by Dave Williams | Mar 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation giving Georgia cities, counties and school districts until April 30 to decide whether to opt out of offering a property tax break voters approved last fall cleared the state Senate Tuesday.
Georgians passed a constitutional amendment last November prohibiting local governments and school districts from raising residential property assessments in a given year by more than the annual rate of inflation, even if a home’s market value has gone up more.
Supporters argued the constitutional change would offer homeowners more certainty in their property tax liability year to year. But the legislation prompted concerns among local government and school district officials anxious to protect a key revenue source funding their operations.
Last year’s measure gave those local governments the ability to opt out of the measure if they filed an opt-out resolution with the Georgia secretary of state’s office by March 1 and held at least three public hearings. This year’s House Bill 92, which the Senate passed 52-2 on Tuesday, extends that deadline to the end of next month.
The House passed the bill last month with just one “no” vote. But it went through a series of changes when it got to the Senate.
Offering a carrot to entice school districts to offer property owners the tax break rather than opt out, the Senate version of the bill exempts funds spent on school construction from taxation in districts that agree to provide the tax relief. It also limits the tax exemption to primary residential properties of no more than five acres.
Local governments and school systems that choose to opt out of the tax exemption this year would be given an opportunity to opt back in annually through 2029.
House Bill 92 moves back to the House next to weigh in on the changes made by the Senate.
by Dave Williams | Mar 24, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A state Senate committee advanced legislation Monday following up on a bill the General Assembly passed last year aimed at illegal squatters.
The 2024 measure, which cleared the Georgia House and Senate unanimously, created the offense of unlawful squatting when someone enters upon the land or premises of the owner without the owner or rightful occupant’s knowledge or consent.
Last year’s bill has made a difference, state Rep. Devan Seabaugh, R-Marietta, chief sponsor of the 2024 legislation, told members of the Senate Public Safety Committee.
But Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, the committee’s chairman, said illegal squatting remains a significant problem in Georgia.
“There actually are entire websites dedicated to people who want to be squatters … how to navigate the system for the longest possible time before they are evicted,” Albers said last week during an initial hearing on this year’s bill. “We do not want that.”
Seabaugh said this year’s bill, which he also is sponsoring, closes loopholes the 2024 legislation left in the eviction process.
“House Bill 61 … provides real enforcement tools, deters fraud, and restores control to property owners and law enforcement,” he told Albers’ committee Monday. “Most importantly, it balances firm action against unlawful squatting with fairness and due process for all.”
This year’s bill put Georgia’s magistrate courts in charge of adjudicating eviction cases, limits the liability law enforcement agencies face for enforcing evictions, imposes restitution on criminal squatters based on the market value of the property they are occupying, and makes forging documents related to squatting a felony punishable by one to five years in prison.
Much of Monday’s discussion focused on tenants who are evicted from extended stay motels.
Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, who voted against the bill, said those tenants should be treated differently under the law from illegal squatters.
“We need to make a distinction between a squatter and a person who paid their rent and paid their rent, then missed a day,” she said. “To charge them with criminal trespass and to set them and their kids out, I think, is an injustice.”
“A lot of these extended stays are voluntarily allowing families to live there for years,” Lindsay Siegel, an Atlanta lawyer who represents tenants in housing rights cases, said during last week’s hearing. “It would create a humanitarian crisis to essentially say these families get no notice before they’re put out on the curb.”
After agreeing to a couple of amendments, the committee approved the bill with just two “no” votes. It heads next to the Senate Rules Committee to decide whether to bring it to the Senate floor.
by Dave Williams | Mar 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – By the time the 2025 General Assembly session gavels to a close early next month, Georgia lawmakers are expected to have taken the first steps to come to grips with the growth of artificial intelligence technology.
A state Senate committee approved a House bill Friday that would require the Georgia Technology Authority (GTA) and local governments across the state to develop plans for using AI and – importantly – to publish those plans online for the public to see.
“Transparency is everything,” Rep. Brad Thomas, R-Holly Springs, chief sponsor of House Bill 147, told members of the Senate Science and Technology Committee. “If we can’t operate a transparent government, that’s where the breakdown of democracy starts.”
Georgia lawmakers have been working for the last couple of years on how to regulate AI. Crafting plans to accomplish that goal was at the heart of the report a Senate study committee released ahead of this year’s session.
“We need to do this,” said Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, who chaired the study committee. “If we’re going to stay the No.-place to do business, we have to be the No.-1 place for artificial intelligence.”
