ATLANTA – A
bill supporters say would increase protections for Georgia farmers from
nuisance lawsuits passed a state Senate committee Tuesday.
Dubbed the Georgia
Right to Farm Act of 2020, the bill would make it more difficult for property
owners living in areas zoned for agricultural use to sue nearby agricultural
operations such as chicken house or pig farms for offensive smells or runoff
from sludge lagoons.
“We’re just
doing our job to protect the family farmers in Georgia,” said state Rep. Tom
McCall, chairman of the House Agriculture & Consumer Affairs Committee.
McCall sponsored the bill in the House, which passed it last year and sent it over
to the Senate.
The bill
essentially updates a law the General Assembly enacted during the 1980s.
Supporters say farmers need greater protection against nuisance lawsuits than
the current law provides because rapid suburbanization of Georgia means more
non-farming homeowners are encroaching on farmland.
Under the
new bill, property owners wishing to file a nuisance suit against an
agricultural operation must be located within five miles of the source of the
alleged nuisance. Lawsuits must be brought within two years after a nuisance
occurs, down from four years under the current law.
Sen. Larry
Walker III, R-Perry, put together the substitute version of the bill the Senate
committee passed on Tuesday. He said he gathered feedback both from agribusiness
organizations that supported the bill and environmental groups opposed to it.
“What we
have before us is very strong protection for agribusiness that strikes a fair
balance with property owners,” Walker said.
But Sen. Zahra
Karinshak, D-Duluth, questioned the need for tighter restrictions on nuisance
lawsuits, including reducing the statute of limitations on filing legal action.
She tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill by changing the time limit back to
four years.
On the other
side of the debate, two amendments proposed by Sen. Bill Heath, R-Bremen, to
reduce the statute of limitations further to one year and to shrink the
five-mile radius for eligibility to file a nuisance suit to one mile also
failed.
The
committee passed the bill 6-3, voting along party lines. It now heads to the
Senate Rules Committee, which will decide whether to pass it on to the full
Senate.
ATLANTA – Legislation increasing the fee to store toxic coal ash in Georgia landfills cleared a Senate committee on Tuesday.
Coal ash, the byproduct of burning coal at power plants to generate
electricity, can contain compounds that cause cancer after long exposure.
The state’s top energy producer, Georgia Power, is moving
away from storing coal ash is liquid ponds to instead disposing it in dry
landfills going forward.
Since July, landfills have charged power companies a lower fee to take coal ash compared to other forms of waste. The fee for almost all landfill garbage is $2.50 per ton, while coal ash is $1.
That change was made in 2018 legislation that raised the
landfill fee for all waste but gave coal ash a special carve-out.
Georgia environmentalists worry the lower fee could spark an
influx of out-of-state coal ash to Georgia landfills.
Five landfills in Georgia have taken in millions of tons of
coal ash since 2017, with much of it originating from power plants in Florida
and North Carolina, according to state Environmental Protection Division
records.
Senate Bill 123 would raise the fee for dumping coal ash up to $2.50, the same as all other waste. Its sponsor, Sen. William Ligon, said the uneven fee amounts incentivize outside companies to send their coal ash to Georgia.
“We shouldn’t be subsidizing that,” Ligon, R- said Tuesday. “Everyone
should pay their fair share.”
The bill passed out of the Senate Natural Resources and
Environment Committee with unanimous approval Tuesday.
The Texas-based company Waste Management, which runs four of
Georgia’s five ash-receiving landfills, opposes raising the coal-ash fee on
grounds that it might prompt the toxic material to be stored in less safe ways.
Coal ash disposal has surfaced as a leading environmental
issue in this year’s legislative session at the Capitol, particularly for
Democratic lawmakers.
Georgia Power is poised to tap ratepayers for $525 million
through 2022 to remove or seal off all 29 of its existing ash ponds, some of
which environmentalists say are poised to be left in place without protective
lining. The company has said the sealed ponds will be safe.
ATLANTA – Georgia
cities and counties would be prohibited from regulating short-term rental
properties under legislation that cleared a state House committee Tuesday.
With the
advent of Airbnb and other vacation rental companies in recent years, short-term
rentals have become a fast-growing industry. But with that growth has come a
rise in complaints from neighbors about rowdy parties and absentee property owners
running what essentially are small hotels in residential areas.
Some local
governments have responded with tight restrictions banning short-term rentals
from their communities.
Cities and
counties can address such issues through nuisance ordinances and occupancy
limits without banning short-term rentals altogether, Rep. Kasey Carpenter,
R-Dalton, the bill’s chief sponsor, told members of the House Regulated
Industries Committee.
“These bans
and overregulation are an attack on private property rights,” he said.
