GA Legislative Watch | Week Nine

March 12, 2023
Friendly Amendment, GLW, In the News

GA Legislative Watch

By Molly Mcloughlin & Rebecca Wallace ● March 11, 2023
Smart Brevity™ count: 5 mins . . . 1,303 words

Nothing new here. For the remainder of the session, the General Assembly will hear and discuss bills from the opposite chamber.

For the most part, any new legislation would be considered next year, the second half of the biennial session. Here’s the remaining days.

Wrong Stacey: The Speaker got a few chuckles when he mistakenly swapped out Rep. Stacey Evans’ last name with Abrams. 🤣

1 big $ thing: the FY24 budget

While the country’s budget is being considered by President Biden and Congress, so is the state’s by the General Assembly.

The House approved the FY 24 budget, so it now moves on to the Senate.

As it stands, the $32.4B budget will get us:
💲 Pay increases

$4K raise for law enforcement officers
$2K salary boost for teachers and other state employees
$10M to increase wages at state psychiatric hospitals, one part of the $120M to be spent on mental health and substance abuse

👮🏽 Public safety improvements

$1.25M to open a Buckhead GA State Patrol satellite office with 20 troopers
$2.7M for a new GBI cold case office
$1.5M to help clear evidence backlogs

🎓 Education investments. QBE is finally fully funded with the House addition to Gov. Kemp’s K-12 budget for a total of $13M with:

$6M to ensure students who qualify for reduced lunches won’t have to pay anything for meals
$8.7M for a $1K supplement for school custodians

Also, $61M to increase funding for HOPE to cover 100% of tuition costs — up from 90%

🏖️ Pension bonus. $26.7M will go to a $500 one time bonus for not only retired teachers, but also all state government pensioners.

The bottom line: The budget takes into account that revenue projections show a slowing down in tax collections, with FY23 expecting to show a decrease and FY24 to go flat.

2. Notable legislation

👉 What crossed over
Trucks are closer to being able to haul heavier loads on state highways and local roads with the House approval of HB 189, meaning some trucks can now weigh 88K pounds, up from 84K.

Zoom out: This issue probably caused the most nail biting among lobbyists on Crossover Day.
GDOT and GMA reps vehemently opposed the increase, citing the financial impact from infrastructure damage.
Trucking, timber and agriculture reps fought for the increase, citing greater efficiency in trips.

The controversial $6K school voucher bill, SB 233, passed the Senate on a party line vote.

Yes, but the plan was amended on the floor to limit eligibility to students living in school zones performing at the bottom 25%.
Back up: Supporters say students attending low performing schools should have the option to attend private and charter schools.
Opposition says this puts significant public school funding at risk and takes money away from schools that need it most.

They’re also asking to see a fiscal note for the plan, which hasn’t been produced.

Insulin costs could be capped for state employees under the state health insurance plan at $35 for a 30-day supply and $105 for a 90-day supply with Sen. Nikki Merritt’s (D-Grayson) SB 76, which passed with bipartisan support.

🏥 Access to health savings accounts for state employees could be expanded with the unanimous passing of Sen. Jason Esteves’ (D-Atlanta) first bill, SB 199.

It also serves as a cost-saving measure for the state by reducing payroll taxes.
How it works: The Dept. of Administrative Services would offer HSA accounts as a pre-tax deduction and would roll over year to year, also making it eligible for investment.

The ‘medical cannabis fix’ bill made it out of the House, 170-2, and expands the number of production licenses to 15, up from 6.

Big picture: The change would allow the 9 losing bidders who brought legal challenges another opportunity to compete.

The state and cities could tax digital goods and services, like downloaded books and music, with HB 170 passing the House.

Estimates project $127M in new revenue.

Anti-semitism may now be defined in state law.

🤔 Yes, but some D’s thought the legislation could make people wonder why there isn’t a definition for anti-Black, anti-latino or anti-asian racism, too.

❌ What didn’t
A bill allowing sports betting and creating a gaming commission to regulate it was the first betting bill to fall.

The measure by Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens) fell short of the two-thirds threshold required to amend the state constitution.
The House option, HB 380 by Rep. Marcus Wiedower, didn’t come up for a vote after folks waited patiently (or impatiently) until nearly midnight. It did not require a constitutional amendment and would send the revenue to HOPE and the state’s pre-K program.
But wait there’s more. Speaker Jon Burns made headlines 3 days later at an Atlanta Press Club event noting

“We have a 40-day session last time I checked, and we’re going to have a 40-day session this year,” adding, “We don’t close the door on anything. We’re going to continue to talk.”

No changes to development authority members’ training and other procedures since SB 171 didn’t receive consideration, likely tabling the idea for this session.

Major election reform is off the table – for now – with SB 221 not coming up for a vote.

It called for a ban on ballot drop boxes and made it easier to challenge fellow voters.
Another measure to do away with runoffs was also not considered on Crossover Day.

3. In other political news . . .

I’m terribly sorry. Atlanta-based Norfolk Southern’s CEO apologized before a U.S Senate committee about the East Palestine, Ohio toxic train derailment. “We’ll be there tomorrow… in a year… in five years,” he said.

The committee is assessing the company’s safety practices and lack of transparency after the disaster.
What’s next: Hours later, U.S. Senators from Ohio and both sides of the aisle introduced the Railway Safety Act of 2023 to prevent future train disasters.

No bedside manner. State, county, and other local leaders are filing two federal complaints against Wellstar Health System for the closure last year of Atlanta Medical Center and all the centers and providers that closed with it.

One complaint questions the company’s nonprofit status.
The second complaint claims Wellstar intentionally affected communities of color and left people in need without care.
The other side: Wellstar maintains it wasn’t financially feasible to keep the facilities open.

The state added 16,600 jobs in January and maintained a historically low unemployment rate at 3.1%. They also reported strong income and sales tax revenue, up 8.7% in February.

Yes, but: State officials still project a $3B downturn in revenue collections in the coming months with Georgians filing their tax returns.

What a relief $. More than 18K Georgia borrowers are getting $1.5B in student loan relief, according to the U.S. Dept. of Education.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program allows for government and nonprofit workers to have their loan balance forgiven after they’ve paid on them for 10 years.

More courting for the DNC. Atlanta-based civil rights leaders wrote two letters to President Biden urging that Atlanta be the host city. The AJC also ran a front-page editorial directed to Biden for the same.

4. What’s next

They’re crafty. Watch out for the creative cut and paste jobs as bills take on new forms.

Also expect an onslaught of committee hearings as each chamber hears from the opposite chamber. 👀 Especially look out for early morning committee meetings.