Original source: Georgia Legislative Report - MCO Group

Special Update: AFY 2025 Budget Signed by Gov. Kemp

Governor Kemp yesterday signed the Amended Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 into law, which includes:

Hurricane Helene Relief: More than $867 million for response costs and relief, including but not limited to, one-time grants to public rural and critical access hospitals included in the major disaster declaration area to assist in financial stabilization and recovery efforts, disaster relief assistance to impacted farmers and timber producers, and grants to non-profits for Hurricane Helene rebuilding and recovery efforts.  This includes $5 million in funds to GEMA for 911 Next Gen infrastructure upgrades.

• Education and Workforce Development: $140 million in additional allocations to fully fund QBE and support our local school systems to help us build an unrivaled workforce as we work to make Georgia the Top State for Talent.
• Public Safety and Corrections: More than $434 million in new funding for the Department of Corrections to fortify state facilities, invest in Corrections Officers, and equip them with the tools they need to be effective and efficient.
• Fighting Human Trafficking: $3.5 million to design a recovery center for victims of human trafficking - an effort championed by First Lady Marty Kemp - and over $187,000 to expand the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit to the Macon and Augusta regions.
• School Security: An additional $50 million in one-time funds for another round of security grants to all K-12 public schools.
• Coastal Water Infrastructure: $501.7 million in funding for the development and construction of water infrastructure in Georgia’s coastal region to meet the growing demand due to historic economic development.
• Local Water and Sewer Infrastructure: Over $266 million in funding for the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority to support water and sewer infrastructure development projects across Georgia.
• Local Road Infrastructure: $265 million into the local maintenance and improvement grant program and $46 million to the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank’s grant and loan program.
• Combating Wildfires: $4.7 million for the Forestry Commission to purchase a new fire suppression helicopter.

Schedule: Legislature Completes Day 28, Crossover Day

The General Assembly convened for three days this week, completing day twenty-eight of their forty-day session, also known as crossover day, the day a bill must pass out of its chamber of origin. The legislature will reconvene Monday, March 3rd, for legislative day twenty-nine. They will work Tuesday, recess Wednesday for a committee workday, and reconvene on Thursday, March 13th, to finish the week with day 31.

Committees will begin working on legislation that has crossed over from the other Chamber, although both Chambers will continue accept new bills into the Hopper as this is the first session of the Biennium.

As a reminder, the adjournment resolution (SR 6) and House and Senate committee schedules are linked below.

Legislative tracking reporting through Legistracker is up to date. Please let us know if you have questions or trouble accessing your account.

Two Tax Relief Bills Clear House

The House passed two tax relief bills Thursday, one unanimously and another that proved controversial. HB 112, which cleared the chamber 175-0, provides $1 billion in one-time income tax rebates to Georgia taxpayers. Single filers would get a rebate of $250, while heads of households would receive $375 and married couples filing jointly would get $500.  

HB 111, on the other hand, drew substantial opposition from Democrats before passing 110-60. The legislation calls for reducing Georgia's income tax rate from 5.39% to 5.19% retroactive to the beginning of the current tax year.

Three Safety Bills Pass Senate

The Senate passed three legislative measures to address school safety enhancements in the wake of the school shooting in September that left two teachers at two students dead at Apalachee High School. Lt. Governor Burt Jones’ school safety priorities include the appropriation of $50 million in the Amended Fiscal Year 2025 Budget for one-time additions to school safety grants and three Senate Bills:

• SB 17 - "Ricky and Alyssa's Law" requires all Georgia schools to install mobile panic alarm systems directly linked to emergency responders and state and local law enforcement.
• SB 61 - Strengthens Georgia’s law so that attempted homicides and terroristic acts directed toward schools will be offenses for which juveniles will be tried as adults.
• SB 179 – Requires a transferring student’s academic and disciplinary records to be transferred to the new school administration within 10 days and requires the parent or guardian to be notified of the transfer within five days.

The House overwhelmingly passed HB 268 aimed at preventing school shootings through better information sharing and alertness to possible threats by students:

HB 268 enacts several policies, including creating a database to "collect and integrate data to evaluate the behavior of students who may pose a threat to the school, school staff, or students" shared between school officials, law enforcement, and mental health officials. It also requires schools to develop active shooter plans and creates a system allowing anonymous reports of threats to be shared with officials.

