Here is the view of Metro Atlanta districts (you can view statewide districts here):

New Georgia Congressional Districts (Metro) as of 8/24/11

You may have a hard time reading them while trying to figure out what district you’ll be in. But thankfully, the Reapportionment Office provided Google Earth files that allow you to search where your address is so you can figure out what district you’ll be in.

In case you’ve never used Google Earth, here’s what you need to do:
- Download Google Earth and install the program.
- Download the Google Earth file for the new congressional districts (right click on the link and “Save Link As…” to your desktop).
- Once you’ve installed Google Earth, click the file for the proposed map.
- In the top, left-hand corner you’ll see the “Search” option. Just type in your address and hit “Enter” on your keyboard. You can zoom in or out to get a better look at the district and where you fall in it.

In case you’ve never used Google Earth, here’s what you need to do:
- Download Google Earth and install the program.
- Download the Google Earth files for the House and Senate (right click on the link and “Save Link As…” to your desktop).
- Once you’ve installed Google Earth, click the file for the proposed map.
- In the top, left-hand corner you’ll see the “Search” option. Just type in your address and hit “Enter” on your keyboard. You can zoom in or out to get a better look at the district and where you fall in it.

These maps aren’t final. The legislature will enter into a special session next week to review them.

“This was a very important meeting and decision, as we selected a map that will serve the Atlanta Region for the next ten years,” said State Representative Steve Davis (R-McDonough), chairman of the June 16th Working Group. “I was honored to be selected to chair this working group and want to thank the other members of the working group that sacrificed their time to put in the detailed work needed to create this map.”

Although approved every ten years and similar to state redistricting, the adoption of the ARC citizen member map has nothing to do with the process that will bring the legislators back into a special session on August 15, 2011.

The metro Atlanta legislative delegation is made up of state representatives and state senators from the 10 counties that make up the ARC, including Clayton, Cobb, Cherokee, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, and Rockdale counties. The 2010 census showed that this 10 county region has grown to a total population of 4,107,750 people. As a result, all 15 ARC Citizen Districts had to be redrawn so that each district is made up of proportion population sizes, consisting of approximately 273,850 people.

Today’s vote was the legislative delegation’s second attempt to approve a new citizen district map. During the first attempt, made earlier this month, the delegation reviewed three maps that were developed and submitted by the ARC. However, the delegation decided to form a working group to develop an alternative map rather than passing one of the ARC maps. The map that was ultimately provided by the working group and passed by the legislative delegation today is distinct from the ARC maps, because it gives each of the ARC member counties a citizen representative on the commission.

“The map that received final passage today will give all the counties within the region at least one citizen member and will bring a little more fairness to the level of representation on this very important board that oversees critical issues such as water, transportation, and land use,” added Rep. Davis.

The ARC Board is composed of officials of political subdivisions and 15 private citizens representing districts of approximately the same population within the 10-county, 68-city region. The private citizen board members represent one of the 15 multi-jurisdictional districts and are elected by the 23 public officials that serve on the board. As members of the board, these citizen members serve on at least one of ARC’s committees and represent their districts at monthly ARC Board meetings.

The ARC is the federally mandated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) that oversees regional planning and intergovernmental coordination for the 10-county area. For 60 years, the ARC and its predecessor agencies have helped to focus the region’s leadership, attention and resources on key issues of regional consequence.

Representative Steve Davis represents the citizens of District 109, which includes portions of Henry County. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 2004, and currently serves as the Chairman of the Information & Audits Committee and as the Secretary of the State Planning & Community Affairs Committee. He also serves on the Appropriations, Insurance, State Institutions & Property, and Transportation committees.
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Breakfast and Registration from 8:30am until 9:30am
Shotgun Start at 9:30am
Registration includes breakfast, lunch and drinks while golfing.

RSVP: repstevedavis@gmail.com
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Please make checks payable to:
Davis for House 109
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McDonough, GA 30252

State Board of Education: The State Board of Education will be meeting on Monday 3/14/11 to vote on proposed changes to the states math curriculum. I have been a vocal opponent of the integrated math system we adopted a few years ago and I am glad to see action being taken by the State Board of Education. Click here to see rule change proposal.

Over the past week we have passed several large pieces if legislation. On Tuesday we passed HB326, Governor Deal’s proposal to fix two of the three educational programs funded by lottery revenue (the HOPE Scholarship, the HOPE Grant). The highlights are:

 Pay 90% of tuition and no fees or books. The 90% will float year to year based on lottery revenue.
 Add a new best and brightest “Zell Miller” scholarship that covers 100% of tuition. It will require 3.7 high school GPA, 1200 SAT, and keeping a 3.3 in college. If a child slips on this he can still be a regular HOPE scholar. Please note that the regular HOPE stays at 3.0. There were some bad rumors on that point.
 Private and technical school grants will be reduced to 90% and also float year to year.
 HOPE will have a seven year limit on a child’s schooling, allow you to get back on one time only after losing it, and not pay for remedial classes.
 No means testing – still 100% merit based
 Limit bonuses for lottery executives and reduce the commission to retailers from 7% to 6%

The original proposed changes to the Pre-K program (adding 5000 additional slots for students and cutting the hours from 6 to 4 hours per day) had been widely debated, but the governor, house, and senate leadership came back with an updated plan. The highlights of the new proposal are:

 The school year will be shortened from 180 to 160 days.
 Class size will be increased to 22 students from 20. Since all Georgia Pre-K classes have a paraprofessional in the room, the student to teacher ratio will max out at 11 to 1.
 An additional 2,000 Pre-K slots will be added, bringing Georgia Pre-K enrollment to 86,000.
 Providers will receive 94 percent of the operating funds they currently receive.
 Pre-K teachers will receive 90 percent of their current salaries. (The original half-day proposal included a 30 percent reduction.)

The House passed HB200, a bill that strengthens the penalties for human trafficking; especially the trafficking of minors for sexual and other purposes, expands the ability of the GBI to investigate these crimes and provides encouragement for victims to provide information to authorities. The bill also provides for training of law enforcement on how to detect and deal with human trafficking.

Last Thursday we passed HB87, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011 after three hours of debate. HB87 strengthens our law in dealing with illegal immigrants and helps relieve the serious financial burden placed by illegal immigrants on the state. Several highlights in the build are:

 Authorizes citizens to force public officials and government agencies to abide by the current law that requires all public agencies to use the E-Verify system
 Authorizes citizens to force public officials and government agencies to abide by the current law that prohibits sanctuary cities/counties.
 Creates a new offense of aggravated identity fraud for using false identifying information for the purpose of obtaining employment.
 Makes it a crime for a person to transport illegal aliens, 7 or fewer is a misdemeanor. 8 or more, second or subsequent offense, or committed with the intent to make a profit are all felonies.
 Makes it a crime for a person to conceal or harbor illegal aliens. With intent to profit is a felony.
 In order to be guilty of these offenses, the accused must have been “committing another criminal offense” and must be “knowingly and intentionally” assisting an illegal alien further their illegal presence in the United States.
• Requires the verification of the immigration status of a foreign national confined in a county or municipal jail.
• Every business is required to use the Federal E-Verify system for all newly hired employees. The current version passed by the house mandates all companies with 5 or more employees comply.

This week the House passed HB 186 the education pathways bill I co-sponsored with Rep Randy Nix has passed the House and is in the Senate. I believe our schools need to do a better job of offering options to our students so that they can be successful in obtaining their high school diploma that is both rigorous and relevant. By giving students more input into the educational decisions and classes we will keep the better engaged and will increase our graduation rates.

Specifically this bill provides and expands options for high school students to ensure readiness for college and/or their career. The State Board of Education (SBOE), the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia and the Board of Technical and Adult Education will develop policies to ensure that a student’s core curriculum will be accepted at any institution of higher education. The Department of Education and State Board shall approve models and curriculum framework for 16 specific career clusters of study no later than July 1, 2012.

Within these career, technical, or agricultural clusters there shall be embedded competency standards of academic core subject areas. These competencies and curricula shall meet postsecondary requirements of credit acceptance at the postsecondary level.

