March 5, 2021
Volume 12, Issue 8
Crossover Day is Monday, March 8
This week at the General Assembly proved election legislation remains a focus of Georgia's legislators as they inch toward what is considered the half-way point of the session, Crossover Day, slated for Monday, March 8. There was movement on both chambers' versions of omnibus election bills with the full House passing its version and the Senate version passing out of Committee.

Other important ACCG agenda items, like the Trust Fund Dedication and Lodging Facilitator bills, saw progress this week. To learn more about these significant pieces of legislation, how they will impact your county, and many other items of interest to counties, be sure to read this week's full Legislative Update.
As Crossover Day, Legislative Day 28, is scheduled for Monday, March 8, please be aware that it is the last opportunity for a bill to pass the chamber in which it originated and monitor for Action Alerts from ACCG. Several items mentioned in today's Legislative Update will be heard on the House Floor on Monday, and we'll need the assistance of county officials to help ensure the county voice is heard on the passage or stoppage of significant bills and their impact on county government as a whole.

Lastly, the General Assembly recently released the adjournment resolution establishing the calendar for the remainder of the session. To view the adjournment resolution, click here.
Click on "This Week's Bills" to review the bills included in this week's Legislative Update.
Access the Legislative Tracking Database for a compilation of all bills ACCG is following. 
Elections
House Passes HB 531, the Chamber's Omnibus Election Bill

This week, the House Passed House Bill 531, the chamber’s omnibus election legislation, following a nearly three-hour floor debate. This is the first, and thus far only, House election bill to have crossed over to the Senate. This legislation contains five of ACCG’s 2021 election priorities; however, ACCG has not taken a position on the other provisions in the bill.   

For a detailed summary of HB 531, please click here.
Senate Committee Passes the Chamber's Omnibus Election Legislation

The Senate Ethics Committee passed Senate Bill 241, authored by Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan, on Wednesday. This is the upper chamber’s omnibus election legislation for 2021. Like HB 531, this legislation includes numerous provisions impacting counties’ conduct of elections, including several new reporting, verification and other requirements on county election officials. SB 241 is expected to be up for debate on the Senate floor on Monday, March 8 which is also Crossover Day. 

For a detailed summary of SB 241, please click here.
Several Other Senate Election Bills are Still in Play for Crossover

Several other Senate election bills impacting county election administration have passed out of the Senate Ethics Committee and can also be heard on the Senate floor on Monday, including: 
  • SB 62 (Sen. Lindsey Tippins) - requires additional ballot security/inscription and sorting requirements. In testimony, the author acknowledged that this would entail additional costs to counties and that the state should provide financial assistance; however, there is no state funding in the budget for this purpose.   
  • SB 72 (Sen. Jeff Mullis) - requires county election offices to obtain, monthly, from the county coroner, judge of the probate court and all funeral homes in the county a list of all persons who died during the previous month. Counties would have to remove deceased persons from the voting rolls. 
  • SB 74 (Sen. Jeff Mullis) - allows poll watchers to access all areas of tabulating centers, though their movement may be restricted.
  • SB 141 (Sen. Jason Anavitarte) - requires county election superintendents to post the total number of certified absentee ballots that were received upon the close of the polls on election day. Those ballots must then immediately be counted and tabulated until all such ballots have been tabulated, not allowing for breaks for the staff conducting the counting and tabulating.  
  • SB 178 (Sen. Jeff Mullis) - prohibits the state, counties and cities from automatically sending out absentee ballot applications.
  • SB 232 (Sen. Mary Harbin) - requires absentee ballots to have a unique bar code and an alphanumeric tracking number printed on them, allowing for the tracking and identification of each such individual ballot and its accompanying envelope.   
  • SB 253 (Sen. Nikki Merritt) - requires election superintendents to notify electors of a change in a polling place during the seven days before and on the date of the first election following the change.   
Election Summary

All of the more-than-80 election bills introduced this session will impact various counties differently. Accordingly, please talk to your election officials on bills (particularly those highlighted in ACCG Legislative Updates) to understand their implications on your county and immediately share any concerns you may have with your legislative delegation. 
More from the Gold Dome
Lodging Facilitator Bill Set for House Vote on Crossover Day

House Bill 317, an ACCG 2021 Policy Agenda item, is set for consideration by the full House on Monday. This bill would require online lodging platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO to collect and remit county and city hotel/motel taxes on short-term rentals (STRs) that are hosted via those platforms. These are taxes currently due from the STR owner but, in many cases, not being collected. This bill would improve tax collection, reduce the burden on STR owners to collect the tax, provide more funds for local tourism, and create parity with traditional hotels and motels that are currently collecting hotel/motel taxes. A summary of HB 317 may be found here.

