'Lawmakers' Day 28: Crossover Day; Senate's voter amendment fails; House OKs income tax bill

Caption

An election worker in Gwinnett County demonstrates how to insert a voter card into ballot-marking devices used by voters across Georgia.

Credit: Maya Homan/Georgia Recorder

Dozens of bills cleared a key hurdle at the state Capitol on Friday as both chambers worked late into the night. Crossover Day is the last day bills can pass out of their chamber of origin for a chance at becoming law. 

The Senate started off the day early with 57 bills or resolutions on the calendar for Crossover Day. 

Senate Bill 410 would repeal any new tax exemptions given to data centers for equipment purchases. It also tacked on the original language from SB 34, saying the intent of that portion of the bill is to prevent power companies from passing on the electrical infrastructure and large load rate costs of data centers to their customers. 

"This body cannot make it any more clear," Sen. Matt Brass (R-Newnan) said. "We do not want rate payers paying for the cost of data centers. It is that simple."

"The money for the state portion that these data centers are getting is more than an entire month of the total income taxes that the state of Georgia collects," Sen. Chuck Hufstetler (R-Rome) also said.

Democrats say it doesn't go far enough. 

"And Georgia Power knows the reason they are fighting this — the original 34, the senator from the 34th bill — is because they know that the contracts do not actually cover customers," Sen. Elena Parent (D-Atlanta) said. "They want to make sure that they do not actually cover customers for the length of what they are entering into. Because that would mean that if the data centers don't come or don't stay, that their shareholders would have to pay for the excess."

Despite the concerns, the bill passed 32 to 21 along party lines. 

SB 423 would limit the amount of money that out of state PACs and leadership committees could donate to campaigns to less than 50% of a candidate's total contributions. 

"This bill offers a common sense, balanced approach to protect Georgia elections from undue outside interference while promoting transparency and accountability," Sen. Timothy Bearden (R-Carrollton) said. "It addresses the real concerns about dark money and disproportionate non-resident influence without imposing absolute bans or overly restricted dollar amounts. This is truly a transparency bill to make sure Georgians are electing Georgians."

Opponents say the bill is flawed and at best a fig leaf cover for a bigger problem. 

"But this bill is not a technically tight attempt to regulate campaign finance," Sen. Josh McLaurin (D-Sandy Springs) said. "It is a vehicle for harassment of campaigns that derive political support in part from national support."

The bill passed along party lines 33 to 21. 

Senate Resolution 838 or the State Assurance of Voter Eligibility amendment would add a clause to the state constitution requiring that only U.S. citizens could vote. 

Senators who oppose the resolution say that state law already bars noncitizens from voting. 

"When we talk about Paragraph 2 and the right to register to vote, it says every person who is a citizen of the United States," Sen. Derrick Mallow (D-Savannah) said. "So, Senator, is it your belief that members of this body can change the definition of who a U.S. citizen is from the Georgia General Assembly? Is that your belief?"

"You could write a law that allowed every United States citizen to vote, but that had a second section in that law that would allow non-citizens to vote," Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming) said. "However, if you changed the word to only, that would not be allowed."

The vote was 32 to 23, failing to get the required two-thirds majority and was not passed. 

SB 605 expands the list of offenses for which district attorneys and general solicitors can be removed from office. 

"We learned through the case where Fani Willis was removed from the election interference case based on an appearance of impropriety that many of the prosecutors wanted more clearly defined standards of conduct," Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens) said. "They wanted more of a bright line rule, tell us exactly what is not permitted before we're taken off of cases or disciplined in some way."

But Cowsert denied that it was aimed specifically at Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for her attempt to prosecute President Donald Trump after the 2020 election. 

"This is to help her in the future that there has to be a bright line rule, a clear guard rail of what's permissible," he said. "So, this is in no way any action against her and it applies to all prosecuting attorneys."

That bill passed along party lines 34 to 18. 

The House took up a bill that failed earlier this week, HB 717. The bill would put up guardrails on ketamine clinics, including who can own them. 

