Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan outlines his version of hate-crimes legislation at the State Capitol on June 17, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan on Wednesday unveiled a new bill aimed at punishing hate crimes in Georgia that critics fear could doom the hopes of passing similar legislation that has stalled in the state Senate for more than a year.
The bill pitched by Duncan would make it a crime to commit acts of violence or property damage based on a person’s race, sexual orientation, religion or other identifiers. Punishments would include imprisonment of up to five years.
The bill would also call for charges to be brought by a grand jury and give victims of hate crimes the ability to file lawsuits in civil court. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation would also start keeping data on hate-crime offenses in the state.
Duncan’s iteration of hate-crimes legislation drew immediate pushback from Georgia House lawmakers who have long pushed bills to criminalize acts of hate in Georgia, one of five states that currently do not have a hate-crimes law on the books.
Critics pressed Senate lawmakers to move forward with a different bill, House Bill 426, that cleared the Georgia House of Representatives last year, rather than pivot to new legislation so late in the 2020 legislative session.
The House measure, sponsored by Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, has been pushed by lawmakers from both parties in recent weeks following the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery near Brunswick in February, and amid intense nationwide protesting over racial injustice and police brutality.
Duncan defended his Senate bill Wednesday, highlighting how it would set stronger penalties and broader restitution rights than Efstration’s House bill.
He pointed out his bill would make hate crimes a separate charge instead of just an enhancement to another charge, as Efstration’s bill would do, and that it would increase prison time from two years to five.
“This issue is way too important for 11 million Georgians and we must get it right. We must put policy over politics,” Duncan said Wednesday morning at a news conference.
However, critics worry the move by Duncan could kill chances for any hate-crimes legislation to pass this year. New bills typically do not move forward in the General Assembly following Crossover Day, which has already occurred.
House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, on Tuesday called for the Senate to pass a “clean” hate-crimes bill and move forward with the previously passed House bill without amendments, which would force it to go back to the House floor for a vote.
On Wednesday, members of the Georgia House Democratic Caucus accused Duncan of bad-faith politicking to push out his bill so late in the session, particularly as Efstration’s hate-crimes bill has languished in the Senate without a committee hearing for nearly 430 days.
“It’s an insult to our intelligence for this man to say he had a change of conscience,” said House Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon. “Do the right thing, lieutenant governor.”
Echoing calls from many other lawmakers, Beverly said the Senate should pass Efstration’s bill now and consider the broader measures contained in Duncan’s version during next year’s session.
Rep. Calvin Smyre, the General Assembly’s longest-serving member, argued the previously House-passed bill by Efstration could be the only way to pass hate-crimes legislation this year with the session more than three-fourths finished.
“We feel very strongly that [Efstration’s bill] has to be the vehicle by which this bill moves forward,” said Smyre, D-Columbus.
However, Duncan insisted his measure would have enough time to move forward in the coming days. He also said faith-based, business and elected leaders worked with him on the bill did not specify who exactly.
“I urge all key stakeholders involved in this process to avoid the trappings of petty politics, generating unnecessary synthetic friction between the House and the Senate, and comparing Republican ideas to Democratic ideas,” Duncan said.
State Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, is the sponsor of a bill to tighten rules for elderly care facilities in Georgia. (Officials Georgia House photo)
Legislation to boost regulations for elderly care facilities in Georgia was injected with additional rules for reporting coronavirus infections in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities as it advanced in the Georgia Senate Tuesday.
House Bill 987, which is a priority for top House leaders in the 2020 legislative session, aims to tighten rules on assisted-living and long-term care facilities for seniors.
Its sponsor, Rep. Sharon Cooper, filed the bill following reports of elder neglect, poor care and financial troubles in some facilities in the state.
As it cleared the House in late February, the bill would bolster training for staff members in elderly care facilities and increase the number of staff who would have to be on site at any given time to watch over residents. It would also up the fines for violations or if a facility causes a resident’s death.
“Georgia has had our problems,” said Cooper, R-Marietta. “They have been numerous, and they have occurred in many assisted-living [facilities] and nursing homes.”
