by Ty Tagami | Jan 30, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Some lawmakers have been working under Georgia’s Gold Dome long enough to remember when the place reeked of cigarettes.
Although no one openly smokes there today, lawmakers seem to have an abiding aversion to legislation to curb tobacco use, specifically a tax increase.
Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, took his oath of office in 1997. The white-haired pharmacist has personal reasons to abhor cigarettes, and he has been introducing legislation against tobacco since his hair was black.
But some mysterious force has always undermined his efforts.
He and a fellow Republican who chairs the House Public and Community Health committee have been tilting at a tobacco windmill for most of their legislative careers, and they have little to show for it.
After numerous hours invested last spring and summer in a study committee that underscored the dangers of tobacco use, they feel defeated.
“I don’t know why anything related to tobacco has trouble getting through,” said Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, the public health committee chairwoman who also led the smoking study committee.
It is not as if the risks of smoking are a secret.
The report written by their five-member study committee makes that plain. It starts off by noting that the resolution passed by the full House to establish the committee had recognized that smoking “harms every organ” in the body.
The report then summarized facts gathered during three hearings: cigarette smoke can produce more than 7,000 chemicals, including ammonia, formaldehyde, lead, mercury and uranium-235. It can cause, among other things, cancer, heart and lung disease, type 2 diabetes, eye diseases, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Both Stephens and Cooper have personal motivations, as well.
Stephens’ sister-in-law died last summer, due, he said, to the effects of smoking. For years, she had been confined at home, tethered to an oxygen bottle. He said his father smoked as a teen and got lung concern later in life, which cost $5,000 a month to treat.
Cooper’s half-sister died in her 30s, and the lawmaker always suspected it was due to secondhand smoke exposure from her chain-smoking stepmother.
As a licensed nurse, Cooper said she had witnessed the damage. “I’ve seen lungs blackened over years of smoking,” she said.
Both also spoke of the resulting financial burden for taxpayers.
“You’re going to get sick, usually when you’re older and on Medicare or Medicaid,” Stephens said, “so then the public bears the cost.”
Yet nothing concrete has come of the hours they spent on their study committee. The discussion during the hearings suggested a clear direction: legislation to raise the tax on cigarettes.
Georgia’s cigarette excise tax has not changed since 2003. At 37 cents a pack, it is the second lowest in the nation, behind only Missouri. By comparison, New York charges $5.35 per pack, and Indianna increased its tax by $2 a pack in 2024, lifting it to $2.99.
Stephens was not surprised to learn that the American Lung Association had yet again given Georgia a failing grade. This week, the organization released its 24th annual “State of Tobacco Control” report.
Georgia got an “F” in all five categories related to curbing tobacco use. The association recommended that lawmakers increase the state’s cigarette tax by at least $1.50 per pack. It said studies show that every 10% increase in the price of cigarettes reduces consumption by about 4% among adults and about 7% among youth.
The association said tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and disease nationally and claims 11,690 Georgia lives each year.
Rep. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, was not surprised by the failing grades.
“We’ve been five Fs for a long time,” said Au, a medical doctor and one of two Democrats on Cooper’s study committee.
Dr. Au observed something unusual for a study committee report. “It is denuded of policy recommendations,” she said. “We were told in the process that we could not include policy recommendations.”
She said she asked House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, who had empaneled the study committee, why it was given such instructions.
“And he said (it was) because there were such strong feelings on either side of the issue that he felt that the best approach would be to just present the facts,” Au said. “Of course, I did notice that basically every other study committee does present policy recommendations.”
Indeed, one of the three study committee meetings focused on policy recommendations, she said. “So, it is a conspicuous omission.”
A spokeswoman for Burns’ office said he had instructed the committee to present “the entirety” of the data and testimony gathered by the committee “so that the General Assembly’s future legislative initiatives could be informed and guided by the facts.”
Republicans control both the state Senate and House, so only bills promoted by Republicans tend to become law.
But those two GOP representatives who have been tilting at tobacco for years said they were moving on to other issues this year.
