Sesión en el pleno del Senado, 31 de marzo de 2026 (día legislativo 39, parte 2)

Transcripción

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1. 1:33:36

   Senate will come back to order.

2. 1:36:39

   All right, so we're, uh, ready to get started. We've... The, uh, secretary's already read the caption, and House Bill 297 is on deck. Recognize the majority leader to present the bill.

3. 1:36:58

   And the rest of the night show. What's that?

4. 1:37:08

   All right, we're back. Good evening.

5. 1:37:15

   We'll get there. Um, so colleagues, we're here to talk about, uh, 297, which this section of code section or whatever we got here, this is about what we're about to debate and potentially make disappear tonight. This has been a consequential year under the Gold Dome, and we've considered historic tax relief, advanced major economic policy, and made unprecedented investments in transportation. Billions of dollars support mobility and growth of our state.

6. 1:37:48

   Today, we take another important step forward. This legislation is about making government work better. It streamlines more than 70 sections of state law and addresses duplicative and outdated and overly broad powers that have spread across two separate transportation authorities, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority and the ATL. Under current law, these authorities hold sweeping powers, powers to override local land use and zoning decisions, powers to withhold state funding from local governments, powers to pressure local communities to raise taxes, and powers of eminent domain, even the ability to issue billions in state-backed bonds with limited oversight.

7. 1:38:31

   Taken together, these are not minor authorities. They are the kinds of powers that allow government to act without sufficient accountability to the people it serves. And the record makes something clear: restraint matters. For years, governors of both parties have chosen not to use the full scope of these powers, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. That tells us something important. These authorities were granted powers far broader than what has ever been necessary in Georgia history.

8. 1:39:02

   This bill right-sizes that structure. It consolidates GRTA and the ATL into a single entity, the Georgia Transportation Efficiency Authority, with a clear mission and modern structure and real accountability. It reduces the size of the governing board by 70%. That means layer, fewer layers of bureaucracy, clearer lines of responsibility, and more transparency to the public. It eliminates unnecessary dormant powers, like the ability to impose air regulate, air quality regulations, override local decisions, and withhold funding from communities, and returns those responsibilities to appropriate agencies or the local governments which they belong.

9. 1:39:43

   It also modernizes the authority in which it operates, allowing virtual meetings, eliminating cumbersome election requirements, so it can function effectively in the 21st century. At the same time, this bill preserves what is working. It ensures oversight of the Atlanta Regional Commission's transportation spending. It maintains the state's role as a designated recipient of federal transit funds, ensuring continuity and compliance with federal law. It preserves the developments of regional impact process, so major projects can move forward with predictable timelines while still accounting for transportation impacts.

10. 1:40:21

    And it maintains existing transit services, including express buses, while adding new accountability measures requiring annual reporting, safety performance, and customer satisfaction. Just as importantly, this legislation restores the proper balance between state and local control. Transit planning decisions are returned to local governments, the communities that know their needs best. Any major new transportation transit expansion that carries long-term tax consequences will still require voter approval.

11. 1:40:54

    That is not anti-transit. That is pro-accountability and pro local control. And for the communities outside of Metro Atlanta, this bill creates an option, not a mandate, to participate in the new authority to access federal transit re- resources more efficiently while still requiring local buy-in and voter approval. In front of you is an amendment, um, from a few of us that includes some cleanup language following the passage of the bill out of committee. It clarifies that the new Georgia Transportation Efficiency Authority will not be a pass-through agency of federal transit funding for communities outside of Atlanta, so it keeps integrity to those transit sy- systems like in Savannah and other places.

12. 1:41:38

    The amendment also adds clarifying language for the definition of the non-attainment area, which was used to define the 13-county ATL jurisdiction that will remain in place for GEORGIA T: Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, Paulding County, and Rockdale County. We also changed the makeup of the board to ensure compliance with federal laws. Next year, Metro Atlanta is supposed to receive more than $750 million from the Federal Highway Administration funds and almost $200 million from the Federal Transit Administration for transit.

13. 1:42:18

    In order to use those nearly $1 billion, projects have to be included in AR's short-term range plan and then approved by the governor. And so this bill ensures that all of those projects and everything that's online stays intact. For the past twenty-three years, Governors Perdue, Deal, and Kemp have delegated this federal approval of authority to GRTA, a board made up of their fifteen appointees with no represent- representation by the General Assembly.

14. 1:42:49

    But if the- we get this board set up with a majority of the governor's appointees as it was in the original bill that was introduced in committee, the governor continued to dele- delegate that federal approval authority to his agent- to this agency. Our amendment also maintains that the GDOT commissioner as a voting member of Georgia T. Colleagues, this is a good government bill. It reduces duplication. It eliminates unnecessary bureaucracy. It reins in overly broad powers.

15. 1:43:19

    It strengthens accountability. And it ensures that transportation and planning and investment in Georgia are done in a way that is efficient, transparent, and responsive to the people that we represent. It preserves what works, fixes what doesn't, and positions our state for continued growth and success. Respectfully ask for your support. Mr. President, I'll yield for a couple questions. Senator, you have no questions. Thank you. Yield the well.

16. 1:43:51

    Secretary, read the additional amendments that we've received. Mr. President, Senators McLaurin of the 14th offers the following amendment, amendment two, amend HB 297 by inserting on line 194 as new section C, if the winner of any of the offices listed in part B of this section shall have been nominated by any political party other than that of the incumbents as of January 1st, 2026, this act shall become inoperative upon certification of such election to reflect the totally unbelievable and candidly apocalyptic election result.

17. 1:44:22

    This act shall remain inoperative until such time as the incumbent political party as of January 1st, 2026, should again hold all three offices and relettering accordingly. Mr. President, Senators Mallow of the second district offers the following amendment, amendment three, amend HB 297 by striking all languages on lines 269 through 271 beginning with "Is A" and ending with purpose and inserting, "Is or has ever been involved as a party or a subject in any federal or state litigation involving the Federal Voting Rights Act, Federal Civil Rights Act, or the Federal or State Constitution pursuant to any violation of a person or persons voting rights.

18. 1:44:56

    The county may initiate transit services upon r- approval from voters in a county-wide referendum called for such purpose." Mr. President, that completes the order.

19. 1:45:19

    Recognize... Recognize the senator from the 14th to speak to his apocalyptic amendment right here.

20. 1:45:41

    Thank you, Mr. President. Um, you know, I, I once hired a chess coach actually within the last year or so. It's a pastime I've really gotten into. We would meet once a week over Zoom. One-- many pieces of advice that you can port over from the chess context to everyday life and also the political sphere, but one of them, which was a, an especially significant lesson, is when you're winning, don't get too far ahead of yourself. When you're winning, slow down just a little bit, right? Let your opponent make some mistakes. And I fear that this bill gets a little ahead of itself, a little over its skis, by giving the governor, the lieutenant governor even more authority than they already have to appoint positions to state boards.

21. 1:46:22

    Now, we could get into the meat of this bill. I mean, I'm gonna vote no on this bill because, you know, it's a, it's a grab by the state government to move transit authority away from local governments, specifically Metro Atlanta governments who have been working together on transit for decades now, to take that locus of control and move it to the state government level by giving the governor and the lieutenant governor these statewide appointments. So this is actually a quite simple amendment. This amendment would make sure that the majority, like my chess coach suggested, doesn't get too far ahead of itself.

22. 1:46:56

    Because what you don't want is you don't want to give the governor and lieutenant governor more authority and then find in November or December that that's authority you wish that the governor and lieutenant governor didn't have. So you can imagine a scenario, a quite, uh, arcane, crazy to imagine scenario, where this body holds a special session in December to take away some of the statutory powers of the governor or lieutenant governor. So if you imagine this bill passing today, then you go to special session just to unwind it, it's a lot like the Sneetches, right?

23. 1:47:30

    We're just taking stars on and putting them, putting them on, taking them off. I propose an amendment that saves you some work. This bill has a trigger condition in it, this amendment, that if, uh, the non-incumbent party wins the offices of governor and lieutenant governor in November, then this bill will automatically stand repealed. This is a good government amendment because it basically says, uh, that if you're going to have to duplicate or unwind this work in December, let's just dispense with that extra special session work now.

24. 1:48:03

    Let's make sure that this bill only applies if Republicans stay in power. Uh, and essentially the amendment is good government. It saves taxpayers money. So I will yield to any questions about this perfectly crafted, um, and I think accurate description of the coming apocalypse. Thank you, Mr. President. Recognize the senator from the 48th. Thank you, Mr. President. Does senator yield? I do to my friend from the 48th. When we talk about candidly apocalyptic, I can't help but think about the Book of Revelations.

25. 1:48:33

    Okay. When I think about the Book of Revelations, I think about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I'm wondering

26. 1:48:41

    In your best possible scenario here, which one are you and why? Which of the horsemen am I? I, I don't know, the, the loud one who speaks too much.

27. 1:48:53

    Uh, it, in, in all honesty, I mean, I do think this chamber has felt different. People have been asking me a lot this year, "How is it being in your last year in the legislature?" And I, and I'll get partisan for a second. It has felt a little bit different, but not in a way where I'm mad at y'all. Actually, I feel like the ways in which it's different have been reflected in the ways you've been more suited to compromise, right? As the power has balanced out, we've had more moments of compromise and working together this session than I can remember in my eight years. And I've heard you give some speeches on issues like Minnesota that, where the, the messaging you've sent has actually been fairly close to the way that some Democrats are talking about it.

28. 1:49:29

    So I think this is actually a really interesting reflection on what a perceived apocalypse would really be like. I've had lobbyists come up to me and say, "You know, the Senate, the way it's doing amendments, the way you guys are coming to compromise, this is the Senate I remember from 10 to 20 years ago, and I really wish that the Senate would function more like that." So a little homily on partisan balance and power, that maybe when things are a little closer to 50/50, a little closer to the color purple, the Senate functions, the legislature functions, uh, as a democracy is intended to function.

29. 1:50:00

    I'll yield for further questions. Recognize the senator from the 56th.

30. 1:50:08

    Thank you, Mr. President. This is actually for you. Could you rule in Senate Rule 7-1.2B for germane of any irrelevant amendment or an amendment obviously offered for the purpose of delay shall be ruled out of order by the President? Can I respond to that objection on the record? I think it was to the President. Yeah, I understand. I'm asking if I can respond. While he's talking. While he's talking- There is, there is no Senate rule that says that the Georgia Code can't be funny.

31. 1:50:39

    So just remember that, Mr. President, as you rule. And while I've got you guys-

32. 1:50:50

    I, I think, I think Democrats have taken it on the chin with a couple procedural rulings. Let's get a vote on this amendment. Is that really too much to ask, you know?

33. 1:51:05

    It's a good amendment, Mr. President. You do, um, you do have some more questions. Yeah, that's- So let- let's keep going with questions. What else we got? Senator, senator from the 35th. Thank you so much. Senator, do you yield? I do yield to my good friend. Um, you bring up a scenario that may seem, like, out of this world, uh- Crazy ... but isn't it true that our dear president may have a new $30 bill because his approval rating is in the 30%? All I know is whatever new bills the president is printing, he's gonna put his own name on it, to the great sadness and chagrin of one of our former colleagues.

