Politics & Government
Georgia's Top 30 Bills in 2013 Legislative Session
With less than a month remaining in this year's legislative session, these are the top 30 bills to watch.
These are the bills that are considered most interesting to watch after cross over day. Cross over day is the last day for House bills to move to the Senate and vice versa.
Personally I have been at work on several bills the most important of which was HB 80. HB 80 improved several provisions of last year's Title Fee bill. It passed the House near unanimously and was passed via Conference Committee report and then signed by Gov. Deal on the same day.
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SB 24 - Provider Payment Fee
The "Hospital Medicaid Financing Program Act", authorizes the Department of Community Health (DCH) to establish, assess and discontinue provider payments on hospitals. These payments will be utilized to garner Federal funds and then return them to certain hospitals for the specific purpose of offsetting the cost of providing Medicaid services.
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The General Assembly retains the authority to override the board’s provider assessment. Furthermore, the General Assembly retains the right, through the appropriations process, to adjust the amount of money flowing towards the hospitals.
The provisions of SB 24 are automatically repealed on June 30, 2017, unless reauthorized by the General Assembly. It becomes effective upon the Governor's signature or July 1, 2013, whichever happens first.
HB 21 – Parameters for post adoption agreements
This bill codifies parameters for post adoption contract agreements that are forged between biological and adoptive parents. Any disagreement over post-adoption visitation will not set aside any adoption order. A post adoption contact agreement must contain certain warnings in bold face, be in writing and signed by all parties. It may set forth certain privileges such as future contact and visitation with the child.
Any litigation expense over enforcement is borne by the party that fails to comply or files a frivolous action.
HB 78 – Increase Penalties for Elder Abuse
Approximately 84% of elder abuse incidents are not reported. Elder abuse victims are more than twice as likely to die prematurely as older adults who are not victims of abuse. Thirty five other states and the District of Columbia already include sexual abuse and exploitation in their statutory definitions of elder maltreatment.
This bill updates and modernizes Georgia's statutory definition of elder maltreatment to include both sexual abuse and exploitation (financial abuse). It also enhances the mandatory reporting of elder maltreatment by adding additional individuals to the list of mandatory reporters.
HB 105 – “Little” Budget
The Amended Fiscal Year 2013 budget totals $19.3 billion in state funds and provides for a Mid-year adjustment for Education of $172.7 million.
The revenue estimate for this cycle has been reduced by $26.3 million in state funds to reflect an estimated 3.9% growth in revenues for the year ending June 30, 2012.
HB 123 – Parent/Teacher Empowerment Act
This bill is known as the “Parent and Teacher Empowerment Act.” It gives parents the ability to petition their local school board to convert an existing public school into a public charter schools. A process is also available to teachers and parents to impose turnaround managerial models for low achieving schools.
In both cases the local school board has the final say in determining whether a change needs to be made.
HB 127 – Automatic Adjustment of Certain Fees
This bill provides for automatic adjustments for certain fees collected in order to administer the programs which administer the fees. These types of fees include the solid waste disposal fee, the tire disposal fee, certain fees pertaining to traffic violations collected by the courts, certain court filing fees, and penalties related to criminal, quasi-criminal, traffic cases, and bond violations.
This new automatic adjustment of fees does not preclude any appropriation of greater amounts from taking place by OBP. Each collecting agency affected by this bill must confer with OPB to promulgate rules and regulations as would be required, including appropriate public notification of any fee amount change.
HB 142 & 143 – Ethics Reform
These bills are a strong signal that Georgia’s elected officials are committed to ethical behavior while serving their constituencies. To achieve that commitment, this bill grants rule-making authority to the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission. It forbids lobbyists from buying individual legislator’s dinners, and forbids the practice of buying tickets to sporting events for legislators or paying for recreational activities such as golf. It also restricts travel expenses.
This bill does NOT infringe on a person’s individual freedom to contact any elected official and express their personal views.
HB 150 – Prevent the reproduction of police officer booking photos
This bill is intended to crack down on websites that charge fees to have people’s DUI mug shots removed from their website. A person who publishes on his or her website arrest booking photos for purposes of commerce is deemed to be transacting business in Georgia. An individual, who meets certain criteria, may request that his or her photo be taken down without fee or compensation. The website is allowed 30 days to comply.
HB 155 – Comprehensive Legislation involving the licensing and operation of shooting preserves
This bill is a comprehensive revision for the licensing and operation of shooting preserves. A size threshold is placed on the reserve; the area can be no larger than 1,000 acres and not less than 100 acres. There is also a requirement that an owner must confirm that a person who hunts the preserve must have completed a hunter education course which teaches the basics of hunting/gun safety. The bill also adjusts the type of game that can be hunted within a preserve.
