by Ty Tagami | Feb 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
Legislation that would enhance the criminal penalties for trafficking fentanyl cleared a state Senate committee Thursday.
People who manufacture, deliver, possess or sell traditional drugs, such as morphine, opium or heroin can be sentenced to between five and 25 years in prison depending upon the quantity.
Senate Bill 79 would lift the penalties for fentanyl to 10 to 35 years, with longer sentences for smaller quantities than with traditional drugs.
Fentanyl needs to be targeted due to its enhanced potency and resulting lethality, said Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Cogdell, the chief sponsor of SB 79.
The sentence for four grams of a traditional drug is a minimum of five years in prison, but SB 79 seeks to double that for fentanyl.
Goodman said at a hearing on his bill that just 250 milligrams can kill 120 people.
Maj. Walter Jones, in charge of drug enforcement for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, expanded on that, saying 1.3 pounds would kill everyone in his county, and 48 pounds would kill everyone in Georgia.
“I don’t call them drug dealers,” Jones said. “I call them death dealers.”
A woman testified about how her brother died after taking what he thought was Xanex, an anti-depressant. It was fentanyl.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to send the measure to the Senate Rules Committee, which could then put it before the full Senate for a vote.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
Republican state senators voted Thursday to advance a bill that would expose banking institutions to lawsuits if they deny services to customers because of the way they exercised their rights under the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The measure applies to the purveyors of essential services, including utilities. But Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, the chief sponsor of Senate Bill 57, said it should be called the “Georgia ban on de-banking act” rather than “The Freedom of Speech and Belief Act,” as it is formally titled.
The bill targets banks with $1 billion or more in assets that drop customers due to “cancel culture,” Tillery said at a hearing on the bill Thursday.
Tillery had the leader of Daniel Defense testifying for the measure alongside him.
The Georgia-based firearms manufacturer became a target of criticism after one of its rifles was used in the 2022 mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Founder and chairman Marty Daniel told the senators that two banks in a row dropped his company, forcing him to spend $1 million each time on lawyers and fees to find a new source of loans.
“This is about banks discriminating against legal businesses,” Daniel said.
Representatives of the banking and credit union industries testified against the measure, saying it would invite costly frivolous lawsuits.
Rhodes McLanahan, CEO of Athens-based First American Bank & Trust, said banks are prohibited by federal law from disclosing why they won’t engage with customers if it’s due to concerns like money laundering.
Thus, they would be unable to explain why they were refusing to do business with someone, opening the door to a lawsuit under SB 57, he said.
“We will get sued,” he said. “There’s no question.”
Tillery responded to the industry’s concerns by saying he is trying to address a clear and growing problem. To illustrate his point, he referred to an exchange last week between U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisianna Republican, and Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve.
During Senate testimony, Kennedy asked Powell about “de-banking” due to reputational risk.
Powell acknowledged a possible trend and said he wanted to learn more about it.
“I, too, am troubled by the quantity of these reports,” he said.
During Thursday’s hearing, Democrats expressed concerns about SB 57, as did Georgia state Sen. John F. Kennedy, a Republican from Macon.
As Senate president pro tem, Kennedy is just below Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in the Senate hierarchy. The Senate leadership is backing a push by Gov. Brian Kemp, a fellow Republican, to limit payouts in lawsuits, Kennedy noted, adding that it was difficult to square SB 57 with that goal.
The bill would encourage lawsuits against banks, resulting in an “unfair windfall” for plaintiffs, he said.
Kennedy and at least one other Republican joined Democrats in voting against SB 57, but it still passed out of the committee on a 7-5 vote. It now heads to the Senate Rules Committee, which will decide whether to let it go to the full Senate.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate moved to make cockfighting illegal in Georgia in a near unanimous vote on Thursday.
Senate Bill 102 seeks to align state and federal law, said Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, the chief sponsor of the measure.
Intentionally making birds fight is a federal crime, but local police are not empowered to enforce it, he said.
The legislation adds “game cock” to a section of Georgia code that already bans dogfighting. It would make cockfighting “for amusement or gain” — charging admission for or wagering money on such spectacles — a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. It would also be illegal to own, possess, train, transport or sell a rooster with the intent to engage it in a fight with other fowl.
The presentation offered a window into the arcane world of cockfighting, with information about the weaponry, such as gaffs, spurs and knives, used to kit out the fighting birds.
Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, said he would vote against SB 102 because of his family “heritage” — his great grandfather bred fighting roosters.
Ginn and fellow Republican Colton Moore from Trenton voted against the bill, along with Sen. Nan Orrock, an Atlanta Democrat.
It was a rare cross-party alliance, noted Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican.
“That’s worth voting again just to see these three voting together,” he quipped, after the bill passed 49-3.
Robertson noted that a similar bill passed the Senate last year but did not get through the House of Representatives, the next stop for SB 102.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 19, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The implementation of new state laws could be delayed under new legislation working its way through the Georgia Senate.
State agencies interpret new laws by adopting rules that implement them. The “Red Tape Rollback” would require the state to produce an analysis of any rule that could cost the public or local governments at least $1 million to comply with during the first five years.
Lawmakers then could call for a review of the rule. The state agency that wrote the rule would be unable to implement it without legislative approval.
Senate Bill 28 would also empower lawmakers to call for a review of the impact of any proposed legislation on businesses with 300 or fewer employees. And the bill calls for periodic reviews of existing rules.
“We’re trying to get agencies and rule makers to think about the cost of complying with the rules and finding ways when possible to minimize that cost,” Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the chief sponsor of the bill, told members of a Senate committee Wednesday.
Democrats said the proposal was a vastly expanded version of a similar bill they supported last year. Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, said it basically says Republicans don’t trust state agencies. If the measure were to become law, it would undermine regulatory oversight, he said.
“One person’s red tape is another person’s due process,” McLaurin said.
Sen. Sheikh Rahman, D-Lawrenceville, noted that Republicans have largely been in control of state government for two decades, so this bill seeks to roll back their own rules.
Dolezal agreed, saying “administrative state” growth has occurred under both GOP and Democratic rule.
The bill passed the GOP-controlled Senate committee in a 7-4 vote Wednesday and now heads to the Senate Rules Committee and then possibly to the full Senate.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 19, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate unanimously backed a bill Wednesday that would give parents of young children a bigger tax break.
The goal of Senate Bill 89 is to help more parents stay in the workforce, said the chief sponsor, Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough.
Child-care centers charge $11,000 a year on average to watch infants, he said. The cost has been rising and is forcing some parents to quit jobs because it makes more financial sense to stay home with their children, said Strickland, who has two young children.
“It’s more expensive to have a kid than to pay for college,” Strickland said. “Families shouldn’t have to choose between having a career and being a parent.”
Only one of Strickland’s kids, ages 5 and 7, would qualify for the tax credit, which would apply only to children ages 6 and under.
The legislation would increase by a third a state tax credit that is indexed to the federal child and dependent care tax credit.
It also would give a break to child-care facilities, increasing a tax credit against operating costs to 90% from the current 75%.
SB 89 passed 49-0 and heads to the state House of Representatives.