Besides developing plans for regulating AI, the legislature also is looking to criminalize the use of AI to generate obscene material depicting children. Two bills with that goal in mind – House Bill 171 and Senate Bill 9 – have passed their respective legislative chambers and await action on the other side of the Capitol.
Another measure that touches on artificial intelligence is the Georgia Consumer Privacy Protection Act, which the Senate passed early this month with just two “no” votes.
“Our personal information is everywhere,” said Albers, chief sponsor of Senate Bill 111. “In fact, it gets a little scary. … We want to make sure data that’s personal is protected as much as possible.”
Albers’ bill is aimed at businesses that “target market” by selling customers’ personal data. The legislation would prohibit selling such personal information without the customer’s permission, limit the collection of personal information to what is necessary, and give customers the ability to delete their personal information.
The measure also gives Georgia’s attorney general the ability to enforce the law against violators.
While a representative of the Atlanta-based Technology Association of Georgia supported the bill during a House committee hearing last Wednesday, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia said forcing consumers to appeal to the attorney general’s office for enforcement would be cumbersome.
“Tech companies and other companies need to do something to protect (consumers’) rights and data,” said Christopher Bruce, the organization’s policy and advocacy director. “(But) this bill is flawed.”
House Bill 147, meanwhile, has drawn concern from representatives of local governments that would have to put together plans for how they use AI.
“For small counties that don’t use AI or have any plans to, is it practical for them to put together a report?” asked Todd Edwards, director of governmental affairs for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia. “That might not be the best use of their time and capital.”
To address that issue, changes to Thomas’ bill made by the Senate Science and Technology Committee would give local governments until the end of 2027 to set out in writing what AI systems they’re using. The GTA would have to publish online how state agencies are using AI by the end of this year.
“This is a transformational enough technology that the public needs to know what’s going on,” said Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, the Senate committee’s chairman.
Lawmakers working to establish policies for managing the use of AI acknowledge that the technology is constantly changing. Even though Albers’ Senate study committee completed its work last year, he has introduced a resolution calling for a new study committee to examine what needs to be done to keep pace with those changes.
The panel would have until Dec. 1 to issue findings and recommendations.
by Dave Williams | Mar 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A tort reform bill Republican Gov. Brian Kemp made his top priority for this year’s legislative session gained final passage in the General Assembly Friday.
The Georgia Senate’s GOP majority voted 34-21 to agree to changes the state House of Representatives made to the bill, sending it to Kemp’s desk for his signature.
Supporters of Senate Bill 68 argued tort reform is needed in Georgia to reverse a pattern of excessive jury awards in civil lawsuits they said are driving up liability insurance premiums, making it harder for the small businesses that are the state’s economic mainstay to grow and create jobs.
“Georgians from across the state are asking for a more fair and balanced civil justice system,” Senate President Pro Tempore John Kennedy, R-Macon, the bill’s chief sponsor, said before Friday’s vote. “Everyday Georgians are struggling to make ends meet. … We need to do something about this.”
Most sections of the measure deal with how trials of lawsuit should be conducted in Georgia, including when plaintiff lawyers can argue for non-economic damages, when discovery can begin, and when lawyers on either side can request dismissal of a case.
But most of the controversy surrounding the bill involves its “premises liability” provision governing when plaintiffs can sue business owners after suffering injuries during the commission of a crime by a third party outside the owner’s control.
After an outcry from victims of sex trafficking and their lawyers, the House amended the bill to carve out those victims from the legislation.
But opponents said the carveout doesn’t go far enough. On Friday, Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to expand the carveout to include all sex crimes where the victim is a minor or a senior citizen.
“Why should they not have the same rights?” she asked her Senate colleagues. “It makes no sense.”
Other changes the House made to the bill based on feedback from hours of testimony give discretion to trial judges over whether to let defense lawyers introduce evidence involving whether a victim of an auto crash was wearing a seatbelt and give victims the right to avoid testifying multiple times during a trial if doing so would prove traumatic.
But critics remained dissatisfied with the overall bill, calling it a shield from liability for businesses that denies victims their day in court.
“Lawmakers have decided that protecting corporations and insurance companies is more important than protecting victims,” Parent said.
Kennedy objected to Parent’s characterization of the measure. He said Kemp would never do anything to take away the rights of victims of human trafficking, considering that his wife – First Lady Marty Kemp – has long been a leading advocate for cracking down on sex traffickers.
Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, the only Republican who voted against the bill Friday, said it won’t necessarily fix what supporters say is wrong with the civil justice system.
“There’s no guarantee whatsoever that insurance companies are going to reduce rates,” he said.
On the other side of the aisle, only two Democrats – Sens. Ed Harbison of Columbus and Emanuel Jones of Decatur, voted for the legislation.
