ATLANTA – Legislation legalizing online sports betting in Georgia cleared a committee in the state House of Representatives for a second time Monday.
The House Economic Development and Tourism Committee passed the measure almost three weeks ago, but it was sent back for further work and a second vote.
The biggest change in the bill since its original airing was an increase in the tax companies licensed to run sportsbooks in Georgia would pay.
The substitute bill approved Monday calls for a 20% tax, up from 14% in the original measure. A sports betting bill before the state Senate calls for a tax rate of 16%.
Tennessee, which legalized online sports betting last year, is already collecting 20% from sportsbook operators, said Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, the committee’s chairman and the bill’s chief sponsor.
Going from a 14% tax to 20% would yield another $20 million a year in revenue for education in Georgia, including the HOPE Scholarships program, Stephens said.
Under House Bill 86, at least six sportsbook operators would be licensed by the Georgia Lottery Corp. to run online sportsbooks in Georgia, paying application fees of $50,000 and annual licensing fees of $900,000.
Before Monday’s vote, Rep. Miriam Paris, D-Macon, criticized the bill for not guaranteeing minority-owned businesses would be able to participate in the sports betting industry in Georgia.
“[The Black community is] participating heavily in the lottery and gaming,” she said. “We need to know our communities are going to benefit.”
Rep. Becky Evans, D-Atlanta, said she’d like to see the legislation steer some of the proceeds from sports betting toward need-based scholarships. HOPE bases its scholarships on merit.
But Stephens said inserting any language in the bill dealing with minority-owned business participation or need-based scholarships could require a constitutional amendment. Going that route would subject sports betting to a statewide referendum next year, which would delay it from taking effect until 2023, he said.
Stephens said Georgians already are gambling on sports, but the state can’t get any tax revenue from it because it’s being done illegally using offshore betting sites.
Rep. Don Hogan, R-St. Simons Island, said legalizing sports betting in Georgia won’t change that.
“Sports gambling that goes on now will continue going on offshore,” he said. “We won’t have an effect on that.”
“We’ll compete with them,” Stephens shot back.
The bill now moves to the House Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote.
ATLANTA – A lawyer representing the state of Florida asked the U.S. Supreme Court Monday to order Georgia to use less water irrigating crops in order to restore Florida’s devastated oyster industry.
But Georgia’s lawyer told the justices the costs of a court-ordered cap on water consumption by farmers in Southwest Georgia would far outweigh the minimal benefits it would provide the Sunshine State’s oyster harvests.
“A 50% cut in irrigating would cost Georgia hundreds of millions of dollars to benefit Florida’s oyster industry by 1%,” Craig Primis said during hourlong opening arguments.
The tri-state “water wars” between Florida, Georgia and Alabama over water allocation from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin have dragged on for nearly three decades. But Florida’s lawsuit against Georgia heard on Monday dates back only to 2013, a year after the collapse of that state’s oyster industry in Apalachicola Bay.
Florida is seeking to cap Georgia’s water consumption to save an oyster industry that otherwise would be “irretrievably lost,” Gregory Garre, Florida’s lawyer, told the justices.
Georgia has countered that such a cap would bring growth in metro Atlanta grinding to a halt and devastate the state’s Southwest Georgia Farm Belt.
Florida blames the collapse of its oyster industry on historic low flows of water through the ACF system at its border with Georgia, which increased levels of salinity in Apalachicola Bay to harmful levels for its once-thriving oyster industry.
“One of the most unique estuaries in the Northern Hemisphere … essentially became a marine environment because of the increased salinity,” Garre said.
Garre confirmed what has been clear at least since a special master heard the dispute in late 2019: Florida is no longer focusing on the amount of water used in metro Atlanta to supply the region’s growing population. Essentially, Florida has conceded that Atlanta-area municipal water utilities have made such strides in water conservation that a case can’t be made in that part of the river basin.
Garre acknowledged in answer to a question Monday from Justice Amy Coney Barrett that Florida instead is targeting the amount of water uses for irrigation in Southwest Georgia. He suggested Georgia could fix the problem with steps that wouldn’t cost much, including halting illegal irrigation, eliminating over-watering, reducing farm-pond evaporation and doing a better job scheduling irrigation.
“Georgia’s unrestrained consumption is unreasonable,” Garre said. “Meaningful relief is available at little or no cost to Georgia.”
But Primis said the collapse of Florida’s oyster industry was a “self-inflicted wound” caused by overharvesting. He pointed to data backing up overharvesting as the cause of the devastation.
“The [sand]bars that were heavily fished collapsed, and the ones that were not heavily fished … thrived,” he said.
While both lawyers were put on the spot with questions from the justices, as is usually the case before the Supreme Court, some justices appeared particularly skeptical of Florida’s arguments. Special Master Paul Kelly recommended dismissing the lawsuit after he heard from the two sides in 2019.
At one point, Justice Stephen Breyer supported Georgia’s argument that overfishing occurred.
“You did overharvest after the oil spill,” Breyer told Garre, referring to the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. “You said, ‘Get them now or never.’ ”
Breyer also expressed frustration that the legal dispute between the states has lasted so long. Monday’s oral arguments marked the second time the Supreme Court has heard the Florida v. Georgia case.
“Has anybody ever tried to work out that Florida would pay Georgia to solve the problem?” the justice asked.
A ruling by the high court is expected by the end of June.
A bill to limit how local governments in Georgia can impose what energy sources their businesses, houses and other buildings can use passed out of the state House of Representatives on Monday.
Sponsored by state Rep. Bruce Williamson, R-Monroe, the bill would block city and county governments from prohibiting service connections to local houses and businesses “based upon the type or source of energy or fuel to be delivered.”
