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New Georgia laws will change aspects of daily life
A variety of areas are affected

By Walter C. Jones
ATLANTA - From texting while driving to caring for an ill relative, many aspects of daily life will be governed by new laws in Georgia taking effect Thursday, the start of the state's fiscal year.

While some pieces of legislation became law the moment Gov. Sonny Perdue signed them and others will kick in Jan. 1, the most common effective date is when the government's new year begins July 1. Thursday is also when a new, leaner budget takes effect with a new tax on hospitals.

Legislation that increased hundreds of fees for state services, from birth certificates to filing court documents, took effect May 12 when Perdue signed the bill that has become an issue in many legislative campaigns this year.

Here's a rundown of some of the most significant legal changes coming on the first:

Driving

- No texting or reading e-mails while behind the wheel, even at stop lights. Drivers under age 18 can't use cell phones at all. The fine is $150 and one point against the driver's record.

- No Driving with the knee is allowed.

- No driving all-terrain vehicles in a stream bed, except to cross it. Environmentalists joined with property owners frustrated by the damage ATV enthusiasts have caused zipping up and down dry stream beds. The law will allow deputy sheriffs and nature rangers authority to police it.

- A disabled parent or guardian who has a driver's license can accompany a student driver. And a judge can grant limited permission to drive to someone under age 18 whose license was suspended due to speeding.

- State Patrol cars no longer have to have two-tone paint, a savings to taxpayers of $8,000 per vehicle. However, the new law does prohibit the patrol from using so-called slick-top cars without a light and siren mounted on top, which are harder to spot from a distance or before lights are activated.

- The parents, children, brothers and sisters of anyone killed in action while serving in the military can now put a Gold Star license plate on their cars and trucks.

- A new law spells out the proper way for a driver to make turns to the right and to the left. The law fixes a loophole created by a Supreme Court case in which the state high court invalidated the prior left-hand turn law for being unclear when the justices sided with a man fighting a drunk-driving conviction.

- If you get your eyes fixed, you don't get a ticket for driving without glasses. The law change is for people whose license requires them to wear glasses but who have had an operation to correct vision.

Government

- Voters overseas, including members of the military, can cast a write-in absentee ballot or request an official absentee ballot by e-mail.

- Governors and former governors can now perform marriage ceremonies, just like judges, as long as the marriage license is processed with a probate court.

- Lake Oconee property owners who build seawalls and bulkheads no longer have to have a 25-foot buffer from the water as is required in other parts of the state.

Crime

- Victims will be able to address juvenile court and state court to describe the impact of the crime. Victims will also be notified of the proceedings, may attend hearings and be allowed to file written objections in a parole hearing. Victims have had these rights in Superior Court where most major crimes are tried.

- Juvenile judges now have more options for what they can require of delinquents under what's known as probation management. Through written or verbal orders, the requirements can include added restrictions, increased reporting, community service, counseling, weekend programs, electronic monitoring and home confinement.

- Threatening to punish someone for gang-related activity becomes a crime, including threats to inflict damage on property.

- Residential mortgage fraud is now subject to investigations by Georgia law-enforcement agencies, specifically the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Perdue pushed the law change in response to Georgia's standing as one of the states most hurt by the mortgage crisis and a rash of frauds of various types.

Education

- Local school boards can now use state funds to refurbish school buses rather than having to replace them. Until now, the state would only contribute toward new vehicles, but since the recession, many local districts haven't had their share of the purchase price and wanted to patch up their existing buses instead.

- Local school boards that impose furloughs on teachers or other staff can't turn around and give pay raises to their superintendent or other administrators in the same school year.

- Textbooks can now be electronic, either software or hardware, and still qualify under the formal definition.

Health

- Families won't have to hire nurses to give routine shots and perform other minor, common medical procedures to care for a disabled loved one. The "proxy caregiver" will have to be trained and supervised by an advanced-practice nurse, physician or physician assistant and follow written orders.

Advocates say the law will allow more disabled people and the seriously ill to live at home rather than having to be hospitalized.

- If you want to get paid for massage therapy, you'll need a license now, as will any business that advertises massages combined with escort services or adult entertainment

“Political Insider Tom Graves: Women hit by tanning bed tax
1:21 pm July 1, 2010, by Jim Galloway

U.S. Rep. Tom Graves this afternoon decried the implementation of the new tax on the leather-skinned, declaring it would have an immediate effect on women – though not in the raccoon-eyed way you might think.

From his press release:

WASHINGTON – North Georgians looking to work on their tan before the July 4th holiday will pay more at the tanning salon starting today because of President Obama’s health care reform bill.

A 10 percent excise tax on ultraviolet tanning services starts today and is the first tax being levied under the new health care law.

“There are many small businesses in the 9th District of Georgia, and among these small businesses are tanning beds, much of which are owned by women. This 10 percent tax increase is simply another kick to the gut of small businesses and will only hurt job creation in the United States,” said Congressman Graves.

One wonders whether the new congressman has latched onto something here.

The South has been famous for its use of “sin taxes” — on alcohol, tobacco, taxi dancing and such — to raise cash for governmental operations. The evangelical lurking deep in most of us, whether churched or unchurched, is highly tempted to go along.

But a levy on tanning bed use amounts to a tax on vanity — which, given the current cultural climate, may not qualify as a sin anymore.