by Ty Tagami | Mar 4, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Protesters became a target of Georgia lawmakers this week as both the state House and Senate passed legislation to enhance punishment against people who get in the way of police or of drivers.
“The danger is real,” said Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, explaining why she wanted to make it a felony to use a vehicle, whether moving or stationary, in a non-violent effort to block local, state or federal officers.
House Bill 1076 would impose a punishment of one to five years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000 for anyone who uses a vehicle and “knowingly obstructs, hinders, blocks, or otherwise interferes” with officers enforcing the law.
It passed the House Tuesday night over objections by Democrats, who said the measure would add a redundant law to the books. Police already have a variety of charges they can use against such perpetrators, they said.
But they worried that the wording in this new one would give officers broad latitude to charge bystanders, such as a grandmother who couldn’t move her car.
HB 1076 would require that prosecutors prove intentional obstruction. But the legislation would raise the risk for everyone, one Democrat said, noting a felony “could ruin lives.”
During a committee hearing last month, Ehrhart cited statistics showing an increase in vehicle-related deaths of law enforcement officers as the reason for bringing her bill. But after a Democrat quizzed her about her numbers, she acknowledged they reflected all manner of vehicular incidents, including collisions while officers were driving their own vehicles.
On the House floor Tuesday, a couple Democrats suggested Ehrhart’s motive was a political reaction to the protests surrounding the killing of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents.
Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, asked Ehrhart if her bill was “a political response to an American citizen, Renée Good, who was shot and murdered by law enforcement.”
Ehrhart responded that she was addressing a problem that predated Good’s death: “a dramatic escalation in motor vehicle-related incidents with police officers since 2020.”
HB 1076 passed the House 97-64 in a party-line vote.
The vote came hours after the Senate approved a measure to increase the fine for protesting in the streets.
Senate Bill 443 initially would have allowed felony charges against protesters who block roads, but the author, Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, dialed it back. He reduced the charge to a high and aggravated misdemeanor, which brings up to a year in jail, the same amount of time as the misdemeanor charge in current law.
However, Summers’ legislation would raise the financial stakes. The maximum fine for a misdemeanor is $1,000. For a high and aggravated misdemeanor, it is $5,000.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 3, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The Georgia House of Representatives rejected a proposal to nearly eliminate homeowner property taxes.
The Republican-driven measure would have put a constitutional amendment to voters. To get on the ballot, it required support from some Democrats to win the necessary two-thirds majority.
Only one Democrat backed the resolution when it came to a vote Tuesday night.
Republicans said Georgia needs to redesign its tax system because property taxes are too high. Democrats countered that renters would suffer if the tax were nearly eliminated, and they observed that everyone would pay more for groceries and other essentials, since the proposal would have made up for lost revenue in part by raising sales taxes.
Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, said the change would have opened a $5 billion hole in local government budgets. Cities and counties use property taxes to pay for basic services including police, roads and schools.
“If you care about public education, vote no,” Park said.
Republicans said homeowners need tax relief.
Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, the lead author of the legislation, read a letter from a Georgia man whose adult daughter was stricken by illness.
The family ran though their savings after his wife quit working to care for her, and they decided not to pay their property taxes in case they needed the money for a funeral.
The daughter survived, but Blackmon used the story to illustrate the urgency.
“We can’t put property tax relief on hold for people like this,” he said.
The proposal had gone through many re-designs since lawmakers arrived in January, and it was still being amended this week, the deadline for the House to send bills to the Senate and vice versa.
It called for gradual reduction in the proportion of a primary residence’s value that is subject to property tax. Currently, 40% is taxable, but Blackmon proposed reducing that to 10% over a decade. His plan would have forced cities and counties to levy new sales taxes and assessments if they wanted to recoup enough revenue to preserve services.
Rep. Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus, said the proposal was a political stunt that was never meant to pass.
House Resolution 1114 failed by a vote of 99-73.
“What we are seeing here today is an exercise in cold hard politics,” said Hugley, the House minority leader. “It’s simply about what voters do you want to drive out to the polls.”
But Rep. Trey Kelley, R-Cedartown, said Democrats were the ones playing politics by keeping the measure off the ballot.
“They want to deny your right to vote,” he said, “because they’re scared of the impact that it will have on the electoral turnout in November.”
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, has said that property tax relief is a top priority during an election year when affordability is on voters’ minds. The Republican-led Senate has its own affordability strategy, having sent the House several bills that would sharply reduce income taxes.
Burns’ plan may not be dead yet. After HR 1114 failed, Blackmon moved for reconsideration. Burns said it would get another vote Wednesday.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 3, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The Georgia Senate adopted legislation Tuesday that would increase the fine for protesting in streets.
