ATLANTA – Senate lawmakers Thursday batted down a push to test digital license plates in Georgia that law enforcement agencies could turn off when a driver’s license plate has expired.
Originally, Senate Bill 149 sponsored by
Sen. Randy Robertson only dealt with changing the practice of cars being
automatically towed for having expired license plates or annual registration
stickers, giving them a chance instead to keep their cars and pay a fee to fix
any plate issues.
But tweaks to the bill added by the House
that would legalize the display of digital license plates were opposed by a
24-29 vote in the Senate on Thursday.
Other states like California, Arizona and
Texas recently passed legislation allowing cars to have digital displays
instead of regular metal plates.
The idea would be to “give a state agency
the ability” to turn off a plate’s digital display if it has expired, said
Robertson, R-Cataula. That would make it easier for officers to identify
violations.
A pilot program would be done first to
test digital plates on certain vehicles, Robertson said. Other information like
flash flood and amber alerts could also be shown on the display.
“Much more research has to be done,”
Robertson said Thursday. “But it does gives us the opportunity to explore that
alternative to the current license plates we have.”
The overhauled bill immediately drew
skepticism from senators worried the digital plates would be too invasive.
Sen. Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta, said the
ability for a state agency to turn off the plates risked trampling on personal
privacy rights and opening the door for governmental abuse.
“What that says to me then is that the
government can track your vehicle wherever you are with respect to a license
plate,” Jordan said.
Along with digital plates, the substitute
measure filed last year in the House by Rep. Martin Momtahan, R-Dallas, would
also permit vehicles to have mounts for cell phones or other electronic devices
for hands-free use.
Several Republican senators joined
Democrats in opposing the heavily amended bill, which would head to a
closed-door conference committee if the House insists on passing its amended
version.
ATLANTA – A
bill requiring the University System of Georgia to raise the percentage of
in-state students offered early admission to the state’s top public
universities drew opposition Thursday during a legislative committee hearing.
The
presidents of the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech told members of the
Senate Higher Education Committee the legislation is unnecessary and would lower
the standards for admission to the university system’s top campuses.
Senate Bill 282
would require the university system’s four research universities – UGA, Georgia
Tech, Augusta University and Georgia State University – to make sure at least
90% of students offered early admission are from Georgia.
The schools,
particularly UGA and Georgia Tech, have become increasingly hard to get into
since the HOPE Scholarship program was created during the 1990s. The lottery-funded
program covers all or most tuition costs for qualified students, a strong
motivator for the highest achieving Georgia high school students to attend
college in state.
“I want to
keep our best and brightest kids here,” said Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta,
the bill’s chief sponsor.
But University
of Georgia President Jere Morehead said the 90% mandate is unnecessary because
UGA already enrolls a high percentage of in-state students. He said 88% of
UGA’s current cohort of undergraduates is from Georgia, while in-state students
account for 82% of the freshman class.
Morehead
also argued the 90% in-state requirement for early admissions would skew UGA’s
student population more toward Georgia’s urban and suburban communities because
most students accepted early are from metro Atlanta or the Savannah, Augusta or
Columbus areas. Consequently, the bill would “disenfranchise” rural Georgia
students, he said.
Georgia Tech
President Angel Cabrera said the legislation would damage the state’s economy
by dissuading out-of-state students from seeking early admission to Tech, which
has built a national reputation and competes with prestigious public
universities including the University of California-Berkeley.
High
achieving out-of-state students who come to Tech tend to stay in Georgia and
provide the backbone for the state’s fast-growing technology industries,
Cabrera said.
“Attracting
students from out of state is increasingly important to our economy,” he said.
“They are the reasons companies across the nation are increasingly calling
Georgia home.”
While many of
the students admitted early to Georgia Tech are from out of state, Cabrera said
in-state students still account for 60% of the university’s total enrollment.
Sen. Brian
Strickland, R-McDonough, suggested moving away from the 90% mandate and simply requiring
the research universities to consider whether an early admission applicant is
from Georgia in deciding offers.
But
university system Chancellor Steve Wrigley argued there’s no need to tinker
with what the universities are already doing.
“Their
approaches make sense,” he said. “Both institutions are self-conscious about
Georgia students. What they’re doing now is working.”
The committee
took no action on the bill Thursday, and it’s uncertain whether or when a vote
will take place.
ATLANTA – The first bill in a wave of legislation aimed at cutting red tape for foster care and speeding up adoptions in Georgia cleared the state Senate Thursday.
Gov. Brian Kemp and other top officials have made legislation easing rules on foster care a priority in the 2020 legislative session.
Several bills have already been filed that would lower the minimum age for someone to adopt a foster child and toughen penalties for foster parents who sexually abuse those in their care.
Senate Bill 335 would let the state Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) contract with private groups to assist state child welfare caseworkers.
Its sponsor, Sen. Matt Brass, said bringing in outside help should ease the workload for state caseworkers providing services for thousands of children in Georgia.
“This has to be a team effort,” said Brass, R-Newnan. “It
can’t start and stop with government.”
The bill would also waive fees to state park admissions for foster kids and their adopted families, create a database to track what happens to juvenile delinquent children in foster care, prioritize dependency cases over all other non-jury court cases; and tweak requirements for a state-run training program for foster parents.
The bill passed by a 53-1 vote on the Senate floor.
Opposing the measure was Sen. Zahra Karinshak, D-Duluth, who
said she was concerned the training program would add to the already heavy
workload for state caseworkers.
Around 12,600 children were in Georgia’s foster care system
as of December 2019, according to DFCS Director Tom Rawlings. The state agency
helped adopt out roughly 1,400 children last year, he said.
