by Dave Williams | Dec 3, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Former Gov. Roy Barnes accused state Senate Republicans Tuesday of pursuing a “vendetta” in issuing a subpoena for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to testify about alleged misconduct in the 2020 election interference case.
“This was nothing but singling out one district attorney who was elected and reelected to embarrass,” Barnes, a lawyer representing Willis, said during a hearing in Fulton County Superior Court on Willis’ challenge to a subpoena a special Senate committee issued last spring.
The GOP-led Senate Special Committee on Investigations was formed last January to gather testimony and documents related to a romantic relationship between Willis and Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to lead the case against former President Donald Trump, who won reelection to a second non-consecutive term last month.
A Fulton grand jury indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants in August of last year for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia that saw Democrat Joe Biden carry the Peach State’s 16 electoral votes.
On Tuesday, Barnes argued the subpoena the committee issued to Willis did not serve any legitimate legislative purpose, as is required by a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limited the subpoena power of legislative bodies. Its only purpose, Barnes said, was to embarrass Willis and discover the details of her case against Trump.
But Josh Belinfante, a lawyer representing the Senate committee, said the legislative purposes behind the subpoena were spelled out in the resolution that created the committee.
Senate Resolution 465 asserts that an investigation into allegations against Willis might show that existing state laws governing the hiring and compensation of district attorneys in Georgia might be inadequate for addressing “legal and fiscal issues” raised by her alleged misconduct and might need to be changed.
Barnes also argued that neither a Senate committee nor the full Senate have the power to issue subpoenas, an authority that rests only with the entire General Assembly. Also, the committee didn’t issue the subpoena until after Sine Die, the date the legislature adjourned the 2024 session at the end of March, he said.
“When (the General Assembly) adjourns, it is gone. It has no more force and effect,” Barnes said. “It cannot issue a subpoena.”
But Vincent Russo, another lawyer for the committee, said Georgia’s Constitution authorizes the creation of “interim” committees between legislative sessions, including the special committee.
“Sine Die is the adjournment of a regular session of the General Assembly,” he said. “The General Assembly doesn’t cease to exist when its regular session ends.”
by Dave Williams | Dec 3, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The General Assembly should pass legislation that regulates artificial intelligence without stifling innovation, a state Senate study committee recommended Tuesday.
The Senate Study Committee on Artificial Intelligence, which held eight meetings this summer and fall, unanimously adopted a 185-page report containing 22 recommendations for how lawmakers should address rapidly developing AI technology.
“AI has the potential to improve every Georgian’s quality of life,” said Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, the committee’s chairman. “However, we must balance innovation with safeguards to protect privacy, fairness, and transparency.”
The development of AI technology is widely seen as a double-edged sword. While it promises to increase workplace productivity and produce life-saving drugs, it also threatens to replace large numbers of jobs now done by humans and compromise cybersecurity.
So-called “deep fakes” generated by AI are being used in criminal scams and political advertising, using false images and audio to fool people into thinking a family member or candidate for public office said something they didn’t or did something that never happened.
The study committee is calling for legislation aimed at deep fakes that would include transparency and labeling requirements aimed at identifying false images and audio.
A bill introduced in the state House of Representatives this year called for criminalizing the use of deep fakes in political ads. House Bill 986 overwhelmingly cleared the House but died in the Georgia Senate.
The study committee urged lawmakers to adopt a data privacy law similar to other states and embed requirements for transparency and disclosure in any legislation the General Assembly considers during the 2025 session starting in January.
The panel also recommended that every state agency, city, county, and school system develop a comprehensive AI plan.
The committee suggested state and local law enforcement agencies look for ways to use AI to increase the efficiency of emergency response and management and improve health-care outcomes.
The legislature also should expand tax incentives provided to Georgia-based entertainment projects that incorporate AI innovation, the committee concluded.
The committee’s report calls for continuing statewide efforts to update laws and regulations governing AI as the technology develops by creating a state board for artificial intelligence and keeping the study committee going next year.
“This is an ongoing process,” Albers said. “We are going to have to embrace AI. Doing it correctly will be our task.”
by Dave Williams | Dec 3, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The state Public Service Commission (PSC) voted unanimously Tuesday to certify Georgia Power’s plan to build battery energy storage systems (BESS) at four locations.
The Atlanta-based utility’s proposal, which was approved without discussion, will add 500 megawatts of electrical generating capacity to Georgia Power’s energy supply portfolio. One megawatt is enough electricity to power 750 homes.
Two of the new BESS facilities will be built adjacent to both Robins Air Force Base in Houston County and Moody Air Force Base in Lowndes County. They will be co-located with existing solar facilities.
A third standalone BESS will be located at the retired coal-burning Plant Hammond in Floyd County. The fourth site will double the battery-storage capacity of the McGrau Ford Battery Facility being built in Cherokee County.
An agreement Georgia Power reached with the PSC’s Public Interest Advocacy Staff in October requires the company to submit quarterly reports while the BESS projects are under construction updating spending and the construction schedule.
by Dave Williams | Dec 2, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A group of 17 Republican governors has sent a joint letter to Congress urging passage of an updated Farm Bill.
