by Dave Williams | Feb 11, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia is responding to the rapid growth of artificial technology with a new degree program.
The system’s Board of Regents voted Tuesday to create the system’s first baccalaureate program, a bachelor of science degree in applied artificial intelligence at Middle Georgia State University’s Warner Robins campus.
The AI degree program is intended to offer students a pathway to pursue careers in industries including health care, business, and cybersecurity.
Atlanta’s emergence as a tech hub is creating an increasing number of job openings in information technology, while transportation assets including the Port of Savannah and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport rely heavily on AI for supply chain optimization, route planning, and operational efficiency.
The AI program is expected to attract 65 students initially and up to 168 by its fourth year. Classes are due to begin this fall.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 11, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would prohibit state health insurance plans from paying for medical care related to changing gender.
Senate Bill 39 was adopted by Republicans on a 33-19 party-line vote.
The measure comes after a similar vote last week when the Senate passed a proposed ban on participation of transgender athletes in school sports.
Transgender people aren’t doing anything to anyone, said Sen. RaShaun Kemp, D-Atlanta.
“This is just mean-spirited legislation,” he said. “This is wrong.”
Fellow Democrats contended the bill would harm the economy by causing workers to leave the state and that it would violate the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Sen. Nikki Merrit, D-Grayson, said Republicans will use the bill to distract their constituents from issues that affect them daily, such as the price of eggs. She called it a “cheap political stunt.”
However, the chief sponsor of SB 39, Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, said he was confident the legislation was what most Georgians wanted.
“What it says is we’re not going to spend state taxpayer dollars on these surgeries,” Tillery said.
The legislation would prohibit the use of state health benefits coverage for “gender-affirming care.” It would also ban state-owned health-care facilities and physicians who work for the state from providing such care.
The legislation defines such care to include hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery.
Republicans voted down an amendment offered by Democrats that would have carved out an exception for mental health care related to gender identity. Tillery said the underlying legislation would clearly allow such services, but Democrats insisted the language was unclear.
by Dave Williams | Feb 11, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The state Department of Agriculture has lifted a suspension of poultry activities in Georgia following the successful completion of testing for bird flu with no additional detections.
Two cases of avian influenza (HPAI) were discovered last month in commercial poultry flocks in Elbert County. That outbreak prompted the state agency to suspend poultry activities across Georgia including sales at auction, flea, or livestock markets, meet ups, swaps, and exhibitions. The order exempted the retail sale of poultry products including meat and eggs.
“I’m excited to announce that both commercial poultry producers in the control area and poultry enthusiasts across our state can return to normal operations,” Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tyler Harper said Monday.
“While this announcement is a great step in the right direction, HPAI remains a significant threat to our No.-1 industry, and the Georgia Department of Agriculture will continue working around the clock to protect our state’s flocks and to keep prices as low as possible for Georgia consumers.”
Every commercial operation within 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of the affected area was subjected to increased testing and movement controls. Agency staff completed 4,541 tests representing 49,951 individual chickens and hundreds of flocks with no additional detections of HPAI.
Outbreaks of bird flu across the country have been blamed for record egg prices. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of eggs has nearly doubled from a year ago.
by Dave Williams | Feb 11, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation backed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp aimed at reining in huge jury awards supporters say cripple Georgia businesses has cleared a state Senate committee following a five-hour hearing.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-3 along party lines Monday night to advance the sweeping tort reform measure to the full Senate for consideration.
Among other things, Senate 68 would shield property owners from liability claims stemming from criminal acts committed by third parties outside of the owner’s control, allow lawyers for defendants in suits stemming from car accidents to introduce evidence showing the injured party was not wearing a seatbelt, and require plaintiffs in liability cases to show the jury their actual medical costs when the jury is deliberating on compensation.
The committee vote came after representatives of businesses including trucking companies, supermarkets, pest control companies, and hospitals complained that a civil justice system skewed against defendants is driving up insurance premiums, making it increasingly difficult for businesses to keep their doors open.
“The future of the grocery industry is at stake if something doesn’t change,” John Triplett, a grocer from Screven County, told the committee.
“We very much support plaintiffs’ access to the court system,” added Anna Adams, executive vice president for external affairs at the Georgia Hospital Association. “We just want this process to be fair.”
Opponents have argued that tort reform will let insurance companies further enrich themselves without reducing skyrocketing insurance premiums driven by climate change and the greed of insurers.
But Jimbo Floyd of Gainesville, president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Georgia, said insurance companies are losing money because of excessive jury verdicts. For example, insurance companies in Georgia paid out $1.04 in 2023 for every $1 they collected, piling up $1.28 billion in losses, he said.
“The Georgia insurance marketplace is in crisis,” Floyd said. “If we don’t act to stabilize rates, many of these business owners will be forced to close their businesses.”
After supporters spoke in favor of the bill, members of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association poked holes in each of the comprehensive measure’s provisions.
Alan Hamilton, a lawyer who represents plaintiffs in truck accident cases, said a provision prohibiting plaintiff lawyers from bringing up specific amounts or ranges of damages they are seeking until closing arguments favors high-salary plaintiffs over stay-at-home moms, children, elderly retirees, and wage earners.
“This unfairly, unequally treats the wage earner different from the executive,” he said. “It raises serious equal-protection constitutional and practical concerns.”
Personal injury lawyer Drew Ashby said allowing defense lawyers to introduce evidence showing a plaintiff in an auto accident was not wearing a seat belt has an “unbelievably prejudicial effect” on juries.
“It shifts the focus from the person who caused the crash to the victim of the crash,” he said.
Ashby also argued that it’s hard to prove a plaintiff was wearing a seat belt at the time of a crash because either the victim, first responder, or police officer typically remove the seat belt immediately after an accident.
Kemp has made tort reform a top priority for this year’s General Assembly session.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 10, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Some legislative Republicans are joining Democrats in seeking to send additional state funding to schools with students in poverty.
Supporters of House Bill 245 argue that Georgia is one of six states that has not adjusted educational funding to account for poverty and that it’s time to change that. They say students across Georgia can benefit from more counselors, tutors and subsidized meals.
“I think most Republicans understand the role that poverty plays in impairing a young person’s ability to learn, particularly some of my more rural colleagues who live in parts of the state where that school is just everything,” said Rep. Phil Olaleye, D-Atlanta.
Two of Olaleye’s GOP colleagues in the state House of Representatives joined him and three other Democrats in signing House Bill 245 when it was introduced last week.
Olaleye said it would give schools an additional $2,000 per student in poverty via the state’s Quality Basic Education formula. He estimated that about 500,000 students would qualify, bringing the tab to about $1 billion a year.
Georgia’s fiscal 2025 budget allocates $13.2 billion in state funding for public schools. With federal and other funding, schools are getting $15.5 billion to educate more than 1.7 million students. About two-thirds qualify for federally subsidized school meals, according to the Georgia Department of Education.
Schools with students in that category would qualify for extra funding under Senate Bill 128, introduced on Monday. Only Democrats signed on to that measure, which was described as a companion bill to HB 245.
Sen. Jason Esteves, D-Atlanta, is the chief co-sponsor of SB 128. He estimated the legislation, if it were to become law, would send an additional $2 billion a year in state funding to schools.
Sen. Nikki Merritt, D-Grayson, chair of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, said the state should use some of its $16 billon budget surplus to help schools with students living in poverty. But Senate Republican leaders said last week that returning surplus dollars to taxpayers is among their priorities.
