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Request a DemoLegislation on abortion, school funding, could see daylight in Statehouse this session
Georgia legislators on Monday descended on Atlanta for the opening of the 157th General Assembly. For the political veterans, it’s a chance to get back to hobnobbing in the halls of the Gold Dome, as the Statehouse is fondly known; to attending committee meetings, drafting bills and building coalitions, if not consensus.
The next few months will be a swirl of lobbying and legislating. It’s early yet, but we’ve identified several measures in the making that could be introduced this session, including new abortion restrictions, changes to school funding and hospital regulations, help for the homeless and a bill to clear the way for people with criminal records to move on with their life and advance their careers.
New abortion restrictions
Expect another round of abortion-related legislation in Georgia even as the federal government makes it easier for people to get access to abortion medication by mail and in pharmacies.
Activists are looking to get a ban on mail delivery of abortion pills in Georgia. And one Georgia legislator is attempting to financially help women who carry their unwanted pregnancies to term.
Democratic Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick, District 93, prefiled the Pro-Birth Accountability Act, or House Bill 1 (HB 1). The bill would compensate women who carry an unwanted pregnancy to term. Compensation would range from prenatal to postpartum care to living, medical, legal and psychiatric expenses. Meanwhile, Georgia’s abortion law — known as the Heartbeat bill because it would ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected — is still in legal limbo. Last summer’s Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade cleared the way for Georgia’s law, which had been hung up in court, to take effect. The law has since been volleyed back and forth through a series of legal disputes.
While the SCOTUS decision overturned a half-century of federal protections for women seeking abortions, it didn’t ban abortion pills. Only the state has that power, and here in Georgia that remains to be seen. During the last legislative session, lawmakers considered a bill that would make it illegal to provide abortion-inducing drugs via courier, delivery or mail service. It failed to get a vote.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department cleared the way for the U.S. Postal Service to deliver abortion drugs to states with strict limits on ending pregnancy. The department also relaxed a federal law that criminally prosecutes people for such mailings.
And for the first time, the Food and Drug Administration allowed abortion pills to be sold at pharmacies, which could expand access to abortion through medication.
School funding formula
How Georgia’s public schools are funded is a complicated, confusing process involving a mix of state and local money. The formula — known as the Quality Basic Education Act (QBE)— hasn’t had a major revision since it was created in 1985.
The state funds kindergarten through 12th-grade education via a “formula” that determines how much to pay districts for teachers’ salaries and health insurance, school programs and other expenses based on the total number of full-time students in each district. The formula deducts what the state believes a local district should contribute from its own coffers.
Poorer schools, which tend to be in the state’s urban and rural areas, tend to get short shrift under the current formula. Critics also claim, frankly, that the current formula is outdated.
“This thing is pretty critical,” committee member Sen. Billy Hickman, R-Statesboro, told State Affairs. “It really is affecting our ability to recruit, hire and retain teachers and support workers like cafeteria workers and maintenance people.”
Since K-12 education is Georgia’s largest expenditure, totaling $11.6 billion, or 43% of the state’s general fund budget, updating the school funding formula is a Herculean task.
State lawmakers have been studying the issue since August although the Senate Committee to Review Education Funding Mechanisms has yet to issue a final report with suggestions on revamping the formula. Efforts to reach committee chair Sen. Mike Dugan were unsuccessful.
When asked if legislation addressing the school funding formula is likely to emerge, Hickman responded: “It all depends on whether we have a report.”
Updating the school funding formula could create better-run, more efficient schools, newly installed Rep. Long Tran, District 80, told State Affairs. Tran said updating QBE will be his first priority. “I want to look into how tech for schools is funded — what schools get laptops and make that standardized across the state,” said Tran, a father of 10- and 14-year-old sons.
Occupational licensing for people with a criminal record
A bill to make the pathway clearer for people with criminal records to obtain occupational licenses will be introduced this session.
According to the Georgia Justice Project (GJP), 1 in 7 jobs in Georgia require an occupational license. And 38% of adult Georgians have a criminal record. Currently, every person with a criminal record could face denial of their license application after investing years and thousands of dollars to advance their careers, even if their criminal records are old, pardoned or expunged.
GJP is drafting a bill that would create a mandatory preclearance process for state licensing boards to follow so that people with a record get a chance to find out what their prospects are to obtain a license in their chosen field before they pursue training for it. It would also create a process to help boards determine what convictions and charges are “recent and relevant” when approving or denying an occupational license.
Certificates of Need for health care facilities
At least two lawmakers intend to introduce legislation to repeal Certificate of Need (CON) requirements that determine whether a new or expanded medical facility or service is needed in a given area of the state. The Department of Community Health said it makes those calls in an effort to avoid duplication of services and to keep health care within communities cost-effective.
