Discarded bills litter the Georgia Senate floor after state lawmakers adjourned the 2021 legislative session “sine die” just after midnight on April 1, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Elections, pandemic recovery and the echoes of last summer’s protests against police in Georgia dominated a 2021 legislative session marked by bitter divisions between Georgia’s political parties.
The session, which wrapped up Wednesday and will return next January, was the General Assembly’s first since the 2020 election cycle upended statewide politics as Democrats notched historic wins and Republicans moved to rewrite dozens of voting laws.
Both sides put off disagreements to largely repeal Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law that had been on the books since the Civil War and helped fuel protests over police brutality and racial injustice that swept the country for months starting last May.
While largely peaceful, those protests boiled over at times in Atlanta with damage done to police cars, businesses and state public-safety offices, ultimately prompting Republican lawmakers to pass a law that places tight limits on how much Georgia cities and counties can cut their local police budgets.
Budgeting was also top of mind for lawmakers this year after they slashed more than $2 billion last year from Georgia schools, troopers, prisons, mental-health and other social services due to the economic slowdown from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Piles of proposals hit a wall as lawmakers closed shop Wednesday, leaving many high-profile measures stalled. The casualty list included legislation to legalize online sports betting in Georgia and allow in-person visits between family members and loved ones at hospitals and nursing homes during emergency times like the pandemic.
Those bills that failed to reach Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk this year will have another chance to do so in 2022 for the second half of the two-year term.
Voting-rights advocates protest inside the state Capitol against Republican-led elections bills in the General Assembly on March 8, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Jim Crow or better elections?
Battle lines formed after Democrats claimed victory in the 2020 presidential election and the U.S. Senate runoffs, handing the party key statewide wins for the first time in decades and cementing the idea that years of hard campaigning and demographic changes have shifted voting patterns in their favor.
Republican leaders quickly counter-attacked by holding General Assembly hearings to air former President Donald Trump’s unfounded voter-fraud claims, which laid the groundwork for proposing broad changes to Georgia’s election system in the session.
Ultimately, lawmakers passed a measure along party lines March 25 that adds identification requirements for mail-in voting, confines absentee-ballot drop boxes inside local election offices and polling places and bans non-poll workers from handing out food and drinks to people in line to vote within 150 feet of polling places during elections.
Those changes, along with new rules allowing state election officials to take over poor-performing county election boards, sparked outrage from Democrats and voting-rights advocates who declared voter access for Black and low-income Georgians will be set back worse than at any time since the Jim Crow era.
“After witnessing the GOP gutting of voting rights and inaction on issues like expanding access to health care, Georgia voters are engaged, empowered and know exactly who’s fighting against them,” said U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, who chairs the state Democratic Party. “Georgia Republicans are in for a rude awakening in 2022.”
Republican leaders – from Gov. Brian Kemp to party leaders in both General Assembly chambers to the state’s election chief, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger – have blasted Democrats’ push to frame the election changes as racist acts of voter suppression.
They argue the law changes aim to bolster confidence in Georgia elections and expand voter access, noting the now-enacted bill scraps the state’s controversial signature-verification process for absentee ballots in favor of a voter ID requirement and gives counties the ability to open polls for more hours on weekends during the early-voting period.
“This is not ‘Jim Crow,’” said Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan, R-Carrollton. “Nobody is getting lynched for going to vote. Matter of fact, we don’t want 60% to vote – we want 100%. … Stop with the rhetoric.”
Gov. Brian Kemp and state lawmakers detailed proposed changes to Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law on Feb. 16, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Ups and downs for criminal justice
Beyond election issues, Republican and Democratic leaders also sparred over legislation focused on guns, policing and criminal justice – many of which fell by the wayside after rounds of intense debate.
Efforts to loosen rules on interstate gun-carry permits, prosecute violent protesters and create a driver education program on how to interact with police during traffic stops all fell short of final passage amid stern opposition from Democratic leaders.
But Republican lawmakers did push through a measure that blocks most city and county governments from slashing their police budgets by more than 5% over a 5-year span, which opponents called an attempt by state authorities to strip control from local officials over how to police their communities.
