly. It is my intention to again write regular columns updating the community on legislative matters (hopefully they won’t all be as long as this one). In the meantime, I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and my family and I wish you all nothing but the safest and happiest holiday season.