Stephens, who chairs the House Economic Development and Tourism Committee, is instead focusing on bread-and-butter issues for the bustling region he represents. His area is booming due to increased shipping traffic at its ports and the new Hyundai Metaplant, not to mention the visitors flocking to the coast and Georgia’s charming and oldest city, Savannah.
He said he would put his limited time this year into promoting tourism and managing growth “rather than introduce another bill that that won’t go anywhere.”
And Cooper is concerned about recreational use of the drug Kratom and the anesthetic ketamine.
The longtime lawmaker, sworn in the same year as Stephens, has watched a succession of lawmakers parade through the Capitol, including several House speakers. She remembers when smoke wafted through the air and left an awful smell on the faded blue curtains. She also has not forgotten the spittoons and carpet stains.
All that may have faded away, but the resistance to taxing tobacco has endured, Cooper said.
“There just doesn’t seem to be an appetite from members of the legislature for that to move,” she said. “It is the mystery of the century. I would like to know before I die, if we ever find out, what’s causing the resistance to it. They slip through taxes on other stuff.”
by Ty Tagami | Jan 29, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A Republican House proposal to eliminate homeowner property taxes will face stiff opposition if it makes it to the state Senate, where Democratic leadership labeled it “draconian” and “unserious.”
Georgia’s property tax is essential, Sen. Harold Jones II, D-Augusta, said Thursday.
“It funds your schools and it funds your police,” said Jones, the Senate minority leader. “And that’s exactly what you would be defunding, quite frankly, if you actually went for either one of these proposals.”
The other proposal he was referring to was by Republican leaders of his own chamber to eliminate the state income tax.
Republicans would not necessarily need support from Democrats to change the income tax, but an overhaul of the property tax would require an amendment of the state constitution.
To pass the General Assembly, a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote of approval from both the House and Senate. Republicans do not have a two-thirds majority in either chamber, so Democrats would have a say in the outcome.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, unveiled the broad strokes of his chamber’s plan Wednesday, with a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment to gradually reduce and then eliminate the property tax on the primary residence of homeowners. He said the rapid rise in home values was driving an “unsustainable” increase in property tax bills.
The resolution requires companion legislation that gets into the details of how the tax break would work.
On Thursday, Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, the architect of the plan, filed some of that companion legislation.
House Bill 1116 would gradually increase the tax break on primary residences, starting with a $10,000 maximum exemption off the taxable value through 2028, up from the current $2,000.
Blackmon said Wednesday that jurisdictions would be allowed to use up to 2 pennies of local sales tax revenue to make up for their lost property tax revenue, though the total sales tax rate that jurisdictions would be allowed to levy would remain at 5%.
Factories, offices, stores, apartments, second homes and other non-primary residences would still be subject to the traditional property tax.
But HB 1116 would require that cities, counties and school districts reduce their property tax rate to cap annual revenue growth at 3%. And it would require that these jurisdictions roll back their property tax rate if the amount of their sales tax revenue dedicated to offsetting the revenue lost to the homeowner property tax break were to exceed the cost of that tax break.
Jones said the increase in sales taxes needed to pay for the homeowner tax break would raise costs for families when they go shopping. And he said the tax break would also force local service cuts.
“Any idea of getting rid of the property tax is just draconian,” he said.
Jones also said the two-thirds vote requirement was a tough hurdle. “I think that’s going to be a hard one to get over,” he said. “I hope it will be a hard one to get over.”
by Ty Tagami | Jan 28, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Republicans in Georgia’s state House say they want to take steps to erase homeowner property taxes this legislative session, which is getting underway ahead of an election cycle seemingly dominated by concerns about the cost of living.
The proposal unveiled at the Capitol Wednesday by House leaders, would gradually chip away at the amount of property taxes homeowners pay on their primary residence, until the amount vanishes to zero in 2032.
