ATLANTA – Legislation legalizing sports betting in Georgia that the state Senate passed last month got its first hearing Tuesday in the state House of Representatives.
Under Senate Bill 386, the Georgia Lottery Corp. would oversee sports betting, awarding licenses to 16 sports betting providers, Sen. Clint Dixon, R-Buford, the bill’s chief sponsor, told members of the House Higher Education Committee.
Five licenses would go to Atlanta’s professional 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.
The other seven “untethered” licenses would be open to sports betting providers through a bidding process. The lottery corporation also would receive one license.
The bill would dedicate 20% of the adjusted gross revenues derived from sports betting to Georgia’s HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs.
The original version of the Senate measure called for legalizing sports betting without a constitutional amendment that would put the issue before Georgia voters in a statewide referendum. But an amendment was added to the bill on the Senate floor requiring a constitutional amendment before sports betting could become law.
The Senate also has passed a sports betting constitutional amendment in a separate resolution. It differs from Senate Bill 386 in several respects, including a provision setting aside a portion of the tax revenue from sports betting for an education program on the dangers of problem gambling.
During Monday’s hearing on the bill, both committee members and lobbyists suggested changes to Senate Bill 386, including a provision that would add fantasy sports to the mix.
Stuart Wilkinson, director of government affairs for Atlanta-based PrizePicks, a fantasy sports operator, said adding fantasy sports could generate $40 million to $50 million a year in Georgia on top of the estimated $100 million sports betting could be expected to raise in the Peach State annually.
Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton, said the House should consider limiting the number of wagers a bettor could make over a daily or weekly period as a way to address problem gambling.
“This kind of protection will go a long way to addressing problem gambling,” he said.
Rep. Rick Jasperse, R-Jasper, said any funds put toward problem gambling should come from the sports betting operators, not out of the state’s share of the proceeds.
“I don’t think it should come out of the money the state is going to get,” he said. “It ought to come our of their hide.”
Representatives of several faith-based groups spoke out in opposition to legalizing sports betting. They argued sports betting is a particularly addictive form of gambling that tends to prey upon young men.
“This kind of gambling is nothing more than state-sponsored predatory gambling,” said Mike Griffin, public affairs representative for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.
Paul Smith, executive director of the Christian public policy organization Citizen Impact, said the odds in any referendum on sports betting would be stacked against the opponents of legalized gambling.
“If it does go to the voters … history tells us the gambling industry will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to convince Georgians this is good for Georgia,” he said.
The committee did not vote on the bill Tuesday. Committee Chairman Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, said lawmakers have a lot of work ahead to make sure Dixon’s bill jives with the language in Senate Resolution 579, the constitutional amendment passed by the Senate.
Georgia Commissioner of Economic Development Pat Wilson
ATLANTA – The state’s top economic development official expressed disappointment Monday with electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian’s decision to delay building a new plant east of Atlanta but said the company remains committed to Georgia.
“It stings,” Georgia Commissioner of Economic Development Pat Wilson told members of a state Senate budget subcommittee. “(But) this company has said they will live up to all their promises and commitments. … Until we hear otherwise, this is an active project.”
Rivian executives announced last Thursday a pause in the company’s plans to invest $5 billion in an EV plant near Covington that would create 7,500 jobs. Instead, Rivian will manufacture its new R2 midsize SUV model at an existing plan in Normal, Ill.
To land the deal, the state and the local development authority offered Rivian $1.5 billion in incentives including tax credits, a 25-year no-cost lease, and $198.1 million in site and road improvements on 1,978 acres.
Thus far, the state and the Joint Development Authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton, and Walton Counties have spent $141 million to acquire the property, prepare the site and drain wetlands, Wilson said Monday.
For its part, Rivian has made two payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) to the development authority totaling $3 million. Sixty percent of those payments will go to local school systems, he said.
“The payments don’t stop because they’re paused,” Wilson told the subcommittee. “The community is going receive a benefit even though there’s no active construction.”
Under an agreement Rivian signed off on in 2022, the company must fulfill at least 80% of its investment and jobs commitments by the end of 2030. Rivian has committed to maintaining those timelines.
“We’re under the obligation to allow them to live up to their commitment,” Wilson said.
Several senators said they were uncomfortable with letting the site sit empty potentially until the end of 2030 waiting for Rivian to fulfill its part of the deal.
Wilson said he expects Rivian’s intentions for the site likely will become clear well before 2030. If the company doesn’t come through on the project, the site is attractive enough that it won’t be hard to find another manufacturing tenant, he said.
“We would have no trouble at all filling that spot,” he said.
Committee members differed in their expectations for what will happen with Rivian.
“There is a distinct difference between a pause and a pullout,” said Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, chairman of the Senate Republican Caucus.
But Senate Majority Whip Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, was less hopeful.
“If they come back to Georgia and start making good on their promises, I’ll be the guy who says, ‘I’m surprised,’ ” he said.
ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation Monday aimed at “swatting,” false reports of criminal activity that send police to the homes or offices of targeted victims.
The bill, which passed 162-2, increases penalties for those found guilty of making swatting calls, mandating a prison sentence of 10 to 15 years and a fine of at least $25,000 upon conviction of a third offense. First and second offenses would require lesser prison terms and fines.
Incidents of swatting calls targeting politicians have been on the rise. During the last three months, three Republican state senators, a Democratic state senator, GOP Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, have been targeted by swatting calls.
“New techniques like AI (artificial intelligence) … have made swatting calls more of a headache for law enforcement,” state Rep. Deborah Silcox, R-Sandy Springs, said Monday.
