After devoting the week of January 16th to budget hearings before the Joint House & Senate Appropriations Committee, the pace of legislative activity definitely kicked into a higher gear last week. The legislature was in session Monday through Thursday (which was the 8th legislative day of the 40-day session) and several significant bills were introduced, with more expected to come soon, including K-12 funding reform and tax reform bills.

Let's get to it.

Led by Lt. Governor Casey Cagle and sponsored by Sen. Mike Dugan (R-Carrollton), Chairman of the Senate Economic Development & Tourism Committee, the FAST Act seeks to eliminate duplicative rules, regulations and red tape to create a more efficient and transparent permitting process for Georgia businesses. It would require state agencies and local governments to set forth a specific turnaround time for processing licenses, permits and approvals as well as associated fees, including making available an expedited process available for an additional fee. If the agency fails to meet its timeline, the fee for that service would be reduced by 10 percent. It would also establish a "Building and Infrastructure Transparency Score" ("BITS") that would rank every city and county based on certain weighted metrics, including licensing and permitting fees, time required to process applications and the reasonableness of other regulatory hurdles. The Department of Community Affairs would publish the rankings every January. 

ACEC Georgia appreciates the Lt. Governor's leadership on these important regulatory reform issues. While we, and many others in Georgia's business community, are very supportive of the goals of SB 2, there will likely be some changes made to further improve the legislation and to minimize unintended consequences. I would encourage folks to read the bill ( Click Here) and please let me know if you spot any issues we need to be thinking about. STATUS: Assigned to Senate Economic Development and Tourism Committee.

As Speaker Ralston made clear in his speech at the annual Eggs & Issues Breakfast, transit governance and finance will be a top focus of the General Assembly's attention for the near future. Consensus seems to have coalesced around using the 2017 session to create a new state commission that would be tasked with coming up with a plan (or plans) for how Georgia's myriad of transit services could be cohesively coordinated (at a minimum), integrated or even combined. Recommendations would then result in legislation being introduced in either the 2018 session (House approach) or the 2019 session (Senate approach).  

Legislation to that effect has been introduced in both the House (HB 160) and the Senate (SB 6). While there are some differences between the two bills, both plans contemplate the hiring of one or more consultant experts to provide research on best practices from around the country, as well as potential approaches to dealing with Georgia's unique mix of existing providers and their differing types of enabling legislation. 

SB 6 - By Sen. Steve Gooch (R-Dahlonega) would create a "Georgia Regional Transit Council" that would be required to make its recommendations by December 31, 2018 (or December of 2019, with the approval of the Lt. Governor and Speaker). The senate council would be larger than the House proposal. In addition to three senators and three representatives, it would include the heads of GDOT, MARTA and SRTA and the Georgia Transportation Alliance as full voting members, as well as the chairs of Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties and the chairs of the Augusta, Columbus, Macon & Savannah metropolitan planning organizations. The Senate plan only requires the council to issue a "strategic plan" for efficiency and coordination of transit services, which would also establish performance metrics and targets for transit operators based on criteria such as efficiency, cost effectiveness and customer service. The Senate plan calls for a unified branding and marketing strategy. STATUS: Assigned to Senate Transportation Committee. 

HB 160 - By Rep. Kevin Tanner (R-Dawsonville) is Speaker Ralston's plan to create a "Georgia Commission on Transit Governance & Funding." In addition to the four senator and four representative members, there would be three appointees by the Governor and the heads of GDOT, GRTA, MARTA and all twelve metropolitan planning organizations would serve as ex-officio members. The goal of the House plan is for the commission to make a recommendation to the General Assembly for legislation to create a unified governance structure and to recommend funding sources for construction and operation of the unified transit structure on or before the end of 2017 and for legislation to be introduced in the 2018 session. STATUS: Assigned to House Transportation Committee.

HB 55 - By Rep. Rick Williams (R-Milledgeville) is a proposal to institute term limits for the members of Georgia's professional licensing boards (limited to no more than eight consecutive years of service). ACEC Georgia will be working with the members of the Georgia Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors Licensing Board (PELS Board) to determine what, if any, position we may take on this legislation. Initial thoughts are that since licensing board members are appointed by the Governor, and governors are limited to serving no more than eight years in office, the likelihood of board members serving much more than eight years is small and this legislation may not be warranted. There may also be licensing boards where finding good candidates who are willing to serve is difficult and arbitrary term limits might make it even more difficult to find well-qualified candidates. STATUS: Assigned to House Regulated Industries Committee. 

HB 68 - By Rep. Andrew Welch (R-McDonough) would require the creation of an emergency pull-off shoulder for the entire length of any GDOT road construction zone. While ACEC Georgia has not taken a position on this legislation, I would appreciate any expert opinions on how this might work in practice and what sort of impacts this would have on design and construction, as well as potentially increasing the costs of road construction projects. STATUS: Assigned to House Transportation Committee.

HB 134 - By Rep. Bubber Epps (R-Dry Branch) is legislation requested by the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) to create more flexibility in the transportation SPLOST created by HB 170 and to provide a 20-year duration for any T-SPLOST limited to transit. ACEC Georgia is supportive of this concept and will continue to work with ACCG on this legislation. STATUS: Assigned to House Ways & Means Committee.  

