ATLANTA – The General Assembly will get a choice this year whether to legalize gambling in Georgia by statute or constitutional amendment.
Legislation introduced into the state House and Senate this week takes the constitutional amendment approach, which would put the issue to Georgia voters in a statewide referendum.
The Senate version is limited to legalizing sports betting, while the House measure would also allow casinos and pari-mutuel betting on horse racing.
Two bills introduced into the legislature earlier this year would legalize sports betting by statute. Avoiding the constitutional amendment route means they wouldn’t have to gain two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate to pass.
The constitutional amendment path would make better public policy because it would give voters the final say over whether to legalize a form of gambling that goes well beyond the Georgia Lottery, said Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, chief sponsor of Senate Resolution 140.
“If we’re going to make that big a cultural change in Georgia, let the people decide that,” said Cowsert, chairman of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee, which will take up the amendment next week.
Cowsert reminded members of the committee during a brief presentation of his legislation Thursday that the Senate mustered enough votes two years ago to pass a constitutional amendment on sports betting. The measure easily cleared the Senate 41-10 but died in the state House of Representatives.
“It is politically possible to do so,” Cowsert said. “I am not putting this up as a roadblock.”
The Senate constitutional amendment, if ratified by voters, would authorize online sports betting in Georgia. Twenty to 25% of the revenue raised through sports betting would go to the state for a variety of purposes.
Half of that money would go to need-based scholarships. Georgia’s HOPE Scholarships program began in the 1990s as need-based but was soon converted to a merit-based program.
“This will allow poorer Georgians to get an advanced education and become more productive,” Cowsert said.
The legislation would set aside 25% of the revenue for health care, mental health care, economic development, and initiatives to reduce poverty in low-income areas. Fifteen percent would be dedicated to public health programs, including the prevention and treatment of problem gambling.
The final 5% would be used to solicit, promote, sponsor, and host major sporting events in Georgia, including college football playoffs, the Olympics, and the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament.
Cowsert said his committee will hold a hearing on the legislation next Thursday.
Meanwhile, a House committee Thursday began airing one of the two bills aimed at legalizing sports betting by statute.
State Rep. Marcus Wiedower, R-Watkinsville, chief sponsor of House Bill 380, told the House Higher Education Committee the scope of the bill has been significantly reduced since it was first introduced. A proposal to allow in-person betting on sports at retail kiosks has been scrapped, and the bill now is limited to online sports betting, he said.
The House bill would require companies awarded sports betting licenses to pay 15% of their adjusted gross incomes to the state. Unlike Cowsert’s Senate legislation, the revenue would go strictly to the HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs, the same beneficiaries of the lottery.
After a hearing on the bill Thursday, the measure was transferred from the Higher Education panel to the House Regulated Industries Committee, which likely will take it up next week.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, introduced a bill this week to create an innovation commission focused on better serving Georgians with intellectual and developmental disabilities. (Photo credit: Rebecca Grapevine)
ATLANTA – Georgia disability advocates are calling for the creation of a special commission devoted to the problems Georgians with intellectual and developmental disabilities face.
State Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, introduced legislation this week that would create an “Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Innovation Commission” akin to the highly successful behavioral health commission formed in 2019.
Harrell’s proposal has drawn bipartisan support, including from Republican Senate co-sponsors John Albers of Roswell, Mike Dugan of Carrollton, Chuck Hufstetler of Rome, and Ben Watson of Savannah.
The 22-member commission would include members appointed by the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the speaker of the House of Representatives. Appointees would include, among others, people with intellectual or developmental disabilities and their family members and caregivers.
The commission would be required to focus on proposed changes to state laws and regulations around providing services to people with disabilities.
The Senate Health and Human Services committee will need to approve Harrell’s bill before it can move to the Senate floor for a vote.
Georgia provides funding slots for people with disabilities to receive home and community-based services so they are not segregated in institutions. Those slots are jointly funded by the state and the federal governments, with the state paying about one-third of the cost and the federal government picking up the rest.
Advocates contend the state should dramatically increase the number of slots to meet the needs of Georgians with disabilities. There are currently 7,155 people on the waiting list.
A state Senate study committee co-chaired by Harrell and Albers that met last fall recommended the state increase the number of slots by about 2,400 this year. However, the governor’s budget proposal only includes sufficient funding for an increase of around 250 slots, which follows an increase of about 500 slots from last year’s legislative session.
An additional challenge facing the state is low pay for those who provide care to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Advocates say increasing the number of waiver slots is insufficient and that caregivers, often known as “direct support professionals,” must be paid more to ensure people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have the care they need.
Currently, those caregivers only make $10.63 per hour. The study committee recommended increasing the pay to at least $15 per hour to help ensure people with disabilities have the resources they need.
But to truly address the problem, the state should increase the pay to at least $18 an hour, said D’Arcy Robb, the executive director of the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities.
A pay increase is sorely needed, said Ryan Whitmire, president and CEO of Developmental Disabilities Ministries. The non-profit organization runs 18 group homes and provides in-home services to people with disabilities. It currently has about a 15% staffing vacancy rate.
Whitmire said he recently lost one of his best staff members –- a woman who is “called” to help people with disabilities — to a job at a retail organization, where she could earn $16 an hour instead of the state-mandated $10.63 an hour at his organization.
The staffer was apologetic, Whitmire said, and noted she would miss her job and the people she cared for. But she simply needed to earn more money to survive.
