Under the Gold Dome: Mutants, Zombies, Split Personality

March 27, 2023; Issue 12

Cast your memory back to when Crossover Day actually meant something. Bills that did not make the deadline at the halfway point to move from one chamber to the other were either dead or left until the following year. This year, not so much. A standoff between the governor and the man who would like to be the next governor, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, and Richard Smith, chair of the House Rules Committee, rendered the whole idea moot. Jones created a strange mutant by combining an anodyne bill about soapbox derbies and legalized sports betting. A number of so-called zombies, bills that become “undead” when legislators refuse to bury them, emerged. A mostly orderly, business-like session assumed a different personality in its final full week.

The governor who said he wanted to stay out of the culture wars this session instead signed an anti-transgender bill that has already resulted in an ACLU lawsuit. A lieutenant governor anxious to wield his first-timer power threatened to keep the session open until votes on the mutants and the zombies were called. The chair of the Rules Committee gave everyone an ultimatum of last Thursday—sort of de facto Crossover Day—which they ignored.       

It was an interesting week. The session is due to end this Wednesday, March 29.

To go directly to issues that interest you, click on the following links:

      • Redistricting Bill Mutates
      • Outside Donations Bill Amended
      • ACLU Files Lawsuit
      • Lieutenant Governor Holds Up Session Over Certificate of Need
      • CON Legislation Could Prevent Mental Health Bill Passage
      • Compromise on Truck Weight Limits
      • More Oversight for Prosecutors
      • House Resolution on the Okefenokee but No Bill
    • Sports Betting–Told Ya So

 

VOTING AND ELECTIONS

Redistricting Bill Mutates

SB124 which would have negated electoral district maps drawn by the Cobb County Commission failed to pass. But it has been grafted on to HB204 which was originally intended to create an association of city clerks. Another mutant.     

The whole thing could be thrown in the air even if it passes. A Cobb County Commissioner has filed a lawsuit as a private citizen challenging the maps adopted by the Cobb County Commission under “Home Rule” authority. The case is pending.

Outside Donation Bill Amended

A bill to outlaw outside donations to Boards of Elections and Registrars, SB222, has been amended to reinstate the Secretary of State as a nonvoting member of the State Election Board. The original version ousted the official elected to oversee elections from the Board.

HEALTHCARE

ACLU Files Lawsuit

The full legislature passed SB140 and the governor signed it. The bill bans hormone-replacement therapy and gender-affirming surgery from being used to treat transgender patients who are minors. The ACLU has already filed suit.

Lieutenant Governor Holds Up Session Over Certificate of Need

A 50-year-old law mandating a lengthy permitting process in order to build new healthcare facilities, what are called Certificates of Need (CON), became the ugliest showdown in the state legislature. A CON proves that a new facility is necessary to provide care to a community and does not unfairly compete with existing facilities. SB99 passed the Senate, exempting facilities in smaller communities, with fewer than 50,000 residents, from the process. The House, however, is holding up things. Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones declared that he would keep the session open until a vote takes place. The plot thickened when Wellstar Health Systems showed that a proposed hospital in Butts County, where Jones lives, would likely be built on land his family purchased in 2021. Wellstar says that that facility would adversely affect the two hospitals that it owns nearby. The tit-for-tat got uglier when Jones went after Wellstar by orchestrating the removal of $105 million from the higher education budget as a protest, the exact same amount included in the amended 2023 state budget to allow Augusta University to purchase a new electronic healthcare records system. Wellstar is working to take control of Augusta University’s hospitals and would benefit from the state funding. And then a Senate tax bill was amended to remove Wellstar’s tax exempt status.

It hasn’t been pretty.

CON Legislation Could Prevent Mental Health Bill Passage

The bill to buttress last-year’s huge mental health bill, HB520, passed the House with almost unanimous support. It was amended in the Senate. But Georgians could miss out on the much-needed services included in the bill because it too is being held hostage by the Lieutenant Governor. Until the CON bill comes to a vote—and we have to presume passes to his satisfaction—no vote will be taken on the mental health bill.

TRANSPORTATION

Compromise on Truck Weight Limits

A bill that will increase the acceptable limits on how much freight a truck can carry passed both chambers. HB189 was amended to cover only trucks carrying forestry or agricultural products. The limit increases from the 80,000 pounds allowed on interstates to 88,000 pounds on city and county roads. The measure sunsets the increased weight allowance in one year (7/1/2024) and strengthens enforcement of weight limits. Discussion in the Senate Transportation Committee centered on the need to develop an investment program for Georgia’s roads in conjunction with any consideration for increasing weight allowances.

PUBLIC SAFETY

More Oversight for Prosecutors

SB92 has now passed both chambers. It creates a Prosecuting Attorneys Oversight Commission with the power to remove an elected district attorney from office if they do not prosecute aggressively enough. The bill was opposed by prosecutors and the state bar association.

ENVIRONMENT

House Resolution on the Okefenokee but No Bill

The House could not blast HB71 out of the House Natural Resources Committee, despite support from pretty much everyone except the committee chair. The bill would have protected the land immediately bordering the federally protected Okefenokee Swamp from mining. Instead, they passed HR438 which will form a seven-member study committee to look at the issue.

GAMBLING

Told Ya So

Under the Gold Dome has been wagering all along that sports betting would finally become legal in Georgia. It looked like we’d lost that bet when the two bills—one including parimutuel betting on horses and the other not—failed to cross over. Proving that you should never tear up your lottery ticket just in case, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones tacked the measure to make sports betting part of the state lottery onto an innocuous measure about soapbox derby races, HB237. The sponsor of the soap box derby measure was aghast. Now the soap box derby part of the bill is gone and sports betting is left.

Still waiting for the last pony to cross the finish line in this race.

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Important Links

Georgia General Assembly Schedule: www.legis.ga.gov/schedule/all 

Find your Senator/Representative: mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/

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Under the Gold Dome will be distributed to League members and partners each week that the Georgia General Assembly is in session. It is a product of our Education Fund, allowing us to report legislative facts and activities at the State Capitol. The UTGD Team is comprised of LWVGA staff and volunteers, who will be tracking and reporting on legislation and committee hearings throughout the legislative session. 

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