by Dave Williams | Feb 11, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation backed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp aimed at reining in huge jury awards supporters say cripple Georgia businesses has cleared a state Senate committee following a five-hour hearing.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-3 along party lines Monday night to advance the sweeping tort reform measure to the full Senate for consideration.
Among other things, Senate 68 would shield property owners from liability claims stemming from criminal acts committed by third parties outside of the owner’s control, allow lawyers for defendants in suits stemming from car accidents to introduce evidence showing the injured party was not wearing a seatbelt, and require plaintiffs in liability cases to show the jury their actual medical costs when the jury is deliberating on compensation.
The committee vote came after representatives of businesses including trucking companies, supermarkets, pest control companies, and hospitals complained that a civil justice system skewed against defendants is driving up insurance premiums, making it increasingly difficult for businesses to keep their doors open.
“The future of the grocery industry is at stake if something doesn’t change,” John Triplett, a grocer from Screven County, told the committee.
“We very much support plaintiffs’ access to the court system,” added Anna Adams, executive vice president for external affairs at the Georgia Hospital Association. “We just want this process to be fair.”
Opponents have argued that tort reform will let insurance companies further enrich themselves without reducing skyrocketing insurance premiums driven by climate change and the greed of insurers.
But Jimbo Floyd of Gainesville, president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Georgia, said insurance companies are losing money because of excessive jury verdicts. For example, insurance companies in Georgia paid out $1.04 in 2023 for every $1 they collected, piling up $1.28 billion in losses, he said.
“The Georgia insurance marketplace is in crisis,” Floyd said. “If we don’t act to stabilize rates, many of these business owners will be forced to close their businesses.”
After supporters spoke in favor of the bill, members of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association poked holes in each of the comprehensive measure’s provisions.
Alan Hamilton, a lawyer who represents plaintiffs in truck accident cases, said a provision prohibiting plaintiff lawyers from bringing up specific amounts or ranges of damages they are seeking until closing arguments favors high-salary plaintiffs over stay-at-home moms, children, elderly retirees, and wage earners.
“This unfairly, unequally treats the wage earner different from the executive,” he said. “It raises serious equal-protection constitutional and practical concerns.”
Personal injury lawyer Drew Ashby said allowing defense lawyers to introduce evidence showing a plaintiff in an auto accident was not wearing a seat belt has an “unbelievably prejudicial effect” on juries.
“It shifts the focus from the person who caused the crash to the victim of the crash,” he said.
Ashby also argued that it’s hard to prove a plaintiff was wearing a seat belt at the time of a crash because either the victim, first responder, or police officer typically remove the seat belt immediately after an accident.
Kemp has made tort reform a top priority for this year’s General Assembly session.
by Dave Williams | Feb 10, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) recently urged Gov. Brian Kemp to block a proposed mine near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge on her way out the door.
In a letter to Kemp dated Jan 15 – five days before leaving office to make way for the incoming Trump administration – then-FWS Director Martha Williams called the Okefenokee “one of America’s greatest natural treasures.”
Advocates for the swamp have been fighting Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals’ (TPM) plan to open a titanium oxide mine along Trail Ridge adjacent to the refuge for several years. The project’s opponents are looking to a new Fish and Wildlife Service plan to expand the refuge by about 22,000 acres as a way to stop the mine.
“Experts have highlighted that the proposed mine significantly risks the ecosystem and cultural values of Okefenokee,” Williams wrote. “The (Interior) Department, the state of Georgia, and private landowners have the opportunity to stand together to protect this unique swamp ecosystem within Georgia.
“I urge you to exercise your leadership and authority as governor of Georgia to help us achieve a mutually acceptable solution.”
Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) is seeking state permits for the mine. While company executives have said the project would not harm the swamp, scientific studies have concluded the proposed mine would significantly damage the largest blackwater swamp in North America by drawing down its water level and increasing the risk of drought and fires.
Josh Marks, president of Georgians for the Okefenokee, praised the Fish and Wildlife Service for its advocacy on behalf of the refuge.
“This letter correctly highlights the scientific consensus that mining along the swamp’s hydrologic boundary is a terrible idea,” he said. “Hopefully, Governor Kemp will agree, deny TPM’s permit applications, and instead accept FWS’ offer of collaboration around conserving Trail Ridge, so that Georgia’s greatest natural treasure can finally be saved for future generations.”
by Dave Williams | Feb 7, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia Power would not be allowed to pass on the costs of providing electricity to data centers under legislation before the state Senate.
“I support data centers coming to Georgia. … They can be a significant contributor to property taxes,” Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, the bill’s chief sponsor, told members of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee Friday during an initial hearing on the measure. “But they do require considerable resources. I want them to pay their fair share of those investments.”
The rapid growth of the data center industry in Georgia has prompted concerns among state lawmakers and energy regulators during the last couple of years. When Georgia Power executives asked the state Public Service Commission (PSC) in 2023 to approve 6,600 megawatts of additional electrical generating capacity for the Atlanta-based utility, they said 80% of that new demand was coming from energy-intensive data centers.
The commission voted last month to prohibit Georgia Power from passing on the costs of providing electricity to large-load customers including data centers to residential and small-business customers. The new rule also requires contracts with customers using more than 200 megawatts of electricity to be submitted to the PSC for review.
