ATLANTA — Forget paper money. Georgia senators want to legalize using gold and silver for everyday purchases.
The Senate passed a bill last week that would set up a system for Georgians to buy gold, store it in a depository, and use a debit card to spend it on items such as fast food or milkshakes.
Senators are selling gold as a hedge against inflation of the U.S. dollar, but skeptics say gold doesn’t necessarily protect hard-earned cash from rising prices.
Sen. Marty Harbin, R-Tyrone, the sponsor of Senate Bill 424, said making gold legal tender will bring “financial freedom” to Georgians.
“It’s really true money, because paper money is currency that we have the faith of the government in it,” Harbin said. “This is hard currency that we can own.”
The bill passed on a bipartisan 29-21 vote Friday and now advances to the House.
Under the legislation, a politically appointed “Bullion Depository Commission” would contract with a private company, such as Brinks, to provide vault and electronic payment systems for gold and silver.
Critics say the idea doesn’t make financial sense.
For Georgians are trying to avoid inflation, investing in gold also comes with risks, said Campbell Harvey, a finance professor at Duke University with expertise in decentralized finance and investment management.
“Gold is as volatile as the stock market. There is no guarantee that it will provide a hedge for inflation in the short term,” Harvey said. “What if inflation surges and the price of gold goes down? This is not, in my opinion, the business that a state should engage in.”
Instead of buying gold directly, Georgians could instead purchase it through an exchange-traded fund, which has lower costs and security issues, Harvey said. Gold is near record-high values today, but he said buying at a high point is often an investing mistake.
The bill calls for the costs of gold storage to be paid in the form of storage fees charged to Georgia residents who choose to use it. Harbin said public money wouldn’t be used to run the depository.
Several other states recognize gold as legal tender, including Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Texas, and Utah.
Legislators also moved forward with another bill that would change transactions.
The price of products sold in-person in Georgia would be rounded down to the nearest five cents, according to House Bill 1112, which passed the House on Friday. The bill is a response to the Trump administration’s decision to stop making pennies.
ATLANTA — Georgia has some of the loosest gun laws in the nation, but a bill to remove the state’s restriction on silencers tested lawmakers’ limits.
The gun silencer bill fell four votes short in the House on Friday, a rare defeat for pro-gun proposals in Georgia.
Other bills that expand protections for gun owners advanced, including legislation strengthening Georgia’s “stand your ground” law and a measure banning cities from passing local gun storage laws.
Meanwhile, a proposal to provide Georgians a tax credit worth up to $300 for the purchase of gun safes stalled in the Senate this year. The latest version of House Bill 79 creates a tax holiday for the purchase of firearms and only allows the tax credit to pay for gun safety classes, not for gun safes.
“They’re very much ignoring the problem” of gun violence, said Heather Hallett, director for Georgia Majority for Gun Safety. “They haven’t adjusted to this reality where we know the majority of people support our principles. They can vote on gun safety.”
Georgia Majority for Gun Safety supports universal background checks for gun purchases, secure storage requirements, red flag laws that take guns from those whom a judge deems to be a threat, and funding for secure storage education.
Gun rights advocates said they’re disappointed the bill lifting Georgia’s limits on silencers fell short in the House. A similar bill passed the Senate.
State law bans possessing silencers unless Georgians pass a federal background check.
James Rankhorn, president of the gun rights group GA2A, said if the courts rule the federal requirement is illegal, silencers would then become prohibited for everyone in Georgia.
Rankhorn said lawmakers shouldn’t try to restrict firearms or silencers to address gun violence, including school shootings such as the killing of two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Barrow County in 2024.
“I don’t think there is an answer in state law. Anytime there’s a catastrophe, people bounce these proposals around,” Rankhorn said. “When you look at the situation and look at the law they proposed and compare it to the event that sparked the discussion, they law they proposed would not have stopped the incident.”
A jury found the Colin Gray, the father of the teenager accused of the Apalachee school shooting, guilty last week of second-degree murder and several other crimes.
Gray said he bought his son the rifle used in the shooting for Christmas, and witnesses in the trial said he allowed his son to keep the rifle in his bedroom. Prosecutors said Gray ignored years of warnings from mental health professionals, the kind of concerns that gun safety advocates say could have triggered a “red flag” law if Georgia had one.
Rep. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, said in the House on Friday she resented that Georgia legislators were seriously considering a bill to loosen restrictions on gun silencers.
“A gunshot is loud by design, and that sound is not just a fun noise, right? It’s a critical warning sign that alerts people nearby that something is wrong. It prompts witnesses to call 911, it prompts bystanders to run away, it helps police to identify the location of a threat,” Au said of House Bill 1324. “I cannot believe how stupid it is that I need to make these points.”
Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, said silencers help hunters without disturbing animals as much, and they stifle noise that leads to hearing loss. He said Senate Bill 499 would safeguard the ability of law-abiding gun owners to continue using silencers.
“It makes sure that the 270,000 folks in Georgia who have a silencer will be able to keep that, regardless of what changes in federal law,” Ginn said.
Although SB 499 passed the Senate, its prospects are uncertain after the House rejected its own silencer legislation, with Democrats opposed and numerous Republicans skipping the vote.
Everytown for Gun Safety, a pro-gun control group, ranked Georgia as having the 44th-weakest gun safety laws in the United States.
In the wake of the Apalachee shooting, the General Assembly approved a bill last year that requires public school districts to identify and mitigate potential threats from students, implement panic alert systems, and create student behavioral health plans.
ATLANTA — With legislators running for higher office, longtime lawmakers retiring, and many challenges to incumbents, the Georgia General Assembly is set for high turnover after this year’s elections.
Control of the state House and Senate is at stake as Republicans are defending the majorities they’ve held in both chambers for over 20 years.
Eighteen senators and representatives signed up to run for higher offices before candidate qualifying ended last week, leaving behind districts where they would have been incumbents seeking reelection. In the contest for lieutenant governor alone, five senators are competing against each other.
And many new challengers entered the fray. A total of 537 candidates are running for 236 seats in the General Assembly.
To take control of the House, Democrats need to flip 10 seats. Republicans currently hold a 99-77 advantage, with four Democratic-leaning seats vacant. Democrats have already secured two of those seats because no Republicans are running.
“The wave is building, and Georgia can feel it,” said House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus. “We are within striking distance of the majority, and this qualifying period has made one thing absolutely clear: House Democrats are not just competing — we are coming to win.”
Republicans hold firmer control of the Senate, where they have a 32-23 advantage, with one GOP-leaning seat vacant.
Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon said Georgia remains a center-right state, but no election can be taken for granted.
“Republicans have been great stewards of the public trust. When you look at the Republican record, it’s really striking how they’ve made Georgia such an engine of economic growth,” McKoon said. “Voters will continue to reward Republicans for that record.”
Despite the flood of candidates, some incumbents lack any challengers, especially in deeply conservative or liberal districts.
There are 54 seats where only one candidate filed to run for election, effectively winning their races before a vote is cast.
Besides candidates running for higher office, retirements and resignations also created openings.
The nine retiring legislators include House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, R-Milton; House Natural Resources Chair Lynn Smith, R-Newnan; Sen. Ed Harbison, D-Columbus; and Sen. Elena Parent, D-Decatur.
Three Democrats left the House after facing federal charges for COVID-19 unemployment fraud. Reps. Karen Bennett, D-Stone Mountain, and Dexter Sharper, D-Valdosta, resigned from office. Rep. Sharon Henderson, D-Covington, was suspended from the House by Gov. Brian Kemp, and she’s running for state Senate.
ATLANTA — The crowded race to succeed former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will come down to a runoff between a Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump and a Democrat seeking an upset in a conservative northwest Georgia district.
Republican Clayton Fuller, a former prosecutor, and Democrat Shawn Harris, a retired Army brigadier general, will meet in an April 7 runoff, according to unofficial results of a special election Tuesday.
They emerged as the leaders among a field of 17 candidates seeking to replace Greene, who resigned in January after splitting with Trump on foreign policy and the release of files related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Neither candidate received a majority of votes needed to win the special election outright Tuesday night. Harris led the field, while Fuller garnered the most votes among 12 Republican candidates who split the GOP electorate.
A voter prepares to cast his ballot at Northstar Church in in Cobb County during a special election for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District seat in Kennesaw, Georgia, on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. Seventeen candidates were on the ballot for the special election to fill former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s congressional seat. (Ashtin Barker/Capitol Beat)
Fuller’s second-place finish eliminates from contention pro-Trump firebrand and former state Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton.
Trump’s backing of Fuller helped boost him into a head-to-head runoff with Harris, who lost to Greene with 36% of the vote in 2024.
“Voters in Georgia are fired up to send a strong conservative to represent them in Washington. Clay will be a strong ally of President Trump and help House Republicans grow the economy, secure the border, and keep Americans safe,” said Reilly Richardson, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Harris recognized the challenge of winning the runoff but said voters are increasingly supporting his campaign.
“This race isn’t over. Northwest Georgia showed up in a BIG way, and now we head to a runoff,” Harris said on X. “Momentum is real. The coalition is growing. Let’s finish what we started. On to the runoff.”
