A measure aimed at making broadband internet service more available in rural parts of Georgia gained final passage in the General Assembly Monday.
The state Senate passed House Bill 244 in a 31-22 vote after a last-minute change was struck down that would have put a five-year sunset date on the legislation, which opponents argued would gut the bill.
Broadband providers have argued that deploying broadband service into unserved rural communities is prohibitively expensive in part because the electric membership corporations (EMCs) that own utility poles have charged telecom providers $20 and more to attach broadband wire or cable to each of the poles.
Those installation rates are far higher than what Georgia Power charges for service attachments to its poles, in some cases more than three times as high, said Sen. John Kennedy, R-Macon.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, has been pitched as a way to reduce those costs by allowing the state Public Service Commission to determine rates, fees and other contract terms in agreements between broadband providers and the EMCs, which serve more than 4 million people in Georgia largely in rural areas.
Backers of the bill contend state regulators would serve as an independent go-between to set pole installation rates to help drive down costs and pave an easier path for cable companies to expand the reach of broadband in Georgia.
“All it does is send it to an arbitrator,” said Kennedy, who carried the bill in the Senate. “It doesn’t cut in favor of the EMCs or against them. It doesn’t cut in favor of the cable company or against them.”
But opponents have worried the rate change could hit customer-owned EMCs too hard and force them to increase monthly bills.
Senate Majority Whip Steve Gooch, who brought an amendment to the bill Monday, framed the EMCs as smaller nonprofit entities that should not have their finances capped.
“I just do not believe that the answer is going to be to take a dip of a wad of cash out of the pockets of a bunch of nonprofit co-ops that are governed and elected by the people you and I live with at home,” said Gooch, R-Dahlonega.
Gooch’s amendment called for letting state regulators consider whether broadband service was being taken out to unserved areas when deciding how to establish an EMC’s pole attachment rate. It also would have required EMCs and broadband providers to submit annual reports to the state on how they are promoting internet expansion in unserved areas.
“We need to know if it is going to work or not,” Gooch said Monday.
Kennedy argued the amendment would give EMCs a potential backdoor to continue charging higher rates, while putting a sunset provision in the bill would discourage telecom providers from investing in broadband deployment.
“Are you going to make that investment when you know you cost is only going to be fair for five years?” he asked. “They’re trying to shackle the hands of the people who are trying to get broadband out.”
Several lawmakers, including some from rural areas, also spoke out against Kennedy’s bill on grounds it would hurt the member-owned EMCs.
Sen. Bill Heath, R-Bremen, argued EMCs should be allowed to make turn a profit since their services directly benefit local communities, both financially and by keeping the electricity running.
“It goes to the people that own that company who are members only because they’re being served by that company,” Heath said Monday. “It’s not going to some shareholder from New York City that’s bought an interest in this and is profiting.”
Despite disagreements, Senate lawmakers passed the bill with Democrats joining several Republicans to push the measure forward.
Gooch’s amendment failed by a narrow 24-27 vote.
The bill passed by the Senate Monday follows legislation passed last year that permitted EMCs to start deploying broadband to rural customers.
Expanding broadband into rural and other underserved parts of the state has been a top priority on both sides of the aisle at the General Assembly in recent years, though lawmakers have disagreed on how best to do it.
Telecom industry representatives have pledged to launch a major investment in rural broadband if the EMCs were to lower pole attachment prices. That includes a pledge from Comcast to spend $20 million on broadband deployment in rural Georgia over five years if the attachment fees were reduced enough to justify the cost.
Monday’s debate in the Senate was the second standoff between lawmakers over Stephens’s broadband bill.
Earlier in this year’s session, Senate lawmakers killed a separate measure brought by Kennedy because of sudden changes – also proposed by Gooch – that would have made broadband installation free in rural areas but not in suburban communities.
Stephens’ bill was quickly tapped in the House to give lawmakers another chance to pass legislation on broadband costs before the 2020 legislative session wraps up later this week.
The Georgia Senate passed legislation Monday that would allow pharmacists to fill certain prescriptions for up to 90 days in the event of a state of emergency or a hurricane warning in Georgia.
House Bill 791, sponsored by Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, would allow health-care insurers to waive the “refill too soon” rules if the governor has issued an emergency declaration or the National Weather Service has sent out a hurricane warning.
