ATLANTA – Legislation Democratic opponents charged would inject more money into politics in Georgia to the detriment of public policy gained final passage in the General Assembly Thursday.
The state House of Representatives passed the bill 96-69, with lawmakers voting along party lines. Since the Senate approved the measure late last month, it now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.
The legislation would create eight so-called “leadership committees” headed by the governor, lieutenant governor and their general election opponents – plus the majority and minority caucus leaders in the Georgia House and Senate. The committees would collect campaign donations ahead of statewide and legislative elections.
While the committees would have to disclose the names of donors, they would not be subject to the contribution limits that apply to individual candidates.
“It gives our caucuses the ability to function like the parties do now,” said House Majority Whip Trey Kelley, R-Cedartown, who carried Senate Bill 221 in the House.
House Majority Leader Jon Burns, R-Newington, said the bill would treat Democrats and Republicans the same.
“This bill impacts both parties equally,” he said. “It’s an equal opportunity bill.”
But Democrats complained the bill would open the door to political fundraising during General Assembly sessions, a practice that is currently prohibited by state law to discourage lobbyists from seeking to influence votes on pending legislation.
“Do you have no concerns over money being raised during the legislative session while we’re voting on issues?” House Minority Whip David Wilkerson, D-Powder Springs, asked Kelley.
Rep. Matthew Wilson, D-Brookhaven, said it’s particularly bad timing for Republicans to be pushing to let more special-interest money into state politics at the same timing they’re sponsoring legislation that would make it more difficult for Georgians to vote.
“We’re raising barriers to ballot access … while creating yet another way for moneyed interests to influence our elections,” he said.
But Kelley said the legislation would strike a blow for greater transparency in campaign fundraising and spending. Any contributions or spending of more than $500 would have to be disclosed.
ATLANTA – A state House committee tabled legislation Wednesday creating a position of “chief labor officer” in Georgia after questions arose about how much authority the job would carry compared to the elected state commissioner of labor.
The bill, which the Senate passed 32-18 last week, is aimed at helping the labor department process the unprecedented deluge of unemployment claims it has been forced to handle during the coronavirus pandemic.
The chief labor officer would be appointed by the governor, subject to confirmation by the Senate committee with jurisdiction over labor issues. The labor officer would be required to produce progress reports on the agency’s handling of claims and help provide jobless Georgians with information on their claims.
The bill would give the chief labor officer the same level of authority as Georgia Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler, which he said could cause confusion.
“Their boss is the governor, not me,” Butler told members of the House Industry and Labor Committee Wednesday. “It puts me in a very precarious situation … if they did something to get us in trouble.”
Rep. Tom Kirby, R-Loganville, agreed the way the bill is currently worded could create an untenable situation.
“You’re putting two people in side by side with the same authority,” said Kirby, who made the motion to table the bill to give lawmakers more time to work on the language.
The bill represents the legislature’s attempt to respond to a barrage of complaints lawmakers have been receiving for months from constituents whose unemployment claims are being delayed.
“It simply puts another person there to assist [with] the large workflow that’s there,” said Sen. Marty Harbin, R-Tyrone, the measure’s chief sponsor.
But Butler said the bill wouldn’t help his agency.
“Appointing somebody who has no experience in what we do to come over and ‘help’ us doesn’t do anything,” he said. “We are not going to have time to train them.”
Butler defended his employees as doing the best job they can given the record number of unemployment claims Georgians have filed since COVID-19 struck the state a year ago, forcing businesses to close and lay off workers.
With 4.7 million claims to process, the labor department is being bombarded with an average of 60,000 phone calls a day, Butler said. The department has brought on almost 600 additional employees, including retirees experienced in the job, to handle the workload, he said.
While the agency is processing claims filed by Georgians legally eligible for unemployment in a timely manner, about 80% of the claims being filed at this point in the pandemic are coming from people who either quit their jobs or were fired, making them ineligible for benefits, Butler said. He suggested it’s those people legislators are hearing from.
“My folks have sweated. They’ve worked hard,” Butler said. “I’m proud of them.”
Rep. Todd Jones, R-South Forsyth, said the department still could use the help a chief labor officer would be able to provide. He said he sees the position as a liaison to give claimants information on their claims they’re not getting now.
“That has been the challenge for your department,” Jones told Butler. “I’m not sure that interface couldn’t be improved.”
“In the face of an unprecedented challenge, an unprecedented response is needed,” added Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville.
The fiscal 2021 mid-year budget Gov. Brian Kemp signed last month includes $100,000 to hire a chief labor officer. Because of the temporary nature of the labor department’s pandemic-driven workload, the position would sunset at the beginning of 2023.
ATLANTA – Legislation calling for a statue honoring the late Gov. Zell Miller to be placed on the grounds of the Georgia Capitol cleared the General Assembly Wednesday.
The state House of Representatives passed the bill 172-1 and sent it on to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature. The measure originated in the Georgia Senate, which passed it unanimously early this month.
Miller, a Democrat who served both as Georgia’s 79th governor and as a U.S. senator, died in 2018 at age 86 after battling Parkinson’s disease.
