ATLANTA – The General Assembly gave final passage Monday to a $32.5 billion mid-year budget with a slightly smaller property tax relief grant than Gov. Brian Kemp requested in January.
The mid-year budget, which covers state spending through June 30, includes $950 million in property tax relief, down from $1 billion the Georgia Senate approved last month. It also provides $1.1 billion to the state Department of Transportation to offset the loss in tax revenue the agency sustained last year when the governor temporarily suspended collection of the state sales tax on gasoline and other motor fuels.
After clearing the House 172-2 shortly before noon on Monday, the final version of the mid-year spending plan negotiated by legislative leaders passed the Senate 54-1.
Many major spending items Kemp recommended when he presented the mid-year budget in January remained intact as it made it way through the General Assembly.
It fully funds Georgia’s Quality Basic Education k-12 student formula (QBE), at $12.4 billion the largest single expenditure in the budget. After years of falling short, the state has been able to put up full funding of the QBE for the last several years.
The mid-year spending plan also includes $128.2 million to accommodate student enrollment growth in Georgia public schools since last year.
Other major spending items include $166.7 million for large economic development projects funded through the state Department of Community Affairs, $26.7 million for a one-time $500 check for retired state employees and $105 million for a new electronic medical records system at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. The Senate had cut that appropriation to $50 million, but the conference committee restored Kemp’s original request.
The mid-year budget also accelerated the timetable for several University System of Georgia and Technical College System of Georgia building projects from the fiscal 2024 budget to the mid-year budget.
Getting a jump-start on those projects acknowledges the likelihood of sluggish tax revenues later this year, said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia.
“We put ourselves a leg up on managing a national [economic] slowdown on the horizon,” Tillery said.
The projects receiving accelerated funding included $19.9 million for planning and design of a robotics training center at Ogeechee Technical College in Statesboro.
The mid-year budget now goes to Kemp for his signature.
ATLANTA – This year’s bid to legalize sports betting is dead in the General Assembly.
The Georgia Senate defeated a proposed constitutional amendment Monday that would have put online sports betting before Georgia voters in a statewide referendum next year. While 30 of the 56 senators voted in favor of Senate Resolution 140, it fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass a constitutional amendment.
The Senate vote took place early on Crossover Day, the deadline for legislation to pass at least one chamber in the General Assembly to stay alive for the year. A House bill that would have legalized sports betting without a constitutional change failed to reach the floor before the House adjourned shortly before midnight.
Earlier Monday, state Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, the chief sponsor of Senate Resolution 140, argued the constitutional route was the better way to go because it would have let Georgia voters decide whether to legalize sports betting.
“I don’t get why it’s wrong to let the people of Georgia vote on this issue,” Cowsert said. “We’re not dictators up here.”
But Sen. Marty Harbin, R-Tyrone, said it would be irresponsible for senators to pass the issue to voters.
“They do not have all the information you and I have,” he told his Senate colleagues. “When we put it out there, we’re washing our hands of it.”
Harbin also opposed legalizing gambling because of its potential to lead to addictive gambling.
The resolution’s supporters pitched it as a way to create a needs-based scholarship program in Georgia to supplement the HOPE Scholarship program, which is based on merit. Under the legislation, half of the state’s share of the proceeds from sports betting would have gone to needs-based scholarships.
“We need needs-based funds,” said Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta. “This bill puts that in place.”
But Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, argued a needs-based scholarship program is no longer necessary in Georgia because Gov. Brian Kemp and the General Assembly now have fully funded the HOPE program more than a decade after the Great Recession prompted cuts in HOPE benefits.
“We should reward success,” Beach said. “If you have a ‘B’ average, you get your education paid for.”
Beach proposed amendments to bar needs-based scholarships and broaden the sports betting resolution by adding casinos and pari-mutuel betting on horse racing to sports betting, but they were soundly defeated.
ATLANTA – As the state prepares to build a network of electric vehicle charging stations across Georgia, the General Assembly is grappling with how they should be operated and how to tax the electricity they sell to EV owners.
Separate bills making their way through the Georgia House and Senate would go a long way toward setting the stage for ending the era of the internal combustion engine and bringing on a new generation of EVs.
“You’re fixing to see a change in this country,” state Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, said March 1 shortly before House lawmakers unanimously passed their EV bill. “This is to get us prepared for the future.”
House Bill 406, and a Senate EV bill that cleared that chamber’s Regulated Industries Committee the same day, would end the practice of EV owners paying to charge their vehicles based on the time it takes. Instead, they would be charged by the kilowatt-hour.
That’s the most important part of the two bills, said Anne Blair, Atlanta-based senior director of policy for the Washington, D.C.-headquartered Electrification Coalition, a nonpartisan nonprofit working to facilitate the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.
“It will be needed to qualify for federal funding,” she said.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) is planning to jumpstart the rollout of a network of EV charging stations across the state with $135 million in federal funding through the bipartisan infrastructure bill Congress passed two years ago.
