by Ty Tagami | Feb 13, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Local government officials and employees who violate a state law requiring them to cooperate with federal immigration authorities could face new financial consequences under legislation adopted by the Georgia Senate Thursday.
Senate Bill 21 passed 33-18 in a near party-line vote in the Republican-dominated chamber.
The legislation would strip local governing bodies and law enforcement agencies that violate the state law of the “sovereign immunity” that shields them from lawsuits. It would also remove what’s called “governmental immunity” from individual local officials, employees and law enforcement officers, likewise exposing them to the risk of lawsuits.
The measure “just adds teeth to Georgia law,” said Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, the bill’s sponsor.
It is a crime in Georgia to “knowingly and willfully” refuse to comply with a federal request to hold a non-citizen for potential deportation or federal custody.
It’s also illegal to enact, adopt, implement, or enforce any “sanctuary” policy prohibiting cooperation or the sharing of immigration status information with federal immigration authorities.
SB 21 is a backlash against a “sanctuary city” movement nationally that aims to withhold information about immigrants from federal agents.
Democrats and Republicans agreed Thursday that no local government has violated the existing state law. This led Democrats to question why Republicans were introducing the threat of lawsuits and the potential resulting costs for taxpayers.
Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, D-Duluth, said opening the way for more lawsuits contradicts Gov. Brian Kemp and Republican lawmakers’ push for “tort reform” legislation that would reduce payouts in lawsuits.
The bill could expose rank and file employees, such as teachers, to lawsuits by zealous immigration opponents, she said.
“The right to sue teachers act, that’s what this bill is,” Parkes said. “There is no sanctuary city in Georgia, not a single one, but SB 21 pretends there is a problem.”
Democrats also said the measure would impose additional costs on local law enforcement to house and staff their jails.
Tillery dismissed these criticisms. Local jails are already obliged to detain suspects sought by immigration authorities, so there should be no added cost from SB 21, he said. And teachers would only become exposed to a lawsuit “if we had third graders committing rapes and murders,” he said.
The debate about teachers stemmed from a hearing last week, when Megan Gordon, policy director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, warned that SB 21 could expose teachers to lawsuits if they follow federal court precedent prohibiting the collection and reporting of students’ immigration status.
The legislation now moves to the Georgia House of Representatives.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 13, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation that would make it illegal for doctors and hospitals to administer puberty blockers to children is advancing through Georgia’s Republican-controlled Senate.
The General Assembly previously prohibited irreversible procedures, including sex reassignment surgery and hormone replacement therapies.
Senate Bill 30 would add bans on the use of reversible treatments and puberty blockers on minors.
Hospitals already risk losing a permit over a violation. The new legislation, which Republican lawmakers pushed through a Senate committee Wednesday on a party-line vote, exposes both hospitals and doctors to the prohibition. The legislation also adds a provision exposing both to lawsuits by parents for violations.
Medical doctors testified for and against the measure, with one saying children aren’t ready to make life-altering decisions and another saying puberty blockers are reversible.
Peter Isbister, the father of a transgender child, said the legislation won’t stop people with resources from outflanking such a law.
“My 11-year-old son will get the health care he needs, I am privileged to say, because I will go to the ends of the earth to make sure that he does,” he said. “Why? Because I love him as you love your children.”
Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, is sponsoring SB 30. The primary care physician said he is concerned about health implications of puberty blockers.
The bill now heads to the Senate Rules Committee to schedule a vote of the full Senate.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 12, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate’s Republican majority passed legislation Wednesday seeking a waiver on sales taxes for firearms over an 11-day period in October.
Senate Bill 47 passed 31-21 in a party-line vote following a partisan debate, with Republicans touting gun rights and Democrats pointing to the mass school shooting at Apalachee High School in September.
“Are you all tone deaf? It’s like taking a knife and sticking it into the heart of a parent who has lost a child,” said Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta. “What is this blood lust for guns?”
Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, D-Duluth, held a baby during her speech on the Senate floor, saying the Republican party’s priorities “are jacked up.”
Republicans said the line of criticism was, in the words of Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, “disgusting.”
