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Request a DemoMental health legislation remains top of the agenda for Dems and Republicans
Update, April 26, 2023: HB 520 did not pass this session. While it sailed through the House with a 163-3 vote, an amended version of the bill did not receive a vote in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. HB 520 is expected to be taken up again by the Senate next year.
The Gist
A wide-ranging mental health bill filed by a bipartisan group of legislators last week aims to address behavioral health professions’ workforce challenges, barriers for those seeking treatment, the flow of information about patients among agencies, and a host of issues not addressed in last year’s landmark Mental Health Parity Act.
What's Happening
In a debut reminiscent of the high regard paid by lawmakers to HB 1013, the bipartisan mental health parity bill championed by late Republican House Speaker David Ralston last year, the sequel to that bill, HB 520, was announced at a press conference by his successor, Republican House Speaker Jon Burns, flanked by the bill’s bipartisan co-sponsors.
“Today we begin the next chapter of our ongoing commitment to better mental health care in Georgia,” said Burns, who represents Newington.
The 51-page bill includes several provisions designed to address the longstanding behavioral health workforce shortage in the state, including recruitment and retention challenges.
HB 520 expands a student loan forgiveness program that was set up last year for people pursuing training in behavioral health professions to now include debt relief for current practitioners.
It also seeks to streamline and modernize the licensing process for many behavioral health professional licensing boards, which are currently backlogged. That would include putting more of the application and review process online, and waiving some experience requirements for providers who come to Georgia with licenses from other states and foreign countries.
“We know that workforce is the biggest challenge for mental health service providers and for families in crisis. This is true for businesses and all kinds of state, county and social service providers. The expansion of the loan forgiveness program and the need to address barriers in the licensing boards are very high priorities,” said Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, who also serves on the Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission (BHRIC), which developed both bills.
Gaps in the ways that Medicaid covers behavioral health care (which includes mental health care and treatment for substance abuse and addiction recovery) have been problematic for many patients and providers in Georgia. The bill mandates that by Jan. 1, 2024, Medicaid coverage must include reimbursement for psychological diagnoses; care for justice-involved youth ages 18 to 21; psychiatric and behavioral therapy for foster youth to allow them to stay in a “flexible home setting”; and a look at how Medicaid covers the diagnosis of people on the autism spectrum.
The bill also requires the Department of Community Health (DCH) to submit a waiver request to the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to allow up to 2% of total Medicaid funds received by the state to provide housing, employment, food and education services to Medicaid recipients.
The bill does not address disparities in Medicaid reimbursement rates to providers. A study by DCH released in January showed that rates for some behavioral health providers in Georgia are lower than in some other states. But Oliver, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, said the Legislature will address those issues.
“The mental health bill is going to be accompanied by appropriations in a variety of ways,” Oliver said. “The Medicaid rate package is flowing through the budget process and increases to service providers’ pay reimbursement will be happening partially in fiscal year 2024, which begins, as you know, July 1.”
Much of the mental health bill is forward-looking, setting up ways for government agencies, law enforcement, providers and the private sector to study existing challenges in access to care and to collaborate on solutions.
The bill directs the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) to develop a single shared definition of key terms including “severe mental illness,” “homeless individual” and “recidivism” in collaboration with the BHRIC, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Community Supervision, law enforcement and other local and state agencies, to ensure accurate data collection on patients and consistency in how they are assessed and evaluated.
“This is really important because the state wants to use data to inform where we need to fix the system,” says Kim Jones, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in Georgia. “For years, the state has been putting Band-Aids on the system, spending money and trying to fix it without really looking at the hardcore data. And if we’re going to use data, everybody needs to be working off the same definition of what a serious mental illness is, so it’s apples to apples.”
The bill sets up two task forces: One is concerned with building “a continuum of care to ensure access and appropriate use of the behavioral health system and the criminal justice system”; the other task force will examine issues relating to the impact of behavioral health on the state’s homeless population.