On Tuesday, lawmakers in the Senate tweaked the bill to add extra requirements for elderly care facilities to publicly report when residents or staff test positive for coronavirus. Facilities would also have to keep seven days-worth of protective supplies like masks and gowns and have every resident and staff member tested within 90 days of the bill’s enactment.
Seniors living in nursing homes and other elderly care facilities in Georgia have been hit hard by the virus, accounting for nearly half of the state’s total 2,529 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon.
Gov. Brian Kemp has focused particularly on boosting testing and sanitizing measures for seniors in recent months, including deploying hundreds of Georgia National Guard members to clean elderly care facilities and test residents.
In recent months, the state has tested every resident and most staff in nursing homes, according to Kemp’s office. Assisted-living and personal care facilities have seen 77% of their residents and 57% of staff tested so far.
At a hearing Tuesday, Senate Regulated Industries Committee Chairman Bill Cowsert said the additions to Cooper’s bill related to coronavirus should ensure elderly care facilities are prepared for the next time Georgia faces a fast-spreading disease or viral pandemic.
“We want them to have a plan, have the equipment on hand,” said Cowsert, R-Athens. “We want them for this immediate problem to test.”
The bill passed unanimously out of Cowsert’s committee on Tuesday. It now heads to the Senate floor for a full chamber vote.
Besides the new provisions on coronavirus, Cooper’s bill would require at least one direct-care staff member for every 15 senior residents during waking hours, and one for every 20 residents at night.
It would also require a licensed or registered professional nurse to be on site at assisted-living facilities for a certain amount of time each week and require all staff to undergo training in elderly and disabled-adult care.
The bill also includes a slate of rules to tighten staffing standards and training for memory care centers, which provide services for people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or other cognitive conditions.
Cooper stressed Tuesday that she drafted the bill with input from Rep. John LaHood, R-Valdosta, who owns and operates several senior-living facilities. She called the bill a compromise measure between health-care professionals and elderly-care industry executives.
Coronavirus has sickened tens of thousands and killed thousands more in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Legislation aimed at shielding businesses and medical providers from lawsuits brought by person who contract coronavirus has cleared a key hurdle in the Georgia Senate.
The COVID-19 legal liability measures were tacked onto a bill whose original intent was to create a specialty license plate for the Georgia Tennis Foundation that would read, “Play Tennis!”
Called the “Georgia Pandemic Business Immunity Act,” the measure would prevent lawsuits from being filed in Georgia against a broad range of groups by people who claim to have contracted coronavirus on premises that those groups manage or own.
Groups affected by the bill would run the gamut from restaurants and other businesses to state and local governments, and health-care providers including doctors, dentists, psychologists, therapists, social workers and athletic trainers.
Sen. John Albers, who brought the measure, said he drafted it in recent weeks alongside representatives from local chambers of commerce, business associations and trial attorneys.
The aim is to calm fears from business owners and others that they could face an avalanche of litigation in the coming months as Georgia’s economy continues reopening, Albers said.
“This legislation will allow our business community to start to return to normalcy and provide services to Georgians without fear of needless litigation, while still ensuring that legitimate legal action is possible,” said Albers, R-Roswell.
Groups could still face lawsuits if they intentionally place persons at risk of contracting coronavirus or show gross negligence in following social distancing and sanitizing guidelines ordered by the governor.
The immunity protections would take effect from the start of Gov. Brian Kemp’s public health emergency declaration in late March to two years after the last executive order that the governor issues. The state’s public health emergency is currently still in effect.
The measure drew support from Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who presides over the Senate. He called it “thoughtful legislation that ensures consumers are protected and encourages businesses to reopen – without the worry of lawsuits hanging over their heads.”
In a surprise move, the liability measure was added Monday during a Senate Public Safety Committee hearing on the tennis specialty license plate measure, House Bill 216.
Albers, who chairs the committee, said that was done to speed through passage of an important measure during the hectic resumption of the 2020 legislative session this week.
