by Dave Williams | Mar 4, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives passed two bills Tuesday aimed at reining in abuses in the use of speed-detection cameras in school zones.
One of the bills would ban the cameras altogether, while a second would put restrictions on the use of the cameras without prohibiting them.
House Bill 225, the legislation repealing the cameras, passed the House 129-37, seven years after the General Assembly first authorized their use.
“Operation of these cameras has not improved public safety but become a highly profitable revenue stream for private corporations and local governments,” said Rep. Dale Washburn, R-Macon, the bill’s chief sponsor.
Washburn also argued the use of speed-detection cameras in school zones is unfair because there’s no way for motorists to contest a ticket.
The second measure, House Bill 651, takes a less dramatic approach. It would limit the hours speed cameras could be operated to two hours in the morning before school starts and two hours in the afternoon after school lets out.
The cameras would have to be accompanied by flashing signs that would warn motorists when they’re driving too fast through a school zone.
Only half of the fines levied against violators could be retained by the local government, while the other half would have to go to local schools to be used for safety improvements.
“It ceases to be a revenue-driving device for local governments,” said Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, the bill’s chief sponsor.
Powell’s bill also would give motorists accused of speeding through school zones based on evidence from a camera the right to contest the ticket through the local courts.
It’s unusual for a legislative chamber to pass two bills on the same subject during the same session. Powell said that was done because the state Senate hasn’t been willing to address speed-detection cameras in the past.
“This House of Representatives is very serious about dealing with this problem,” he said. “We want to give them a second choice.”
The House passed Powell’s bill 164-8.
by Dave Williams | Mar 4, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A comprehensive school-safety bill prompted by last year’s school shooting in Barrow County passed the Georgia House of Representatives overwhelmingly Tuesday.
House Bill 268, which cleared the House 159-13, is a top priority for House Speaker Jon Burns. It’s chief sponsor is Rep. Holt Persinger, R-Winder, whose district includes Apalachee High School, where two teachers and two students were shot to death last September.
A student, 14-year-old Colt Gray, was arrested at the scene and has been charged in the murders. His father, Colin Gray, also faces criminal charges for allegedly letting his son possess the AR-15 style rifle used in the killings.
“This legislation represents an opportunity to save lives and protect our students in every corner of the state,” Persinger told his House colleagues before Tuesday’s vote.
Persinger’s 65-page bill is aimed at filling in communication gaps between schools about at-risk students, particularly when they transfer from one school to another, as Gray did before last September’s mass shooting. It would create a statewide information-sharing database on students considered a potential threat to themselves or others as well as a new app for reporting tips anonymously.
The measure also calls for placing mental-health counselors inside Georgia schools, which the state would pay for. Between the fiscal 2025 mid-year budget that cleared the General Assembly this week and the proposed fiscal 2026 spending plan, the state would spend more than $150 million on safety improvements in the schools, including the mental-health counselors.
The legislation would require schools to form threat-assessment teams that would use technology to detect the presence of firearms before they enter a school building and increase penalties for students who make “terroristic threats.”
“I believe this bill brings common sense to school safety,” Burns, R-Newington, told House lawmakers during a rare appearance in the well of the House. “Our children deserve to be dropped off at school with the assurance they will have a safe environment.”
Some of the bill’s opponents expressed privacy concerns they said a statewide database on students would engender.
“Why are we essentially creating a criminal record for students?” said Rep. Gabriel Sanchez, D-Smyrna. “Do you know what that would do to students trying to better themselves?”
Sanchez also argued enhanced surveillance of students considered potential threats would be used disproportionately on Black and brown students.
Others complained the bill makes no mention of guns or firearms. However, House lawmakers passed a separate bill shortly before voting on the school-safety measure that would offer tax credits to firearm owners who purchase safe storage devices such as trigger locks or gun safes. House Bill 79 passed 165-8.
That bill, too, came in for criticism from Democrats who argued incentivizing safe firearm storage rather than requiring it doesn’t go far enough.
Both bills now move to the state Senate.
by Dave Williams | Mar 4, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The state House of Representatives voted unanimously Tuesday to make it easier for defendants in death penalty cases to establish intellectual disability as a defense.
Georgia is the only state among the 27 that allow capital punishment to execute convicted murderers with intellectual disabilities, defined as having an IQ below 70.
“This will be that fix,” state Rep. Bill Werkheiser, R-Glennville, chief sponsor of House Bill 123, said on the House floor before Tuesday’s 172-0 vote.
Under Werkheiser’s bill, the burden of proof to establish a defendant’s claim of an intellectual disability would be eased from “beyond a reasonable doubt” to “by a preponderance of the evidence.”
The legislation also would remove the determination of whether a defendant in a capital case has an intellectual disability from the guilt phase of the trial. Instead, that determination would take place following a pre-trial hearing.
“This is not getting rid of the death penalty,” said Rep. Tyler Paul Smith, R-Bremen, whose House Judiciary Committee (Non-Civil) took up the bill. “This ensures our criminal justice system operates with fairness and integrity.”