Waiving those rules would allow pharmacists to dispense up to 90 days-worth of maintenance medications for patients with chronic illnesses who reside in areas where an emergency has been declared or a hurricane warning issued.
Pharmacists would still be allowed to withhold refilling a prescription if it involves a controlled substance, is an initial refill or if a doctor has specified that the medication should not be refilled.
The measure passed unanimously out of the Senate on Monday. It heads back to the House for final passage.
Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, who pushed for the bill in the Senate, said it would help cut through red tape in times of emergency.
“This legislation is to ensure that patients continue to receive essential medications,” said Kirkpatrick, R-Marietta.
Rules on prescription refills were recently loosened by Gov. Brian Kemp in response to the coronavirus pandemic. As social distancing rules kicked in earlier this year, many elderly persons and those with chronic illnesses worried about how to keep their medications available.
Kemp relaxed prescription rules in late March to allow pharmacists to dispense a 90-day medication supply if a patient had no remaining refills and their pharmacist was unable to contact the prescriber to get approval for a refill.
Kirkpatrick sponsored a similar measure, Senate Bill 391, that is currently winding through the state House. The 2020 legislative session is scheduled to conclude on Friday.
Hemp farmers and sellers would need a license to possess the non-psychoactive cousin of marijuana under legislation that passed the General Assembly on Monday.
House Bill 847 requires anyone cultivating, transporting or selling hemp to hold a license just like for other agricultural products. Anyone caught with hemp who does not have a proper license would face the same penalties as for marijuana possession in Georgia.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. John Corbett, R-Lake Park, follows passage last year of a measure that legalized the growing, processing and transport of hemp. It cleared the state Senate on Monday by a 34-13 vote with several Democratic lawmakers voting against it.
The hemp measure now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
States have rushed into the hemp business in recent years to take advantage of its many commercial uses, including the manufacture of rope, textiles and CBD oil used to treat a variety of illnesses.
But how to distinguish the leafy green substance from cannabis, which is illegal to possess, has tripped up law enforcement representatives and criminal justice reform advocates concerned about conducting traffic stops.
Corbett’s bill aims to clear up concerns over expensive testing of hemp during traffic stops by requiring official paperwork rather than forcing law enforcement agencies to test for THC, the chemical that produces a high that legally must be below a 3% content amount.
Penalties for violating the license requirements could include jail time and fines, depending on the amount of leafy-green substance being carried.
The bill also requires certain key participants in a hemp growing or research operation to submit to background checks and fingerprinting. Those participants include owners and other executive positions like chief operating officers and chief financial officers. It does not include farm, field or shift managers.
Licenses for hemp processors would require paying the state Department of Agriculture a permit fee of $25,000 for the first year and $50,000 for every year thereafter. College and university hemp researchers would also be added to the list of eligible licensees under the bill.
The fees will pay for the licensing and monitoring program run by the agriculture agency, said Sen. Tyler Harper, who pushed for the bill in the Senate.
Speaking from the Senate floor Monday, Harper framed hemp farming and processing as a boon for Georgia’s agriculture economy, with nine processors and 66 growers already approved by the state and more that have submitted applications.
“This is going to be a phenomenal industry for our state,” said Harper, R-Ocilla. “This is going to be a way for us to get it off the ground.”
Thousands gathered outside the State Capitol to protest police brutality and racial injustice as lawmakers met for the 2020 legislative session on June 19, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Georgia Senate lawmakers advanced a bill late Friday that includes police officers and other first responders as protected classes in a contentious hate-crimes bill that has been propelled in recent weeks by a renewed push for police and court reform legislation in Georgia.
The measure, House Bill 426, passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday night after being stalled there for more than a year, having gained a stamp of approval from the state House of Representatives in March of 2019.
A last-minute change added Friday in the committee saw first responders such as police officers, firefighters and EMS crews included alongside race, gender and religion as categories protected from acts of hate in Georgia.
Proponents of the change called it a needed support of support for police officers, justifying it as a safeguard for law enforcement officers that would balance legislation aimed at protecting many types of people.
“It is imperative that we support our law enforcement personnel that puts their life on the line for us just as we do these other classes, categories, groups of individuals,” said Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, who led the push for the change. “What I’m seeking is to be fair on both sides.
