by Ty Tagami | Feb 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
Republican state senators voted Thursday to advance a bill that would expose banking institutions to lawsuits if they deny services to customers because of the way they exercised their rights under the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The measure applies to the purveyors of essential services, including utilities. But Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, the chief sponsor of Senate Bill 57, said it should be called the “Georgia ban on de-banking act” rather than “The Freedom of Speech and Belief Act,” as it is formally titled.
The bill targets banks with $1 billion or more in assets that drop customers due to “cancel culture,” Tillery said at a hearing on the bill Thursday.
Tillery had the leader of Daniel Defense testifying for the measure alongside him.
The Georgia-based firearms manufacturer became a target of criticism after one of its rifles was used in the 2022 mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Founder and chairman Marty Daniel told the senators that two banks in a row dropped his company, forcing him to spend $1 million each time on lawyers and fees to find a new source of loans.
“This is about banks discriminating against legal businesses,” Daniel said.
Representatives of the banking and credit union industries testified against the measure, saying it would invite costly frivolous lawsuits.
Rhodes McLanahan, CEO of Athens-based First American Bank & Trust, said banks are prohibited by federal law from disclosing why they won’t engage with customers if it’s due to concerns like money laundering.
Thus, they would be unable to explain why they were refusing to do business with someone, opening the door to a lawsuit under SB 57, he said.
“We will get sued,” he said. “There’s no question.”
Tillery responded to the industry’s concerns by saying he is trying to address a clear and growing problem. To illustrate his point, he referred to an exchange last week between U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisianna Republican, and Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve.
During Senate testimony, Kennedy asked Powell about “de-banking” due to reputational risk.
Powell acknowledged a possible trend and said he wanted to learn more about it.
“I, too, am troubled by the quantity of these reports,” he said.
During Thursday’s hearing, Democrats expressed concerns about SB 57, as did Georgia state Sen. John F. Kennedy, a Republican from Macon.
As Senate president pro tem, Kennedy is just below Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in the Senate hierarchy. The Senate leadership is backing a push by Gov. Brian Kemp, a fellow Republican, to limit payouts in lawsuits, Kennedy noted, adding that it was difficult to square SB 57 with that goal.
The bill would encourage lawsuits against banks, resulting in an “unfair windfall” for plaintiffs, he said.
Kennedy and at least one other Republican joined Democrats in voting against SB 57, but it still passed out of the committee on a 7-5 vote. It now heads to the Senate Rules Committee, which will decide whether to let it go to the full Senate.
by Dave Williams | Feb 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation reforming the salary structure for superior court and statewide judges in Georgia overwhelmingly cleared the state House of Representatives Thursday.
House Bill 85, which the House passed 163-7, is aimed at superior court judges, who currently are paid both a state salary and optional county subsidies.
Those local subsidies vary significantly, Rep. Rob Leverett, R-Elberton, the bill’s chief sponsor, told his House colleagues.
“That has led to a lot of disparities in pay throughout the state,” he said.
Leverett’s bill would cap local supplements paid to most superior court judges at 10% of their state salary or $20,106. The measure also includes provisions ensuring that no judge’s salary would be cut by the measure.
House Bill 86, another Leverette bill that passed 167-6, would reform the salary structure for statewide judges, including justices of the Georgia Supreme Court and state Court of Appeals as well as the judge who presides over the Statewide Business Court.
Under the bill, state Supreme Court justices would receive 100% of the salary paid to federal judges in the Northern District of Georgia. Judges on the Court of Appeals would get 99% of the federal judges’ salary, and the Statewide Business Court judge would be paid 95% of that salary.
The judge presiding over a new statewide tax court the General Assembly created last year also would get 95% of a federal judge’s salary in the Northern District.
Both bills now head to the Georgia Senate.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate moved to make cockfighting illegal in Georgia in a near unanimous vote on Thursday.
Senate Bill 102 seeks to align state and federal law, said Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, the chief sponsor of the measure.
Intentionally making birds fight is a federal crime, but local police are not empowered to enforce it, he said.
The legislation adds “game cock” to a section of Georgia code that already bans dogfighting. It would make cockfighting “for amusement or gain” — charging admission for or wagering money on such spectacles — a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. It would also be illegal to own, possess, train, transport or sell a rooster with the intent to engage it in a fight with other fowl.
The presentation offered a window into the arcane world of cockfighting, with information about the weaponry, such as gaffs, spurs and knives, used to kit out the fighting birds.
Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, said he would vote against SB 102 because of his family “heritage” — his great grandfather bred fighting roosters.
Ginn and fellow Republican Colton Moore from Trenton voted against the bill, along with Sen. Nan Orrock, an Atlanta Democrat.
It was a rare cross-party alliance, noted Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican.
“That’s worth voting again just to see these three voting together,” he quipped, after the bill passed 49-3.
Robertson noted that a similar bill passed the Senate last year but did not get through the House of Representatives, the next stop for SB 102.
by Dave Williams | Feb 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The state House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday that would put the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) in the gas business.
House Bill 51, which cleared the House 120-55, would allow municipal natural gas providers to borrow money from GEFA to expand gas supplies.
The legislation is needed particularly in rural Georgia, Rep. Leesa Hagan, R-Lyons, said on the House floor before Thursday’s vote. Hagan’s district includes all or parts of six rural counties.
“Reliable energy infrastructure is the backbone of economic growth, public safety, and quality of life in our rural communities,” Hagan said. “This bill ensures that GEFA has the necessary authority to support these critical projects.”
But freshman Rep. Gabriel Sanchez, D-Smyrna, said the bill provides a “broad solution to a specific problem.” He suggested the goal of expanding natural gas supplies in Georgia would be better left to city utility systems and private-sector utilities.
Currently, GEFA focuses on financing water and sewer projects across the state.
“Adding on another whole industry could cause hardships,” Sanchez said.
Hagan said GEFA would stick to financing gas projects under House Bill 51 and would not regulate gas systems.
The bill now moves to the Georgia Senate.
by Dave Williams | Feb 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Georgia House Republican and Democrat introduced bipartisan legislation Thursday to overhaul the system used to compensate the wrongfully convicted in Georgia.
Current law requires a person who has been exonerated after spending years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit to find a legislative sponsor to introduce a compensation resolution. The House has passed a series of such resolutions in recent years, but the Senate has refused to take them up.
“Two wrongs do not make a right,” said Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, chief sponsor of House Bill 533. “That is our challenge here.”
Dempsey’s bill would remove the General Assembly from the process of compensating wrongfully convicted Georgians. Instead, claims for compensation would be heard by administrative law judges, who would make a recommendation to the chief justice of the state Supreme Court.
“We’re trying to create a system that is fair and takes politics out of the process,” said Rep. Scott Holcomb, D-Atlanta, a cosponsor of the measure.
Exonerated individuals who are able to prove their innocence based on a “preponderance of evidence” would receive $75,000 in compensation for every year they have been incarcerated.
Holcomb said people released from prison after years behind bars are at a huge disadvantage because they can’t get a loan to start a business and haven’t been able to save for retirement.
“Is ($75,000) a fair figure? No,” he said. “Is it a reasonable figure? Yes.”
The bill has some influential Republican backing. Cosponsors include House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration, R-Mulberry, and Rep. Tyler Paul Smith, R-Bremen, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee (Non-Civil).
