Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – A bill that is part of Gov. Brian Kemp’s legislative agenda targeting human trafficking cleared the General Assembly Thursday.
The Georgia House of Representatives unanimously passed Senate Bill 34, which would allow victims of human trafficking to petition to change their name without public disclosure.
The bill, introduced by freshman Sen. Clint Dixon, R-Buford, one of Kemp’s Senate floor leaders, passed unanimously in that chamber last month.
The legislation builds on the work of the GRACE Commission, a task force focusing on human trafficking chaired by Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp, state Rep. Josh Bonner, R-Fayetteville, who carried the bill in the House, told his colleagues Thursday.
The Senate also has passed a second bill sponsored by Dixon that would let victims of human trafficking sue perpetrators in civil court. Senate Bill 33 remains pending in the House.
ATLANTA – Legislation Democratic opponents charged would inject more money into politics in Georgia to the detriment of public policy gained final passage in the General Assembly Thursday.
The state House of Representatives passed the bill 96-69, with lawmakers voting along party lines. Since the Senate approved the measure late last month, it now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.
The legislation would create eight so-called “leadership committees” headed by the governor, lieutenant governor and their general election opponents – plus the majority and minority caucus leaders in the Georgia House and Senate. The committees would collect campaign donations ahead of statewide and legislative elections.
While the committees would have to disclose the names of donors, they would not be subject to the contribution limits that apply to individual candidates.
“It gives our caucuses the ability to function like the parties do now,” said House Majority Whip Trey Kelley, R-Cedartown, who carried Senate Bill 221 in the House.
House Majority Leader Jon Burns, R-Newington, said the bill would treat Democrats and Republicans the same.
“This bill impacts both parties equally,” he said. “It’s an equal opportunity bill.”
But Democrats complained the bill would open the door to political fundraising during General Assembly sessions, a practice that is currently prohibited by state law to discourage lobbyists from seeking to influence votes on pending legislation.
“Do you have no concerns over money being raised during the legislative session while we’re voting on issues?” House Minority Whip David Wilkerson, D-Powder Springs, asked Kelley.
Rep. Matthew Wilson, D-Brookhaven, said it’s particularly bad timing for Republicans to be pushing to let more special-interest money into state politics at the same timing they’re sponsoring legislation that would make it more difficult for Georgians to vote.
“We’re raising barriers to ballot access … while creating yet another way for moneyed interests to influence our elections,” he said.
But Kelley said the legislation would strike a blow for greater transparency in campaign fundraising and spending. Any contributions or spending of more than $500 would have to be disclosed.
State lawmakers passed a tax credit increase Thursday for foster parents in Georgia to incentivize more adoptions, advancing a key plank in Gov. Brian Kemp’s legislative priorities this year.
The tax-credit bill, sponsored by Rep. Bert Reeves, R-Marietta, would boost the annual tax credit for new foster parents from $2,000 to $6,000 annually for the first five years after adoption, then drop back to $2,000 per year. The credit would end when the foster child turns 18.
Sen. Bo Hatchett, who carried Reeves’ bill in the Senate and is one of the governor’s floor leaders, said the credit increase aims to encourage more adoptions in Georgia.
“This bill saves the state money, and at the same time this bill offers much-needed support to those families who open their hearts and their homes to children,” Hatchett, R-Cornelia, said from the Senate floor on Thursday.
Hatchett’s bill passed unanimously in the Senate after also passing unanimously in the House earlier this month, and now heads to Kemp’s desk for his signature.
The number of Georgia children in foster care has declined over the past three years but remains high, according to state Division of Family and Children Services data. The state currently has about 11,200 children in foster care, down from 15,000 in March 2018.
Kemp has made foster care a legislative priority for his administration along with cracking down on human trafficking and gang activities.
Along with Hatchett’s measure, Kemp has backed other bills currently moving through the legislature, including one that would lower the minimum age adults are allowed to adopt children from 25 to 21.
A third bill would add more training for juvenile court officers, expand rules for parents under court-ordered alternatives care and require officials to report on a range of child-abuse treatment including abandonment, neglect, emotional abuse and exposure to chronic alcohol or drug use.
Those measures follow Kemp’s signing of a bill last year that prohibits foster parents from engaging in improper sexual behavior with children in their care, closing a loophole in current state law.
State lawmakers passed an income-tax cut for Georgians on Thursday that aims to give taxpayers relief amid the COVID-19 pandemic, though critics warn it could cost the state millions of dollars in emergency aid.
The tax-cut bill, sponsored by Georgia Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, would let Georgians pay less income tax starting July 1 amid a rebound of the state economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, following up on a previous reduction passed in 2019 that lowered the state’s income-tax rate from 6% to 5.75%.
Republican lawmakers had planned to reduce the income-tax rate further last year to 5.5% but paused that move last March as the pandemic took hold, shuttering Georgia businesses and hammering state revenues for months through the summer.
Blackmon, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, framed his tax-cut proposal as a more “modest and measured” cut than what was pitched last year, allowing Georgians “to keep their hard-earned money.”
