by Ty Tagami | Mar 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A marathon hearing about legislation to enshrine religious freedom in Georgia law produced no outcome but clarified the fears of those on both sides of the issue.
The Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed the state Senate along party lines earlier this month. A committee of the House of Representatives spent four hours vetting the proposal on Wednesday, then ended without final action on the measure.
Democrats, with the help of a Republican, nearly succeeded in derailing the GOP bill, but it survived for possible passage in a future hearing.
Senate Bill 36 says government “shall not substantially burden” a person’s exercise of religion except “in furtherance of a compelling government interest.”
Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, said he drafted it with help from Gov. Brian Kemp’s office.
It is a necessary protection against government intrusion into religious practices and would bring Georgia in line with 39 other states with a similar statute, Setzler and his supporters said.
Twenty-nine people testified for and against the bill, many of them religious figures such as Bishop John E. Citizen, a Pentecostal pastor in Powder Springs.
He said he supported the legislation because he didn’t want the government dictating whom his church must hire and serve.
“I want to be left to do my worship my way, the way God intended me to do it,” he said. “I’m not going to push my agenda onto you, but don’t push your agenda onto me.”
Opponents noted that only a handful of states have such a law without counterbalancing safeguards for marginalized groups. And Setzler’s refusal to include an anti-discrimination clause in SB 36 was evidence for them that the intent was to wield religious freedom as both a shield against government and a sword against gays, lesbians, transgender people and others outside the heterosexual mainstream.
They said the lack of an anti-discrimination clause would allow private actors to refuse services on religious grounds, including landlords, adoption agencies, and medical dispensaries.
“We want to be protected by the state of Georgia and we’re asking you to add that language to the bill,” said Michael Schulte, a Lutheran pastor in Decatur who said nearly half of his congregation identifies as LGBTQ+.
“They are the people who will be discriminated against if this bill is passed,” he said. “And that is so unfair and it’s so unjust, and to me it is not Christ-like.”
Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta, pressed Setzler for evidence that religious freedoms were being violated in Georgia and that such protections were needed. She asked him five times to cite specific cases.
Setzler could only produce examples from other states, though an advocate he brought to testify with him offered a couple of local instances.
One involved a Gwinnett County student who was prohibited from distributing religious literature on campus. Another involved a counselor at Augusta State University who asserted that her religious rights were compromised by having to counsel LGBTQ students.
The students complained, then the university put her on a remediation plan and she sued in federal court. The court sided against her.
A lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union said religion had been used to justify atrocities in America’s past, including the massacre of Native Americans and the enslavement of Black people.
Racial discrimination has been prohibited by federal law since the 1960s, but no such protections exist for those with sexual identities outside the mainstream, except on a local basis. Eighteen jurisdictions in Georgia have passed ordinances protecting the rights of LGBTQ people.
Opponents of SB 36 fear that a statewide religious freedom law would pre-empt those local protections, despite Setzler’s assurances that it would not.
One Republican, Rep. Deborah Silcox from Sandy Springs, pressed Setzler on that issue, and later sided with Democrats in a vote against passage.
Opponents briefly had the upper hand. With at least one Republican absent and the acting chairman abstaining, SB 36 failed to pass in that first House Judiciary Committee vote. But Republicans rallied and with the help of Rep. Matt Reeves, R-Duluth, the acting chairman, they approved a motion to reconsider SB 36 before adjourning the meeting.
That means the committee can revisit the measure at a future meeting.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 19, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Republican measure that seeks to weed out state government rules that are burdensome or no longer relevant is closer to becoming law after passing a committee in the Georgia House of Representatives Wednesday.
The Budget and Fiscal Affairs Oversight Committee voted along partisan lines to advance Senate Bill 28, called the “Red Tape Rollback Act.”
There are about 150,000 state agency rules on the books, said Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the chief sponsor of the measure.
“I don’t think these agencies are going through their existing laws with a fine-tooth comb with an eye toward making life easier on Georgia citizens,” he said. “I’m not telling you they’re intentionally making it more difficult, but what I am telling you is that, naturally, if left unchecked, government layers itself on top of each other.”
SB 28 would address that layering by requiring agencies to review their rules every four years with an eye toward trimming.
Agencies make rules to implement laws created by the legislature. The rules often go through a public vetting process, with hearings where the public can comment.
Dolezal’s legislation would affect proposed rules by requiring an impact analysis of any that could cost the public or local governments at least $3 million to comply with during the first five years.
And it would empower lawmakers to call for a review of the impact of any proposed legislation on businesses with 300 or fewer employees.
Dolezal’s fellow Republicans saw it as a pragmatic measure to keep bureaucracy in check. Democrats saw it as an assault on government that would cost taxpayers money.
At least 100 state agencies would be affected by the measure, and Rep. Lisa Campbell, D-Kennesaw, wanted to know how much the rules reviews would cost, in terms of both money and staff time.
When Dolezal responded that the cost was something that couldn’t be measured, Campbell said he’d just made her point.
