by Dave Williams | Feb 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation prohibiting Georgia Power from passing on the costs of providing electricity to data centers to residential and small business customers cleared a state Senate committee Tuesday.
An 8-5 vote of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee sent the bill to the Senate Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote.
Senate Bill 34 comes in the wake of six Georgia Power rate increases in less than two years that have driven up what homeowners and small businesses pay by 37%. At the same time, the rapid growth of power-hungry data centers in Georgia is behind a demand for 3,300 megawatts of additional electric generating capacity, exponentially more than Georgia Power’s typical growth rate of about 100 megawatts per year.
“The consumers are paying for this additional power that’s being consumed by the data centers,” Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, the bill’s chief sponsor, told committee members Tuesday. “I want something in place that doesn’t let history repeat itself.”
Aaron Mitchell, vice president of pricing and planning for Georgia Power, argued the bill is unnecessary because of rules changes the state Public Service Commission (PSC) adopted last month that prohibit the Atlanta-based utility from passing on the costs of serving new large-load customers including data centers to residential customers.
“We have committed that residential customers will pay nothing to account for those 3,300 megawatts,” he said.
But energy lawyer Bobby Baker, a former member of the PSC, said the new rules the commission approved are full of loopholes that give Georgia Power so much flexibility over compliance that they offer no guaranteed protections for residential ratepayers.
“These rules changes are essentially worthless,” he said. “The cost causers need to pay for the costs they cause.”
Hufstetler’s bill got pushback from committee members who objected to the General Assembly stepping in on issues that are already being handled by the elected members of the PSC.
Others called for broadening the bill to apply to Georgia’s electric membership cooperatives (EMCs) and municipal electric utilities rather than limiting it to Georgia Power. Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, proposed amending Hufstetler’s bill to do just that.
But Kevin Curtin, senior vice president of government relations for Georgia EMC, opposed the amendment as taking away the power of board members of the state’s 41 EMCs, who – unlike Georgia Power’s board – are elected by EMC customers.
“Having a law imposed on us … takes away our boards’ authority to make decisions,” he said.
Summers’ amendment died for lack of a second before the committee approved the underlying bill.
by Dave Williams | Feb 24, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia families seeking to have children would have a guaranteed right to pursue in vitro fertilization (IVF) under legislation that cleared a state House committee Monday.
While in vitro fertilization is already being practiced in Georgia, House Bill 428 would codify it into state law, protecting it from any litigation that might seek to prohibit the procedure.
IVF became a hot topic last year when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created through IVF should be considered children under state law, which essentially would have banned the procure. But after a public outcry, Alabama’s legislature stepped in to pass a bill protecting IVF in that state, and Gov. Kay Ivey signed it.
The right to IVF became an issue in the 2024 presidential race, with both Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris expressing their support for IVF care. Trump, who took the oath of office for his second term as president last month, signed an executive order earlier this month calling for a list of policy recommendations within 90 days on protecting IVF access and reducing out-of-pocket and insurance costs for IVF treatment.
Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, has made codifying IVF protections into state law a priority for the 2025 General Assembly session.
The chief sponsor of House Bill 428, Rep. Lehman Franklin, R-Statesboro, has personal experience with IVF. After trying unsuccessfully multiple times to become pregnant through IVF, his wife, Lorie, is due to deliver the couple a daughter in June.
“I believe she would not be pregnant if we hadn’t used IVF,” Franklin told members of the House Health Committee.
The bill now heads to the House Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote.
by Dave Williams | Feb 24, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The state House of Representatives voted Monday to increase an income tax credit for Georgia taxpayers who contribute to nonprofit organizations that help foster children who age out of the foster care system.
House Bill 136, which passed 170-2, would raise the annual cap on contributions to the program from $20 million to $30 million.
The General Assembly created the tax credit in 2022 to help the approximately 700 youths in foster case who turn 18 and age out of the system each year.
“These are young people who often end up in poverty or homeless,” Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta, said on the House floor Monday. “If not for this help, they can end up in prison or pregnant.”
Taxpayers wishing to contribute to the program can receive dollar-for-dollar state income tax credits for up to $2,500 per year, while married couples filing jointly can receive up to $5,000. Corporate donations are limited to 10% of the company’s annual tax liability.
The donations go toward providing program participants with medical care, mentoring, food, car repairs and housing, as well as aid for high-school GED programs and tuition to pay for vocational or college courses needed to complete their education.
Newton said at least 90% of the contributions must be spent directly on helping the participants, while no more than 10% can go to cover the program’s overhead.
The bill now moves to the Georgia Senate.
by Dave Williams | Feb 24, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The state Senate is upping the ante on funding to help victims of Hurricane Helene recover from the massive storm that marched through South Georgia and east Georgia from Valdosta to Augusta last September.
The Senate Appropriations Committee signed off Monday on a $40.5 billion mid-year budget that would add $125 million to the $812 million Gov. Brian Kemp and the state House of Representatives already have earmarked for residents, business owners, farmers, and timber producers who suffered losses from Helene. Kemp’s original mid-budget requested $615 million, and the House kicked in another $197 million.