Opponents quickly condemned the move as a slap in the face for Black communities and other groups that have historically faced hateful and discriminatory crimes, including from police officers themselves.
They argued there should be a legal distinction between people who choose an occupation like law enforcement versus those whose inherent qualities like the color of their skin have subjected them to hateful acts.
“I really believed … that we were going to come out with one of the best hate-crimes [bills] in the country,” said Sen. Harold Jones II, R-Augusta, who led opposition to the change in committee. “And now, we’re not at that at all.”
Hate-crimes bill moves forward
Regardless of disagreement, the party-line approval vote by the Senate committee on Friday signaled movement in a bill that has been pushed since last March and which has risen to the top of the agenda for many state lawmakers in what remains of the 2020 legislative session.
The bill, by Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, would designate a hate crimes as an enhancement to charges that prosecutors would have the discretion to bring.
It specifies hate crimes as those targeting a victim based on “race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, mental disability or physical disability.”
Efstration’s measure has drawn support in recent weeks from state lawmakers from both parties, including House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, who urged the Senate to pass a “clean” version of the bill without any changes.
But in recent days, backers of the bill have watched with skepticism at the sudden arrival of a hastily drafted new hate-crimes measure, brought by Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan.
That measure proposed different protected classes than Efstration’s bill – including the addition of people exercising their free-speech rights and the removal of the term “gender” – and would have designated hate-crimes offenses as a standalone charge, not just an enhancement.
Senate Judiciary Committee members confer over House Bill 426, the hate-crimes measure, on June 19, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
‘Poison pill’
While none of Duncan’s proposals made it into the version that cleared committee Friday, several Democratic lawmakers decried the addition of protections for police offers as a potential deal-breaker for the bill’s final passage.
“That was a poison pill,” said Sen. Ed Harbison, D-Columbus, referring to the practice of adding certain language to a bill in order to kill it.
“This is certainly something that we cannot live with and we cannot support,” said Rep. Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, who is the General Assembly’s longest serving member.
“That was, in my opinion, a dark cloud over Georgia,” he added.
Sen. Nikema Williams, who chairs the Democratic Party of Georgia, said she was “outraged and disgusted” by the addition, labeling it as especially offensive since it came on the Juneteenth holiday (June 19) celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the U.S.
Back the badge
Several Republican lawmakers praised the move Friday, citing examples of participants in recent nationwide protests who had destroyed police vehicles, threatened officers and blocked fire trucks from attending to burning businesses.
“I do know that there’s a history of assaults and assassinations on the men and women of law enforcement strictly because of their job,” said Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, who is a retired major with the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Department.
“Not because they were investigating a crime,” he said, “but because they wear the uniform.”
Duncan also heaped praise on the bill, calling it a step forward to passing hate-crimes legislation despite the lack of provisions that his own measure outlined, such as data collections of hate-crime incidents and the ability to bring claims in civil court.
“In recent months, we’ve seen hate crimes against regular citizens, and we’ve seen hate crimes committed against first responders,” Duncan said after the vote Friday. “Neither are acceptable, and we will not tolerate it in our state.”
Protests prompt legislation
Meanwhile, the hearing on Efstration’s bill came hours after crowds gathered by the thousands outside the Capitol building and elsewhere in Atlanta to continue weekslong protesting over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks.
Their deaths, particularly Arbery’s in Georgia, spurred calls for speedy passage of the hate-crimes bill as lawmakers jump-started the 2020 legislative session this week.
The 25-year-old Arbery, who is black, was shot dead in February during a chase by two white men near Brunswick who suspected him of burglarizing a house under construction. Friends and family who knew Arbery say he was out for a jog that day.
His slaying prompted lawmakers to file bills this week to repeal Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law, which critics have condemned as outdated and liable to shield dangerous vigilante citizens from prosecution.
Beyond that, more than a dozen bills focused on criminal justice reform have been filed in the General Assemble largely by Democratic lawmakers, who have seized on momentum to press for reform policies amid the recent protests.
Their proposals include repealing the state’s stand-your-ground law, prohibiting police officers from racial profiling, banning no-knock search warrants and punishing wayward district attorneys.