Supporters argued the budget limits would help stave off any future moves by local officials to cripple their police forces, pointing out Atlanta and Athens officials nearly joined several cities outside Georgia in shrinking their police budgets after the summer’s heated protests.
Those protests prompted Democratic lawmakers to file dozens of bills on criminal-justice issues this session including more training for officers in de-escalation techniques, bans on using no-knock warrants and choke holds during arrests, a citizen-led review board for officer-involved shootings and legislation outlawing private prisons.
The only proposal to gain bipartisan support and clear the legislature was an overhaul of the citizen’s arrest law, which was scaled back so that only business owners can briefly detain people who commit crimes on their premises, as well as off-duty or out-of-jurisdiction police officers.
The repeal measure came after 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery was shot dead in February 2020 while jogging near Brunswick in an encounter with two white men who suspected him of vandalizing a nearby house under construction. The pair claimed they were trying to make a citizen’s arrest.
Lobbyists packed the hallways of the state Capitol in Atlanta on the last day of the legislative session on March 31, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
COVID-19 and the pocketbook
Meanwhile, throughout the bouts of fighting and the stretches of collaboration, the COVID-19 pandemic loomed large over the 2021 session as lawmakers faced twice-weekly infection tests and sought to patch up the state’s $27 billion budget.
Taking cues from the governor, budget drafters in the state Senate and House of Representatives avoided the spending cuts imposed last year that sliced $2.2 billion from state agencies, particularly public schools that receive a huge chunk of annual tax revenues.
Lawmakers hailed Georgia’s economic rebound since the start of the pandemic more than a year ago as fuel to restore budget funding for schools with a mix of state dollars and federal emergency aid – though Democratic lawmakers pushed unsuccessfully to raise new revenues by ditching some lucrative tax breaks and raising the levy on cigarette sales. Instead, lawmakers approved even more tax exemptions.
Democrats’ calls to fully expand Medicaid benefits for low-income Georgians were also blocked by Republicans long opposed to broadening the costly program’s scope, despite a steep jump in eligible recipients amid the pandemic. Lawmakers did pass a bill to automatically enroll some 60,000 Georgia children in Medicaid who already receive food stamps.
Lawmakers also scuttled another attempt to legalize some forms of gambling beyond the Georgia Lottery by shooting down a bill to permit regulated sports betting in the state, pitched as way to raise more funding for the HOPE Scholarship program and need-based scholarships.
Also on the chopping block was a measure that would have given Georgia hospital patients and elderly-care residents isolated by the pandemic a limited window to meet in person with a legal representative or caregiver, who could be a family member. It was gutted before finally stalling on Wednesday.
The General Assembly next turns its attention to redrawing the boundaries of Georgia’s legislative and congressional districts, marking a Republican-led process that is certain to drum up the same fiery backlash seen from Democrats during the fight over election changes.
Hearings on redistricting are set to take place at the state Capitol in Atlanta sometime this fall or winter.
The state Capitol building in Atlanta stands quiet after lawmakers adjourned the legislative session shortly after midnight on April 1, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Labor surpassed a major milestone last week.
The agency now has paid out more than $20.2 billion in unemployment benefits since the coronavirus pandemic began in Georgia more than a year ago. That’s more than the department had paid out in the 82 years prior to the virus.
“We have issued payments to over 1.5 million Georgians during this pandemic while also continuing to support reemployment services looking to get many of these individuals back into the workplace,” state Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said Thursday.
While more and more Georgia businesses have been ramping back up in recent weeks, the number of unemployment claims is still on the rise. Last week, jobless Georgians filed 39,282 initial claims, an increase of 14,493 over the previous week.
Since the pandemic began in March 2020, the labor agency has processed nearly 4.6 million first-time unemployment claims, more than during the last nine years combined prior to the outbreak of COVID-19.
The job sector accounting by far for the most claims in Georgia last week was accommodation and food services with 16,315 claims. The administrative and support services sector was next with 4,064 claims, followed by manufacturing with 2,336.