Senate Bill 443 started as a measure that would have allowed felony charges against protesters who block roads.
But the author, Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, agreed to amendments that reduced the significantly enhanced criminal charge he had proposed. Currently, the offense is a misdemeanor, but SB 443 would increase that to a high and aggravated misdemeanor.
Both could net the perpetrator up to a year in jail. But the maximum fine for a high and aggravated misdemeanor is $5,000 while the maximum fine for a misdemeanor is $1,000.
Summers said protesters who block roads are preventing the passage of ambulances, firetrucks and parents trying to get to their child’s school.
“It is a simple common-sense bill,” he said. “It is something that parents should have taught people a long time ago: Don’t block the streets.”
The measure passed 35-17 and now goes to the House.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 3, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia lawmakers declined to tighten regulations for clinics that administer Ketamine and other drugs used for psychedelic therapy, but the debate is not over yet.
The 73-88 vote against House Bill 717 on the House floor Tuesday was a rejection of a request by the Georgia Composite Medical Board to require that only specially trained physicians be allowed to have majority ownership of such clinics.
“Ketamine is a very, very dangerous drug. It is FDA-approved only to use as an anesthetic,” said Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, who introduced the bill.
In addition to ensuring safe use of Ketamine, said Cooper, a licensed nurse, her bill would prepare Georgia for the future, “because there are more psychedelic drugs coming that are under study now that are even more dangerous. How about Ecstasy? Or magic mushrooms?”
Two medical doctors who serve in the House also backed the measure.
Rep. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, an anesthesiologist who said she has administered Ketamine, said the legislation was needed to increase safety.
So did Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta, an emergency physician.
“If your hip’s out of joint, if your child has a bad facial laceration, this is a great medicine,” he said, adding that he and Au were probably the only two representatives in the House “who’ve seen people stop breathing because of this medicine … and know how serious a drug this is.”
Critics saw HB 717 as an attempt by doctors to corner the market.
Rep. Lauren McDonald III, R-Cumming, said he supports regulating these clinics. “But House Bill 717 simply does not regulate clinics. It restructures ownership and clinical authority in a way that prioritizes title over training and control over competency,” he said, adding that the legislation would reduce growth in the sector and public access to such clinics.
Cooper could offer nothing when another lawmaker asked if she had data showing majority physician ownership was safer.
After the measure failed, a lawmaker motioned to reconsider, and Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, announced another vote on HB 717 would occur when the House meets again Wednesday.
In addition to the physician ownership mandate, the measure would require the Georgia Composite Medical Board to establish rules and regulations for safe clinic operations.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 2, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia Senate Republicans pushed last-minute amendments to the state’s election procedures through a committee hearing Monday in an effort to meet their self-imposed deadline to use hand-marked ballots this year.
Critics noted that the two-year delay since the Legislature passed the law to use paper ballots without QR codes has pushed implementation into a busy election year, making implementation challenging. But proponents said the change was needed to instill faith in the outcome when every elected state office is on the ballot, in addition to the Congressional midterms.
The main problem with an overhaul this close to the election is acquiring the necessary equipment, which would include ballot printers, said Tate Fall, former election chief for Cobb County.
Because of the overlap of local, state and federal elections, larger jurisdictions would have to preprint an “astronomical” number of ballots tailored to each precinct, she said, so on-demand ballot printers must be acquired.
But there may only be one vendor capable of outfitting the state in time for the November elections, Fall said.
“Without ballot-on-demand printing,” she said, “it would cause significant consequences and chaos for our election officials, our poll workers, and our voters.”
Senate Bill 568 was introduced late last week and amended over the weekend.
Senate Democrats accused their Republican counterparts of rushing the bill. Friday is the deadline to move legislation between chambers.
In addition to paper ballots, the measure would require that local election officials publish voter lists before the election and give the Secretary of State a list of who voted by midnight after polls close, which the secretary must then upload into a permanent database within an hour.
The legislation would also require that advance voters cast ballots within an assigned precinct rather than countywide. And it would authorize the State Election Board to fine county registrars up to $10,000 for each violation of a process allowing voters to challenge the qualifications of people applying to vote.
Brad Carver, a metro Atlanta district chairman of the state Republican Party and an advocate for changes to the election procedures, praised Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, for introducing the bill.
“If we have transparent elections that everyone can trust, that is exactly what the Georgia Republican Party supports,” Carver said.
Dolezal pushed back against concerns around the timing, saying Georgia’s voting machines were insecure and had to be replaced. Robb Pitts, a Democrat who chairs the Fulton County Commission, said Dolezal’s bill would make it more difficult for people to vote.
Democrats tried to amend the bill to delay implementation until next year, but they could not muster enough votes. The measure passed 8-4 and awaits a vote on the Senate floor.