34. 1:51:41

    Um, d- does the senator further yield? I do yield. Um, has there been a historical precedent where the wildly unpopular, um, national figure can have sweeping effects on local politics and state level politics? I will, I will tell you one such effect, Senator, is that I actually did model the fourth line of this amendment after the speaking voice of the current president. I did do that on purpose. Um, does the senator further yield? I do yield.

35. 1:52:12

    Isn't it true that you do a very good impression of our wildly unpopular, uh, president? I wouldn't say very good, Senator. What I would say is we are at... This is a serious point. We are now at the point where a Trump impression is kind of passe, right? The, the public is so- The public is so exhausted with this guy, right? I mean, even Republicans are like, "Can we please move on?" Which is one of the reasons why all the Democratic objections in this chamber about Trump, they're Trump themed, fall on such groans, because y'all are like, "Please don't keep pinning this on our politics.

36. 1:52:47

    We don't wanna deal with this anymore." So to your point, Senator, if it were funny to do an impression of Trump five years ago, I think now I'd, I'd have a more difficult time. Will the senator further yield for one more question? One more question, Senator. Um, isn't it true that there has been a host of legislation that the state, you know, grabs more power from local and regional, um, areas and mun- municipalities? Yeah, and that's the serious point. As you know, Representative Carpenter had this quote from the last few years that, uh, local control is good unless the locals get out of control, which is kind of the, the pow- you know, the powerful do what they will and the weak suffer what they must, right?

37. 1:53:27

    And this is something I said a minute ago in this chamber, that it would be great if we, if the golden rule applied, and if we did things the way that we would want the other party to do it to us, because in the apocalyptic event, the Democrats do take over the state this year. I think the Republican Party would want us to be gracious and even-handed in our application of rules and norms. I'll yield for, for one set of questions after this, unless, you know. You, uh, senator from the 44th. Okay.

38. 1:53:57

    Yeah. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, Senator, I did want to, and this is super boring, but I figure save myself a trip to the well, raise a couple points- Sure ... um, in seriousness about some of the concerns that some of us have. Um, is it not true that by shifting the control of the board from the counties and us who have elected ATL board members, that gives less local and regional influence in our area where we have the most transit and by far the biggest population and actually needs to be moving people expeditiously?

39. 1:54:34

    Far more so than it would be for other regions of the state. Isn't that the case, Senator? Absolutely. I think one way to make this point in a technical sense is to say that transit makes more sense where there's more density, and the metro Atlanta area certainly has a lot more density, which means that we have conversations about things like bike lanes and pedestrian walkability that we wouldn't necessarily have in other parts of the state. So the fact that the ATL board is composed of representatives, often from a variety of local governments, and that local delegations have input on that, that's an extremely important deliberative process for determining the future of transit in this state.

40. 1:55:06

    And you can't just determine transit five years or even 10 years out. This is a 20 to 30 year conversation. So if we hamstring our local governments in the metro Atlanta area over the next few years, we are, we are making decisions that have consequences out to the 2040s and '50s, Senator. Yes, uh, thank you. And isn't it also true that when we pass the ATL, and I do believe that our state, our national treasurer had a key hand in passing the ATL, and it is, it is to all of our detriment that we are not gonna be able to see his name on the bills as we were so excited about a year ago.

41. 1:55:40

    But, you know, as already discussed, many of us think that's sadly par for the course with, uh, our particular presidential incumbent, but that's beside the point. Isn't it the case that, uh, our, our, our treasurer, former senator from the 24, 21st, had a key role in developing the ATL to get the counties in this area to think regionally because a transit system needs to be regional to be effective? Is that not case, not the case, Senator? It's absolutely true. Brandon Beach was such an advocate for transit. At one point he even filmed himself trying to get from the North Metro down to Atlanta using purely public transportation.

42. 1:56:17

    It took him like three hours or more, and he wanted to make the point that our transit system was inefficient currently and inequipped to meet real needs. And so one of the things, this is actually a majority will find this funny, you know, when Republicans do their politics with Democrats, I mean you all have your way of doing it, but the transit folks are especially entertaining and warm because we often had North Metro Republicans come to us to say, "No, you should put me in s- these positions because I'm actually with you on transit. I really think that this should happen." And that is a widely held view among North Metro Republicans is that we really do need actionable work and budget on transit, and these types of organizations as currently constituted have the political will to have those conversations in a meaningful way.

43. 1:56:58

    And isn't it the case that many of us very much agreed and appreciated the work that, uh, Senator Beach did on this regional, trying to move our region forward with transit? Final, um- Yes ... question. Is it not also the case, Senator, that our transit system, particularly MARTA, in, uh, this capital city region of one of the largest states in the country is unique in the sense that it has received very little state funding over all the years that it has existed? And isn't it the case, Senator, that that is extremely unique, that is not how these transit systems normally operate and are successful?

44. 1:57:35

    And is it not also the case that that has seriously hamstrung the effectiveness and number of places that our transit systems can go, and we really do need to be planning 30 years out? It has, and you know, our colloquy is revealing technical deficiencies in the bill which I think is productive. Uh, I will say too that this bill is not pro-government efficiency because I- we've spoken to the transit advocates about this bill. They have let us know that the restructuring of these agencies, the alphabet soup rearrangement, is not going to save on overhead and operational costs.

45. 1:58:07

    We'll have the same staff in place, maybe even the same facilities, uh, so it's not like we're somehow cutting red tape or reducing government footprint or whatever the talking point might be about how this promotes efficiency. The brass tacks of this bill is that it won't. And here's the other thing. This bill actually risks the existing arrangements we have with the federal government that facilitate the flow of federal funding for transit projects. So again, you know, move fast and break things. When you have politics focused on top line talking points but not on the technical realities on the ground, you risk screwing up a good thing, Senator.

46. 1:58:39

    And it's been a real joy to be up here with you after dinner tonight. Uh, really enjoyed my time, but at that point, Mr. President, I think I'll yield the will. All right, Senator.

47. 1:58:52

    It was just like, uh, dessert after dinner, you know? So-

48. 1:59:00

    Always remember now, God love him, we love Beach, but we, h- his nickname was Big Government Beach ar- around our, these hallways, so.

49. 1:59:12

    But I love him. All right. Senator from the second. Oh, I'm sor- I'm sorry, hold up. Point you have, Senator from the 56th. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd ask for a ruling on germaneness for 7-1.2B on amendment number two. Yeah, we looked at it and the, the chair rules amendment number two out of order pursuant to, um, Rule 7-12B, so.

50. 1:59:43

    But I do, I do like the speech. Amendment number two, senator from, or senator number two with amendment number three.

51. 1:59:59

    Thank you, Mr. President, colleagues. All amendment number three does is, um, amend HB 297 by striking all language on lines 269 to 271, uh, where it references the county commissioners by resolution, resolution would call for the referendum. Uh, basically this would ensure that any, uh, particular county that was involved in any federal or state litigation involving the Federal Voting Rights Act, Federal Civil Rights Act, or the federal or state constitution pursuant to any violation of a person or persons voting rights, uh, the county may initiate transit services upon approval from the voters in a countywide referendum.

52. 2:00:32

    Uh, as you all know, uh, I cannot always trust my county commissioners to always do the right thing, so, uh, this amendment would ensure that the people have an opportunity to vote if they wanna have transit, or if they don't, then they don't have to rely on their county commissioners to do it. A fairly simple amendment, Mr. President, and I ask my colleagues for favorable consideration.

53. 2:00:51

    Recognize the whip.

54. 2:00:55

    Mr. President, I move the question. The senator from the 29th has moved the question. Is there objection?

55. 2:01:05

    Not quite.

56. 2:01:40

    All right, the senator has moved that the previous question be called. Is there objection? Objection. There is objection. All those in favor of the motion rise, stand, and be counted.

57. 2:01:59

    Okay, put it on the board. All those in favor of the motion will vote yay. All opposed, nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

58. 2:03:08

    On the motion, the yays are 30 and the nays are 19, so that motion does prevail.

59. 2:03:30

    Question is on the adoption of amendment number one authored by the majority leader. Is there objection to amendment number one? Hearing none, amendment number one is adopted. Question is on adoption of amendment number three authored by the senator from the 2nd. Is there objection to adoption of amendment number three? There is objection by the senator from the 56th.

60. 2:03:56

    So, uh, all those in favor of amendment number three will vote yay. All opposed, nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

61. 2:05:05

    On the adoption of amendment number three, the yays are 18, the nays are 30, and so amendment number three fails.

62. 2:05:15

    The question is on the adoption of committee substitute as amended. Is there objection to the adoption of the committee substitute as amended? Hearing none, the committee substitute as amended is adopted. Is there objection to agreeing to the reported committee, which is favorable to the passage of the bill? Chair hears none. The reported committee is agreed to. Is there objection to the main question being ordered? Chair hears none. The main question is ordered. The question is on the passage of the bill by substitute. All those in favor of the bill will vote yay. All opposed, nay.

63. 2:05:45

    Secretary will unlock the machine.

64. 2:06:11

    Senator from the 35th, what purpose do you rise? Uh, parliamentary inquiry. State your inquiry. Um, isn't it, isn't it true that this bill is gonna give sweeping changes to how we do transportation, and it was introduced less than a week ago in committee, and it's already on the floor? Senator's passionate about what he speaks.

65. 2:07:08

    On the passage of the bill, the yays are 30 and the nays are 19. This bill having received the requisite constitutional majority is therefore passed by substitute.

66. 2:07:19

    Secretary, read House Bill 309.

67. 2:07:32

    House Bill 309 by Representative Clifton of the 131st and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Chapter 8 of Title 36 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to county police so as to require adoption of a resolution or ordinance and voter approval prior to abolishment of a police force that was created by such method to provide for a referendum to provide for related matters to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes. Mr. President, the Committee of the Senate on State and Local Government Operations General recommends that this bill do pass by substitute. Respectfully submitted, Senator Dixon, Chairman. Recognize the senator from the 45th

68. 2:08:07

    Mr. President, uh, I would request that HB 309 be put on the table.

69. 2:08:19

    All right. Is there objection? The objection is tabled.

70. 2:08:25

    Moving on. Secretary read House Bill 466.

71. 2:08:39

    House Bill 466 by Representative Cameron of the first and others, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Article 3 of Chapter 3 of Title 50 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to other state symbols so as to designate the Marsh Tacky Horse as the official Georgia heritage horse breed, to provide legislative findings and declarations to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes. Mr. President, the Committee of the Senate on Economic Development and Tourism recommends that this bill do pass by substitute. Respectfully submitted, Senator Echols of the 45th District, Chairman. Mr. President, the Senate Committee on Economic Development and Tourism offers the following substitute to House Bill 466, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Article 3 of Chapter 3 of Title 50 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to other state symbols so as to designate the Marsh Tacky Horse as the official Georgia heritage horse breed, to designate the Pineywoods Cattle as the official Georgia heritage cattle breed, to provide legislative findings and declarations to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes.

72. 2:09:27

    Mr. President, that completes the order.

73. 2:09:39

    Recognize the senator from the 30th.