The labor department has 228,512 job listings posted online at https://bit.ly/36EA2vk for Georgians to access. The agency offers online resources for finding a job, building a resume and assisting with other reemployment needs.
Discarded bills litter the Georgia Senate floor after state lawmakers adjourned the 2021 legislative session “sine die” just after midnight on April 1, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Two bills aimed at helping elderly nursing home residents in Georgia were late casualties of this year’s General Assembly session.
Legislation to allow cameras for monitoring nursing home residents and let family members visit sick loved ones in hospitals and long-term care facilities during emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic fell by the wayside Wednesday night during the session’s final hours.
A measure by Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, would have given Georgia hospital patients and elderly-care residents isolated by the pandemic a limited window to meet with a legal representative or caregiver, who could be a family member.
Pitched as a cure for human contact beyond Zoom calls and iPhones, Setzler’s bill was gutted in the state Senate and ultimately shelved after last-minute wrangling in the Georgia House of Representatives sought to salvage much of its visitation permissions.
Allowing outsiders into facilities where infectious diseases pose a high risk for spreading drew hesitancy from hospital and nursing-home groups that lamented keeping families separated but worried the fast-evolving bill might run afoul of emergency federal rules.
“Our health-care system has just gone through a shock like it’s never been through,” said Sen. Dean Burke, R-Bainbridge, a physician and hospital executive who pushed an amendment that gutted Setzler’s bill. “I’m just extremely concerned that this bill needs more work.”
But top House Republicans including Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, slammed the Senate for killing the bill, saying the chamber “let down a lot of Georgia families” and that he thought allowing visitors would be “the right thing to do.”
“I thought it was really disrespectful,” Ralston said. “I was just very disappointed that they didn’t at least give it a fair debate over there.”
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, speaks with reporters after adjourning the legislative session “sine die” just after midnight on April 1, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Setzler’s visitation bill stalled around the same time another bill hit a wall in the House that was aimed at creating rules for giving elderly-care residents the ability to install cameras in their apartments, often referred to as “nanny cams” or “granny cams.”
That bill, sponsored by Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, called for long-term care facilities to let residents and their families decide whether to install surveillance cameras in the open to curb chances for elder abuse by staff or feuding relatives.
The goal was to stave off any abuse before it happens to an elderly resident by scaring off possible predators aware they could be caught on camera and the video footage used in criminal or civil court, said Sen. John Kennedy, R-Macon, who carried Cooper’s bill in the Senate.
“That camera is the best tool to ensure that they do get the good care that they need,” Kennedy said. “Do you want to just focus on trying to catch people or do you want to prevent the abuse from happening in the first place?”
The bill was finally shot down in the House in the session’s closing hour after winding through both chambers several times, with opponents arguing that requiring cameras to be placed in the open and not hidden could alert abusers as to which seniors are not being monitored.
“The problem with that is then the abuser knows exactly which residents can be victimized,” said Sen. Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta. “You know anyone who doesn’t have that up, they are fair game.”
Both bills could still be revived in 2022 for the second half of the two-year legislative term.
Lake Lanier is part of the Chattahoochee River system.
ATLANTA – The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday sided with Georgia in a lawsuit Florida filed in 2013 over the allocation of water that flows between the two states.
In a unanimous 9-0 opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the court ruled that Florida failed to prove its allegations that Georgia’s water consumption from the Chattahoochee and Flint river systems caused the failure of Florida’s oyster industry in Apalachicola Bay.
“Florida allowed unprecedented levels of oyster harvesting in the years before the collapse,” Barrett wrote. “Georgia’s consumption had little to no impact on the bay’s oyster population.”
Florida claimed originally that increasing water consumption in rapidly growing metro Atlanta was causing unacceptably low flows where the Chattahoochee River enters Florida at Lake Seminole.
More recently, including during oral arguments before the Supreme Court in February, Florida’s lawyers put more of the blame on water consumption by farmers in the lower Flint River irrigating their crops.