The most recent Farm Bill, which federal lawmakers approved early in President-elect Donald Trump’s first term in the White House, expired in September. Different versions of a reauthorization bill are pending in the U.S. House and Senate, while Republicans and Democrats are divided over funding for food stamps.
The letter, dated Monday, cites “high inflation, high input costs, high interest rates, catastrophic weather events, natural disasters, regulatory uncertainty, and a growing agricultural trade deficit” as lending a sense of urgency to the need for congressional action.
“Our nation’s agriculture industry is in trouble, and if meaningful support is not provided soon, the well-being of the nation is at risk,” the governors wrote. “Reauthorization of a Farm Bill and immediate assistance in the interim will allow farmers and ranchers to do what they do best – provide for America and feed the world.”
Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp joined the GOP governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia in signing the letter.
by Dave Williams | Nov 29, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Tax breaks for farmers, higher weight limits for trucks, and reforming Georgia’s Gratuities Clause prohibiting gifts to individuals or businesses top a list of proposals a legislative study committee issued during Thanksgiving week.
The state Senate Study Committee on the Preservation of Georgia’s Farmlands unanimously approved 11 recommendations Nov. 25 aimed at slowing the conversion of prime farmland across the state to development.
“It’s not a simple solution,” Will Bentley, president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council, said after the study committee adopted its report. “It’s going to take a multi-faceted approach.”
Georgia has lost about 2.6 million acres of farmland during the last 50 years to residential and commercial development.
Along with losing farmland, the state also is losing farmers to retirement without a ready supply of replacements. There are more farmers in Georgia over the age of 65 than under.
Higher costs for farm inputs including seed and equipment coupled with foreign competition driving down crop prices are discouraging young Georgians from taking up farming.
“We’ve got to figure out a way to get young people back into farming,” said Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, a member of the study committee. “It’s almost impossible for a young person to break into the business.”
The General Assembly has taken several steps in recent years aimed at addressing the issue. Lawmakers passed the Freedom to Farm Act in 2022, making it harder to file nuisance lawsuits against farmers.
Last year, the legislature passed a bill raising the legal weight limits on commercial trucks hauling certain types of cargo in certain parts of Georgia as well as a second measure – the Georgia Farmland Conservation Act – establishing a $2 million state fund to pay farmers willing to guarantee preserving their properties as farmland.
This year, the General Assembly enacted legislation prohibiting foreign adversaries from buying farmland in Georgia.
The study committee’s 21-page report includes several recommendations aimed at easing the tax burden for farmers. Broadly, it calls for the legislature to continue providing the state income tax breaks Gov. Brian Kemp and lawmakers have been offering to all Georgia taxpayers, and for increasing the $2 million Georgia Farmland Conservation Fund.
Specifically, the report supports expanding the state’s Conservation Use Valuation Assessment (CUVA) program, which allows farmers who pledge not to develop their land to receive property tax assessments based on the land’s productivity value instead of its fair market value.
The study committee is recommending doubling the maximum acreage individual farmers may set aside for conservation from 2,000 to 4,000 acres.
The panel also suggested extending tax relief to farmers and timberland owners who suffered losses from Hurricane Helene by expanding state tax credits to recipients of state and federal disaster relief aid.
The 2023 truck weights measure raised the weight limit for commercial trucks from 80,000 pounds to 88,000 pounds but limited the higher weights to trucks hauling agricultural products – including livestock – and logs. The committee is calling for increasing the weight limit again and allowing that higher weight limit to apply to trucks hauling a wider variety of products.
The report also supports removing the sunset provision in the law, which calls for the measure to expire next July 1.
The study committee also is recommending amending Georgia’s Gratuities Clause, which supporters say discourages corruption in state government. Any individual Georgian or Georgia business that receives a gift from the state – such as a tax break – must demonstrate a benefit to the state in return.
Bentley said a case can be made that farmers generate a benefit for the state from tax breaks that allow them to stay in business.
“Producing food and fiber for the world is of the utmost public good,” he said.
But Bentley said his group is not calling for the Gratuities Clause to be eliminated because it has served the state well.
“We were more in the camp of looking at adjustments that can be made … a very narrow exception to a rule to keep farms operational,” he said.
The committee also is recommending an inventory of the growing acreage solar farms are taking up across Georgia.
While the acreage solar farms are eating up has become a concern, the main culprit behind the loss of farmland in Georgia is unplanned growth. The committee is suggesting that cities, counties, school systems, and local development authorities look to incentivize development along existing infrastructure patterns and look to redevelop existing properties rather than letting development sprawl across undeveloped land that could be saved for farming.
“We can’t just conserve ourselves out of this threat,” said Katherine Moore, president of the nonprofit Georgia Conservancy. “We need to be very intentional in how our communities grow.”
The study committee’s report now moves to the full Senate for consideration during the legislative session starting in January.
Sen. Billy Hickman, R-Statesboro, the committee’s chairman, said several farmland preservation bills could emerge as lawmakers look to bolster an ag industry that generates one of every seven jobs in Georgia and produces an annual economic impact of $83.6 billion.
“Agriculture is the No.-1 business in Georgia,” Hickman said. “We’ve got to protect it.”