This bill also requires SBOE to embed, to the extent possible, academic standards in CTAE courses and to provide for course credit in both the academic course and the CTAE course. The Dept. of Education shall develop forms and information for students in 8th-12th grades relating to the availability of dual enrollment courses.

The State Board of Education will adopt a state wide plan implementing methods for students to earn units of high school credit based on demonstration of subject area competency, instead of in combination with completing hours of classroom instruction. The Governor’s Office of Workforce Development will establish a certification in soft skills for students. Areas which can be included are, but are not limited to, punctuality, ability to learn, and working in a team.

HB 186 passed the House 164-4 and now resides in the Senate Education Committee.

HB 78, The FY12 budget passed the House today and was sent to the Senate. It was tight but I think we did a good job protecting our priorities. While state funds represent a net 2% increase, total spending for FY 2012 decreases by over 4% from $39.2 billion to $37.6 billion due to loss of ARRA money.

In essence, we have nearly $1.6 billion less than was available in the budget we passed earlier in the week for Amended Fiscal Year 2011. Per capita, this puts us – even without inflation factored in – at less than 2001 levels even though our population has increased by 18% in this same decade. In general, we accommodated these reductions by executing an average 7% cut to agencies and departments totaling about a half BILLION dollars, reducing Lottery programs by $300 million and hobbling together savings in debt service and a variety of other payments from authorities to balance.

Under the confines of the governor’s conservative Revenue Estimate, we also did not fully restore with state dollars all of the federal ARRA funds that had been used by executive branch programs during the 17‐month streak of declining collections in the past two fiscal years, and we have kept growth in programs completely in check by adding funds generated by formula‐ driven expenses to QBE only.

Within the budget, however, we were able to provide some intense and needed improvements with statewide impact beyond the governor’s initial proposal:

Education: we tried to lessen the impact of the reductions by limiting direct classroom instruction programs to 1% and indirect classroom instruction to 4% reductions. The governor’s proposed reductions to programs were decreased, such as Georgia Youth Science and Technology ($144,000) and Technology /Career Education ($700,000). Also on a personal note for us in Henry, the $5.4 million for the new Southern Crescent Technical College in McDonough made the budget as well as funds for 3 new school buses.

Differentiated pay for math and science teachers is included for the 2011‐2012 school year per House Bill 280 passed in 2009 ($12.6 million). The 10% reduction to school nurses has also been softened to a 4% decrease. This add‐back of $1.6 million should alleviate some of your burden.

We put in $524,000 for the innovative “Move on When Ready” initiative the General Assembly approved in 2009, something I am in full support of. HOPE Scholarships and Grants as passed by the legislature in House Bill 326 are reflected in the Georgia Student Finance Commission budget. What is noteworthy; however, is that Accel, Engineering, Georgia Military and Public Safety Memorial Grant Scholarships are maintained now with state funds and not lottery dollars.

Health: The Health care industry employs more than 141,000 people in hospitals alone and accounts for 6 percent of our state’s Gross Domestic Product. To that end, we reduced the 1% cut to provider reimbursement rates to ½ of a percent. The dual benefit supports the economy in every Georgia county, as well as ensures that providers, who have not had a rate increase in 10 years stay in the Medicaid and PeachCare programs to provide access to services ($21.3 million).

Human Services: The sub‐committee felt very strongly about restoring funds to programs for the elderly Georgians who built this state, and shored up services to keep them independent and in their homes: Alzheimer’s Respite ($225,000), Home and Community‐based waivers for ($1.3 million), and the full restoration of funds for the Meals on Wheels program to provide 138,000 meals for the elderly and homebound were restored to current levels of funding.

Public Safety: A major initiative of our public safety agencies was to ensure compliance with the new FCC Dispatch and Communications system for law enforcement. The GBI portion of this is funded with $2.9 million in bonds, and $1,072 for each Forestry base station in cash.

