Who'll be this year's most popular legislator?

Forget the 2010 Governor's race, the race to see who'll be the most popular legislator to emerge from this year's session of the General Assembly began sometime late last week.
Representative Larry O'Neal, R-Warner Robins, introduced H.B.143 to require the state to pony up the $428 million necessary to fund the Homestead Relief Tax Grant program in this year's supplemental budget.
The Gov. Roy Barnes-era entitlement program that saves homesteaders between $200 and $300 each year on their property taxes was left out of Gov. Sonny Perdue's supplemental budget this year.
But according to the AJC's reading of the bill, future funding of the grant program will hinge upon state revenue growth. Future funding will not be plugged into any future budgets until the mid-fiscal year supplemental budget and will require adequate tax revenues to support the grant.
AJC's Political Insider smells politics on this bill per the list of heavy republican hitters who are co-sponsoring the bill.
It's good to see that despite all the hard times, the General Assembly is still living up to all expectations.