74. 2:09:46

    Tacky Horse. Hey. And Pineywoods. And Pineywoods Cattle. Hey. I had a treat for y'all tonight. I had a patriotic speech on this, but it's getting late, so we're just gonna go ahead and go with it. This will bring the Marsh Tacky Horse as the Georgia heritage horse breed and the Pineywoods Cattle as our official Georgia heritage cattle breed. These two animals have been around since the 1500s in this state, before we were a state. They deserve this honor, and I ask for your favorable consideration on this vote.

75. 2:10:18

    With that, Mr. President, I will yield the well. You- What? You got some- you got a couple questions there. Oh, okay. Bring it. I got you. I got you. Let's go with it. Recognize the senator from the 6th. Of course, my Freedom Caucus member. Thank you, Mr. President. Senator, do you yield? I do ye- yield to the chairman of the Freedom Corner. Thank you. Um, Chairman or... Yeah, you are chairman. I'm just trying to figure out how in the world did this state exist for this long without this piece of legislation.

76. 2:10:48

    That's a very good question. These things are patriotic. They've been here since the beginning, since we built this state from the ground up, and they should've been, this should've been done long ago. So thank you for that question. Recognize the senator from the 56th. I should yield the well. Thank you, Mr. President. Does the, uh, senator yield? I do. You're part of the Freedom Corner over there, aren't... Is that not true? 100%, yes, sir. Can you explain to us in detail what freedoms you're gonna protect by passing the, uh, the Marsh Tacky Horse? I think it's truly freedom.

77. 2:11:19

    The- Actually, the Marsh Tacky Horse, General Francis Swamp Fox Marion relied on these sure-footed horses to navigate the swamps and won guerrilla victories against the British, against the Redcoats, I say, and this is why it should be part of the Georgia heritage. Freedom. You had me. Thank you, Senator. I yield the well. Vote green for freedom. Thank you so much.

78. 2:11:51

    Freedom. You gotta turn, you gotta turn your light on, Senator. Good job,

79. 2:11:57

    people. Got it. All right. Any other senator wish to speak for or against the measure? Is there objections to the previous question being ordered? Chair hears none. The previous question is ordered. Question is on the adoption of the committee substitute. Is there objection to the adoption of the committee substitute? Hearing none, committee substitute is adopted. Is there objection to agreeing to the report of the committee, which is favorable to the passage of the bill? Chair hears none, and the report of the committee is agreed to. Is there objections to the main question being ordered?

80. 2:12:28

    Chair hears none. The main question is ordered. The question is on the passage of the bill by substitute. All those in favor of the bill, vote yay. Opposed, nay. Secretary, enlighten the machine.

81. 2:12:42

    Order. Senator from the 13th, to what purpose do you rise? Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. President. State your inquiry. Mr. President, are you aware that these are South Carolina horses that we're taking care of in Georgia? Swamp Fox. Swamp Fox. Mr. President, I'm just reading from Google, and Google never lies. This is social media. Senator, all I can tell you is there's a red and green button. Recognize the senator from the 30th. To what purpose do you rise? Is it not true that the, uh, General Swamp Fox was from South Carolina?

82. 2:13:16

    These horses has been in the Southeast since the 1500s and came from Spain. Senator knows of what he speaks. Thank you.

83. 2:13:30

    Yep. Yep. Yeah, well, my dad was... When I was little, my dad On the passage of the bill, the yays are 41 and the nays are six.

84. 2:13:58

    And this bill, having received the requisite constitutional majority, is therefore passed by substitute.

85. 2:14:11

    House Bill 413. Secretary Reed, House Bill 413. Diana Walton.

86. 2:14:20

    House Bill 413 by Representative Jenkins of the 136th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Chapter 1 of Title 2 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to general provisions regarding agriculture so as to prohibit local ordinances that prohibit the operation of mobile sawmills on agricultural lands, to provide for agricultural products, to provide for definitions, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes. Mr. President, the Committee of the Senate on Agriculture and Consumer Affairs recommends that this bill do pass by substitute.

87. 2:14:51

    Respectfully submitted, Russ Goodman, Chairman. Mr. President, the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Consumer Affairs offers the following substitute to House Bill 413, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Code Section 31-10-26 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to certified copies of vital rep- records, duplicates, and data so as to provide for vital record access to certain grantee beneficiaries, to amend Chapter 17 of Title 44 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to transfer on death deeds so as to modify certain provisions regarding transfer on death deeds, to provide for property of solvent and in- of insolvent estates, to provide for the acceptance of a real estate transfer, to provide for revocation, to provide for limitations, to provide for curing defects, and for other purposes.

88. 2:15:28

    Mr. President, that completes the order.

89. 2:15:32

    Ladies and gentlemen, it's the longest serving floor leader in the history of the Senate again, the senator from the 50th.

90. 2:15:48

    There he is. All right. Thank you, Mr. President. This is a good bill, common sense. House Bill 413, what this deals with is... Can you hear me now, senator from the 19th? All right. What this deals with is, um, an estate issue when someone passes away and wants to leave, uh, their home or property to a beneficiary. Instead of having to go through the entire estate process, there's something called a transfer on death deed, or a TOD.

91. 2:16:21

    There are a lot of benefits to this, but essentially, I think one of the best benefits is when a family's grieving, if they have to probate a will, uh, it can be complicated. It can cause more expense for the family. What this does is allow someone to have their f- affairs in order before they pass away and allow for the, um, just a less complicated and more beneficial way to transfer property to a beneficiary upon death, and I'm happy to answer any questions. You do have a couple questions, senator. Senator from the 42nd.

92. 2:16:53

    Does the leader yield? For a serious question to my friend from the 42nd. For a series of questions, yes. Not as serious. Um, I just once again wanna recognize your service to our state and the nation as the world's longest serving floor leader in the history of mankind. Um, but I do have a question, though. Earlier today, which seems like years ago, but I think this morning, the senator from the 45th bragged about how as floor leader back, I think, you know, 10 groups ago, you were in that group, too, of floor leaders. But, um, back when he was floor leader, the First Lady gave him an award for basically the First Lady's floor leader.

93. 2:17:27

    And I'm just curious, is there any reason that you were not recognized by the First Lady as a floor leader? You know, I think the governor and the First Lady have done a fantastic job, and like them, I don't, uh... I, I'm, I'm here for the people of the state of Georgia, don't need recognition. And, um, I just appreciate the senator from the 42nd and all the work that you do, and thank you for- Yeah ... bringing that up. Well, just one last question, if you will. Okay. Is the reason you continue to serve as a floor leader here to the very end in hopes that the First Lady will finally recognize you and your service to our state as well?

94. 2:17:59

    You caught me. With that, Mr. President, I'll yield the will.

95. 2:18:04

    You know, if I remember correctly, the senator, the old country lawyer, senator from the 42nd, I believe he was a floor leader in the House, right? Yeah, yeah. So...

96. 2:18:22

    Well, thank you, senator from the 50th, and your service to the floor leader position. You've served it well. Any other senators like to speak for or against the measure?

97. 2:18:36

    Chair hears none. Previous question is ordered. Question is on the adoption of the committee substitute. Is there objection to the adoption of the committee substitute? Hearing none, the committee substitute is adopted. Is there objection to agreeing to the referring committee, which is favorable to the pass of the bill? Chair hears none. Referring committee is agreed to. Is there objection to the main question being ordered? Chair hears none. The main question is ordered. Question is on the passage of the bill by substitute. All those in favor will vote yay. All opposed, nay. Secretary will unlock the machine.

98. 2:19:08

    Order.

99. 2:19:11

    Did this, this... There was no objection to the amendment on that transportation, the first amendment, or was there? The amendment. It was on number three? I didn't throw them all away. All

100. 2:19:29

     right. I was eating supper about that time.

101. 2:20:11

     Okay. On the passage of the bill, the yeas are 49, the nays are zero. This bill having received requisite constitutional majority is therefore passed by substitute.

102. 2:20:24

     Good job, Senator.

103. 2:20:38

     Recognize senator from the 45th.

104. 2:20:43

     Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I ask that, uh, Senate Bill 521 be placed on the table.

105. 2:20:50

     House Bill-

106. 2:20:51

     House Bill. Sorry, House Bill

107. 2:20:51

     ... 521. Secretary, read the caption.

108. 2:20:55

     House Bill 521 by Representative Anderson of the 10th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Article VIII of Chapter 36 of Title 36 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to municipal de-annexation so as to revise procedures related to the de-annexation of certain properties, to provide for related matters, to provide for an effective date, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes.

109. 2:21:20

     Is there objection? Hearing none, 521 is tabled. Secretary read House Bill 657.

110. 2:21:35

     House Bill 657 by Representative Hagan of the 156th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Title 37 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to mental health so as to provide for the qualifications of recovery community organizations for substance use, to provide for definitions, to provide for the certification of peer specialists, to provide for the approval of certification training bodies, to designate one statewide recovery community organization, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes. Mr. President, the Committee of the Senate on Health and Human Services recommends that this bill do pass by substitute. Respectfully submitted, Senator Watson, the first district chairman.

111. 2:22:06

     Mr. President, the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services offers the following substitute to Senate Bill 65- 657. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Title 16, 19, 31, 48, and 49 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to crimes and offenses, domestic relations, health, revenue and taxation, and social services respectively so as to modernize and update provisions relative to duties or function of the Department of Public Health, to eliminate certain powers of state regulatory boards governing prescribers relative to the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program database, to eliminate certain requirements of the Department of Health relative to the testing and certification of such database, to repeal provisions relative to the Electronic Database Review Advisory Committee, and for other purposes.

112. 2:22:42

     Mr. President, that could please-

113. 2:22:43

     No, it does not.

114. 2:22:44

     Oh. Mr. President, Senator Still of the 48th and others offers the following amendment. Amendment 1, amend the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services substitute to H- House Bill 657 by replacing line four with the following: Department of Public Health and Department of Community Health to eliminate certain powers of state regulatory boards, by replacing line 14 with the following: Pilot program for home visitation during pregnancy and early childhood to require that licensed general hospitals and birthing centers make available a water safety education video to parents or guardians of newborn infants, to provide for a form to be developed, and for other purposes. Mr. President, that completes the order.

115. 2:23:55

     Recognize senator from the 6th, the Rules chairman.

116. 2:24:05

     Thank you, Mr. President. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring to y'all HB 657. The underlying bill revises the administration of certain social services funding and establishes certification requirements for peer specialists and recognition standards for recovery community organag- organizations in mental health and substance use coordinated through the Department of Public Health. In Health Committee, we added a, uh, department bill to it, and that's in section one.

117. 2:24:41

     This is a DPH aging bill we pr- passed previously as SB 440, and it simply repeals outdated programs and streamlines reporting requirements. We like to call this a red tape rollback. And I believe there's an amendment that has been withdrawn, and I don't support it. I'll yield for questions.

118. 2:25:07

     You have no questions, Senator.

119. 2:25:08

     Thank you. I urge your favorable consideration for HB 657.

120. 2:25:12

     Senator from the 48th, you're recognized.

121. 2:25:17

     Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Amendment 1 to HB 657 be withdrawn.

