ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers left the Gold Dome early Thursday after passing legislation loaded with business tax breaks and firing a shot across the bow of Delta Air Lines for criticizing a controversial election law overhaul.
The General Assembly sent to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk a bill that would provide new or expanded tax credits to medical equipment and pharmaceutical manufacturers, performing arts venues, companies that repair expensive yachts and short-line railroads.
Other beneficiaries of the package would include developers of “mega-site” corporate projects and the aerospace industry, a tax credit aimed primarily at Marietta’s Lockheed plant.
Supporters pitched the legislation as a way to help businesses hurt by the economic impact of COVID-19.
However, a joint House-Senate conference committee that negotiated the final version of the bill scrapped a controversial grant program aimed at rural Georgia. The state approved an initial round of funding for the program known as CAPCO early in the last decade, but critics argued its impact on creating jobs has never been evaluated in Georgia or proven effective elsewhere.
Proving they can both give and take away in the same bill, the conference committee also included legislation introduced early in this year’s session by Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, requiring the state to conduct periodic audits of tax credit initiatives.
The measure calls for independent auditors to review up to five tax credit programs each year to determine whether their economic impact justifies the loss of state tax revenue.
“This is a large bill,” Albers said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “It brings checks and balances. It has us measure the return on investment, and it keeps Georgia the No.-1 place to do business.”
Meanwhile, leaders in the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives took aim at Atlanta-based Delta in separate tax legislation after CEO Ed Bastian released a statement on Wednesday arguing a GOP-backed elections reform bill lawmakers passed last week will it make it harder for Georgians to vote, particularly in minority neighborhoods.
“Since the bill’s inception, Delta joined other major Atlanta corporations to work closely with elected officials from both parties,” Bastian wrote in an open letter to Delta employees. “We had some success in eliminating the most suppressive tactics that some had proposed. However … the final bill is unacceptable and does not match Delta’s values.”
House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, took offense at Bastian’s statement.
“Some of the language reflected a complete lack of understanding of the bill,” Ralston said shortly after midnight Thursday after the House had approved legislation to take away a state sales tax exemption on jet fuel that primarily benefits Delta. “I was disappointed in that.”
However, the General Assembly’s bark proved worse than its bite when the state Senate declined to consider the removal of the tax break before adjourning the 2021 session, ending the threat.
The Georgia Capitol at night (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – The General Assembly signed off on Gov. Brian Kemp’s $27.2 billion fiscal 2022 state budget Wednesday night during the waning hours of this year’s legislative session.
The Georgia Senate passed the budget unanimously early in the evening. The state House of Representatives followed suit 148-21 several hours later, less than one hour before lawmakers adjourned after 40 days under the Gold Dome.
While the state is expecting to receive $4.6 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds through President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Tillery also credited Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to reopen Georgia’s pandemic-buffeted economy earlier than many states for easing the budget process.
House and Senate budget writers were able to restore a large portion of the 10% across-the-board spending cuts they were forced to make last year at the height of the pandemic.
“There is no chance this budget would have run this smoothly had Governor Kemp not reopened Georgia when he did,” said Tillery, R-Vidalia.
Chief among the restored funds in the new budget, which takes effect July 1, is $567.5 million in “austerity” cuts to Georgia public schools the General Assembly imposed last year.
The spending plans also adds about $40 million more for mental health services than Kemp recommended in the budget he submitted to lawmakers in January.
Another $10 million would be used to expand the deployment of rural broadband in Georgia. Those funds are in addition to $20 million included in the fiscal 2021 mid-year budget the governor signed in February.
Lawmakers provided pay raises to help retain employees in state agencies that have suffered from high turnover, including the departments of Agriculture, Banking and Finance, Driver Services, Corrections and Juvenile Justice.
The joint House-Senate conference committee that negotiated the final version of the budget allocated $36.7 million in bond funding to a new convocation center at Georgia Southern University that will be named in honor of the late state Sen. Jack Hill R-Reidsville, and his late wife Ruth Ann. Both died within weeks of each other last spring.
