Sen. Tonya Anderson (far left) talks with Sen. Randy Robertson (far right) about back-seat safety belt legislation on Feb. 19, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Legislation aimed at requiring back-seat passengers to wear safety belts in Georgia hit speed bumps Wednesday as key Senate lawmakers disagreed over penalties and court implications for violators.
Georgia has required front-seat passengers
to wear belts in most vehicles since 1988. It remains one of 20 states that
lack similar rules for the back seat.
But under Senate Bill 226, every person
in a vehicle would need to buckle up – not just those in the front seat. Currently,
state law exempts back-seat passengers from needing to wear a safety belt.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Randy Robertson,
said the point is to make Georgia’s roads safer and reduce hospital and
investigation costs associated with auto crashes.
The measure poses an “opportunity to save
some lives in Georgia and I think save a lot of money,” Robertson, R-Cataula,
said during a Senate Public Safety Committee hearing Wednesday.
It would not end an exemption for certain
vehicles like tractors, mail carriers and school buses.
The Senate committee did not vote on the bill Wednesday.
Fines for violations would increase greatly under an amended version of the bill brought Wednesday from $15 to $75 for drivers and passengers, and from $25 to $125 for drivers who do let children ride without seat belts.
Some lawmakers balked at the steep fine
increases, worried they could hit low-income drivers and passengers hardest.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan,
skeptical that raising fines would produce the desired effect, urged more talks
before the bill advances.
“I would like to have a conversation
about modifying those numbers a little bit,” said Dugan, R-Carrollton.
Also concerned about the fines was Sen.
Tonya Anderson, D-Lithonia, who filed identical legislation on back-seat belt
use days before Robertson did during last year’s legislative session.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Anderson
questioned the logic of setting fines so much higher, noting her own
legislation – Senate Bill 160 – would leave the fine amounts untouched.
“That bill did not have the over-policing
and the overbearing of fines,” Anderson said of her measure.
Robertson said he’s open to revising the
fine amounts but believes they need to be tough enough to encourage belt use.
Likewise at issue in Robertson’s bill is
whether to add a provision allowing civil courts in Georgia to admit evidence
that a person was not wearing a seat belt during a crash. State law currently
bars such evidence.
Supporters say allowing seat-belt
evidence in court would bring more fairness to court proceedings when lawsuits
are filed seeking big damage awards from insurance companies. But critics warn
shifting the burden of proof to crash victims could dissuade legitimate claims
from being filed, thus protecting insurers.
A Senate study committee formed last year
recommended changing the law to permit seat-belt evidence in court.
That committee was created through a
resolution sponsored by Anderson, who speculated Wednesday that her bill may
have been skipped over in favor of Robertson’s because she does not support
allowing seat-belt evidence.
Robertson, however, said he wants his
bill to pass without any amendments on evidence admissibility.
“I’m hoping by keeping this clean we totally
get away from the evidentiary issue,” Robertson said.
That approach is not favored by Sen.
Tyler Harper, R-Ocilla, the public safety committee’s vice chairman.
Harper wondered why more Georgia
passengers should be required to wear safety belts despite court evidence
protections – and even questioned the virtue of mandated belt use overall.
“I would be OK if we struck the entire
seat belt code from Georgia law,” Harper said. “I believe wholeheartedly in
personal responsibility.”
ATLANTA – The
Georgia House of Representatives passed a mid-year budget Wednesday that would
restore many of the spending cuts Gov. Brian Kemp proposed last month to help
offset lower-than-expected tax collections.
The $27.4 billion fiscal 2020 mid-year budget, which passed 126-46 and now moves to the state Senate, covers state spending through the end of June. It reflects a lower revenue estimate the governor issued in January amid sluggish tax receipts going back to the middle of last year.
The mid-year
budget includes $159 million in state funding reductions and eliminates or
delays filling 1,255 vacant positions. But during days of hearings that
prompted a break in this year’s General Assembly session, the House
Appropriations Committee still managed to fully restore cuts the governor recommended
to the state’s accountability courts and county health departments.
“We tried
our best with this budget to address the needs of Georgians,” House Speaker
David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, told reporters after the vote.
For many budget
line items, the House wasn’t able to fully restore planned cuts but acted to
reduce the severity of the reductions. Lawmakers put back significant portions
of cuts slated for mental health and child welfare services and restored all of
a $164,800 reduction to the Georgia Memory Net program.
