by Dave Williams | Mar 5, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation that would require installers of solar panels on property leased from a landowner to return the land to its natural state cleared a Georgia House committee Wednesday.
But a second bill pertaining to solar panels installed in communities governed by homeowners’ associations ran into pushback from members of the House Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications Committee.
Solar panels have been cropping up on farms across Georgia in recent years. House Bill 249 would require that solar panels be removed from properties upon the termination of the operator’s lease and that any holes in the ground left by solar panels be filled with the same type of soil found elsewhere on the property.
The measure also requires the removal of any overhead powerlines or roads constructed in conjunction with solar panels.
“When these solar facilities get to the end of their life and become obsolete, there (needs to be) somebody standing there with some money to put them back in the original state,” said Rep. Robert Dickey, R-Musella, chairman of the House Agriculture & Consumer Affairs Committee and the bill’s chief sponsor.
While Dickey’s bill won the committee’s support, a second measure to prohibit homeowners’ associations from preventing property owners from installing solar panels drew concerns from members of the panel.
Rep. Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, said the General Assembly shouldn’t interfere in private agreements between homeowners’ associations and property owners living in those communities.
“If you don’t like the agreement, don’t buy a home in a neighborhood that says you can’t have solar,” he said.
Rep. Trey Kelley, R-Cedartown, said he’s concerned that a property owner denied permission to install a solar panel could sue his or her homeowners’ association, resulting in litigation costs that could be spread to everyone in the neighborhood.
But Rep. Eric Bell, D-Jonesboro, chief sponsor of House Bill 389, said Georgians who invest their life savings in buying a home should have the right to install solar panels if they choose to do so.
Committee Chairman Don Parsons, R-Marietta, announced he would set the bill aside until next year to allow further work on it. Meanwhile, Dickey’s bill heads next to the House Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote.
by Dave Williams | Mar 5, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, filed paperwork Wednesday creating an exploratory committee for a potential race for governor next year.
“Georgians deserve a governor who understands what’s at stake because they’ve lived it,” McBath wrote in a prepared statement.
“As a mom and breast cancer survivor, I’ve seen first hand how regular people are too often left out of the political process. I look forward to continuing this conversation with my neighbors and fellow Georgians.”
McBath was elected to Congress in 2018 and reelected in 2020, 2022 and again last year, despite repeated attempts by the General Assembly’s Republican majorities to redraw her congressional district in a way that would favor GOP candidates.
She entered politics after her teenage son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed by a man objecting to the music he and his friends were playing in their car. She has been a leading advocate for gun safety legislation during her years in the House.
McBath is the only Democrat thus far to take steps toward running for governor in 2026. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is term limited.
On the GOP side, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr is the only candidate thus far to enter the race. Others – notably Lt. Gov. Burt Jones – are expected to follow.
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.