The issues at the heart of both task forces are intertwined, said Jones, who also serves on the BHRIC.
“We know here in Georgia that people with mental health conditions often end up in jail, unfortunately, because of the lack of services at the community level,” she said. “Many of them get into severe mental health crises and then have interactions with police. At that point, they’re often taken to jail instead of getting taken to care. When they’re released, if they still don’t receive appropriate care or support, they end up homeless.”
Often referred to as “familiar faces” in the criminal justice community, these individuals are getting special attention in HB 520, which calls for a statewide public-private partnership to serve as a clearinghouse for best practices, information and resources to support them.
Rep. Todd Jones, R-South Forsyth, the co-sponsor of the bill, while speaking to behavioral health advocates and reporters in a video town hall last week, said, “That small part of the population with serious mental illness that is taking up so much of the state’s resources,” are people who are going from health crisis to incarceration to homelessness, and are caught in a “triangle” pattern that he hopes to break.
Jones said a study on current access to inpatient behavioral health beds and crisis services, included in the bill, will be an important step in helping the state figure out how to increase capacity in psychiatric facilities.
Jones said he is frequently approached by people distressed because no treatment facility will take their loved one. “There is not a week that goes by — and I can speak for Representative Oliver and myself — when we literally have at least one or two Georgians contact us personally and say, ‘My son, my daughter, my cousin, what am I supposed to do? They can’t find a bed,’” Jones said.
Securing more affordable housing and wraparound services for people who are in treatment, in recovery or reentering society after being incarcerated is also a priority in the bill.
It amends laws relating to housing authorities and low-income rental properties to make it illegal to refuse to rent to a person who has been convicted of one or more criminal offenses, unless their offenses are “related to their fitness as a tenant.”
The task force to be created around behavioral health and homelessness would identify all state and local agencies, nonprofit organizations, charities and others providing services and expending funds to help the homeless population. It would also make recommendations on how to better coordinate all the parties to share data on the people they serve, and to collaborate on funding strategies and services.
“What the bill does is outline a work plan for the new [DBHDD] commissioner [Kevin Tanner], that allows him, if it’s in the statute, to get specific money,” said Oliver. “There’s some private philanthropic interests that want to help us. Through this plan we can alert the philanthropic community that … we’re doing studies with a four- to six-month timetable, and we need their participation and their support financially.”
Oliver said the task force will also provide much-needed clarity around homeless relief funds.
“I’m asked all the time by colleagues, ‘Where’s the money coming from? How many different streams of finances are there?’ And because … much of the homeless relief money is federal money that goes through DCA [Department of Community Affairs], that’s a hard question to answer. So it’s feasible for us to do this short-term work plan, understand all the funding streams available, and have a six-month opportunity to implement a plan.”
Jeff Breedlove, communications and policy chief at the Georgia Council for Recovery, said, “This legislation includes a great combination of practical measures to build the behavioral health workforce today, as well as visionary elements that will carry us forward to make sure peers are getting the services we need and deserve.” He also noted that “peers” are people who are now experiencing “or have lived in addiction or a mental health condition, or are in recovery.” He counts himself among them.
Breedlove said that providing loan cancellation to current practitioners, for instance, “will have an immediate effect. Georgians who are dedicating their professional lives to serve others are going to get the ability to get some financial relief for themselves and their families. And that’s going to motivate them to want to stay in service to me and my community.”
He said he was happy to see that HB 520 adds two peer support specialists to the Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission, bringing its membership up to 26. HB 520 also directs the BHRIC to develop a plan to expand the use of forensic peer monitors, people in long-term recovery who are certified to help others who are actively dealing with mental health and addiction issues.
Why It Matters
Georgia is ranked 48th in the U.S. for access to mental health care, according to Mental Health America, a nonprofit advocacy and research organization. Reasons for the low ranking include a deficit of behavioral workforce professionals to meet demand, and a lack of available beds in psychiatric hospitals and other facilities for people experiencing mental and behavioral health crises.
