by Ty Tagami | Nov 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Drivers saw rising auto insurance bills in recent years, yet the industry was not seeing gains, an advocate told state lawmakers Friday.
Companies offering commercial, health and life insurance were posting ever higher pre-tax operating gains, but not those in the auto and home insurance segments, said Robert Passmore of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.
Data he presented to a special committee of the House of Representatives showed industry gains in that “personal” insurance segment falling below zero in mid-2021 before bending back up later that year but still in the red in 2023.
Passmore blamed more aggressive, speedy and distracted driving — and more expensive repairs.
As vehicles have become more computerized, even once-simple repairs, like replacing a windshield, have become more costly, due to onboard cameras and sensors.
“The average car on the road is about 12 years old in the United States right now,” he said. “And a large part of those right now don’t have that kind of technology. So, those kinds of expenses are only going to increase.”
But people in the auto repair industry complained that insurance companies have not been covering the full cost of those repairs.
Jason Babb, owner of Babb’s Body Shop in Chatsworth, asked lawmakers to support legislation that prohibits insurers from denying claims when a shop follows the manufacturer’s repair procedures.
“It would protect consumers by ensuring that required safety inspections, scans, and calibrations are treated as standard reimbursable parts of a repair, not optional add-ons to be argued over claim by claim,” Babb said. “And it would keep all Georgia shops on a level playing field so the shops that are doing the right thing aren’t punished when compared to those who are cutting corners.”
Passmore countered that such laws in other states have driven up insurance rates, and he contended that auto manufacturers’ repair standards can be self-serving, requiring shops to use their official parts.
Two reasons for rising consumer costs may be difficult to counter because they are rooted in behavior.
A team of 35 agents at the state office of Insurance and Safety Fire has been investigating about 10,000 reports of insurance fraud a year, said Bryce Rawson, who handles legislative affairs for the agency.
“We rank third in the nation in terms of questionable claims,” he said.
Joshua Carroll, a Macon lawyer and president of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, said the number of wrecks has risen over the past 15 years, tracking the market saturation of smartphones.
And for some reason, Georgia has become a magnet for crashes. “We have double the amount of wrecks in Georgia of the national average,” he said. “That’s really a breathtaking statistic.”
by Ty Tagami | Nov 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA —Georgia students who miss too much school could wind up losing their rights to drive or to play sports.
Those were among the recommendations of a legislative study committee that completed its work Thursday.
A growing number of students are missing a tenth or more of each school year, a problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
If left unchecked, it will become a major problem for the state, said Sen. John F. Kennedy, R-Macon, who led the committee.
“It’s all about the kids, but it’s also an economic issue for the state of Georgia. It is a workforce issue for the state of Georgia,” said Kennedy, who stepped down this summer as the Senate president pro tem to run for lieutenant governor.
The bipartisan committee voted unanimously on a host of recommendations that could turn into legislation.
Among the proposals were punitive approaches, including temporary suspension of licenses and of participation in team sports for chronically absent students. There were also recommendations that require more support for families, mandating that schools intervene thoroughly before referring students to juvenile court.
The lawmakers also talked of banning cellphones in high schools.
Sen. Shawn Still, R-Johns Creek, the majority caucus chair of the Senate, said chronic absenteeism will join literacy and social media as the top three educational concerns next year.
Another Senate study committee recently concluded its research into the impact of social media and smartphones on Georgia children.
That committee was convened after tech companies sued to block a new state law that sought to limit their access to children.
That committee has yet to issue recommendations, but co-chair Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, talked of targeting social media algorithms and of including high schools in the state’s ban on cellphones in elementary and middle schools, which takes effect next fall.
The members of the absenteeism study committee heard from national, regional and state experts about the manifold causes of absenteeism. Poverty and the fear of bullying were top reasons.
On Thursday, Carol Lewis, the president and CEO of Communities in Schools of Georgia, described fundamental unmet needs.
Providing feminine hygiene products had improved attendance, she said, adding that a lack of clothing and washing machines were another obstacle.
Lewis, whose nonprofit supports students at risk of dropping out in a quarter of Georgia’s school districts, described one student who collected rainwater to wash his clothes.
She asked the senators to imagine a child who had to sleep in school clothes with a bed-wetting little brother.
“You know what you smell like, and you’re having to sit in class all day,” Lewis said. “They’re going to try to find a way not to be there. And that happens regularly.”
Another nonprofit that offers mental health services in a handful of Georgia middle and high schools said anxiety was a common unaddressed problem. Dr. Juliana Chen, the chief medical officer for Cartwheel Care, asked lawmakers to increase funding to cover services in elementary schools, as well.
When Still calculated that the additional cost of $20,000 for each of Georgia’s more than 1,800 elementary schools would pencil out to $34 million for the state budget, Democrat RaShaun Kemp of Atlanta was stunned.
“That is a large amount,” the senator said.
by Ty Tagami | Nov 19, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — An alleged international drug king pin from China accused of trafficking cocaine and fentanyl in Atlanta using operations based in Mexico was arraigned in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn Wednesday, where he was accused of a host of crimes that could land him in prison for life.
Zhi Dong Zhang, 38, was extradited from Mexico last month, where the U.S. Department of Justice accused him of working on behalf of major cartels.
