Sen. Miller and Rep. Rogers, both Republicans, reflected on the much-publicized measure that failed to pass - expanded gun carry legislation.
Rogers acknowledged that the sticking point on expanding the carrying law was a concern about allowing weapons on college campuses. Since the state runs most of those campuses, any liability that might come with a shooting accident could come right back to the state.
"The state is fully self-insured on this and if there was an accident or incident, then there's a huge liability exposure," said Rogers.
Rogers chairs the House Committee on Higher Education, and he said he heard personally from a number of college officials uncomfortable with allowing guns on college and university campuses.
Miller said there was compromise legislation that was drafted, but the compromise committee didn't finish it until close to 11 p.m. on March 28, an hour before the session was to end. By law, the printed measure has to sit for an hour, so that lawmakers can read it before the vote.
"You still have to print that bill before it can lay on the table for an hour," said Miller. "We just literally did not get to the bill."
Miller pleased with expanded education funding, other measures
Miller said while gun legislation might not have made it through the session, he was pleased with a number of measures that did.
In particular, he was happy to see funding restored for a number of education programs.
"Lowering the eligibility [GPA] for the HOPE grant from 3.0 to 2.0 will help a great deal for technical colleges," said Miller.
He said regulation of the video gaming industry will be good for the state. Video gaming regulation now rests with the Georgia Lottery Corporation rather than the Georgia Department of Revenue. The measure also limits the number of video gambling machines per location and gives law enforcement more guidelines for cracking down on illegal operations.
And, Miller said he was pleased that legislators passed ethics legislation in 2013, after failing to take action last year.
"It's an imperfect piece of legislation and I think we'll probably come back and work on it again," said Miller.
Among other stipulations, the final measure places a $75 cap on gifts to individual lawmakers, but still allows lobbyists to finance committee travel and entertainment on certain fact-finding trips.
"I think those are things we need to continue to discuss and to continue to rein in."
Rogers looks at tax reform in the future
Even as legislators await Governor Nathan Deal's signature - or veto - on measures passed in 2013, many are now looking ahead to the 2014 session. Carl Rogers said he's very aware of an effort to eliminate Georgia's income tax and replace it with a consumption tax.
"We will go to a consumption tax, [but] it will take time to do that," said Rogers.
Rogers said in order to compete with Tennessee and Florida, and now South Carolina with a tax cap, Georgia will have to find a way to move toward a consumption tax. But, he said he doesn't think it's something that can be done in one move.
"It'll be a phase in," said Rogers. "You can't do a slam dunk on this."
http://accesswdun.com/article/2013/4/260151