ATLANTA — With the midpoint of the 2008 legislative session arriving this week, lawmakers are set to consider several of the year’s big-ticket or high-profile issues in the next few days.

When the House and Senate meet on Wednesday, it will mark the 20th working day of the 40-day legislative session. Lawmakers can schedule those days whenever they want, and will in fact take Monday off to mark Presidents Day.

Coincidentally or not, the halfway point will be surrounded by work on issues like the midyear budget, tax reform and a bill allowing consumers the ability to lock down their credit information to avoid identity theft.

In the House, a subcommittee could vote this week about whether to approve House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s plan to repeal local property taxes for education purposes and replace them at least in part with a broader sales tax that would also cover services like haircuts and car washes.

On the Senate side, budget-writers are working toward a Tuesday morning committee vote on a $332.6 million midyear spending bill, setting the measure up for the full Senate’s approval on Thursday.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Hill, R-Reidsville, said last week that while work was still being done on the document, he didn’t see as many differences between the House and Senate versions of the measure that emerged last year.

A disagreement about projects in the midyear budget in 2007 set off a round of budget squabbles that continued throughout the rest of that session and opened rifts between Gov. Sonny Perdue, House Speaker Glenn Richardson and the Senate.

Lawmakers have expressed confidence that they can more easily work through their differences this year.

The full Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on a bill that would allow state residents to order the three major reporting agencies to block the release of their personal information for most credit purposes. That would prevent would-be identity thieves from opening new credit accounts in a potential victim’s name, supporters say.

The measure, Senate Bill 361, is slightly different from a similar initiative that passed the House. For example, SB 361 would still allow the reporting agencies to charge consumers $3 apiece whenever they freeze or permanently unfreeze their accounts, but would allow for two free temporary “thaws” a year before the credit reporting agencies can charge for those as well. The House measure doesn’t include the two free thaws.

Whether that change will pass the House, where sponsors unsuccessfully fought an effort to lower the fee from $10 to $3, remains to be seen.

“You have the set-up for a standoff,” said Allison Wall, executive director of GeorgiaWatch, a consumer group that supports the credit freeze.

Brandon Larrabee can be reached at brandon.larrabee@morris.com or (678) 977-3709