ATLANTA – The General Assembly overwhelmingly passed legislation Thursday defining antisemitism and incorporating it into Georgia’s hate crimes law.
The state Senate approved the bill 44-6 after a nearly two-hour debate. The Georgia House of Representatives followed in a 129-5 vote.
The House had passed a similar version of the legislation last year, only to have it die in the Senate. Since then, however, incidents of antisemitism have been on the rise across Georgia, sparked by the Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas militants and its aftermath, Senate President Pro Tempore John Kennedy, R-Macon, told his colleagues Thursday.
Kennedy cited the spreading of antisemitic flyers in Jewish neighborhoods by what he described as “outside agitators” and the hanging in effigy of a Jew outside a synagogue in Macon.
“The Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state and our ally … highlighted the nearly nonstop threat our Jewish brothers and sisters face,” Kennedy said. “This is the antithesis of what our great state and our great nation are all about.”
“Certain things rise above politics,” added Rep. John Carson, R-Marietta, who sponsored the bill in the House. “It’s time to get this done.”
The legislation, now headed to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk, would establish as part of state law the definition of antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, an intergovernmental organization founded by Sweden’s prime minister in 1998.
The bill allows prosecutors to seek enhanced penalties when crimes have been committed because the victim is Jewish.
While only one Republican – Sen. Colton Moore of Trenton – voted against the legislation in the Senate, it split the Senate Democratic Caucus.
Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain, supported the measure, citing a long history of antisemitism in Georgia including the 1915 lynching of factory superintendent Leo Frank after he was convicted of murdering a 13-year-old employee – which a consensus of historians now believe was a miscarriage of justice – and the bombing of an Atlanta temple in 1958.
But some Democrats argued the bill violates the First Amendment right to free speech because it would allow Georgians to be charged with a hate crime for simply criticizing the Israeli government’s war on Hamas that has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians.
Sen. Nikki Merritt, D-Grayson, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to clarify that criticism of Israel may not be deemed antisemitic.
“This is not an anti-hate bill,” Merritt said. “This is an anti-speech bill.”
But Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which unanimously approved the bill on Monday, said it is not aimed at speech. He cited a portion of the legislation that specifically states it is not to be construed as infringing on free speech rights.
“You can continue to say anything you want in this state. This bill protects that,” Strickland said. “(But) you can’t go and hit somebody in the face because you don’t like what the country they identify with is doing.”
Sen. Harold Jones, D-Augusta, said the bill is guilty of “picking and choosing” because it singles out Jews for protection but does not address violence motivated by Islamophobia or hatred of other immigrant groups.
But Kennedy said Jews in Georgia have been particularly vulnerable to hate-motivated violence.
“The Jewish community in our state is crying out for this,” he said. “This bill is needed.”
ATLANTA – Legislation that would do away with QR codes on paper ballots in Georgia cleared the state Senate Ethics Committee Thursday.
Under Senate Bill 189, only the text portions of paper ballots would be counted.
“We’re simply taking the ballot as it’s currently printed and eliminating the QR code,” said Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, the committee’s chairman and the bill’s chief sponsor.
The General Assembly passed legislation five years ago providing for a paper backup to electronic ballots, a move aimed at giving Georgians more confidence their votes are being recorded accurately. But some voters have complained that the QR codes that accompany paper ballots are confusing and impose a barrier on transparency.
Burns said implementing the legislation would require the state to invest about $15 million to buy 3,400 to 3,500 new scanners capable of reading text from paper ballots.
“I believe the investment would be worth the achievement,” he said.
Senate Republicans have been urging Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to expedite a planned software upgrade that would allow the state to get rid of QR codes. But Raffensperger has said there’s not enough time to roll out new software before this year’s elections.
Chip Trowbridge, chief technology officer for Boston-based Clear Ballot, a vendor of voting equipment, said his company could produce text-only paper ballots in six to seven months.
Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain, suggested it might be wise to undertake a pilot project with the new technology before rolling it out statewide.
Burns said Raffensperger and the State Election Board might decide to do just that.
Sen. Derek Mallow, D-Savannah, said the cost of getting rid of the QR codes could overburden local elections agencies.
“Local taxpayers would have to foot the bill,” he said.
But Burns said the state likely would provide the funding to implement his bill.
Legislative Republicans have pushed eliminating QR codes as part of a broader agenda to assuage voter concerns over the integrity and accuracy of recent elections, particularly the 2020 presidential election that saw Democrat Joe Biden carry Georgia by a narrow margin over then-Republican President Donald Trump.
Democrats have countered that there’s been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Georgia and have accused Republicans of looking for solutions to a problem that doesn’t exist. Two Democrats voted against Burns’ bill Thursday, which cleared the committee 8-2.
