GA Legislative Watch | Week Ten

March 18, 2023
Friendly Amendment, GLW, In the News

GA Legislative Watch

By Molly Mcloughlin & Rebecca Wallace ● March 18, 2023
Smart Brevity™ count: 4.5 mins . . . 1,194 words

Set up your bracket. Senate Rules Chairman Sen. Matt Brass and others wouldn’t let up on the disparity between how many bills each chamber has passed since Crossover Day.

As of Thursday, the Senate has passed 62 House bills and the House has passed 12 Senate bills.
Which chamber are you betting on? 😉

Only 4 legislative days (and 2 committee work days) left before Sine Die on March 29. See the calendar of remaining days.

1 big thing: freedom to vote

An alliance of more than 40 legislators across six southern states have filed upwards of 14 bill packages in their respective legislatures to combat recently enacted laws that they deem create barriers to vote.

They also came together to form the Southern Freedom to Vote Alliance, a project of SiX Action – the 501c4 arm of the State Innovation Exchange.
Georgia is a member state as well as Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

Why it matters: Battles over elections laws are alive and well — particularly in the South, with Rs and Dems having differing views as to what makes elections “safe.”

Georgia SB 222, for example, is on its way to a House floor vote after passing out of committee, prohibiting counties from accepting outside grants and funding for election administration.

And… let’s take the Secretary of State off the state elections board entirely, says the House committee that amended it.

Zoom out: The infamous SB 202 removed the SOS as a voting member of the board, but the new measure strips the SOS’s power to solely an administrative role – making the state election board serve as a totally independent state agency and budget line.

The state election board decides on consequences for election irregularities and fraud.

But wait, there’s more. SOS Brad Raffensperger came out this week to affirm the state’s commitment to the Electronic Registration Information Center – a 28-state collaboration that shares eligibility information.

This could be a response to SB 221, which didn’t make the Crossover deadline, but could mysteriously make its way into SB 222.
The proposal would have made it easier to challenge voter eligibility with unreliable change of address data and ban ballot drop boxes.

Our thought bubble: The Georgia Legislature and SOS are clearly not on the same page. But Dems across the South seem to be.

2. Notable legislation

Bets are still open. HB 237, which would have made the Southeast GA Soap Box Derby the official derby of the state, is now being used as a vehicle to legalize online sports betting similar to SB 57’s model – the non-constitutional amendment route.

If it were to pass out of the Senate, it would have to be heard again on the House floor due to the amendment.

The $32.5B midyear spending plan, or the amended FY23 budget, was signed by the governor making $1B in property tax cuts official.

$1.1B to repay GDOT is also in the budget to make up for revenue lost with the state’s suspended fuel tax.
Why it matters: Fuel taxes are an important revenue stream that pays for current and future road and infrastructure projects and the loss would have hurt without this boost.
Also, the retroactive ratification of the suspended gas tax via the Senate passage of HR 66 ensures that taxpayers won’t have to pay, hence the $1.1B budgeted for GDOT.

More 💰 in your pocket. HB 162, the $1B income tax rebate, was also signed by the governor, ensuring an extra $250 for single filers and $500 for joint filers.
The Housing Regulation Transparency Act, or HB 514, passed out of a Senate committee with 2 amendments.

It now prohibits local governments from indefinitely extending moratoriums on new residential developments, not just single family, and requires the associated fees (that can be waived) to strictly fund the enforcement of the zoning ordinances.

Governor’s friendly (EV) amendment. SB 26, allowing development authorities and CIDs to meet virtually, was amended by Gov. Kemp’s floor leader, Sen. Bo Hatchett, to create an electric vehicle manufacturing commission with members appointed by the General Assembly. It now moves on to the House floor.

The commission will provide recommendations to support and expand the growth of the EV industry, solicit private sector needs for workforce development, and advise on infrastructure requirements.

On the culture war front. The highly sensitive legislation, SB 140, preventing children under 18 years old from receiving surgical or hormone replacement treatment, passed out of the House on a party line vote.

But wait there’s more. It now moves back to the Senate for final approval after it was amended in a House committee to subject doctors to legal action if they administer the prohibited treatment.

Booting the booters. Sen. Josh McLaurin (D-Atlanta) has been pushing for awhile a ban on booting cars, and it might now be near the finish line.

House Boot 119 would prohibit the ‘booting’ of vehicles with the threat of a $1K fine if violated, and after passing a Senate committee, it’s now on to the full chamber for a vote.

Safety first. HBCUs at the Atlanta University Center will now have a unified police force thanks to the passage of HB 142 in the Senate.

3. In other political news . . .

Silicon Valley Bank’s failure means many local employees of Atlanta’s bustling fin-tech startup industry didn’t get paid. Another local hit came to Cousins Properties, which happens to be the owner of the bank’s parent company’s largest office in Phoenix, AZ.

Take a step back. Since the FDIC insures bank depositors up to $250K, the feds ensured SVB’s customers they would have access to all of their money even beyond the $250K.
An important distinction. President Biden made it clear this is not a bailout of the institutions but the customers themselves.
He called on Congress to allow regulators to impose tougher penalties on the executives of failed banks – including lowering the threshold to inflict fines and barring executives from working at another bank.

🚚 Amazon is not a prime customer. Rivian is trying to remove the exclusivity terms from its 2019 deal with Amazon who promised to buy 100,000 delivery vans from Rivian by 2030.

Why? This year’s purchase plan is falling short at about 10,000 EV vans. Go deeper.

‘‘Very disruptive,” says Beltline neighbors of the potential Atlanta streetcar expansion along the beloved east side corridor.

The project is 1 of 8 MARTA expects to complete by 2028 but its recieved concerns over business-shuttering construction, operational safety, and funding gaps.
Between the lines. They’ve already nixed two rail projects in favor of BRT (Campbellton and Clifton); will this be next?