Georgia House Speaker David Ralston previewed his priorities for the 2021 legislative session at the state Capitol on Jan. 7, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp’s $27.2 billion fiscal 2022 state budget cleared the Georgia House of Representatives Friday after lawmakers earmarked $58 million to boost mental health services.
The spending plan, which passed 136-31 and now heads to the Georgia Senate, originally had set aside a $22 million increase for the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. The House added another $36 million for what Speaker David Ralston has made a key part of his agenda for this year’s legislative session.
“I think we’ve added a huge amount of resources to this important issue,” Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, said after Friday’s vote. “It’s never as much as you hope to do, but I think this was a realistic effort, and I think it sends a strong message that we’re making mental health a priority in Georgia.”
The additional mental health funding would provide more resources for addiction treatment, suicide prevention and school mental-health specialists.
The budget, which takes effect July 1, also put a special emphasis on education, restoring 60% of the spending cuts lawmakers imposed at the height of the coronavirus pandemic last June on Georgia’s K-12 schools and the state university system.
The House also added $50 million to the $883 million bond package Kemp recommended in January for construction projects around the state. Much of that money would go toward buildings on university and technical college campuses.
Ralston dismissed criticism from House Democrats over not pulling more money from the state’s “rainy-day” reserves fund to plug budget gaps, noting state lawmakers have approved millions of dollars in emergency spending to fight COVID-19 since last summer.
“We have to be very cautious in terms of drawing down large sums out of the rainy-day fund,” he said.
But House Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon, and Rep. Jasmine Clark, D-Lilburn, the only Democrats who spoke from the House floor Friday, said it’s ridiculous to use federal COVID-19 relief money to plug budget gaps without spending down the reserves.
They also used the budget debate to renew Democrats’ longstanding call to expand Medicaid coverage in Georgia under the Affordable Care Act, which could be done largely with federal money.
“I absolutely cannot reconcile throwing away billions in federal funds that would help all of our constituents have access to health care, that would save our rural hospitals from closing and that would save as well as create jobs, especially when we take federal funds when it’s convenient for us,” Clark said.
“I think there’s a better way moving forward,” Beverly said. “We just need to take the time to do it.”
Both Kemp and former Gov. Nathan Deal, his immediate predecessor, have argued there’s no guarantee the federal money would continue flowing into Medicaid indefinitely. They have said any reduction in federal support would leave the state holding the bag.
Cocktails-to-go edged closer to becoming a reality in Georgia with passage in the state Senate Friday of a measure allowing restaurants to sell curbside alcoholic beverages in tightly sealed containers with takeout food.
Sponsored by Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, the bill would permit Georgians ages 21 and older to buy up to two mixed drinks in to-go cups with a maximum 3 ounces of liquor in each, or about two shots-worth. Georgia already permits to-go sales of beer and wine.
The drinks would have to be kept in cups without any holes for straws and sealed so securely it would be easy to tell if the cup has been opened before the purchaser arrives home. To-go drinks would also have to be stored in a glove box, locked trunk or behind the back seat while driving.
To-go drinks could not be sold on their own: Customers would have to buy food along with a takeaway alcoholic beverage. Third-party delivery services like Uber Eats, Doordash and Grubhub also could not bring cocktails to someone’s home due to legal liability issues, Brass said.
“One thing we learned from the pandemic is our hospitality industry was hit very, very hard,” Brass said from the Senate floor. “All we’re simply trying to do here is give them one more tool here to bounce back.”
“That tool is going to be a screwdriver,” he added. “And that screwdriver is going to be to-go.”
The measure passed 36-10 and now heads to the state House of Representatives.
Supporters have hailed legalized to-go drinks as a way to help struggling restaurants prop up sales amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has pummeled the food-service industry in Georgia over the past year.
Nearly 4,000 restaurants have closed in the state during the pandemic, with $5 billion lost in sales and around 100,000 employees left jobless, according to Karen Bremer, president of the Georgia Restaurant Association.
Opponents who have long resisted expanding alcohol sales on moral and practical grounds worry allowing motorists to take home cocktails could worsen traffic safety, spurring more drunk driving and potentially fatal car crashes.