Earlier this month, DBHDD Commissioner Kevin Tanner reported to the House Appropriations Human Resources Subcommittee that 15% of adult crisis beds and 28% of children and adolescent beds managed by the state were “offline” in January due to “severe staffing shortages.” Tanner said behavioral health crisis centers are experiencing high turnover rates among doctors, psychologists and nurses, who remain difficult to recruit and retain, due to current compensation levels.
And getting newly trained therapists and other behavioral health professionals into service is hindered by inefficiencies at some of the state licensing boards within the secretary of state’s office. Many of the licensing boards are understaffed and using outdated technology and practices, including handwritten application forms, said Oliver. This has resulted in a backlog of hundreds or thousands of applications at some licensing boards.
The Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists had a backlog of 2,554 applications as of the end of January. Among members of the Licensed Professional Counselors Association seeking credentials, about 400 people were still waiting for their applications to be processed by the composite board, said Jones. According to the Association, most applicants in 2022 waited from two months to more than a year to receive their licenses.
“So with that backlog, we have 400 [qualified] people ready to go, waiting to meet with people who need their help, but they can’t because of the licensing issue,” said Jones.
What's Next
HB 520 is expected to go to the House Public Health Committee for consideration this week, and then to receive a floor vote in the House. It must pass out of the House by “Crossover Day,” March 6, to be considered by the Senate.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which has trained listeners standing by and ready to help. Visit 988lifeline.org for crisis chat services or for more information.
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Header photo: House Speaker Jon Burns announces the new mental health bill, HB 520, along with its bipartisan sponsors and supporters Todd Jones, Mary Margaret Oliver, James Beverly, Sharon Cooper, Kim Schofield and Gregg Kennard. (Credit: Office of the House of Representatives)
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HOA bill advances in the Legislature
The Gist
Bills geared to addressing challenges facing homeowners’ associations and the residents who live in such community-governed places have advanced in the Georgia Legislature — but not without some bipartisan wrangling.
On Tuesday, the Senate passed Senate Resolution 37, which created the Senate Property Owners’ Associations, Homeowners’ Associations, and Condominium Associations Study Committee.
Sen. Donzella James, D-Atlanta, one of the bill’s sponsors, had been trying for two years to get the legislation passed. Parts of James’ other HOA-related bills were attached to a House bill that also passed the Senate on Tuesday, day 39 of the 40-day session.
The Senate also passed House Bill 220, which requires community-governed associations to notify in writing a home or condo owner of a covenant breach — such as painting their house a color not approved by the association, and give them time to fix it before taking legal action. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Rob Leverett, R-Elberton, passed 51-2. The bill returns to the House for its review of the Senate’s amendments.
Sine Die, the final day of the session, is today.
What’s Happening
Passing SR 37 is a major step in James’ three-year effort to get legislation passed that would regulate more closely community-run associations.
“It was crucial because now we’ll take a serious look at it with people who have been assigned who have no strong contact with HOAs at all,” James told State Affairs.
In last-minute maneuvering, parts of James’ other HOA bills were attached to HB 220. That bill was amended to include provisions that prevent homeowners from losing their right to vote in the HOA if they owe a fee. It also ensures HOA meetings and elections are held as long as 5% of the owners ask for it, and that HOAs abide by nonprofit laws.
“This amendment is simple but it’s very necessary,” Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, told his peers Tuesday, crediting James with bringing the HOA issues to his attention.
“This amendment is a small step forward for all these bad actors in HOAs, and not all HOAs are bad,” said Brass. “But there are some bad actors out there.This amendment is a message to them that we’re coming for you.”
Why It Matters
James got involved in the issue three years ago after attending a meeting where residents in several Douglas County subdivisions talked about problems they were having with their HOAs.
That meeting subsequently led to the launch of HOA boot camps to help people learn about community-run associations.
“We did help a lot of people,” James said. “But I realized that the problem was with the law, and with them [homeowners] signing those covenants at the closing of the house and not really being advised properly.”