Williamson cast his local-ban bill as a measure to give communities more choice in whether to burn natural gas or alternative fuels, rather than letting city and county governments limit options.
“Now’s not the time to take away consumers’ choice,” Williamson said from the House floor on Monday. “Nothing precludes local governments from incentivizing your citizens toward the energy policies you deem best for your citizenry.”
Environmentalists and local-control proponents argue the bill would trample on the governing powers of city and state officials and create hurdles for communities to build their own defenses against the predicted harms of climate change.
“We cannot stop technology today based on a hypothetical,” said state Rep. Karla Drenner, D-Avondale Estates. “This is a bad bill and it sets a bad precedent.”
No cities in Georgia have enacted any policies yet to restrict energy sources, Williamson noted. Atlanta, Augusta, Athens, Savannah and Clarkston have passed resolutions setting long-term goals of converting their buildings to 100% clean energy.
“What we don’t want to do is be hampered in this effort,” Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz said after Monday’s vote. “For the General Assembly to take a potential tool out of the hands of local government flies in the face of local control.”
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said the bill didn’t even originate with the Georgia legislature but from out of state.
“This is a bill from the gas industry serving a very limited special interest … an attempt to preempt local government,” he said. “We deserve the right to make decisions we deem are in our own best interest.”
The bill’s supporters say restrictions on local decisions could stave off economic hardships for residents and businesses like restaurants that rely on natural gas, which they argue contributes less to carbon emissions than sources like oil and coal.
“I’m not even sure that the Waffle House would even exist if we didn’t pass this bill,” said state Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton. “We’re all for local control until locals get out of control.”
State Rep. Don Parsons, R-Marietta, pointed to electrical grid failures that have affected millions of people in Texas during recent winter storms as what could happen if cities and counties move to disrupt the kind of energy sources being used to fuel local power plants.
“To treat the public fairly on providing electricity is not through allowing the cities to set portfolios [but] allowing the people to do that,” Parsons said on Monday. “I fear that what these cities want to do would unbalance the grid so badly that we would have chaos without bad weather.”
Critics highlighted how local officials from Atlanta, Savannah and Athens have opposed the bill, arguing that natural gas is still a heavy contributor to greenhouse gases that scientists overwhelmingly agree is driving global climate change and rising sea levels.
“From wildfires to record temperatures to storms to flooding, we’re already seeing the impacts of climate change,” said state Rep. David Dreyer, D-Atlanta. “If a local government wants to be innovative 15 years from now when renewables are affordable, reliable and readily accessible, we are prohibiting them from doing that.”
The bill passed by a 103-62 vote largely along party lines, with some Democrats voting in favor. It now heads to the Georgia Senate.
This story has been updated to include additional quotes from Athens’ and Savannah’s mayors, as well as state Rep. Don Parsons of Marietta.
ATLANTA – The state will distribute more than $552 million in federal coronavirus relief aid to landlords and tenants affected by the pandemic, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday.
Gov. Brian Kemp
“The effects of COVID-19 have hit many Georgians hard financially,” Kemp said in a prepared statement. “In addition to protecting lives, we have to protect livelihoods so that Georgians can continue to have economic opportunity. I am pleased to be able to provide this rental relief to renters and landlords who have been impacted the most.”
The state Department of Community Affairs will administer the program under U.S. Treasury guidelines that are still being developed. The money will go directly to landlords and utilities.
In general, households that qualify for unemployment benefits or have suffered a reduction in household income or other financial hardship due to the pandemic will be eligible for assistance.
Those at risk of homelessness or housing instability also will qualify for the program.
Georgians with household incomes at or below 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI) will be eligible, while those below 50% of AMI will be given priority, as will people who have been unemployed for 90 days or longer.
Payments generally may not exceed 12 months, but some households may qualify for 15 months under certain circumstances.
The agency expects to launch a public application portal to the program next month. For more information on the program, click on GeorgiaRentalAssistance.ga.gov.
A federal eviction moratorium now in place has been extended until March 31. As a result, no one should be evicted solely for non-payment of rent at least until that date.
Illegal street racing in Georgia faces toughened penalties and repeat offenders could have their cars confiscated under legislation pushed by Gov. Brian Kemp.
The measure would criminalize anyone in Georgia who organizes, promotes or participates in street racing, also called drag racing. City and state officials in Atlanta have long complained of rampant street races in the city and are seeking to crack down.
“Our streets, highways and parking lots have become a free-for-all speedway for criminals,” Kemp said at a news conference Friday to unveil the bill.
It aims to “toughen penalties for offenders, hold those who promote these activities accountable and keep our streets safe through modernizing our code to include these popular activities that put Georgians in harm’s way,” Kemp said.
Under the bill, speedsters would have their driver’s licenses suspended for at least a year depending on how many times they have been caught racing. They would also be slapped with fines ranging from $750 to $5,000, as well as face possible prison time.
Anyone convicted of street racing more than once within a 10-year period would have their vehicle confiscated or be forced to transfer the auto title to another family member if it is a transportation mode a family depends on to avoid financial ruin.
State Rep. Josh Bonner, R-Fayetteville, who is one of Kemp’s floor leaders, is sponsoring the bill. It has a good chance of passing due to the governor’s backing and since it is similar to a separate measure aimed at punishing street racing brought by Democratic state Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur.
Kemp framed the street-racing bill as another piece of his criminal justice policies that include crackdowns on gangs and human trafficking. His administration has secured legislation and funding for police to hunt gangs and traffickers since Kemp took office in 2019.
“This legislation will help us build on that commitment,” the governor said.
