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Georgia's Legislature Starts Back on January 8
With the beginning of the new year comes the start of another session of the Georgia General Assembly. By law, Georgia’s legislative body convenes on the second Monday of January for a 40-day legislative session. This is the case even though the General Assembly gathered in Atlanta just a few weeks ago for a special session for redistricting called by Governor Kemp. The 2024 General Session is the second in the biennial legislative term meaning there will be a bevy of new and old measures up for debate this term.
Below are some issues GMP anticipates seeing in the coming months:
FY ‘25 and Amended FY ‘24 Budgets
The state constitution requires the General Assembly to pass a budget for the upcoming fiscal year based on the Governor’s proposal. Georgia law dictates that the Governor projects state revenue for the year and the General Assembly must pass a balanced budget based on those projections. This year’s budget process should be interesting as the state’s “rainy day fund” received an injection of $5 billion due to last fiscal year’s budget surplus. While not part of the budget process, it’s worth mentioning that Gov. Kemp and House and Senate leaders announced in December that they would seek another reduction in state income taxes as a result of the budget windfalls over the last few years.
The Governor will release his budget proposal towards the latter half of next week and then the House and Senate usually begin budget hearings during the week of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Members hear testimony from the State Economist and Commissioners and Directors of various state agencies over the course of three days before the House Appropriations Subcommittees begin working on the amended budget for FY 2024 (the “small budget”). We’ll be keeping an eye on appropriations to the Georgia Department of Agriculture and University of Georgia’s College of Agriculture among other big ticket items.
Navigable Waters and Stream Access
We discussed this last year with the passage of SB 115–a bill that granted ownership of navigable waters to the citizens of Georgia through the public trust doctrine. A study committee was formed in the House of Representatives to review this bill and its impact on private property rights and the rights of anglers and sportsmen to access public waters in Georgia. The committee released a report in November 2023 that outlined testimony presented at 4 separate meetings of the study committee as well as the committee’s findings.The committee made 7 recommendations that would revise the law passed in 2023 while maintaining its intent to encourage fishing in Georgia’s public waters. Expect to see this issue come up repeatedly as the House and Senate bring bills to remove the public trust doctrine from the law, clarify and stiffen penalties for trespassing, and determine the navigability of each of Georgia’s rivers and streams. This last point will be of particular interest as some groups have begun lobbying legislators to change the definition of “navigability” from the current definition geared towards commercial transportation towards a new definition to include small watercraft and kayaks.
Why is this issue so important? I’ll borrow from our friend Dale Sandlin of the Georgia Cattlemen’s Association and his article for their November magazine. The law passed last year establishes a new property line for landowners on Georgia’s rivers and streams. The law sets the new property line at the low-water mark instead of to the middle of the stream or river. This creates an issue where property owners should be compensated for a taking of private property by the state and local governments would be losing that property as part of their tax digest.
The law also intends to increase access to these waterways and that could lead to more public interaction with cattle and farm operations. There is a small but not insignificant chance that animal disease could accidentally spread from one operation to another. There is also the risk that cattle or people could get hurt if someone approaches cattle on or around the property line. Furthermore, activities like tree-thinning and fence maintenance could lead to accidents if uninvited persons are wading or floating down a stream as landowners are working.
For these reasons, GMP will be keeping an eye on this issue and providing updates throughout the legislative session.
Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land
This is a topic that was discussed frequently during the 2023 legislative session, and several states around the US have laws on the books limiting the ownership of agricultural land by foreign citizens or entities–most recently in Missouri. Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper wrote an op-ed for James Magazine last fall expressing his desire to see similar legislation in Georgia. We expect this issue to reemerge after efforts in 2023 failed to gain traction in both the House and Senate.
Other Issues to Watch
Our friends at Georgia Veterinary Medicine Association have been working with Cattlemen’s, Farm Bureau, and Georgia Agribusiness Council on several initiatives to support rural veterinarians. A measure from last session to restrict the application of soil amendments and require public reporting of any soil amendment applications stalled out last year but could see a renewed push this session. And we should anticipate nearly anything under the sun as this is an election year for all 236 members of the General Assembly. You never know what may happen in the Capitol Building.
You can keep up with the Georgia General Assembly through the Legislative Tracker in our E-News or by visiting legis.ga.gov
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