Georgia House budget writers gave preliminary approval to a plan to raise more than $175 million through a new fee on hospital revenues, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The vote by the House Appropriations Committee on HB 307 ended months of back-and-forth negotiations and threats by Gov. Sonny Perdue, lawmakers, and the hospitals. In the end, the hospitals realized the fee, which cannot be passed on to patients, was the best of several unsavory options, the Journal-Constitution reports.