Rep. Tyler Paul Smith, R-Bremen, said swatting calls typically cost law enforcement agencies – and, thus, taxpayers – $15,000 to $25,000.
The state Senate passed the bill unanimously late last month. The House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee added a section to the measure that creates the crime of drive-by shootings, punishable by a prison sentence of five years to 20.
The legislation clears up confusion over existing laws governing drive-by shootings, said Rep. Matt Reeves, R-Duluth, who carried Senate Bill 421 in the House.
“This makes it clear: Do not shoot at a dwelling. Do not shoot at a car,” he said.
A 3-year-old Athens boy was shot and killed during a drive-by shooting over the weekend while watching television in his home.
“Drive-by shootings are incredibly dangerous … often for bystanders,” said House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula. “Cleaning up the statute is necessary.”
Because of the changes made by the House, the bill must return to the Senate before gaining final passage.
ATLANTA – Georgia tax collections continued to fall last month, and even the gasoline sales tax failed to lift the state out of the red.
Net tax receipts in February totaled more than $2.03 billion, down 4.3% compared to the same month last year.
Year to date, tax revenues, are up 1.1% compared to the first eight months of fiscal 2023. The increase was driven by the gasoline tax, which was suspended during those months last year. Not counting the gas tax revenues, year-to-date tax collections actually declined by 3.1%.
Individual income taxes fell by 18.9% last month compared to February of last year, with refunds issued by the state Department of Revenue increasing by 53.5% and payments to the state agency declining by 3.1%.
Net sales tax collections bucked the downward trend, increasing by 3.2%.
Typically volatile corporate income tax receipts also rose by 84.4%, as payments to the state shot up by 141.3%.
Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia lawmakers aren’t overly concerned about the red ink. The state has built up a $16 billion surplus during the last three years, allowing the governor and legislature to give state and university system employees and public-school teachers healthy pay raises.
The $36.1 billion fiscal 2025 state budget, which cleared the Georgia House of Representatives last week, increases spending by $3.6 billion – or 11% – over the original fiscal 2024 spending plan the General Assembly adopted last spring.
ATLANTA – Every member of Georgia’s congressional delegation running for reelection this year will face at least one opponent.
But as Qualifying Week at the state Capitol ended on Friday, the most interesting congressional race will be for the only open seat in the 14-member delegation. With U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-West Point, leaving office, seven Republicans had signed up to run in the heavily Republican 3rd Congressional District when the qualifying deadline fell at noon.
The list includes several former state legislators: former state Sens. Mike Dugan of Carrollton, who served as Senate majority leader for three two-year terms; former Sen. Mike Crane of Newnan, who served two terms and part of a third in the state Senate, and former state Rep. Philip Singleton, also from Newnan, who was elected in 2019 but fell victim to legislative redistricting in 2021.
While 10 of the 13 congressional incumbents seeking reelection will not face a primary challenge, three others will have win party primaries on May 21 to advance to the general election in November.
Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, who is running for another two-year term in the newly redrawn 6th Congressional District, is being challenged for the Democratic nomination by Cobb County Commissioner Jerica Richardson and state Rep. Mandisha Thomas of South Fulton. In the 11th Congressional District, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, will face two challengers in the Republican primary.
But the congressional incumbent facing the most opponents from inside his party is Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta. Scott’s 13th District – like McBath’s 6th District – was significantly redrawn by the General Assembly’s Republican majorities late last year, leaving him with a lot of new constituents.
Six Democrats qualified this week to challenge Scott in the upcoming primary, including Marcus Flowers, the Democrat who ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, in 2022.
Unlike the congressional landscape, where every incumbent is being opposed in a party primary and/or the general election, 26 incumbent state senators will get to relax during this election year because they didn’t draw any opposition.
Sixteen Republican state senators and 10 Democrats skated through Qualifying Week unchallenged and, thus, have automatically won another two-year term under the Gold Dome.
Four of the 56 Georgia Senate seats are being vacated by incumbents deciding not to seek reelection. Republican Sen. Shelly Echols of Gainesville, who chaired the Senate redistricting committee that redrew the Senate maps last year, announced Friday that she is leaving office after serving a single term.
Longtime Democratic Sens. Horacena Tate of Atlanta, who has missed this year’s legislative session due to illness, and Valencia Seay of Riverdale also did not qualify to seek reelection this week. Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain, announced late last month that she will leave office this year.
The three open Democratic state Senate seats drew a flurry of interest from Democrats this week. Eighteen Democrats qualified to seek those seats, including former Rep. Randall Mangham, who is running to succeed Butler.
Nadine Thomas, another former Democratic lawmaker who left the Senate way back in 2005, qualified in Senate District 44, where she will take on incumbent Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, in the Democratic primary. The new Senate map moved Parent’s district east and south to include part of Clayton County, where Thomas lives.
In the Georgia House, eight incumbents have opted not to seek reelection. The most prominent departure is that of House Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon. Other Democrats leaving office at the end of this year include Reps. Pedro “Pete” Marin of Duluth, Gloria Frazier of Hephzibah, Gregg Kinnard of Lawrenceville, and Doug Stoner of Smyrna.
On the Republican side, the retirees include Reps. Penny Houston of Nashville, Clay Pirkle of Ashburn, and David Knight of Griffin.
Two Democratic House members – Reps. Becky Evans and Saira Draper of Atlanta – will face off in the Democratic primary after being put inside the same House district during the redistricting session.
Not surprisingly, House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, qualified to run for reelection unopposed.
AT A GLANCE
Here is the list of candidates who qualified for congressional seats this week:
