by Dave Williams | Feb 27, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives voted unanimously Thursday to codify into state law the right of women seeking to become pregnant to receive in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment.
House Bill 428 was prompted by a ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court last year that declared frozen embryos created through IVF should be treated as children. The decision essentially banned the procedure in that state until Alabama lawmakers passed a bill protecting IVF.
“This bill does not change anything that’s not currently being done in Georgia,” Rep. Lehman Franklin, R-Statesboro, said Thursday.
Franklin has a personal interest in the legislation. His wife, Lorie, who he introduced to his House colleagues, has become pregnant through IVF treatment and is due to deliver a daughter in June.
Republicans and Democrats came to the House well to endorse the bill.
“Every family deserves the opportunity to bring new life into this world when they’re ready,” said Rep. Esther Panitch, D-Sandy Springs.
“It is critical legally to protect this right,” added Rep. Deborah Silcox, a Republican who is also from Sandy Springs.
House Speaker Jon Burns, who made protecting IVF one of his top priorities for the 2025 General Assembly session, issued a statement after Thursday’s 172-0 vote in favor of the bill thanking House members for their support.
“I’m incredibly proud of today’s passage of HB 428, which ensures Georgians struggling with infertility will never have to question their ability to seek medical assistance with starting or growing their families,” said Burns, R-Newington.
The bill now moves to the state Senate.
by Dave Williams | Feb 26, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate overwhelmingly passed a record $40.5 billion mid-year state budget Wednesday that prioritizes disaster relief, infrastructure needs, and prisons.
The 190-page document covering state spending through June 30, which cleared the Senate 51-1, includes $750 million to help Georgians recover from what Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Tillery called last year’s “cantankerous” weather. The Peach State suffered two hurricanes, a tornado, three days with 10 inches or more of rainfall, and two 40-day droughts.
To increase disaster relief funding from the $615 million Gov. Brian Kemp requested in the mid-year budget he presented to the General Assembly last month, the Senate cut spending in other areas. Many of those reductions were made possible by delays in filling budgeted positions or holding off on building projects that have been funded but haven’t begun construction.
“We’ve got to deal with a problem right in front of us first, and that’s storm relief,” said Tillery, R-Vidalia.
The Senate supported Kemp’s recommendation for $501 million to increase surface water supplies in Coastal Georgia to supply the Hyundai electric-vehicle manufacturing plant now under construction west of Savannah. Another $200 million is earmarked for water and sewer improvement projects elsewhere in the state.
Also on the infrastructure front, the Senate mid-year budget set aside $500 million for the state Department of Transportation’s Freight and Logistics program, a series of highway improvements aimed at speeding up the movement of freight. Another $53 million earmarked for the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank would provide funding to local communities that apply for road improvement projects in their areas.
Senators also endorsed the governor’s request for an additional $50 million in school-safety grants, enough to provide every school in Georgia with nearly $70,000. School districts are being given the flexibility to spend those dollars on security improvements as they see fit.
The Senate agreed with Kemp’s proposal to hire more than 400 additional correctional officers to staff state prisons. More guards are needed to improve security inside a prison system that a federal audit criticized last fall for failing to protect inmates from widespread violence.
The Senate’s mid-year budget and a version of the spending plan the state House adopted earlier this month also would provide $30 million to design a new prison, $10 million less than the governor recommended.
Senators also zeroed out funding to replace QR codes from election ballots, choosing to redirect that money to other priorities.
Among those priorities is addressing a shortage of physicians, particularly in rural South Georgia. Senators earmarked $25 million for the Mercer University School of Medicine and the same amount for the Morehouse School of Medicine to expand their medical residency programs, with a focus on communities south of the Fall Line Freeway running from Augusta to Columbus via Macon.
“Where doctors do their residency, they are more likely to stay,” Tillery said.
Besides increasing spending in various priority areas, the Senate also put its stamp of approval on Kemp’s plan to dip into the state’s $16 billion budget surplus to bankroll a $1 billion income tax rebate for Georgia taxpayers. Single tax filers will receive $250, single filer heads of households will get $375, and married couples filing jointly will receive $500.
by Dave Williams | Feb 26, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – For the first time since 2020, Georgia voters will elect members of the state Public Service Commission (PSC) this year.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger issued a call Wednesday for special elections on Nov. 4 to fill two seats on the PSC. Primaries will take place on June 17, with any runoffs that become necessary set for July 15.
District 2 Commissioner Tim Echols and District 3 Commissioner Fitz Johnson are currently serving terms that were extended because of a 2022 lawsuit challenging the way members of the PSC are elected in Georgia.
Four Black Fulton County residents argued that electing members of the PSC statewide rather than by district dilutes Black voting strength in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act, making it more difficult for Black voters to elect a candidate of their choice.
A lower federal court agreed and ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned that decision. The appellate court ruling was allowed to stand when the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to take up the plaintiffs’ appeal.
The General Assembly passed a bill during last year’s legislative session scheduling the elections for PSC districts 2 and 3 this year. The election for District 5 will be held in 2026, and elections for PSC districts 1 and 4 will take place in 2028.
Under Raffensperger’s order, candidate qualifying will take place April 1-3 at the state Capitol.
PSC District 2 stretches from Rockdale and Henry counties in Atlanta’s southern and eastern suburbs southeast all the way through Chatham County. District 3 – the Atlanta district – includes Fulton, DeKalb, and Clayton counties.
by Dave Williams | Feb 26, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Port of Savannah handled nearly 5.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units of containerized cargo (TEUs) last year, a 12.5% increase that made Savannah the fastest growing container port on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts.
“Savannah is clearly the gateway port for the U.S. Southeast,” Griff Lynch, president and CEO of the Georgia Ports Authority, told an audience of more than 1,700 coastal business and elected leaders Tuesday during the annual State of the Port luncheon. “We see this pattern only continuing to accelerate.”
Lynch said the growth the Savannah port experienced last year came despite disruptions to global shipping caused by the rerouting of cargo vessels away from the Suez Canal to avoid attacks launched by Iran-backed Houthi militants as well as extended labor contract negotiations.
To keep pace with the growing demand, the ports authority is planning to add berth space at the Port of Savannah, boost container yard and rail capacity, and grow the truck gates at the port. Two new berths at the Ocean Terminal – one opening immediately and the other next year – will be used as storage space to free up room at the Garden City Terminal, allowing faster turnaround times.
Phase I of the Ocean Terminal yard renovation will be completed in mid-2027, with the second phase due to be finished by mid-2028. This will increase capacity by up to 1.5 million TEUs per year.
Longer term plans call for the planned Savannah Container Terminal on Hutchinson Island to open by 2030, ultimately adding three additional big-ship berths and 3.5 million TEUs of annual capacity. The facility is currently in the permitting phase.
“These improvements are necessary to stay ahead of growing demand and to continue providing the world-class service our customers have come to expect,” Lynch said. “With $4 billion in investments planned for Ocean Terminal and Savannah Container Terminal, Savannah will be a 12.5 million-TEU capacity port by 2035.”
by Dave Williams | Feb 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia Chief Justice Michael Boggs announced Tuesday that he will resign from the state Supreme Court at the end of next month, the last day of the Court’s current term.
Boggs plans to return to private practice in South Georgia.
In a resignation letter hand-delivered to Gov. Brian Kemp, Boggs noted his 25 years in elective office, including more than two decades of service as a judge at various state court levels.
“Throughout my service, I have endeavored to be a good steward of the public’s trust,” Boggs wrote. “During my 21 years as a judge, I have found it especially rewarding to contribute to efforts that improve our state’s judicial system for the citizens who rely on it to deliver justice for all.”
After spending two terms in the Georgia House of Representatives in the early 2000s, Boggs moved over to the courts, where he served first as a Superior Court judge in the Waycross Judicial Circuit. Subsequently, he joined the Georgia Court of Appeals, then was appointed to the state Supreme Court by then-Gov. Nathan Deal in 2016 .
Boggs won reelection to the high-court bench in 2018 and 2024. He became chief justice in July 2022.
In that role, he chaired the Judicial Council of Georgia, the policy-making body for the judicial branch, and initiated ongoing efforts to improve judicial security, address the state’s civil justice gap, and respond to the challenges and promises of artificial intelligence in the courts.
Boggs also sought to bolster access to justice through collaborative initiatives with the State Bar of Georgia’s Office of Bar Admissions and the Supreme Court’s Committee on Access to Justice. As chairman of the Judicial Council’s American Rescue Plan Act Funding Committee, he worked with the state’s executive branch to direct resources to trial courts to address case backlogs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his letter, Boggs noted that his wife has recently retired from full-time teaching, as well as increasing family and personal obligations at his home in South Georgia.
Kemp will appoint a new justice to fill Boggs’ seat, and the court will select its next chief justice.
