GA Legislative Watch 2025 | Week nine

March 15, 2025
Friendly Amendment, GLW, In the News

GA Legislative Watch

By Molly Mcloughlin ● March 15, 2025
Smart Brevity™ count: 5.5 mins…1,406 words

So you’re saying there’s a chance. Although eerily slow this week, folks were busy behind the scenes negotiating.

Bills that didn’t crossover could be resurrected via an amendment to another bill,
🚑 while others might be completely gutted.

🌆 One fun thing: Ohio River South was proud to produce the first ever ‘Downtown Atlanta Day at the Capitol’ with Central Atlanta Progress and the Metro Atlanta Chamber!

Leaders from South Downtown, Centennial Yards, the Stitch, and the Center walked a few blocks down the street to share their progress with lawmakers and promote the revitalization of Atlanta’s historic downtown.

1 big thing: 💰 The House budget

Reverting back to a tightening of the belt, the House passed a $37.7B FY26 budget, reflecting the state revenue forecasted by the Governor’s Office.

Though it is nearly $2B more than the FY25 budget as it was initially passed, it’s still $1.5B less than this year’s mid-year budget signed into law last week – the largest in the state’s history.

“I’ve made no secret about this budget. Things are tight,” said Rep. Matt Hatchett (R-Dublin). “I wish we could … go further than we did, but we can’t. The needs are great, and there are many worthy causes competing for the same limited resources.”

🍎 Education should get an additional $98M for a total spending of $16B, according to the House, with $500M earmarked just for increased enrollment this year and next. There’s also:

$19.6M for mental health support services.
$25M to pay for the proposed statewide database for responding to and mitigating threats.
✏️ ≈ $100 per teacher to help pay for school supplies.
$46M for the new voucher program, down from the $141M in the Gov.’s budget. Lawmakers say that should cover first-year demand.

Funding for four private prisons and 21 county correctional institutions would be paid for with an additional $38M to cover increases in the county per diem and private prison staff pay, as well as 700 new guards in Georgia prisons.

🏘 The House wants to house more of the homeless, with an extra $4M proposed for the State Housing Trust Fund and $4.7M to cover programs and services at two state agencies – Community Affairs and Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.

Medicaid beneficiaries may get ≈ $221M more than last year. 🤝 What’s next: It goes to the Senate for their spin and passage before the end of the session – the only Constitutional obligation of the General Assembly.

2. Notable legislation

Litigation debate heating up. Four long hearings later, a House subcommittee has yet to take action on Gov. Kemp’s “tort reform” package.

The House is planning for a floor vote next week but on what version is still TBD, since an internal tally indicated R’s don’t have enough votes for SB 68 in its current form.
Potential amendments would likely center on negligent security protections for businesses, after droves of crime victims spoke out against the bill noting their cases couldn’t withstand the reforms.
Zoom out: Evidence from FL’s recent overhaul of their litigation system is often cited by both sides of the issue, but news recently broke that lawmakers there are now investigating whether insurance companies provided misleading financials.

🚜 Let farmers farm, said the sponsor of SB 144, which saw final passage in the House.

It waives liability for fertilizer and pesticide manufacturers if they don’t warn consumers of health risks beyond what the FDA requires.
Proponents say without this legal protection, supply of these products would dwindle and so would the ability to produce enough food to feed the country.

🔎 State eyes MARTA audit. A joint MARTOC committee meeting heard updates from MARTA leaders on the latest audit of its service in Atlanta.

The new report found that the agency overcharged the city by only $865K, not the nearly $70M city auditors quoted last year.
The original audit’s inaccuracy was based on the inclusion of pandemic-era service shutdowns and including service areas outside the city limits.

Bait and switch watch. An election bill, HB 397, was gutted and replaced just before passing on Crossover Day.

It was replaced with a widely supported proposal from Rep. Saira Draper (D-Atlanta) to allow the House speaker and Senate president to remove State Election Board members during the legislative offseason.
What’s the catch? Rep. Draper is preparing for the bill to be further amended by the Senate Ethics committee, noting it could be used as a vehicle to pass Republican backed election priorities.

🎬 Another switch up, but this time on Georgia’s film tax credit. SB 52was intended to provide tax breaks for timber lost during the hurricane, but a House tax subcommittee discussed otherwise.

They want to replace it with an expanded film tax credit for postproduction film, television, music video, commercial and similar production expenses.
It revives a program that ended in 2022 and would be in addition to the larger film tax credit.
Yes, and: The timber tax credits will still take effect via a similar House bill.

🎓 An educational safety net would be in place with SB 154, which passed a House committee and changes references to the U.S. Dept. of Education to include “or its successor” in Georgia code.

This change would safeguard accreditation for professionals like dentists, nurses, optometrists and others if the agency is abolished.
A friendly amendment from Rep. David Wilkerson (D-Powder Springs) makes the effective date contingent upon the abolishment of the DoE instead of July 1.

State oversight of how government utilizes AI is still in the works. Rep. Brad Thomas’ (R-Holly Springs) HB 147 was heard in a Senate committee where members discussed how to combine his plan with Sen. John Albers’ (R-Roswell) plan, SB 37, which never made it to a committee vote.

The House bill delegates planning and oversight responsibilities to the GA Technology Authority and the Senate bill delegates those responsibilities to a newly created state AI board.
Our thought bubble: Should they just ask AI what’s the best way to combine the bills?

🚭 Wanna quit smoking? HB 506, sponsored by Rep. Scott Hilton (R-Peachtree Corners), would allow Medicaid to cover tobacco cessation treatment, including FDA-approved medications for tobacco cessation, as well as telephone counseling.

The Chair of the Senate committee it passed out of pointed to supporting data that smoking-related illnesses cause $700M in direct costs to Georgia Medicaid each year.

3. Other political news

⌛ Government shutdown avoided, again. With the support of 10 Senate Democrats, Congress passed the continuing resolution to fund the government through Sept. – sending it to President Trump to sign into law.

Senate Dem. Leader Chuck Schumer announced he’d support the measure – only a day after he vowed the opposite – to the fierce dismay of House Dems.
GA Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock voted in opposition.

🌽 U.S. Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins visited the state capitol and shared that Hurricane Helene relief funds from the $100B emergency package would make it to Georgia farmers before the March 21 deadline.

Yes, but: $1B for schools and child care facilities to buy fresh food from nearby farms is being cut because it’s an outdated, pandemic specific initiative, she explained.
Back up: Georgia joined the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program – which also provided money to food banks – in 2023 with bipartisan state backing.

🦠 Not enough votes. Former FL Congressman Dave Weldon’s nomination to be the director of the CDC was withdrawn by the Trump Administration, due to key Senators having trouble with his history as a vaccine critic.

A replacement has not been announced.

Thinking positive. Mayor Andre Dickens kicked off his campaign for a second term with a round of events and speaking appearances.

Weeks ago, he shared with the thousands of attendees at his State of the City address that he’d never stop fighting for Atlanta, not even when he “leave(s) City Hall in 2030.”