Because of the low pay and resultant difficulty in retaining staff, Whitmire said his organization ends up paying a lot in overtime to current workers. That added expense prevents the organization from expanding to offer more slots for people who need care, he said.
“This has made it to where we can’t grow,” Whitmire said. “You have to be able to pay wages in order to develop the infrastructure to serve.”
Advocates are calling on lawmakers to find money in the state budget to both increase the pay for caregivers and increase the number of waiver slots.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, speaks about his bill addressing gang violence. (Photo credit: Rebecca Grapevine)
ATLANTA – The state Senate Thursday approved a wide-ranging bill aimed at stemming the tide of gang-related crime in Georgia.
Sponsored by Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, the 10-page bill makes a number of changes to Georgia’s criminal law to address gang violence.
Albers said he consulted a wide range of groups in crafting the law, including prosecutors, judges, victims’ rights groups, district attorneys, trial lawyers, activist groups and others.
“This is much needed and real criminal justice reform,” Albers said.
The legislation increases the penalty for possession of a firearm by a person convicted of a forcible felony or domestic violence.
Currently, the penalty can range from one to five years in prison. Under Albers’ bill, it would increase to at least five years behind bars.
The measure also makes a number of procedural changes to Georgia’s gang laws. If passed, it would mandate that Superior Court judges handle all bond hearings for gang crimes. Currently, magistrates sometimes handle these hearings.
Albers gave the example of a 2010 murder of a child by a gang member who had been released on bond by a magistrate judge.
Local governments and others would also be able to bring civil, not just criminal, actions against gang members. The bill would also consolidate the venues in which criminal convictions could be pursued.
“Oftentimes, gang members will continue to move around from county to city,” Albers said. “Rather than trying to prosecute that in multiple areas, it allows them to consolidate it in one single venue.”
Certain past crimes could also be used to prove gang membership.
The bill would also require that people convicted of the repeat offense of abuse of children, people with special needs, and elderly people receive the maximum sentence possible in most cases. It also allows prior evidence to be used in prosecuting people charged with those crimes.
The state Senate approved the bill by a 44 to 8 vote. It will now move to the Georgia House of Representatives for consideration.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Then-President Donald Trump headlined a campaign rally in Dalton on Jan. 4, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – The Fulton County special purpose grand jury that investigated allegations of criminal interference in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia is recommending that one or more witnesses be indicted for perjury.
The recommendations were part of a report the panel issued when it completed its investigation in December. The report was not released to the public at that time, but Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled earlier this week that parts of the jury’s findings could be released.
The sections of the report released Thursday did not name former President Donald Trump or any of his associates. It will be up to Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis to decide whether to use the special purpose grand jury’s findings as the basis to seek indictments.
“A majority of the grand jury believes that perjury may have been committed by one or more witnesses testifying before it,” the report stated. “The grand jury recommends that the district attorney seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling.”
Willis assembled the special purpose grand jury last May to investigate Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, including a phone call he made urging Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the 11,780 votes Trump would need to reverse Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the Peach State.
The grand jury received evidence from 75 witnesses during its investigation, according to the portion of the report released Thursday. While the vast majority came from in-person testimony given under oath, the panel received some information through various forms of “digital and physical media,” the report stated.
The grand jury recommended releasing the entire report to the public, and a coalition of media outlets filed a motion arguing the public has a right to know the panel’s full findings.
But Willis argued in a hearing before McBurney last month that making the full report public – including the names of witnesses the grand jury believes should be indicted – would jeopardize the rights of potential future defendants to a fair trial.
Witnesses who appeared before the grand jury included former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer; U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; and then-U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Greensboro.
The panel also heard from Raffensperger, Gov. Brian Kemp, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, the late Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, and then-Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – A fight over religious freedom legislation that roiled the General Assembly seven years ago is back before Georgia lawmakers.
State Sen. Ed Setzler introduced a bill Wednesday protecting the right of Georgians to “free exercise of religion” from intrusion by the state or local governments.
“Every Georgian should be free to exercise their religious faith,” Setzler, R-Acworth, said during a news conference at the state Capitol. “Without a state RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act), Georgians do not have protection for religious expression.”
Congress passed a bipartisan federal RFRA law back in 1993. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled four years later that the protections the law provided extended only to intrusions by the federal government, not by states or local governments.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed a Georgia RFRA bill in 2016. But then-GOP Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed the measure after a storm of protest from civil rights groups that it threatened the rights of LGBTQ+ Georgians.
Business organizations including the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce also opposed the bill as potentially harmful to Georgia’s economy after organizers of conventions and sporting events threatened to boycott the Peach State if the RFRA legislation became law.
Setzler said the 2016 bill was “broadly expanded” from the language contained in the federal RFFA. He said his new bill sticks to the language of the federal law.
Under Senate Bill 180, the state and local governments would not be permitted to “substantially burden” an individual’s free exercise of religion unless the government could demonstrate it had a “compelling governmental interest” in doing so and that it was using the “least restrictive means” of intrusion.
Frontline Policy Action, a Georgia-based Christian organization, endorsed Setzler’s bill.
“This legislation doesn’t determine outcomes in the courtroom but simply provides a balancing test to weigh important, competing interests and give religious freedom a fair hearing,” said Cole Muzio, the group’s president. “Frontline will continue to work with like-minded lawmakers to champion SB180 and turn this long overdue and timely legislation into law.”
The Metro Atlanta Chamber did not immediately respond to an e-mail requesting comment.
Setzler’s bill has picked up support from some influential Senate Republicans. Cosponsors include Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, and Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, chairman of the Senate Rules Committee.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