During two terms as governor in the 1990s, he spearheaded the creation of the popular HOPE Scholarship program, funded through the Georgia Lottery.
“Zell Miller has been called the governor who gave Georgia HOPE,” House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge,” said from the House floor before Wednesday’s vote. “Zell Miller had a view of this state where your opportunities were only limited by your willingness to work.”
Before ascending to the Governor’s Mansion in 1990, Miller served four terms as Georgia’s lieutenant governor.
After eight years as governor, Miller was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2000 by then Gov. Roy Barnes following the sudden death of Republican Sen. Paul Coverdell. He decided not to seek election to a full six-year term in 2004.
Senate Bill 140, introduced by Sen. Jeff Mullis R-Chickamauga, calls for a six-member committee to choose the design of the statue.
Two members will be appointed by the House speaker and two will be named by the lieutenant governor. The final two members – one from the House and one from the Senate – will be chosen by the governor.
The bill also stipulates that no public funding go toward the statue. The money is to be raised through private donations.
ATLANTA – Legislation that would take away the power of county boards of health to appoint local health directors and give it to the state public health commissioner cleared a Georgia House committee Tuesday.
Under current law, Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey selects directors of each of the state’s 18 health districts, Sen. Dean Burke, R-Bainbridge, chief sponsor of Senate Bill 256, told members of the House Health and Human Services Committee.
But county officials hold veto power over the commissioner’s choices, Burke said. That becomes time consuming in the larger districts, which contain up to 20 counties, he said.
“It’s very unwieldy to have to meet with every county to get approval of her choices,” Burke said. “We’re giving the commissioner the power to hire who she wants to work with.”
But David Will, a lawyer representing the Lawrenceville-based health district that includes Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale counties, said the bill would take away all local governance the health districts have enjoyed for 50 years.
“It has worked well. There’s no reason to change it, especially during a pandemic,” he said. “We don’t need a cookie-cutter approach to dictate how each director is selected.”
Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, the committee’s chairman, disagreed with Will’s assessment. While she praised the work of the Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale health district, she said other districts around the state have been uncooperative.
Cooper said some districts have rejected telemedicine as a treatment option, refused to provide prenatal care and balked at other state directives, including a mandate that patients getting flu shots wait 15 minutes before leaving a clinic.
“We have pockets of really functioning areas, but those are very few,” she said. “We need some oversight.”
Sherwin Levinson, executive director of Metro Reserve Corps East Metro, a volunteer organization that supplements the public health services the Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale health district delivers, suggested the legislation exempt districts that are nationally accredited.
“Some of our health districts are not working,” he said. “Don’t hurt the ones that are working and have at the ones that don’t.”
The original bill Burke introduced in the Senate would have given the state much broader powers over local health districts, including their ability to make their own rules.
“The broader reorganization is still needed,” Burke said Tuesday. “This is a baby step in that direction.”
The Senate passed the bill last week 37-14, with Democrats and Republicans on both sides of the issue. It now moves to the House Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote in that chamber.
ATLANTA – Georgia Chief Justice Harold Melton asked members of the General Assembly Tuesday to pass legislation aimed at shrinking a serious backlog of jury trials resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
The bill, which the Georgia Senate passed overwhelmingly early this month and is now before the state House of Representatives, would allow trial courts to continue suspending statutory speedy trial deadlines during judicial emergencies such as the pandemic.
Last week, Melton ordered jury trials to resume in Georgia a year after he suspended them because of COVID-19. But so many cases have piled up that it will take two or three years to work through the backlog, he said during his annual State of the Judiciary message to a joint session of the House and Senate.
“Not only will we have significantly more cases, but the process of moving them through the system at least initially will go more slowly due to all the safety protocols,” he said. “As we resume jury trials, if we’re only able to move at a third of the pace, we will be relieving some of the pressure, but the backlog will continue to grow.”
Melton praised judges and court staffs across the state for adjusting quickly to the new conditions the pandemic forced upon them, as in-person proceedings went virtual.
“This past year, I have witnessed first-hand that your judges and courts are remarkably resilient, flexible, creative, and committed in their mission to uphold the law and mete out justice fairly and equitably,” he said. “Justice and the rule of law cannot wait on a pandemic.”
But while the courts have remained open, jury trials had to be put on hold to protect public safety, Melton said.
“The decision to open jury trials is different from opening private businesses,” he said. “Unlike when individuals choose whether to visit a store, or a gym, or a restaurant, when a citizen receives a jury summons, that’s not an invitation, it’s an order. We compel people to come to court.
“It has therefore been critical that when we resumed jury trials, we did it right – with the necessary safeguards in place.”
Melton thanked members of a task force he appointed last May that developed those safeguards to protect court employees and the public.
The chief justice also noted that Tuesday’s appearance before the General Assembly was his last. He announced last month he would be stepping down in July after 16 years on the Georgia Supreme Court.
The justices unanimously elected Presiding Justice David Nahmias last week to succeed Melton as chief justice and selected Justice Michael Boggs to assume the role of presiding justice.
“There are no two more able,” Melton said. “Our state is extremely fortunate to have them in those roles.”