Some community leaders and health care providers think that CONs stymie competition and prevent new hospitals, desperately needed in rural areas across the state, from opening and upgrading their services.
Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, is among them. “A hospital shouldn’t need permission from the government to set up shop,” he said. “My constituents would clearly love for multiple hospitals to be in the district, all competing against one another, which will end up providing better service at a cheaper price.”
Rep. Charlice Byrd, R-Woodstock, will be introducing “a bill mirroring mine” in the House, said Moore.
Homelessness
Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, said that in light of the state’s record budget surplus, she would push to increase appropriations to the Housing Trust Fund for the homeless, which she said has shrunk from $5 million to $3.2 million during her 36-year tenure. She also plans to advocate for funding to nonprofits providing shelter and housing to the homeless.
The final report of the Senate Study Committee on Unsheltered Homelessness that wrapped in December noted that homelessness in Georgia decreased over 10 years through 2020, but increased during 2022, in part due to the shrinking stock of affordable housing and sharply increased home prices and rental rates. It included recommendations to increase funding in many areas, including providing more money to the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities for mental health services, substance abuse disorder treatment and housing vouchers for homeless people. The committee also called for an increase in appropriations to the Housing Trust Fund.
Affordable housing/tenants’ rights
Fair housing advocates plan to push for a repeat of House Bill 408 (HB 408), which didn’t pass last session. It requires landlords to provide a seven-day notice to people before evicting them and to give them a chance to pay their rent during that time. Enterprise Community Partners said the bill also staves off the consequences of an eviction filing on a tenant’s record, “which can reduce or nearly eliminate quality housing opportunities in the future.”
Contact Tammy Joyner on Twitter @LVJOYNER or at [email protected], and Jill Jordan Sieder on Twitter @JOURNALISTAJILL or at [email protected].
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Header image: Members of the Georgia House of Representatives are sworn in by Chief Justice Michael P. Boggs on Jan. 9, 2023. (Credit: Jill Jordan Sieder)
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House speaker Jon Burns hires new communications director
House speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, announced today that he has hired a new communications director. Kayla Roberson, who has served as press secretary at the Georgia Chamber for the past year or so, will now oversee all external communications, media relations and strategic messaging for Burns.
“I’m excited to welcome Kayla to our team,” Burns said in a statement. “Kayla has an excellent background, deep skill set and strong work ethic, and we’re excited to have her on board to continue getting our message out and sharing the House’s priorities ahead of and into the next session.”
A double major in political science and journalism at the University of Georgia, where she graduated in 2022, Roberson interned for U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Republican in north Georgia’s 9th Congressional District, and worked as a consultant for GOP political candidates before joining the Georgia Chamber.
“I’m beyond grateful for the opportunity to work under the leadership of speaker Burns,” Roberson told State Affairs. “Whether it’s improving education opportunities, putting money back in the pockets of hardworking Georgians, creating jobs or supporting our rural communities, speaker Burns always prioritizes doing what is best, and what is right, for Georgia.”
Political strategist Stephen Lawson, who has held the top communications role for the speaker since last December, announced he’s joining Dentons, where starting today he’ll lead the global law firm’s public affairs efforts.
Have questions or comments? Contact Jill Jordan Sieder on X @journalistajill or at [email protected].
Global bird flu disrupts Georgia exports, costing chicken producers millions
ATLANTA — A global bird flu that has rapidly spread from birds to dairy cows, milk supplies and humans has cost untold millions of dollars in lost export business in Georgia, the nation’s leading poultry producer, officials with the state Department of Agriculture and poultry industry said.
Georgia has had only three reported cases of H5N1 avian influenza since it reemerged in 2022. The last of those cases was resolved in November 2023 but ramifications of those outbreaks continue to have a big effect on the state’s ability to export chicken and chicken parts, such as chicken feet, to different countries, including China, one of Georgia’s biggest export markets for chicken feet.
In 2022, frozen chicken feet, for example, accounted for more than 85% of all U.S. poultry exported to China, according to Farm Progress, publisher of 22 farming and ranching magazines.
The $30 billion poultry industry is Georgia’s largest segment in its No. 1 industry — agriculture.
China has also placed a ban on the import of chicken products from 41 other American states. The ban on Georgia products went into effect Nov. 21, 2023. Efforts to reach the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. were unsuccessful.
Georgia Poultry Federation President Mike Giles estimates the state’s loss at “well into the millions of dollars.”
“It’s a significant amount in a significant export market for us,” he said. “Poultry paws [feet] immediately lose value because of the loss of demand.”
The ban has forced Georgia poultry producers to find alternative markets for their products that would normally be headed to China.
