The General Assembly reconvened today for the second day of its Special Legislative Session, and the House had its eyes set on moving the Governor’s emergency spending proposal forward, ratifying the jet fuel tax exemption, and authorizing additional tax incentives for timberland. The propositions moved quickly through the House Appropriations and Ways & Means Committees, but not before the emergency spending proposal was amended to remove two controversial line items included yesterday when it was debuted to legislators. Specifically, acting on recommendation of Governor Deal, the House Appropriations Committee eliminated the line items funding a Columbus campus for Mercer University School of Medicine and an Aviation Academy for Chattahoochee Technical College in Paulding County (appropriations worth $9.3M and $35M). Those funds were redirected to provide for additional assistance to Georgia farmers through grants by the Georgia Development Authority (a $25M increase) and to the Governor’s Emergency Fund used to reimburse state agencies for disaster response expenses (a $19M increase).

Tomorrow, the House will consider the emergency spending proposal as amended by the Appropriations Committee, as well as the jet fuel tax exemption and timberland tax incentives.