122. 2:25:21

     Is there objection? Without objection, Senator Sev- Amendment 1 is withdrawn.

123. 2:25:30

     Does any other senator wish to speak for or against the measure? Chair hears none.

124. 2:25:36

     But he's okay.

125. 2:25:37

     Senator from the 55th, you, you got your light on. You took it off. Chair hears none. Is there objection to the previous question being ordered? Chair hears none. Previous question is ordered. Question is on the adoption of the committee substitute. Is there objection to the adoption of the committee substitute? Hearing none, the committee substitute is adopted. Is there objection to agreeing to the reporting committee, which is favorable to the passage of the bill? Chair hears none. Reporting committee is agreed to. Is there objection to the main question being ordered?

126. 2:26:07

     Chair hears none. Main question is ordered. Is... Question is on the passage of the bill by substitute. All those in favor of the bill will vote yay. Opposed, nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

127. 2:27:27

     On the passage of the bill, the yays are 47 and the nays are 1. This bill, having received the requisite constitutional majority, is therefore passed by substitute.

128. 2:27:37

     Order.

129. 2:27:50

     Secretary read House Bill 1075.

130. 2:27:57

     House Bill 1075 by Representative Chassagne of the seventh and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Chapter six of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to sexual offenses so as to modify the penalty for offenders previously convicted of the offense of trafficking of persons for labor or sexual servitude, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes. The Committee of the Senate on Judiciary recommends that this bill do pass. Respectfully submitted, Senator Strickland of the 42nd District. Chairman. Mr. President, the Senate Committee on Judiciary offers the following substitute to House Bill 1075. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Article one of Chapter 10 of Title 17 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to procedure for sentencing and imposition of punishment so as to provide for a felony if an individual is con- convicted of four or more qualifying misdemeanor offenses.

131. 2:28:36

     To provide for punishment, to provide for evidentiary requirements, to provide for a definition, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes. Mr. President, that completes the order.

132. 2:28:51

     Recognize senator from the 30th.

133. 2:29:00

     Good. Can't wait. Thank you, Mr. President. And just for clarification, if anyone was wondering, I've never been asked to be a floor leader like our, uh, great senator from the 50th. Just throwing it out there for you.

134. 2:29:16

     I'm, I don't have floor leaders, Senator.

135. 2:29:19

     But one day.

136. 2:29:19

     No.

137. 2:29:23

     So that, just, just throwing it out there. All right, so I'm bringing forward tonight House Bill 1075. Um, basically what this bill does, if someone keeps committing the same kinds of misdemeanor crimes over and over, after the fourth one, we're gonna treat it as a felony. So in plain terms, what does it do? What counts? Only qualifying misdemeanors, things like battery, assault, sexual misdemeanors under Georgia Chapters five and six. The trigger for this is four or more within a 10-year period will count as a felony.

138. 2:29:57

     Um, punishment would be one to 10 years in prison. The first year must be served, no probation, no suspension. So basically that's what the bill does. If you got someone that keeps committing these same type of crimes over and over within a 10-year period, it'll move into a felony status. So, uh, with that, Mr. President, if there's no questions, I'll yield the well.

139. 2:30:16

     You have no questions, Senator?

140. 2:30:17

     I yield the well.

141. 2:30:19

     Is there any other senator who wishes to speak for or against the measure? Chair hears none. Is there objection to the previous question be in order? Chair hears none. Previous question is ordered. Question is on the adoption of the committee substitute. Is there objection to the adoption of the committee substitute? Hearing none, committee substitute is adopted. Is there objection to agreeing to the report of committee, which is favorable to the passage of the bill? Chair hears none. The report of the committee is agreed to. Is there objection to the main question be in ordered? Chair hears none. The main question is ordered. Question is on the passage of this bill by substitute.

142. 2:30:50

     All those in favor vote yay. All opposed nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

143. 2:32:06

     All on the passage of the bill, the yays are 47, the nays are zero. This bill, having received the requisite constitutional majority, is therefore passed by substitute.

144. 2:32:18

     Secretary read House Bill 1161.

145. 2:32:26

     House Bill 1161 by Representative Limbs of the 98th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Title 40 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to motor vehicles and traffic so as to provide for proper operation of a motor vehicle upon approach by an authorized emergency vehicle or by a law enforcement vehicle for purposes of a traffic stop. To provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes. Mr. President, the Committee of the Senate on Public Safety recommends that this bill do pass by committee substitute. Respectfully submitted, Senator Albers, chairman.

146. 2:32:52

     Through traffic stop and for other purposes.

147. 2:32:54

     Mr. President, the Senate Committee on Public Safety offers the following substitute to House Bill 1161. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Title 40 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to motor vehicles and traffic so as to provide for proper operation of a motor vehicle upon approach by authorized emergency vehicle or by a law enforcement vehicle for purposes of a traffic stop and for other purposes.

148. 2:33:18

     Mr. President, Senators Robertson of the 29th and oth- others offers the following amendment. Amendment one, amend the Senate C- Committee on Public Safety substitute to House Bill 1161 by inserting before "to provide for related matters" on line nine the following, "to prohibit the use of speed detection devices by municipal s- police departments on certain roadways." Mr. President-

149. 2:33:37

     Senator Bearden, through definitions

150. 2:33:39

     ... Senator Bearden of the 30th District and others offers the following amendment. Amend the s- substitute to House Bill 1161 by inserting after safe- safety on line nine the following, "to modify the permissible reduction of light transmission through the application of material and glazing to the windows of certain motor vehicles, to provide for definitions and for other purposes."

151. 2:33:56

     Mr. President, Senator Albers, and through police officers.

152. 2:33:59

     Mr. President, Senator Albers of the 56th District and others offers the following amendment. Amendment three, amend the Senate, uh, amend the substitute to House Bill 1161 by replacing lines four through six with the following, "to provide," by replacing lines 40 through 121 with the following, "Said title is further amended in code section 40-6-3095 relating to fleeing or attempting to elude police officer and impersonating law enforcement officer by revising subsections D and E and adding a new section, subsection to read as follows and for other purposes." Mr. President, that completes the order.

153. 2:34:36

     Chair Public Safety, senator from the 56th.

154. 2:34:43

     Thank you, Mr. President. For expediency and time, I'm gonna talk about all three amendments in the bill. This bill was brought by a representative in the House who had worked, uh, for the last two years, uh, specific on a move over law in Georgia. If you're getting pulled over or something has happened, to make sure you're pulling over to the right to a safe location, uh, it's in a well-lit area, and everybody knows what's happening on the road. It's there to protect both the police officer as well as the person who might be being pulled over. Second part of this bill is called fleeing and eluding. That's people who are running from the state police or the Capitol Police alone.

155. 2:35:15

     This added significant penalties for every one mile that they, uh, elude the police, they'll spend 30 days in jail. And the last part of this is, is with our digital driver's license. If you remember, we approved those many years ago to be used in the airport and for other areas, and then we passed it to be used on the road. The problem with that is the digital driver's license, while it is a good technology, it can cost up to $1,000 per police officer to have the equipment to read that. Uh, so we're punting that to get out to 2032 to give time for the technology to catch up, not to incur additional costs.

156. 2:35:48

     In front of you, you have three amendments. I support all three of those. The first amendment, uh, is something that we have, uh, debated and passed before in this chamber, uh, only we reduce it to, uh, any city, uh, officer, uh, will not set a speed detection device on both sides of the right of way of a roadway that has more than two miles through the corporate limits. That's making sure that smaller police officers aren't annexing, uh, very tiny parts of the interstate, uh, and policing for revenue. The Second Amendment, uh, brings us into compliance with window tinting with the state of Florida.

157. 2:36:20

     It's consistent with theirs. Window tinting, while we encourage people to do that to keep their cars cooler, uh, and have the protections they need, we also need to make sure they're safe for both the driver as well as, uh, being pulled over by officers. And then Amendment Three was worked out with, uh, the bill's author as well as, uh, the other representative for fleeing and eluding to clean up some language. This is a, uh, fairly large bill, but it's comprehensive. This is a very bipartisan bill. This is, uh, passed, uh, through a Democrat in the House, added through several Republican bills onto it, and we think we've got a great solution for Georgia, and I'll yield for questions or I'll yield the well.

158. 2:37:02

     A couple questions, Senator. Recognize senator from the 37th. Thank you, Mr. President. Does the gentleman yield? I yield. Um, on amendment three, the, uh, provision that deals with 30 days for each mile the person travels while fleeing, uh, is there a limitation to that? I mean, I, I can imagine if someone were to flee and to head south to Florida- ... that's 250 miles from here. Is that intended to be a 20-year sentence? Uh, no, it is not. Uh, it will conclu- it'll be a cap of two years. So the, is, is, is the cap somewhere else in the bill?

159. 2:37:33

     Uh, it is in the rest of the bill, yes. Thank you.

160. 2:37:38

     Recognize the senator from the 41st. Thank you, Mr. President. Does the senator yield? I yield. Uh, if you were able to speak to amendment number two a little b- with a little bit more detail, um, it's my understanding what this amendment does, is it not true, is to make it so that you have to have lighter tint than you currently are able to have today on your windows? Is that not true? Yes. Uh, actually, the senator from the 30th, uh, is the author of this bill. It's not necessarily lighter tint. It's to keep those tinting consistent with what we have, uh, in our neighboring states.

161. 2:38:09

     Uh, and I would let him, uh, continue to talk about this further, but what we have is inconsistencies. So let's say you're going from state to state. What you don't wanna do is have different tinting regulations between those and be compliant in one and non-be compliant in the other. Thank you. Thank you.

162. 2:38:29

     Recognize the senator from the 24th. Does the senator yield? Why, certainly. Uh, Senator, if in, in the chase, if we, we go a mile and seven tenths, do we round it up to two miles, or do we- ... Well, you know, I- ... round it down ... I know the senator from the 52nd would say for the seven you would round up, um, but I'm not sure, uh, we have contemplated that. I think they're probably just gonna have to stay at the, at the one mile.

163. 2:38:59

     That's a great question from the great senator of the great Committee of Natural Resources. All right, Senator, I think you got it all. Thank you, Mr. President.

164. 2:39:17

     Senator from the 29th.

165. 2:39:23

     Speak to your amendment, senator from the 29th. You talking all three? Okay. All right. So would any other senator wish to speak for or against the measure? Hearing none, is there objection previous question be in ordered? Hearing none, previous question is ordered. We're on the adoption of the amendments.

166. 2:39:57

     Sen- uh, amendment number one, authored by the senator from the 29th. Is there objection?

167. 2:40:04

     All right.

168. 2:40:08

     I, I mean, do you see how many co-sponsors are on this thing? I've never seen that many co-sponsors on an amendment before. I think I even see your number.

169. 2:40:21

     All right. So- And you got your boots on ... so we have ... Well, all right. Here we go. We have, uh, amendment number one. I can't even tell who's authored by it because there's so many on here, but I do know the negative senator from the 41st is objecting to it. So, uh, all those in favor of amendment number one will vote yay.

170. 2:40:48

     All, all, all in favor with number one, amendment number one will vote yay. All opposed nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

171. 2:40:56

     Senator from the 14th, what purpose do you rise?

