2023 legislative session reaches halfway point
A look at what to watch in the next 20 days
The Georgia General Assembly is now halfway through its annual 40-day legislative session. State lawmakers now have 20 work days remaining until they gavel out for the year, but they still have lots of important issues to tackle.
From a sweeping state budget, to ending runoff elections, holding local prosecutors accountable and a handful of culture war measures, there is a lot on the agenda as the session enters the home stretch. Here is a brief look at what might be in store.
The State Budget
The Georgia House rubber-stamped Gov. Brian Kemp’s $32.5 billion state budget this month. The sweeping financial package includes lots of tax incentives and refunds for property owners and taxpayers.
More than half of the plan aims to bolster education, both K-12 and higher education. It includes an additional $2,000 pay raise for school teachers and a full restoration of the popular HOPE scholarship, which faced budget cuts under previous Republican administrations.
It is expected to easily pass the Senate.
Ending runoffs(?)
A handful of Democratic lawmakers have filed a bill that would seek to do away with statewide runoff elections by lowering the threshold from 50% to 45%.
Georgia is one of a handful of states that require runoff elections to be held if no candidate earns more than 50% of the vote, and some say it ensures that the winning candidate is the preferred choice of a majority of voters.
But Georgians have faced three Senate runoff elections in the last two years, and supporters of the bill say that voters are tired of campaigns extending into the holiday season. It is also a financial burden on taxpayers, and the new four-week turnaround has caused headaches for county election workers.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who himself was elected in a runoff election, has said that he would like to do away with the current system but has not offered any alternatives.
But ultimately, the fate of runoff elections will be decided by the legislature’s Republican majority. And none of them have expressed any urgency to overhaul the system despite their recent statewide defeats.
Holding prosecutors accountable
Local prosecutors could face disciplinary reprimands or even removal from office for refusing to prosecute crimes under two Republican-backed proposals.
One bill aims to establish a panel that would investigate misconduct by county district attorneys and solicitors general. The panel would then have the final say on how the official should be punished.
Another would make it easy for voters to remove prosecutors from office by significantly lowering the number of signatures required to force recall elections. Currently, a recall petition for a district attorney requires 30% of signatures from registered voters in their jurisdiction. This proposal would lower that threshold to just 2%.
Bills like these failed to gain traction in the past, but they have gained new steam as part of Gov. Brian Kemp’s tough-on-crime agenda. They appear to take aim at prosecutors who declared that they would not enforce the state’s anti-abortion laws after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Clarence Thomas statue
Republican State Senators approved a measure this week honoring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Senate Bill 69 seeks to honor Thomas, a Georgia native, by erecting a statue of the conservative jurist on state capitol grounds.
“This native son of Georgia deserves a place of honor and recognition on our Capitol grounds,” Republican State Sen. Ben Watson of Savannah said of Thomas. “[He] deserves a place of honor and recognition on Capitol grounds, a place where future generations of Georgians can … gain inspiration and belief that their lofty dreams are attainable, too, in America, regardless of the circumstances in which they are born.”
But Democrats, who withdrew an amendment that would have erected a statue of the late Rep. John Lewis, decried the effort as a display of partisan power.
One Democrat invoked the term “Uncle Tom” when arguing against the measure. Others have pointed to Anita Hill’s sexual harassment allegations and Thomas’ writings from the bench. “There’s a cloud over his service, and that cloud continues today,” one said.
A similar bill passed the Senate last year but never got a vote in the House. This year’s version would fund the statue through private donations.
Culture wars
A few months before he passed away, the late former House Speaker David Ralston said that he wanted 2023 to be a session of “opportunity.” In other words, he had hoped to focus more on the state’s booming economy and he had little appetite for hot-button issues after a contentious election season.
But that has not stopped some Republicans from reviving these culture wars. State Sen. Ed Setzler, a Republican from Acworth, filed a bill this week that seeks to expand federal religious protections to the state level. This concept, known as “religious liberty,” seeks to protect religious Georgians from what supporters call unfair government intervention.
But opponents worry that it could embolden business owners to engage in discriminatory practices, particularly against the LGBTQ+ community. A similar bill was vetoed in 2016 by then-Gov. Nathan Deal after big corporations threatened to boycott Georgia. But Gov. Kemp has indicated that he is willing to support a version that mirrors federal law.
Other controversial bills have also made their way to the legislative hopper. One seeks to limit discussions about sex and gender in school classrooms. Another takes aim at healthcare providers who serve transgender youth. Republicans also formally praised former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who has spearheaded an effort to mobilize Republican voters following her 2021 defeat.
Another interesting and informative state news update young man, keep up the good work.