ATLANTA – Prosecutors could gain access to otherwise secret files of prison inmates convicted of violent crimes who are up for parole under legislation that cleared the Georgia House of Representatives Thursday.
House Bill 168, which the Republican-controlled House passed 99-66 along party lines, stems from the case of Torrey Scott, who raped four women in Savannah and murdered one of them after being let out of prison on early parole. Scott was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole in 2016.
Current Georgia law classifies information from the files of state prison inmates as “state secrets” that cannot be released to anyone, state Rep. Jesse Petrea, R-Savannah, the bill’s chief sponsor, told his House colleagues Thursday.
The legislation would create an exception allowing district attorneys to request and receive information on how an inmate who is up for parole has behaved in prison, Petrea said. Such information would help prosecutors determine whether to file an objection to paroling inmates who have committed sexually inappropriate behavior while behind bars, he said.
“Individuals operating that way in prison may be a risk to broader society,” he said. “This bill is not about parole. It is about how we protect people in our community from people like Torrey Scott.”
Petrea cited national statistics showing that 72% of violent felons commit another violent crime within five years of being released from prison.
“Let’s make sure we don’t let people out who are going to be a threat,” he said.
The bill would only apply to inmates who have been convicted of violent sex crimes or other violent felonies, including murder or armed robbery.
It also includes a provision prohibiting district attorneys who receive information on an inmate from disclosing it to the public. Violators would be charged with a misdemeanor.
Democrats opposed the bill as unfair and open to abuse.
House Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon, questioned giving district attorneys inmate records when defense lawyers are not allowed the same access.
Rep. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, said information contained in inmates’ files isn’t always accurate.
But Rep. Micah Gravley, R-Douglasville, said the bill has gained widespread support from district attorneys across Georgia, both Republicans and Democrats.
The bill’s cosponsors include Republican Reps. Ron Stephens of Savannah, Barry Fleming of Harlem, Bruce Williamson of Monroe, Heath Clark of Warner Robins, and John LaHood of Valdosta.
Georgia lawmakers on the state Senate Ethics Committee pray before considering election-focused bills on Feb. 18, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Georgia senators sent legislation to boost identification requirements for absentee voters to the state Senate floor Thursday in a committee vote along party lines.
A bill sponsored by state Sen. Larry Walker III, R-Perry, would require voters seeking to request and cast absentee ballots to provide their driver’s license or other valid ID such as passports, employee ID cards, utility bills or bank statements.
The measure was among a slate of bills to clear the Senate Ethics Committee Thursday and head to the Senate floor for votes as early as next week.
Other bills that passed included legislation to create a new state elections supervisor, allow county officials to count absentee ballots before Election Day and tighten reporting requirements for voting results.
They are among a legislative package backed by Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who presides over the Senate. He has called for tightening absentee voter ID requirements but opposed efforts by some Republican leaders to restrict who in Georgia can vote by mail.
Walker’s bill is among the more controversial absentee-voting changes Republican lawmakers are seeking after the 2020 election cycle caused distrust in Georgia’s election system for supporters of former President Donald Trump, who lost the general election in Georgia to President Joe Biden by 11,779 votes.
“It is an attempt to provide an easily verified way to confirm that the person requesting the ballot is indeed who they say they are and that live ballots are only issued to legal voters,” Walker said Thursday.
“There is nothing in here that makes it harder to vote or [that] obstructs voting by absentee.”
The bill would require registered Georgia voters to provide their date of birth and driver’s license number, or the number on their personal ID cards if they do not have a driver’s license, in order to request an absentee ballot.
Without a driver’s license or personal ID card, voters would have to submit photocopies of a different form of valid ID such as a passport or utility bill to their local elections board or registrar.
The bill would also make permanent an online portal to request absentee ballots that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office set up for last year’s elections, which drew millions of mail-in ballot requests amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The stricter absentee ID rules in Walker’s bill would do away with the state’s current system of verifying signatures on mail-in ballot request forms and envelopes, eliminating a focal point for attacks by Trump and his allies who alleged absentee voter fraud and called for deeper audits of the 2020 election results.
Raffensperger, whose office repeatedly rejected Trump’s fraud claims, has backed increasing the absentee ID requirements during this legislative session, as have other top state Republicans including Gov. Brian Kemp, Duncan, House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, and the Georgia Senate Republican Caucus.
Democrats, meanwhile, are opposing Walker’s measure and others on absentee voting that they view as attempts at voter suppression meant to curb Democratic momentum after the party seized the presidency and both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats in the 2020 elections.