172. 2:40:58

     Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. President.

173. 2:40:59

     State your inquiry.

174. 2:41:00

     Mr. President, isn't it true that this amendment has almost enough signatures to be sent to the Committee on Interstate Cooperation? Is that not true, Mr. President?

175. 2:41:07

     That is very true. That is a very accurate statement right there.

176. 2:41:22

     Senator from the 41st, what purpose do you rise?

177. 2:41:24

     Parliamentary inquiry.

178. 2:41:25

     State your inquiry.

179. 2:41:26

     Isn't it true that two miles is a really long stretch of road, and a child could be trying to run across that road, but there are basically no speed enforcements in, in place, so people can speed right on down it? Is that not true?

180. 2:41:38

     A lot of factors play into that, Senator.

181. 2:42:54

     Senator from the 25th, what purpose do you rise?

182. 2:42:57

     Parliamentary inquiry.

183. 2:42:58

     State your inquiry.

184. 2:42:59

     This cursive, uh, writing that they're gonna be teaching, you think we should have some remedial courses so we can tell who's signing these amendments and bills?

185. 2:43:12

     Senator is passionate about what he speaks.

186. 2:43:20

     On the adoption of the amendment number one, the yeas are 43 and the nays are seven, and this amendment has passed. All right, on amendment number two, authored by the majority leader, is there objection? Hearing no objection, amendment number two is adopted. And amendment number three, authored by the, the Public Safety chairman, is there objection? Hearing no objection, amendment number three is adopted.

187. 2:43:51

     Question is on the adoption of the committee substitute as amended. Is there objection to the adoption of the committee substitute as amended?

188. 2:43:57

     No objection.

189. 2:43:57

     Hearing none, the committee substitute as amended is adopted. Is there objection to agreeing to the report of the committee, which is favorable to the passage of the bill? Chair hears none. The report of the committee is agreed to. Is there objection the main question be in order? Chair hears none. The main question is ordered. The question is on the passage of the bill by substitute. All those in favor will vote yay. All opposed nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

190. 2:45:48

     On the passage of the bill, the yeas are 46 and the nays are three. This bill, having received a constitutional majority, is therefore passed by substitute. Secretary read House Bill 1209.

191. 2:46:19

     House Bill 1209 by Representative Stephens of the 164th and others, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Code Section 48-8-3 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to exemptions relative to state sales and use taxes so as to provide for a sales and use tax exemption for purchases of tangible property and construction materials used for or in the construction and furnishing, furnishing of certain buildings, to provide for limitations on the amount of credits to be issued, to provide for related matters, to provide for an effective date, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes. Mr. President, the Committee of the Senate on Finance recommends that this bill do pass.

192. 2:46:49

     Respectfully submitted, Senator Albers- uh, Hu- Hufstetler of the 52nd District. Chairman. Mr. President, that completes the order.

193. 2:47:10

     Senator from the 50th, your light's on. Would you like...

194. 2:47:16

     Bringing down the senator from the 1st.

195. 2:47:28

     Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, I bring you House Bill 1209. This is a narrowly tailored refund-only mechanism to offset extraordinary, uh, cost along the, uh, river. Uh, this project, uh, uh, is about a half billion dollar investment along the river, has capped refund to $7 million, and that's basically it. It is a cost share. Uh, Mr. President, I yield the well.

196. 2:47:54

     You have no question, Senator. Does any other senator wish to speak for or against the measure? Chair hearing none. Is there objection calling the previous question? Chair hears none. The previous question is ordered. Is there objection to agreeing to the report of the committee, which is favorable to the passage of the bill? Chair hears none. The report of the committee is agreed to. Is there objection the question be in order? Chair hears none. The question is ordered. All those in favor of the bill will vote yay.

197. 2:48:25

     All opposed nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

198. 2:49:38

     On the passage of the bill, the yeas are 42 and the nays are eight. This bill, having received a constitutional majority, is therefore passed.

199. 2:49:51

     Did I see the senator from the 36 o- a- align with the Freedom Caucus over there?

200. 2:50:04

     That-

201. 2:50:04

     He's got it.

202. 2:50:06

     But I gotta go back and look at that bill.

203. 2:50:16

     Secretary read 12, House Bill 1263

204. 2:50:23

     House Bill 1263 by Representative Lumison of the 12th and others, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Chapter 8 of Title 33 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to fees and taxes regarding insurance so as to provide for a claim for a refund of certain fees and taxes relative to insurance premiums to be made within three years of payment to the commissioner to provide for related matters, to provide for an effective date and applicability, to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes. Mr. President, the Committee of the Senate on Insurance and Labor recommends that this bill do pass by substitute. Respectfully submitted, Senator Harbison of the 16th District, Chairman. Mr. President, the Senate Committee on Insurance and Labor offers the following substitute to House Bill 1263, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Code Section 31-6-47 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to exemptions from certificate of need requirements so as to provide an exemption for healthcare facilities, services, and equipment dedicated primarily or exclusively to the treatment of cancer, to provide for conditions, to provide for an exception of the exemption for facilities within 35 miles of certain facilities, to provide for applicability, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes.

205. 2:51:19

     Mr. President, that completes the order. Recognize the Majority Leader. Recognize Senator from the 46th.

206. 2:51:40

     Hey, man. Might be your last time in here. You never know. I'm not giving up. Thank you, Mr. President. It's good to be back with what was once Senate Bill 367. We went through the, the Senate, and I really appreciate all the support of you, and this is the bill that deals with cancer care, making it more available, more affordable, more accessible to Georgians. The number two killer in the state of Georgia, there's some regulatory roadblocks. We worked through them here in the Senate.

207. 2:52:11

     We made accommodations to the, the sole community hospitals, uh, to make certain we protected their cancer treatment centers without competition, and we feel like we accommodated the state as a whole. The bill got to the House, and after a very lively hearing in the House Health Committee, uh, did not receive a vote. So we have found a suitable vehicle to give the House another chance on this one. The bill is actually better now. Uh, there is a provision that was added, uh, to the original bill of 367 that guarantees that all of these cancer treatment centers and hospitals will give indigent care in an equal amount as to the other hospitals that have to go through the CON process.

208. 2:52:58

     That's good for the people of Georgia, good for the, uh, poor, needy people of Georgia, and puts these hospitals on an equal footing. I really appreciated all the support, the bipartisan support we had for this when it came through last time, and I'd appreciate it again. It, it is a issue that's dear to all of our hearts. I, I truly believe, I learned through the debate here last time how many individuals in this body have lost loved ones to cancer, whether it's spouses, children, aunts, uncles, parents.

209. 2:53:32

     It's such a killer, and it's so, a dreadful disease, and I really would appreciate any support to let's help make cancer care available to all Georgians, as many options as possible. Mr. President, I'm honored to be able to present this, and I'm happy to take any questions there may be. Recognize the senator from the 41st. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, does the good senator from Athens yield? I'm happy to yield. I hope I've won you over. If not, let me try. I, I, yes. Um, Senator, would you repeat for me the portion that you talked about in terms of indigent care?

210. 2:54:06

     Absolutely. What are the requirements, or is there parity? Just, if you could help alleviate some of my concerns about that. And if you would show us in the bill where that is. Very, very happy to do that, and it was my intention to have that in when it came through here to begin with, and it was pointed out to me that it wasn't. But if you'll look at lines 45 to 47, it specifies that any facility qualifying under this exemption shall provide uncompensated indigent and charity care in an amount equal to or greater than 3% of its adjusted gross revenue from the previous calendar year.

211. 2:54:43

     So it drills it down, specifies it, no ambiguity, and that is verbatim from Department of Community Health rules currently for all the other hospitals that, uh, have a CON. Hospitals an opportunity to cherry-pick patients that happen to have insurance. You must treat the indigent folks just like all other hospitals do. It's the right thing to do, and these people deserve, uh, cancer care just like the rest of us.

212. 2:55:14

     Thank you for, uh, your questions, and I look forward to your support. There's one other question. Senator from the 36th.

213. 2:55:27

     Uh, thank you, Mr. President. Uh, does the gentleman yield? I'd be glad to yield. Um, y- uh, ha- has anybody come on board supporting this that was opposing it before as a result of the changes that you made? I, I presume the 10, uh, sole community hospitals that we made the accommodation for would now be supportive. I haven't heard from them, uh, to say, "Rah, rah, thank you," but I certainly hadn't heard any of them say, uh, "We're, we're against it." There may be other people to speak to that. S- so, so it, y- y- it wasn't, it wasn't worked out with people that, that, with, with hospitals that had issues, uh, prior.

214. 2:56:04

     It, it was on the floor here when we passed 367 that we amended our bill to, uh, exempt sole community hospitals that are 10 hospitals, mostly in rural Georgia, uh, that did not wanna be included in this bill. They wanted to maintain the status quo. We made that accommodation in an accommodative fashion and gained the support of all the senators from those communities.

215. 2:56:34

     Well, I- I'm s- I'm still hearing from, from hospitals that, that, uh, have profound concerns about it, so-

216. 2:56:42

     Well, I, I know-

217. 2:56:42

     ... I guess we're just h- h- hearing from different people

218. 2:56:44

     ... you, you're in the metro area, and it was fascinating, our hearing when this bill passed out, that Emory Winship, which is one of our nationally accredited cancer care centers on, o- o- on a par with MD Anderson, came and supported this bill. And they mentioned there's equipment, uh, that they want, diagnostic equipment that they have been unable to get. They've got patients that are backed up needing, uh, the, the diagnostic care, and that they support it fully.

219. 2:57:19

     You may remember from some years ago, as you and I came in together, when Cancer Treatment Centers of America had an exception carved out for them, and they fought hard for that, and they, there was a threat: "You're gonna close down or weaken other cancer providers." Well, that didn't happen. That's been 15 or so years ago, and there's more than enough cancer to go around for the facilities. That group is now the City of Hope Hospital. They came in and support this bill.

220. 2:57:51

     They think they'll be able to collaborate with a lot of rural providers and share their expertise and spread the, uh, cancer care throughout the state and make it more available so everybody doesn't have to travel to Atlanta to get treatment and come stay in a hotel while their loved ones are getting radiation or chemotherapy or, or something worse. So I, I think most of the opposition totally dissipated. And on a national level, it's fewer and fewer states have any CON regulations.

221. 2:58:22

     33 states, isn't it, have-

222. 2:58:22

     We learned in committee that Florida has done away with it. We had a very dynamic doctor from Augusta that said South Carolina has now eliminated CON. He built a $3 million facility just across the Savannah River in South Carolina that all Georgians are going to now because of the low level of regulatory red tape and the lower prices, more available treatment. So he was a great example how this can be powerful for us to, let's develop our own cancer care.

223. 2:58:56

     And this goes into research. It goes into clinical trials. It, it goes into more than just radiation and chemotherapy.

224. 2:59:05

     But it is true, is it not, that the thir- 32 or 33 states have certificate of need programs in place?

