ATLANTA – Tort reform in Georgia is going to be a heavier lift than anticipated, requiring more than a single session of the General Assembly to accomplish, Gov. Brian Kemp said Wednesday.
“Like every major undertaking our state has tackled in the past, we will work on a Georgia-specific solution; one designed to make meaningful reforms in this area over the next several years,” Kemp told an audience of political and business leaders at the annual Eggs and Issues breakfast sponsored by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
“I look forward to introducing legislation this year that will reflect my priorities to stabilize the market for insurers, stabilize premiums for Georgia’s families, and level the playing field in our courtrooms so we can continue to create even more quality, good-paying jobs.”
After years of failed efforts to get significant tort reform through the General Assembly, Kemp announced last summer that he planned to make the issue a top priority for the 2024 legislative session. At a chamber-sponsored event in Athens, he complained that frivolous lawsuits against Georgia business owners are driving up insurance premiums, making it harder for companies to create jobs.
The last major tort reform legislation the legislature passed was in 2005, a measure that set a $350,000 cap on non-economic damage awards in medical malpractice and product liability lawsuits. But the state Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional in 2010.
Since then, legislative Democrats and their allies in the legal industry have joined forces to sink efforts to enact tort reform, arguing it would take away victims’ rights to their day in court,
The rest of Kemp’s speech Wednesday was peppered with his plans to take advantage of an unprecedented $16 billion budget surplus to increase spending in critical areas.
Ahead of Thursday’s State of the State address to a joint session of the General Assembly, Kemp announced he will ask lawmakers for $1.5 billion to help the state Department of Transportation make highway improvements that will ease the movement of commuters and freight.
Georgia Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry told members of the State Transportation Board last month the state will need to spend at least $81 billion on transportation improvements by 2050 to keep people and freight moving on highways that otherwise will becoming increasingly congested.
The governor said he will request $250 million for the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority to spend on local water and sewer projects, $178 million to design and construct a dental school at Georgia Southern University, $50 million for a new medical school on the campus of the University of Georgia, and an additional $50 million for the state’s Rural Workforce Housing Fund.
Kemp created the housing program last year with $37.5 million in initial funding.
ATLANTA – A Georgia Senate committee passed a sports betting bill Tuesday on just the second day of this year’s legislative session, kicking off a debate that’s likely to last all 40 days under the Gold Dome.
The Regulated Industries & Utilities Committee voted 8-3 to let Georgians bet on sports either online or at remote terminals or “kiosks.”
The state would retain 20% of the gross revenue from most sports bets and 25% from “high-profit” bets including live bets placed during games. The money would go toward various state programs to be spelled out in a separate constitutional amendment.
Senate Bill 172 was available for consideration so early in the 2024 session because it was introduced last year, the first of a two-year legislative term. The Senate tabled it last year, which left it alive to be taken up again this year.
“This has been a long process,” Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, the committee’s chairman and the bill’s chief sponsor, said Tuesday. “It’s been multiple years we’ve been dealing with these gambling issues.”
Cowsert said about three dozen states have legalized sports betting since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2018 allowed it to expand beyond a handful of states – including Nevada – where it already was legal.
Georgia lawmakers have debated a multitude of sports betting bills since, but nothing has made it through the General Assembly.
Cowsert’s bill would establish a seven-member sports betting commission authorized to grant at least six licenses for sports betting operations. He said Atlanta’s pro sports teams, which formed a coalition several years ago to push for sports betting, could potentially set up kiosks in their home stadiums or arenas.
The legislation includes provisions aimed at protecting bettors from fraudulent sports betting operators as well as provisions to help problem gamblers avoid crippling financial losses.
The legislation is what is known in General Assembly parlance as an “enabling” bill, designed to fill in the details of an accompanying constitutional amendment.
Some lawmakers introduced legalized gambling bills last year designed not to require changing the Georgia Constitution, but whether that’s legal has been the topic of a running debate. Constitutional amendments require two-thirds votes of the state House and Senate, while other bills only need simple majorities to pass.
Any constitutional amendment that gets through the legislature then must win approval on the statewide ballot to become law.
