Stay ahead of the curve as a political insider with deep policy analysis, daily briefings and policy-shaping tools.
Request a Demo
Top 6 issues and government actions that most impacted Georgians in 2022
Speaker-David-Ralston-and-members-of-the-Georgia-General-Assembly-at-the-bill-signing-for-HB-1013-on-April-4-2022
What a year.
We were blindsided by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn abortion rights, we’re still getting over an exhaustive round of midterm elections, and we’re grappling with yet more hospital closings. Crime has spiked in some communities, and who knows who’s packing a handgun these days? It’s enough to send some folks to a therapist, if one can be found (fortunately, there’s a legislative remedy for that).
Here’s a look at the issues that most impacted the lives of Georgians statewide this year:
1. Abortion ban
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark legislation that protected people’s rights to abortions for nearly half a century. The controversial ruling has triggered intense legal battles in Georgia over the state’s “Heartbeat Bill,” which bans doctors from performing abortions on patients once a heartbeat is detected usually about six weeks pregnant, with exceptions for rape, incest, or inviability of the fetus.
Passed in April 2019, the law was ruled unconstitutional in July 2020 until that decision was reversed on July 20 of this year. The law has since see-sawed back and forth in court. The abortion ban was in place until this past Nov. 14 when a Fulton County Superior Court judge lifted it; a week later, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the ban until it makes a final decision.
During the week the ban was lifted, Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta “saw an average of 30 to 35 patients each of those days,” Kwajelyn Jackson, the center’s executive director, told State Affairs. “That's about double what we’ve been seeing under the six-week ban.” Feminist Women is one of the plaintiffs in the legal fight against the state heartbeat bill.
For years the anti-abortion movement has worked relentlessly to get Roe v. Wade overturned, so the Supreme Court decision was, by all accounts, a moment of victory and, many said, an opportunity to step up and help those women making the difficult decision to have an unwanted child.
“We realize that more services are going to have to be provided. … If you're going to be pro-life, you have to be pro-life about everything,” said Martha Zoller, a Georgia Life Alliance board member who welcomed the SCOTUS decision because it puts the issue squarely in the hands of states.
“ We want the states to be the ones to make the decision so that it's more reflective of the values of the state. Do you want nine Supreme Court justices or do you want state legislators making those decisions? Who’s closer to the people?” she said.
In the meantime, Georgia’s law is impacting thousands who are forced to travel out of state to get abortions, Jackson said, adding, “For people who don't think this is an issue that affects them, it may just not have affected them yet. There certainly may be people in their lives who they love and care for, for whom this is a very serious concern. A lot of times, we don't think about our reproductive and bodily autonomy until we're in a crisis situation.
Read what other Georgians had to say about the abortion ban here and here.
2. Costly elections
Perhaps the two most-watched races in America during the 2022 midterm election occurred in Georgia. If they weren’t, they certainly were among the most expensive and exhaustive.
Gov. Brian Kemp and his challenger Stacey Abrams, the darling of the Democratic Party, raised more than $250 million combined in their rematch and collectively achieved a record-setting turnout for a midterm election among Georgia voters. Abrams’s second failed attempt to become Georgia’s governor has left her $1 million in debt, according to media reports.
The governor’s race doesn’t begin to compare to the caustic U.S. Senate race between incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker. Their battle cost more than $400 million combined — the most expensive race in the nation during the 2022 midterm elections, according to OpenSecrets.org. That data was through November and does not include what was spent during the Warnock/Walker runoff race.
The mind-numbing spending has some — including Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — calling for reforms, most notably an end to general election runoffs. Georgia and Louisiana are the only two states to hold runoffs in a general election if no candidate gets 50% of the vote. The system is a holdover from Jim Crow laws that sought to curtail the political power of Black voters.
The runoff is estimated to have cost taxpayers over $10 million in metro Atlanta alone and millions more around the state, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.
Since the start of 2020, $1.4 billion has been spent on just four races in Georgia: Two election bids each for the U.S. Senate and the governor’s mansion, according to a New York Times analysis.
3. Guns, gangs and crime
While violent crime, property crime, and crime overall are down statewide, continuing a 10-year trend, gang violence, illegal drug trade and juvenile crime continued to spike in some urban and rural areas.
The impact of crime was felt nowhere more than in Atlanta, where 162 homicides reported as of mid-December have made it the most murderous year since 1996. Two of the most horrific cases included two boys, ages 12 and 15, gunned down by three teens on the 17th Street bridge in Midtown, and the stabbing death of a 77-year-old woman by a young man apparently intent on stealing her car in an affluent northwest Atlanta neighborhood.
Overall, the 29-county metro Atlanta area is the site of about 60% of all major crimes in the state. Violent crime in Savannah so far this year is up 11% over 2021, including more rapes, street robberies and aggravated assaults with guns.
Gang activity is fueling the drug trade, human trafficking and violent crime in many cities and rural areas across the state, according to Attorney General Chris Carr.
This year the state expanded its Gang Task Force led by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to several counties in middle Georgia and gave additional powers to the attorney general to investigate and prosecute gang-related crime.
In August, one of the state’s most notable crimes that drew national attention was resolved with the sentencing of the three men who murdered 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery near Brunswick.
Then, in November, just days before the midterm election, Carr announced the indictment of 17 alleged members of the 183 Gangster Bloods, whose alleged crimes include racketeering, murder, fentanyl trafficking and a variety of weapons-related offenses.
The issue of crime and guns also served as political ammunition throughout the year, as Republican Gov. Brian Kemp touted his support for the “constitutional carry” law signed in April, which allows Georgians to carry a concealed handgun without a permit. Abrams, meanwhile, cited the law for an uptick in violent crime and pledged to push for red flag laws for gun owners.
4. Hospital closings and renewed debate over Medicaid
The closing of the Atlanta Medical Center (AMC) in November created a crisis of care still reverberating throughout the indigent communities that have depended on the hospital for more than 100 years, as well as for much of the medical community in Georgia. It was also a sign of the times for the state’s ailing health care sector, where at least 10 hospitals have closed over the last decade.
The loss of AMC, a 460-bed nonprofit hospital run by Marietta-based Wellstar Health Systems, as well as related doctors’ offices and medical services located on its two-square-block campus, left Atlanta with only one Level 1 trauma center in the city, and tens of thousands of poor and working class people with nowhere to go for primary and specialty care.
Over the past 10 years, at least eight rural hospitals in Georgia have closed. However, this week, Wellstar announced its intent to partner with Augusta University Health System to create an expanded teaching hospital at Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.
The recent hospital closures are reigniting debate over whether the governor should expand Medicaid, which would allow Georgia to access billions in federal funds to help support struggling hospitals, and also to extend Medicaid coverage to an estimated 500,000 Georgians who lack affordable medical coverage. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that hospital officials across the state say that inaction on Medicaid expansion has “hurt their bottom lines because they still treat high numbers of uninsured patients, many of whom cannot pay for treatment.”
While Kemp earlier this year signed a bill approving a one-year-only extension of Medicaid coverage for maternity care for an estimated 60,000 women, and is planning to launch a limited Medicaid expansion next year that will include a controversial work requirement for recipients, Georgia remains one of just 12 states that hasn’t fully expanded Medicaid.
5. Mental health parity
The General Assembly voted unanimously to pass the Mental Health Parity Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that obligates the state to enforce rules that insurers cover mental health issues the same as they do physical illnesses.
The law will help more Georgians access affordable mental health and substance abuse treatment. Insurance companies can no longer arbitrarily decide how many visits to a therapist or psychiatrist a patient suffering from anxiety or addiction may have; such decisions will now be driven by mental health professionals who will abide by existing standards of care and what they deem is “medically necessary” for their patients.
Over time, the law is expected to address chronic and critical shortages in the mental health workforce. It ensures equity in reimbursement of fees to mental health providers, and also provides service-cancelable loans to residents who are enrolled in education and training programs to become mental health and substance abuse professionals.
Among many highlights in the monumental act: It relaxes Georgia’s standard for involuntary commitment by allowing law enforcement officers to evaluate and transport people having a mental health crisis to the ER (instead of taking them to jail, or doing nothing). It also provides funding to better train police and peace officers in how to intervene in a mental health crisis.
6. Tax breaks galore
With inflation running high, fears about the economy, and a looming recession among the top concerns for Georgians, tax relief was the remedy chosen by the governor.
Kemp gave Georgians billions in tax breaks and handouts using federal and state money.
The governor first issued $1.1 billion of state income tax refunds in the form of checks ranging from $250 to $500 sent to most Georgians. He also gave $350 cash cards to Georgians on public assistance, although there was lots of criticism early on about being able to use the cards, but that has since been resolved.
Throughout the year, Kemp issued executive orders to suspend the state fuel tax. The fuel tax holiday, which took effect in March and runs through Jan. 10, has cost the state approximately $1 billion in revenue. The average Georgian saved $12 to $15 a month on gas, while some diesel consumers saved hundreds of dollars each month.
Last spring, the Legislature also enacted a historic income tax cut proposed by the governor to move Georgia from a progressive income tax with a top rate of 5.75% to a flat 4.99% income tax, to be phased in by 2029.
And he’s not done doling out cash just yet. In a speech in Athens to lawmakers early this month, Kemp pledged another $2 billion in income and property tax breaks for 2023.
What did you think were the top political stories of 2022 in Georgia? Contact Tammy Joyner on Twitter @LVJOYNER or at [email protected], and Jill Jordan Sieder on Twitter @JOURNALISTAJILL or at [email protected].
Twitter @STATEAFFAIRSGA
Facebook @STATEAFFAIRSUS
LinkedIn @STATEAFFAIRS
Header image: Speaker David Ralston and members of the Georgia General Assembly at the bill signing for HB 1013 on April 4, 2022. (Credit: Georgia House of Representatives)
Read this story for free.
Create AccountRead this story for free
Create your free account or login to continue reading.
By submitting your information, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy.
Latest Stories
State troopers are stretched to fight drugs and curb highway deaths
ATLANTA — When Cpl. Anthony Munoz straps on his bullet-proof vest each day and pulls out of the Department of Public Safety headquarters in Atlanta, Munoz never knows how his shift will unfold. What is for certain is that the traffic — of cars, criminals and contraband — is constant.
And what is also true is that there are not nearly enough state troopers on the road to catch them all.
A 13-year veteran, trooper Munoz, 45, is part of the department’s Criminal Interdiction Unit, whose main focus is suppressing the robust illegal drug trade flowing through Georgia. Last year the eight-member team made 1,309 arrests, including 76 felony drug arrests, and helped other agencies seize $24 million worth of contraband.
In 2019, the unit had 25 members.
Capt. Greg Shackleford, the troop commander, said that in 2020 the unit was split up and half the team was sent to Georgia State Patrol posts around the state, which were hurting for staff, to conduct the Department of Public Safety’s core functions — traffic enforcement and responding to car crashes.
The split has translated into Munoz and the rest of his team now spending most of their time monitoring Interstate 20 just south of Atlanta, and Interstate 75/85 west of the city. He said they regularly support the investigations and busts of other local and federal agencies, and frequently join the governor’s crime suppression details, which have included taking down car thieves and street racers.
All this leaves his team with less time to develop intelligence on their own drug cases and to snare more traffickers. It also means the troopers no longer have time to monitor roads in rural areas in south Georgia where, Shackleford said, many drug traffickers driving trailers full of drugs and contraband enter the state on highways coming from Florida and Texas and now ride around unchecked for hundreds of miles.
Chronically understaffed
The Georgia State Patrol remains chronically understaffed. While the state’s population has grown, and with it the number of motorists, car crashes and criminal activity, the number of state troopers has hovered stubbornly between about 750 and 850 for over a decade, giving Georgia the unwanted distinction of having lowest number of troopers per capita in the country.
The average number of state troopers per capita in the U.S. is 21; for Georgia, it’s eight. And the outlook for changing that is not great, Col. William “Billy” Hitchens, the public safety commissioner, told legislators during hearings last fall — Unless the state makes bold moves in improving compensation. He said Georgia State Patrol has “aimed to reach 1,000 troopers for as long as I have been employed,” which is 30 years.
The state saw its trooper numbers plummet to 745 during the pandemic in 2021. The agency is now back to 845 troopers. The current trooper school started with 61 candidates, and if recent history is a guide, about 70% will graduate in September and put on the badge.
While “things are moving in the right direction” this year in terms of recruitment, said Hitchens, he said too many veteran officers are either resigning or retiring early.
Between 2018 and 2023, 48 troopers left the agency on a full-service retirement, meaning they had served for 30 years. During the same period, 341 troopers resigned, retired early or departed for other reasons. As it costs the department $153,397 to train a trooper, those who left early cost the state $52 million, said Lt. Col. Josh Lamb, director of administrative services for the Department of Public Safety.
Fewer troopers means more highway deaths
Fewer troopers on the state’s roads impact everyone, say law enforcement officials. .
“As our trooper strength decreases, traffic fatalities increase,” said Hitchens.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data shows a direct inverse relationship between trooper staffing and the number of fatalities in Georgia. At its low ebb in 2021, with 769 troopers, 1,925 people died on Georgia roads. More recently, in 2023, with 820 troopers, Georgia saw 1,647 fatalities, an 8% decrease over 2022.
“We are concerned with traffic patterns, the way people drive, and we enforce the law out there,” Hitchens told State Affairs. “When you start losing personnel, whether it’s the state, or cities and counties, one of the first things that may be taken away is traffic enforcement. Because they’re responding to other calls — robberies, domestics, you name it. And when troopers stop doing it, there are just fewer people out there reminding you, ‘Hey, that’s dangerous. Slow down.’ ”
The state patrol wrote 408,574 citations to motorists last year, but issued even more warnings — 510,265. Hitchens noted that mere trooper presence on the highway is a strong deterrent.
“It doesn’t have to be you that gets stopped,” he said. “Those 50 cars that ride by during that time and see that patrol car, go ‘Ooh, I don’t have my seatbelt on … I’m playing with my phone,’ and it just impacts that behavior. But the less officers you see on the road, the less you have people changing their driving behavior.”
Along with encouraging safer driving, DUI enforcement has become a higher priority for the department. A “Nighthawks” squad of 22 officers patrols after midnight in areas of the state where data analysis shows high incidences of alcohol and drug-induced crashes and violations. The state patrol made 16,409 arrests for driving under the influence in 2023.
Hitchens said the work of such special units is compromised when they’re pulled into other duties due to statewide manpower shortages. The three Nighthawks units, for example, are often pulled into other traffic stops and crime suppression details in Atlanta, Macon and Columbus. And drug interdiction officers have had to cover vehicle crashes and multiple public protests over the Atlanta Public Training Center (dubbed “Cop City”) and, more recently, conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza.
Besides securing troopers, Hitchens said the department is struggling to recruit dispatchers, who are the lifeline for troopers and officers who patrol alone and depend on dispatchers to provide critical information quickly. Today, the department has 129 dispatchers who work at nine regional call centers. They need 169 to be fully staffed.
A tough sell in the ‘Cop City’ era
Hitchens told lawmakers that heightened public criticism of law enforcement over the past few years has played a role in the department’s ongoing challenges to recruit and retain officers.
“People without understanding of what it’s like to be involved in a rapidly evolving life and death situation started scrutinizing officers, cities started defunding their police departments while demanding greater accountability and more training, both of which cost money,” he said. “Following the George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks and Breonna Taylor instances, the media and some leaders in our community nationwide began to demonize the police.”
Hitchens said that since the death of Manuel Teran, a protester against the planned Atlanta Police Training Center who was allegedly shot by a Georgia trooper during a firefight on the forested property in 2023, and the sometimes violent public demonstrations that ensued, “that dynamic just got worse. For a long time with ‘Cop City,’ it was constant protest, and you know, that weighs on you.”
Munoz, who was patrolling with other local law enforcement on the perimeter of the training center site the day Teran died, said the public’s jaundiced view of that episode and other recent struggles between police and citizens that have gone viral on social media can be frustrating.
“I know that a lot of the narrative out there is not true at all,” he said. “There are millions and millions of police encounters every day. And those [violent] ones are fractions of a percent of incidents, and whether a trooper or officer responds the right way, it all boils down to compliance. If you just comply, you’re presumed innocent, you’ll have your chance to make your case, and the facts will come out. Don’t argue, don’t fight, don’t resist. We don’t want to fight you.”
Noting that he has a wife and four children he wants to come home to, Munoz said, “We’ve been pounded with de-escalation in training, and that’s what we practice. I’m sure there are officers out there now that freeze and that say, ‘Do I do my job? Or am I going to be put in prison, because I reacted in a certain way?’ So we do carry that, and it’s a heavy, heavy burden.”
Last year three House Democrats introduced House Bill 107, the Police Accountability Act, which proposes an end to qualified immunity for law enforcement officers and would have required body-worn cameras for all peace officers. The bill did not advance out of committee, but Hitchens said taken together with the public unrest and anti-police sentiment since 2020, it all had a demoralizing effect on his officers.
“All of these factors are forcing officers to become fatigued with our profession,” he said. “They feel that support is ending and the job is not worth the risk.”
According to the Georgia Peace Officers Training and Standards (POST) Council, the number of officers with basic council certifications in Georgia dropped to 5,956 in 2023 from 6,666 in 2017.
“I don’t think there’s a single law enforcement agency in Georgia that is fully staffed,” said Chris Harvey, deputy executive director of Georgia POST. “And they have a very hard time getting qualified people on board. … There just aren’t enough quality people that are interested in doing this job.”
While some agencies have raised salaries and added signing bonuses, he said, “I can tell you that it’s not a solved problem. Because I don’t think it’s primarily a money issue. I think it has a lot to do with the difficulty of doing this job these days. I’m not sure it’s ever been harder to work in law enforcement. The amount of scrutiny along with the amount of violence that police officers encounter on a regular basis, they generally feel like they’re out there alone. If they make one mistake, they’re gonna pay dearly for it. … It’s a tough sell.”