“If you
haven’t dealt with dementia or Alzheimer’s yet, you will,” Appropriations
Committee Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn, told his House colleagues. “Get
ready.”
The House
also restored funds used to market the state’s farm products as well as marketing
money for the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce and
Tourism divisions.
Lawmakers
also rejected reducing spending on equipment and operations at state parks and
historic sites.
England said
they not only put money in the coffers of local governments in rural
communities but provide Georgia families a place to get away and enjoy nature.
“It’s
important that we continue to maintain these sites in a way that makes them
attractive,” he said.
A tourist
attraction operated by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources – the Historic
SAM Shortline Excursion Train from Cordele to Plains – received $250,000 in
one-time funds from the House.
House
Minority Leader Bob Trammell praised members of the Appropriations Committee
for working hard to limit the impact of the cuts in the mid-year budget.
But he said
the culprit behind Georgia’s budget crunch is the income tax cut the
Republican-controlled General Assembly passed two years ago, which cost the
state $550 million a year in tax revenue.
“When
unemployment is at a record low and the economy is doing very well, we are
cutting Georgia’s budget,” said Trammell, D-Luthersville. “The choices we are
making are choices we’re supposed to have to make when times are tough. … We’re
having to cut when times are good.”
But Ralston
said the economic damage Hurricane Michael wreaked on Georgia farms and forests
in October 2018 is to blame for the downturn in tax collections.
“It was a
crippling blow to our economy,” he said. “We’re still paying for that.”
Lawmakers will
face steeper spending cuts when they tackle Kemp’s fiscal 2021 budget later in
this year’s session.
But England
said the mid-year budget has been more challenging because lawmakers will have more
time and, thus, more flexibility, in dealing with next year’s spending.
Former Tift County Sheriff Gary Vowell will temporarily head up Georgia’s public safety agency. (Credit: Office of Gov. Brian Kemp)
Former Tift County Sheriff Gary Vowell
has been tapped to head up the Georgia Department of Public Safety on an
interim basis following the resignation last week of former Commissioner Mark
McDonough.
McDonough tendered his resignation last Thursday at the behest of Gov. Brian Kemp in the wake of a cheating scandal in the agency’s cadet training program.
Vowell, a career law enforcement
official, was approved unanimously Wednesday by the state Board of Public
Safety to assume the interim commissioner role. He starts on the job March 1.
“My entire career has been devoted to
keeping Georgia families safe and upholding the highest ideals of integrity in
our law enforcement community, and I look forward to working in the Kemp
administration,” Vowell said in a statement.
The public safety department houses the
Georgia State Patrol, the Motor Carrier Compliance Division and the Capitol
Police Division.
Vowell was a field training officer and
peace officer instructor with the state patrol for two decades before being
elected sheriff of Tift County in 1996. He kept that office until 2012 when he
decided not to seek re-election.
Kemp touted Vowell’s qualifications
Wednesday, calling the former sheriff “a respected and trusted leader within
Georgia’s law enforcement community.”
“Given his background, I know that Gary will
be able to easily transition in this important role,” Kemp said in a statement.
McDonough’s resignation followed the firing last month of an entire cadet class caught cheating on an online exam required to use the agency’s radar speed detectors.
It also came in the wake of a cyberattack
in July that downed the agency’s main computer server for months and a break-in
at the state Capitol that left light fixtures and paintings damaged.
A U.S. Marine veteran, McDonough was a
state trooper in Blue Ridge before being tapped as the commanding officer of
the state patrol. He was picked for the commissioner post by then-Gov. Nathan
Deal in 2011.
ATLANTA – The race to fill former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s seat permanently looks to remain a free-for-all “jungle” primary involving candidates from all parties at once after legislative changes to that format were shelved Tuesday.
Under House Bill 757, special elections
in Georgia for suddenly vacated offices would require a party primary to be
held prior to a general election in the fall.
Currently, special elections do not
include party primaries, instead pitting all candidates who qualify against
each other simultaneously in the general election.
Changes to the bill introduced Tuesday
would apply the party-primary format to special elections starting in 2021.
That timing would keep this year’s U.S. Senate contest to permanently replace
Isakson as a free-for-all special election with no party primary.
The party-primary bill became a political hot potato last month when U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, announced his bid to unseat appointed U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler. Gov. Brian Kemp tapped Loeffler late last year to fill Isakson’s seat until the Nov. 3 election.
