by Dave Williams | Jan 13, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday he will ask the General Assembly to provide an additional $50 million in state grants to improve security in Georgia schools.
The added funding would bring the total for the current fiscal year to $158 million, Kemp said during a news conference at the state Capitol.
“This is going to keep our students, teachers, and school systems safer,” he said.
The issue of school safety has taken on greater urgency under the Gold Dome since last September’s mass shooting at Apalachee High School near Winder that killed two students and two teachers. A 14-year-old student was arrested at the scene and charged with the murders.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones credited the school-safety grant program with reducing the potential carnage at the school in Barrow County.
“Had we not made that investment, the tragedy that hit Apalachee could have been much worse,” he said.
The added funding for school safety would be enough to give each school in the state $68,760.
Kemp said local school systems would be given discretion over how to use the money.
“They know their schools and their needs better than we do,” he said.
However, legislation the General Assembly passed in 2023 requires schools to submit safety plans to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency in order to receive the funds.
by Dave Williams | Jan 13, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate’s Republican majority voted Monday to reauthorize a committee formed last year to investigate Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ role in the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump.
Willis has refused to comply with subpoenas the Senate Special Committee on Investigations has issued calling for her to testify before the panel and bring documents related to the case. A Fulton Superior Court Judge upheld the subpoenas late last month, a ruling Willis has vowed to appeal.
In a separate decision last month, the state Court of Appeals disqualified Willis from the case, ruling that her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to lead the prosecution, constituted an appearance of impropriety. But the committee still has unfinished business, Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the panel’s vice chairman, said on the Senate floor Monday.
“We are focused on the potential for enactment of new laws with state implications,” he said.
Dolezal added that the committee’s findings also may have implications for the state budget.
The committee met five times last year, with much of the testimony involving Fulton County’s procurement processes when it comes to hiring outside contractors like Wade.
On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones, D-Augusta, who served on the committee last year, called it a waste of time.
“We learned nothing about anything that impacts the lives of Georgians,” he said.
Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, said the committee was a politically motivated effort by Republicans aimed at Willis’ prosecution of former President Donald Trump, indicted by a Fulton County grand jury in 2023 on charges of participating in a scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
With now-President-elect Trump set to take the oath of office next Monday, the Fulton case is essentially on hold.
“This is a fixation on the past driven primarily by the obsessions of one man who is going to be president in a week,” McLaurin said.
But Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, said the committee was formed out of a legitimate need to hold Willis accountable for her actions in the case.
“Let’s finish the work of this very important committee,” he said.
The Senate approved the resolution reauthoring the committee 33-23, voting along party lines.
by Dave Williams | Jan 13, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The General Assembly gaveled into session Monday with the usual pageantry and little of the heavy lifting that will be required to make it through the 40-day session.
House lawmakers voted 153-21 to reelect Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, to preside over the chamber during the next two years.
“I like doing that!” Burns said as he brought the gavel down to open the 2025 legislative session. “Let’s get to work.”
Burns vowed to support “strong, common-sense policy” in keeping with the Republican-controlled House’s track record of tax cuts, cracking down on illegal immigration, and investing in critical infrastructure.
Over in the Senate, John Kennedy, R-Macon, was reelected president pro tempore by unanimous consent of his Senate colleagues. Rep. Jan Jones, R-Milton, won another term as House speaker pro tempore by a vote of 158-19.
Eighteen of the 180 House members took the oath of office for the first time, while four newly minted Senate freshmen were sworn in on the Senate side of the Capitol.
At the opposite end of the time-served spectrum, Sen. David Lucas, D-Macon, began his 50th legislative session under the Gold Dome.
“It’s been a good 50 years,” said Lucas, who was elected to the Georgia House in 1974 and moved over to the Senate in 2012. “I never thought I’d be here that long.”
Monday kicked off a busy week for the General Assembly. Lawmakers will hear Gov. Brian Kemp outline his priorities for the session Tuesday morning at the annual Eggs and Issues breakfast sponsored by the Georgian Chamber of Commerce. Then on Thursday, the governor will deliver his annual State of the State message to a joint session of the House and Senate.
The legislature also set the full 40-day schedule for the session on Monday, voting to adjourn for the year on Friday, April 4. Crossover Day, the deadline for bills to pass either the House or Senate to remain alive for the session, will take place on Thursday, March 6.
by Dave Williams | Jan 10, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The General Assembly will convene under the Gold Dome on Monday with the usual mix of old and new business on its plate.
Supporters of perennial to-do items including tort reform and legalized sports betting will be back for another crack at getting their favorite causes through the legislature and to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
At the same time, new demands for funding for victims of Hurricane Helene and to improve conditions inside the much-maligned state prison system will vie for attention. Lawmakers also will be asked to respond to the school shooting in Barrow County last September with legislation aimed at ensuring safe storage of firearms.