Father and son patrol leaders fight for trooper compensation
For Hitchens, his push to recruit potential state troopers and convince state leaders to increase pay and benefits for troopers is supported by an unlikely suspect — his dad.
House Appropriations public safety subcommittee chair Rep. Bill Hitchens, R- Rincon is a former trooper who served in the Georgia State Patrol for 28 years, and was later appointed by former Gov. Sonny Perdue to serve as public safety commissioner from 2004 to 2011. The elder Hitchens has served in the House since 2013.
At the House Working Group on Public Safety meeting last fall, Rep. Hitchens noted that the state patrol has maintained around 700 troopers since he joined in 1969, when the state population was about 4 million. “Now it’s 11 million people … and we have a lot more murders, stolen cars and merchandise,” the elder Hitchens said. “Where we fell down, I don’t know. It’s just we’ve never grown. … And now we’re at a breaking point.”
The younger Hitchens was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp as deputy commissioner for public safety in 2020, and then as commissioner in 2023. As commissioner he oversees the Georgia State Patrol, the Motor Carrier Compliance Division, the Capitol Police Division, and other special law enforcement units, including the crime suppression, SWAT and canine teams.
The son and father team have successfully fought for substantial pay raises for troopers, whose salaries have increased over the past three legislative cycles by nearly $17,000. That includes a 4% cost of living increase and a $3,000 bonus for law enforcement officers approved by the General Assembly in the fiscal year 2025 budget. The starting salary for a new trooper will be $63,684 as of July 1, if the governor approves it in the budget, as expected.
Dispatchers will also get a boost in next year’s budget, with new pay step increases that can take them from a starting salary of $39,000 to up to $56,000 as they earn promotions.
Col. Hitchens said those pay bumps seem to be turning the tide on recruitment. The number of applicants and graduates rose for the last few trooper schools held over the past year. Other changes the department made to trooper school requirements have also helped, including allowing people to go home more often during training, permitting access to mobile phones at night, and allowing people with arm tattoos to train and serve, if they cover them with long sleeves.
“We tried to make changes in training that we felt like really didn’t help people stay,” said Hitchens. “And we didn’t make it kinder or gentler. I mean, in this job that you sign up for, there’s got to be a certain level of discipline, there’s got to be a certain level of respect, with high physical training standards, that’s still there. But the things that we could change, we decided to do.”
Both men remain concerned about how to stem the trend of early retirement, and agree that sweetening the retirement package is the key way to combat it.
Currently most troopers qualify for a pension equal to 1% of their final pay for every year of service, and can also participate in a 401(K) savings plan while they serve, which the state matches up to 9%, depending on their number of years on the force. But Col. Hitchens is pushing for a more generous “defined benefit” retirement plan, with a 3% pension, which he said would double what most troopers get when they retire. Instead of earning about $25,000 a year on average, they would receive about $52,000.
Presently, the average tenure of a state trooper is 10 years, nowhere close to the 30-year careers Hitchens and other leaders want his officers to pursue.
And he knows it matters to them, as retirement benefits emerged as the number one retention issue on a recent agency-wide, anonymous survey.
“Every other agency is increasing their hiring packages, raising pay and offering better benefits, from retirement to free health care,” Hitchens said, noting that the Atlanta and Sandy Springs police departments offer substantially higher pay and 3% defined benefit plans.
“We’re in a competitive bidding process, and we have to offer a reward that’s worth the risk our people are taking with their lives and liberty.”
The tenure of senior officers also matters because of the crucial role they play in mentoring new recruits.
“When we have our young troopers, the men and women that come into the field, they’re excited,” said Shackleford, the troop commander, who spent much of his 36-year public safety career in SWAT before taking over Troop K, which includes the crime suppression, criminal interdiction, K-9, SWAT and dive units. “They see the fast cars, they want to get into something. And the problem is, it’s just like a puppy. A puppy’s gonna get into something and make a mess. So we need the older ones to kind of calm them down and guide them a bit, show them how to see and assess a situation.”
Such role modeling of behavior, said Hitchens, “is very important, especially with de-escalation. A senior officer, having dealt with so much of that, has that confidence and the competence to carry out [their] job in a way that I think a lot of younger, less experienced officers don’t have yet. And that’s how you learn and morph over a career,” said Hitchens, adding that that transfer of knowledge and practice from veterans to recruits “benefits the public as well.”