“Some are sold domestically, some are frozen and stored, hopefully to find markets later on, and some go to other countries,” Giles said.
This isn’t the first time China has banned U.S.-produced poultry products due to a bird flu outbreak. The country instituted a ban in January 2015 which lasted until November 2019 — even though U.S. poultry products were deemed free of the disease by August 2017.
After that ban was lifted, China’s appetite for American-produced chicken products became voracious.
In 2022, U.S. producers shipped nearly $6 billion in poultry meat and related products (excluding eggs) to over 130 countries. China has emerged as the second largest destination for U.S. poultry exports, increasing from $10 million in 2019 to a record $1.1 billion in 2022, according to Southern Ag Today.
Chicken paws, for instance, are eaten in many Asian countries, including the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Korea.They can also be found on Chinese dim sum menus throughout the U.S. and are also popular in Jamaica, Trinidad, Russia and Ukraine in everything from soups and curries to fried snacks.
Three Georgia counties have reported H5N1 outbreaks since 2022. The most recent case was late last year. Henry, Sumter and Toombs counties each reported one case of H5N1 bird flu. Those outbreaks are resolved, poultry and state agriculture officials say.
“When HPAI cases are found in any state, that state is given a designation that could lead to foreign countries halting trade on poultry products from that state,” Georgia Department of Agriculture spokesman Matthew Agvent told State Affairs.
Not since 2016 has the United States experienced such a fast-moving case of the H5N1 avian influenza. In the last two months, the virus has spread in parts of the United States from birds to dairy cows, some milk supplies and humans. Two people — a Texas dairy worker and a prison inmate in Colorado who was killing infected birds at a poultry farm — are reported to have caught the virus, according to news reports. The outbreak is the largest in recent history, impacting both domestic poultry and livestock as well as wild birds and some mammal species.
State officials are continuing to monitor the national outbreak and its impact on Georgia.
Georgia’s poultry & egg industry: At A Glance
Annual economic impact: $30.2 billion
Percentage of the Agriculture industry: 58% *
Jobs: 87,900
Counties involved in poultry & egg production: 3 out of 4
National ranking in chicken broiler production: No. 1
Daily production of table eggs: 7.8 million
Daily production of hatching eggs: 6.5 million
Pounds of chicken produced daily: 30.2 million
Pounds of chicken produced annually: 8 billion
Number of chicken broilers processed each day: 5 million
Counties involved in poultry & egg production: 3 out of 4
Source: Georgia Poultry Federation; The Center for Agribusiness & Economic Development, University of Georgia, Ag Snapshots 2024; Georgia Poultry Federation.
Have questions? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
Is it safe to eat chicken and eggs and drink milk? Answers to your most pressing questions about the latest bird flu outbreak
A two-year-old strain of bird flu has heightened concerns in Georgia and the rest of the country after the virus recently spread to dairy cows. Here’s what you need to know about the virus and its impact on Georgia and the rest of the country. What are the symptoms of this flu in humans? Eye …
Kemp signs bills on education, health care, taxes
Gov. Brian Kemp signed a slew of bills over the past week or so, including the private school voucher bill long sought by Republicans and a bill that will ease regulations over the construction and expansion of medical facilities in rural areas.
His bill-signing events were clustered into themes: education, health care, military members, human trafficking and Georgia’s coastal communities.
Education
Among the education-related bills Kemp signed was Senate Bill 233, also known as the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act, which provides the families of Georgia students enrolled in underperforming school districts with $6,500 scholarships that can be used toward private school or homeschooling expenses, including tuition, fees, textbooks and tutoring.
“Georgia is affording greater choice to families as to how and where they receive their education, while also continuing our efforts to strengthen public schools, support teachers, and secure our classrooms,” Kemp said, and thanked leadership in the House and Senate for prioritizing passage of the bill, which had failed in a close vote in 2023.
Democrats and many public education advocates who opposed the bill argued it will drain resources from public schools and primarily benefit students from wealthy families.
Kemp also signed Senate Bill 351, sponsored by nine Republican senators, which will require social media companies, as of July 1, 2025, to verify their users are at least 16 years old unless they receive approval from a parent.
House Bill 409, sponsored by Rep. Lauren Daniel, R-Locust Grove, directs school systems to consider not having bus stops where a student would have to cross a roadway with a speed limit of 40 mph or greater. The bill also increases the penalty for passing a stopped school bus to $1,000 from $250.
Kemp noted that Ashley Pierce, the mother of Addy Pierce, an 8-year-old who was fatally struck by a motorist as she boarded her school bus, “passionately advocated for and was instrumental in the passage of this legislation.”