Of the $125 million the Senate added, $25 million would go to Georgians who are neither farmers nor timber producers, committee Chairman Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, said before Monday’s vote.
“They, through no fault of their own, are awaiting insurance claims, or maybe they were denied coverage and are still sleeping with the only thing between their beds and the outside elements being a thin blue tarp they were given some 149 days ago,” he said. “I believe we owe them the same duty we do our farming and forest industries.”
Tillery said the committee reduced funding across the mid-year budget, which covers state spending through June 30, and rolled the resulting savings into disaster relief. Many of those cuts were made possible by delays in filling budgeted positions or holding off on building projects that have been funded but haven’t begun construction.
The Senate committee supported Kemp’s request for $501 million to increase surface water supplies in Coastal Georgia to supply the huge Hyundai electric-vehicle manufacturing plant now under construction west of Savannah.
The panel also backed the governor’s recommendation to hire more than 400 additional correctional officers to staff a state prison system criticized last fall in a federal audit for failing to protect inmates from widespread violence. In fact, the committee added another $20 million to help fund a proposed pay raise for correctional officers.
The Senate mid-year budget also calls for three modular prison units the state Department of Corrections is planning to construct to house inmates temporarily while making room for projects fixing crumbling infrastructure in existing prisons. The governor had asked for four modulars, which the House reduced to two.
The mid-year budget is expected to reach the Senate floor for a vote later this week.
by Dave Williams | Feb 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A sharply divided Georgia Senate passed a comprehensive tort reform bill Friday that is Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s top priority for the 2025 General Assembly session.
Senate Bill 68, which the Senate’s GOP majority passed 33-21 primarily along party lines, is aimed at reining in huge jury awards in civil lawsuits Kemp and his legislative allies say are raising insurance premiums, forcing businesses to lay off workers or close their doors and reducing access to health care by driving physicians out of Georgia and shuttering hospitals.
“This legislation is not about protecting corporate profits. It’s not about caving in to the demands of insurance companies or denying Georgians their ability to be fully and fairly compensated when they need to go to court,” said Senate President Pro Tempore John Kennedy, R-Macon, the bill’s chief sponsor, responding to criticism of the measure leveled by Democrats and trial lawyers. “Instead, it’s about stabilizing costs and putting all Georgians, no matter where your zip code is, first.”
The wide-ranging bill contains a number of provisions, including:
- prohibiting plaintiff lawyers in a civil lawsuit from asking a jury for a specific amount of damages until closing arguments.
- requiring judges to rule on motions to dismiss a case filed by defense lawyers before the start of what tends to be an expensive discovery process.
- prohibiting plaintiff lawyers from filing motions to dismiss a case and refiling a lawsuit after the jury has been seated and opening statements have taken place. Refiling at such a late stage forces defendants to spend money unnecessarily.
- prohibits lawyers for either side from seeking double recoveries of attorney fees from the other side.
- allows defense lawyers to introduce into evidence whether a plaintiff injured in an auto accident was wearing a seat belt.
- establishes “premises liability” guidelines for when plaintiffs can sue business owners for negligence due to injuries suffered from criminal acts committed by a third party outside of the defendant’s control.
- allows plaintiffs to seek economic damages based only on the actual costs of the medical care they receive.
- requires liability in a civil suit to be determined before the jury considers damages if either the plaintiff or defendant requests such “bifurcation” of trials.
Senators unanimously passed an amendment submitted on the floor Friday with the governor’s backing that would allow deliberating juries to ask the judge whether a plaintiff has health insurance, the amount of the injured party’s medical bill, and how much of the claim the insurance company paid.
The amendment would strike a balance between the interests of business owners bombarded with skyrocketing insurance premiums and the constitutional rights of injured Georgians seeking compensation, said Sen. Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia, a plaintiff lawyer by trade and the amendment’s sponsor.
“No one wants to be crushed by baseless claims,” Hatchett said. “At the same time, I believe no one wants corporations operating unchecked.”
After Hatchett’s amendment passed, the Senate defeated a second amendment brought by Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, D-Duluth, that would have prohibited insurance companies from raising premiums faster than the annual rate of inflation. Her amendment died by the same 33-21 margin.
“Nothing in this bill requires a single penny of premium reduction,” Islam Parkes said of Kennedy’s underlying legislation. “What this bill does is hand more power to the insurance industry.”
Senate Democrats also introduced alternative tort reform legislation Thursday aimed specifically at the premises liability issue. Senate Bill 223 would shield business owners from any negligence lawsuit brought simply because their business is located in a high-crime area. Business owners who take reasonable steps to ensure customers’ safety such as installing security cameras and adequate lighting would have a “rebuttable presumption” against liability.
In closing Friday’s debate, Kennedy acknowledged there are no guarantees that his bill will result in lower insurance premiums. But he said other states that have enacted similar tort reform measures have started to see lower rates.
“If we don’t pass Senate Bill 68, your insurance premiums, my insurance premiums, and rest of Georgia’s insurance premiums will go up,” he said.
Senate Bill 68 now heads to the state House of Representatives.