Kemp has made tort reform a major priority for the second year in a row. The General Assembly passed a Kemp-backed bill last year directing the state insurance department to gather data on legal trends affecting insurance premiums and prepare a report.
At a roundtable with small business leaders last August, the governor vowed to use that data to help craft legislation aimed at reducing “runaway” jury awards that drive up premiums business owners struggle to pay.
Opponents warn that if carried too far, tort reform threatens to rob Georgians injured in car crashes or by medical malpractice of their day in court.
“Ensuring that Georgia remains the No.-1 state for business while also protecting the rights of consumers requires a balanced approach to litigation reform,” said House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington. “We will be driven by the facts, gather input from constituents and stakeholders from across the state and look at thoughtful, data-driven solutions to balance the scales.”
Legalized gambling is another issue the General Assembly has taken up repeatedly in recent years without passing. Armed with a new poll showing widespread public support for legalizing sports betting, an alliance of sportsbooks including FanDuel and DraftKings will be back asking lawmakers to legalize what already is legal in 39 other states.
“Illegal sports betting is happening in the state, but they don’t pay taxes,” said Scott Ward, a national expert on sports betting and counsel to the alliance. “People are realizing this is here. We need to put guardrails around it, regulate it, and tax it.”
Faith-based organizations also will be back at the state Capitol opposing legalizing sports betting on moral grounds and as an economic threat to Georgians addicted to gambling.
While tort reform and legalized gambling have sparked annual tussles in the General Assembly, new demands to tap into Georgia’s bulging budget surplus promise to play major roles in 2025.
In Athens last month, Kemp pledged to unveil a Hurricane Helene disaster relief package at the beginning of the legislative session. The massive storm struck South Georgia and spread north through the Augusta area in late September, killing 34 and causing heavy rainfall and widespread flooding as well as extensive power outages.
“We’ve gone through probably the most damaging storm in our history … lasting and generational damage,” the governor said. “We saw unbelievable damage and communities that will probably never be the same.”
The importance of improving conditions inside Georgia’s prison system was brought home Jan. 7 when Kemp and state Commissioner of Corrections Tyrone Olive asked lawmakers to pony up $372 million to hire more correctional officers, raise the salaries of those already on the payroll, and invest in infrastructure upgrades needed to improve the health and safety of inmates.
The spending request was highly unusual, coming before the start of this year’s legislative session, but Kemp and legislative leaders see the need as critical following the release of a U.S. Justice Department audit last fall accusing the prison system of violating inmates’ constitutional rights by failing to protect them from widespread violence.
“We need to make sure our guards are adequately compensated,” Burns said. “(Also, inmates) need to be protected when they go to prison.”
The legislature also is expected to respond to the mass shooting at Apalachee High School near Winder last September that killed two students and two teachers. A fellow student was arrested at the scene and charged with the murders, while his father faces criminal charges for allegedly letting his son possess the AR-15 style rifle used in the killings.
While the Republican-controlled General Assembly is not likely to support legislation requiring gun owners to buy trigger locks or gun safes to safely store their firearms, a proposal to offer tax credits as an incentive to those who do enjoys broad support.
But state Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, who chaired a Senate study committee on safe firearm storage last year, said that’s not enough. Jones said lawmakers should require school districts to improve how they communicate with each other when a student moves into a new school.
Colt Gray, the 14-year-old student arrested in the Barrow County case, had recently transferred to Apalachee High.
“When a kid transfers to a new school system, any information his former school system has doesn’t automatically get transferred to the new school system,” Jones said. “That needs to be changed.”
by Dave Williams | Jan 10, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., is taking his efforts to improve mail delivery in Georgia to the state’s veterans.
“In addition to issues with receiving prescription medications over the mail, I have heard from constituents that notices for Veterans Affairs claim exams are not being delivered in a timely manner,” Ossoff wrote in a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy dated Wednesday. “These notices with time-sensitive information, such as appointment information, must be delivered on time.
“Access to medical information in a timely manner is vital for the wellbeing and health of all veterans who have served our nation. “I urge you to investigate these issues specific to veterans’ health care.”
Ossoff has been pressuring DeJoy for nearly a year to resolve delays in mail delivery Georgia families and businesses have been facing.
Delays first surfaced last winter after the postal service opened a new regional mail distribution center in Palmetto. In April, Ossoff reported that only 36% of inbound mail handled by the center was being delivered on time.
DeJoy attributed the delays to problems launching a postal service restructuring plan aimed at making the agency financially self-sufficient. He put the plan on hold while the postal service works to resolve the issues encountered in Georgia.
While DeJoy said last May the problem would be fixed within 60 days, Ossoff said during a Senate committee hearing last month that he is still getting complaints of delays in delivering important mail.
Ossoff introduced legislation last September that would make the position of postmaster general subject to a presidential appointment with confirmation required by the Senate, similar to other administration positions.
President-elect Donald Trump has talked about privatizing the postal service.
