by Dave Williams | Feb 1, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Republican-controlled Georgia Senate passed legislation Thursday that would mostly do away with the granting of no-cash bail to criminal suspects in Georgia.
Senate Bill 63, which passed 30-17 along party lines, would prohibit judges from ordering no-cash bail unless the accused has been charged with a crime that does not carry a jail or prison sentence.
The ban on no-cash bail would apply to a long list of violent and non-violent crimes, from murder and rape to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and such white-collar crimes as forgery and financial transaction card fraud.
The Senate passed the bill last year but couldn’t reach agreement with the state House of Representatives before the 2023 legislative session adjourned. The version of the measure that passed Thursday was a compromise reached by a joint House-Senate conference committee.
One change in the final version of the bill would ban no-cash bail for non-violent offenses including criminal trespass and theft by taking only if the suspect is being charged with a second offense.
Senate Majority Whip Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, the legislation’s chief sponsor, said getting rid of no-cash bail would “make our communities safer” at a time violent crime is on the rise.
But Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, cited FBI statistics showing crime in the United States has declined in recent years. For example, property crime is at its lowest level since 1961, McLaurin said.
“This bill is a ‘solution’ to a problem that doesn’t exist,” he said.
McLaurin also argued that expanding the ban on no-cash bail in Georgia would worsen jail overcrowding by taking away the discretion judges enjoy under current law to release criminal suspects who they believe are not a threat to public safety or a flight risk.
“Instead of giving judges the tools they need, we’re squeezing judges … forcing them to put more people behind bars,” he said.
But Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee, said the inmate population at the Fulton County Jail – which had been the most overcrowded in the state – has come down in recent months.
The conference committee report now heads to the Georgia House for an up-or-down vote.
by Dave Williams | Feb 1, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The state Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation Thursday to legalize sports betting in Georgia, but only after approving a major change in the bill that would require a statewide referendum on the measure.
Under Senate Bill 386, which passed 35-15, the Georgia Lottery Corp. would oversee sports betting, awarding licenses to 16 online sports betting providers.
Five licenses would go to Atlanta’s pro sports teams: the Braves, Falcons, Hawks, Dream, and Atlanta United. The Augusta National Golf Club, the Professional Golf Association (PGA), and the Atlanta Motor Speedway would receive one license each.
Seven licenses would be open to sports betting providers through an application process overseen by lottery officials. The lottery corporation also would receive one license.
The bill calls for 20% of the adjusted gross revenues derived from sports betting to go toward Georgia’s HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs.
The bill’s supporters argued sports betting is happening already in Georgia without any ability for the state to regulate the industry or obtain tax revenue from betting. If legalized, sports betting would provide at least $100 million a year to HOPE and pre-k.
“It is a new funding source,” said Sen. Harold Jones, D-Augusta. “We are leaving a new source of funding on the table if we don’t move forward.”
The original bill, sponsored by Sen. Clint Dixon, R-Buford, would legalize sports betting without taking the issue to Georgia voters in the form of a constitutional amendment. Changing the state’s constitution requires a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate, supermajorities sports betting supporters have been unable to muster during past legislative sessions.
But legalizing sports betting should require a constitutional amendment, just as the Georgia Lottery did when the General Assembly approved the lottery back in the early 1990s, said Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens.
Cowsert, who is sponsoring separate sports betting legislation that would require a constitutional change, amended Dixon’s bill on the Senate floor Thursday to mandate a constitutional amendment before sports betting could become law in Georgia.
Cowsert said sports betting was never contemplated in the 1992 referendum Georgia voters approved creating the lottery.
“There’s no way the people of Georgia … believed it would authorize the General Assembly to say sports betting is a lottery game,” he said. “To pass this bill without making it contingent on the voters is disingenuous at best.”
Senators approved Cowsert’s amendment 30-17 before passing the underlying bill. The legislation now moves to the state House of Representatives.