Florida’s strategy shifted as water conservation efforts by municipal utilities in the Atlanta region began to pay off.
Gov. Brian Kemp hailed the decision as a “resounding victory” for Georgia and a vindication of the steps the state has taken to boost water-use efficiency.
“Our state will continue to wisely manage water resources and prioritize conservation, while also protecting Georgia’s economy and access to water,” Kemp said in a prepared statement.
“The Supreme Court … affirmed what we have long known to be true: Georgia’s water use has been fair and reasonable,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr added. “We will continue to be good stewards of our water resources, and we are proud to have obtained a positive resolution to this years-long dispute on behalf of all Georgians.”
Florida’s lawsuit sought the court to place a cap on Georgia’s water consumption. Georgia’s lawyers argued such a cap would bring growth in metro Atlanta – and the region’s economy with it – grinding to a halt and devastate Southwest Georgia’s farm belt.
Thursday’s decision doesn’t mean an end to the so-called tri-state “water wars” between Georgia, Florida and Alabama that have dragged on for three decades.
For one thing, Alabama is challenging an agreement Georgia and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed in January that for the first time authorized the use of Lake Lanier as a water supply.
While the federally managed reservoir has been supplying water for decades, its use for that purpose has been among the legal issues contested during the water wars.
ATLANTA – Legislation aimed at legalizing online sports betting in Georgia is a casualty of the controversial election law overhaul majority Republicans pushed through the General Assembly last week.
A constitutional amendment asking voters whether to bring legal sports betting to Georgia and a separate “enabling” bill outlining how the industry would operate failed to reach the floor of the state House of Representatives on the final night of this year’s legislative session.
Both measures had cleared the Georgia Senate early last month.
Supporters blamed passage of the omnibus election reform bill for poisoning the well for Democrats, whose support was critical to passing sports betting.
The Georgia chapter of the NAACP released a statement on Wednesday urging lawmakers not to vote for any legalized gambling legislation.
“That killed it,” state Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, who was carrying the sports betting legislation in the House, said Thursday. “After that, a lot of issues fell by the wayside.”
Stephens and other Republicans worked to win Democrats’ support for sports betting by agreeing to dedicate a portion of the proceeds to need-based scholarships, a key priority for Democrats.
But the goodwill between GOP supporters of sports betting and Democratic lawmakers faded after Gov. Brian Kemp signed an election reform bill Democrats labeled as voter suppression. The Georgia NAACP is among the groups challenging the legislation in a federal lawsuit.
“If they expect to earn our support on corporate issues that will make rich people wealthier, our expectation is that they, too, work with us on uplifting our community through meaningful policy objectives,” the Rev. James Woodall, state president of the Georgia NAACP, wrote in a statement.
Senate passage of sports betting had begun building momentum for the legislation in the House. It marked the first time in a decade of trying that supporters of legalized gambling had gotten a bill through either of the two chambers.
But the tide appeared to be turning by Wednesday morning, when Sen. Jeff Mullis, chief sponsor of the sports betting measures, took to the Senate floor to complain that House Democrats were blocking his legislation.
“They are leaving tens of millions of dollars on the table for need-based [scholarships] funding for people who really need it,” said Mullis, R-Chickamauga.
Rick Lackey, an Atlanta-based real estate developer behind three proposed casino resorts scattered across Georgia, suggested sports betting failed because the legislation didn’t include legalizing casino gambling.
He said casinos would bring in far more tax revenue for need-based scholarships, health care and other uses the state might have for gambling proceeds than sports betting. Also, online sports betting wouldn’t create jobs, while casinos would generate thousands of temporary construction jobs and permanent jobs after mixed-use casino resorts open for business, he said.
“It’s like comparing penny pitching to Blackjack,” Lackey said.
Lackey pointed out that a constitutional amendment to legalize sports betting, casinos and pari-mutuel betting on horse racing is still alive in the Georgia House for consideration next year.
But Stephens said he’d rather see the General Assembly pursue sports betting first.
“Sports betting is supposed to be the easy one,” he said. “It would give us momentum as we move into the other stuff.”