“One of the things that I hear you saying is it’s impossible to account for the level of impact,” she said, “which is ironic because isn’t that exactly, essentially what you’re asking every single agency in the state of Georgia to do?”
Some agencies, such as the Department of Revenue, are exempted from the measure.
The House committee tacked on several changes, which means the bill must return to the Senate for final approval if the full House passes it as is.
One amendment, by Rep. Saira Draper, D-Atlanta, would reduce the measure’s scope. The version that passed the Senate last month had set the threshold for a compliance impact analysis at $1 million, but Dolezal agreed to her request to raise it to $3 million, and House Republicans on the committee went along.
Despite getting their GOP colleagues to approve that change and another about posting impact analyses online, Democrats voted against the final bill. SB 28 now goes to the House Rules Committee, which will decide whether to put it to a vote of the full House.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 18, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A bill that would ban cellphones in all of Georgia’s public elementary and middle schools has cleared another hurdle toward becoming law.
House Bill 340 passed a Senate committee on Tuesday and could get a vote by the full Senate soon.
The House of Representatives approved the measure two weeks ago amid rising frustration with social media and other distractions.
Experts had testified in prior hearings about the impact of smartphones on student behavior, mental health, and academic performance. Relentless notifications are a constant distraction and can lead to fighting and other misbehavior, they said.
As with earlier hearings, there were two main concerns expressed at the Senate Children and Families Committee on Tuesday.
The first: how do parents reach their kids during an emergency, a rising concern as school shootings become more common?
The answer, said the bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners: experts say smartphones are a distraction during emergencies too, and a dangerous one. Students should be following their teacher’s lead rather than phoning or texting their parents, he said. The legislation requires schools to have policies for parent communication once an emergency has ended.
The second concern: why not ban cellphones in high schools, too?
That could be coming in a couple of years, Hilton said. Once middle schoolers get used to the absence of phones in their classrooms, it’ll be easier to remove the devices from the high schools that those kids will later attend, he said.
A half dozen states have already banned cellphones in schools, with at least a half dozen others enacting partial restrictions.
Miranda Williams, a former education policy advisor for Gov. Brian Kemp who is now a lobbyist for ExcelinEd, an advocacy group founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, said half the states are considering such legislation this year. She also said existing bans have produced positive effects on mental health and academic performance.
HB 340 passed the Senate committee on a 4-1 vote and now heads to the Senate Rules Committee, which will decide whether to place it on the Senate floor for a vote on final passage.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 18, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Farmers may soon get more tax relief under a decades-old program designed to keep agricultural land out of developers’ hands.
The Georgia Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved legislation from the House of Representatives that seeks to double the acreage farmers and other agricultural producers can place under a protective covenant in return for smaller property tax bills.
The final passage of House Bill 90 in a 47-3 vote comes as farmers, timber producers, poultry growers and other agricultural producers are reeling from the damage wrought by Hurricane Helene last fall.
The legislature has considered other ways to help them, including the passage by a 50-1 vote Tuesday of House Bill 223 offering temporary tax breaks and tax credits related to the recovery.
But the protective covenant legislation is a play for the long term. It could encourage more property owners to keep working their land for years to come by bolstering their bottom line.
“It’s a tool to allow family farms to continue to grow and expand,” said Sen. Sam Watson, R-Moultrie.
HB 90 would only take effect if voters agree to amend the state constitution in November 2026. The Senate also passed HR 32, a companion measure that adds a ballot question asking if the existing conservation tax program should cover 4,000 acres per owner, twice the amount of land currently allowed.
The Conservation Use Valuation Assessment (CUVA) Program was adopted decades ago. It lets each landowner put up to 2,000 acres under a protective covenant. The land must be used for farming, growing timber or other agricultural production. The property is then valued and taxed at less than what it might sell for as plots for a new subdivision or office park.
Properties are instead assessed and taxed using a formula based on current use, annual productivity, and real property sales data of other conservation use properties.
A similar measure stalled last year, leading to a special legislative committee that studied the problem of vanishing farmland.
Three out of four of Georgia’s 159 counties — and one in seven jobs — rely on agriculture and forestry, the Senate Study Committee on Preservation of Georgia’s Farmlands learned. Their final report noted a conundrum, though: if lawmakers expand CUVA to preserve those economic pillars, they also could undermine potential growth in the local property tax base due to unrealized development.
Counties and local governments may push back as land is taken off their tax digest, Katherine Moore, president of the Georgia Conservancy, told the committee when it met last year. Other states, such as Florida, have responded by paying local governments for their foregone taxes.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 14, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A societal backlash against the dizzying distraction of smartphones has gained momentum in the General Assembly, where legislation to ban the devices in schools remains in play after last week’s deadline to move bills between chambers.
House Bill 340, which passed the state House of Representatives with broad bipartisan support, would prohibit student use of personal electronic devices from the first ring of the school bell in the morning to the last ring in the afternoon.