225. 2:59:12

     They have some vestiges of it. Most of them have weakened it. In fact, in the bill that... You know, Georgia got $281 million in additional funding for rural healthcare because of the improvements we made on CON two years ago-

226. 2:59:31

     Mm-hmm

227. 2:59:31

     ... for rural hospitals, and we would've gotten more had we totally abolished it. That was one of the criteria-

228. 2:59:38

     One of the, one of those cri-

229. 2:59:39

     ... of the federal government

230. 2:59:39

     ... You're talking about on the federal side?

231. 2:59:41

     I am.

232. 2:59:42

     Uh-huh.

233. 2:59:42

     Yeah. So we- you know, we're getting, I think it's $781 billion for rural healthcare. That came through the grant program of the big, beautiful bill, and we got a lot more than we would have because of some improvements or reductions in CON red tape that we've passed in the last few years. So let's take it another step forward, and we'll get more of that money. We'll make more options, and we won't hurt any existing cancer providers-

234. 3:00:09

     Well, for-

235. 3:00:09

     ... in the process of doing it

236. 3:00:10

     ... for, for the question, and, and you may or may not know the answer, but it, it's, isn't it true that to, to my knowledge, uh, w- we passed up $1.3 billion of federal money that would've been our signing bonus to expand Medicaid coverage?

237. 3:00:25

     Uh, that is true.

238. 3:00:27

     Thank you.

239. 3:00:27

     Yeah, we, we have chosen to be financially prudent and to pay for what we know we can and not be at the whims of future reductions there. So a- and l- let's keep on. Let's keep trying, and, and we'll, uh, we'll evolve. Thank you, and appreciate your questions.

240. 3:00:46

     Bringing out Senator from the 14th.

241. 3:00:48

     Mr. President, does the senator yield?

242. 3:00:51

     I do yield. Have we persuaded you?

243. 3:00:53

     Maybe, Senator.

244. 3:00:54

     Good.

245. 3:00:54

     What I really want to understand is the operation of this 3% gross revenue rule.

246. 3:01:00

     Okay.

247. 3:01:00

     Uh, and I have a couple questions about that. The first is, do you have a sense of what the ratio of indigent care, uncompensated care is for hospitals that are incumbent who are providing cancer services? Meaning, is this 3% number meaningful? Does it kind of match what's going on in terms of the ratio at other hospitals, or is it just kind of a, a token-

248. 3:01:22

     No, no

249. 3:01:22

     ... amount?

250. 3:01:22

     Yeah. No, no, it does, and that is not just for cancer treatment. That's for all hospitals that go through the CON process. So that's relatively standard across the board, and that can go up if the Department of Community Health elects to raise that requirement. I'd like to see it go up.

251. 3:01:41

     Okay.

252. 3:01:42

     Uh-

253. 3:01:42

     So, and if you further yield-

254. 3:01:44

     I do

255. 3:01:44

     ... the... So I guess what I would imagine is if I were a, a healthcare provider operating under this exemption, and I had to comply with that floor of 3% or whatever DCH sets it at, I would be concerned about making sure that I'm floating above that floor so I don't drop below it as I intake-

256. 3:02:02

     You got that right, yes

257. 3:02:03

     ... patients who are profitable.

258. 3:02:04

     You want, you want to preserve your exemption.

259. 3:02:06

     Okay.

260. 3:02:07

     And this-

261. 3:02:07

     And-

262. 3:02:07

     ... keeps you from, from getting an advantage. I wish this had been in the real- the bill originally, and I'm glad it's here now, 'cause I can tell it's, it's... The, the support for this is growing as we go. Um, it is important that all hospitals provide indigent care, and all of them do to some extent. And I did not want people to open up oncology services because they could avoid indigent care, because you have to do indigent care under a CON.

263. 3:02:38

     And so I did not want it to be where you would have an advantage- A economic advantage for providing cancer care outside of the CON process. No circumvention here. You gotta, you gotta treat the indigents just like everybody else does. And I would love to see that number go up because most of these hospitals are nonprofit or not-for-profit. That should be their goal, to treat the poor.

264. 3:03:07

     Thank you, Senator, and I'll frame this as a question. I mean, I will tell you candidly, it's difficult for me to hear Winship talk about having to turn away patients based on a failure to obtain necessary equipment because of the process.

265. 3:03:22

     It's tragic. It is tragic.

266. 3:03:22

     Uh, and to balance that on the other side with a somewhat abstract notion of the needs of hospitals, if it's not been made more tangible, I struggle with that.

267. 3:03:32

     Yeah.

268. 3:03:32

     And so I, I do wanna... You know, is it not true that I commend the senator on trying to achieve a compromise on this bill?

269. 3:03:38

     I do appreciate that, and that's what I'm trying to accomplish. And, and this is for the good of everybody. I mean, it's gonna hit all of us. One day, everybody in this room is gonna have a loved one that gets cancer, and they get that dreaded diagnosis, and they are going to panic. And they're gonna s- say, "What can we do to treat? What are our options? Where can we go?" This gives as many options as possible. You're fortunate. You're in the metro area. You have a lot of options. You have multiple locations with very high quality cancer care, but a whole bunch of this state doesn't, and I think this will help them, and also make it easier for some of the big metro hospitals to advance.

270. 3:04:22

     For example, Emory, they want a linear accelerator, and they're being blocked in their, their application for it by other hospitals that are competing for them, and they have a waiting list of patients. So why? I mean, how did we get here? And nobody is, is, doesn't have enough patients to treat in the metro area, and there's so many areas outside of the metro area that are having to drive up here. You know, some of them fortunately have good cancer care, but why not just give them as many choices and options, and let's all thrive together.

271. 3:04:56

     Thank, thank you, Senator.

272. 3:04:57

     Thank you.

273. 3:04:57

     I'll just say, I mean, if I do vote yes today-

274. 3:04:59

     Please do

275. 3:04:59

     ... it is with the reservation that I share the senator from the 36th's frustration about uncompensated care and the fact that because this state has failed to meaningfully address indigent care overall, it puts us in a squeeze on the CON conversation in a way that it otherwise wouldn't. Thank you very much, Senator.

276. 3:05:13

     Have you heard of the, uh, phrase preaching to the choir? Preach on. Let's get there, folks. Help me out. I appreciate all your support for this bill. Glad to take more questions if there are any, Mr. President.

277. 3:05:26

     There are no more questions, Senator.

278. 3:05:28

     Thank you all for your support and your open-mindedness for this issue to help Georgia. Thank you.

279. 3:05:35

     Does any other senator wish to speak for or against the measure? Chair hears none. Is there objection to the previous question being ordered? Chair hears none. Previous question is ordered. Question is on the adoption of the committee substitute. Is there objection to the adoption of the committee substitute? Hearing none, the committee substitute is adopted. Is there objection to agreeing to the reported committee, which is favorable to the passage of the bill? Chair hears none. Reported committee is agreed to. Is there objection to the main question being ordered? Chair hears none. The main question is ordered. Question is on the passage of the bill by substitute.

280. 3:06:08

     All those in favor of the bill, vote yay. All opposed, nay. Secretary, allot the machine.

281. 3:06:59

     Order.

282. 3:07:26

     Let's do that. That's it. That's perfect. That's perfect. Hmm. On the passes, the yeas are 44 and the nays are seven.

283. 3:07:38

     This bill, ha- having received the requisite constitutional majority, is therefore passed by substitute. I pray on your soul, senator from the second.

284. 3:07:57

     You know, there's about 20 of y'all that are leaving. At any point in time, y'all can come down and take the well and, you know, say your goodbyes.

285. 3:08:10

     Really? I know. Mine's gonna be very brief. Very brief. Recognize the majority leader.

286. 3:08:23

     Mr. President, move that the Senate table the remaining legislation on the Senate rules calendar.

287. 3:08:33

     No. Majority leader has moved.

288. 3:08:39

     Is there objection? Yes. All those in favor- Reading of resolution. You wave? Yes. The fresh- the freshman's gonna object. Do you wanna speak to it too, 35, huh? No. No, never mind.

289. 3:09:09

     I don't recognize you. Nobody wants to hear it.

290. 3:09:15

     Oh, I'm surprised. I'm shocked.

291. 3:09:17

     First time.

292. 3:09:18

     First time he didn't wanna speak on something. All right. All those in favor of tabling will vote yay, all opposed nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

293. 3:09:58

     Recognize the majority leader.

294. 3:10:00

     Mr. President, is it not true a green vote would preserve someone's bill if they wanna continue to see their legislation continue this session?

295. 3:10:10

     Ooh, majority leader throwing down the gauntlet.

296. 3:10:23

     Recognize the senator from the 19th. What purpose do you rise?

297. 3:10:26

     Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. President.

298. 3:10:27

     Thank you.

299. 3:10:27

     So if we vote no, does that mean we go home?

300. 3:10:30

     Nah. No. Nah. No. Nope, nope, nope. Okay, so the motion prevails the table. All right, we're gonna take a few minutes break because we're gonna c- take up some special actions, and then we'll be done for the night, okay? These are all Senate priorities, and so, but the secretary has gotta get them in order, and so it takes him a few minutes to get them in order. So we're gonna take up s- special actions in the next... Give us about, take about a 10 or 15-minute break, and we'll come back and do special actions, and then we'll be done.

301. 3:11:05

     Thank y'all.

302. 3:28:38

     Is the senator from the 6th...

303. 3:28:42

     Where is the senator from the 6th?

304. 3:29:09

     Looks like we have one page that is left f- here for the night. We need to recognize her, and that's why I was getting the senator from the 6th.

305. 3:29:28

     We have a young lady named Emily Smith from Ja- Dallas, Georgia, from Paulding County.

306. 3:29:39

     Where is...

307. 3:29:49

     And here she is, Miss Emily Smith from Paulding County.

308. 3:29:57

     The last page of the night.

309. 3:30:03

     Good job. Good job. Good job.

310. 3:30:12

     The senator from the 31st has a brand-new Kia

311. 3:30:18

     whatever. Hmm, what? Sorento, yeah. No, thank you, Emily. You done great. You did a great job today. We really appreciate your help. Give her a round of applause one more time.

312. 3:30:37

     Yeah, what happened to the senator from the sixth?

313. 3:31:17

     Would anybody like to volunteer for a goodbye speech right now so we can kill some time?

314. 3:31:27

     I mean, all y'all whole now. Y'all have, y'all must, y'all must have a camera crew coming here tomorrow or something. Every one of y'all running.

315. 3:31:37

     Senator from 50th, would you like to give a goodbye speech? Yeah. Longer serving floor leader in the history of the Senate, ladies and gentlemen.

316. 3:31:54

     Don't leave. Well, I'm not leaving, but in the interest of killing time, as you know or may have heard, there's a rumor- Hold on, hold on one second. S- Senator, we have something very special for you. Mr. Secretary, could you read the caption real quick? Ah. We're gonna suspend the rules for a second. Actually, we ain't even got back in, so there's no rules to suspend. Just read the caption real quick. A resolution recognizing Senator Bo Hatchett as the governor's floor leader emeritus in honor of his unprecedented and possibly eternal tenure, and for other purposes. Mr. President, that completes the order.

