News

Original source: Georgia Legislative Report - MCO Group

01. Legislature Completes Day 13

The General Assembly convened Monday through Thursday this week, completing day 13 of the 40-day session. The legislature will reconvene Monday, February 10th and work through Thursday, February 13th, to complete days 14 through 17 of the legislative calendar.

Committees continued their organizational meetings, and we began to see legislation making its way through the sub-committee and committee process, and saw several bills debated on the floor of each Chamber. By the end of next week there will only be 11 legislative days before crossover day (the day a bill must pass its Chamber of origin) and we anticipate long days of committee hearings and floor deliberations in the coming weeks.   

As a reminder, the link to the adjournment resolution (legislative calendar ) and the committee meeting schedule can be found weekly in the footer below. 

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

02. Speaker Burns Introduces School Safety Bill

House Speaker Jon Burns announced Monday the House Republican Caucus will introduce a legislative package to enhance school safety following last year’s deadly school shooting in Barrow County. The bill (HB 268) calls for

A statewide database to track student mental health histories

Development of an app for anonymously reporting threats to schools

A requirement for school districts to create safety management plans

An additional $50 million in one-time school safety grants, which would give each public school in the state $68,000 for safety upgrades

Tax incentives for the purchase of firearm safes and other safety equipment

Strengthening criminal penalties for students and other individuals who target schools with terroristic threats

The Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency would help develop the system tracking student mental health history and reported threats that would be investigated by school personnel, mental health professionals and law enforcement agencies to determine the seriousness. Burns said the plan would also create mandatory suspensions of students from school while the extent of their threats are investigated.

03. House Approves $40.5B AFY2025 Budget

The House voted today to approve the $40.5 billion AFY2025 budget that funds improvements to the state's prison system and provides disaster relief to victims of Hurricane Helene. The mid-year budget increases state funding by $4.4 billion over the original budget adopted in March 2024.  $2.7 billion of the increase is funded from reserve funds.  The House proposal fully funds the QBE formula for students in grades K-12 and Governor Kemp's one-time school safety grants, which makes every public school in Georgia eligible for $68,000 to spend as local school officials see fit.

The Senate will begin considering the House version next week. The House Appropriations Committee will begin hearings on the FY 2026 budget, which is expected to be more than $2 billion less than the AFY25 budget. 

04. Doug Collins Confirmed as Secretary of Veteran Affairs

Doug Collins, former Congressman and Air Force Reserve chaplain from Georgia, has been confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as the secretary of Veterans Affairs. Both Democratic Senators Jon Osoff and Raphael Warnock voted to confirm Collins. For Warnock, it was a show of support for a former opponent he beat during a 2020 special election. They said they felt confident after meeting privately with Collins that he would work in a bipartisan fashion to provide veterans with the services they need. Collins served in the House of Representatives from 2013-2021

05. Gov Kemp Makes Legal Staff Changes

Governor Kemp announced changes to his legal staff this week, following the announcement that current Executive Counsel Kristyn Long will depart the Governor's Office to serve as General Counsel for the Georgia Hospital Association, effective February 14. Sam Hatcher will then serve as Executive Counsel, as Christine Hayes and Rachel Byers continue to serve as Deputy Executive Counsel and Associate Executive Counsel, respectively. The Governor also announced Evan Meyers departed at the end of January following over three years of dedicated service as Deputy Executive Counsel. 

Legislative Day is quickly approaching don't miss out, this year we have lined up so many great speakers.  This will be the best Legislative Day Event Ever!  akers! 

Hot off the press is the BMO 2025 Staffing Outlook, written by Jeffrey Silber, senior analyst in BMO Capital Markets Equity Research, covering the business services including the staffing industry. 

Download the Report

Original post date and source: Oct 22, 2024 - Becker LLC 

After the FTC’s recent attempt to ban non-compete agreements was stopped by the courts, the Office of the General Counsel for the National Labor Relations Board (the “NLRB”), Jennifer A. Abruzzo, issued Memorandum GC 25-01 affirming her intent not only to “urge the Board not only to find certain non-compete provisions unlawful,” but to also drastically limit “stay or pay” provisions, which require employees to repay certain employer pre-paid benefits in the event of resignation.

View full article

BMO Staffing Industry update - November 2024.

Download Update

Section Headings

1. Staffing Industry Dynamics
   
2. M&A Market Update
3. Staffing M&A
4. Conclusion

Source: Originally posted on November 22 by MCO Georgia

01. Georgia Election Hand Count Confirms Trump’s Victory

A hand-count audit of Georgia’s presidential election reported minuscule discrepancies from the machine count, confirming President-elect Donald Trump’s victory. The results of the manual review showed 11 more votes for Trump and six fewer for Harris out of nearly 750,000 ballots reviewed by election officials across the state. 

02. Gov. Kemp Elected RGA Chair

Gov. Brian Kemp has been elected the Republican Governors Association (RGA) Chair, with Montana Governor Greg Gianforte as RGA Vice Chair for 2025. The election occurred at the end of RGA’s 2024 Annual Conference, and both governors will assume their positions immediately, serving for a one-year term.  

03. Georgia AG Announces Run for Governor

Georgia Republican attorney general Chris Carr announced he's running for governor in 2026, becoming the first major candidate from either party to announce a bid.  Prominent Republicans and Democrats are eyeing the seat, which will be open in two years after term-limited Republican Gov. Kemp leaves office. Other potential Republican contenders include Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. 

04. Georgia Promise Scholarship Approved for School Voucher Program

The Georgia Education Savings Authority approved the Georgia Promise Scholarship program, which offers $6,500 education savings accounts to students zoned for any public school in Georgia’s bottom 25% for academic achievement. The program will start accepting applications in January 2025. However, Georgia’s General Assembly must determine how many scholarships the state will pay for. The law creating the scholarship program mandates a cap of 1% of the $14.1 billion that Georgia spends on its K-12 school funding formula. As a result, $141 million can be spent on the scholarship program, providing at least 21,000 scholarships.   

05. House Democrats Choose New Leaders

House Democrats elected Rep. Carolyn Hugley of Columbus as minority leader for the next two years, defeating Rep. Derrick Jackson of Tyrone. Second-term Rep. Tanya Miller of Atlanta was elected caucus chair, Rep. Sam Park of Lawrenceville remains Whip, and Rep. Saira Draper of Atlanta was elected Deputy whip. Park Cannon of Atlanta remains caucus secretary and Solomon Adesanya of Marietta remains treasurer.   

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