We appropriated $5 million in bonds for 200 replacement vehicles for the State Patrol and $600,000 in additional fuel money. We also found that we can save $2 to $3 for every $1 we spend in the Department of Law by adding in‐house attorneys in lieu of outsourcing work to Special Assistant Attorney Generals. The subcommittee recommended and we approved $273,000 for 3 attorneys in the Law Department as well as $104,755 for Senior Judges, who substitute for a sitting Superior Court judge in order to prevent case backlogs.

Economic Development: $250,000 additional dollars in Airport Aid draw a match of $13.6 million and will allow improvements and expansions at the 103 regional airports around the state. Road and bridge improvements were bolstered with over $8.8 million more in highway maintenance shifted from bond savings.

The House agreed with the governor’s proposal for $5 million in “close‐the‐deal” REBA funds, and added $5 million for Georgia Research Alliance economic development projects.

General Government: The General Assembly imposed the same level of 7% reductions to its operating funds that are expected of all state agencies and departments. $3.8 million was added for the requisite Reapportionment activities to be completed by the legislature in response to the 2010 Census to include: per diem, travel, lodging and temporary staff.

The House also funded the Employees Retirement System, affecting the 40,581 active and 13,798 retired members, with the $8.3 million rolled forward from the FY 11 budget.

The Local Tax Officials Retirement Fund has been appropriated $5.3 million, in accordance with actuarial obligations, as well. Fully funded pensions enable our state’s Triple‐A bond ratings. Also brought forward into Fiscal Year 12 from FY 11 is the $18.2 million that may be needed to fund Unemployment Insurance payments in August 2011.

“When experiencing my own concern for my children’s education and hearing the concerns of other parents, I chose to register as a substitute teacher and find out first hand what needed to be done to improve our state’s education system,” said Rep. Davis. “After seeing the difficulties faced by teachers and students, I began working with education and government leaders to find meaningful solutions. That work ultimately led me to write and introduce the GEM Act during last year’s term.”

“Working with Representative Davis and the Education Study Committee has shown us that we need to put the focus back on the student and give them options in terms of what it takes to get their diploma,” said Rep. Nix. “We’ve must provide options that lead all Georgia students to success, whether they plan to go to college, technical school, or immediately enter the work force.”

HB 186 would require the State Board of Education, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, and the Board of Technical and Adult Education to develop course standards that ensure the core curriculum of all Georgia public high schools will be accepted at any institution of higher education in the state beginning with students entering high school in the fall of 2011. This coordination will ensure the readiness of students wanting to continue their education and lessen the need for remedial classes in Georgia colleges and technical schools.

Additionally, the legislation would require students on the Career, Technical, and Agriculture Education (CTAE) pathway to take academic core subject courses and pass end-of-course assessments. These assessments would allow CTAE students to receive credit upon demonstration of proficiency, rather than attendance of a mandatory number of classes. Each student’s proficiency would be graded based on a state wide plan to be developed by the State Board of Education, which will provide standard methods for recording demonstrated proficiency on high school transcripts.

Further, the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development would be required to establish a certification in soft skills for students. Some of the areas included in the certification are punctuality, ability to learn, working as a team, reading for information, and applied mathematics. This soft skills certification will help students strengthen the life skills required for success in the workforce, while continuing to receive the standard education.

Educators are rallying behind this legislation.

“The Georgia Association of Educators (GAE) is lending their support for HB 186,” said GAE President Calvine Rollins. “HB 186 will be in the best interest of the students of Georgia.”

“PAGE is in complete support of the new pathways initiative in HB186 and we want to thank Rep. Davis and Rep. Nix for their hard work on this bill,” said Margaret Ciccarelli, a representative for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE).

HB 186 is the culmination of work resulting from the GEM Act that Rep. Davis introduced during the 2009-2010 legislative session and the work of an education study committee that met this past summer. The GEM Act would have brought back the Technical Diploma, which the state is currently phasing out, while also adding personal finance classes that would have taught students financial responsibility.

“This summer’s education study committee really produced a great piece of legislation,” added Rep. Davis. “HB 186 follows the spirit of GEM Act and creates multiple pathways for Georgians to gain a High School diploma. This vital step recognizes that all people are different, having different interests and different ways of learning. Rather than forcing those differences to all fit one set rigid system, HB 186 allows Georgians to specialize their public education to fit their unique talents and interests.”

