Georgia County Government - December 2008 - (Page 19)

structure of health and human services in Georgia to ensure that agencies were effectively addressing the needs of Georgians. The committee recommended a restructuring of the department, under which the Department of Public Health would be placed under DCH and renamed the “Department of Health,” and would encompass mental health and addictive disease programs, with remaining DHR programs staying under the Department of Human Services. Legislation to pursue the reorganization of DHR, which remains the largest department in state government, is anticipated in January, with the transition to the new agencies occurring as of July 1, 2009. In addition to DHR’s reorganization, counties can expect DHR and DCH to face substantial budget decisions, which may encompass decreases to county health departments’ Grant in Aid; and increases passed last session for Medicaid reimbursement rates, respectively. have to be permanent, bringing together stakeholders from the state and local level, and cutting across all public safety disciplines. “ACCG will work with our partners to see such a committee developed and enacted through legislation during this session of the legislature,” Kimbrough advises. Other important goals on the legislative agenda for Public Safety and the Courts in the coming session include asking the state to assume full responsibility for paying the cost of housing state prisoners in county jails; and also putting in place funding for the cost of indigent defense, following the statewide reform put in place three years ago, which greatly increased the cost and requirements of guaranteeing adequate and fair representation to indigent individuals accused of crimes. A short profile of each member of the ACCG policy staff is included in this issue. This year’s County Platform also contains details concerning all the legislative priorities discussed herein, and a wealth of information on other issues on the county legislative agenda. ■ qPublic.net Your On-Line Data & GIS Experts Georgia’s Leading Provider qPublic provides websites for Georgia Tax Commissioners & Assessors. Tax Commissioner’s website visitors query your data by Name, Address, or Parcel/Account Number. Search result webpages display the account information with a convenient Pay Now button. In addition to the searchable database features, all of our websites provide static webpages for general county information, downloadable forms, jurisdiction information, important dates, tax estimator, etc., making it a convenient, efficient community service tool. Public Safety Accord i ng to ACCG Assista nt General Counsel Kem Kimbrough, associate legislative director for Public Safety and the Courts, a statewide communications system is a primary legislative goal for Public Safety and the Courts. “Georgia’s public safety community desperately needs a statewide, interoperable communications system,” Kimbrough says. “The technology exists to provide such a system, but at an almost prohibitive cost. This difficulty is exacerbated by a lack of any coordinated effort to develop the infrastructure necessary to put in place a statewide system. “Further, intergovernmental relationships – or the lack thereof – can compound the obstacles and make any attempts to overcome the difficulties of cost and lack of coordination.” Kimbrough asserts that after examining the efforts of other states and participating in a performance audit conducted by the State Auditor, county policymakers see that what is needed to provide impetus for the state to develop a statewide, interoperable public safety communications system is the appointment of an executive committee at the level of state government. Such a committee would Reduce your phone calls and office visits by 80%! Virtually keeps your office open 24/7! Satisfaction Guaranteed! qPublic specializes in cross-linking the data from the Assessor’s office with the Tax Commissioner’s data! qPublic provides automated data transfers. qPublic works with ALL systems, including YOURS. qPublic –GET HOOKED TODAY! For more information contact John Cox: john@qpublic.net | (386) 801-5249 | Fax (866) 800-8637 DECEMBER 2008 www.accg.org 19 http://www.qPublic.net http://www.accg.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Georgia County Government - December 2008

Georgia County Government - December 2008 Contents President's Message County Matters 2009 Legislative Forecast: ACCG's Platform for the Coming Legislative Session ACCG Policy Staff 2008 Legislative Awards Honor Georgia Lawmakers Cell Towers and Local Governments Oglethorpe Power Plans Biomass Electric Facilities Georgia's Grand Old Courthouses: Dawson County Extension News: Biofuels Development Research Corner: Implementing a Record Retention Policy County Parade Index of Advertisers/Advertiser.com

Georgia County Government - December 2008

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