The underlying bill’s sponsor, Rep. Teri Anulewicz, said she was caught off guard by the move by Albers and given short notice ahead of Monday’s meeting.
“In [Georgia political] vernacular, this is known as stripping the bill,” said Anulewicz, D-Smyrna. “I had 30 minutes notice. My opinion on the matter was of no relevance to the committee.”
The overhauled bill passed by a 5-3 vote out of committee, with the committee’s three Democratic members voting in opposition. They included Sens. Valencia Seay, D-Riverdale; Harold Jones II, D-Augusta; and Tonya Anderson, D-Lithonia.
The bill now heads to the full Senate for a vote. If passed, it would then head back to the House for a final floor vote.
The Georgia Senate passed legislation Monday that would give Georgians the legal ability to sue the state and local governments.
Lawmakers took up the measure by Rep. Andy Welch, R-McDonough, after House lawmakers passed it in late February, shortly before the General Assembly suspended the 2020 legislative session amid the coronavirus pandemic.
House Resolution 1023 was the first piece of legislation taken up in the Senate as lawmakers resumed the session on Monday after a three-month hiatus.
Passed unanimously, the measure proposes a constitutional amendment targeting the doctrine of sovereign immunity, a centuries-old legal concept that holds that the “sovereign” – or government – cannot be sued without its consent.
If ratified by voters this fall, it would change state law to let Georgians sue governments to halt unconstitutional laws but would not allow them to collect monetary damages or attorneys’ fees.
The measure now heads back to the House for final passage since some changes were made in the Senate to revise the implementation date.
Sen. John Kennedy, who sponsored identical legislation on sovereign immunity in the Senate, said permitting lawsuits against the state and local governments would give Georgians a greater voice in the operations of governance and legislating.
“I believe that this sufficiently protects everyone’s rights in an equal way,” said Kennedy, R-Macon.
Welch brought similar legislation last year that both the state House and Senate passed unanimously. But Gov. Brian Kemp vetoed it, arguing the waiver would hurt the government’s ability to function.
Former Gov. Nathan Deal also vetoed a similar bill that passed in 2016.
Bids to undo sovereign immunity stem from Georgia Supreme Court rulings that gave state and local governments broad leeway in claiming sovereign immunity. But the high court also opened the door for lawmakers to pass a waiver removing that legal protection.
In other business Monday, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution giving the Georgia Commission on Freight & Logistics until the end of this year to complete its work. The panel of lawmakers and logistics industry executives was formed last year to look for ways to improve the state’s freight rail network.
“We still have some unfinished business,” said Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.
The commission originally had been due to expire at the end of last year. The resolution now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp his signature.
Thousands protested outside the State Capitol in Atlanta on June 15, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Georgia lawmakers reconvened Monday for the last lap of the 2020 legislative session as protesters marched by the thousands to the state Capitol in Atlanta to condemn police brutality and racial injustice.
The march, organized by the Georgia NAACP, started from the Richard B. Russell Federal Building and proceeded the half-mile to the Capitol, where protesters greeted mask-wearing state lawmakers who took their seats in the Georgia House and Senate chambers amid new distancing requirements prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.
At the protest march, several speakers called on lawmakers to pass a package of criminal justice reform bills that include repealing the state’s citizen’s arrest and stand-your-ground laws, as well as creating “anti-choke hold” rules, a ban on no-knock search warrants and new oversight for district attorneys.
“If they don’t pass these bills, then we’re going to fill up the jails,” said James Woodall, president of the Georgia NAACP. “Because we’re going to shut it down.”
The 12-bill package, unveiled last week by members of the Georgia House Democratic Caucus, also includes a hate-crimes measure aimed at adding extra penalties for persons convicted of crimes committed based on a victim’s gender, race or other identifier. The measure, House Bill 426, has languished in the Senate for more than a year after the House passed it in March 2019.
House Speaker David Ralston noted that 465-day lag since his House colleagues passed the hate-crimes bill and called on the Senate to act on it in the days remaining in this year’s session.
“If we leave here without passing a hate-crimes bill, it will be a stain on this state that we can never wash out,” said Ralston, R-Blue Ridge.