The legislation heads next to the Senate Rules Committee, which will decide whether it reaches the full Senate for a vote.
ATLANTA – Georgia House Republican leaders rolled out a tax cut package Wednesday aimed at parents and homeowners specifically but also benefiting all taxpayers.
“Taken together, these bills will provide significant tax relief for Georgia taxpayers … and continue to boost the economy,” House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, told reporters during a news conference at the state Capitol.
The four-bill package includes legislation increasing Georgia’s child-tax credit from $3,000 to $4,000, doubling the state’s homestead tax exemption from $2,000 to $4,000, and removing the cap on Georgia’s “rainy-day” budget reserves.
Burns also lent his support to Gov. Brian Kemp’s proposal to accelerate the state income tax cut that took effect this year, which would roll back the income tax rate from 5.49% to 5.39%.
Rep. Matt Reeves, R-Duluth, who will sponsor the homestead tax exemption bill, pointed to high mortgage rates as a reason to give Georgia homeowners additional tax relief.
“We want to lessen the financial burden for Georgians to purchase a home,” he said. “This sends a message to current homeowners and young people in their twenties and thirties.”
The state’s reserves have long been capped at 15% of the previous fiscal year’s tax revenue.
Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said removing the cap would help protect Georgia from future economic slowdowns..
“This gives us better insurance looking forward to the future,” he said.
Burns said the new package of bills would come in addition to $5 billion in tax relief the governor and General Assembly have provided during the last four years.
“We’re not going to take our feet off the pedal,” he said.
ATLANTA – The Alabama-based company planning to mine titanium near the Okefenokee Swamp has been fined $20,000 in connection with the drilling of exploratory boreholes at the site.
Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) agreed Tuesday to pay the penalty without admitting wrongdoing for drilling boreholes on 107 days in 2018 and 2019 without obtaining a performance bond or letter of credit and drilling on 24 days without the supervision of either a professional engineer or professional geologist, both in violation of state law.
Twin Pines Minerals is seeking state permits to mine titanium dioxide on Trail Ridge, the Okefenokee’s eastern hydrologic boundary.
While company executives have said the project would not harm the swamp, scientific studies have concluded the proposed mine would significantly damage one of the world’s largest intact freshwater wetlands by drawing down its water level and increasing the risk of drought and fires.
Opponents of the project are citing Tuesday’s consent order as reason for the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) to force Twin Pines to redo its initial sampling.
“EPD could have used this to shut down the permit once and for all,” Josh Marks, an environmental attorney and president of Georgians for the Okefenokee, wrote in an email to Capitol Beat. “The fact they didn’t, and are only slapping TPM’s wrist, tells me they will definitely move forward with issuance of the draft permit very soon.”
Meanwhile, sponsors of legislation in the state House of Representatives banning surface mining near the Okefenokee are working to revive the bill. The measure failed to gain headway in the General Assembly last year despite being cosponsored by 91 of the 180 House lawmakers.
ATLANTA – A Georgia Senate committee has approved legislation that would ban ranked-choice voting in Georgia.
A well-funded campaign is afoot across the nation to allow ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to rank candidates by preference, Senate Majority Whip Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, told members of the Senate Ethics Committee late Tuesday.
Ranked-choice voting is allowed statewide only in Maine and Alaska, while Georgia permits it only for members of the military and other Georgians living overseas.
But cities including San Francisco and New York City have been using ranked-choice voting, Robertson said. In New York, it took 15 days to decide the winner of the mayoral race in 2021 because of the complexity of the ballot, he said.
“If you want (a voter) to stand in line all day, hand them a ballot with all these choices and decisions,” he said.
Madeline Malisa of Maine, a visiting fellow with the Opportunity Solutions Project, a nonpartisan group that works on voting issues, said ranked-choice voting has been a “disaster” in Maine. Voter confusion over crowded ballots filled with candidates causes a large number of ballots to be rejected, delaying results in some cases for weeks or months, she said.
“Voters are required to vote for every candidate on the ballot or their vote is thrown out,” Malisa said. “Results like these do not inspire confidence.”
But two former members of the Georgia House of Representatives testified that ranked-choice voting would allow the state to eliminate costly, time-consuming runoff elections.
Former Republican Rep. Scot Turner of Cherokee County pointed to a study conducted by Kennesaw State University that found statewide runoffs cost Georgia taxpayers $75 million, while voter turnout for runoffs typically falls well below that for general elections.
“Runoffs cause voter fatigue, added former GOP Rep. Wes Cantrell, also from Cherokee County. “Millions of taxpayer dollars are wasted. The only people who like runoffs are political consultants.”
Senate Bill 355 now moves to the Senate Rules Committee to schedule a vote of the full Senate.
