Original source: Georgia Legislative Report - MCO Group

01. Legislature Completes Day 34

The General Assembly convened for three days this week, completing day 34 of the 40-day session. The legislature will reconvene Tuesday, March 25th, for legislative day 35, recess Wednesday for a committee workday and reconvene Thursday and Friday, completing day 37 by the week's end. Committees are meeting as early as 6 a.m. to pass legislation as we enter the final stretch of the legislative session.

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

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02. Governor’s Tax Package Receives Final Passage

Gov. Kemp's tax package, HB 111 & HB 112, received final passage by the Senate this week, largely along party lines.

HB 111 accelerates the reduction in the state income tax rate contemplated by current law. For tax year 2025, the income tax rate will be 5.19% (rather than 5.29%, as provided in current law). The rate will continue to drop in increments of 0.10% per year until reaching a terminal rate of 4.99% (as provided by current law).

HB 112 provides a tax rebate to individual taxpayers who filed an income tax return for both 2023 and 2024. This tax rebate is non-refundable and cannot exceed the taxpayer’s tax liability for 2024.

03. Gov. Kemp Appoints New Labor Commissioner

Gov. Kemp appointed Bárbara Rivera Holmes as Georgia’s new labor commissioner.  The announcement comes after Georgia Labor Commissioner Bruce Thompson, who was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer, passed away in November.  The labor commissioner oversees the administration of unemployment insurance and helps place job seekers. In August 2023, then-commissioner Thompson announced his office had found more than $105 million that should have been handed over to the state treasury but was allegedly squirreled away. Holmes, a business executive, will serve the remainder of Thompson’s four-year term, until early 2027.

04. Gov. Kemp Announces Further ICE Partnership

At the direction of Gov. Kemp, Department of Public Safety (DPS) Commissioner Billy Hitchens has requested that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) train all 1,100 sworn officers under his command through the 287(g) Program to better assist in identifying and apprehending illegal aliens who pose a risk to public safety. First authorized by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, this program enables ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration officer functions under the agency's direction and oversight.

05. Tort Reform Legislation Passes

Today, the Senate voted 34-21 for final passage of Gov. Kemp's landmark tort reform legislation, SB 68. Yesterday, the House narrowly passed the measure 91-82. The bill is now before the governor to be signed into law. The House successfully amended the bill with the following changes:

• Anchoring - allows arguments in opening and closing close, but voir dire can only ask about “unspecified” amounts to root out bias.
  
• Discovery stay - adds only a statement that 90 days starts after briefing and specifies that mandamus is a possibility when judge doesn’t rule.
  
• Voluntary dismissal - includes a provision that 60 days after answer instead of after answer or MSJ, whichever is sooner.
  
• Atty fees - no changes
  
• Seat belts - tries to limit when may be admissible but still doesn’t specify relevance.
  
• Premises liability - attempts to carve out the cases that are not actually premises cases (like hiring, supervision, etc.)
  
• Collateral source - no changes
  
• Bifurcation - can move the court to reject the bifurcation demand if it is a case involving a sex crime and amount at issue is less than 150k.