Senators seemed supportive Monday of taking up the speaker’s challenge. Several senators kicked off the restarted session by urging swift passage of the hate-crimes measure.
While Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan – who presides over the Senate – has argued the bill might benefit from more tweaking, others said too much tinkering could doom its chances in the race to wrap up the session amid ongoing concerns over coronavirus.
“Members of this Senate, it is time to act,” said Senate Minority Leader Steve Henson, D-Stone Mountain. “There is no excuse why we are not moving with all due haste as we see protesters on the street in front of us.”
Sen. Lester Jackson, D-Savannah, pointed out Georgia is one of only five states that does not have a hate-crimes law on the books. He also noted the measure now awaiting a vote in the Senate was brought by a Republican lawmaker, Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, and has gained more Republican support than have past efforts to pass hate-crimes legislation.
“It’s not just a black issue, it’s not just a Democratic issue,” Jackson said. “It is a people’s issue. It is a Georgia issue …. It’s just the right thing to do.”
Several Republicans agreed Monday that hate-crimes legislation should be passed in the coming days. Sen. P.K. Martin IV, R-Lawrenceville, praised the actions of protesters in his backyard of Gwinnett County and said lawmakers should make use of the current session to “take substantive steps to eliminate racism in our culture.”
“We should collectively stand up against racism,” Martin said. “We should pass meaningful hate-crimes legislation this session.”
Others threaded the needle more between passing the hate-crimes bill and showing support for law enforcement officials in Georgia. Sen. Randy Robertson, a retired major with the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Department, said police officers face dangerous work environments and should not be universally condemned for the actions of a few.
“The men and women of law enforcement, they do not hate,” said Robertson, R-Cataula. “Those who do, don’t make it.”
Others, including Sen. Jeff Mullis, dismissed recent calls from protesters to defund local police departments, saying people from other states should visit Georgia since business restrictions have been relaxed amid coronavirus and “because we respect the order of law.”
“So come on out there, in America, bring your business to Georgia if they’re going to un-fund your police department,” said Mullis, R-Chickamauga. “We’re not gonna do that here.”
While Ralston strongly endorsed the hate-crimes bill, he said other portions of the Democrats’ package of criminal-justice reforms – including doing away with the citizen’s arrest law – will have to await a “broader conversation” he pledged to undertake after the legislative session.
The march outside the Capitol came days after Rayshard Brooks was shot dead by an Atlanta police officer during an altercation at a Wendy’s restaurant south of downtown Atlanta. It also comes amid nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd late last month in Minneapolis, and following arrests last month in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was gunned down by a white man near Brunswick.
During Monday’s demonstration, Lloyd Pierce, head coach of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, pressed for ending Georgia’s stand-your-ground law amid concerns over conflicts of interest involving Coastal Georgia investigators in the Arbery case.
“Our law enforcement can’t hold themselves accountable,” Pierce said. “So we need to repeal the stand your ground.”
Protesters also slammed state election officials and lawmakers for issues seen during last week’s primary election, when social distancing measures and inadequate training of poll workers on how to operate new voting machines led to long lines at polling places and mistrust in the voting process.
In the wake of the primary, Ralston has instructed the House Governmental Affairs Committee to conduct an independent investigation of the problems that occurred with last week’s voting.
“I’m not interested in finger-pointing,” the speaker said, referring to the back-and-forth laying of blame Democrats and Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger engaged in after the primary. “I’m interested in facts.”
Georgia senators huddle after Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan announced plans to suspend the legislative session over coronavirus concerns on March 12, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Crunch time has come for state agencies in Georgia wondering how much money they will have in the bank come July 1, as lawmakers return Monday for a reboot of the 2020 legislative session in Atlanta.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake for agencies in charge of statewide public health programs, mental health and addiction treatment, child welfare services, the courts system, public schools, and more.
To float the budget cuts, thousands of state employees are facing furloughs and the continued prospect of working remotely to save office costs. Layoffs lie in wait for some. Others, like Georgia Supreme Court justices, have said they might work for free a few days out of the year.