“I don’t see anything to fear from a constitutional amendment,” Cowsert said. “It’s the right thing to do. Let the people decide when you’re making a major policy change.”
A couple of committee members questioned passing an enabling bill before its accompanying constitutional amendment has been drafted.
Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, the committee’s vice chairman, said he will introduce a sports betting constitutional amendment later in the session.
“We’re not going anywhere with it without a (constitutional amendment),” Summers assured his committee colleagues.
Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, also is planning to introduce a constitutional amendment into the Senate that would let voters decide whether to legalize casino gambling and pari-mutuel betting on horse racing in addition to sports betting.
ATLANTA – Cases of COVID-19 and flu have risen sharply in Georgia since the Christmas holidays, State Epidemiologist Dr. Cherie Drenzek reported Tuesday.
COVID cases have increased by about 50% since last week, hospitalizations are up 75%, and deaths have risen by 10%, Drenzek told members of the Georgia Board of Public Health. However, cases still remain well below levels experienced during the pandemic, she said.
Cases involving a new COVID variant – JN.1 – that surfaced recently have jumped 62% in the last month, Drenzek said. It is not thought to be as severe as some previous variants, she said.
“The most recent booster is thought to provide protection,” she said.
Drenzek said cases of flu in Georgia have more than doubled during the last month, accounting for more than 10% of all health-care visits. Hospitalizations have increased 50% since last week, while flu has caused 10 deaths in Georgia, she said.
Most of the flu cases involve the H1N1 strain, which typically peaks in January, she said.
The good news is that cases of RSV, another respiratory virus the public health agency tracks, have declined dramatically since an October peak, Drenzek said. Severe outcomes from RSV are most likely in children from birth to 6 months of age, while the RSV vaccine is targeted primarily for infants and pregnant women.
Drenzek said it’s not too late for Georgians to get the latest COVID booster or a flu shot, despite the lateness of respiratory illness season.
“Everyone over the age of 6 months should have a flu vaccine,” she said.
ATLANTA – Georgia tax collections declined by 5% last month, down $159.1 million from the $3.21 billion in taxes the state Department of Revenue brought in during December of 2022.
Individual income tax receipts were down 3.6%, driven largely by a 114% increase in tax refunds issued to Georgia taxpayers.
Net sales tax collections rose by 1.4% in December compared to the same month in 2022.
Corporate income taxes declined by 16.1% last month due to the combination of a 64.7% increase in refunds and a 19.3% decrease in payments.
For the first half of the current fiscal year, which ended Dec. 31, net tax collections were up 1.6%. However, that was mainly because the state resumed collecting sales taxes on gasoline and other motor fuels at the end of November, while the tax was suspended during December of 2022.
Aside from the changes brought about by resuming the collection of the motor fuels tax, revenues for the first six months of fiscal 2024 were down 2.5% from the first half of the previous fiscal year.
The negative numbers might be expected to give pause to legislative budget writers, who will begin reviewing Gov. Brian Kemp’s spending recommendations next week. However, the state has built up a whopping $16 billion budget surplus during the last three years that should make current revenue trends of less concern than they would be otherwise.
Kemp will release his budget proposals to the General Assembly later this week.
ATLANTA – Seven Georgia school districts will receive nearly $60 million in federal funding for new electric and low-emission buses.
The Georgia grant is part of $1 billion going to school systems across the country to pay for clean buses. The money comes from the bipartisan infrastructure spending bill Congress passed in 2021.
Every day, nearly 25 million children ride more than 500,000 predominantly diesel buses to school in the U.S., which contributes to air pollution that exposes children to unhealthy air.
“This is about converting fleets of diesel-powered school buses into clean energy vehicles for the future,” said U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., who was instrumental in getting the school bus funds into the infrastructure bill. “This investment demonstrates the power of bipartisan cooperation to deliver tangible results for our communities.”
The Georgia grant will provide 156 new electric buses. The Clayton and DeKalb County school districts will receive 50 buses each, with 25 going to Richmond County Schools, 15 to Bibb County schools, 10 to the Carrollton City School District, and six to Glynn County schools.
In addition, the Marietta school system will receive 15 propane-fueled buses.