The winner of the April runoff will fill the remaining months of Greene’s two-year term.
After the runoff, a primary in May and potential runoff in June will decide each party’s nominees for the November general election.
Voters cast their ballots at Northstar Church in in Cobb County during a special election for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District seat in Kennesaw, Georgia, on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. Seventeen candidates were on the ballot for the special election to fill former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s congressional seat. (Ashtin Barker/Capitol Beat)
Three other special elections Tuesday for seats in the Georgia General Assembly are also heading to runoffs April 7.
Republican Lanny Thomas will face Democrat Jack Zibluk in the race for Moore’s former seat in the state Senate, which covers the northwest corner of Georgia including Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, and Walker counties.
A state House race between four Democrats in DeKalb and Gwinnett counties will also be decided by a runoff between Venola Mason and Kelly Kautz to replace former state Rep. Karen Bennett, D-Stone Mountain, who resigned in January and pleaded guilty to charges that she fraudulently obtained $13,940 in unemployment supplements during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a Richmond County state House runoff, Democrat Sheila Clark Nelson will face Republican Thomas McAdams. The winner will take the seat previously held by state Rep. Lynn Heffner, D-Augusta, who resigned after moving out of the district because of damage to her house from Hurricane Helene.
ATLANTA — The Georgia House completed its work on the budget that will control state spending for the fiscal year starting in July, sending a $38.5 billion spending plan to the Senate Tuesday.
House Bill 974 proposes a 2% increase over the current budget approved this time last year, although lawmakers increased the remaining portion of this year’s spending significantly — to $43.7 billion — in the amended current-year budget that Gov. Brian Kemp signed in early March.
Similar changes are probably in store for the new proposal this time next year. Until then, priorities include funding for education, health care, prisons and poverty, with a nod to problems caused by feral hogs.
Public schools are again consuming more than a third of the budget. The $14.9 billion allocated to elementary, middle and high schools was driven up $14.5 million by the state education funding formula, which considers enrollment and teacher pay grades based on qualifications and experience.
Add in billions for colleges, universities and technical schools, and education takes close to half the state budget. The University System of Georgia, for instance, got a $218 million increase in formula-driven state funding due to nearly 5% enrollment growth.
One of the House’s biggest priorities this year is literacy in the early grades, with $60 million added to the budget for reading interventions through third grade.
There is money for teacher training and for eye and hearing exams on school campuses. There is money for curricula and testing.
The biggest cost is for more than 1,300 classroom literacy coaches.
The House budgeted $31.2 million, which works out to about $24,000 per coach. The experienced educators required for the role earn at least two to three times that amount, and lawmakers know it. But it is difficult to estimate in advance how many will get hired over the next year, and at what pay grade. So House leaders said they expect to add money in the next amended budget a year from now.
“This is a massive downpayment on a historic investment,” said Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
The on ramp to literacy begins before kindergarten, so the House added $10 million for after school care for pre-kindergarten students, and $700,000 for another 25 pre-kindergarten classrooms. The House also moved money around in a way that “frees up” another $10 million in federal funds to add 1,288 students to the pre-k financial assistance program.
The budget “represents the House’s dedication to championing Georgia’s students, children, families and communities in every corner of our great state,” Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said in a statement after the House sent the budget to the Senate by a 159-4 vote.
Among the items he highlighted, besides literacy and pre-k, was $5 million to expand student mental health services and $10 million more toward rural airport aid.
Hatchett said one of his favorite line items was an additional $11.8 million for the Medicaid dental program to raise reimbursement rates and encourage more dentists to serve recipients.
Providing medical care is a challenge, particularly in rural areas. So expanding service has been a priority for lawmakers. To that end, the budget adds $18.2 million for graduate medical education, with $4.7 million toward 147 new primary care slots.
It also puts another $101 million toward prisons, a third of it to hire more correctional officers to reduce the ratio with inmates down from the current 1-12.
And it adds $11 million for more staffers to confirm food stamp enrollees are eligible. Georgia has one of the highest “error” rates in the country. That can mean loss of federal funding, so lawmakers hope to get it down.
There is also another $2 million to draw federal matching funds for a new summer food program for kids in poverty called SUN Bucks.
Feral hogs will not like this budget.
It contains $500,000 for a Department of Natural Resources hog management pilot program and another $400,000 for a hog eradication incentive program.
Hatchett explained that line item on the House floor Tuesday.
“Feral hogs are wreaking havoc statewide,” he said, “causing millions of dollars of damage to crops and farms each year.”