HB 189 – Notify local governments of DNR changes
This bill requires that the Department of Natural Resources to notify the chairman of the county commissioner when a change in service is being made at a DNR controlled location within the county.
HB 164 – Extension of Tax Exemption for aircraft repairs
Currently, Georgia offers an exemption of sales tax on materials used for maintenance of aircraft that are repaired or maintained within the state, but are registered outside of the state. This bill extends that exemption until June 30, 2015.
HB 188 – Military Veteran Licensing protocols
Georgia is expected to have 60,000 vacancies in the five skill trades enumerated in this bill; HVAC, plumbing, electrical work, electrical contractor, and utility foreman.
This bill provides for newly discharged veterans, who have received training in specialized skilled trades applicable to the above jobs, may be issued an initial license by the Secretary of State. This bill does not exempt any person from testing for certification or allow a waiver of any requirement to show financial responsibility or insurance coverage.
HB 199 – Expansion of the Georgia Water Reserve Fund
This bill changes the ‘Georgia Reservoir Fund’ to the ‘Georgia Reservoir and Water Supply Fund’ and extends the water supply division of the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority’s scope to make loans and grants to local governments.
The bill expands the definition of ‘project’ to include the acquisition of real property for any water supply system; the construction of any water supply system; the acquisition of real property or personal property surrounding any water supply system, including any interest in such property, assets reasonable to develop any water supply system comprised of new or existing reservoirs, and any means of combination of means of providing or enhancing water supply.
The bill also amends the definition of ‘environmental facilities’ to include “systems”, and allows for “monitoring” water to be a delineated purpose for an environmental facility, and for “conservation” to be one of the approved functions of a facility.
HB 211 – Motor Fuel Excise Tax extension
This bill extends for two years, from 2013 to 2015, the exemption school districts currently receive on the excise tax on fuel used in school buses. This extension will save Georgia school boards in excess of $5 million each year.
HB 242 - Juvenile Justice Reform
In 2012, Governor Nathan Deal reappointed the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform with the specific purpose of studying the state’s juvenile justice system and formulating ways to improve public safety and decrease the costs of services.
This bill is the product of that work. The Juvenile Justice Reform bill substantially revises, supersedes and modernizes provisions relating to juvenile proceedings and enacts comprehensive juvenile justice reforms recommended by the Council.
HB 244 – Teacher Evaluations
This bill establishes a path to create teacher evaluations. It provides for the development of an evaluation system, no later than the 2014-2015 school year, for teachers, assistant principals and principals. This bill lists the evaluation measures as well as a rating system the State Board of Education shall adopt, although it does not mandate how elements will be weighted (i.e. student evaluations of teachers, peer evaluations, parent evaluations.) The State School Board will make the final decision on how the evaluation is compiled.
Creating a single, statewide evaluation system will ensure all public school teachers and school leaders in Georgia receive the feedback they need to grow and improve in their profession. Additionally, the systems can recognize the most effective educators while removing those found to be repeatedly ineffective.
The teacher’s privacy is protected from individual evaluations, which means that rankings will not be attached to a teacher’s name when the overall rankings become available to the public.
HB 264 – Bringing Conservative Principles to MARTA
This bill is an extensive rewrite of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Act of 1965.
Changes include reorganizing who selects members of the MARTA board (a caucus of North Fulton Mayors will select 2 representatives due to 100% municipalization.) Recommendations by an independent study conducted by KPMG are being required, although implementation will not need to be completed until 2017. A minimum ratio is established for MARTA’s bonded debt, meaning that by 2015 the bonded debt ratio cannot be greater than 40% of the revenue generated by the devoted one penny sales tax. Finally, the 50/50 split, requiring MARTA’s one penny sales tax revenue to be split evenly between operation/management and capital purchases, is suspended for an additional three (3) years in order to give MARTA flexibility in these difficult economic times.
HB 284 – “Return to Play Act”
This bill enacts the “Return to Play Act of 2013” which is a direct response to the growing information that is being gathered regarding the effects of impacts to the head (concussions.) This act places certain requirements on public and private schools that provide youth athletic activities to establish concussion management and return to play policies. A public recreation facility will provide information to parents/guardians, when the children register, on the nature and risk of concussions and head injury.
HB 298 – Agriculture Commodity Commission
The bill creates the Agricultural Commodity Commission for Georgia Grown Products. It provides for the operation and the function of the commodity commission and for other purposes. The Department of Agriculture has requested this bill in an effort to provide the best possible mechanism to promote agriculture products grown in Georgia.