Werkheiser said he received a letter signed by more than 100 religious organizations endorsing his bill. It also got the backing of the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities.
The bill now moves to the state Senate.
by Dave Williams | Mar 4, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Representatives of Georgia manufacturers asked state lawmakers Tuesday to pass legislation shielding them from lawsuits brought by victims of contamination from “forever chemicals” – known as PFAS – in their water.
But lawyers representing those victims told members of the House Judiciary Committee companies including carpet and textile manufacturers knew the wastewater they were dumping was polluted and should be held responsible.
House Bill 211 would shield from legal liability companies that have used PFAS chemicals, typically to make fabric stain resistant and fire retardant, while holding companies that produce the chemicals – including DuPont and 3M – responsible for polluting rivers and streams with cancer-causing pollutants.
Only companies guilty of “willful misconduct” in using PFAS chemicals would not be shielded from lawsuits.
“(PFAS manufacturers) sold them to us as safe,” said Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton, the bill’s chief sponsor. “(This) focuses the attention of litigation on the chemical companies that willfully neglected protecting consumers.”
“Many of my members are being drawn into lawsuits over something they had no control over,” added Brittney Hull, vice president of government affairs for the Georgia Association of Manufacturers. “They used a product deemed legal and, as such, should not be held liable.”
But the bill’s opponents argued the companies that have used PFAS chemicals were aware they were unsafe and continued to use them anyway.
“This bill imposes a get-out-of-jail-free card for Mohawk, Shaw, and others,” said Andy Davis, a lawyer representing the Northwest Georgia cities of Rome, Summerville, Chatsworth, and Calhoun, which are being forced to clean up PFAS pollution and charge their taxpayers for the cost. “People responsible for putting it in the waterways, once they know about it, they’re responsible.”
Amber Fletcher, who lives in Dalton downstream from Mohawk Industries Inc. storage ponds with her husband and six children, said the creek by her house has been found to contain dangerous levels of PFAS chemicals.
“Our children play in that creek,” she said. “They need to be held accountable for what they did.”
The committee ran short of time Tuesday morning and did not vote on the bill. The Crossover Day deadline for bills to pass either the state House or Senate to remain alive for the year, falls on Thursday.
by Dave Williams | Mar 3, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Environmental activists asked Georgia House lawmakers Monday to enact a moratorium on mining adjacent to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
But opponents of a proposed mining ban defended Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals’ plan to mine titanium dioxide along Trail Ridge as an important source of jobs in a high-poverty area of southeastern Georgia.
Two bills sponsored by state Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville, include different versions of a ban on mining. One would place a five-year moratorium on mining, while the other would prohibit future mining altogether.
Taylor told members of a House subcommittee that the largest blackwater wetland in North America deserves and needs protection from mining, which would ruin a natural resource that draws 800,000 visitors each year and pumps more than $90 million into the region’s economy.
She has introduced legislation during the last several years to prohibit mining adjacent to the Okefenokee. Thus far, none of those measures has reached the House floor for a vote despite dozens of lawmakers signing on as cosponsors.
“I have been there,” Taylor said of the swamp at the start of a hearing on her bills. “Some of my fondest memories as a child involve visiting and enjoying the beauty. I want that for my grandchildren and your grandchildren.”
Rhett Jackson, a professor of water resources at the University of Georgia, said the planned titanium dioxide mine would lower water levels in the Okefenokee, increasing the chance of damaging wildfires.
“The largest wildfires in the state’s history have started in the swamp during drought periods,” he said
Environmental lawyer Josh Marks, president of the nonprofit Georgians for the Okefenokee, complained that the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, which is considering permit applications for the mine, has not used “sound science” in evaluating the project.
“Georgia EPD has show it is incapable of protecting the swamp,” he said.
But the mine’s supporters argued Taylor’s bills would essentially let the General Assembly decide whether to approve the project, usurping the EPD’s authority.
“The legislature lacks the expertise to make mining decisions,” said Joe Hopkins, owner of Toledo Manufacturing Co. in Folkston.
Lewis Jones, a lawyer representing Twin Pines, said the form of titanium dioxide found along Trail Ridge is both rare and critical to national security. Lighter than steel, titanium is used in the manufacture of bombers and fighter jets.
Jones also disputed arguments that the mine would harm the Okefenokee.
“We’re not going to lower the water levels,” he said. “We’re not going to pollute the swamp. If that were to happen, EPD wouldn’t approve the permit.”
Charlton County Commissioner Drew Jones said the mine would provide an economic boost in a county that can’t afford to provide adequate social services or roads.
“We are in desperate need for high-paying jobs in our community,” he said.
The bills’ opponents also said banning mining along Trail Ridge would amount to an unconstitutional taking of private property, an assertion the measures’ supporters disputed.
The subcommittee did not act on either bill. Crossover Day in the General Assembly – the deadline for bills to pass either the House or Senate to remain alive for the year – falls later this week, leaving little time for the bills to make it to the House floor for votes.