The original bill required doctors to have a 51% stake in the clinics. Opponents said that cut some nurses out of the business. The new version of the bill changes that requirement. 

"There is a letter on your desk with the CRNA's insignia on it saying that we are in agreement on this," Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-Marrietta) said. "The changes to the bill are the basic ones that you wanted, which was due to ownership. The bill now allows for CRNAs to own ketamine clinics and for physicians to own ketamine clinics."

The bill passed this time 155 to 8. 

House Bill 1293 also received approval. It allows high school dropouts a chance to get their diploma alongside another certification or diploma, making the state's original pilot program now permanent. 

"It offers specialized services primarily to students 18 to 22 currently to obtain their high school degree and to obtain the high school degrees; these are students who dropped out in high school," said Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Jan Jones (R-Milton). "They have to work towards two certifications, an associate degree or a diploma from their technical college. The program will be refined and expanded statewide. Currently there are only five locations. What the technical college system has found is the program has been so successful, they're ready to work on taking it throughout the entire state."

It passed unanimously. 

Income tax was on the calendar again in the House. This time representatives debated HB 880, which lays out a plan to reduce the state income tax by a tenth of a percent annually until it reaches 3.99%. It would also increase the standard deduction for dependents by $200 a year. 

"It is a reduction in the income tax for every Georgian across the board. We already got that established," said House Majority Whip Rep. James Burchett (R-Waycross). "I don't think that there's any convincing that I can do to get the minority party to come our way. But what I don't understand in this is that we're increasing the standard deductions for a dependent from $4,000 to $6,000, and then for a married filing joint, we're going from $24,000-$36,000. So, a family of four, two parents, two kids. The first roughly $50,000 of their income will have no taxes on it, zero taxes. We're giving them a deduction, so they do not pay any taxes for the first $48,000 of their incomes. I don't understand how anybody doesn't like that policy."

Some Democrats opposed the measure and said that they need more information on how HB 880 will impact the state's revenue. 

"We demand more from our local school systems, our local governments," Rep. David Wilkerson (D-Powder Springs) said. "We created an audit report because they were not complying with statutes. No auditor would take an Excel spreadsheet that doesn't tie to anything. So, my request is that we pull back, we send all these bills to a nice little study committee over the summer. We figure out the best way to give people relief and return part of that $14 to $16 million back to everybody. To make sure that we can continue to function because we didn't create that money. The people that were here that left us this great opportunity, they worked with us and many of us were here. But the reality is that to pass a bill that we have no idea what it cost, I don't know how we do that."

The bill passed 102 to 69. 

The House also passed a bill aimed at reducing property taxes. HB 1116 would cap property tax increases at 3% a year. Representatives voted against another property tax relief measure Tuesday, which could have almost eliminated homestead property taxes through a constitutional amendment. Supporters of that measure amended HB 1116 in hopes of a compromise on the issue. 

“Our intent is to stem what is an unsustainable path for our homeowners and our property owners across the state,” said Rep. Shaw Blackmon, who sponsored the bill.

But some Democrats said they didn't know enough about the quickly amended bill by the time it reached the floor.

“Here we stand on Crossover Day, with House Bill 1116 recommitted earlier today, coming out in a completely different version that no one truly understands what is in here,” House Minority Whip Sam Park said. 

HB 1116 ultimately passed 98 to 68. 

Gun silencers were another topic of contention Friday. The House and Senate both heard bills to legalize gun silencers. While the Senate approved the legalization, the House version of the bill failed. 

Losers of the night include a resolution to create a constitutional amendment to allow voters to legalize sports betting in Georgia and a controversial elections bill that would move the state to hand-marked paper ballots. 

But Sen. Greg Dolezal, the sponsor of the latter bill, said he would bring it back using a tactic to circumvent the Crossover Day deadline.  

“We'll bring it back with a House bill, probably, that we'll be able to use as what we call a vehicle,” he said. 

GPB's Lawmakers returns for Day 29 on Monday, Mar. 9 at 7 p.m. on GPB TV.