ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers on both sides
of the aisle showed hesitation Wednesday to sign off on budget cuts Gov. Brian
Kemp has proposed for criminal justice and public safety agencies through July
2021.
The state’s prisons, courts, police and
public-defender agencies would see reductions of roughly $80 million to $100
million this fiscal year, according to Kemp’s proposed budget.
On the second day of legislative hearings on the $28.1 billion fiscal 2021 budget plan, many agency heads assured members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees they can mostly stomach the belt tightening. But lawmakers seemed less keen on many of the cuts outlined Wednesday morning.
“I think we all have a responsibility to
reduce the fat, but we need to be careful not to be overzealous and cut into
the muscle of the criminal justice system,” said Sen. Randy Robertson,
R-Cataula, a retired major with the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office.
Agencies across state government are
working to comply with the governor’s order to reduce their spending by 4% this
fiscal year and 6% in fiscal 2021, which begins July 1. Kemp ordered the cuts
last summer in response to sluggish tax revenue collections.
On Wednesday, lawmakers highlighted a
disconnect between the proposed cuts and a growing prison population in
Georgia. With nearly 54,000 inmates currently, Georgia Corrections Department
Commissioner Timothy Ward expects to see an increase of 15,000 inmates over the
next few years.
That comes as the prison system is being
asked to trim around $47 million this fiscal year and $54 in fiscal 2021,
mostly by upgrading technology and shrinking administrative costs. Ward said
about two dozen employees lost jobs as part of the budget reductions.
Those cuts and others discussed Wednesday
gave Rep. Al Williams pause. He said a much closer look is needed to avoid
creating unexpected costs elsewhere in Georgia’s criminal justice system.
“Whether you end up paying on the front
end or the back end, it’s going to cost you,” said Williams, D-Midway. “It’s a
difficult time.”
The feeling was mutual for Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton. He highlighted cuts totaling about $3.5 million to the state’s accountability courts, a popular program created under former Gov. Nathan Deal that provides alternative sentencing for thousands of inmates.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman
Terry England also singled out the accountability courts, noting lawmakers may
want to tread cautiously with a program many criminal justice advocates feel is
working.
“We certainly want to take a closer look
at that,” said England, R-Auburn. “We put a lot of time and energy into that
over the years.”
Other lawmakers homed in Wednesday on
cuts to Georgia’s public defenders and the forensic crime lab run by the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
To absorb cuts, the Georgia Public
Defender’s Council furloughed employees for a day and instituted a hiring
freeze to meet the cuts.
Asked whether the office could handle
those cuts on top of an already heavy caseload, Interim Executive Director
Jimmonique Rodgers showed some doubt.
“To be honest, I cannot guarantee that,”
Rodgers said. “We will work to the best of our abilities to identify
efficiencies.”
GBI’s crime lab would lose about $1.6
million by leaving a handful of unfilled jobs vacant. Those cuts would come as
the agency struggles to clear a backlog of more than 44,000 cases in its crime
lab, which Director Vic Reynolds said is far too many.
“The reality is we can’t become what we
want to become with these numbers,” Reynolds said.
Crime-lab cuts would be balanced with
additional funds for a new criminal gangs task force Kemp formed last year.
Arresting and prosecuting gang members is a top priority for Kemp in 2020. The
state may have about 70,000 gang members at large with another 30,000 either in
prison or on probation, Reynolds said.
But with more resources to fight gangs,
officials said the state will continue struggling to offer quality services for
the nearly 12,000 inmates and thousands more probationers with mental health
issues. High costs for crisis-intervention care and prescription drugs have
made it tough to keep mentally ill Georgians from landing in jail, said
Community Supervision Department Commissioner Michael Nail.
“The (mental health) system has made
significant improvement from 10 years ago,” Nail said. “But we’re nowhere close
to where we need to go, and it’s simply because of capacity.”
Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville,
traced a lack of mental health services to instances of repeat crimes that she
said are cropping up especially in rural parts of Georgia.
“I’m pleased that we’re looking for ways
to be more efficient,” Taylor said, “But I am concerned about health care and
mental health.”
Meanwhile, the Georgia General Assembly’s longest-serving member, Rep. Calvin Smyre, stressed that it’s still early in the budget ballgame. He thinks some funding issues may “take care of themselves” as the legislative session rolls on and the state gets a better sense of its economic outlook.
“I just want to make sure that when we
make the cuts, that it does not decrease services,” said Smyre, D-Columbus.
ATLANTA – Protections are being sought by Georgia Senate Democrats against racial discrimination toward hair styles like braids, locks and twists.
Pre-filed earlier this month, Senate Bill 286 would bar employers, landlords and school officials from discriminating against hair styles including “braids, locks, twists or other textured hair-dressing historically associated with an individual’s race.”
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Tonya
Anderson, mimics state legislation first passed in California last year aimed
at criminalizing unfair firings or housing denials based on natural hair
styles. Called the “CROWN Act,” that legislation has also been brought at the
federal level via a bill filed last month in the U.S. Senate.