Fellow GOP Sen. Carden Summers of Cordele said anything — a pickup truck, like the one driven into a crowd in New Orleans last month, or a pressure cooker, like one used to bomb marathon runners in Boston a dozen years ago — can be used as a weapon.
Hunters produce millions of dollars in sales tax revenue and deserve a break, said Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, the bill’s sponsor. People who arm themselves against others deserve the tax break, as well, his fellow Republicans said.
“Our citizens have the right to self-defense,” said Sen. Tim Bearden, R-Carrollton. “Our families are precious to us.”
The legislation would offer a tax break on firearms, ammunition, gun safes and “related accessories,” such as stocks, barrels, scopes and magazines. It would run for 11 days beginning the second Friday of each October through 2029.
Official estimates put the annual loss of state and local tax revenue at $3 million to $7 million a year should the bill become law.
The Senate passed a similar bill last year offering a 5-day tax holiday, but the GOP-led state House of Representatives did not act on it.
Anavitarte said after Wednesday’s vote that he would consult with members of the House about passing the tax break this year.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 11, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would prohibit state health insurance plans from paying for medical care related to changing gender.
Senate Bill 39 was adopted by Republicans on a 33-19 party-line vote.
The measure comes after a similar vote last week when the Senate passed a proposed ban on participation of transgender athletes in school sports.
Transgender people aren’t doing anything to anyone, said Sen. RaShaun Kemp, D-Atlanta.
“This is just mean-spirited legislation,” he said. “This is wrong.”
Fellow Democrats contended the bill would harm the economy by causing workers to leave the state and that it would violate the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Sen. Nikki Merrit, D-Grayson, said Republicans will use the bill to distract their constituents from issues that affect them daily, such as the price of eggs. She called it a “cheap political stunt.”
However, the chief sponsor of SB 39, Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, said he was confident the legislation was what most Georgians wanted.
“What it says is we’re not going to spend state taxpayer dollars on these surgeries,” Tillery said.
The legislation would prohibit the use of state health benefits coverage for “gender-affirming care.” It would also ban state-owned health-care facilities and physicians who work for the state from providing such care.
The legislation defines such care to include hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery.
Republicans voted down an amendment offered by Democrats that would have carved out an exception for mental health care related to gender identity. Tillery said the underlying legislation would clearly allow such services, but Democrats insisted the language was unclear.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 10, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Some legislative Republicans are joining Democrats in seeking to send additional state funding to schools with students in poverty.
Supporters of House Bill 245 argue that Georgia is one of six states that has not adjusted educational funding to account for poverty and that it’s time to change that. They say students across Georgia can benefit from more counselors, tutors and subsidized meals.
“I think most Republicans understand the role that poverty plays in impairing a young person’s ability to learn, particularly some of my more rural colleagues who live in parts of the state where that school is just everything,” said Rep. Phil Olaleye, D-Atlanta.
Two of Olaleye’s GOP colleagues in the state House of Representatives joined him and three other Democrats in signing House Bill 245 when it was introduced last week.
Olaleye said it would give schools an additional $2,000 per student in poverty via the state’s Quality Basic Education formula. He estimated that about 500,000 students would qualify, bringing the tab to about $1 billion a year.
Georgia’s fiscal 2025 budget allocates $13.2 billion in state funding for public schools. With federal and other funding, schools are getting $15.5 billion to educate more than 1.7 million students. About two-thirds qualify for federally subsidized school meals, according to the Georgia Department of Education.
Schools with students in that category would qualify for extra funding under Senate Bill 128, introduced on Monday. Only Democrats signed on to that measure, which was described as a companion bill to HB 245.
Sen. Jason Esteves, D-Atlanta, is the chief co-sponsor of SB 128. He estimated the legislation, if it were to become law, would send an additional $2 billion a year in state funding to schools.
Sen. Nikki Merritt, D-Grayson, chair of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, said the state should use some of its $16 billon budget surplus to help schools with students living in poverty. But Senate Republican leaders said last week that returning surplus dollars to taxpayers is among their priorities.
