Trauma News
GEORGIA LEGISLATURE: Support is slight for funding state trauma care network
2/27/2009
Desirable but very expensive: Shortage of money makes for 'a tough sell' as two House proposals appear headed nowhere this session.
Plans in the Legislature to create a statewide trauma care network this year could be headed for life support.
Although two proposals to raise money for trauma care have been introduced in the state House, key leaders in the Senate say there isn’t enough money available to provide a permanent fix to the state’s weak trauma care network.
“It’s tough times. It’s a tough sell,” said Senate President Pro Tem Tommie Williams (R-Lyons). “I’m not sure we can get it done this year.”
Williams said the two House plans “have little chance.”
“I don’t believe they’ll make it out of the House,” he said.
And Sen. Don Balfour (R-Snellville), who as chairman of the Rules Committee largely controls which bills come to the Senate floor for a vote, said the Senate will provide money for trauma care, but it probably won’t be a “separate stream” that would assure permanent funding in the future.
The two House plans do that.
One, introduced by Rep. Jim Cole (R-Forsyth) on behalf of Gov. Sonny Perdue, would fine “super-speeders” - speeders caught driving more than 85 mph - an extra $200.
If passed, the plan would generate about $23 million per year. Perdue first introduced that bill two years ago, but it died, partly because it would not generate the estimated $80 million supporters say is needed to create a permanent trauma network.
Read this article by Mary Lou Pickel from the Feb. 1, 2009 Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