“This historic tax relief will be delivering on our commitment to make life more affordable,” House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said Wednesday before releasing a resolution with outlines of the proposal. The way property taxes are levied now, based on fast-rising home values, is “unsustainable” for most homeowners, he said.
The abolishment of a core revenue stream for local communities is a major undertaking. Property taxes are not collected by state government, but they pay for most local services, from police to teachers.
The proposal, still being drafted by Burns’ team, would let cities, counties and schools make up some of the lost revenue by either increasing sales taxes or by shifting revenue from their current sales tax if it is already at the maximum under state law. It also would allow them to levy more property assessments for specific services, much like some jurisdictions bill for fire services.
Burns said that would increase transparency, since taxpayers would be able to see the line-item bill for each service.
But sales tax revenue is currently a larger revenue stream. Much of it is dedicated to road projects or to supplanting a portion of homeowners’ property tax bill. Sales taxes are also less reliable than property taxes, especially during a recession. That would make budgeting more difficult.
And some lost property tax revenue probably could not be replaced, some observers said, leading to cuts to local services.
Property taxes deliver at least $5 billion to fund operations in cities, counties and schools, said Clint Mueller, deputy director of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.
“It means cutting services. It means raising taxes through assessments. It means shifting sales tax from other purposes like capital and general property tax relief across the board,” he said. Costs don’t “magically go away,” he said.
The biggest local cost is typically the operation of school systems, a mandate under the state constitution. They are so big they are often the largest employer in the community, with 90% of revenue typically going to employee pay and benefits.
And property taxes cover all of that.
“No question that is the primary source of local revenue that school systems have, and it’s really the only way they can raise revenue,” said John Zauner, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association.
Many districts levy a 1% sales tax, but it is typically used to cover capital costs, such as construction or technology purchases.
Zauner noted that some areas would find it difficult to raise much sales tax revenue to replace residential property taxes because they lack a significant industrial or commercial tax base.
“Some of the counties don’t even have a grocery store, let alone a Dollar General,” he said. “It’s just an imbalanced way to collect taxes.”
Striking the right balance of alternative revenue streams versus cuts will not be the only challenge.
To untie the Gordian Knot of Georgia’s property tax system, lawmakers will need voters to approve an amendment to the state constitution.
Before they can even get it to voters, they will have to get it through both chambers of the General Assembly with two-thirds votes in favor. That would mean securing votes from Democrats. It would also require collaboration from the Republican-controlled Senate, which has its own affordability priority.
Senate leaders have said they want to make deep annual cuts to the income tax, eventually eliminating it.
Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, noted that his chamber’s proposal does not call for an increase in the state’s portion of the sales tax.
The House has yet to release legislation with full details about how its property tax cut would work. Tillery said he looks forward to reading the details and to “working with the house to reduce the tax burden on all Georgians.”
by Ty Tagami | Jan 28, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia high school sophomores are looking ever more likely to lose their phones during the school day in their senior year, as lawmakers consider expanding a ban on personal devices.
New surveys suggest overwhelming support for the idea from parents and teachers. A ban from kindergarten through middle school takes effect next fall after state lawmakers passed it last year.
Now, the author of that law has legislation that would extend the ban to high schools starting in fall 2027.
Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners, said he expects House Bill 1009 to get a first hearing in a couple of weeks.
Hilton said he had heard universal support from parents and teachers about his K-8 ban. Although the prohibition will not be enforced statewide until the fall, many schools have voluntarily banned phones ahead of schedule. He said he expects an expansion to high school to be similarly popular, with some caveats about logistics for older students.
“The concerns I’ve heard thus far are more around scheduling, you know, after school activities, things like that,” Hilton said.
New surveys indicate broad support for phone-free schools.
More than two-thirds of the roughly 3,000 administrators, teachers and other educators surveyed in 176 school districts by Georgia’s largest teacher association liked the idea, according to results out this week. High school teachers were even more enthusiastic, with 83% calling for a cellphone ban.
“Why do they want these bans? Because they believe that phones are very disruptive,” said Margaret Ciccarelli, director of legislative services for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, which surveyed its members last fall.