Brass’ bill follows a separate law change passed last summer that allowed restaurants, supermarkets and liquor stores to make home deliveries of beer, wine and distilled spirits, subject to the approval of local voters.
Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium is set to host a mass COVID-19 vaccine site. (Mercedes-Benz Stadium photo)
Federal officials are planning to open a temporary mass COVID-19 vaccination site at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta, adding to several other large vaccine sites scattered across Georgia.
The Atlanta vaccine site inside the stadium is expected open in the next two weeks and should be able to administer about 6,000 shots a day, or 42,000 per week, according to a news release from President Joe Biden’s administration.
It will be open for eight weeks, marking a test run for mass vaccine sites overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in vulnerable communities hit hard by the pandemic.
Officials from FEMA, the state Department of Public Health, state emergency-management staff and Fulton County planned to meet Friday to shore up details on running the site, according to the White House.
Gov. Brian Kemp’s office praised the new partnership Friday as a way to boost vaccine administration and protect vulnerable Georgians.
“Governor Kemp is proud to partner with the federal government, Fulton County, and private partners to vaccinate more Georgians at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium,” said Mallory Blount, Kemp’s press secretary. “By working together at a federal, state, and local level, we can save lives and get Georgians back to normal.”
The new site in Atlanta comes as Georgia school teachers and staff become eligible for vaccines starting on Monday. Health-care workers, nursing home residents and staff, first responders and people ages 65 and older are already eligible.
Combined, those nine state-run vaccine sites should have the ability to give around 42,000 shots a week to eligible Georgians, with capacity to ramp up once the federal government approves the state for larger shipments of the vaccine.
Georgia’s weekly vaccine supplies are set to stand at 223,000 doses starting next week of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
Roughly 2,217,000 vaccines have been administered in Georgia so far, with nearly 867,000 of those shots being second doses to provide full inoculation, according to state data.
Nearly 824,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Georgia as of Thursday afternoon, with more than 192,000 more reported positive antigen tests indicating likely positive results. The virus has killed 15,462 Georgians.
Churches and other places of worship would have to remain open in Georgia during public emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic under a measure that passed the state Senate on Friday.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, would forbid Georgia governors from closing churches, mosques, synagogues or “other religious institutions” during a state of emergency.
It has backing from Gov. Brian Kemp who faced criticism for moving to impose distancing requirements in churches at the onset of the pandemic’s spread last March. He has also faced backlash for a largely hands-off approach to allowing businesses and churches to stay open during the pandemic.
Anavitarte’s bill also would allow Georgia businesses to remain open during emergency declarations so long as they comply with safety rules set by the governor.
“I think we as a people have a right to assemble in our churches,” Anavitarte said from the Senate floor on Friday. “As long as we follow the necessary health protocols that the experts put out there, we should be able to move forward.”
The measure passed the Republican-controlled Senate on a nearly party-line vote with Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, voting against. It now heads to the state House of Representatives.
Anavitarte’s legislation is similar to a separate bill limiting the governor’s emergency powers over religious groups in the House, sponsored by Rep. Dominic LaRiccia, R-Douglas.
Opponents argue barring churches from closing could endanger Georgians during a public-health crisis by promoting gathering spaces where viral outbreaks could occur. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called the measure “extreme, dangerous and unnecessary.”
“The right to exercise one’s faith is among our most fundamental constitutional rights,” said Andrea Young, executive director of the ACLU’s Georgia chapter. “But it is constitutionally appropriate for the government to place restrictions on religious activities and religious institutions.”
Kemp faced blowback from religious-freedom advocates last spring after authorities shut down a handful of local churches for congregating with too many people during the pandemic’s early days.
Despite the open-door policy, many churches and other places of worship have chosen to avoid resuming in-person services, opting instead to hold services online.
Kemp, who has credited his decision to let Georgia businesses largely stay open with shoring up the state’s economy, touted his move to work with local congregations rather than shutting them down. He threw his support last month behind Anavitarte’s bill, dubbed the “Faith Protection Act.”
“In Georgia, we never shuttered churches, synagogues, or other places of worship because we value faith, family and freedom,” Kemp said in a statement. “With the Faith Protection Act signed into law, Georgia will be a sanctuary state for people of faith.”
