The Holland Report - 2024, Week 8

Florence Luranc

Crossover Week
During the final days leading to Legislative Day 28–Crossover Day–legislators met in the chambers later into the afternoons, rushed to committee meetings, and made last-minute pleas to get their bills on the floor for a vote. The Capitol was also full of friendly faces, including Senator Jon Ossoff who met with the Democratic House Caucus on Monday and later addressed the full House and Senate. A tremendous amount of federal funding is flowing into Georgia right now for infrastructure and economic recovery projects, and we are indebted to Senators Ossoff and Warnock for their tireless work on behalf of Georgians.

Crossover Day marks the theoretical last day a general bill can pass out of its original chamber to be heard in the opposite chamber before the legislative session ends on March 28. With that hard timeline, we worked past 11pm on Thursday to pass more than 70 bills out of the House. We passed a lot of good bills, a couple of bad ones, and watched a few fail to reach the floor before the critical deadline. See below for some examples.

Want the rest of the dirt about what happened during Crossover Week? Tune in for my Zoom listening session on Sunday at 4pm. Registration details are at the bottom of this post.

Legislative Counsel, the department that drafts the bills and resolutions for the General Assembly, keeps a whiteboard count of legislation drafted since the session starts in January. It has been a busy 28 days!

Good Bills
HB 1078 creates the Georgia Program of All-Inclusive Care for Elderly (PACE) which provides acute and long-term healthcare services to individuals seeking an alternative to nursing home care. With Georgia’s growing senior population, this expands options for those needing later-life care.

HB 971 marked a bipartisan win for gun safety advocates as it provides a tax credit for the purchase of firearm safe storage and firearm training courses.

HB 451 requires public entities to provide supplemental insurance to first responders diagnosed with occupational PTSD. The chamber includes several people who have worked as first responders, and the bill’s sponsor Devan Seabaugh, an experienced EMT, gave an impassioned speech about what public safety workers are exposed to and how important it is to care for their mental health.

Speaking of mental health, HB 1104 provides that public and participating private schools must develop and post guidelines addressing mental health risks for student athletes in grades 6-12.

HB 1322 addressed growing concerns from parents about the marketing and packaging of hemp products. The bill requires hemp products to be tamper-resistant, not packaged to resemble a non-hemp snack or candy, and not be marketed to children.

HB 1410 expands homelessness services by authorizing funds to be disbursed from the State Housing Trust Fund for stable housing programs in partnership with private funders.

HB 1125 ends a terrible practice instituted by the federal government in the 1980’s that allows entities to pay workers with disabilities sub-minimum wage (in some cases, workers are getting paid less than 50 cents an hour). This bill bans the practice in Georgia and facilitates grants to help with the transition.

Georgia has a broken licensing system that often prevents people who move to the state from quickly being able to get back to their skilled profession. The House has taken aim at this problem with several measures, including HB 880 (allowing military spouses to use existing licenses from another state) and HB 839 (a social worker licensing compact).

A slew of tax-related bills also passed aimed at providing tax relief to Georgians including HB 1185 which would adjust homestead tax exemptions when assessed home values exceed the rate of inflation.

It’s a tremendous right of passage when a lawmaker passes their first general bill. Several of my colleagues had that honor on Thursday, including Representatives Omari Crawford and Ruwa Romman.

Bad Bills
HB 1105 is known as the Criminal Alien Track and Report Act of 2024. The bill requires local agencies to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement authorities and allows law enforcement to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. The bill also allows for the defunding of any police agency shown not to be complying with the act and the possible criminalization of police officers. I voted no.

HB 1018 is known as the Firearms Industry Nondiscrimination Act and prohibits a financial institution from using a retail code that distinguishes a firearms retailer from a general merchandise retailer or sports retailer. Experts will tell you that those codes are used to track firearms purchased for terrorist organizations, gangs, cartels and other illegal activity. The codes pose no threat to the privacy of law-abiding gun owners (the codes are in effect right now). I voted no on this bill.

HB 1172 removes the references to the public trust doctrine in Georgia code relating to water rights. Unfortunately, this makes for a bill that creates uncertainty and could criminalize people who are angling, wade fishing or boating a small vessel (like a canoe or kayak) if they must touch the land of a privately owned stream or river bed. I voted no and hope some work in the Senate might clear up these problems.

I was surprised to find myself in the press (AJC and Deadline) after speaking against HB 1180 regarding Georgia’s film tax credit. The bill does many good things for the film and television production community in Georgia, including providing an uplift for underutilized parts of the state (in other words, parts of Georgia outside metro Atlanta) and requiring a higher percentage of local labor on productions. However, I relayed concerns about the way it treats the tax credits and their ability to be transferred. I worry that it’s too soon to make changes to the program that could scare away out-of-state filmmakers and do damage to a local industry that is still recovering from last year’s writer and actor strikes.

And All the Other Bills
Obviously while the House was busy passing legislation, the Senate was working to do the same. We’re still learning about the bills of concern that will be coming our way, including an act that prevents certain foreign-born Georgians from owning land, a bill that would effectively defund libraries and a new religious freedom restoration act. Stay tuned to learn how you can advocate about these and other bills during the last month of the session!

Georgia’s Colleges and Universities
I was delighted to see Scrappy the Owl and others representing Kennesaw State University. Other colleges and universities in Georgia visited the Capitol this week including Augusta University and Columbus State University. As a member of the House Committee on Higher Education, I continue to be impressed with the achievements of Georgia's universities and technical schools.

Mental Health continues to be a key focus of legislation. Advocacy groups such as Georgia Recovers remind legislators to keep it top of mind.

Many other groups visited the Capitol this week including Boys and Girls Clubs of Georgia, Hemophilia of Georgia, Human Trafficking Awareness and Gay Pride Groups. I had the pleasure of speaking with some of the impressive Youth of the Year award winners in the Boys and Girls Club.

Join our listening session Sunday afternoon to learn more about Crossover Day and what to expect in the next two weeks. Pre-register here for the Zoom link.

If you haven’t already, please browse my website, betsyforgeorgia.com.

As your Representative, your concerns are important to me. Please contact me at betsy.holland@house.ga.gov or 404-656-0116 with questions, concerns, or solutions you may have regarding legislation or other happenings in District 54.

To stay updated, follow me on Twitter and Facebook, and follow the Georgia House of Representatives @GAHouseHub on Twitter. Additionally, in-depth information regarding current bills, Georgia's annual and supplemental budgets, committee meetings, and livestreams from the General Assembly can be accessed via www.legis.ga.gov.

I encourage you and your family to visit our State Capitol and my office, where all constituents are welcome. I look forward to connecting with you!

My office is located at:
18 Capitol Square, SW
409-B, Coverdell Legislative Office Building
Atlanta, Georgia 30334

Thank you for allowing me to serve as your representative.