SENATE BACKS BILL TO ADD DRUG PROSECUTORS

ATLANTA -- The state Senate unanimously passed a bill yesterday to
provide additional prosecutors across the state to go after drug peddlers.

The bill was proposed by Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor last fall during an
election campaign in which he also admitted he had used cocaine in his
20s. He was never charged and has since apologized.

Hiring, equipping and training one additional prosecutor for each of
the 47 judicial circuits in Georgia would cost an estimated $3.6
million the first year.

"The costs to the state are relatively low when the benefits are
considered," Taylor said.

There is no provision for funding the prosecutors in Gov. Roy Barnes'
proposed budget request for fiscal year 2000, which begins July 1.
Sen. Greg Hecht, D-Jonesboro, who argued for the bill during debate,
said the Senate could add funding when it votes on the budget.

Nearly the same bill passed the Senate last year, but failed to come
out of the House Judiciary Committee.

Though Senate Republicans supported the bill, eight of them offered an
amendment that would have required convicted criminals to serve at
least 90 percent of their sentences before being eligible for parole.
The amendment would have made law a policy adopted last year by the
Board of Pardons and Paroles.

But Taylor, who presides over the Senate, stopped the Republicans
before their proposal could be voted on by declaring it violated rules
requiring amendments stick closely to the subject of the main bill.

Both parties grappled over the issue of sentencing reform during last
year's General Assembly session, and tried to use the differences in
their plans against each other in last fall's elections.

"We wanted to make the point from Day One that we will continue to
fight for this bill by any means necessary," said Senate Minority
Leader Eric Johnson, R- Savannah.

Republicans will try to attach their amendment to any bill they think
is germaine, he said.

"This was a bill about putting people in jail, and we had an amendment
about keeping them in jail," said Sen. Clay Land, R-Columbus. "It was
germaine."

Regardless of the politics behind Taylor's bill, the extra drug
prosecutors will be welcome, if funded.

"The most important thing that does for us is give us additional
resources," said Danny Craig, Augusta district attorney. "It will
lighten the load."

Craig's office has 14 prosecutors that he says typically work long
hours and weekends.