317. 3:32:25

     Well, I appreciate that. And as you guys know or may have heard, not only according to my friends in the Senate am I the longest serving floor leader in Georgia, it went to the United States of America, then it went to North America, then it went to the entire Earth. But as the longest serving floor leader, you know I have special resources and special lines I can call, and I've already conferred with the Smithsonian, the National Archives, and NASA, that it actually expands beyond planet Earth, and it's actually the entire universe.

318. 3:32:56

     So I just want to thank y'all for the recognition, and this is well-deserved.

319. 3:33:07

     Anybody else like to say their farewells? God, I swear every one, every one of y'all making campaign speeches tomorrow. I can feel it. Huh? They can't let go, can they?

320. 3:33:22

     All right.

321. 3:33:26

     Roll call. Senator from the sixth, for what purpose do you rise? Uh, parliamentary inquiry, Mr. President. State your inquiry. Mr. President, is it not true that they d- really just don't want to go and we probably should have the, uh, doorkeepers drag them out of here?

322. 3:33:44

     You know, Senator, we were missing you a little bit ago. And, uh, I think we're ready for special actions now, so we're good. The last person who's going out now.

323. 3:34:12

     Recognize senator from the first for a special action. Thank you, Mr. President. I move that the Senate agree to the House substitute to SB 552. Secretary, read the caption. Senate Bill 552 by Senator Watson of the first and others, a bill to be entitled an act to amend subpart 2A of Part 1 of Article 16 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to clubs and organizations so as to provide for equal access to public schools for students engaging in political or philosophical expression, to authorize the organization of partisan and nonpartisan student groups and gatherings, to provide for school disclaimers of sponsorship, to prohibit discrimination based on the content of student speech within a limited open forum, to provide for the maintenance of order and discipline, to provide for a short title, to provide for definitions, to provide for related matters, to provide for an effective date, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes.

324. 3:35:02

     Mr. President, the House offers the following substitute to Senate Bill 552, a bill to be entitled an act to amend subpart 2A of Part 1 of Article 16 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to clubs and organizations so as to provide for equal access to public schools for students engaging in political or philosophical expression, and for other purposes. Mr. President, that completes the order.

325. 3:35:28

     Recognize the senator from the first. Speak to the motion.

326. 3:35:51

     Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, I'm here to present the, uh, agree on the SB 552. Uh, this was the bill that allowed, uh, public high school, uh, students to do cur- extracurricular activities that were not thwarted for political or religious reasons. Uh, the only, uh, change in the bill was the very last section, which tightened it up, uh, in the judiciary, uh, and that clarified that you would certainly make sure that the public, uh, school authorities, uh, still had, uh, total control over the, uh, maintaining order and discipline on the school premises, and that was basically it.

327. 3:36:33

     Um, Mr. President, I'll be happy to, uh, answer any questions. If not, I'll yield the well.

328. 3:36:49

     Uh, you have no questions, Senator.

329. 3:36:51

     Okay. Thank you.

330. 3:36:53

     Senator from the 14th.

331. 3:37:06

     Mr. President, unfortunately, shocking news, the bill is still not good enough, and here's why. Uh, if you were a group that wanted to espouse Nazism or any other form of completely hateful speech, this bill would require the school to allow that speech and that group on campus during school hours. The operative language says, "It shall be unlawful for any public school which has a limited open forum to deny equal access or a fair opportunity to or discriminate against any students enrolled in such public school who wish to conduct a meeting within such limited open forum on the basis of the political, philosophical, ideological, or other content of the speech at such meetings." That's not the First Amendment standard.

332. 3:37:49

     The First Amendment standard is restrictions on speech can be content-based, they can be based on the content of speech if there's a compelling governmental interest in doing so. That balancing test is not in this bill. So the concern I have is that by compelling schools, again, it's not discretionary, they cannot deny access to any group who wishes to express any opinion. There is no constraint in this bill. And, and listen, I'm willing to be wrong. Maybe I read it too fast. If you can find the language in this bill that says that there is a legitimate content-based restriction on what can be said at these meetings, please alert me to where it is.

333. 3:38:29

     But upon my read, and again, it's getting late and I haven't had enough water today, so it's possible that I can't find it. But the bottom line is this is where it gets dangerous to force public schools to entertain aggressive free speech competitions in the style of TPUSA after whom this bill is named. This bill is really about turning point. And so my question to you as you vote, however you vote today, is whether we should be compelling public schools to entertain that type of confrontational, confrontational free speech environment on school grounds during school hours.

334. 3:39:04

     Thanks, Mr. President. I yield the well.

335. 3:39:12

     Is there any other senator who wish to speak for or against it? Hearing none. All those in favor of senator's motion to agree will vote yay. All opposed nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

336. 3:39:49

     Senator from the 1st, what purpose do you rise?

337. 3:39:52

     Uh, parliamentary tr-

338. 3:39:53

     State your inquiry.

339. 3:39:53

     Parliamentary inquiry.

340. 3:39:56

     Yeah, I think until-

341. 3:39:57

     State your inquiry.

342. 3:39:58

     So isn't it true that, uh, nothing in this code section shall be construed to limit the authority of a public school or its employees or agents to maintain order and discipline on school premises? That is where you find it, the very end of the bill that I said in the well that you, uh, will do that. Uh, that was added and augmented, uh, our original bill. We were happy to amend it, and this is where the last section maintains that the public school itself can limit it.

343. 3:40:31

     Thank you.

344. 3:40:34

     I believe the board speaks for itself, Senator.

345. 3:40:40

     On the motion to agree, the yays are 42 and the nays are seven, and this motion has prevailed.

346. 3:40:51

     Recognize the senator from the 48th.

347. 3:40:57

     You, uh, the, your comfortable shoes, you're just, man, you're just killing it. Uh, Mr. President, I move the Senate agree to the House substitute to Senate Bill 587.

348. 3:41:09

     Secretary, read the caption.

349. 3:41:19

     Senate Bill 587 by Senator Still of the 48th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Article 1 of Chapter 12 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to general provisions regarding offenses against public health and morals so as to provide for the establishment of an animal cruelty database to provide for purpose and funding, to require the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of the State of Georgia to create, administer, and maintain such database to provide for minimum requirements, to provide for reporting and forms, to provide for related matters to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes. Mr. President, the House offers the following substitute to Senate Bill 587, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Chapters 5 and 12 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to crimes against the person and offenses against public health and morals so as to provide for a court order to locate an alleged victim of child or elder abuse, to provide for the establishment of an animal cruelty database, to provide for purpose and funding, to require clerks of county to transmit certain conviction and sentencing information to the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of the State of Georgia, to require the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of the State of Georgia to create, administer, and maintain such database to provide for minimum requirements, to provide for reporting and forms, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes.

350. 3:42:28

     Mr. President, that completes the order.

351. 3:42:34

     Recognize senator from the 48th.

352. 3:42:47

     Colleagues, the hour is late. The bill is short. We've already voted on this unanimously. This is our animal cruelty database. The House

353. 3:42:55

     Added about 20 extra lines, uh, but it's great language and, uh, very, uh, very agreeable. Um, starting on lines, uh, well, basically section one is the new section. It's, uh, just protections, um, uh, for, for children being, um, moved during an open investigation, uh, for their own personal safety. Ask your favorable consideration.

354. 3:43:23

     Is there any other senator who wish to speak for or against the measure? Hearing none. All those in favor, all those in favor agreeing to the House substitute on SB 587 will vote yay. All opposed, nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

355. 3:45:22

     On the motion to agree, the yays are 48, the nays are 0, and this motion has passed. Recognize the senator from the 32nd. Mr. President, I move that the Senate agree to the House substitute to Senate Bill 403.

356. 3:45:40

     Secretary, read the caption. Senate Bill 403 by Senators Kirkpatrick of the 32nd and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Article 5 of Chapter 12 of Title 44 of the OCGA relating to disposition of unclaimed property so as to provide for exceptions to when property is presumed abandoned, to provide for abandonment and liquidation of virtual currency, to authorize delay of publication of notice on the Georgia unclaimed property list under circumstances, to provide for methods of payment of claims, to waive the requirement of a probate court order for claims of heirs under circum- circumstances, to provide for circumstances under which a claim is void, to provide for definitions, to amend Title 48 of the OCGA relating to revenue and taxation so as to waive confidentiality of certain tax records, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes.

357. 3:46:28

     Mr. President, the House offers the following substitute to Senate Bill 403, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Article 5 of Chapter 12 of Title 44 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to disposition of unclaimed property so as to authorize delay of publication of notice on the Georgia unclaimed property list under circumsta- circumstances, to provide for methods of payment of claims, to provide for payments in the absence of claims, to waive the requirement of a probate court for claims of heirs under circum- circumstances, to provide for definitions, to amend Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to revenue and taxation so as to waive confidentiality of certain tax records, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes.

358. 3:47:07

     Mr. President, that completes the order. Recognize the senator from the 32nd.

359. 3:47:24

     Thank you, Mr. President. This bill is the unclaimed property bill. It's a Department of Revenue Agency bill, and we passed it unanimously on this side, but once it got over to House Judiciary, there were objections to a couple of sections of the bill, and it ended up that those two sections were removed, and now it's all good. The two sections that were removed, one had to do with cryptocurrency and the other had to do with escheatment, which is when the state eventually after 25 years keeps the money.

360. 3:47:58

     So those sections came out, and this will allow the state to create an exact match with tax records, which will allow us to give $3.3 billion of, uh, unclaimed property back to the taxpayers. Happy to answer any questions. Yeah, no questions, Senator. Thank you. I yield. Any other senator who wish to speak for or against the measure?

361. 3:48:22

     Senator has agreed to the House substitute on SB 403. All those in favor will vote yay. All opposed, nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

362. 3:49:42

     On the motion to agree, the yays are 49, the nays are 0, and this motion has prevailed. Recognize the senator from the fourth. Mr. President, I move that the Senate agree to the House substitute to Senate Bill 150. Secretary, read the caption.

363. 3:50:08

     Senate Bill 150 by Senators Hickman of the fourth and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Article 7 of Chapter 3 of Title 47 of the OCGA relating to retirement allowances, disability benefits, and spouses benefits so as to extend the program to permit public school systems to employ certain beneficiaries of the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia as classroom teachers in a full capa- time capacity to June 30th, 2034, to reduce the number of years worked by a beneficiary to 25 before being eligible to be hired under this code section, to provide for related matters, to provide conditions for an effective date and automatic repeal, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes.

364. 3:50:46

     Mr. President, the House offers the following substitute to Senate Bill 150, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Article 7 of Chapter 3 of Title 47 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to retirement allowances, disability benefits, and spouses benefits so as to remove the requirement that certain subject areas be designated as an area of highest need for certain beneficiaries of the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia to be hired to work in such areas, to provide for the extension of provisions to 2030, to provide for areas of highest need to be determined for a public school system rather than an RESA, to prohibit termination of employment based on a change in a public school system's areas of highest need, and for other purposes.

365. 3:51:23

     Mr. President, that completes the order.

366. 3:51:28

     Recognize the senator from the fourth.