Several Democrats on the Republican-controlled committee argued Thursday the bill could disenfranchise voters who do not have driver’s licenses, and possibly raise the chances for identity theft with more people sending out sensitive personal information and documents in the mail.
“I think you’re trying to cure a problem in your mind,” said Sen. Ed Harbison, D-Columbus, the Senate’s longest-serving member. “But the truth is, it opens the privacy door.”
Walker dismissed those concerns, acknowledging some voters are “going to have to make an effort” to verify their identities without a driver’s license, but that the benefits of tightening absentee voter ID verification would outweigh the privacy risks.
“I’m not saying identity theft can’t happen,” Walker said. “I think the value of this is way higher than any potential risk of it happening.”
Other Republicans on the committee pointed out Georgians already have to show their ID’s to vote in person, as well as for many other activities such as boarding an airplane or interacting with police officers during traffic stops.
“We are a nation of laws,” said Senate Majority Whip Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega. “We’re used to having identification cards on us.
“I just can’t understand anybody opposing requiring some kind of identification to present to an elections office to prove who you say you are.”
Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain, countered that sending personal information in the mail is different from flashing an ID to a police officer or clerk at a liquor store — and should face tighter protections against identity theft.
“There’s a huge difference in mailing something in, filing it away and keeping it, than it is me just having it and showing it and the person looking at it and leaving,” Butler said. “So I think we need to stop confusing that [since] it’s not a correct statement.”
The bill passed by a 7-4 vote and now heads to the Senate floor.
A separate measure to end no-excuse absentee voting in Georgia is expected to come up for consideration in the committee early next week after clearing a subcommittee on Wednesday.
That bill, sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, would only allow registered Georgia voters who are age 75 and older, physically disabled, out-of-state or facing other limited circumstances to vote by mail.
State law since 2005 has let any Georgian registered to vote who wants to cast an absentee ballot do so without having to provide a reason for seeking the mail-in route.
The committee on Thursday also passed a bill by Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, that would create a new state elections supervisor tasked with training local election workers and punishing low-performing county officials. It passed by a party-line vote.
Also passing along party lines were two bills by state Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, that would shorten the time limit for local registrars to enter voting data into the state’s voter-history system and boost reporting requirements for the state’s election-results website, including the number of absentee and provisional ballots issued, cast and rejected.
A bill brought by Sen. Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta, was the only measure to pass unanimously on Thursday. It would let counties begin processing absentee ballots on the Monday before Election Day, helping ease pressure on local elections officials to count mail-in ballots.
Other Republican-sponsored bills still awaiting consideration are measures to ban absentee-ballot drop boxes, end automatic voter registration for Georgians who receive new or renewed driver’s licenses, prohibit anyone except state and local elections officials and candidates from sending voters applications for mail-in ballots, and allow poll watchers to monitor vote tabulations more closely.
A bill that would create review panels to study Georgia’s tax and revenue structure and draft legislation to rein in wasteful spending or tax breaks advanced in the Georgia Senate on Wednesday.
Sponsored by state Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, the bill proposes a joint House-Senate council tasked with assessing the revenue and tax structure this year and submitting recommendations in early 2022.
It would also separately create a joint committee that would bring legislation based on the council’s recommendations to propose revenue-structure changes during the 2022 legislative session.
Hufstetler, who chairs the state Senate Finance Committee, said his bill follows up on a wide-ranging review completed in 2010 that led to some changes for Georgia taxes including the state motor-fuels tax.
“This would do the project all over again and say, ‘What do we need to do for the next decade to remain competitive?’” Hufstetler said at a hearing Wednesday. “Obviously, if we sit still, other states will pass us.”
The committee voted unanimously to send the bill to the Senate floor.
Hufstetler is among several state lawmakers who have set their sights on taking deeper dives into how Georgia raises money to pay for schools, law enforcement, health care and other taxpayer-funded services.
Members of the committee threw their support behind the bill, citing the COVID-19 pandemic that hit state revenues hard last year.
“If we want to continue to be the number-one place to do business … I think a bill like this makes a lot of sense for us to be fiscally responsible and investigate opportunities around that,” said Sen. Bruce Thompson, R-White.
Hufstetler’s bill follows other legislation by Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, to curb wasteful loopholes in the state’s tax structure by auditing up to five tax-credit programs each year. That bill passed out of the full Senate Feb. 1 and is awaiting consideration in the state House of Representatives.
Amid the push for more tax review, the Finance Committee shelved a bill last week by state Sen. Sheikh Rahman, D-Lawrenceville, aimed at bringing more real-time scrutiny to state tax incentives before they gain approval from the General Assembly.