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate passed a constitutional amendment Friday asking voters statewide to decide whether to legalize online sports betting.
Senators voted 41-10 to approve the measure, three votes more than the two-thirds majority needed to pass it and send it to the state House of Representatives.
Friday’s floor vote marked the most progress any proposal to legalize any form of gambling in Georgia other than the lottery has made in the General Assembly in more than a decade of failed efforts.
As has been the case with attempts to put casinos and pari-mutuel betting on horse racing on the ballot, supporters argued Georgians should have the right to vote on sports betting.
“I have never had any problems with allowing the people to vote,” Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, the constitutional amendment’s chief sponsor, said on the Senate floor.
Mullis said an estimated 2 million Georgians already are betting on sports illegally and spending more than $4 billion a year, money that goes into the pockets of bookies instead of the state.
Under Senate Resolution 135, a state tax of 16% on the proceeds from online sports betting would be divided between need-based scholarships, rural health and broadband deployment.
Originally, the constitutional amendment did not specify what percentage of the proceeds should go toward each of those three purposes.
“I feel like we ought to let the legislature have a little latitude in deciding what’s most important to us,” said Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, a cosponsor of Mullis’ resolution.
However, senators amended the resolution on the floor to specify that at least 50% of the proceeds go to need-based scholarships. The lottery-funded HOPE Scholarships program originally was need-based but later began offering awards strictly on merit.
Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, who proposed the amendment, said need-based scholarships would help Georgia meet its workforce needs.
“We need many more people who can afford to matriculate to some form of higher education,” she said.
Some lawmakers have pushed this year for legalizing online sports betting by statute rather than a constitutional amendment because statues only require a simply majority to pass. A bill pending in the Georgia House takes that approach.
But Cowsert cited legal opinions that legalizing sports betting and putting it under the jurisdiction of the Georgia Lottery Corp. requires changing the state Constitution because sports betting doesn’t meet the legal definition of a lottery game.
“It’s cleaner and uncontroversial to let the voters decide,” he said. “We’re not imposing our will on the state without letting them be heard.”
After passing the constitutional amendment, the Senate voted 34-17 to approve an “enabling” bill specifying how sports betting would operate in Georgia.
Senate Bill 142 requires companies interested in running sportsbooks to pay the lottery corporation a nonrefundable application fee of $10,000. At least six companies would be selected and would pay license fees of $100,000 per year. The license fees had been set at $900,000 under the original bill.
Cowsert said the lower fee would prevent giant operators such as DraftKings or FanDuel from monopolizing the business in Georgia.
“Reducing that to $100,000 allows Georgia businesses to offer sports betting, not just Las Vegas,” he said.
Senators approved two amendments to the bill to ensure that women-owned businesses and businesses owned by veterans get a shot at licenses and to make sure the enabling bill would not take effect until the beginning of 2023, and only then if voters approve the referendum in November of next year.
Cowsert, who played a major role shaping both measures as chairman of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee, said he opposes casinos and made sure sports betting in Georgia would be online only.
“It’s something that’s not [going to be] in land-based facilities,” he said. “It doesn’t have crime associated with it.”
The enabling bill also prohibits minors from betting, and bettors would have to be physically inside Georgia, a provision that would be enforced through geofencing technology.
To participate, bettors would have to open an online account and could not deposit more than $2,500 per month into the account. Also, betting on credit would be prohibited.
“I want to make sure we protect people from themselves,” Cowsert said. “They don’t bet the mortgage. They don’t bet the groceries.”
The vote on the constitutional amendment was bipartisan. Although need-based scholarships was an important provision Democrats wanted to see in the measure, three of the 10 “no” votes came from Democrats.
The Georgia Professional Sports Integrity Alliance, a coalition of Atlanta’s four major pro sports teams, issued a statement praising Friday’s vote.
“A new state law with strict regulatory requirements that protects consumers will bring significant new revenue to the state; strengthen HOPE Scholarships; and protect the integrity of professional sports, a multi-billion industry in Georgia,” the statement read. “The people in Georgia overwhelmingly support sports wagering and we are confident the legislation will become law.”