Lawmakers also approved $21 million in bonds for a conference center at Lake Lanier Island, $5 million to renovate the Christenberry Field House at Augusta University and $3.5 million to design the planned Gateway Building on the campus of Georgia Gwinnett College.
Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, questioned why the budget still includes $382 million in austerity cuts to K-12 education.
Tillery said the $6.9 billion Georgia schools expect to get from the American Rescue Plan will more than make up that shortfall.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn, said the influx of federal funding is timely. But he left his House colleagues with a warning.
“Federal funds are never permanent,” he said.
The budget now goes to Kemp’s desk for his signature.
Rep. Bert Reeves, R-Marietta, speaks about his bill largely repealing citizen’s arrests in Georgia just before its final passage in the state House of Representatives on March 31, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Legislation repealing Georgia’s 150-year-old citizen’s arrest law gained final passage in the General Assembly Wednesday.
On the final day of this year’s legislative session, the state House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill supported by Gov. Brian Kemp and legislative leaders as a follow-up to the hate-crimes law the General Assembly enacted last year.
The measure stems from the shooting death last year of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger who was cornered near Brunswick by two white men in pickup trucks and shot dead. The defendants have cited the citizen’s arrest law in their defense.
Under the bill, owners of retail shops and restaurants would still be permitted to detain shoplifters on their premises.
It would also allow police officers who are off-duty or outside their jurisdiction to make arrests if they witness a crime or have knowledge a crime was recently committed.
Repealing citizen’s arrest would not affect the state’s stand-your-ground law, Georgia Rep. Bert Reeves, R-Marietta, told his House colleagues Wednesday.
“Everything we can do as a culture, society and General Assembly to educate our citizens on what is self-defense and what is not will make our communities safer,” he said.
Carl Gilliard, D-Garden City, who worked with Reeves on the bill, said citizen’s arrest in Georgia dates back to the Civil War. Georgia now has a chance to overcome that history, he said.
“Georgia would be the first state in the nation to repeal this law,” Gilliard said.
The legislation now goes to Kemp for his signature.
ATLANTA – Georgia Rep. Mickey Stephens, D-Savannah, returned to the chamber of the state House of Representatives Wednesday, more than two years after leaving due to an illness.
Stephens, 76, who was hospitalized for three months with blood clots in a leg he eventually lost to amputation, was accompanied by his wife of more than 50 years, Gloria, who spoke for him near the start of Wednesday’s House session.
“We have come here personally to thank you,” she told the lawmakers from the well of the House. “We are eternally grateful for the opportunity this morning to thank you for your immeasurable support, care and love throughout Mickey’s illness.”
Stephens, who has undergone four surgeries, greeted his colleagues from a wheelchair to a standing ovation.
Gloria Stephens particularly thanked her husband’s Capitol staff and House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, and his office for their support.
“This has been a life-changing experience,” she said.
While Stephens hasn’t been able to come to the Capitol since 2019, he won re-election last November without opposition in Savannah’s House District 165.
Stephens was first elected to the General Assembly in 2002 and served one term. He returned to office in 2014.
ATLANTA – The General Assembly decided Wednesday to leave the standard versus daylight saving time debate up to Congress.
On the final day of this year’s legislative session, the state Senate voted 45-6 to put Georgia on daylight saving time permanently. But under federal law, that change can take place only if Congress makes daylight time permanent nationwide.
The Senate, which passed legislation in February to put Georgia on standard time all year long, voted instead on Wednesday to side with the Georgia House of Representatives, which favored year-round daylight time.
The one point of agreement between the two chambers throughout the 2021 General Assembly session was that Georgia should stop switching back and forth between standard and daylight time twice a year.
Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, and Rep. Wes Cantrell, R-Woodstock, who sponsored two competing versions of the bill, cited a number of studies to their legislative colleagues describing disruptions to sleep patterns and more serious health issues that increase in frequency following time changes, particularly the yearly “swing forward” shift from standard to daylight time.
However, Georgians will continue switching back and forth under the bill that gained final passage Wednesday, unless and until Congress takes action. The legislation now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.
