Special Session Wrap-Up

Sara Fuchs

Last month, Governor Brian Kemp called the legislature back for a Special Session beginning June 17. Special Sessions must have clearly defined purposes. The governor outlined four items for the legislature to address:

Ratifying the suspension of the gas tax,
Passing local legislation,
Redrawing the state's district maps, and
Fixing legislation related to our elections and using QR codes on ballots.

How did it go? Read on to find out.

No New Maps For Now

The most controversial agenda item for the Special Session was redistricting Georgia's maps. Typically, redrawing the state's districts maps should happen every ten years following the results of the U.S. census. This ensures that all U.S. representatives and state legislators are representing an even amount of people and that all voters have an equal voice.

So why call for redistricting outside of a census year? When the Supreme Court handed down their ruling in Louisiana v Calais, they gutted a part of the Civil Rights Voting Act that requires states to draw maps with fair representation for Black and other minority voters. With that requirement lifted, many Republican-led states rushed to redraw their maps to disenfranchise minority voters.

That call for redistricting didn't sit well with Georgia voters. Over a thousand advocates crowded the Capitol on the first day of Special Session to protest redrawing the maps. By noon, the Speaker of the House held a press conference announcing that he would not pursue redistricting for now. However, there's nothing to stop the governor from convening the General Assembly again in November to redraw the maps, after the election. We'll see what happens, but, for now, this is a victory for those who favor fair maps.

QR Codes & Gas Tax

The next agenda item was fixing the state's QR code dilemma. Back in 2024, the legislature passed a bill requiring the state to do away with QR codes on ballots by July 1, 2026. In the following two years, the legislature did not manage to create an alternative method of processing ballots. This left the election process in a state of limbo heading into November's election. Without being able to use the current QR code system, ballots would need to be hand-counted rather than scanned, which is a labor-intensive, expensive, and error-riddled process. Some studies cite error rates up to 40%.

During Special Session, the legislature was able to pass SB 3EX. This delays the QR code ban until 2028 and creates a committee to recommend the next statewide voting system. That's the good news. The bad news is that the bill also included a new provision requiring hand counts for certain close statewide races. We could have done without that provision, but we can breathe a sigh of relief that elections can move forward this fall with our current, secure voting system.

The legislature also passed HR 3 which ratifies the governor's emergency executive order to extend the suspension of the state's gas tax through June 2. This is largely a formality and could have waited until the legislature convened next January.

Local Bills

Finally, the legislature took up more than 70 local bills aimed at placing referendums on the ballot in certain cities and counties to allow an LHOST (Local Homestead Option Sales Tax), a new optional 1% sales tax that can be used to fund homestead tax exemptions. These local bills are predicated on SB 33, the enabling legislation, that was passed last legislative session. I have two big objections to this:

Many believe SB 33 is unconstitutional, so we shouldn't be passing any local bills that it enables.
While lowering property taxes is very desirable in theory, these pieces of local legislation would hike sales tax, making it more expensive for Georgians to buy anything, from small items like diapers or home goods to larger items like home appliances or cars. The taxes disproportionately impact renters and lower-income Georgians with no promise that it will actually lower property taxes. After all, it doesn't prohibit raising the millage rate.

In the end, all of these local bills failed on the floor of the House. Since none of the bills impacted Fulton County, the City of Atlanta, or the City of Sandy Springs, my own constituents would not have been impacted…unless they went shopping in a place where sales tax was increased.

In Conclusion...

The Special Session cost Georgia taxpayers upwards of $300,000. Of the four agenda items put forth by the governor, one was never taken up (redistricting), one should have been handled during regular session (the QR code issue), one could have waited until January (ratifying the sales tax), and one failed every time it came up for a vote (all of the local legislation concerning LHOSTS). Ultimately, the Special Session felt like a political stunt rather than a necessary convening of lawmakers.

Help Keep This Seat Blue

I'm asking you to stand with me. Every Democratic vote in the Georgia House matters, and no seat is truly safe, not even mine. We've grown from 61 Democratic members in 2016 to 81 last session because people like you kept showing up. That's how change happens: one election, one seat, one vote at a time. If you can, please chip in today.

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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.

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409-B Coverdell Legislative Office Building
Atlanta, Georgia 30334

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