July 1 starts a new fiscal year for the state of Georgia, bringing in a new budget and the effective date of laws passed earlier in the year, including many that will affect how Georgia public school students learn.
House Bill 1009, which cleared the Georgia House of Representatives and state Senate overwhelmingly, sets out regulations governing delivery robots, including where and when they can operate and at what speeds, weight limits, and penalties for violators.
One day after signing the $30.2 billion fiscal 2023 spending plan, the governor axed three technical college projects that were to be financed with bonds, including funds to design a logistics, transportation and manufacturing complex at West Georgia Technical College and an advanced manufacturing center at Columbus Technical College.
Starting in the fall, history teachers will be navigating a raft of new laws passed by the state Legislature and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp ostensibly aimed at taking politics out of classrooms.
The agency in charge of Georgia’s medical marijuana program voted unanimously Thursday to turn over responsibility for hearing protests of medical cannabis license awards to the Office of State Administrative Hearings.
Georgia dairy farmers can sell raw, or unpasteurized, milk for human consumption starting in 2023, providing what some farmers say is a much-needed boost for the state’s family farms.
Starting in 2024, the state’s six-bracket income tax rate that tops out today at 5.75% would be flattened and reduced to 5.49%. It would then continue to drop incrementally but only if certain revenue growth indicators are met.
The revolving door in the Gold Dome will continue this election season with at least several dozen seats up for grabs in 2022 in which no incumbents or former legislators are in the running, a number about in line with the previous election when 14% of the class of 236 lawmakers were freshmen. About 50 of this year’s 236 legislative races don’t feature an incumbent.
One school district in Georgia, Forsyth County Schools, banned 13 books, most of them pertaining to LGBTQ+ topics or centered on marginalized characters.
Through the end of 2022, a special state legislative committee is tasked with studying solutions for dealing with homeless encampments after the sponsor of controversial legislation scrapped a measure that initially called for state misdemeanor offenses for camping on public property and denying cities state grants for not enforcing the law.
Fentanyl-related overdose deaths have spiked since the start of the pandemic, rising more than 106% between May 2020 and April 2021, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.
Stateline found nine bills introduced in six states in the past two years with matching or similar language to the Cicero Institute’s model bill, the “Reducing Street Homelessness Act.” Lawmakers in Georgia, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin have introduced bills that are similar to or have portions identical to the institute’s model legislation.
Nationwide, a March Gallup poll found that 3% of respondents said the top problem facing the United States is the coronavirus or diseases, the lowest percentage since the start of the pandemic. Data from the state health department shows at least 400 Georgians died from COVID-19 in March.