Representative Steve Davis represents the citizens of District 109, which includes portions of Henry County. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 2004, and currently serves as the Chairman of the Information & Audits Committee and as the Secretary of the State Planning & Community Affairs Committee. He also serves on the Appropriations, Insurance, State Institutions & Property, and Transportation committees.
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ATLANTA – Representative Steve Davis (R-McDonough) announced today the introduction of House Bill 167, the Insurance Delivery Enhancement Act (IDEA) of 2011. This legislation reforms current insurance law and allows private companies to come together under a Trade Association Clause when purchasing group policies. Removing this restriction allows normally unaffiliated business to increase the size of their own private insurance pools which will lower their employees’ premiums.

“This is an important market-based solution that will help bring the cost of medical care down at no cost to the tax payers,” said Rep Davis. “This law will give immediate relief to the citizens of Georgia especially with the turbulent future of healthcare costs over the next couple of years.”

HB 167 also includes a prompt pay provision that will require third party administrators to pay for service claims in a uniform and timely fashion the same as primary care insurance. If the third party administrators fail to do this, they would pay a penalty. This will primarily affect small practices that operate on tight finances.

“Requiring prompt payment will help bring medical cost down because doctors and physicians will be able to better anticipate when they will receive payments, enabling them to budget more appropriately,” added Rep. Davis.

IDEA passed overwhelmingly in both chambers in the 2010 session but was not signed into law. Rep. Davis reintroduced the bill with five other Republican Chairman as co-sponsors, including Representatives Howard Maxwell, Carl Rogers, John Meadows, Sharon Cooper, and Bill Hembree.

For more information on HB 167, please click here.
Representative Steve Davis represents the citizens of District 109, which includes portions of Henry County. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 2004, and currently serves as the Chairman of the Information & Audits Committee and as the Secretary of the State Planning & Community Affairs Committee. He also serves on the Appropriations, Insurance, State Institutions & Property, and Transportation committees.
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The FYA 2011 Budget maintains the funding for Henry County to add two lanes (one Northbound, one Southbound) to I-75 from Eagles Landing Pkwy to Hwy 155 in south McDonough. Also funding for the construction of the Southern Crescent Technical College in McDonough is in the FY 2012 budget and will most likely be the only new technical college construction this year. The new technical school in Henry County is something that I have been fighting for since I was first elected in 2004. Moreover, GRTA Xpress bus service is receiving $5.4 million dollars to maintain operations for an additional year. This service has been very popular in Henry County for congestion relief and I will continue to support the funding.

Republican Leadership

During the budget hearings I met with Governor Deal to express the important needs of Henry County and why Henry needs to be a top priority. I expressed the concerns of the constituents of the 109th to Governor Deal on the issue of education. We also discussed the work of the Education Study Committee on Diploma Options that was brought about by my education reform bill, Graduating Everyone Matters (GEM), which I will reintroduce this year.

I am also working very closely with our new State School Superintendent John Barge on a bill that will reestablish the superintendent’s powers to hire a team that is best suited to work towards the goals he is establishing within the GDOE.

As the new Chairman of Information and Audits, I will oversee the House Journals, House Fiscal Office, and administratively oversee the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts (GDAA).
I was already familiar with everyone in the House Fiscal Office and the Clerk’s Office who manage the Journals, so it was a very smooth transition from the previous chairman.

I also met with the Director of the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, Mr. Russell Hinton. We discussed the role and purpose of the GDAA and how he thinks it could be improved. I believe the GDAA can play a unique role in Georgia’s budget process, because now, more than ever, we must ensure that there is no waste in Georgia’s Government.

Moving Forward

I am working very hard to make sure that Henry County receives the return of needed funding for our priorities from the state budget. Representative Welch and I have been coordinating the passage of resolutions by the county, school board, and all the cities in support of the new technical school in McDonough. Additionally we are obtaining support letters from industry leaders throughout our community.

Thank you,

Steve