Please contact your House members and urge them to vote in favor of HB 317.
Bill to Increase Juvenile Jurisdiction Heads to House Floor on Monday

House Bill 272, legislation that increases jurisdiction of juvenile court from 17 to 18 years of age, will be heard on the House Floor on Monday. ACCG is opposed to this bill because there is no additional funding for the operation of the juvenile courts or appropriate programs for these youth. Many of these youth will be classified as Children In Need of Services (CHINS) and the counties are required to provide legal representation for all parties involved in the case, as well as services for the youth. County jails cannot hold these individuals and would be forced to transport to the Department of Juvenile Justice, and there are currently no beds available in any of those facilities. 

Please let your House members know they must first provide funding or at the very least make the implementation of the legislation subject to funding.
Please Ask Your House Members to Vote "No" on HB 302

Currently, law allows local governments to calculate and apply permit/regulatory fees through five different methods. House Bill 302, the latest bill dealing with local permitting, prohibits counties and cities from calculating these fees on the square footage of the new construction to be served by the system to be installed or, for renovations, the cost of the project in taking into account the building valuation data. 
 
  • Removing these methods of calculating regulatory fees will place a burden on many counties and cities, requiring them to reestablish their method of calculating building permit fees only to bring in the same amount of proceeds;
  • Reestablishing regulatory fee structures based on flat fees and hourly rates can involve making changes to ordinances and software. If this is recalculated incorrectly, these offices (which operate net neutral now) will need to be subsidized by the local government.
  • Using these existing methods to determine the regulatory fee is not unique to Georgia and are standard for local governments and in the industry. They are based on the published International Code Council Building Valuation Data, which is referenced in the code section. Using this data and the associated formulas provides reliability and transparency for all parties involved.
 
In short, counties and cities are still going to need to charge the same amount in fees but deviating from these accepted and established methods creates an unnecessary burden and risk.
 
This bill could be up for a vote in the House today or on Monday.  Please contact your House members and urge them to vote No on HB 302.
Changes to Broadband Grant Program Bill Stalls in Committee

House Bill 608 attempts to make changes to the state broadband grant program. During committee testimony, ACCG and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) expressed several concerns including that this bill would delay the implementation of awarding grant funding now that there have been funds appropriated to the program. During this morning’s House Governmental Affairs Committee, the bill did not receive a vote but instead it was recommended that the issue be brought up for discussion before the House Rural Development Council. 
Trust Fund Dedication Bill Advances

House Bill 511 unanimously passed out of the House this week. This bill dedicates nine trust funds including the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund and the Solid Waste Trust Fund. The dedication of the fees from these two environmental trust funds is an ACCG Legislative Agenda item and has been for more than 10 years.
Senate Passes Public Hearings Bill

On Wednesday, the Senate passed Senate Bill 95 by Sen. Frank Ginn. This legislation, an ACCG Agenda Item, authorizes counties and cities to hold public hearings via teleconference during emergency situations. HB 98, by Rep. Eddie Lumsden and also authorizing this, was earlier passed by the House, but the bills contain slightly different language. Accordingly, one of the bills must still pass the opposite chamber.    
Public Works Bill Fails on House Floor

House Bill 435, by Rep. Victor Anderson, failed on a House floor vote on Wednesday. Current law requires all local government public works construction contracts valued at over $100,000 to go out for public bid. This bill allows an exception for contracts that were competitively procured by the state or through a cooperative purchasing organization, certified by the state as a source of supply.   
Senate Approves Measure to Alter 35% Petition Requirement on Liquor Sales

Today, the Senate passed Senate Bill 145 which allows county and city voters to authorize package liquor sales without having to get a petition signed by 35% of registered voters. A county would simply have to pass a resolution in order to put this issue out to voter referendum.      
Federal COVID-19 Relief Update
New NACo Analysis of Senate Substitute and Per-County Allocations

The National Association of Counties (NACo) has everything you need to understand what’s in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act. NACo recently released a new analysis of the Senate Substitute and re-calculated the per-county allocations. The analysis and the per-county allocation estimates can be found on NACo's updated State and Local Coronavirus Fiscal Recovery Funds Resource Hub.
Stay Connected and Engaged!
Watch the Virtual Legislative Update Via Zoom

ACCG would like to remind county officials that it has transitioned the Facebook Live Legislative Update to the Virtual Legislative Update now hosted via Zoom. Click here to watch the recap of today's live event.

The Virtual Legislative Update will take place every Friday at 9:00 a.m. Those interested in joining the conversation each week can do so by accessing this link.
Policy Communication Tools

Don't forget about the various communications tools that will help keep you informed and engaged. Click here to read all about them!
ACCG News
News You Can Use - Articles Related to ACCG Policy Issues
Articles covering some of ACCG's major policy issues are found here. Click the hyperlinked title to begin reading.


Atlanta Journal-Constitution - March 4, 2021

Albany Herald - March 3, 2021

WSB-TV - March 2, 2021
Questions? Email the
ACCG Legislative team:

ACCG is YOUR county association. We are here to advance all 159 Georgia county governments. Please feel free to contact a member of the policy team if they can assist in any way.