ATLANTA – It looks like proponents of legalizing gambling in Georgia are going to have to wait yet another year before getting a crack at putting the issue before voters.
The Georgia House of Representatives wrapped up the annual “Crossover Day” session minutes after midnight Friday morning without taking up a constitutional amendment to legalize all three forms of legal gambling supporters have been pushing in recent years: casinos, pari-mutuel betting on horse racing and sports betting.
Until the day before Crossover Day, the deadline for bills to make it through at least one legislative chamber to remain alive for the year, only sports betting had gained any traction in the General Assembly.
A bill focused solely on sports betting was introduced in the state Senate and heard in committee. However, it wasn’t among the measures the Senate took up on Crossover Day Thursday before adjourning at the dinner hour.
That left it up to the House. Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, chairman of the House Regulated Industries Committee, trotted out the constitutional amendment embracing all three forms of legalized gambling on Wednesday. It got through his committee and made it onto the calendar for action on Crossover Day, but the House didn’t take it up before quitting for the night.
A host of other bills introduced in the General Assembly this year met a similar fate. Some made it through committees only to fall by the wayside on Crossover Day. Others floated early in this year’s session didn’t garner enough support to get a committee hearing.
Here is a list of significant legislation that failed to make the Crossover Day cut:
- Right to Farm Act – This controversial measure ran into opposition from the farmers supporters said it was intended to protect. Pitched as a way to protect farmers from nuisance lawsuits from neighbors, environmental groups argued it would make it harder to keep out large agricultural operations such as chicken houses and pig farms that generate offensive smells and pollute nearby waterways.
- Tort reform – While one narrowly drawn tort reform bill related to lawsuit settlement agreements made it through the Senate, more comprehensive legislation was shelved by a narrow margin on Crossover Day.
- Tobacco, vaping taxes – A bid to raise Georgia’s tobacco tax, one of the nation’s lowest, went nowhere as usual in the General Assembly. Legislation to impose an excise tax on vaping products for the first time fared better, but it was shot down on the House floor on the evening of Crossover Day.
- Dreamers – Legislation to offer in-state tuition to Georgia’s public colleges and universities to undocumented Georgians protected from deportation under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was killed in a Senate committee the day before Crossover Day.
- Adoption – A Senate bill allowing faith-based adoption agencies to deny services in Georgia based on religious preferences failed to get through the Senate Judiciary Committee. Opponents argued it would discriminate against foster parents of various sexual orientations and gender identities that don’t conform with the agencies’ religious or moral beliefs.
- Title pawns – A bill capping rates charged by Georgia’s auto-title pawn industry cleared the Senate Finance Committee but failed to reach the Senate floor for a vote.
- Seatbelts – Legislation requiring Georgians to wear seatbelts no matter where they are sitting in a motor vehicle – not just the front seat – was on the Senate calendar for a vote on Crossover Day but was not taken up.
- Paying college athletes – Two bills introduced by House Democrats early in the session calling for college athletes participating in revenue-generating sports to be paid failed to get a hearing in the House Higher Education Committee.
It’s worth noting that nothing is ever irrevocably dead in the General Assembly until lawmakers adjourn for the year. If supporters are determined enough in the session’s waning days, they often can find bills that are still alive on which to attach their legislation.
With 11 days remaining in the 2020 session when lawmakers return to the Capitol from the recess forced upon them by the coronavirus, there will be plenty of time for such gaming of the system.