Under the bill, the state’s standard deduction for married couples who file joint returns would increase by $1,100. Single taxpayers could deduct an extra $800, while Georgians ages 65 and older could deduct another $1,300. Married couples filing separately could deduct an additional $550.
Blackmon’s bill passed by a 35-15 vote in the Senate nearly along party lines, with Democratic Sen. Jen Jordan of Atlanta voting in favor. It passed unanimously in the House and now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
The higher deductions could save Georgia taxpayers an estimated $140 million in taxes – roughly $100 each for married couples – that they would otherwise have to pay. Or the cuts would cost that amount in revenue for state services, depending on one’s view of government as a taxing authority.
Supporters say Georgia taxpayers deserve a break after a year of financial hardships brought by the pandemic, especially with the state’s economy ticking up as businesses reopen and workers resume their jobs.
“We’re a conservative state [and] we want to be moderate in what we do with our tax code,” said state Sen. Larry Walker III, R-Perry, who carried the bill in the Senate. “We do want to give a break to hard-working Georgians, and that’s what this bill does.”
Critics said passing a tax break now could cause the state to lose out on millions of federal dollars set to arrive in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package Congress passed last week, owing to a provision barring states from lowering taxes while using the emergency aid money.
Georgia could stand to lose nearly $200 million over the next two years by putting the income-tax cut into effect, said Danny Kanso, senior policy analyst with the nonprofit Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
Rather than risking the loss of federal relief, Democratic state lawmakers have pushed for sending Georgia taxpayers direct payments instead of cutting taxes as well as tapping into more federal money offered in the emergency package by fully expanding Medicaid.
“If we really are very intent on getting hard-working Georgians the amount of money we’re talking about in this legislation … we can do that as a direct payment without jeopardizing the $140 million we would still get,” said Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta.
Amid Democratic opposition, top state Republicans including Kemp and House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, have slammed the federal aid package over the penalties for states that seek to cut taxes, as well as the funding formula for Georgia’s share of the relief.
“In Georgia, we have prioritized providing tax relief to our citizens, and [the COVID-19 aid package] appears to prohibit that relief,” Ralston said in a March 10 letter to President Joe Biden. “I pray that you will prevail upon Congress to have this flaw in the legislation corrected before signing it into law.”
Biden signed the aid package last Friday with the tax-cut penalty intact.
ATLANTA – A state House committee tabled legislation Wednesday creating a position of “chief labor officer” in Georgia after questions arose about how much authority the job would carry compared to the elected state commissioner of labor.
The bill, which the Senate passed 32-18 last week, is aimed at helping the labor department process the unprecedented deluge of unemployment claims it has been forced to handle during the coronavirus pandemic.
The chief labor officer would be appointed by the governor, subject to confirmation by the Senate committee with jurisdiction over labor issues. The labor officer would be required to produce progress reports on the agency’s handling of claims and help provide jobless Georgians with information on their claims.
The bill would give the chief labor officer the same level of authority as Georgia Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler, which he said could cause confusion.
“Their boss is the governor, not me,” Butler told members of the House Industry and Labor Committee Wednesday. “It puts me in a very precarious situation … if they did something to get us in trouble.”
Rep. Tom Kirby, R-Loganville, agreed the way the bill is currently worded could create an untenable situation.
“You’re putting two people in side by side with the same authority,” said Kirby, who made the motion to table the bill to give lawmakers more time to work on the language.
The bill represents the legislature’s attempt to respond to a barrage of complaints lawmakers have been receiving for months from constituents whose unemployment claims are being delayed.
“It simply puts another person there to assist [with] the large workflow that’s there,” said Sen. Marty Harbin, R-Tyrone, the measure’s chief sponsor.
But Butler said the bill wouldn’t help his agency.
“Appointing somebody who has no experience in what we do to come over and ‘help’ us doesn’t do anything,” he said. “We are not going to have time to train them.”
Butler defended his employees as doing the best job they can given the record number of unemployment claims Georgians have filed since COVID-19 struck the state a year ago, forcing businesses to close and lay off workers.
With 4.7 million claims to process, the labor department is being bombarded with an average of 60,000 phone calls a day, Butler said. The department has brought on almost 600 additional employees, including retirees experienced in the job, to handle the workload, he said.
While the agency is processing claims filed by Georgians legally eligible for unemployment in a timely manner, about 80% of the claims being filed at this point in the pandemic are coming from people who either quit their jobs or were fired, making them ineligible for benefits, Butler said. He suggested it’s those people legislators are hearing from.
“My folks have sweated. They’ve worked hard,” Butler said. “I’m proud of them.”
Rep. Todd Jones, R-South Forsyth, said the department still could use the help a chief labor officer would be able to provide. He said he sees the position as a liaison to give claimants information on their claims they’re not getting now.
“That has been the challenge for your department,” Jones told Butler. “I’m not sure that interface couldn’t be improved.”
“In the face of an unprecedented challenge, an unprecedented response is needed,” added Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville.
The fiscal 2021 mid-year budget Gov. Brian Kemp signed last month includes $100,000 to hire a chief labor officer. Because of the temporary nature of the labor department’s pandemic-driven workload, the position would sunset at the beginning of 2023.