Khara Boender, senior manager of state policy for the Virginia-based Data Center Coalition, an industry association, said she considers Senate Bill 34 unnecessary because the PSC already has acted on the issue. Boender also complained that Hufstetler’s bill unfairly singles out data centers when there are other large users of electricity in Georgia, including the fast-growing advanced manufacturing sector.
But Hufstetler said legislation is needed to ensure Georgia Power’s residential and small-business customers don’t end up footing the bill for power-hungry data centers.
“This is just too huge an issue for us not to make sure we’re taking care of the citizens,” he said. “We need to protect the citizens of Georgia.”
The committee didn’t act on Hufstetler’s bill Friday. A vote could come at the panel’s next meeting.
by Dave Williams | Feb 7, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Fulton County Superior Court judge has upheld a ruling by the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) granting Sandersville Railroad Co. the right to take land from several property owners for a planned rail spur.
However, Judge Craig Schwall also issued a partial stay preventing the company from invoking the power of eminent domain to start the project pending an expected appeal of this week’s ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court.
The case began in March 2023 when Sandersville moved to condemn and take land owned by Don and Sally Garrett, which has been in Don Garrett’s family for generations. Two months later, the Garretts, Blaine and Diane Smith, and Marvin and Pat Smith teamed up to challenge the condemnation. In July 2023, more property owners joined the suit.
The PSC sided with the company, voting unanimously last September that the company’s plans for the 4.5-mile Hanson Spur connecting raw material producers to a CSX rail line constitute a legitimate public use under the state’s eminent domain laws.
“A private railroad’s desire to build a speculative new line entirely for the benefit of a handful of private companies is not a public use under the U.S. and Georgia constitutions and Georgia’s eminent domain laws,” said Bill Maurer, senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, which represents the property owners.
“We look forward to the Georgia Supreme Court’s review, and we are thankful our clients will not have to deal with Sandersville building tracks on our clients’ property until the higher court weighs in.”
The company issued a statement praising Schwall’s ruling and defending the project.
“The Hanson Spur is a critical infrastructure project that will open new channels of trade for local businesses, reduce truck traffic, and serve the public with minimal impacts on our neighbors,” the company wrote.
Sandersville Railroad Co. asserted that the Hanson Spur is expected to generate more than $1.5 million in annual economic benefits for Hancock County and the city of Sparta.
by Dave Williams | Feb 6, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia House overwhelmingly passed a $40.5 billion mid-year state budget Thursday containing hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending aimed largely at helping victims of Hurricane Helene recover from the devastating storm.
The mid-year budget, which now moves to the state Senate, sailed through the House 166-3.
House lawmakers added $197 million to the $615 million Gov. Brian Kemp requested in relief for residents, business owners, farmers, and timber producers who suffered losses when Helene struck South Georgia and the eastern half of the state last September.
“This will just address initial needs,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Matt Hatchet, R-Dublin, said of the $250 million included in the mid-year budget to help timber producers affected by Helene, up from the $100 million the governor recommended. “I’m sure we’ll have additional legislation.”
Another priority of the mid-year budget is public safety. The spending plan calls for hiring more than 400 correctional officers to staff a state prison system criticized last fall in a federal audit for failing to protect inmates from widespread violence.
The mid-year budget also would boost funding for body cameras and tasers to help those correctional officers maintain order.
House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus, questioned whether two modular prison units the state Department of Corrections plans to construct will provide enough security. The state plans to move inmates into those units temporarily to make room for projects fixing crumbling infrastructure in existing prisons.
“They are very sturdy,” Hatchett responded. “The concrete reinforcement and insulation of doors and locks are the same ones we use (in the existing prisons).”
The mid-year budget also includes $501.7 million to increase surface water supplies in Coastal Georgia to supply the huge Hyundai electric-vehicle manufacturing plant now under construction west of Savannah. A new water intake on the Savannah River is expected to produce 20 million gallons a day by 2030.
Another $250 million would go toward low-interest loans to help finance water and wastewater projects across the state.
The Georgia Department of Transportation would receive more than $500 million for improvements along the state’s interstate corridors.
The House supported Kemp’s request for an additional $50 million for school-security grants, with each school in Georgia getting more than $68,000 to spend as local school district officials see fit.
Another $22 million would go to accommodate the increasing numbers of foster children needing shelter. Hatchett said the state’s ultimate goal is eliminating the “hoteling” of foster kids in Georgia.
Financially struggling hospitals, many of which pitched in to help victims of Hurricane Helene, would get $35 million in one-time funds to help shore up their bottom lines.
Overall, the mid-year budget would increase state spending by $4.4 billion above the fiscal 2025 budget the General Assembly passed last spring. Of that amount, $2.7 billion would come from the state’s massive $16 billion surplus.
House Speaker Jon Burns said the House was determined to pass a mid-year budget as early as possible in this year’s session in order to make the funding available for disaster relief and other vital needs. The mid-year budget, which covers state spending through June 30, was the first bill to reach the House floor this year.
“We’re upholding our commitment here in the House,” said Burns, R-Newington. “We hope our friends across the hall (the Senate) will get the budget out and get it out timely.”