Charter School Bill Clears Senate

SB 82, the "Local Charter School Authorization and Support Act of 2025" authored by Senator Clint Dixon (R-Gwinnett) passed the Senate on crossover day by a vote 44-9. The legislation

Establishes a program under the State Charter Schools Commission to promote the approval of new local charter school petitions by local boards of education.

Provides financial incentives in the form of grants to local boards that approve new charter school petitions.

Mandates local boards provide detailed written statements when denying charter petitions and introduces accountability measures for local boards that repeatedly deny petitions later approved at the state level, potentially affecting their eligibility for charter system status renewal.

Medical Cannibas/Hemp Bills Pass Senate

Three bills changing the way Georgia regulates hemp and medical cannabis cleared the Senate ahead of Thursday’s Crossover Day deadline. The votes on the bills are some of the only ones this session that didn’t fall cleanly along party lines, with Senate Republicans divided over expanding medical access to cannabis and members of both parties split over new regulations on recreational hemp products.

Medical Cannabis:

SB 220, the “Putting Georgia’s Patients First Act,” passed in a contentious 39-17 vote after more than an hour of debate in the Senate. The bill

• Replaces the term “low-THC oil” with “medical cannabis,” in Georgia code.
• Removes requirements that certain medical diagnoses like cancer or Parkinson’s disease be “severe or end stage,” and adds Lupus to the list of qualifying health conditions.
• Removes an existing prohibition against vaping cannabis oil and raises the percentage of THC that medical cannabis products may contain from 5% to 50%.

The bill was amended on the floor to include a provision allowing caregivers to pick up medical cannabis from pharmacies. Three other amendments aimed at reducing the amount of THC allowed in medical cannabis, removing the provision that allows for vaping, and removing PTSD and intractable pain from the list of approved diagnoses failed during a series of floor votes.

Hemp:

SB 33 and SB 254 passed the Senate in decisive votes on Crossover Day.

• SB 33, sponsored by Marietta Republican Kay Kirkpatrick, subjects chemical compounds like delta-8 THC, delta-10 THC, hexahydrocannabinol (HHC) and other cannabinoids to testing and labeling regulations that were added last year under Senate Bill 494. It passed in a 50-6 vote.
• SB 254, sponsored by Athens Republican Bill Cowsert, imposes new limits on THC-infused products after the Georgia Department of Agriculture raised the maximum amount of THC that can be included in a single beverage from 5 mg to 10 mg. A surprise Senate floor amendment offered by Randy Robertson, Majority Whip, that bans all drinks with THC barely passed 29-27. A maneuver to reconsider the motion failed, and then the Senate passed the amended bill with a large bipartisan majority.

Vape:

HB 577, the "Georgia Nicotine Vapor Products Directory Act," aimed at regulating nicotine vapor products sold in Georgia, passed the House just prior to adjournment on Thursday. The bill

• Requires the creation of a directory listing authorized products and prohibits selling any vapor products not listed.
• Mandates compliance checks for retailers, outlines penalties for violations, and provides for the seizure of unauthorized products.
• Stipulates that manufacturers must certify their products annually and report compliance to the state.

The act will take effect upon specific funding appropriations and aims to improve public health and safety around nicotine vapor products

Technology: AI & Data Privacy Bills Pass Senate

The Senate this week adopted measures regulating artificial intelligence and data privacy.  

• SB 9 rewrites the laws on obscene material, particularly focusing on computer-generated images of children, establishing stricter penalties, including imprisonment of 1 to 15 years for offenders.
• SB 111 enhances consumer privacy by regulating how personal data is handled by businesses. It establishes clear definitions, consumer rights regarding data, and obligations for controllers (those processing data) and processors. Consumers can request details about their information, corrections, deletions, and can opt out of data selling. The bill includes protections for sensitive data, stipulates how businesses must handle requests, and imposes penalties for non-compliance. It also preempts local governments from imposing stricter privacy laws.

Bills introduced seeking to sunset the data center tax incentive and to codify the PSC's rate making process for data centers were not considered by the full Senate.