Echoing the CROWN Act’s language, the
Georgia bill frames hair-style discrimination as a source of historical
discrimination against black people especially.
“Despite the great strides American
society and laws have made to reverse the racist ideology that black traits are
inferior, hair remains a rampant source of racial discrimination with serious
economic and health consequences,” the Georgia bill says.
Sen. Nikema Williams, who also serves as
chairwoman of the Georgia Democratic Party, said on social media that the bill
should curb discrimination black people in the state face over hair styles.
“It’s time Georgia ends hair-based
discrimination in our institutions,” said Williams, D-Atlanta, a cosponsor of
Anderson’s bill.
Though susceptible to controversy, the
hairstyle bill probably won’t spark the kind of charged debate seen with other
political issues involving race like drug enforcement or police accountability,
said Emory University Professor Andra Gillespie. Sparring would more likely
stem from generational gaps between younger and older lawmakers who differ in
their views of socially acceptable workplace attire, she said.
“There could be an ‘OK, boomer,’ moment
here,” said Gillespie, who specializes in African American political science.
“You just have to wait and see if anybody does it.”
Still, Gillespie said the nationwide
legislative push signals black lawmakers are hearing their constituents want
these protections prioritized as workplaces grow more diverse.
“These kinds of things have come up in
the past,” Gillespie said. “They are likely to continue to come up as corporate
and social institutions continue to diversify.”
ATLANTA – Most state agency heads who appeared before legislative budget writers Tuesday vowed to do more with less to meet the spending-reduction targets Gov. Brian Kemp has set for them.
But Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture
Gary Black warned job losses in his department could seriously hamper the
state’s No.1 industry.
On the first day of hearings on Kemp’s
$28.1 billion fiscal 2021 budget plan, Black said he has been forced to
eliminate 18 full-time vacancies, four part-time vacancies, phase out six
employees and cut loose four call-center workers by not renewing their
contract.
“These critical positions in food safety,
animal industry, meat inspection and marketing were not held in reserve on the
books,” Black told members of the Georgia House and Senate Appropriations
Committees. “These were vacant positions we would have tried to fill, but due
to a competitive job market, we have been unable to find qualified applicants.”
With state tax revenue growing far slower
than had been anticipated, Kemp ordered most state agencies last summer to
reduce spending by 4% during this fiscal year and 6% during fiscal 2021, which
begins in July.
Most department heads who presented their
budgets to lawmakers Tuesday expressed confidence they would be able to hit
those targets without hurting services.
“Our cuts were designed to minimize any
impact on our operations,” said Richard Dunn, director of the Georgia
Environmental Protection Division. “I believe we’ve accomplished that.”
Some lawmakers noted the difference in
tone between agency heads elected by Georgia voters like Black and several
Kemp-appointed department officials who spoke Tuesday afternoon.
Elected officials seemed more willing to
open up about concerns over the potential impact of cuts, said state Sen. Jen
Jordan, D-Atlanta. Kemp’s department heads painted a rosier picture, she said.
“It just makes me wonder what the agency
heads really think about the cuts they’ve had to make,” Jordan said after
Tuesday’s hearing.
She expects a deeper dive on reduction
details in upcoming subcommittee meetings might shed more light on operational
and staffing impacts if the cuts take effect.
“I think there are going to be a lot of
really unhappy people in this state,” Jordan said.
For his part, Black said he has never
viewed “across-the-board” cuts as good strategic planning.
Rep. Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus,
expressed concerns over whether the job losses would affect food safety in
Georgia.
“What is our obligation to the public?”
she asked Black.
“You have my word that the team we have
on the ground will do its job every day,” Black answered. “But with reductions
in staff, you simply can’t cover the territory as frequently as you’d like to.”
Black said his budget also calls for a
$161,000 cut in the popular Georgia Grown program, which markets the state’s
farm products.
The agriculture department also needs $1
million to jump-start the growth of industrial hemp in Georgia, a lucrative
crop the General Assembly voted to legalize last year.
Kemp’s budget proposes giving the new
Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission $200,000 this fiscal year and
just under $155,000 for fiscal 2021. Part of Secretary of State Brad
Raffensperger’s office, the commission is the oversight arm of Georgia’s
fledgling medical cannabis sector.
But those funding amounts “may be
inadequate” to run the cannabis commission full-steam, Raffensperger said
Tuesday, noting his staff wants a budget closer to $500,000.
Employees at the Public Service
Commission would have to take five furlough days per year to meet the budget
cuts, said Commissioner Chuck Eaton, who was elected chairman of the PSC
Tuesday by his commission colleagues. He said the furloughs and other
cuts would make it tougher for the agency to regulate the state’s energy
utilities.
“We are way down to the bone,” Eaton said
at Tuesday’s hearing. “There is no discretionary spending left.”
The Department of Driver Services plans
to cut nearly $1.4 million this fiscal year and $2.3 million next year by
eliminating vacant staff positions in the busy license issuance branch and
renewing more licenses online via the federal REAL ID program, said DDS Commissioner
Spencer Moore.
