by Dave Williams | Feb 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia Chief Justice Michael Boggs announced Tuesday that he will resign from the state Supreme Court at the end of next month, the last day of the Court’s current term.
Boggs plans to return to private practice in South Georgia.
In a resignation letter hand-delivered to Gov. Brian Kemp, Boggs noted his 25 years in elective office, including more than two decades of service as a judge at various state court levels.
“Throughout my service, I have endeavored to be a good steward of the public’s trust,” Boggs wrote. “During my 21 years as a judge, I have found it especially rewarding to contribute to efforts that improve our state’s judicial system for the citizens who rely on it to deliver justice for all.”
After spending two terms in the Georgia House of Representatives in the early 2000s, Boggs moved over to the courts, where he served first as a Superior Court judge in the Waycross Judicial Circuit. Subsequently, he joined the Georgia Court of Appeals, then was appointed to the state Supreme Court by then-Gov. Nathan Deal in 2016 .
Boggs won reelection to the high-court bench in 2018 and 2024. He became chief justice in July 2022.
In that role, he chaired the Judicial Council of Georgia, the policy-making body for the judicial branch, and initiated ongoing efforts to improve judicial security, address the state’s civil justice gap, and respond to the challenges and promises of artificial intelligence in the courts.
Boggs also sought to bolster access to justice through collaborative initiatives with the State Bar of Georgia’s Office of Bar Admissions and the Supreme Court’s Committee on Access to Justice. As chairman of the Judicial Council’s American Rescue Plan Act Funding Committee, he worked with the state’s executive branch to direct resources to trial courts to address case backlogs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his letter, Boggs noted that his wife has recently retired from full-time teaching, as well as increasing family and personal obligations at his home in South Georgia.
Kemp will appoint a new justice to fill Boggs’ seat, and the court will select its next chief justice.
by Dave Williams | Feb 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation prohibiting Georgia Power from passing on the costs of providing electricity to data centers to residential and small business customers cleared a state Senate committee Tuesday.
An 8-5 vote of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee sent the bill to the Senate Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote.
Senate Bill 34 comes in the wake of six Georgia Power rate increases in less than two years that have driven up what homeowners and small businesses pay by 37%. At the same time, the rapid growth of power-hungry data centers in Georgia is behind a demand for 3,300 megawatts of additional electric generating capacity, exponentially more than Georgia Power’s typical growth rate of about 100 megawatts per year.
“The consumers are paying for this additional power that’s being consumed by the data centers,” Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, the bill’s chief sponsor, told committee members Tuesday. “I want something in place that doesn’t let history repeat itself.”
Aaron Mitchell, vice president of pricing and planning for Georgia Power, argued the bill is unnecessary because of rules changes the state Public Service Commission (PSC) adopted last month that prohibit the Atlanta-based utility from passing on the costs of serving new large-load customers including data centers to residential customers.
“We have committed that residential customers will pay nothing to account for those 3,300 megawatts,” he said.
But energy lawyer Bobby Baker, a former member of the PSC, said the new rules the commission approved are full of loopholes that give Georgia Power so much flexibility over compliance that they offer no guaranteed protections for residential ratepayers.
“These rules changes are essentially worthless,” he said. “The cost causers need to pay for the costs they cause.”
Hufstetler’s bill got pushback from committee members who objected to the General Assembly stepping in on issues that are already being handled by the elected members of the PSC.
Others called for broadening the bill to apply to Georgia’s electric membership cooperatives (EMCs) and municipal electric utilities rather than limiting it to Georgia Power. Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, proposed amending Hufstetler’s bill to do just that.
But Kevin Curtin, senior vice president of government relations for Georgia EMC, opposed the amendment as taking away the power of board members of the state’s 41 EMCs, who – unlike Georgia Power’s board – are elected by EMC customers.
“Having a law imposed on us … takes away our boards’ authority to make decisions,” he said.
Summers’ amendment died for lack of a second before the committee approved the underlying bill.
by Dave Williams | Feb 24, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia families seeking to have children would have a guaranteed right to pursue in vitro fertilization (IVF) under legislation that cleared a state House committee Monday.
While in vitro fertilization is already being practiced in Georgia, House Bill 428 would codify it into state law, protecting it from any litigation that might seek to prohibit the procedure.
IVF became a hot topic last year when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created through IVF should be considered children under state law, which essentially would have banned the procure. But after a public outcry, Alabama’s legislature stepped in to pass a bill protecting IVF in that state, and Gov. Kay Ivey signed it.
The right to IVF became an issue in the 2024 presidential race, with both Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris expressing their support for IVF care. Trump, who took the oath of office for his second term as president last month, signed an executive order earlier this month calling for a list of policy recommendations within 90 days on protecting IVF access and reducing out-of-pocket and insurance costs for IVF treatment.
Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, has made codifying IVF protections into state law a priority for the 2025 General Assembly session.
The chief sponsor of House Bill 428, Rep. Lehman Franklin, R-Statesboro, has personal experience with IVF. After trying unsuccessfully multiple times to become pregnant through IVF, his wife, Lorie, is due to deliver the couple a daughter in June.
“I believe she would not be pregnant if we hadn’t used IVF,” Franklin told members of the House Health Committee.