Rep. Hitchens co-sponsored two bills related to bolstering retirement plans for law enforcement that passed out of the retirement committee during the last session. One passed in the House, but did not get a vote in the Senate. Other lawmakers balked at the cost.
Read these related stories:
Have questions or comments? Contact Jill Jordan Sieder on X @journalistajill or at [email protected]
And subscribe to State Affairs so you do not miss an update.
X @StateAffairsGA
Instagram @StateAffairsGA
Facebook @StateAffairsGA
LinkedIn @StateAffairs
In hot water with your HOA? A new law buys you time to fix the problem
The Gist
Georgia homeowners living in communities governed by homeowners’ associations now get time to fix a covenant violation before the HOA can take legal action, thanks to legislation signed into law Monday.
Gov. Brian Kemp signed House Bill 220 at the Capitol, continuing his flurry of bill-signings across the state. To date, Kemp has signed about three dozen bills since sine die, which marked the end of the 2024 legislative session, his spokesman Garrison Douglas told State Affairs. Sine die ended in the early hours of March 29. The governor has until May 7 to sign, veto or take no action on a bill. If he takes no action, the bill automatically becomes law.
What’s Happening
HB 220 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 going to court or taking some other legal action.
Rep. Rob Leverett, R-Elberton, sponsored the bill which included parts of an HOA bill promoted by Sen. Donzella James, D-Atlanta. James had been trying for two years to get some HOA-related legislation passed.
While the HOA portion of HB 220 does not go as far as James’ proposed single legislation, it’s a start, she and others say.
Why It Matters
An overwhelming majority of new subdivisions being built in Georgia now will have HOAs, experts told State Affairs. In fact, new homes that are part of a homeowner association are growing fastest in the southern and western part of the United States. An estimated 2.2 million, roughly 22%, Georgia residents live in a building or home overseen by anHOA or some other type of community association, according to the Community Association Institute.
Lawmakers such as James have heard complaints in which HOAs have terrorized homeowners and threatened to take their property, all while homeowners have had little to no legal options. In some cases, homeowners have lost their homes after falling behind on HOAs fees, even if they never missed a mortgage payment.
What’s Next?
While HB 220 is now law, Senate Resolution 37 has yet to be appointed. The resolution, sponsored by James, creates the Senate Property Owners’ Associations, Homeowners’ Associations, and Condominium Associations Study Committee. Committee members will be appointed by the President of the Senate, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones.
Lawmakers appointed to the committee will delve further into HOA issues before presenting recommendations to the Legislature when it convenes in January.
See related stories:
Have questions? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
And subscribe to State Affairs so you do not miss any election news you need to know.
X @StateAffairsGA
Facebook @StateAffairsGA
Instagram @StateAffairsGA
LinkedIn @StateAffairs
All you need to know heading into the May 21 primary
Gist
Georgia’s primary is less than a month away and there’s a lot to unpack.
The May 21 primary will be the first time some Georgians will be voting in new districts for state and congressional candidates. They’ll also be voting in local races for sheriff, judges, school board or county commission members. Primary winners who have challengers will go on to compete in the Nov. 5 general election. Georgia is an open primary state, meaning voters can choose the party ballot they wish to vote for.
This year, Georgians who want to vote absentee in the primary could face possible challenges due to mail delivery delays.
What’s Happening
North Georgia and metro Atlanta are seeing significant mail delivery delays. The holdup, according to media reports, appears to be at the United States Postal Services’ new Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Palmetto. The problem has led to dangerous situations in which people are not getting critical medication.
Georgia’s U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff recently grilled USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on the delays. Ossoff told DeJoy during an April 16 hearing that on-time delivery rates were abysmal. He said 66% of outbound first-class mail had been delivered on time while 36% of inbound mail had been delivered on time in the last three months.
DeJoy blamed the problem on the difficulty in condensing operations at the facility.
With the approaching primary, state lawmakers are concerned the ongoing mail delays could disrupt the election process.
Mike Hassinger, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office, told State Affairs that Georgia voters are ready.
“Georgia voters are already registered,” he said. “They know how they like to vote. More than half of them vote early. About 5% vote absentee by mail, just in general, and then the rest are voting on election day. So we’ve been able to set up systems that are familiar with Georgia voters so that the percentage who might be worried about their absentee by mail ballots are relatively small.”
Why It Matters
Georgia emerged as one of the country’s most important political battleground states during the 2020 election. The Peach State will once again play a key role in deciding who wins the 2024 presidential election in November.
In the May 21 primary, Georgia voters will whittle down their choices for who they send to Congress and to the state capitol next year.
Under a federal court-approved redistricting process last year, Georgia now has new congressional and state district electoral maps. Those maps created one majority Black seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, five new majority-Black districts in the state House and two in the state Senate.
The redistricting resulted in new seats, intriguing matchups and former politicians returning to the fray. You can see the newly drawn maps here.
What’s Next?
Here’s what you need to know to ensure a smooth voting process:
To vote early.
Early voting is April 29 to May 17. Find your polling place here.
To vote absentee.
Here’s what you can do to avoid problems if you vote absentee:
- Get your absentee ballot application done early. You can request an absentee ballot here.
- Track your application through Georgia BallotTrax. You must have a valid absentee request on file with your county board of elections in order to see your absentee ballot status in Georgia BallottTrax.
- If you’ve been having mail delays, place your completed absentee ballot in an official drop box during advanced voting instead of using the United States Postal Service. Check your county voter registration and election office for drop box locations. And yes, your absentee ballot counts. It is counted in the final tally not just close races.
- If you change your mind about voting absentee and decide to vote in person, take your absentee ballot to your local elections office where they will void it.
- If you need to contact your county election office, find that information here.
Have questions, comments or tips? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
And subscribe to State Affairs so you do not miss any news you need to know.
X @StateAffairsGA
Instagram@StateAffairsGA
Facebook @StateAffairsGA
LinkedIn @StateAffairs
Weekend Read: Motivated by deep commitment to change, senator from Cataula promotes 369 bills
Shortly after the 2024 legislative session ended in the wee hours of March 29, state Sen. Randy Robertson began working on legislation he plans to introduce during next year’s legislative session, which starts in January 2025.
“I easily spend eight or nine months researching, working through, sitting down with attorneys making sure what I’m doing is constitutional,” the third-term Republican from Cataula told State Affairs. “[I’m] reaching out to subject matter experts to make sure that we are addressing a problem and we are addressing a problem with the right solutions and we’re not creating an additional problem.”
Raised by a single mom, the retired law enforcement officer was surprised to learn that his name was attached to 369 bills, the most introduced in the Senate during the 2024 legislative session.
Robertson said his upbringing and career in law enforcement has helped him focus on the types of bills and decisions he makes whether in the Senate chamber or on the nine committees on which he serves.
His middle name might be “over achiever.”
Robertson is vice-chair of the Senate Public Safety committee and also serves on the appropriations, children and families, ethics and government oversight committees. Last fall, Robertson took on the duties of heading the Senate’s Fulton County Jail subcommittee which is looking into problems at the Atlanta facility where 13 inmates have died in the last year.
In addition to his committee work, Robertson is the majority whip in the Senate, the fourth-highest ranking member of Senate leadership behind the president pro tem, Majority Leader and lieutenant governor.
Robertson spoke with State Affairs about the motivation behind the legislation he has sponsored. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q. You had a productive legislative session. You sponsored or co-sponsored a total of 369 bills during the session, making you the senator who introduced the most pieces of legislation in the Senate. What was your motivation?
A. There’s a big difference between sponsoring and co-sponsoring. Sponsoring is that individual bill that I sat down and have written up and walked through with the attorneys. The co-sponsorships a lot of times are issues I absolutely agree with and I’ll support a sponsor as they carry that bill forward, as far as debating the issue and voting for the issue and things like that.
Q. What legislative goals did you set for yourself for the 2024 session?
A. Well, to basically just finish the drill. In 2023, we passed the Prosecutorial Qualification Commission. And there’d been a change that the [Georgia] Supreme Court had asked us to make. We were able to do that with new legislation. Then, the completion of our bail bond reform legislation that we had done and just a few other things related to adoption and election integrity. Those were my primary drivers.
Q. So you got those things done?
A. We were able to get those done, for the most part. There was a bill on adoption that, for some reason, did not get through. So that’s something we’ll continue to work on. The bill would have allowed an adoptee the opportunity to get their original birth certificate once they turned 18. That was something we were hoping we’d be able to get done and sadly, we weren’t. But we’ll be back championing that legislation next session.
Q. What were you looking to accomplish with bail bond reform?
A. In the previous year, a lot of groups would come forth and they would say there are people in jail who could not afford to make bond. So we have now included in the law that nonprofits can actually establish bonding companies under Title 17 in Georgia. And since they have the opportunity to raise money, this would put them in a better position to help get some of these individuals out of jail that they’re concerned about being left there.
Q. So this will help make that a little bit easier?
A. It’s a matter of risk. Bonding companies would love to get everybody out but the problem with that is some individuals, even though they have bonds, they are at greater risk of flight, of not showing up in court, which would put the bonding companies in a precarious situation. So we tried to explain this to a lot of these groups [who felt people should still be able to get out on bond]. So we expanded the opportunities for other groups that wanted to be a part of the bail bonding community.
