State Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) has been recognized among the “Most Influential Georgians of the Year” in the sixth annual listing published by James magazine.
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State Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) officially qualified April 26 as a candidate for re-election to the Senate District 6 post in the 2010 Democratic Primary.
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The longest Georgia legislative session in at least 120 years reached final adjournment late Thursday night. One of the final actions of the session, which began Jan. 11, was approval of a $17.9 billion state budget for fiscal year 2011.
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After three years of trying to reach agreement on a solution to the state's transportation funding problems, a majority of the House of Representatives and the Senate gave final approval April 21 to HB 277, which is better than nothing, but not much.
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The Senate voted April 21 to approve a $17.8 billion annual state budget for fiscal year 2011, which begins July 1.
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A majority of Senators voted this week to approve compromise legislation that in one bill adjusts more than 80 user fees, imposes a 1.45 percent hospital bed tax and phases out both the state income tax on retirement income for seniors and the state's share of property taxes.
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With less than 10 legislative days remaining in this year's session, the Senate dealt with a lengthy agenda last week.
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The state Senate has cleaned up some business from last year's transportation reorganization, passing a bill (SB 520) that would restore Division status to the state Department of Transportation's group that works on mass transit, rail and other alternatives to roads, the Intermodal office.
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Friday, March 26, will be the 30th legislative day of the 2010 session of the General Assembly. This is known as "cross-over day" because it is the final day for the Senate to pass legislation in time for it to be considered by the House of Representatives during this session, and vice versa.
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This week, I co-sponsored legislation that would establish a state commission to review the health insurance benefit and provider mandates that Georgia's small businesses are required to offer their employees.
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SB 22 establishes the Georgia Coordinating Council for Rural and Human Services Transportation, which will be charged with finding efficiencies in providing and funding transportation services for rural citizens, the elderly and disabled.
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In a threatening move toward Georgia's financially struggling hospitals, Gov. Sonny Perdue announced Thursday his plan to cut Medicaid reimbursement rates by 10.25 percent and eliminate a sales tax exemption for non-profit hospitals. These actions will cost hospitals a total of $274 million during fiscal year 2011.
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The Appropriations Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives just completed two weeks of hearings on the annual state budget for fiscal year 2011, for the purpose of considering more cuts to the $18.2 billion spending plan proposed by Gov. Sonny Perdue.
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Senate Bill 386, under consideration in the Senate Education & Youth Committee, would impose a so-called "merit pay" system for Georgia's public school teachers and administrators that would be largely tied to students' scores on standardized tests, rather than each educator's level of experience.
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During the first week of Senate and House Appropriations Committee hearings on the fiscal year 2011 budget, it was reported that the University System of Georgia has already cut $360 million from its budget since July 1, 2008.
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The Georgia Senate voted Thursday to approve a $17.4 billion amended state budget for the remainder of fiscal year 2010, which ends June 30. The revised budget is reduced by $1.2 billion from the original budget for this year and reflects a 23 percent decline in state revenues over the past two years.
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This week, Governor Perdue finally announced his support for giving MARTA some much-needed flexibility by authorizing the transit agency to use more than 50 percent of its sales tax revenues to pay for operating expenses, a crucial action for the future of the system.
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This week, I introduced the Georgia Transportation Jobs Development Act, a legislative solution to the transportation funding problem that has caused Georgia to fall behind other states in recent years.
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Your participation is particularly important in this year's census. Georgia is poised to pick up one or two congressional seats, expanding our representation in Congress.
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On Thursday, the Senate Transportation Committee favorably reported legislation I introduced that would establish the Georgia Coordinating Council for Rural and Human Services Transportation.
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A series of Appropriations Committee hearings Jan. 19-21 began the legislative process for amending the state budget for the remainder of fiscal year 2010, which ends June 30, and the budget for fiscal year 2011, which begins July 1.
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Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House leaders said this week they have abandoned plans for a constitutional amendment for a statewide sales tax for transportation, which the House passed last year.
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The budget situation is currently the greatest challenge we are facing at the State Capitol. Georgia is constitutionally required to have a balanced state budget. In the midst of the economic recession, this has been a much more difficult task than it is during the good times.
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As a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, working toward passage of a funding solution will again be at the top of my legislative agenda during this session.
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In little over a month, my fellow legislators and I will be returning to Atlanta to begin a new session under the Gold Dome. This will be my eighth session of representing my hometown of Smyrna and South Cobb County, including two in the House of Representatives and six in the Senate.
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State Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) will host a Wellness & Benefits Fair for residents of Senate District 6, their families and friends on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Destiny World Church, 7400 Factory Shoals Road in Austell.