The bill now heads to the House Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 24, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
The Georgia Senate adopted legislation Monday that would enhance lawmakers’ authority to overrule the results of the process that agencies use to enact laws.
Senate Bill 28 would require the state to produce an analysis of an agency’s rule that could cost the public or local governments at least $1 million to comply with during the first five years.
It 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.
Rules that lawmakers disagree with could be dismissed.
The “Red Tape Rollback Act” triggered a lengthy debate that was less about the bill than about federal cutbacks led by President Donald Trump’s billionaire appointee Elon Musk.
Republicans opened the door to this critique at a hearing earlier this month, when the chairman of the reviewing committee for SB 28, Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, likened the measure to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has been slashing federal jobs.
“It’s kind of our DOGE if you will,” Beach said. “We’re going to cut back on regulations and cut back on government.”
Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the chief sponsor of SB 28, told his colleagues on the Senate floor Monday that his bill merely intends to reduce the number of burdensome rules that result from the hundreds of laws passed each year.
Rulemaking is currently the purview of agency experts trained in the subject matter addressed by the laws they are implementing, but Dolezal said lawmakers bring their own expertise: they regularly bump into constituents — on their kids’ soccer fields, in grocery stores — who are affected by rules.
“We have connectivity with the people that have to live under these rules,” Dolezal said. The legislation “gives them a touch point to reach out to us and raise a flag if there is something coming from an agency that they may have an objection to.”
Democrats said this would open the door to further influence by lobbyists. They also tied the measure to what’s happening under the new Trump administration.
Sen. Sheikh Rahman, D-Lawrenceville, called Musk’s actions a “mean spirit … a bad spirit,” adding that his constituents are afraid of what’s happening. He reasoned that the intent of SB 28 is either to cut jobs in Georgia government or reverse state rules created under the leadership of Republican governors and their appointees for two decades.
Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, D-Dawson, lamented that the senators had occupied an hour and a half debating the bill, which she deemed to be trivial. But Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, said agency rules were important to his constituents, who have complained that copious state park regulations were affecting them.
SB 28 passed along party lines, with Moore, who often opposes legislation – even from his fellow Republicans – voting for passage. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives, which did not pass a similar measure last year.
by Dave Williams | Feb 24, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The state House of Representatives voted Monday to increase an income tax credit for Georgia taxpayers who contribute to nonprofit organizations that help foster children who age out of the foster care system.
House Bill 136, which passed 170-2, would raise the annual cap on contributions to the program from $20 million to $30 million.
The General Assembly created the tax credit in 2022 to help the approximately 700 youths in foster case who turn 18 and age out of the system each year.
“These are young people who often end up in poverty or homeless,” Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta, said on the House floor Monday. “If not for this help, they can end up in prison or pregnant.”
Taxpayers wishing to contribute to the program can receive dollar-for-dollar state income tax credits for up to $2,500 per year, while married couples filing jointly can receive up to $5,000. Corporate donations are limited to 10% of the company’s annual tax liability.
The donations go toward providing program participants with medical care, mentoring, food, car repairs and housing, as well as aid for high-school GED programs and tuition to pay for vocational or college courses needed to complete their education.
Newton said at least 90% of the contributions must be spent directly on helping the participants, while no more than 10% can go to cover the program’s overhead.
The bill now moves to the Georgia Senate.
by Dave Williams | Feb 24, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The state Senate is upping the ante on funding to help victims of Hurricane Helene recover from the massive storm that marched through South Georgia and east Georgia from Valdosta to Augusta last September.
The Senate Appropriations Committee signed off Monday on a $40.5 billion mid-year budget that would add $125 million to the $812 million Gov. Brian Kemp and the state House of Representatives already have earmarked for residents, business owners, farmers, and timber producers who suffered losses from Helene. Kemp’s original mid-budget requested $615 million, and the House kicked in another $197 million.
Of the $125 million the Senate added, $25 million would go to Georgians who are neither farmers nor timber producers, committee Chairman Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, said before Monday’s vote.
“They, through no fault of their own, are awaiting insurance claims, or maybe they were denied coverage and are still sleeping with the only thing between their beds and the outside elements being a thin blue tarp they were given some 149 days ago,” he said. “I believe we owe them the same duty we do our farming and forest industries.”
Tillery said the committee reduced funding across the mid-year budget, which covers state spending through June 30, and rolled the resulting savings into disaster relief. Many of those cuts were made possible by delays in filling budgeted positions or holding off on building projects that have been funded but haven’t begun construction.
The Senate committee supported Kemp’s request for $501 million to increase surface water supplies in Coastal Georgia to supply the huge Hyundai electric-vehicle manufacturing plant now under construction west of Savannah.
The panel also backed the governor’s recommendation to hire more than 400 additional correctional officers to staff a state prison system criticized last fall in a federal audit for failing to protect inmates from widespread violence. In fact, the committee added another $20 million to help fund a proposed pay raise for correctional officers.
The Senate mid-year budget also calls for three modular prison units the state Department of Corrections is planning to construct to house inmates temporarily while making room for projects fixing crumbling infrastructure in existing prisons. The governor had asked for four modulars, which the House reduced to two.
The mid-year budget is expected to reach the Senate floor for a vote later this week.