HB 327 – Flexibility and Accountability Act for Student Achievement
This bill will categorize each school system as a Category 1, Category 2 or Category 3 school system. This method hopes to form a more cohesive, state-wide flexibility and accountability structure which will allow high performing school systems to utilize their funds with minimal state intrusion.
HB 349 – Recommendations from Criminal Justice Reform Counci
This bill is a collection of recommendations of the Governor's Special on Criminal Justice Reform Council. It empowers judges to issue fair sentences for drug related offenses, and streamlines certain aspects of the probation system so that the Department of Corrections can apply resources where they are most necessary. The bill also creates the Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform for the purpose of periodic comprehensive review of our system of criminal justice.
HB 361 & 362 – Strengthening Georgia’s Right to Work law
These bills reaffirm Georgia’s public policy as a "right to work" state through adopting federal standards for relationships between employers and employees that involve union membership.
Currently in Georgia, an employee can have union dues taken out of his/her paycheck. If the employee chooses to leave a union member, his or her dues are still deducted until the annual renewal date. HB 361 allows an employee to retain their own wages immediately if they choose to withdraw from a union. HB 362 makes sure that no state agency, authority, department, commission, board, or similar entity that contracts for public works construction shall require the entities they contract will to use a unionized labor force.
HB 372 – Lower eligibility standard for HOPE Grant recipients
This bill lowers the eligibility threshold for the HOPE grant from a 3.0 to a 2.0. The HOPE grant is made available for students at the Technical College System of Georgia. It also mandates that the Technical College System of Georgia change from an enrollment-driven formula to an outcome-driven formula in its annual budget requests. The 2.0 standard was in place prior to 2011 when it was raised because of budget concerns. By returning to a 2.0 standard we are making it easier for people who are seeking additional job skills to return to technical schools.
HB 393 -- Georgia Workforce Investment Board; provide for powers and duties
This bill enumerates the powers and duties of the State Workforce Investment Board and provides for ways to measure local workforce areas to guarantee they are providing their areas with the best service possible. It establishes policies regarding quorum, conflicts of interest, and contracting for services. The State Workforce Investment Board is granted the authority to remove local workforce area board chairs and directors who are ineffective or not meeting performance standards. Also the board can remove fiscal agents based on a lack of sound financial policies and recognized accounting standards.
HB 454 – Determining whether a tax break is meeting its original purpose
This bill adds relevant information to the tax expenditure report, so General Assembly members can determine if the tax expenditures are achieving the desired legislative intent. Analysis to be include a detailed description of the expenditure, a review of intended legislative purpose, effect on the administration of the tax system and entities benefiting from the expenditure.
HB 487 – Increase Lottery Commission’s supervision for certain games
This bill is a comprehensive reformation of the Georgia code involving the regulation of Class B coin operated amusement machines. These are games that can be played where participants earn points/tickets that can be refunded for items on the premises. Unfortunately, bad actors are providing cash payouts for these machines which created cottage gambling locations throughout the state.
The major shift of this bill is to move the oversight responsibilities of these machines from the Department of Revenue to the GA Lottery Commission. The GA Lottery Commission has a vested interest in eliminating these bad actors because under current law the GA Lottery is the only game method that can offer cash payouts. Another aspect that will be allowed is lottery tickets will once more be able to be earned by participants who play on these machines.
HB 499 – Preservation of State Determined Negligence/Standard of Care
This bill is a way to ensure that the federal Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA) does not change in any way the standard of proof under which negligence or “the standard of care” or “the standard of duty” that is owed by a health care provider.
HB 512 – Safe Carry Protection Act
This bill is known as the “Safe Carry Protection Act.” It is a comprehensive amendment of multiple sections of Georgia’s weapons code to allow for expanded carry rights for license holders and to clean up and clarify language regarding weapons law in this state.
It allows carrying a concealed weapon with a permit in places of worship, bars, and on college campuses. It also gives more discretion to determine eligibility of an applicant after a mental health waiver is signed. The legislation makes unknowingly carrying a weapon in a non-restricted area of a commercial airport a misdemeanor offense.
HR 107 – Joint Study Committee on Medicaid Reform
This creates a joint (House and Senate) 18-member study committee for the purposes of evaluating the state's Medicaid program, examining other states' best practices and planning for future actions necessary to sustain appropriate levels of services and funding. The committee is authorized to meet for five days and report its findings by December 31, 2013 when it is abolished.
HR 549 – House Study Committee on Professional Licensing Board
This resolution creates a House Study Committee on Professional Licensing Boards. The existing structure of licensing boards will be studied to determine elements such as whether each structure is streamlined, optimizes efficiencies of scale, provides adequate staffing needs and is effective and efficient relating to any matters associated with licensing professions in this state. The study committee, however, is not merely limited to those things.