As it stands now, James said “There are no [Georgia] regulations.The only thing that controls an HOA or a COA [condominium owners association] is the covenant that you signed, and with them signing those covenants at the closing of the house, and not really being advised properly.”
As a result, James initiated a series of hearings last summer on the issue. The hearings drew lots of people who were having trouble with their HOAs, including many from Brass’ district. James brought the issue to the attention of Brass, chair of the influential Senate Rules Committee, who ultimately helped advance the bills.
“What Brass did with them is he went in each one and took a major part out and put it in as an amendment to somebody else’s bill,” James said. “We couldn’t write the whole bill all over again. We could only amend it. And so that’s what he did.”
In similar fashion, Leverett told State Affairs, he brought his bill after groups representing homeowners’ and condo associations came to him expressing concern about approaching homeowners in person about covenant violations because of the potential physical danger it could create.
What’s Next?
The Senate Property Owners’ Associations, Homeowners’ Associations, and Condominium Associations Study Committee will report its findings and recommendations to next year’s General Assembly once hearings are held later this year.
“I see positive movement. It’s a good start,” James said of the creation of the study committee. “What it will do is give us a chance to look at everything that wasn’t included in the amendment to HB 220.”
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Voting ‘no’ is a legislative way of life for these two Georgia lawmakers
ATLANTA — When it comes to voting “no,” Rep. Charlice Byrd and Sen. Colton Moore are the top two naysayers in the Georgia General Assembly.
The two conservative, Republican lawmakers have been in lockstep on several key pieces of legislation throughout the session. Between them, they’ve voted no on nearly 200 bills, often casting the lone dissenting vote. Each was the only lawmaker in their chamber, for instance, to vote no on the state’s fiscal year 2025 budget.
In fact, the two legislators have voted in unison on a number of bills this session that will impact Georgians in substantial ways. They’ve voted no on bills that would:
- Ease restrictions on expanding hospitals.
- Double parental leave for state employees to six weeks from three weeks.
- Forgive the student loans of mental health workers and veterinarians.
- Let nurses and physician assistants prescribe painkillers to patients.
- Require employers to provide secret ballot votes if their workers choose to unionize. Companies that do so get state economic incentives.
- Create a new program to provide housing and services for the homeless.
- Require convenience stores to post information from the human trafficking hotline.
All of those bills passed despite Moore and Byrd’s votes.
They don’t always go against the grain of their party, which controls both the state House and Senate as well as the offices of the governor, secretary of state and attorney general — known as the Republican trifecta.
Moore and Byrd have given a nod to some key Republican initiatives this year, including bills to support private school vouchers, enforce the tracking and detention of undocumented immigrants, ban foreigners from donating to political campaigns, and to ensure that legislation takes into account the impact on small businesses. They’ve joined the GOP on election reform measures removing the secretary of state from the State Election Board and making changes to ballots and voting procedures designed to improve election security. And both agree that people who don’t have cosmetology licenses should be allowed to blow-dry hair and apply makeup.
The pair’s far-right views are heavily influenced by the Georgia Freedom Caucus, a three-year-old, uber-conservative group that is the outgrowth of the congressional House Freedom Caucus. The national State Freedom Caucus Network favors social conservatism and small government and opposes immigration reform. It helped oust U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last fall.
Byrd and Moore are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the Georgia group. Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the chief deputy majority whip in the Senate, is the third member of the Freedom Caucus in the General Assembly.
“I go by the four pillars of my Georgia Freedom Caucus,” which are, “Does it grow government? Does it raise taxes? Does it increase regulation? And does it go against personal liberties?” Byrd said on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s “Lawmakers” television show earlier this month when asked about her pattern of no votes. “I also throw in there for myself: Is it the proper role of government? … It was to protect, preserve and defend, and now we fund a whole lot of things that we really should not be funding.”
