Georgia lawmakers begin 2025 legislative session: Here are the issues to watch
ATLANTA - The new Georgia legislative session is kicking off under the Gold Dome on Monday.
After November's election victories, Republicans continue to control both chambers. While they are returning to the Senate with the same 33-23 majority they had in the previous term, Republicans' Republicans’ majority in the state House narrowed slightly to a 100-80 edge after court-ordered redistricting.
Top issues will include Gov. Brian Kemp’s push to limit lawsuit verdicts and proposed responses to September’s deadly shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder. Revenue growth is slowing, but Georgia has an $11 billion surplus lawmakers can spend if Kemp, a Republican, lets them.
Here’s a look at some of the key issues that are expected to come up during this year's session:
Relief for Hurricane Helene damage
Georgia leaders say more needs to be done after Hurricane Helene cut a swath from Valdosta to Augusta in September, causing billions in damage.
"With a path that was hundreds of miles wide, responding to the impacts of Hurricane Helene and providing relief to those most affected must be our top priority," Kemp told lawmakers during a speech in December.
After Hurricane Michael in 2018, Georgia allocated $470 million on top of federal spending. That included $200 million in income tax credits for timber and pecan farmers to replant trees and $69 million to help state and local agencies cover emergency response costs, $55 million to assist farmers suffering crop losses and $20 million for timberland cleanup.
State officials have already approved a plan for $100 million in loans to affected farmers and timber owners.
House Speaker Jon Burns, whose family owns timber property, said wildfires would be a risk to all members of the public by next summer "if we don’t do something about helping those landowners clean up some of those disaster areas."
Tax rebate in the works for 2025
In October, Kemp announced his plans for a tax rebate for Georgians to assist in the recovery efforts after Helene.
"The people up here share a fundamental belief. It’s something I’ve said before, and now I’m going to say it again: This isn’t the government’s money, it’s yours," Kemp said during a press conference announcing the rebate at the State Capitol.
The proposed rebate would return $250 for single Georgians, $375 for single heads of households, and $500 for married couples filing jointly.
Kemp estimated the rebate would save taxpayers more than $1 billion - making the total returned through previous tax rebates and grants more than $6.6 billion.
Officials say the one-time rebate would go through the amended budget.
Renewed push to ban transgender girls in school sports
Georgia committee hearing on trans athletes in women's sports
Riley Gaines and other women testified before the Georgia state special committee on Tuesday, blasting Georgia Tech and the NCAA for allowing a biological male to compete in women's sports and change in the women's locker room with female athletes.
Georgia Republicans in both chambers, including Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Burns, have promised to prioritize banning transgender women and girls from competing in women’s school sports.
The General Assembly in 2022 left it up to the Georgia High School Association to make decisions about transgender women and girls in sports. The association, mostly made up of public high schools, then banned transgender women and girls from participating in its sports events.
Top Republicans now say that’s enough, after Donald Trump and others have made opposition a political issue.
Jones has said Senate Republicans will seek a ban at the college level as well as in high school athletics, but it is unclear if the House will go that far.
Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, noted there are no known instances of transgender athletes in Georgia participating in school sports."They are really putting a lot of time and effort into solving a problem that does not exist," Graham said.
Improving conditions in Georgia’s prisons
Lawmakers in both chambers have said they will pursue legislation to address violence and deaths in Georgia’s prisons.
The U.S. Department of Justice said in November that conditions in state prisons are "inhumane" and prison officials are violating prisoners’ Eighth Amendment protections against cruel punishment.
In a meeting earlier this month with lawmakers, Corrections Commissioner Tyrone Oliver said Kemp is proposing to spend more than $600 million to renovate prisons and hire more staff, among other investments. Oliver also said the state would build another new prison.
Lawmakers want to cut off access to cell phones and drones, which officials say bring contraband inside. Others have suggested increases in mental health staff.
Battle over Georgia's election rules
Georgia’s 16 presidential electors met in December and cast their votes for Trump with nary a peep of opposition, much less the avalanche of activity that followed Joe Biden’s 2022 win in Georgia.
But that doesn’t mean fighting over election laws is over. The state Republican Party wants to cut off automatic voter registration when Georgians get a driver’s license and end no-excuse absentee voting.
Lawmakers could also consider some of the State Election Board rules that a court blocked. Those include include counting the total number of ballots by hand on election night and making it easier for county election board members to refuse to certify an election.
Other possibilities include requiring voters to fill out ballots by hand and having election officials count those ballots by hand, reflecting distrust of Georgia’s electronic voting system. Some lawmakers may want to make it easier to challenge a voter’s eligibility.
The Source: Information for this story came from a report by FOX 5's Brooke Zauner, previous FOX 5 reporting, and the Associated Press.