“Zhang’s transnational network was allegedly intricate, well-coordinated, and well-funded,” said Theodore S. Hertzberg, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd W. Blanche said Zhang is accused of running a global enterprise that pumped “massive quantities” of cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine into American communities, causing addiction, violence and death.
The indictment against Zhang in Georgia accuses him of negotiating and coordinating delivery of 11 kilograms of cocaine and one kilogram of fentanyl to Atlanta for distribution in 2022. It says he oversaw stash houses in Georgia and California where drug money was held before being deposited in banks, with 150 companies, 170 bank accounts and about $20 million in proceeds involved.
The indictment against Zhang in the Eastern District of New York traced seizures of 46 kilograms of cocaine, 58 kilograms of methamphetamine, and nearly 7 kilograms of fentanyl to the organization he allegedly ran.
It says he laundered $77 million through more than 100 shell companies with bank accounts opened by recruits called “banqueros.” They were allegedly supervised from Mexico, where coordinators booked their travel and provided fake Social Security Numbers.
“This arrest represents a critical milestone in a long-running investigation into an alleged high-level narcotics trafficker with international reach,” said Robert J. Murphy, Special Agent in Charge in Atlanta for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
by Ty Tagami | Nov 18, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — With home costs rising beyond the reach of many Georgians, builders and developers are pushing for new limits on local control over construction permitting.
State lawmakers heard Tuesday about legislation that would impose strict deadlines on local governments to issue permits. House Bill 812 would also empower the state to override local building requirements that go above the “minimum standard” in Georgia law.
“I’ve heard horror stories of the length of time it takes for contractors to get a building permit,” said Rep. Mike Cheokas, R-Americus, the chief co-sponsor of the legislation. The delays cost builders and developers money, driving up the price of their product, he said. “This is one of the many things we can do to address affordable housing.”
City and county building departments already have a 45-day deadline to issue permits, but questions that arise during the plan review process can reset the timer.
HB 812 would prevent that, setting a hard deadline. It would also empower the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to reject changes to local building standards that exceed what the state requires.
Currently, the agency only lodge objections to such changes.
“There’s no teeth to it,” said Austin Hackney, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Georgia. “If the department says, ‘don’t adopt that amendment,’ the locals can do it anyway.”
Jerry Parrish, chief economist for the Metro Atlanta Chamber, said the number of residential building permits issued statewide peaked at 70,000 a couple years ago. That is how many were issued annually in metro Atlanta alone before the 2008 Great Recession, he said.
Parrish said higher interest rates and materials costs combined with a shortage of construction workers had contributed to the slowdown and to accelerating costs.
But several industry advocates blamed local government, with one complaining about the number of plan reviews required, including for mosquito prevention in one jurisdiction.
Local government advocates pushed back, saying the industry itself was to blame for its permitting woes.
Many smaller homebuilders have gone out of business, said Noah Roenitz, with the Georgia Municipal Association. In their place have come “large nationwide syndicates” that build big and complicated developments. Too often, he said, they file inadequate plans that require numerous, time-consuming revisions.
“The permitting process is not being used or weaponized,” he said.
Katie Parker, a development approval administrator for Cherokee County government, gave an example of one applicant who submitted plans to her department that bore the name of Gwinnett County.
Environmental advocates said loose soil from dirt roads and unregulated construction were a top river pollutant. They advised caution with any new restrictions on local oversight, with one calling the tighter approval deadlines mandated in HB 812 “crazy low” given current staffing levels in plan review agencies.
by Ty Tagami | Nov 17, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A state legislative committee is eyeing cutbacks in $30 billion worth of tax credits and tax exemptions to offset the potential elimination of an income tax that generates $16 billion for state government.
“It is not a question of if we go to zero, it’s when and how we take our income tax to zero,” said Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, leader of the Special Committee on Eliminating Georgia’s Income Tax. “It’s an issue of competitiveness.”
Senators heard Monday from three invited speakers who advocated for eliminating the 5.19% income tax.
Patrice Onwuka, director of the Independent Women’s Center for Economic Opportunity, said half of the state’s residents live paycheck to paycheck and could use a tax break.
Arthur Laffer described consequences for population, productivity and tax revenue in states that adopted an income tax, and he pointed to gains in states that eliminated their income tax, including his home state of Tennessee.
He said it’s “really cool” not having to file an income tax return and that it is a form of taxation that undermines economies.
“The income tax is the single biggest major tax killer of growth,” said Laffer, a retired professor who advised President Ronald Reagan on economic policy and is associated with “supply-side” economics theory.
Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, noted that Georgia already has a thriving economy and that many of the states that eliminated their income tax subsequently raised their sales tax rate.
Economists have long held that a sales tax is more painful for low-income people than an income tax, and Orrock said retirees would be among those disproportionately affected.
But Tillery, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and is running for lieutenant governor, had delivered to the other senators more than 200 pages of documents detailing $30 billion in tax credits and tax exemptions in Georgia law. He said those could be eliminated to make up revenue lost by eliminating the income tax, instead of raising the sales tax rate.
The final speaker, Kyle Wingfield, president and CEO of the fiscally conservative Georgia Public Policy Foundation, offered two policy approaches to accompany income tax cuts.
First, Georgia could place some of its billions in reserves into an emergency fund to hedge against unexpected budget shortfalls. Second, lawmakers could set “revenue triggers” that would only allow income tax cuts if overall tax revenue grew.
