I am honored to be representing you in this my first session in the Georgia House of Representatives. I have been appointed to serve on the House Natural Resources & Environment Committee, MARTA Oversight Committee and Information & Audits Committee.

Throughout the session, I will keep you posted on the progress of legislation involving a host of important issues. Please contact me with your views on any issue that needs to be addressed or whenever I can be of service.

This week, I co-sponsored legislation designed to put additional funds into the state's shrinking coffers by streamlining government and improving the sales tax collection process. HB 356 would help reduce the state's budget deficit, now estimated at nearly $3 billion after January revenue reports showing a 14.3 dropoff from last year.

The bill would transfer control over collecting sales taxes from the state Department of Revenue to local governments, allowing them to contract with private firms. Similar plans have been successful in other states, notably Alabama, which saw a revenue increase of over $1 billion.

Every year, the Department of Revenue leaves money on the table in uncollected sales taxes. In the current fiscal crisis in Georgia, it is the time to recover this revenue and scale down government spending at the state level. Consumers are paying sales taxes in good faith, and we need to make sure that those tax dollars are collected, so that we can avoid additional cuts in services and new tax increases.

A proposed constitutional amendment, HR 1, would limit the annual increases on the reassessment valuation of both residential and nonresidential property to 3 percent, or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. Under the proposed change, property values could be reassessed upon the sale or transfer of the property at fair market value, which would not exceed the sales price. The amendment would also ratify property tax freezes and limitations already in place in some counties.

Supporters of the legislation claim HR 1 would bring an end to the so-called "back-door" tax increases by local officials who use valuation assessment hikes to bring in more revenue without raising the millage rate. Opponents contend that local government revenue decisions should not be mandated from the state level and should instead be left up to county commissioners and school board members who are more familiar with the needs of their communities. Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle are now working on some provisions in the legislation to make it more acceptable.

Legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives that would generate $25 billion in funding for transportation projects over the next decade through a special statewide sales tax. Under HR 206, which as a proposed constitutional amendment must be approved by two- thirds of both the House and Senate and then by a majority of Georgia voters, the money would be allocated to an extensive list of highways, interchange and light rail facilities across the state.

Meanwhile, the Senate has already approved a regional approach to transportation funding. SR 44 would authorize counties to join together and levy a sales tax on a regional basis, if voters in those counties approve, for local transportation needs.

On Feb. 5, the House of Representatives voted unanimously to approve legislation that would make it easier for the state to keep HOPE Scholarship funds available for students' book purchases and related fees.Current state law requires that any time the total collection of state lottery revenues declines during a calendar year, the use of HOPE funds for books and fees is reduced by a set percentage.

HB 157 would modify the law to require that lottery revenues decline by 8 percent before engaging the "trigger" to reduce grants to students for books and fees. The lottery reserves currently stand at $960 million, which is high enough to justify this change and prevent deserving students from receiving their full HOPE benefits. The legislation now goes to the Senate for its consideration.