Georgia lawmakers could take control of the power to set policy for transgender athletes competing in women’s sports at Georgia high schools, removing the authority from a statewide association.
The revelation, which could potentially extend to publicly funded colleges and universities, came during the first hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Protecting Women’s Sports.
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Georgia lawmakers signed off on the fiscal year 2025 budget in the final hours of this year’s legislative session but did not pass a bill to allow sports betting.
Lawmakers gave the nod to a more than $66.8 billion state budget for fiscal 2025, which starts July 1. The spending plan, which anticipates $36.1 billion in state money and $19 billion in federal taxpayer funds, includes pay raises for public school teachers and state law enforcement officers.
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Georgia lawmakers are weighing whether the state should act to legislate or regulate artificial intelligence, following similar actions in other states and at the federal level.
“Artificial Intelligence is a pretty hot buzzword these days, and being a technology person by background, sometimes we put these big words out there, and people don’t really understand what they mean,” state Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, said during a joint meeting of the Senate Committees on Public Safety and Science and Technology.
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Georgia lawmakers will likely consider legislation requiring social media companies to help crack down on cyberbullying.
Lt. Governor Burt Jones and Senate Majority Caucus Chair Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, plan to introduce legislation for lawmakers to consider during the 2024 legislative Session to require social media companies to take “concrete steps” to verify their users’ ages.
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Georgia lawmakers are likely to pass school choice legislation when they reconvene, one expert predicts.
School choice has taken on new resonance after Rep. Mesha Mainor of Atlanta, an ardent school choice supporter, announced she was switching to the Republican Party.
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Georgia lawmakers could consider overhauling the state’s tax credits when they reconvene in January, but the specific action they take could depend on what they hear from experts over the next few months.
“The economic reality of tax credits is that when we help to expand an industry that isn’t profitable without our help, that’s bad for the economy,” University of Georgia professor Jeffrey Dorfman, the state’s fiscal economist, told members of the Joint Tax Credit Review Panel, which held its first public meeting this week. “Generally, this is not what you want to do. Thus, tax credits only make sense for business attraction if attracting that plant or employer or industry to the state is going to bring you some spillover benefit, some long-term benefit or some non-economic benefit.”
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Georgia lawmakers have signed off on legislation allowing hospitals to start police departments using certified law enforcement officers, similar to the approach many colleges take.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle overwhelmingly voted in favor of House Bill 383, the Safer Hospitals Act, to send the measure to Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican. The new law would take effect in July if signed into law.
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Georgia lawmakers have sent a measure to bar TikTok and other “national security software threats” on state-owned devices.
Lawmakers in both chambers unanimously signed off on Senate Bill 93, which they say would also bar Telegram and WeChat, and sent the measure to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. It would also prohibit these applications on state devices used in the legislative and judicial branches and in the state’s K-12 schools.
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Americans for Prosperity-Georgia recently launched a six-figure campaign encouraging Georgia lawmakers to repeal the state’s certificate of need requirement.
The General Assembly established Georgia’s CON program in 1979, though state officials started reviewing healthcare projects in 1975.
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Lawmakers could soon consider legislation allowing cities to install noise detection cameras.
“These are a little bit like red light cameras where they can measure the decibels coming out of the car, take a picture of your license plate, mail you the ticket,” state Rep. Betsy Holland, D-Atlanta, said during a virtual town hall last week.
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A group of Georgia lawmakers has introduced legislation to incorporate a portion of Atlanta as Buckhead City.
Senate Bill 114 has been assigned to the Senate Committee on State and Local Governmental Operations-General. A similar measure failed during the last session.
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Coinciding with an uptick in gang violence in the state and mass shootings nationwide, state lawmakers are likely to consider gun legislation during this year’s General Assembly session.
Last year, Kemp signed Senate Bill 319, a “constitutional carry” measure allowing Georgians to carry guns without needing a state-issued license. State Democrats derided the move, saying it would lead to more shootings in the state.
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With Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff in the books and lawmakers gearing up for the next legislative session, the state’s voting law is expected to be among the hot-button issues lawmakers address.
On Wednesday, the day after U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker, a Democratic state lawmaker said she plans to file legislation to modify the timeline for voting during runoff elections.
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State lawmakers could soon consider increasing the state’s tax incentives for music or creating a state-run music office to help performers, managers, songwriters and producers.
Those were among the suggestions witnesses offered to lawmakers during a Joint Study Committee on Georgia Music Heritage meeting.
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Georgia lawmakers approved a measure to update the state’s criminal data reporting system and allow the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) to proactively investigate election fraud.
One part of Senate Bill 441, the Criminal Record Responsibility Act, would form the Criminal Case Data Exchange Board. It would oversee a process for criminal justice agencies, clerks of court and probation and parole supervision offices to electronically report updates to the Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC) database.
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One of Georgia’s top law enforcement officials is calling on Georgia lawmakers to increase taxpayer-funded pay and benefits for state law enforcement employees.
Georgia Department of Public Safety Chief of Staff Maj. Joshua Lamb told members of the Senate Retirement Security for Georgians Study Committee on Thursday it is “mandatory” to increase pay to recruit and keep current law enforcement employees.
Lamb said the department has a 22% turnover rate and annual job applications have decreased by 60% over the past three years.
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State leaders and economists believe Georgia’s fiscal outlook is promising despite the economic strain from the COVID-19 pandemic, but some lawmakers say the state can do more to secure additional revenue.
Sens. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome; Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta; and House Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon, said the state needs to re-evaluate its tax incentive programs to eliminate waste and ensure tax equity.
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