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Bobby Franklin’s Georgia Journal

• Georgia Rep. Bobby Franklin Presents Bill To Close Loophole Exempting Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta From Billions In Taxes During his 12 years in the Georgia House of Representatives, Bobby Franklin (R-East Cobb) has demonstrated that he is a relentless crusader for lower taxes and for fiscal responsibility. Now Franklin is proposing a dramatic measure to “close an enormous loophole created by breathtaking favoritism that has bestowed literally billions of dollars in tax exemptions upon the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.” 02/18/09
• The Greatest Threat Facing America Recently a friend asked me to listen to a debate that he had just heard concerning the “war on terror.” One side took the view that we need to fight the terrorists over there so that we won’t have to fight them over here. The other side took the view that while Islam is a threat, and that possibly someday we will be fighting them over here, we have no business nation-building and besides, there has been no constitutional declaration of war against either Iraq or Afghanistan. I believe that both sides ignored the main issue. 06/13/08
• Bobby Franklin’s Georgia Journal: So Much Junk And I Forgot The Duct Tape! Arghhhhhhhh! The 40th and final day of the 2008 session of the Georgia General Assembly has come to a close - and I committed the unpardonable sin. I forgot the duct tape. So much junk was brought to the floor for a vote on the last day that the back of my head blew off.* Here are just a few of the issues that the House Republican leadership believed were so vital to Georgia’s future that they had us in session until near midnight. 04/11/08
• Georgia Rep. Bobby Franklin’s Excellent Pro-Life Speech His presentation begins at roughly 52:00 and continues to the announcing of the vote to appeal the ruling of the chair at roughly 1:19. Praise God that there is at least one Godly man such as Bobby to make such an address! 04/10/08
• Bobby Franklin’s Georgia Journal: Anything “Germane” - Unless You’re Trying To Save Life Of Unborn Babies Anything is germane, unless you are trying to save the life of a prenatal human person. Let me explain. Previously I have written about HB 301, the dog fighting bill. Well last week a House committee considered the Senate’s version of felony dog fighting, SB 16. The senator who proposed SB 16 testified that he got interested in the whole dog fighting issue when a pit bull that was being trained for fighting had gotten loose and ate a small child in the senator’s neighborhood. In other words, he proposed SB 16 in an effort to save helpless, innocent human life 04/02/08
• Bobby Franklin’s Georgia Journal: Good News! Not Much Done This Past Week… This is the message that I had placed in the House Journal: “HB 990 not only appropriates money derived from state taxpayers, but also appropriates money received from the federal government. A significant number of these re-appropriated federal funds are for expenditures that the states have not authorized the federal government to make. Voting to allow the state’s re-appropriation of these unconstitutionally appropriated federal funds would be a violation of my oath of office to support the Constitution of the United States. Therefore, I had no other choice but to vote against the Fiscal Year 2009 Budget.” HB 990 passed the House with a vote of 166-1. 03/25/08
• Bobby Franklin’s Georgia Journal: Remind Me Again, Please: What Is The Purpose Of The Republican Party? A couple of years ago a teen driver was killed in a motor vehicle accident. Ever having a messianic complex, the Georgia General Assembly enacted an additional $5 tax added on to every traffic ticket and marketed that legislation with the promise that the money raised would fund driver education. Well, in just 2 short years the new tax has raised roughly $20 million but only one forth of that amount has been used for its stated (though unBiblical) purpose. This tax was set to sunset this June 30th but HB 1037 extended the tax an additional 4 years and passed the House with a vote of 97-64. 03/17/08
• Bobby Franklin’s Georgia Journal: Human In The Test Tube But Not When You Are Implanted The House enacted the “Georgia Prescription Monitoring Program Act”, HB 455, which has the state maintain a data base of all of your prescription drugs and how many you take. During the debate almost every tale of terrors was told except that the bill was needed to save the children. They didn’t need to play the “for the children” card as HB 455 passed the House with a vote of 149-8. 03/06/08
• Bobby Franklin’s Georgia Journal: Blue Crabs, Kids, Chickens, Car Tags, And The Return Of Prohibition - Sort Of A hot trend is for certain industries is to keep out competition by requiring state licensure with ever increasing education standards in order to practice a particular trade. HB 241 increased the educational requirements for dispensing opticians. It passed the House with a vote of 156-1. 02/26/08
• Bobby Franklin’s Georgia Journal: Big Government Era In Peach State Is, Alas, Alive And Well HB 1111 was an innocent looking bill that seemed to change some wording here and there. I was planning on voting against it mainly because it increased the penalties for not having the proper state permission to drive a commercial vehicle. Then the author of the bill made his presentation. He actually said that HB 1111 brings Georgia law “in line with federal law so we can continue to receive federal funds.” That statement alone caused me to go from a preferential “no” to a principled “NO” since there is no provision in the US Constitution for the federal government to either appropriate funds to states for traffic law enforcement nor for the federal government to be involved in defining traffic offenses. HB 1111 passed the House by a vote of 153-3. 02/18/08
• Bobby Franklin’s Georgia Journal: Medicine, “Natural Rights,” Mortgage Licenses, More Fiscal Irresponsibility There were several interesting bills taken up by the Georgia House of Representatives last week. One bill, HB 942, was one of the most blatantly un-American bills that I have seen in my 12 years in office. The bill actually begins in Section 1 by declaring “that the practice of medicine is a privilege granted by the people acting through their elected representatives and is not a natural right of individuals.” They missed the boat twice on this one. First, individuals do not have any natural rights —-which transitions to the second point: rights are given by God and are not privileges handed out by the state. It is very dangerous when those elected to office begin to believe and govern as if the State is God. 02/13/08
• Bobby Franklin’s Georgia Journal: State Has No Jurisdiction To Educate Our Children — Period! There was good news and bad news on Friday. The House used one if the 40 days allotted to the session to take up only one measure. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the measure was a resolution “urging the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to implement a playoff system to determine a national champion in the sport of football.” Why is the Georgia House of Representatives concerning itself with any sport when tens of thousands of babies are slaughtered in the womb each year here in Georgia? Besides, it is not within the jurisdiction of the State to urge any private organization to do anything. What’s next, urging fast food restaurants to stop selling junk food? The resolution passed with only 9 dissenting votes. 02/04/08
• Bobby Franklin’s Georgia Journal: Duty Is Ours; The Outcome Is Up To God In 1997, I became motivated to run for the Georgia House of Representatives after seeing Christians in public office “keep their powder dry” by not opposing anything the ruling Democratic majority proposed, thus “saving” their opposition to only the “religious” issues. But since there is no area of life outside of the Lordship of King Jesus, all votes cast are religious in nature and must be based on what the Bible says is the proper function of the civil government. 01/31/08

Chairman Reapportionment
HD 43 (R-Marietta)

State Representative Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta) represents the 43rd District in the Georgia House of Representatives. Rep. Franklin is the Chairman of the House Legislative & Congressional Reapportionment Committee. He was first elected to the Georgia House in 1996. Rep. Franklin previously sat on the Banks & Banking, Special Judiciary, and the Reapportionment Committees. Rep. Franklin is the Vice-Chairman for the Information & Audits Committee, and is currently also a member of the Banks & Banking and the Judiciary Non-Civil Committees.

Rep. Franklin graduated from Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, with a degree in Biblical Studies and Business Administration. He and his wife, Pat, have been married for over 27 years. They have three children, and are active members of Chalcedon Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Georgia.

Rep. Franklin has built his professional experience in the private sector as a corporate controller, CFO, and business analyst. This career knowledge has well-equipped him to apply sound business and fiscal principles, insisting that government be efficient and fiscally responsible.