The bill was initially amended to require a party primary for the Senate race. Several of Collins’ supporters including Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, favored the change.
Many lawmakers and observers at the state
Capitol speculated restoring the election format to a traditional primary could
boost Collins’ chances to beat Loeffler before competing against the Democratic
candidate.
Without the changes, the November
free-for-all election will likely result in a January runoff. Special elections
require the leading candidate to secure more than 50% of votes to avoid a
runoff.
The revised bill would also apply the
party-primary format for special elections to state House and Senate seats.
Some state lawmakers worried Tuesday that adding more primaries for local
elections could be too expensive for many counties.
Originally sponsored by Rep. Barry
Fleming, R-Harlem, the bill’s changes in recent weeks have been brought by Rep.
Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire.
At a House Governmental Affairs Committee
meeting Tuesday, Blackmon said the latest changes aimed at pushing back the
start date were “requested by members of our body” and took into account how
the race “is playing out in the Senate.”
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who favored holding off on the changes until next year, said the slower approach to tweaking elections in Georgia is prudent. He also called for creating a commission to keep studying the issue after the 2020 legislative session ends.
“It’s a very broad issue that deals with
several different races,” Raffensperger said. “It’s not just a one-off for a
congressional seat.”
Critics, meanwhile, wondered why the
changes could not take effect in time for this year’s elections.
“If the policy is good for Jan. 1, 2021,
then it should be good for now,” said House Minority Leader Bob Trammell,
D-Luthersville.
The race between Loeffler and Collins has
heated up amid rounds of political advertising. Collins has lampooned
Loeffler’s touting her upbringing on a farm in Illinois, despite now being a
wealthy CEO from Atlanta. Loeffler’s allies have cast Collins as too enmeshed
in the politics of Washington, D.C.
Aside from Republicans Loeffler and
Collins, and Democrat Raphael Warnock, the U.S. Senate race has drawn two other
Democratic challengers so far: Matt Lieberman, the son of former U.S. Sen. Joe
Lieberman of Connecticut, and Ed Tarver, a former U.S. attorney and state
senator from Augusta.
ATLANTA – Legislation
aimed at ending the practice of “surprise billing” of medical patients in
Georgia cleared a committee in the state House of Representatives Tuesday.
Lawmakers
have been trying for years to help patients hit with unexpected charges from hospitals
that participate in their insurance plan’s network for health-care services
provided by out-of-network specialists.
“People are
getting into financial trouble and losing everything they have, in some cases,
because of a misunderstanding,” Rep. Lee Hawkins, R-Gainesville, chief sponsor
of the bill, told members of the House Special Committee on Access to Quality
Health Care. “We’re going to end that misunderstanding.”
House Bill
888 would require insurance companies to pay out-of-network physicians either a
“contracted amount” based on rates charged in 2017 for various procedures, or a
higher charge that the insurer proposes.
Disagreements
between the insurer and provider would prompt an arbitration process overseen
by the state Department of Insurance, which would contract with outside private
arbitration companies to decide the final bill.
On Tuesday,
consumer advocates and lobbyists representing hospitals and health-insurance
companies spoke out in support of the legislation.
“It takes
Georgia patients out of disputes between insurance companies and medical
providers,” said Liz Coyle, executive director of Georgia Watch, a consumer organization
based in Atlanta.
But representatives
of physician groups raised concerns that the bill would cover not only emergency
services provided outside of a patient’s network but non-emergency procedures for
which a patient could prepare ahead of time.
“We understand
the need to protect consumers,” said Victor Moldovan, a lawyer representing the
Independent Doctors Association of Georgia. “But what this bill does … is take
the fangs out of the ability of doctors to negotiate their rates.”
Mary Shea
Ross-Smith, a lobbyist for the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Georgia, said
she’s concerned the bill would not apply the ban on surprise, or “balance,”
billing to patients forced to go to a non-network medical facility for
treatment in an emergency.
“In that situation,
that member should not be balance billed,” she said.
But Hawkins
said most patients hit with a surprise bill have gone to an in-network facility
only to be charged for services provided by an out-of-network specialist. He suggested
addressing that issue now in order not to further complicate the legislation and
dealing with services provided at out-of-network facilities later.
An
identical bill is pending in the Georgia Senate. The Senate bill, sponsored by
Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, is expected to go before the Senate Health and
Human Services Committee on Wednesday.