Byrd and Moore began the session in January promoting the Freedom Caucus proposal for a complete repeal of the state income tax by 2030, and belittling the gradual personal income tax drop of 0.1% per year to 4.99% from 5.49% by 2029 promoted by the governor and GOP leadership. “At that rate, it would take 54 years to get to zero,” said Moore.
Both Byrd and Moore are rabid supporters of former president Donald Trump. And both have caught flak for controversial moves in the Legislature.
Moore has burned up considerable political capital — and gained national attention doing so. He was kicked out of the Senate Republican caucus last September after attacking fellow Republicans for refusing to agree with him in calling for a special session to take action against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is prosecuting Trump in an election interference trial. Earlier this month, Moore was banned indefinitely from the House for a scathing tirade he leveled against the late-Speaker of the House David Ralston.
The self-styled “RINO (Republican In Name Only) Wranglers” were featured in this video calling for a special session and lambasting their GOP colleagues:
Byrd introduced a bill early this year to impeach Willis, but it was ignored in the House. Later in the session, Republicans in both chambers went after Willis and others they deem as “rogue prosecutors” in their own way, by standing up a prosecutorial oversight commission (a bill which Byrd and Moore voted against). The Senate, led by Dolezal, also launched an investigative committee to probe Willis’ conduct, which Moore supported and claimed credit for spurring on.
The pair’s unconventional approach is “not the normal path that one follows when trying to build a successful career in the Legislature,” Charles Bullock, a University of Georgia political science professor who is widely-regarded as a preeminent scholar on Southern politics, told State Affairs.
“The old advice that [former] U.S. House Speaker Sam Rayburn used to give new members is ‘you have to go along to get along,’ ” said Bullock. “Help out other members and when you need help, you could turn to your colleagues and they’ll remember when you were helpful to them and they’ll reciprocate. If you’re out there burning bridges though, it means you are going to be less effective in doing things for your constituents.”
Byrd against immigrant ‘invasion and for the free market
Byrd, 72, is a former middle school teacher and political activist who lives in Woodstock and represents conservative, wealthy and mostly white Cherokee County. A self-described “pro-fair tax, pro-gun, pro-life Reagan conservative,” she has consistently voted for measures that return funds to taxpayers and against those that expand the budget.
She said the amended fiscal year 2024 budget signed by Gov. Brian Kemp this month “is full of crony subsidies, welfare and woke-ism while failing to deliver on conservative policies.”
Byrd said she took issue with spending $126 million on Kemp’s limited expansion of Medicaid through his Pathways program, despite its requirement for recipients to work or volunteer. And she’s opposed to “paying to grow the EV (electric vehicle) industry, train their workers, house their workers, subsidize them to the max. Free market should decide if EVs are our future, not the government.”
Byrd was also against returning $66 million to the University System of Georgia (USG) for teaching expenses, a line item in the 2024 budget vetoed by the governor last year. “Our universities are indoctrinating our kids … and USG is funding racism, sexism and radical gender ideology,” said Byrd.
Of Chinese and European descent, Byrd is a founding member of the Asian-American Pacific Islander Caucus in the General Assembly. Unlike other members of the mostly Democratic caucus, she regularly complains about “the invasion” of illegal immigrants in Georgia and at the southern U.S. border.
Last month she said, “Georgia is doling out our taxpayer dollars for everything that is not the proper role of government while doing nothing to address the invasion of our state or the root causes of sex trafficking or holding Fani Willis accountable. With the Republican trifecta, one would think we should be doing a lot better.”
Through March 21 of this session, Byrd has voted no 118 times out of 325 votes on legislation, or 36% of the time.
On Monday she posted this video on X to brag about being “the state representative who votes ‘no’ the most,” and to preview the last two legislative days of the session, which she said “will be dangerous for freedom”:
Among Byrd’s solo no votes this year was a vote against allowing people who make cottage foods such as baked goods, jams and trail mixes in their homes to sell them in local stores. She was also alone in rejecting a bill to create the Weeping Time Cultural Heritage Authority to preserve the memory of more than 400 African slaves sold in Savannah in 1859.