Rahman’s bill would require measures that create or change tax incentives to include an economic analysis examining the proposal’s impact on state revenues, spending, overall economic activity and the public interest before they can pass the legislature.
Lawmakers have largely skirted discussions so far on whether to raise Georgia’s tax on tobacco products from the current 37 cents per pack to the national average of $1.81. Advocates argue the increase could raise an estimated $700 million in additional revenues per year.
ATLANTA – State lawmakers took up legislation Wednesday that would give the General Assembly a say over the declaration of public emergencies in Georgia.
Current state law gives the governor sole authority to declare an emergency, as happened last March when the coronavirus pandemic struck Georgia. The legislature then is required to convene in a special session on the second day following the emergency declaration.
But there’s no end date on public emergencies, Georgia Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, told members of a House subcommittee Wednesday.
“Once it gets started, it’s on cruise control,” he said. “It’s hard to stop it.”
Under a bill introduced by Setzler, emergencies declared by the governor could run no longer than 30 days unless renewed by the General Assembly. Following legislative renewal, lawmakers then would have to revisit emergency declarations every 90 days and either extend or terminate them.
“The idea of having a date certain where [an emergency declaration] ends mandates legislative involvement in the input but not with execution and control,” Setzler said.
Rep. David Dreyer, D-Atlanta, said he felt uncomfortable that the General Assembly had no further role to play after leaving the state Capitol last March for what turned out to be a three-month recess having ratified the open-ended emergency declaration ordered by Gov. Brian Kemp.
“This governor acted in good faith with this emergency declaration,” Dreyer said. “But there’s no guarantee. … The way the system is set up, we’re abdicating responsibility with no real way to get it back.”
Setzler said his bill also would let the legislature set conditions for renewing emergency declarations. For example, lawmakers could have a say on whether daytime curfews should be imposed or whether churches should have to close, he said.
Church closings became a controversial issue last year when some argued churches should be allowed to conduct services in person even while businesses had been shut down by the pandemic.
“This is not a coronavirus bill,” Setzler said. “But as we moved through the months and conditions changed … should the legislature not have had some ability to revisit that? That’s what this does.”
Setzler said his bill also isn’t aimed at Kemp, who he said hasn’t taken a position on the legislation.
“This isn’t a political thing,” Setzler said. “[But] a lot of us left uneasy with the process, not with the outcome. Now, we can affect the process moving forward.”
House Bill 358 is cosponsored by Republican Reps. Timothy Barr of Lawrenceville, Ginny Ehrhart of Marietta, Dewayne Hill of Ringgold, Emory Dunahoo of Gillsville and Steve Tarvin of Chickamauga.
The subcommittee did not vote on the bill Wednesday.
A bill to remove student discipline from factoring into a five-star rating for schools and districts cleared a state Senate committee Wednesday.
Rather than include discipline in a climate rating that rates a school’s health, safety and attendance, the bill would require schools and school districts to maintain separate data on disciplining that would have to be provided upon request by a parent or community member.
Backers of the bill, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, say removing discipline from the rating would encourage teachers to actually punish bad-acting students rather than shirking that responsibility, since many schools skip disciplining students to avoid poor scores that could hurt future enrollment.
“Teachers are being told by district and school administrators not to write kids up,” said DeAnna Harris, the director of government relations for the advocacy group Educators First. “While this sounds admirable, it does not improve student behavior or school climate.”
Opponents have argued scrapping the discipline score would hollow out the school-climate rating system, clouding over public reporting on problematic schools and gutting a tool intended to hold schools accountable for frequent behavioral issues among students.
Pamela Carn, a founder of the advocacy group End Mass Incarceration Georgia Network, said stripping discipline from the climate score could curb struggling schools from receiving needed resources to help improve student behavior and lead to worsening the school-to-prison pipeline.
“The fact is that the school climate rating allows for the community to see the environment that’s created in a school,” Carn said.
The bill passed the Senate Education and Youth Committee with reporting changes added by Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-Marietta. It now heads to the Senate floor.
The education committee did not vote Wednesday on a separate bill by state Sen. Lester Jackson, D-Savannah, to raise Georgia’s mandatory age to attend school from 16 to 17. Current state law allows Georgia students to drop out of school when they turn 16.
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Payne, R-Dalton, signaled he may call for votes on the raise-the-age bill in an upcoming meeting after debate was held on the bill earlier this month.
“I think we are all concerned that this is something we need to look at to make sure we’re not letting those kids fall through the cracks,” Payne said.