ATLANTA – Gov.
Brian Kemp Tuesday unveiled the specifics of a crackdown on human trafficking
he proposed in more broad terms in last week’s State of the State address to
the General Assembly.
Kemp asked the
legislature to support three bills that would tighten restrictions in existing state
law targeting human traffickers and, in one case, implement a federal rule promulgated
last year by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
When he took
office last year, Kemp made going after human traffickers a high priority,
citing Georgia’s unenviable status as a state with one of the highest rates of
human trafficking in the nation. He formed a state commission to tackle the
issue and installed his wife, first lady Marty Kemp, as one of three co-chairs.
“We’ve been
working around the clock for the past year … fighting this fight to end human
trafficking,” Kemp said during a ceremony announcing his bills. “These pieces
of legislation represent a bold next step in this fight.”
The bills
Kemp plans to introduce during the coming days would:
allow victims of human trafficking to
restrict access to their criminal records. Victims caught up in prostitution networks
formed by traffickers often have trouble finding jobs and/or places to live.
close a loophole in the state’s sex
offender registry law that does not require Georgians convicted of a felony for
keeping a place of prostitution, pimping and pandering to register as a sex
offender. The legislation also would criminalize improper sexual contact by a
foster parent .
allow the state to revoke the
commercial driver’s license of anyone convicted of trafficking an individual
for labor servitude or sexual servitude, in accordance with a new federal rule.
First Lady Marty Kemp said the need to add foster parents to
the state’s improper sexual contact code was brought to the GRACE Commission’s
attention by an actual case.
“There is no consent between a foster parent and a child in
his or her custody,” she said. “The law needs to reflect that.”
Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a member of the GRACE Commission, said
stories from victims of human trafficking around the state helped generate the
legislative package Kemp unveiled Tuesday.
“We’ve taken these opportunities to create legislation that’s
going to truly make a difference,” he said.
“We care about the vulnerable, the forgotten, the hurting,”
added Georgia House Speaker Pro Tempore Jan Jones, R-Milton, another of the
commission’s co-chairs. “The perpetrators will have no safe harbor in Georgia.”
A traffic signal display at the Transportation Tech Showcase on Jan. 21, 2020.
Mobile apps warning drivers that someone
is about to run a red light. A button that MARTA bus operators can tap to ask
for a green light. Computer programs pinpointing when a car has stalled on the
side of the highway.
These tech features and more were on
display Tuesday at the first annual Transportation Tech Showcase, held at the
Georgia Freight Depot in downtown Atlanta. Transit-focused companies,
government officials and state lawmakers were on hand to peruse tech offerings
touted as solutions for easing traffic congestion in metro Atlanta and hustling
freight up from the coast.
Among the gadgets and gear rolled out for
public viewing Tuesday were new signals set up at traffic intersections that
can send potentially life-saving information to drivers. Installed in a car’s
radio system, the signals alert drivers when a traffic light is about to change
colors, when a pedestrian is in a crosswalk or when another car is about to run
a red light.
The signals both improve safety for
today’s drivers and help lay the groundwork for automated driving technology in
the future, said Alan Davis, the assistant state traffic engineer. Around 430
signals have been installed at intersections in the metro Atlanta area so far
and another 1,600 will soon go up statewide at a cost of around $10 million,
Davis said.
On Tuesday, Gov. Brian Kemp announced
another 1,000 signals will be installed in the metro area by city and county
governments, paid mostly via federal grant funds. State officials will work
with the Atlanta Regional Commission to install them.
“This…is a powerful testament to what we
all know to be true: Our state is moving in the right direction toward
solutions,” Kemp said Tuesday.
The technology showcase came as state lawmakers began a week-long debate over Kemp’s proposed budget across the street at the Capitol. The Georgia Department of Transportation was spared budget cuts in the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years that the governor ordered for most state agencies over summer.
The transportation department’s proposed
budget this fiscal year is hovering around $3.7 billion, nearly half of which
would come from federal funds.
It’s unlikely any major transportation bills will come out of the current legislative session that started last week, said Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta. At least, no legislation similar in scale to a 2015 measure that raised the state’s gas tax. Enacted under then-Gov. Nathan Deal, the tax has since reeled in about $900 million a year for state road construction and maintenance projects.
House Transportation Committee Chairman Kevin Tanner, R-Dawsonville, has a bill still alive this session that would drum up more money for public transit in rural areas.
But Tuesday’s program did figure into Lt.
Gov. Geoff Duncan’s push for more state investment in new transportation
technologies and public-private partnerships to bring them into reality. Duncan
unveiled a new task force last week on technology research and development that
aims to “make Georgia the technology capital of the East Coast.”
“Government’s just not very nimble at
times about certain things,” Duncan said Tuesday. “Being able to partner with
the private sector in a way that allows us to push the biggest and best ideas
out into the market quicker is, I believe, the best way forward.”