The “Distraction-Free Education Act” would only apply to elementary and middle schools, for now. Teenagers are so connected to their devices that lawmakers fear pushback from families if they try to include high schools.
That could change in the future if the legislation becomes law and loosens the grip of the devices on younger kids, said the bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners. He predicted that a ban would increase academic performance, reduce bullying and improve student mental health, and he said he thinks people will wonder why cellphones were ever allowed in schools.
“Years from now, we’re going to look back and say, ‘I can’t believe we ever allowed ourselves to do it,’ ” Hilton said.
The backlash against cellphones in schools has been brewing for years, as public consciousness has grown about the addictive nature of smartphones and the pervasive social media usage they enable.
Documentaries such as “The Social Dilemma” have explored how social media companies target children and their attention. Books such as “Stolen Focus” by British journalist Johann Hari have described the impact of the resulting distraction on their ability to function.
It has been years since the Georgia legislature recognized the risk of smartphone distraction and made it illegal to hold one while driving. Now, experts are finding that the devices affect students by forcing constant shifts of focus, encouraging misbehavior and undermining socialization.
Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that reviews the age appropriateness of books and technology targeting children, reported last month that 97% of students aged 11-17 who have smartphones use them throughout the school day. In 2023, the organization published a study of smartphone use by kids in that same age group, using data from about 200 students. Half were receiving 237 or more notifications per day.
Adriana Harrington, who used to work for the Tennessee Department of Education and now directs policy for ExcelinEd, a Florida-based education think tank, drove home the impact of such statistics during a presentation for lawmakers in early February.
Hari, the author, spoke at a national summit last fall. He said it takes 23 minutes to regain the same level of focus after tending to a smartphone notification.
“If you do the math, there is no possible way to maintain focus throughout a school day with that much disruption occurring in your pocket,” Harrington told the lawmakers.
JAMA Pediatrics, published by the American Medical Association, reported last month that kids aged 13 to 18 spend an average of 8.5 hours a day using screen-based media.
“Smartphone use during school has become a concern, and school-based smartphone bans have been increasingly considered,” the report said. “Smartphones may distract from classroom learning and opportunities for real-world interactions.”
There will likely be resistance to a ban in Georgia, especially in middle school, where many kids already have a smartphone. Parents have grown accustomed to the technological tether to their children, and the increasing anxiety about school shootings is causing many to clutch tightly to that link.
During the House floor debate on HB 340 last week, Rep. Imani Barnes, D-Tucker, said her son had recently texted her from school during a lockdown.
“It terrified me,” she said. “He sent the information firsthand, quickly, from his phone. I don’t want him on his phone while he’s in class, but what are your suggestions in those situations?”
Hilton, a father of three, responded that he also worries about the safety of his own kids at school, but he said experts he heard from said cellphones escalate the danger during an emergency.
“All of them agree on one thing,” Hilton said. “In the case of an emergency, the last thing we want is a child to have a phone in their hand. They want the undivided attention of that student on the teacher, getting directions as to where to go.”
The legislation would require schools to develop policies that allow parents to reach their kids in school, for instance, by calling the principal’s office. It also would require exemptions from the ban for students with disabilities or medical conditions that require them to use a device for learning or for health uses, such as checking their glucose level.
Georgia would be following a half dozen states that already ban phones in classrooms. They’re reporting fewer disruptions and more interaction among students.
Harrington said teachers in schools that have eradicated phones have noticed a culture shift, with kids playing cards in the lunchroom instead of hunching over a device.
Grant Rivera, superintendent of Marietta City Schools, has seen this increased socialization firsthand. His school board backed a ban on cellphones in middle school that started this school year.
Rivera said at the legislative presentation last month that one in five of his middle school students surveyed said the ban had led to improved learning. Two thirds of teachers surveyed said they felt less stressed about managing their classrooms and about teaching their students due to the policy.
Disciplinary problems are down now that kids can’t start and promote fights on social media, Rivera said. And lunchrooms that were quiet are now abuzz with conversation.
“It impacts academics, it impacts their well-being, it impacts their relationships,” Rivera said.
Proponents say high school students experience the downsides of cellphone use, too. But a ban at that level would be trickier. Teens who testified at a House subcommittee hearing in late February said students have jobs and that employers may want to contact them during school hours. And they said students have club meetings to coordinate.
John Zauner, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association, predicted that if HB 340 passes and a ban takes hold in elementary and middle schools, the “culture” around smartphone use will lose its grip as younger kids rise to high school.
The former high school principal told lawmakers that he supported the proposed ban in K-8 schools, “knowing that we can build that culture, actually break that culture, and create a new one at (grades) 9-12 in a pretty short amount of time.”
HB 340 passed a House subcommittee unanimously, before passing the House Education Committee despite a couple of dissenters. It passed the full House 143-29 last week and awaits a hearing by the Senate Children and Families Committee.
If the legislation becomes law, school districts would have until January to write policies and procedures for locking up kids’ phones in elementary and middle schools, and they would have to implement those policies by the summer of 2026.