Senate Bill 395, sponsored by Sen. Clint Dixon, R-Gwinnett, states that no school visitor or personnel can be prohibited from possessing an opioid reversal drug such as Narcan and directs schools to maintain a supply. It also allows opioid antagonists to be sold in vending machines and directs certain government buildings to maintain a supply of at least three doses.
Senate Bill 464, also sponsored by Dixon, creates the School Supplies for Teachers Program to financially and technically support teachers purchasing school supplies online. It also creates an executive committee of five voting members within the Georgia Council on Literacy and limits the number of approved literacy screeners to five, one of whom must be available to schools for free.
Health care
The governor chose his hometown of Athens as the venue to sign several bills aimed at improving health care in rural and underserved communities.
Among them was House Bill 1339, sponsored by Rep. Butch Parrish, R-Swainsboro, which revises the Certificate of Need process by which the state determines if and how new medical facilities can be built or expanded. The bill provides for several new exemptions, including psychiatric or substance abuse inpatient programs, basic perinatal services in rural counties, birthing centers and new general acute hospitals in rural counties. It also raises the total limit on tax credits for donations to rural hospital organizations to $100 million from $75 million.
Senate Bill 480, sponsored by Sen. Mike Hodges, R-Brunswick, establishes student loan repayments for mental health and substance use professionals serving underserved youth in the state or in unserved geographic areas disproportionately impacted by social determinants of health.
House Bill 872, sponsored by Rep. Lee Hawkins, R-Gainesville, chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee, expands cancelable loans for certain health care professionals to dental students who agree to practice in rural areas.
Senate Bill 293, sponsored by Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, reorganizes county boards of public health and opens the qualifications for the CEO of each county board of health to include either licensed physicians or people with a master’s degree in public health or a related field.
Military members and veterans
Kemp on Wednesday focused on bills to improve military recruitment and provide more work opportunities for veterans and military family members.
House Bill 880, sponsored by Rep. Bethany Ballard, R-Warner Robins, allows spouses of military service members to work under a license they hold in good standing in another state while under the supervision of an existing Georgia medical facility or provider.
Senate Bill 449, sponsored by Sen. Larry Walker, allows military medical personnel to practice for 12 months while a license application is pending, including working as a certified nursing aide, certified emergency medical technician, paramedic or licensed practical nurse. The bill also creates a new advanced practice registered nurse license and makes it a misdemeanor to practice advanced nursing without a license.
Human trafficking
The governor on Wednesday was accompanied by first lady Marty Kemp and other members of the GRACE Commission for the signing of an anti-human trafficking package. It includes Senate Bill 370, which adds certain businesses to the list of organizations that must post human trafficking notices, including convenience stores, body art studios, businesses that employ licensed massage therapists and manufacturing facilities.
Sponsored by Sen. Mike Hodges, R-Brunswick, the bill also allows the Georgia Board of Massage Therapy to initiate inspections of massage therapy businesses and educational programs without notice and requires massage therapy board members to complete yearly human trafficking awareness training.
House Bill 993, sponsored by Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, creates the felony offense of grooming of a minor and creates new penalties for offenses relating to visual mediums depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
House Bill 1201, sponsored by Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, allows human trafficking survivors who received first offender or conditional discharge status to vacate that status for certain crimes, as long as the crime was a direct result of being a victim of human trafficking.
Coastal communities
Earlier today in Brunswick, Kemp signed legislation impacting Georgia coastal communities, including House Bill 244, which amends the laws around how wild game can be hunted and how seafood dealers operate, and House Bill 1341, which designates white shrimp as the state’s official crustacean.
Taxes
Earlier this month Kemp signed several bills related to taxation, including House Bill 1015, sponsored by Rep. Lauren McDonald, R-Cumming, which lowers the state income tax for tax year 2024 to 5.39%, accelerating a multiyear drop in state income taxes that started at 5.75% in 2023 and will continue through 2029.
The Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget estimates the tax cut acceleration will save Georgia taxpayers approximately $1.1 billion in calendar year 2024 and about $3 billion over the next 10 years.
Kemp also signed House Bill 1021, sponsored by Rep. Lauren Daniel, R-Locust Grove, which increases the state’s income tax dependent exemption to $4,000 from $3,000.
House Bill 581, sponsored by Reps. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, and Clint Crowe, R-Jackson, enables a constitutional amendment (House Resolution 1022) to let voters decide whether counties can provide a statewide homestead valuation freeze, which limits the increase in property values to the inflation rate.
The governor has until May 7 to sign or veto bills passed during the legislative session that ended on March 28. Those he takes no action on will automatically become law.
Legislation signed by Kemp is posted on the governor’s website.
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Have questions, comments or tips on education in Georgia? Contact Jill Jordan Sieder on X @journalistajill or at [email protected].
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