HB 150 - By Rep. Allan Powell (R-Hartwell) would allow the State Road & Tollway Authority (SRTA) to place a hold on the motor vehicle registration of anyone who fails to pay tolls, after sufficient notice and opportunity to respond and pay the tolls and associated fines. It would also allow unpaid tolls and fines to be collected via state income tax refund set-off. STATUS: Awaiting assignment to committee. 

SB 3 - By Sen. Lindsey Tippins (R-Marietta) the "Creating Opportunities Needed Now to Expand Credentialed Training (CONNECT) Act" would expand career education in grades 6 through 12, including new opportunities for internships, apprenticeships and cooperative learning and to provide a means of industry credentialing for those programs. It also requires closer collaboration between the Georgia Department of Education and the Technical College System of Georgia relative to identifying and addressing critical workforce needs through career education. STATUS: Assigned to Senate Education & Youth Committee. 

SB 17 - By Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Buford) is the so-called "Mimosa Mandate" bill (formerly known as the "Better Brunch Bill") to allow local governments to authorize the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages on Sundays starting at 10:30 a.m. (current law prohibits this activity until 12:30 p.m. on Sundays). STATUS: Assigned to Senate Regulated Industries & Utilities Committee. 

SB 19 - By Sen. Josh McKoon (R-Columbus) would require the State Treasurer to create an "Expenditure Database of the State of Georgia" that would show all expenditures made by any state entity to all vendors and which would be fully searchable online by a variety of search criteria. Vendor is defined in the legislation as anyone providing equipment, materials, goods, supplies or services to any state entity pursuant to a contract. STATUS: Assigned to Senate Government Oversight Committee.  

SB 26 - By Sen. Josh McKoon (R-Columbus) would require local school boards to use "competitive sealed bidding" for any professional services contracts that exceed $50,000 in any calendar year. The bill only applies to local boards of education. STATUS: Assigned to Senate Education & Youth Committee. 

SB 54 - By Sen. Josh McKoon (R-Columbus) creates new regulations around autonomous vehicles. STATUS: Assigned to Senate Transportation Committee. 

SB 58 - By Sen. Josh McKoon (R-Columbus) would completely eliminate the $5.00 per night hotel/motel room fee that makes up a significant portion of the new transportation revenues created by HB 170 in 2015. ACEC Georgia will be joined by many organizations in opposing this bill. STATUS: Assigned to Senate Education & Youth Committee.  

SB 67 - By Sen. John Albers (R-Roswell) the "Bring Small Businesses Back to Georgia Act" is a regulatory reform bill focused on small businesses (defined as an independently-owned business having less than 50 employees or less than $4 million in gross annual sales). It would amend the administrative procedures act relative to state agency rule making authority, requiring a cost-benefit analysis, expanded notice and hearing requirements, as well as requiring amendment or repeal of two existing rules for every new rule proposed. It would also require hearings by standing legislative committees of jurisdiction and review and reports every four years by each agency of all rules and regulations, their efficacy, complaints received, etc. STATUS: Assigned to Senate Economic Development & Tourism Committee. 

SB 79 - By Sen. Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) the "Destination Resort Act" is one of two companion bills [an identical bill will be introduced in the House by Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah)] that would allow for the construction and operation of two destination casino resorts in Georgia. One would be somewhere in the metro Atlanta area near a convention center district (think downtown Atlanta, near the Georgia World Congress Center) and with a minimum of 1,000 rooms and $2 billion in investment. The other would be located somewhere outside the metro area, also near a convention center (think Savannah), with a minimum investment of $450 million. One company cannot operate both resorts. A 20 percent tax on gross receipts that will go to the HOPE scholarship (70 percent) and needs-based scholarships (30 percent). The Act would require the approval of an amendment to the Georgia Constitution, which would be placed on the November 2018 ballot. STATUS: Awaiting assignment to committee. 

SB 89 - By Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth) would create a Georgia Freight Railroad Program within GDOT and would facilitate the expenditure of additional appropriations by the General Assembly for purposes of improving freight and passenger railway and crossing infrastructure.

The current adjournment resolution calls for the General Assembly to be in session Monday through Thursday this week, taking us through Legislative Day 12 on February 2. While there is no schedule beyond that at this point, with the Falcons in the Super Bowl on Sunday, it wouldn't be surprising if legislators decided to take next Monday off. Word around the Capitol is that House & Senate leadership is aiming for Sine Die (the 40th and final day of the legislative session) to be either on Friday, March 24, 2017 or Tuesday, March 28th. As we mentioned last week, Crossover Day (the day by which a bill must have been passed by one chamber to be considered by the other) is now Legislative Day 28 (instead of Day 30). If they stick to the current 4-days-a-week pace, Crossover Day would hit sometime in the first week of March, leaving most of the rest of that month for the remaining 10 days of the session. We should know this week how those scheduling predictions pan out.

Michael "Sully" Sullivan

President & CEO, ACEC Georgia