Similarly, a survey released this week by the Emory Center for Child Health Policy found 71% of responding Georgia parents want the K-8 cellphone ban extended to high schools.
Their answers in the survey, also taken last fall, indicate that they believe a ban would lead to more learning and social interaction and would improve mental health.
The 29% of parents who opposed a high school ban were mostly concerned about being disconnected from their child during a school emergency.
“Parents’ concerns about emergency access are valid and understandable. However, effective cellphone policies can address this by establishing rapid parent notification systems and guaranteed access to phones when needed,” Julie Gazmararian, professor of epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health, wrote in a report about the survey. “Strong support for high school cellphone bans among parents suggests broad public readiness for policy action.”
Safety experts have testified at the Capitol that a phone in a student’s hand during an emergency can be a dangerous distraction from safety instructions given by teachers and emergency responders.
But Layla Contreras, 24, said people who think high school students do not need their phone in an emergency have never lived through one.
Her sister, Sasha, is a senior at Apalachee High School in Barrow County and texted her when a gunman entered the school in September 2024, killing four.
Contreras said her sister, 17, texted her to tell her the emergency was real — and that she loved her.
Layla Contreras added that the school was locked down again last week after a false alarm. Sasha texted her that time to relay the news, too.
Layla Contreras said high school students need their phones in an emergency and should be taught how to use them responsibly the rest of the time.
“We need to teach our kids more discipline and more responsibility rather than just taking it away, because when they enter the workforce,” she said, “they’re not going to take away their phones.”
The ban expansion has high-powered support. House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said in early January that he expected a “lively discussion” about banning cellphones in high school, acknowledging the competing views of those who see devices as a liability on regular school days versus those who see them as an asset during a crisis.
“Some of that communication certainly is good for the parent to understand that the child is safe,” Burns said, “but it also interferes with the safety protocols in the schools.”
On the Senate side, a bipartisan study committee empaneled by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican, recommended a ban on cellphones in high schools.
And in a hearing last week, Richard Woods, the state superintendent of schools, asked lawmakers for such a ban. The Republican elected official said his teacher and student advisory councils, the latter including a student shot at Apalachee High, rank mental health as the top concern for students.
Studies show the negative academic impact and emotional strain of screen time, Woods said. “This is both an academic and a mental health issue.”
by Ty Tagami | Jan 25, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The Georgia General Assembly will be down another lawmaker during this legislative session after the suspension of a state representative who was indicted last month in federal court.
Gov. Brian Kemp ordered the suspension of State. Rep. Sharon Henderson, D-Covington, after a committee of elected officials determined that her indictment “does relate to and adversely affect” her duties as a lawmaker.
The suspension, which Kemp signed Thursday, is in effect until Henderson’s term ends or her case is closed.
A quick disposition appears unlikely. Henderson has retained a lawyer, and her case in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta is scheduled for a pretrial conference Feb. 19.
Henderson is accused of two counts of theft of government funds and 10 counts of making false statements in connection with claims that she filed for federal unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prosecutors alleged she collected $17,811 in unemployment benefits to which she was not entitled.
Another member of the state House quickly resolved charges related to defrauding the same unemployment program.
Former Rep. Karen Bennett, D-Stone Mountain, pleaded guilty in the same federal court to making false statements to fraudulently obtain $13,940 in federal emergency relief funds during the pandemic, Theodore S. Hertzberg, the U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, announced Wednesday.
Kemp was required by the Georgia Constitution to assemble the review committee on Henderson’s status.
On Jan. 8, he appointed three members. Two were Republicans: Attorney General Chris Carr and Rep. Jan Jones, R-Milton, the House speaker pro tem. The third was Sen. Harold Jones, II, D-Augusta, the Senate minority leader.
They issued their finding Thursday, the same day Kemp suspended Henderson.
Several other seats in the legislature remain open for a variety of reasons, but Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has been scheduling special elections to fill them, with one for Bennett’s vacated seat on March 10.