Business groups praised Kemp and the General Assembly for passing tort reform.
“This is a big victory for Georgia’s small businesses,” said Hunter Loggins, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business. “Lawsuit abuse has driven up the cost of insurance and made it hard for small business members.”
“Governor Kemp and Georgia lawmakers have taken a bold step to restore fairness and balance to our legal system,” added Ben Cowart, vice president of Georgia Retailers. “By reducing the risk of excessive jury verdicts, this legislation will discourage frivolous lawsuits, encourage new investment, and create jobs across the state.”
by Dave Williams | Mar 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Republican-controlled state House of Representatives narrowly passed GOP-backed tort reform legislation Thursday over objections from Democrats that the bill is both unnecessary and would reduce Georgians’ access to the courts.
Senate Bill 68 passed 91-82 – the minimum number of votes needed to approve legislation in the 180-member House – with several House Democrats supporting it and several Republicans voting against it. The bill cleared the Senate last month, also primarily along party lines.
Gov. Brian Kemp has made tort reform his top priority for this year’s legislative session.
“Today, the Georgia House took another step toward delivering much-needed reform to our state’s current litigation environment,” House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said after Thursday’s vote.
“The common-sense solutions provided by Senate Bill 68 protect the rights of Georgians who have been harmed, while ensuring that the scales of justice in our courtrooms are fair and balanced. We look forward to working alongside the Senate to champion this critical lawsuit reform across the finish line.”
The bill’s 10 sections include provisions establishing “premises liability” guidelines for when plaintiffs can sue business owners after suffering injuries during the commission of a crime by a third party outside the owner’s control. It also lets defense lawyers introduce into evidence whether a plaintiff injured in an auto accident was wearing a seat belt and requires plaintiffs to seek economic damages based only on the actual costs of the medical care they receive.
Such reforms in Georgia’s civil justice system are needed to curb a growing number of excessive jury awards that are driving up liability insurance premiums, which is hurting businesses’ bottom lines, Rep. Chas Cannon, R-Moultrie, told his House colleagues.
“Reducing frivolous lawsuit and excessive jury awards will stabilize insurance costs, enabling businesses to invest in growth and create jobs,” he said.
But Rep. Al Williams, D-Midway, who also chairs the Liberty County Development Authority, said he’s never had a prospective business tenant he was recruiting complain about high insurance premiums, despite the American Tort Reform Association having named Georgia as the nation’s No.-1 “judicial hellhole” in its annual report on states with the worst climate for tort claims.
Williams said tort reform advocates’ characterization of Georgia’s legal climate flies in the face of the state’s perennial status as the best state in which to do business.
“You can’t say for 11 straight years you’re the best place in the nation to do business … and are a hellhole for insurance,” he said.
Rep. Shea Roberts, D-Atlanta, said there’s no guarantee that passing the bill would lower the costs of liability insurance.
“There isn’t a single line in this bill requiring insurance providers to reduce premiums,” she said.
The House made a series of changes in the Senate’s version of the measure based on input during more than a dozen hours of testimony, including a carveout aimed at ensuring the bill won’t affect the rights of victims of sex trafficking to file lawsuits.
Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta, said the carveout means those who suffer from sex trafficking would be treated differently from those victimized by other sex crimes.
“What about a rape victim? What about a victim of sexual assault committed in the stairwell of an apartment complex?” she asked. “Why wouldn’t we want other victims of crime to be able to recover damages?”
House Majority Whip James Burchett, R-Waycross, took exception to Evans’ characterization of how the bill would affect victims of rape.
“There’s not one line in this bill that does not allow a rape victim to bring a claim,” he said.
Evans also criticized a provision in the bill she said would make it harder for victims of crime committed on the premises of a business to bring a lawsuit against the company’s owner. Any crime committed on a business premises would have to result from a defective physical condition the owner was aware of – such as a broken lock, broken window, or faulty security system – in order for the victim to sue, she said.
Other opponents said the legislation would put Georgians at a disadvantage in the civil justice system.
“The courtroom is where everyday citizens, the Davids with a slingshot, are on an equal footing with Goliath,” said House Minority Caucus Chair Tanya Miller, D-Atlanta. “This is an attack on the very fundamental principles that make this country what it is.”
But Rep. Rob Leverett, R-Elberton, who chaired the House subcommittee that took testimony on the bill, said it would make the system fair to both victims and business owners.
“I just don’t think we can do nothing,” he said. “People in our state are telling us they’re having serious problems.”
The bill now goes back to the Senate to weigh in on the changes made by the House.