All eyes on hate-crimes bill
But the hallmark piece of legislation is Efstration’s hate-crimes bill, which top lawmakers from both parties want to wrap up before the session ends potentially next week.
They also want to avoid passing a hate-crimes bill this session only to have it tossed out in court for being too broad, as happened in 2004.
That year, the Georgia Supreme Court struck down a law enacted in 2000 after ruling it did not clearly specify what a hate crime is, such as whether it depended on a person’s race, gender or other identifiers.
Lately, a host of prominent business leaders and advocacy groups in Georgia have also urged swift passage of the bill with minimal fuss. Too much hand wringing could inspire a swell of protests levelled squarely at lawmakers, warned James Woodall, president of the Georgia NAACP.
“If we have to wait until January [2021] to get legislation that saves people’s lives, then so be it,” Woodall told lawmakers Thursday. “But I guarantee you, the people of Georgia will stand up. And we will state back the State Capitol.”
And while Ralston, the House speaker, has repeatedly called for passing Efstration’s bill, he has also thrown water on the chances for any other criminal justice reform measures to make headway this year.
“It’s important that we get through this session and do what we have to do,” Ralston said. “Then, we’ll take a look at all of those ideas.”
Legislation to permit sports betting in Georgia made a comeback Friday in the state Senate as lawmakers scramble to drum up new revenues to plug the state’s coronavirus-ravaged budget.
A measure by Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, that would legalize sports betting and hand management responsibilities to the Georgia Lottery Corporation was tacked onto a separate bill dealing with traffic tickets.
It would allow online betting platforms like FanDuel and Draft Kings to operate legally, so long as they secure licenses from the lottery. People who are 21-years and older in Georgia could place bets.
Revenues from sports betting, which Jones pegged at a “conservative estimate” of $60 million annually, would go to fund Georgia’s HOPE scholarships for state university students and preschool programs.
Supporters say those revenues would also be a boon for the state budget, which is set for spending cuts of roughly $2.6 billion for the 2021 fiscal year.
On Friday, Jones said a bump in revenues plus the existing management know-how by the lottery should make the bill palatable for those wary of freeing up more forms of gambling in Georgia.
“This right here, the online betting program, is I think an answer to adding significant revenue dollars to a system [that] moving down the road will continue to need more dollars,” Jones said Friday. “And you’re taking an activity that is currently going on right now.”
Jones’s sports betting package was added to House Bill 903, a short bill tweaking motor vehicle citation rules that flew out of the state House of Representatives by a near-unanimous vote in March.
It passed out of the Senate Special Judiciary Committee in a vote early Friday morning and now heads to the full Senate. The committee, chaired by Sen. Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta, is composed entirely of Democratic lawmakers.
Gambling legislation has had a rocky road in the General Assembly in recent years, including during the current 2020 legislative session. A measure to let voters decide whether to legalize sports betting, casinos and horse racing died in the House in March.
Even Jones’s bid for sports betting looked dead in the water. A measure he brought to legalize the activity, Senate Bill 403, died quietly in the Republican-controlled Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee without a vote in March.
Gambling aficionados have long urged the state legislature to give voters the final say in whether they want to partake in gaming forms besides just the lottery, which sends millions of dollars each year to the popular HOPE program. Detractors call the activity a moral vice that squanders people’s money and family time.
But the money crunch brought on by the state’s economic slowdown amid the coronavirus pandemic has thrown a new variable into the gambling equation. Faced with deep spending cuts, lawmakers are seeking ways to drum up revenues for the budget.
Sen. Nikema Williams, who chairs the Democratic Party of Georgia, said Friday she was concerned about a lack of provisions guaranteeing funds for preschool programs in Jones’s measure but said its passage would help ease the pain for state agencies facing budget cuts.
“I have consistently said that we can’t cut ourselves out of this deficit that we’re facing right now,” said Williams, D-Atlanta. “And we have to look at additional revenue streams.”
Local sports organizations also turned out Friday to praise passage of the measure out of committee. Steve Koonin, the CEO of the Atlanta Hawks basketball organization, said the sports-betting measure would boost fan interest in the sport while bolstering state revenues.
“During this difficult time for our professional sports teams, maintaining and building our engagement and relationship with fans is absolutely critical,” Koonin said.
