Atlanta – The 2023 General Assembly, which starts Monday, is expected to get off to a slow start.
With the Georgia Bulldogs contending for their second straight college football championship on Monday night and the inauguration of Governor Brian Kemp for a second term on Thursday, there’s no rush to get to work on legislative work on the front end of the session.
It’s not an election year, so lawmakers aren’t rushing the back end to settle under the gold dome and follow in the footsteps of their campaign either.
But once the ceremony is omitted, new legislative leaders are elected, and committee quotas are in place, the General Assembly takes up topics including mental health, public safety, taxation, education funding, electric vehicles, electric vehicles, and more. Long-standing debate over the legalization of gambling.
A highlight of last year’s legislative session was the long-running overhaul of the state’s mental health care delivery system championed by the late Speaker of the House David Ralston. Our goal this year is to build on the success of this measure.
Roland Boehm, president of the Georgia chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said the state legislature is likely to introduce smaller, individual bills this year to address the problem of mental health services in the state. said.
Georgia’s Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission recently issued a report recommending that the state set up a loan forgiveness and repayment program for mental and behavioral care professionals. To qualify, providers must accept Medicaid patients and practice for five years in areas where mental health care services are in short supply.
The committee also recommended increasing funding for inpatient psychiatric beds and other behavioral therapy services and streamlining licensing requirements for mental health professionals.
Congress is likely to consider legislation that would make it easier for patients to access and cover the mental health care services they need, Boehm said.
Legislators are also likely to consider increasing the number of home- and community-based slots serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as a state Senate Commission of Inquiry recommended last month.
public security agenda
Kemp is also looking to build on its successful first term in public safety. Last October, at the height of his campaign season, the governor announced his second term platform calling for tougher penalties for gang members who recruit minors.
Aiming to reform the criminal justice system, including granting cashless bail, Kemp also wants to require judges to consider a defendant’s criminal history when issuing “self-identifying” bonds.
“We have made great strides in putting dangerous criminals in prison and making communities safer, but there is still work to be done,” he said.
Along with public safety, Kemp ran a successful re-election campaign on tax cuts. He supported two of his bills last year that provide $1.1 billion in tax refunds. This is immediately reflected in Georgia taxpayers’ checks and includes long-term measures to reduce the state’s income tax rate starting next year.
This year, the governor is seeking an additional $2 billion in tax cuts, a $1 billion income tax refund, and a $1 billion property tax refund.
On top of the $6.6 billion budget surplus, the state could easily take additional tax cuts.
But with economic forecasters predicting a recession later this year, the surge in tax revenue is likely to be short-lived, said Kyle Wingfield, president and CEO of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. said.
“Everybody expects revenue to come back to Earth at some point,” he said.
Mr Wingfield said the one-off tax rebate is attractive at a time when inflation is skyrocketing. But he believes a better approach would be to accelerate the reduction of income tax rates into the current tax year.
“When you spend the same amount of money for the future and lower interest rates, it gives people an incentive to work harder and save and invest more,” he said.
The General Assembly also reviewed the state’s education funding scheme to consider the need for additional support for children living in poverty, increased student transportation costs, and funding for school support staff. is expected to The Quality Basic Education (QBE) method was adopted in the mid-1980s.
“We have spoken with the leaders of both parties. [changing the funding formula] It seems like an area of interest,” said Matt Smith, director of policy and research at the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, a nonprofit affiliated with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. .
A proposal to lower the student-to-school counselor ratio also has support from both Kemp and the State Department of Education.
EV charging station
With Rivian and Hyundai beginning construction of gigantic electric vehicle manufacturing plants in Georgia (two of the largest economic development projects in the state’s history), policy makers in Georgia are pushing to roll out a network of EV charging stations. We want to keep up with the industry.
A legislative study committee that tackled the issue last summer and fall said it would balance the interests of retailers wanting to build stations that include convenience stores, and utilities wanting to tap into the space. Couldn’t work out how.
The state’s Public Service Commission last month approved a provision giving retailers an initial veto when power companies seek to build charging stations in the area, as part of Georgia Power’s rate hike request. After Georgia Power released an address list of stations it planned to build, local retailers who wanted to build nearby would have to stand against it for 18 months, the Georgia Convenience Stores Association said. President Angela Holland said.
The provision also limits Georgia Power from building more than 11 charging stations per year, which must be in rural areas considered unlikely to attract private investment.
“This solves a lot of our problems,” says Holland.
The research panel has recommended legislation requiring EV charging stations to charge vehicles by the kilowatt-hours of electricity they sell, rather than by the time spent charging the vehicle.
Proponents of legalized gambling are expected to arm themselves with statewide polls to promote sports betting, casinos, horse racing pari-mutuel betting, or a combination of the three.
The survey, released in October by the Georgia News Collaborative, a consortium of over 100 news outlets including Capitol Beat, found 59.7% support legalizing casinos in Georgia, while 45.6% support legalizing online sports betting. , slightly more than 42.6%. against it.
To legalize these forms of gambling in Georgia, the General Assembly must pass one or more constitutional amendments, which are then sent to voters.
“Obviously people will vote for it,” said Rick Lackey, an Atlanta-based real estate developer who has backed several proposed casino resorts scattered throughout the state.
Georgia Rep. Ron Stevens, R-Savannah, a longtime supporter of legalized gambling, is optimistic it could pass this year, given the large number of new lawmakers taking office on Monday. Also, Lieutenant Governor Bert Jones, the former Senator who introduced the Sports Betting Bill in 2020, is newly elected to preside over the Senate.
“Each semester there is less opposition to it,” Stevens said.
There has been debate for years about how states should use the tax revenue legalized gambling generates, but much of the focus has not covered the full tuition fees of many eligible students. It was to support the HOPE Scholarship Program.
“There is no other place where you can get the income you need long term,” says Stephens. “If you haven’t funded HOPE enough, it’s time.”
This article is available through a news partnership with the Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