Advocates
for local governments oppose the bill as usurping their zoning powers under the
Georgia Constitution.
Clint
Mueller, legislative director for the Association County Commissioners of
Georgia, said the state’s one-size-fits-all approach toward short-term rentals
won’t work in a state as diverse as Georgia.
“What St.
Simons does may be different than what they do in North Fulton or in the mountains,”
he said.
Mueller said
counties currently don’t even have a way to determine which properties are
being used as short-term rentals.
“If there’s
a violation, we don’t know who’s renting short term,” he said. “We can’t even
set up a notification process under this bill.”
House
Speaker Pro Tempore Jan Jones, R-Milton, one of three committee members who
voted against the bill, said it offers no protection for homeowners who might move
into a neighborhood expecting the quality of life that comes with living in a
residential area only to find short-term rentals plopped into their midst.
“Are you
concerned you’re changing the rules for millions of Georgians?” Jones asked
Carpenter.
But
Carpenter said his bill treats short-term rental properties the same as long-term
rentals that already are permitted in many residential neighborhoods. The only
exception is a carve-out provision for homeowners’ associations that ban
short-term rentals in their covenants.
“To me,
there’s not a lot of difference between a short-term rental and a long-term
rental,” he said. “You have bad apples in both cases.”
The bill now
heads to the House Rules Committee, which will decide whether to send it to the
full House for a vote.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp unveiled legislation Tuesday that would reduce the number of standardized tests public school students must take in Georgia and untie the link between scores earned on those exams to their final grades.
The changes figure into the governor’s
push to roll back some standardized tests instituted over the past decade, both
at the federal and state levels.
Kemp’s announcement followed a series of
meetings last fall with teachers who raised concerns over the rigor of the
state’s standardized tests.
At a news conference Tuesday, Kemp said the
testing changes aim to ease the amount stress put on students, teachers and
parents. He said the tests do not best reflect student learning progress and place
a “substantial burden” on teachers who already have heavy workloads.
“When you look at the big picture, it’s
clear,” Kemp said. “Georgia just tests too much.”
Four tests would be yanked from the
roster of exams Georgia high schoolers have to take. Another test in social
studies would be nixed for fifth graders.
Tests to be eliminated would include
American literature, geometry, physical science and economics.
Kemp’s legislation would also give the
Georgia Board of Education “flexibility” to decide whether end-of-the-year
exams would affect a student’s final grade in a course.
The tests would also have to be given sometime
within the last five weeks of the school year instead of at any time, so that
teachers can focus more on teaching class subjects rather than preparing for
exams.
Additionally, the changes would include
extending the amount of time high school students have to complete a required
writing test, discontinue a practice of comparing Georgia’s testing standards
with other states and let school districts abstain from “formative assessments”
meant to see how much students learned in a school year.
Legislation to make the testing changes
is being carried by Senate Education and Youth Committee Chairman P.K. Martin
IV, R-Lawrenceville.
Georgia Superintendent Richard Woods talks about the proposed changes to standardized tests. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Georgia Superintendent Richard Woods
fully backed the test trimming Tuesday. He said the changes will free up time
for teachers to dive more into subjects and avoid focusing on redundant material
only for the sake of an end-of-year test.
“Our children remember our teachers,”
Woods said. “They do not remember the tests that they took.”
Woods added after Tuesday’s news
conference that he believes the lessened test load should not affect graduation
requirements or lower graduation rates.
Kemp and Woods previously announced
changes ending tests for the courses that gain college credits, including the
state’s dual enrollment program and advanced-placement classes.
The legislation announced Tuesday also follows a bill filed in the 2020 legislative session that would put new restrictions on the state’s popular dual enrollment program by capping the number of course hours students could take for free. The legislation, House Bill 444, cleared the Senate floor last week.
Kemp is also pushing for a $2,000 salary raise for teachers, following up on a $3,000 raise lawmakers approved last year. Some influential lawmakers, however, have cast doubt on whether another teacher salary increase should be passed this year amid budget cuts Kemp has ordered for many state agencies.
ATLANTA – Georgia Power customers will get a break on their bills
next month thanks to the tax reforms Congress enacted back in 2017.
The third of three bill credits associated with a reduction in the
federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% will save the Atlanta-based utility
$106 million, resulting in a credit of about $22 in February for the average
residential customer.
“Over the past two years, Georgia Power has passed on the benefits
from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act through direct credits on customers’ bills,” Kevin
Kastner, vice president of customer services for Georgia Power, said Tuesday in
a prepared statement. “This final bill credit fulfills that commitment.”
The three bill credits totaling nearly $330 million were approved in
March 2018 as part of an agreement with the state Public Service Commission’s
staff. The first credit was issued in October 2018, and the second credit was
applied last June.