Byrd acknowledged it can be tough to vote against everyone in her party and sometimes against the entire House.
“You lose a lot of friends, and that is very unfortunate,” she said. “I have made a lot of other friends that appreciate and respect what I do,” including some colleagues who tell her they wish they could vote the way she does. “And I always tell them, ‘There is not one person on that floor that votes for you. It is your district that votes for you, and you should be voting your district.’ ”
Even when she’s voting with the majority, she finds moments to work in her far right agenda. During a long debate this week in the House over Senate Bill 354, a bill to allow blow-dry stylists and makeup artists to practice without a cosmetology license, which several Democrats warned would pose health risks, Byrd said, “we should be more concerned about a doctor mutilating our children than the licensing of cosmetology.”
Moore pushing for criminal justice reform
In his first month at work in the Legislature this year, Moore voted no on a dozen of the 45 or so bills that came up for a vote in the Senate.
The legislation Moore has voted against runs the gamut. He was the sole naysayer on a resolution that would create a Senate study committee to look at improving family caregiver services. He also was the single no vote on a resolution that designates May 1 as Purebred Dog Day. Both passed the Senate.
He was one of six lawmakers who voted no on a bill that defines antisemitism. That bill passed 44-6. And if he’d had his way, development authorities wouldn’t be allowed to hold their meetings by teleconference. His Senate peers disagreed with him, passing the bill 51-1.
While Moore and Byrd may appear to be legislative doppelgangers, they aren’t in sync on everything.
Moore voted against the Safe at Home Act, a bipartisan bill that would guarantee safe living conditions in rental properties. Byrd embraced it. Moore also voted no to create a Senate study committee on the preservation of Georgia’s farmland.
Bullock said he’s surprised that Moore, one of his former students, has aligned himself with extreme conservatives. During his senior year at UGA, Moore took Bullock’s legislative process class which dealt with “norms of behavior and getting along well with peers and mutual respect.”
Two years after graduating, Moore unseated State Rep. John Deffenbaugh, R-Lookout Mountain, the incumbent in his home county of Dade, becoming one of the youngest representatives to serve in the Georgia Legislature.
His voting pattern and behavior may mean the lawmaker is trying to create “an image that he thinks might be helpful to him in the future,” Bullock said. “But it does not position him well to secure things that he might want to get for his district.”
Moore’s ties with the Freedom Caucus, Bullock said, indicate he’s following a path set forth by the far-right group. “The Freedom Caucus like the [one in the] U.S. House is quite ideological and therefore not likely to engage in compromise or back down from its position when it thinks it’s right.”
Neither does Moore.
All told, Moore has voted no on 81` out of more than 250 pieces of legislation between Jan. 8 and March 21, including bills regarding the last two state budgets. That’s about a third of all bills.
A closer review of Moore’s Senate voting record this session shows he has cast the lone no vote in roughly 75% — 37 bills — of the more than 50 bills where a single no vote was cast.
The lawmaker, who is an auctioneer and works at his family’s trucking company, said he follows “a strict standard of principles.”
“When it comes to a piece of legislation, and in my opinion, any piece of legislation that misuses taxpayer money, it’s not the proper role of government. I typically vote against that,” the 30-year-old northwest Georgia lawmaker told State Affairs. “Bills that subdue individuals’ freedoms that shouldn’t be subdued, legislation that I think grants government power that it shouldn’t have, anything like that.”
Bucking their party, Moore and Byrd have come out strongly against House Bill 986, which would criminalize “deep fake” campaign ads relying on artificial intelligence to alter a candidate’s image, voice or likeness, which they argued infringes on free speech. Moore suggested the AI-generated image below of then-presidential candidate Nikki Haley could be subject to the measure:
In order to make their case for the bill, Republican lawmakers created an AI impersonation featuring Moore and Georgia Freedom Caucus state director Mallory Staples appearing to advocate for the legislation they oppose.
Moore isn’t rash about his decisions.
