Here were some of the goings-on around the Georgia Capitol last week:
Mid-year state budget sails through Georgia House
The Georgia House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a $29.9 billion mid-year budget Feb. 11 that would raise the salaries of teachers and state employees and accelerate work on building projects across Georgia.
The mid-year budget, which covers spending through June 30, sailed through the House 152-4 and now moves to the state Senate.
With state coffers flush with higher-than-anticipated tax revenues, Gov. Brian Kemp and the General Assembly are poised to provide election-year dividends in the form of a $2,000 pay increase for Georgia teachers and a $5,000 raise for most state workers.
The teacher pay raise – combined with a $3,000 increase lawmakers approved three years ago – would let Kemp fulfill a promise he made on the campaign trail in 2018.
“This is a tremendous investment into the human capital of Georgia,” House Majority Leader Jon Burns, R-Newington, said shortly before the vote.
The mid-year budget also would allocate cash dollars to pay for a series of building projects normally funded through bonds appropriated in the so-called “big” budget that takes effect July 1.
The list includes nearly $15 million in deferred maintenance at state-owned Jekyll Island, $4.8 million to complete the state Department of Public Safety’s new headquarters building in Atlanta, $4.6 million for repairs to buildings at the Georgia National Fairgrounds in Perry, and $2 million to design the second phase of an expansion at the University of North Georgia.
Georgia Senate approves law enforcement tax credit
The Georgia Senate passed legislation Feb. 10 to establish a $100 million tax credit program for donations to support local law enforcement.
The bill, which passed unanimously and now heads to the state House of Representatives, is at the top of Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan’s agenda for this year’s General Assembly session.
It’s modeled after the highly successful rural hospital tax credit lawmakers created in 2016.
“The Senate is sending a message strong and clear to 11 million Georgians that we do care about their public safety,” Duncan, the Senate’s presiding officer, said after the vote.
The new tax credit would let Georgians redirect state tax dollars they owe to a nonprofit foundation formed to support law enforcement in the taxpayer’s community.
Single taxpayers could receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit of up to $5,000. Married taxpayers filing jointly could receive up to $10,000 in credits.
Each local foundation would be limited to $5 million in donations annually to make sure the money is spread around the state. The total program would be capped at $100 million per year.
Law enforcement agencies receiving foundation funding could spend it to hire more officers, provide officer pay raises, buy equipment, work with mental health “co-responders” to answer calls that could require intervention with a mentally ill person, or enhance training of officers in avoiding violence.
Georgia House bill would ban mining near Okefenokee Swamp
The General Assembly is weighing in on a controversial proposal to mine titanium near the Okefenokee Swamp.
A bipartisan bill introduced in the Georgia House of Representatives would prohibit the state Environmental Protection Division from issuing permits for surface mining along Trail Ridge between the St. Marys and Satilla rivers.
“The Okefenokee Swamp is a vital part of Georgia with more than local significance,” the bill states.
“[It] is properly a matter for regulation and protection under the authority of the state of Georgia to ensure the values and functions of the Okefenokee Swamp, including its status as a popular and historic tourist attraction, are not impaired.”
Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals is seeking permits from the state to mine titanium dioxide at a site three miles from the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, the largest black water swamp in North America.
The project’s opponents say the mine could damage adjacent wetlands and permanently affect the hydrology of the entire 438,000-acre swamp.
House Bill 1289 is sponsored by five Republicans and one Democrat. The chief sponsor is Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville.
Chief Justice Nahmias leaving Georgia Supreme Court
Georgia Chief Justice David Nahmias resigned Feb. 11, three days after delivering his first State of the Judiciary address to a joint session of the General Assembly.
Nahmias will leave the bench at the end of the state Supreme Court’s next term in July after more than 12 years on the court. During that time, he has written more than 470 opinions and joined more than 2,700 others.
“I believe that I have contributed to making the decisional law of Georgia clearer, more consistent, and more faithful to the text and original understanding of our state’s Constitution and statutes,” he wrote in a resignation letter hand-delivered to Gov. Brian Kemp.
Nahmias went on to explain that he is leaving to spend more time with his family. He has not decided the next step in his legal career.
Before joining the court, Nahmias spent almost 15 years as a federal prosecutor, including a stint as U.S. attorney in Atlanta.
He was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 2009 by then-Gov. Sonny Perdue, then was elected to the position in 2010 and reelected in 2016. He stepped up to chief justice last summer when Harold Melton left the court for the private sector.
Kemp will appoint a new justice.
This story available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
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