January 17, 2022, Issue 2 |
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The first week of the 2022 legislative was short and very sweet for UGA fans. Still, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (a graduate of Georgia Tech) kept Senate Committees busy, and Gov. Brian Kemp delivered his State of the State address on Thursday. With a three-day weekend for the MLK holiday, the legislature will return to work on Jan. 18 with some urgency. |
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Budget and Taxes
The first order of business for every legislative session is to pass a balanced budget. The state is cash-rich with a $3.7 billion surplus courtesy of federal COVID-19 pandemic relief funds and an increase in tax collections as the economy rebounded. The budget, this time out, should be much easier than in belt-tightening years and politically popular for those, like Kemp, who are running for re-election.
Among the governor’s proposals:
- $30.2 billion in spending, a state record, an increase of 11% over last year’s budget. This would replace the cuts made last year in anticipation of shortfalls caused by the pandemic.
- $5,000 raise for state employees
- $2,000 raise for teachers
- Millions for K-12 and higher education
- $250 tax refund for single filers and $500 for joint filers
- A cost-of-living increase for state retirees
- Funding to clear a backlog of cases at the GBI
Somewhat buried in all the happy financial news, the governor would also ban the teaching of critical race theory (not taught in any Georgia school now) and prohibit transgender athletes from competing in sports except on teams of their birth gender.
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Voting Rights and Elections
SB202, passed last year, was a 98-page omnibus voting-rights bill which now needs some revision to make it workable. There are 22 bills from 2021 relating to elections that have been referred to the Ethics Committee. In all, there are 60 bills somewhere in the process—before the Ethics Committee, in first, and second readings before the House and Senate.
Among those:
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SB325, prefiled by Sen. Butch Miller (R- District 49, Gainesville), would eliminate absentee ballot drop boxes. Miller is running for Lieutenant Governor.
- SB363 would prohibit non-citizens from voting (already prohibited by the U.S. Constitution).
- HB531 would prohibit election superintendents or boards of registrars from accepting private funding (which LWVCGA did by underwriting the purchase of nine absentee ballot drop boxes for Chatham County in 2020).
- SB93 outlines requirements for mobile polling places when an existing structure has been deemed unusable because of safety or facilities.
- SB178 makes it impossible for the Secretary of State to send absentee ballots without a written request from the voter (as SOS Brad Raffensperger did during the pandemic, promising that certain qualified voters would continue to receive the ballots automatically in the future).
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Local Redistricting
The Governor and both legislative chambers have set a deadline of February 18, 2022 to complete local redistricting. This will give local election officials enough time with the new maps to prepare for the March 11 deadline for candidates to qualify for the primary in May. Election officials lobbied to postpone the primary due to delays in receiving census data, but to no avail. This leaves two committees—the House Intragovernmental Coordination Committee and the Senate State and Local Governmental Operations Committee—with an enormous workload and only four weeks.
The League expects that many bills will be lumped together and voted on with no hearing and no opportunity for public input. We and our nonpartisan partners ask concerned citizens to write to their legislators and members of the two committees to demand a transparent and open process that allows for citizen input. If
Both David Ralston, the Speaker of the House, and the Lieutenant Governor recently sent memos to members to remind them of SB 177, passed in 2019 revising the local redistricting process, and to caution them against attempts to bypass the process. During the special session Sen. Clint Dixon (R-District 45, Buford) bypassed the local delegation and attempted to change the makeup of the Gwinnett County Commission and School Board. Gwinnett is the most racially diverse county in the state but both the commission and the board are made up of people of color, all of them Democrats. Citizens fought back and the Senator was forced to withdraw the bill.
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If your county faces potential redistricting legislation,
notice must be posted in your local newspaper.
If you see such a notice, please contact Poy Winichakul at poy.winichakul@splcenter.org
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Buckhead and East Cobb City Creation
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SB324 to allow Buckhead to secede from Atlanta to form its own city has been moved to the Senate Urban Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Lester Jackson (D-District 2, Savannah). That committee is made up entirely of Democrats, many of them vocally opposed to the cityhood effort. A similar House measure is pending, and the provision that allows for a cityhood referendum could be added to other legislation.
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HB841 to allow unincorporated East Cobb County to incorporate passed quickly in the Governmental Affairs Committee along party lines. The Rules Committee will schedule a floor vote. No study has been done to see what this would mean to county tax revenues and services.
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Under the Gold Dome will be distributed to League members and partners each week that the Georgia General Assembly is in session. It is a product of our Education Fund, allowing us to report legislative facts and activities at the State Capitol. The UTGD Team is comprised of LWVGA staff and volunteers, who will be tracking and reporting on legislation and committee hearings throughout the legislative session.
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UTGD Team
Editor: Rebecca Rolfes, LWVCGA
Volunteer legislative observers:
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Mikayla Arciaga
Julie Bolen
Gail Buckner
Blake Caldwell
Mary Kay Clyburn
Daniel Eason
Ashleigh Ewald
Jessica Fields
Gina Hill
Sharon Hill
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Keona Lynn Jones
Alan Kaufman
M Maguire
Rosemary Mackey
Margarita Moldovan
Renee Rubens
Laurie Tyson
Michelle Weston
Elizabeth Melville
Maxie Kirk Williams
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League of Women Voters of Georgia | Website
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