Last month, Kemp urged passage of bills lowering the minimum
foster-parent age from 25 to 21 and tripling the state’s adoption tax credit to
$6,000.
On Thursday, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said he expects Brass’
bill will be the first of several on foster care that make it to the governor’s
desk.
“There is an attitude of bipartisan support all over this building,” Duncan said.
This story has been updated to clarify the role of contracted outside groups.
ATLANTA – The state House of Representatives took another
crack Thursday at legislation giving Georgians the legal ability to sue the
state and local governments.
The House unanimously passed a constitutional amendment
targeting the doctrine of sovereign immunity, a centuries-old legal concept
that holds the “sovereign” – or government – cannot be sued without its
consent.
Lawmakers have adopted previous versions of the measure
twice in the last four years. But both Gov. Brian Kemp and his predecessor,
Nathan Deal, have vetoed it, arguing it would hurt the government’s ability to
function.
The legislation stems from Georgia Supreme Court rulings in
recent years that broadly interpreted sovereign immunity. But those decisions
also opened the door for the General Assembly to amend Georgia’s Constitution
to give citizens a limited right to sue, essentially inviting lawmakers to take
up the constitutional change.
Under the proposed amendment, plaintiffs could sue when a
government agency or official causes harm to them by enforcing an
unconstitutional law or regulation. It would apply to lawsuits seeking either
declaratory judgement or injunctive relief but would not let plaintiffs seek to
recover monetary damages or attorney fees.
“It is a limited waiver,” said Rep. Andy Welch, R-McDonough,
the measure’s chief sponsor. “It has one purpose: to protect our constitutional
and statutory rights.”
Rep. Rick Williams, R-Milledgeville, said he was worried the
legislation could be used to target members of state regulatory boards carrying
out their duties.
But Welch said the legislation would allow lawsuits only
against a state or local government agency or agency board, not an individual.
“You have the power to open up the courthouse so people can
come and sue if they think the government has violated their constitutional
rights,” Welch told his House colleagues Thursday. “Let the third branch of
government be a check on the other two branches.”
The constitutional amendment now moves to the Senate.
Northside Hospital nurse Amy Sedgwick shows a photo of her son’s lung to state lawmakers at a Feb. 19, 2020 hearing on vaping. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Vaping could face a new tax in Georgia under a House bill state lawmakers began considering Wednesday.
Several legislators have targeted vaping amid studies showing a growing number of teenagers becoming addicted to nicotine and reports of dozens of vaping-related lung illnesses seen in Georgia by the state Department of Public Health.
But vaping proponents have long stressed
the activity provides a safer alternative to smoking tobacco that can help
addicted smokers kick the habit. Nearly
500,000 people die each year in the U.S. from tobacco-caused diseases,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
House Bill 864 would levy a 7% excise tax
on sales in Georgia of vaping products like e-cigarettes, refillable
cartridges, vape pens and electronic hookahs.
It would also require businesses that make, market or sell vaping products to procure special annual licenses from the state Department of Revenue.
The combined tax revenues and licensing
fees would raise an estimated $11.4 million to $17.1 million in the first year
the legislation takes effect, according to a fiscal note.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Bonnie Rich,
said the purpose is to curb vaping use among children. She said she does not
want to penalize adults who may use vaping products to curtail tobacco
addiction.
“I believe this is the best way to slow
down the flow to children,” said Rich, R-Suwanee.
Several supporters who spoke Wednesday
urged passage of the legislation to deter health harms traced to vaping and the
growing number of teenagers who try vaping products.
Students from the youth council in Sugar
Hill told lawmakers they have friends who have become addicted to nicotine
through vaping and go through intense withdrawal when trying to quit.
“Some of my friends have tried to stop, but they can’t,” said Avery Tam, a 17-year-old student at North Gwinnett High School. “Once passionate about school or sports or fashion, today they can only think about getting their fix.”
Amy Sedgwick, a nurse at Northside
Hospital in Forsyth County, recounted graphic details of her teenaged son’s
surgery after his left lung collapsed from heavy vaping use last year. Sedgwick
said he had only used vaping products from convenience stores, not any
off-market items laced with marijuana.
“No mother should have to watch their
17-year-old being wheeled off to surgery” due to vaping-induced injuries, Sedgwick
said.
Meanwhile, several vaping business owners
who spoke Wednesday highlighted the economic and health impacts of price
increases for vaping products caused by a new tax.
They warned higher costs for vaping could
drive longtime smokers back to cigarettes after they’ve made headway weening
themselves off tobacco via vaping.
“When you raise the price of this
product, people will go back to smoking,” said Keith Gossett, owner of Bucky’s
Vape Shop in Columbus.
Others focused on a provision in the bill
limiting vaping products to “face-to-face” sales only, which they worry could
eliminate online vaping sales that many retailers rely on in Georgia. Cutting
out online markets could benefit out-of-state companies not bound by the rules,
said David Higginbotham, president
of the nonprofit advocacy group Georgia Smoke Free Association.
“What we’re missing here is that while
vaping is not safe, per se, it is safer than cigarettes,” Higginbotham said.
A House Ways and Means subcommittee that
heard testimony on the bill Wednesday did not vote on whether to send it to the
full committee.
Rich’s bill will likely see tweaks to the
licensing arrangement and taxing specifics as it moves through the session.
It also figures in handful of other bills
that have been filed this session that take aim at colorful advertising
techniques and branding for vaping products believed to cater to children.
House Health and Human Services Committee
Chairwoman Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, said last fall that she expects to see
legislation this year that would ban flavored vaping liquids in Georgia. That
kind of measure has yet to be filed.