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Legislation adopted during the 2009 legislative session, House Bill 120, provides for an exemption from both state and local sales and use taxes for specific energy efficient products. These exemptions apply to sales occurring Oct.1-4.
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The Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) encourages everyone to take action and be prepared to fight the seasonal flu and novel influenza A (H1N1) viruses this fall. September is National Preparedness month and an opportunity for individuals, families and businesses to learn how to slow the spread of the disease in their communities.
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A number of new Georgia laws that were passed during the 2009 legislative session and signed into law by Gov. Sonny Perdue took effect Wednesday, July 1.
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There are more than 400,000 Georgians who filed their state tax returns before the April 15 deadline who have yet to receive a refund of the amount they overpaid in state taxes in 2008. The state Department of Revenue admits that it will be as late as November before it works through its backlog and all the refunds are distributed.
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When our state’s legislative leaders decided to slap a utility rate increase on consumers to help Georgia Power with the future financing of a nuclear plant expansion, they rushed to get it done in a couple of weeks’ time.
But when it comes to helping those who fight Atlanta traffic to get to work every day and the communities across the state in need of better roads, a similar sense of legislative urgency was nowhere to be found.
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In the final week of the 2009 session of the Georgia General Assembly, lawmakers approved an $18.6 billion budget for fiscal year 2010 and passed a package of tax cuts designed to spur the economy. But for the second year in a row, the Senate and House leadership failed to agree on a solution for Georgia's transportation funding problem.
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As the debate continued this week over the future of transportation funding in Georgia, the Senate held its ground on the position that a regional solution paid for by dollars raised within those regions is the appropriate direction to take.
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On Wednesday, the Senate passed legislation that would make it easier for college students to continue using HOPE Scholarship funds for book purchases and related fees.
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In response to reports this week in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Senate Intermodal Rail & Transit Subcommittee Chairman Senator Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) is calling for a subcommittee hearing on MARTA’s dire financial situation.
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More than 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Another 1.5 million are Parkinson’s disease patients. Hundreds of thousands more are living with the results of spinal cord injury or disease, with that number growing by 30 newly injured people each day.
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The state Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to approve a proposal that would provide a dedicated revenue source for the Georgia Trauma Trust Fund to expand and enhance trauma care in our state.
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By a slim majority Thursday, the state Senate approved legislation that would reorganize the state's transportation agencies and likely weaken the process of representative government.
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Over my objection Wednesday, the Senate Transportation Committee favorably reported legislation that would reorganize the state's transportation agencies and potentially weaken the process of representative government.
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It seems that hardly a day goes by during the current legislative session without a majority of either the Senate or the House of Representatives passing legislation that claims to help Georgia taxpayers but in reality merely passes the buck to the local level of government.
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The Senate voted on a property tax relief measure this week, approving legislation that would hold down increases in valuation assessments by local tax officials.
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On Wednesday, Feb. 11, the Senate unanimously adoped legislation I introduced which urges President Barack Obama and his administration to continue the uninterrupted production of the F-22 Raptor.
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Across the state of Georgia, the lack of adequate funding to improve our transportation system is a problem. But the specific needs and urgency for improvements are different in various regions of the state.
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Over my objection, the Senate Regulated Industries & Utilities Committee has favorably approved legislation that would allow Georgia Power to increase customer rates while restricting the Public Service Commission's decision-making authority on the issue.
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On Wednesday, the Senate began the process of dealing with Georgia's transportation funding crisis when the Transportation Committee favorably approved legislation I co-sponsored.
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According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia's public schools stand to receive more than $1 billion in additional federal money as part of President Barack Obama's stimulus bill, approved Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Last year's failure of the General Assembly to pass legislation I co-sponsored, providing a transportation funding solution through a regional, local option sales tax, has contributed to an increasingly bleak financial picture at the Department of Transportation.
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The President has stated repeatedly that his policy agenda for leading our nation will have little or nothing to do with political views or partisanship. If federal funding requests from Georgia make good sense toward forging a stronger economy, rebuilding our infrastructure, dealing with our health care crisis, and supporting initiatives that create jobs, then there is no reason for our state’s leaders to be so pessimistic.
I look forward to working with the Obama administration on behalf of Cobb County’s and the state of Georgia’s needs these next four years, and letting the new President know our state will be a “team player” as he leads the nation back to a brighter economic future.
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The 2009 session of the Georgia General Assembly got under way Jan. 12 as lawmakers returned to Atlanta knowing that our No. 1 challenge is to balance the new state budget in the toughest economic conditions we have faced in any of our lifetimes.
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District 6
P.O. Box 1781
Smyrna, GA 30081
Phone: 770.436.0699
Fax: 770.436.0699
Email: doug.stoner@senate.ga.gov
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