Hate-crimes legislation got its first hearing in the General Assembly in more than a year Thursday amid growing tension over how strongly to punish bias-motivated offenses and whether to include “gender” as a protected classification.
House Bill 426, sponsored by Georgia Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, has been the source of contentious debate in recent days as lawmakers hurtle toward the end of the 2020 legislative session, with little time left to haggle over details.
Questions over the bill have centered on whether to designate hate-crimes offenses as standalone charges or as enhancements to separate crimes like assault or property destruction, which could affect the level of punishment for those convicted.
It also remains to be seen whether Senate lawmakers will keep language in the House bill that specifies the term “gender” as a category protected from hate-influenced acts.
The bill has languished in the Georgia Senate after passing out of the state House of Representatives on March 7, 2019. Its first airing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Jesse Stone, R-Waynesboro, was held Thursday night. Another hearing is set for Friday afternoon.
Lawmakers want to avoid passing a hate-crimes bill this session only to have it tossed out in court for being too broad, as happened in 2004.
That year, the Georgia Supreme Court struck down a law enacted in 2000 after ruling it did not clearly specify what a hate crime is, such as whether it depended on a person’s race, gender or other identifiers.
Efstration’s bill would designate a hate crime as an addition to a separate charge that prosecutors would have the discretion to bring. It specifies hate crimes as those targeting a victim based on “race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, mental disability or physical disability.”
Asked Thursday if his bill is too broad, Efstration said it would only apply to offenses that have a clear message of hate – not for more minor actions like generic graffiti.
“It applies to all Georgians if the elements fit,” Efstration said. “If the nature of the crime is the bias against the class of the victim.”
Efstration and supporters from both sides of the aisle – including Rep. Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, the General Assembly’s longest serving member – have urged swift passage of the bill after such a long delay in the Senate and with the clock ticking on the current session.
But the bill could see several changes as it winds through Stone’s committee in the Senate. Portions of a separate hate-crimes bill that was drawn up just this week by Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan could find their way into the House bill.
Duncan, who presides over the Senate, has pressed for a “comprehensive approach” to the legislation that would make hate crimes standalone offenses and increase potential prison time from two years to five.
He frames his version as tougher on hate-crime offenders and capable of putting teeth into state law, rather than just sending a message.
“There is a no way to ignore the sense of urgency, the desire and the immediate need for the strongest hate crimes law in the country to show up on our books here in Georgia,” Duncan said earlier this week.
But Duncan’s bill has drawn the ire of many lawmakers, particularly Democratic leaders, who worry the bill could gum up the legislative works so late in the session – and risk sinking Efstration’s bill.
Critics have also lambasted Duncan’s bill since it does not include the term “gender” in a list of 18 different personal, social and physical attributes that would be protected from hate or bias-motivated crimes.
Leaving the term “gender” out of Duncan’s bill could leave Georgians exposed to hate crimes motivated by a person’s gender identity, said Rep. Matthew Wilson, one of five openly gay members of the General Assembly.
“As we know, transgender men and women are one of the largest groups of victims of hate crimes and bias-motivated crimes every year,” said Wilson, D-Brookhaven. “So to say that that is a serious bill is incredibly offensive because the group that needs this law the most is not even included in this bill.”
Duncan’s office did not respond Thursday to a request for comment on why the term “gender” was not included in his bill.
Critics also highlighted other categories that were specified in Duncan’s bill including people who are exercising their free-speech rights, which they argue waters down the protections by making them too broad.
Representatives from several nonprofit and advocacy groups urged lawmakers to keep “gender” in the bill during Thursday’s hearing. Sam Olens, a former state attorney general, said excluding the term could put transgender persons in danger.
“If you don’t put gender in this bill, folks that are transgender will have no protection,” said Olens, who served as Georgia’s attorney general from 2011 to 2016. “It is essential that sexual orientation remain in the bill, that gender be added to the bill.”
Opposition came from Cole Muzio, president of the Family Policy Alliance of Georgia, who wondered if Efstration’s bill would be too broad on the one hand and would not deter hate crimes on the other.
“What it does do is it does create thought crimes,” Muzio said. “And it does encourage us not to look at how we’re the same, not to look at how we’re all made in the image of God, but to look at how we’re the ‘other’.”