“We’re facing some real challenges,” said Sen. Ellis Black, R-Valdosta. “We’ve got to put together a budget and it’s going to involve some cuts that’s gonna hurt.”
The 2020 legislative session resumes on Monday, June 15, after being suspended in mid-March as concerns mounted over the spread of coronavirus. Lawmakers are legally required to pass a 2021 fiscal year budget and send it to Gov. Brian Kemp for signing before July 1.
Georgia’s finances look to be a few billion dollars in the hole after months of social distancing and business closures compelled by coronavirus, the global pandemic that had infected at least 55,000 people and killed more than 2,400 in Georgia by Friday afternoon.
To meet a 14% budget trimming target, state agencies have offered up about $3.5 billion in spending cuts across a broad range of government-funded services, including furloughs for preschool teachers, the closure of a state prison in South Georgia and less money for local health departments.
Recently, Kemp signaled agencies may not need to cut quite so much as state tax revenues have declined less steeply than at first projected. More likely, agencies will have to reckon with 11% cuts to their budgets, saving hundreds of millions of dollars that would otherwise be nixed.
That would help officials overseeing critical programs for mentally and physically disabled persons and the state’s fight against coronavirus to soften the blow to employees, allowing for fewer or no furlough days instead of weeks without pay.
But 11% cuts are still steep. Mental health and addiction services would have to be sliced by around $135 million, forcing the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities to withhold millions of dollars from outpatient and residential programs aimed at staving off crises that can lead to hospital stays for mentally ill persons.
County health boards, which receive grant funding from the state Department of Public Health, would hold onto roughly $3.8 million with 11% cuts as opposed to 14%. But that would still leave county health officials out almost $14 million total, leaving local virus-fighting staff with less means to continue the pandemic fight.
“We were already working with a frayed safety net,” said Alex Camardelle, a senior policy analyst with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. “Now that we’ve hit the pandemic, income insecurity and economic insecurity have exploded.”
Key to the upcoming budget negotiations will be how much appetite lawmakers have for raising new revenues or yanking lucrative tax breaks from companies. In particular, some lawmakers are eying a potential increase in the state’s tobacco sales tax, a move many nonprofit and think-tank groups have pushed in recent weeks.
“I hope maybe we can find with looking at tax credits that may not be so beneficial, to find ways to bring some revenue back in, as well as perhaps an increase in the cigarette tax,” said Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell.
Already, several budget-writing lawmakers have differed on how to approach implementing the spending cuts. Some, for instance, have floated the idea of imposing salary cuts instead of furloughs for key positions like judges and preschool teachers.
But that idea has drawn opposition from some top lawmakers like Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, who objected to salary slicing after it was raised at a hearing late last month.
“Asking them to work the same hours for less pay, as some have suggested, is unacceptable,” said Miller, R-Gainesville. “While furlough days are not ideal, we certainly will not be asking state employees to work without adequate compensation.”
Meanwhile, much of the belt-tightening depends on moving targets, such as whether the federal government follows through on COVID-19 relief funds and how people react to fewer restrictions on businesses and health-care providers in the coming months.
For example, the state Department of Community Health’s proposed spending cuts totaling $413 million would be largely offset by a recent boost in matching federal funds for Medicaid costs and by fewer healthy people making trips to the doctor amid the coronavirus scare.
But those figures could change if the federal government claws back certain special benefits put in place during the pandemic or if people flock to doctor’s offices in the coming months, according to state health officials.
It’s for that reason many state lawmakers are looking to draft the budget in pencil strokes rather than ballpoint ink, with expectations high that drastic mid-year budget adjustments may need to be made in early 2021 to cover unpredictable spending gaps.
“I think this year, more than any other year at least since I’ve been here, the amended budget process is going to be super important because there are so many unknowns,” said Sen. Dean Burke, R-Bainbridge, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Community Health Subcommittee.
“I know I’m going to be disappointed that I can’t do more,” he added. “But know that what we are able to adjust will come from the combined wisdom of everyone here.”