Many of those charging stations likely will be located at convenience stores that already sell gasoline and will transition a portion of their operations to charging electric vehicles.
“Many of them are very interested in getting into the market and selling whatever fuel source is predominant,” Blair said.
As more Georgians switch to EVs and get rid of their gasoline-powered cars and trucks, the state will lose a sizable portion of the gas tax revenue the DOT uses to build, repair and maintain roads and bridges. That approaching loss of revenue is behind another key element in both the House and Senate EV bills.
EV owners already pay a flat annual fee of $210 to the state. The two EV bills would add to that by levying a sales tax on EV owners who use the new charging stations as well as a separate excise tax.
“The goal is to make sure as we move from carbon-based fuel to electric, we maintain our funding,” Rep. Rick Jasperse, R-Jasper, chief sponsor of the House EV bill, said during a committee hearing last month. “We have to make sure everybody pays their fair share.”
Blair said she’s concerned about hitting EV owners who will use the new public charging stations with three taxes.
“We think that’s a little heavy,” she said. “From an environmental justice and equity standpoint, people who live in single-family homes will be at an advantage over those who use public charging stations. … It penalizes the people who need to use public charging.”
The ultimate solution to the equity issue may lie in taxing EV owners based on the number of miles they drive. The DOT is undertaking a pilot project experimenting with the vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) approach to taxing electric vehicles.
“We are excited over the VMT pilot,” Blair said. “The way we pay for roads needs to be overhauled.”
Another issue that has advocates of convenience stores concerned is how to ensure utilities that get into the charging station business don’t undercut the rates the retailers charge. The Senate EV bill includes a provision requiring the utilities to charge the same rates as convenience stores, but that’s not in the House bill.
If Senate Bill 146 passes the full Senate as expected, differences between the two measures likely would be resolved in a legislative conference committee.
ATLANTA – Legislation guaranteeing new rights to renters in Georgia passed the state House of Representatives unanimously this week.
House Bill 404, which now moves to the state Senate, would require rental properties to be “fit for human habitation” upon signing a lease, and landlords would be required to maintain their properties throughout the lease.
“My family moved to 16 different rental properties throughout my childhood, so I understand the problems that many tenants face on a daily basis,” said Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton, the bill’s chief sponsor.
“This legislation seeks to balance the interests of both the tenant and landlord, whose relationship sits on a foundation of livability. As a result, House Bill 404 would provide tenants with more opportunities to ensure their rental property is safe and stable.”
Carpenter’s bill also would prohibit landlords from turning off a rental home’s air conditioning prior to an eviction to force tenants to move out.
It would limit landlords from requiring a security deposit that exceeds two months’ rent. If a tenant fails to pay rent or charges owed to the landlord, the tenant would be guaranteed written notification at least three business days before an eviction proceeding could be filed.
Landlords would be required to post an eviction notice on the tenant’s front door or deliver the notice based on the stipulations of the rental agreement.
ATLANTA – The state Senate soundly rejected legislation Thursday to legalize sports betting in Georgia.
Senate Bill 57 was defeated 37-19, as senators opposed to gambling joined forces with those who believe legalizing sports betting requires a constitutional amendment.
The bill’s supporters argued it would not require a constitutional change because it would not legalize either casinos or pari-mutuel betting, the only forms of gambling expressly prohibited by Georgia’s Constitution.
Instead, the bill defines sports betting as a lottery game, which Georgia voters authorized when they ratified a constitutional amendment in 1992 creating the Georgia Lottery.
Sports betting legislation that does require a constitutional change is also pending in the state Senate.
But since it would be limited to online betting, the other Senate measure wouldn’t have significant economic impact, said Sen. Billy Hickman, R-Statesboro, Senate Bill 57’s chief sponsor.
“SB 57 creates jobs,” Hickman said. “When you just bet on sports on your phone, no jobs are created.”
Hickman cited a study conducted by Georgia Southern University last year that found sports betting could inject $1.1 billion annually into Georgia’s economy and create more than 8,500 jobs, many in rural areas of the state.
Many of those jobs would come from raising racehorses and growing hay to feed them. The bill calls for building three horse racing tracks in Georgia.
Hickman said the state share of the proceeds of sports betting under his bill would raise an estimated $250 million to $350 million per year for Georgia’s HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs.
But Sen. Marty Harbin, R-Tyrone, argued the revenue sports betting would bring in wouldn’t be worth the societal toll of expanding legalized gambling in Georgia.
“Much like drugs and alcohol, [gambling] leads to addiction,” Harbin said. “Gambling is financial foolishness. … The house always wins.”
With the defeat of Hickman’s bill, the proposed constitutional amendment is the only sports betting option still alive in the Senate.
The legislation cleared the Senate Regulated Industries Committee this week, but time is running out on the measure. It has yet to be scheduled for a floor vote, and Crossover Day – the deadline for bills to pass at least one legislative chamber – falls on Monday.