“In order to vote no as much as I do, I have to be pretty darn well prepared to defend those things throughout the course of the legislative session,” he said, noting that he spends hours, sometimes days, reviewing legislation coming up for votes.
He also has members of his staff go over “every single piece of legislation. And every piece of legislation, I get a report. There’s highlights in it. Good parts of the bill. Bad parts of the bill.
“What I look at every single day when I go in to vote is probably three times more in-depth than what the majority leader has.”
“A single nay vote is not going to have any policy impact,” Bullock said. “So in that sense, the risk the person runs is the person becomes viewed as something of a crank. If everybody else is going along with, say, passing the budget or whatever else, then eyebrows get raised for the one person who is voting no [for something] which has near universal consensus. And so that probably undercuts the perceptions, perhaps, or the soundness of the judgment of the individual and their effectiveness.
“Then the individual may say, ‘Look, I’m being true to my principles. But that doesn’t necessarily … win over anybody else,’” Bullock added.
While Moore’s approach may confound some political observers, he may have political ambitions beyond the Georgia Legislature, Bullock surmises.
“My best guess is that he has a longer, broader ambition, maybe to go to Congress,” Bullock said. “He’s in the same district with Marjorie Taylor Greene. She has played something of that kind of role, not necessarily being the sole naysayer, but certainly an outspoken person who does not compromise, does not trim her sails or back down. And she has done very, very well. She, I think, has become something of a role model.”
Bullock noted that Taylor Greene, who is from the same northwest Georgia mountain area as Moore, was one of the top fundraisers in Congress when she was a freshman.
“My guess is a lot of other young members as well as individuals who would like to get to Congress, look at her behavior and say, ‘Okay, yes, she’s clearly outside of the mainstream. Yes, she gets a lot of criticism but she also gets an awful lot of publicity. And she raises a lot of money. The person watching her might say, ‘You know, I could do the same thing.’”
But Moore insists he’s driven by injustices and a desire to reform the criminal justice system.
“What keeps me motivated in politics were the injustices that I experienced as a young child,” Moore said. “My father was charged with a crime that he didn’t commit and was sentenced to 10 years in the penitentiary. Hundreds of people wrote letters and said that they think they got this case wrong. The case sentence was overturned and I had a chance to grow up with a dad.”
Both Moore and Byrd have voted against bills to increase mandatory minimum sentences for many crimes, and against Senate Bill 63, a bill that passed in both chambers that would require cash bail for nearly 20 new misdemeanor offenses.
Reelection prospects
The pair’s disruptive approach may not win them friends or influence in their respective chambers, Bullock noted, but it may sit well with their constituents.
“If it works with your constituents, that’s all that matters,” he said.
Both lawmakers are running for reelection this year. Byrd has no opposition in District 20, and will coast to an easy victory this November. She joked that she’ll “enjoy a lot of golf” this summer and fall.
Moore has more of a fight on his hands. He’ll face Republican challenger Angela Pence in the primary this May, who told the Chattanoogan: “I’m running to be the voice for ordinary citizens who want real results, not never-ending partisan shouting matches.”
A small business owner and resident of Chickamauga, Pence ran for Congress in 2022 as a Libertarian against Marjorie Taylor Greene. She said she decided to run for the state Senate “because I realized our district was not being represented. Our current senator’s actions have put us in a position where he can no longer do his job.”
Citing Moore’s banishment from the House and isolation in the Senate, Pence said, “he can no longer even attempt to represent us.
“While Senator Moore grandstands for retweets and shares, real crises in his district like toxic water contamination in our schools and skyrocketing property taxes — due to an outdated state education funding formula — have gone unaddressed,” she said. “The people don’t need any more unhinged sideshows — they need someone who will roll up their sleeves, put in the real work, and score concrete wins that positively impact their daily lives. District 53 deserves a state senator who not only knows how to pick the right battles but how to win them.”
GEORGIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY’S TOP NAYSAYERS
Rep. Charlice Byrd
Age: 72
Birthplace: New Orleans, LA
Residence: Woodstock, GA
Occupation: Former teacher, campaign organizer
House District: 20, covering parts of Cherokee County
Years in Legislature: 2009 to 2013, and 2021 to present in House
“No” votes in 2024 session*: 118 of 325 total votes, or 36%
*Votes on passage of legislation from 1/08/24 to 3/21/24
Sen. Colton Moore
Age: 30
Birthplace: Trenton, GA
Residence: Trenton, GA
Occupation: Auctioneer, truck driver
Senate District: 53, which covers Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Chattooga and Floyd counties in northwest Georgia.
Years in Legislature: 2019 to 2020 in the House; 2022 to present in the Senate
“No” votes in 2024 session*: 81 of 257 total votes, or 32%
*Votes on passage of legislation from 1/08/24 to 3/21/24
Have questions or comments? Contact Jill Jordan Sieder on X @journalistajill or at [email protected] and Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
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Sky-high lottery jackpots equal windfall for Georgia education
Georgia Lottery jackpots are once again up for grabs to lucky winners, with the Powerball soaring to $865 million and the Mega Millions has reset to $20 million. That’s because a winner walked away this week with the more than $1 billion Mega Millions jackpot, according to reports. The next drawing for Powerball is tonight. …
Thursday is Sine Die: Do-or-die deadline for bills this Legislative session
The Gist
This is the last week of the 2024 Georgia General Assembly’s legislative session and Thursday is expected to bring a last push for dozens of bills to cross the finish line by the end of Sine Die (pronounced “sigh-knee-dye”), the 40th and final day of session.
What’s Happening
Some bills that didn’t move last year have resurfaced this session, to be considered along with new legislative priorities of the governor, leadership in the House and Senate, and Democrats and Republicans.
Tomorrow and Thursday are the last two legislative working days, and the last chance for dozens of bills that leadership and lawmakers want to get passed for their constituents back home. Wednesday lawmakers will be in committee hearings.
This is not only the last week of the 2024 session, but the last week of the two-year term of the 157th Legislature, also called the biennium. Each of the General Assembly’s 236 seats are up for reelection, and all but a handful of legislators who have announced their retirement face primaries this May, and a general election in November.
Lawmakers are also working hard on the fiscal year 2025 budget, which is the only constitutionally required piece of legislation they must complete each year. Last year the fiscal year 2024 budget was approved just before midnight on Sine Die.
Why It Matters
So far during 38 legislative days spread over the last three months, lawmakers have passed hundreds of bills regarding education, health care, taxes, transportation, law enforcement, the judicial system, social welfare programs and economic and workforce development — bills that will impact Georgia’s 11 million residents in important ways.
Some bills still in contention may determine how future elections are conducted, if sports betting is legalized (and what education programs may benefit from it), and where desperately needed hospitals and health care services are located around the state.
The 2025 budget will fund all state departments, programs and employees from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. So far the House and Senate have weighed in, and seem ready to approve key elements of the governor’s proposed $36.1 billion budget, which makes significant new investments in public schools, higher education, housing, health care and transportation projects (including funds for roads and bridges across the state) and gives healthy raises to most state employees while cutting income and property taxes.
In the final budget negotiations between the two chambers, some local districts and some programs and services that legislators are fighting for will win or lose funds, in amounts ranging from a few thousand dollars to millions.
What’s Next
Committee meetings happening today will produce many of the last bills that have a chance of making it through to the Rules Committees, which decide which bills are sent to the House and Senate floor for debate and voting. Other bills that have already passed through the committee process may be gutted and merged with others — a process nearly always marked by strategic gamesmanship, impassioned speeches and at least a few long and vigorous debates.
The bills passed in both chambers by Thursday’s end (or perhaps the wee hours of Friday) will be sent to the governor to approve or veto. He’ll have 40 days to do so, and any bills he does not address by then will automatically become law.
Have questions or comments? Contact Jill Jordan Sieder on X @journalistajillor at [email protected]
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