Q. What percentage of your bills were passed?
A.I don’t know. I don’t track that. Like I said, a lot of them I was just a co-sponsor on or I signed on with somebody else. I try not to get caught up in that. Some people worry about that. You just support good, quality legislation and understand that what doesn’t get through this year, if it’s something that is still an issue next year, then there’s always that opportunity to bring it back. The most important thing we have to do is get a balanced budget put out for the taxpayers and then those public safety issues, health care issues and things of that nature. Those are the most important things to get out there in session. Once those get out, everything after that a lot of times are just small pieces to correct particular issues.
Q. How has your career in law enforcement shaped your time in the Senate?
A. Well, my experience not only in law enforcement but working in the infrastructure of a local government that is subject to a lot of state laws, rules and regulations has had a huge influence on me.
In law enforcement, you’re out in the real world. And sadly, we have some legislators that really don’t understand what abject poverty is. They don’t understand what abuse is. They’ve never seen domestic violence up close. So I tell everybody, as human beings, it seems like the vast majority of us live in the zoo, where everything is controlled and we get fed, we get water we get really taken care of. But there’s a lot of people still trying to survive out in the jungle, on the Serengeti and in the forest where life is real. And, law enforcement is one of those careers that puts you out there in that environment to see what goes on.
I was primarily raised by a single mother — me and my two sisters. And so my mother worked two jobs. The things that we thought were hard growing up, now I realized were blessings. So now I am able to support a cross section of Georgians, whether they be Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. Poverty doesn’t know a political party. Crime doesn’t know a political party. So to have the experiences I’ve had, I feel it’s really benefited me in the Georgia Senate.
Q. What were you hoping to achieve for your constituents, and Georgians in general, through the types of bills that you sponsored or co-sponsored?
A. For the citizens, the one thing I really wanted to accomplish was lower taxes. With the economy the way it is and the recession moving up and down, it doesn’t seem like prices are changing at all. It seems like we’re still paying exorbitant amounts for fuel and other things. So, lowering taxes in Georgia I think was probably the biggest win.
Q. Of all the bills you introduced or co-sponsored, which were you the most proud of?
A. The Prosecutorial Qualification Commission and the bail bond reform.
Q. What was the impetus behind creating the Prosecutorial Qualification Commission?
A. We had an experience in my district with a district attorney. He came in and instead of enforcing Georgia laws and prosecuting Georgia laws, he was just going to pick and choose what he prosecuted and what he didn’t. He violated Georgia law in several ways that he chose to do that and he ended up going to prison.
The problem with that is there should have been something before that where citizens had a voice in getting that district attorney removed other than a recall, which is extremely cumbersome and very, very, very rare in Georgia.
So, just by putting this Prosecutorial Qualification Commission in place, we’re going to address those prosecutors who don’t do their job according to Georgia law. Out of the 50 to 60 prosecutors in Georgia I think we’ve had four that spoke out against it. All the rest of them realize if they’re doing their job, they never have to worry about this.
THE RANDY ROBERTSON FILES
Title: Georgia state senator representing the counties of Troup, Meriwether and Harris as well as parts of Columbus-Muskogee County.
Age: 61
Birthplace: Hamilton
Residence: Cataula
Education: Harris County school system. Columbus State University where he majored in criminal justice. The FBI National Academy and a few other specialty schools throughout his career.
Career: Served 30 years with the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, retiring in 2015 as a bureau commander at the rank of major.
Hobbies: He enjoys exercising. He also is an avid reader and collector of books. He estimates he has around 1,800 books.
Family: He and his wife Theresa have three children and five granddaughters. (He recently shaved his beard so that his five-year-old daughter would see his actual face for the first time in her life.)
What would you be doing if you weren’t in the Legislature: “I’d be doing research in public safety, and maybe writing a book or two about how we can make policing better, more professional, how we can avoid the occasional bad apples and reduce crime and uplift citizens all at the same time.”
Top 5 Bill Sponsors in the Georgia Senate
Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula: 369 bills
Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell: 365 bills
Sen. Steve Gooch, R- Dahlonega: 361 bills
Sen. John Kennedy, R-Macon: 358 bills
Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, R-Marietta: 349 bills
Source: LegisScan
Have questions, comments or tips? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
And subscribe to State Affairs so you do not miss any news you need to know.
X @StateAffairsGA
Instagram@StateAffairsGA
Facebook @StateAffairsGA
LinkedIn @StateAffairs