367. 3:51:38

     Mr. President, thank you, sir. As I stated, we agree with this, uh, substitute the House made in the infinite wis- infinite wisdom of the House, they made two changes to the bill. Uh, they changed the sunset period from 2034 to 2030, and then they changed the, um, years, if you remember, this is a return to work bill for teachers. They changed the years from 25 that we had to 30. The very most important part of this bill, in, in my opinion, was we, we made sure that the, um, areas of, of teaching was mathematics, special education, science, CTAE, reading, writing, or la- English language arts, and those stayed in the bill, along with the, uh, endorsement for dyslexia.

368. 3:52:17

     Mr. President, I yield to Williams. Please vote green on this bill.

369. 3:52:28

     Any other senator wish to speak for or against it? All right. All those in favor of the motion to agree on SB 150 will vote yay. All opposed, nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

370. 3:54:05

     On the agreed SB 150, the ayes are 49, the nays are zero, and this motion has prevailed.

371. 3:54:21

     Recognize the senator from Colquitt County. Thank you, Mr. President. I move that the Senate agree to the House substitute to Senate Bill 478. Secretary, read the caption. Senate Bill 478 by Senators Watson of the 11th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Chapter 6A of Title 12 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to outdoor stewardship so as to provide for a sunset, to raise the percentage of monies appropriated, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes. Mr.

372. 3:54:51

     President, the House offers the following substitute to Senate Bill 478. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Chapter 6A of Title 12 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to outdoor stewardship so as to provide for a sunset, to raise the percentage of monies appropriated, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes. Mr. President, that completes the order.

373. 3:55:13

     Recognize the senator from the 11th. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, this is a small amendment dealing with our Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Act. Uh, this body had originally approved to increase the amount that we send to that fund to 80%, and the House decided to move that down to 60%. So we lowered the percentage that goes to outdoor stewardship. Uh, this was a, a fund that was created, uh, by the voters in 2018 and was, uh, had about a 83% approval rating.

374. 3:55:43

     So good bill, and just would appreciate your support. Thank you. Does any other senator wish to speak for or against the measure? All those in favor of the motion to agree to the House substitute on SB 478 will vote yay. All opposed, nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

375. 3:57:12

     On the motion to agree, the ayes are 49 and the nays are zero, and this motion has prevailed. You know, I see a couple of House members walking around, and I love my House member back there from good old West Georgia over there, and he's a good man, but have y'all, have y'all turned out the lights over there for the night? Not for the best young bills. Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah.

376. 3:57:42

     They've already gone home, ladies and gentlemen.

377. 3:57:53

     Oh. Oh. I mean, I mean, every time I looked up, they were taking a break. We had a two-hour press conference. Lunch was three hours. I mean, senator from the 8th, I mean, I mean, if they were farming over there, they'd go broke. I don't know what they're talking about. It doesn't look like much. I know what they like. Well, are these Senate bills we taking out or are these House bills right now? What are we doing? They're all work, sir.

378. 3:58:28

     Tyler Paul, how many Senate bills have y'all passed today?

379. 3:58:34

     Hmm.

380. 3:58:43

     I don't know. What do you think? Senator from the 6th. Recognize the senator from the 6th. Mr. President, I move that the Senate agree to the House substitute to Senate Bill 406.

381. 3:59:06

     Secretary, read the caption. Senate Bill 406 by Senators Brass of the 6th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Title 43 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to professions and businesses so as to require the registration of property owners associations, to provide for renewals and amendments, to provide for appeals, to provide for a state board for review of complaints regarding property owners associations, to provide for review of complaints, to amend Code Section 44-3-232 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to assessments against lot owners as constituting lien in favor of association, additional charges against lot owners, procedure for foreclosing lien, and obligation to provide statements of amounts due so as to provide for authorizations of liens and use of assessments, to provide for a short title, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes.

382. 3:59:56

     Mr. President, the House offers-

383. 3:59:59

     The following substitute to Senate Bill 406, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Title 43 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to professions and businesses so as to require the registration of owners associations to provide for an exception, to provide for renewals and amendments, to provide for fees, to provide for inspection, maintenance, and retention of records, that provides for records maintenance to provide for denial, suspension, and rev- re- revocation of records, to provide for notices, orders, and complaints, to provide for hearings, to provide for a stay of collections of fees or fines, to provide for binding arbitration, to provide for reports, to provide for appeals, to provide for rights of owners associations owners, to provide for priority application of payments by owners to owners associations, to provide for rules and regulations, to provide for definitions, to provide for authorizations of liens and use of assessments, to provide for written notice of certain sums, to amend Title 44 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to property so as to provide f- and for other purposes.

384. 4:00:52

     Mr. President, that completes the order.

385. 4:00:56

     Senator, is this your, uh, HOA bill?

386. 4:01:02

     Yeah. Oh, my Lord. Can you not, can you do this? Your co-sponsor is not here today. The 20th, senator from the 28th, huh?

387. 4:01:12

     We should have adjourned, we should have adjourned before this one, I tell you what. Is there m- is there a motion to adjourn?

388. 4:01:23

     No. Recognize senator from the 6th.

389. 4:01:30

     It's called an HOA bill. Mr. President, this is the moment you have been waiting for. Senate Bill 406. This is the HOA bill. Before I get into the changes that the House made, I do want to commend and thank the senator from the 28th. I know she's not with us tonight. She's got a little injury, but, um, again, I, we wouldn't have made it this far without her. She got this process started. I wanna thank Mercedes Benitez, my legislative assistant, who's been very instrumental on helping get this bill done.

390. 4:02:08

     Also, I want to thank the Secretary of Senate Judiciary, senator from the 30th, where this bill was sent to struggle. He helped bring it life. So if y'all remember, this bill's about transparency. This bill is about protecting homeowners and property owners, and there were a few changes. When the bill left here, if you remember, we were setting up a board, and that board was, uh, gonna be a five-person panel.

391. 4:02:44

     It was gonna be an administrative process for people to go through when they had complaints about their associations. We actually removed the board, and now we have what's called a hearing officer that is appointed by the secretary of state. That hearing officer will make a determination. They will hear the, they will hear the evidence from both sides. They will make a determination. Then the appeal, if you don't like that, either side doesn't like what the hearing officer has decided, they can make that appeal, and the appeal will then go to the magistrate court.

392. 4:03:24

     Then from the magistrate court, your next appeal would be the superior court. As you know right now, and we discussed when this bill left here, your only avenue, a, a, an owner, an owner's only avenue for recourse is to go straight to superior court, and you cannot find a lawyer that will take these cases. That's if you can afford one. So we've given, we have given two levels where you don't need a lawyer, and I think that was a very important part of this bill.

393. 4:03:56

     Uh, we've added in order of payments, meaning you cannot refuse payment. Uh, if someone is trying to pay their dues, they cannot do that. We have added a definition of an accelerated payment. Accelerated payment is when someone is making, uh, monthly payments, and then at some point in the year, that association can call all their dues forward at any time. We have eliminated that. You can no longer do that. And again, we kept in the language around foreclosures saying that only getting behind on your dues can count towards the foreclosure amount, which we have taken from $2,000 to $4,000.

394. 4:04:38

     That is the crux of the bill. That is the major changes in this bill. Uh, we did add in some definitions of different, uh, the different types of assessments. You got regular assessments, specific assessments, special assessments, but essentially that's, that's delineate between dues, assess- your assessments that go towards, um, uh, general property for the, for the, uh, association, and then fees and fines. I'll yield for questions.

395. 4:05:10

     It is a good bill. You have no questions. Well, Mr. President, my only regret is this couldn't be the first bill you sign as governor. You better be glad I don't have a chance to sign anything. I urge your favorable consideration for asking for this. You better be glad I don't have a chance to look at it. Oh, me.

396. 4:05:39

     Mm. Freedom corner, baby.

397. 4:05:45

     The freedom corner over there, I tell you what. Lobby regulation comes. Yeah. All right. Any other senator wish to speak for or against the measure that's gonna have us regulating grass cutting?

398. 4:06:06

     All right, all those in favor, vote yay. All opposed, nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

399. 4:07:23

     All right. On SB 460 agrees are 51 yays, n- zero nays, and big government brass has prevailed, so.

400. 4:07:40

     Hmm.

401. 4:08:02

     Recognize the senator from the 42nd. Mr. President, I move that the Senate agree to the House substitute to Senate Bill 569.

402. 4:08:14

     Secretary, read the caption. Senate Bill 569 by Senator Strickland of the 42nd and others, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Title 40 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to motor vehicles and traffic so as to provide for the issuance of emergency vehicle light permits for towing services companies in certain instances, to revise the definition to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes. Mr. President, the House offers the following substitute to Senate Bill 569, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Title 40 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to motor vehicles and traffic so as to provide for the issuance of emerge- emergency vehicle light permits for towing services companies in certain instances, to provide for the establishment of a towed motor vehicle dat- database by the Department of Revenu- Revenue or an authorized third party, to provide for the use of such database to satisfy notice requirements for liens upon motor vehicles and for other purposes.

403. 4:09:05

     Mr. President, that completes the order.

404. 4:09:27

     Recognize the senator from the 42nd.

405. 4:09:35

     Thank you, Mr. President. Senate Bill 569, you may recall everyone voted for it passionately. It gave, created a process where certain tow trucks that are cleaning up big wrecks on the interstates could have red lights issued to them by the colonel of state patrol. That is still intact. That part of the bill did not change. The new part of the bill starts on page four where the House added a towed motor vehicle database, and what this will be when it's set up in January 1st of '27, it'll create a database for folks to be able to locate vehicles that have been towed by tow trucks, um, something that ought to be a good resource for everybody in our state as well.

406. 4:10:15

     Happy to answer any questions. Yeah, no questions, senator. Ask for your favorable consideration.

407. 4:10:24

     Any other senator wish to speak for or against the measure?

408. 4:10:30

     All those in favor of the motion to agree on SB 569 will vote yay, oppose nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

409. 4:11:56

     I mean, we've, we've got very few Republicans left in this building.

410. 4:12:05

     We have at least six good ones. The Freedom Caucus over there. You got

411. 4:12:11

     a handful. On the motion to agree, the yays are 44, the nays are six, and this motion has prevailed.

412. 4:12:37

     Recognize the senator from the 48th. Mr. President, I move the Senate agree to the House substitute to Senate Bill 369. Secretary, read the caption. Senate Bill 369 by Senator Stills of the 48th and others, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Article 31 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, the Charter Schools Act of 1998 so as to provide for completion charter schools, to provide for rules, regulations, policies, and procedures, to provide for the conversion of existing charter schools to completion charter schools, to provide for measurable objective performance standards, to provide for separate principles and standards for completion charter schools, to provide for a definition, to provide for related matters, to provide for an effective date, to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes.

413. 4:13:22

     Mr. President, the House offers the following substitute to Senate Bill 369, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to elementary and secondary education so as to require the State Board of Education to adopt definitions, rules, regulations, policies, and procedures to govern the operation of non-traditional education programs, to revise the Dexter Mosely Act, to allow for virtual school students from qualifying virtual schools to participate in specified extracurricular and interscholastic activities under the sponsorship, direction, and control of the student's resident public school or resident public school system, to provide for requirements of such virtual school student participation, to provide for virtual qu- school qualifications, and for other purposes.

414. 4:14:02

     Mr. President, that completes the order.

415. 4:14:13

     Recognize the senator from the 48th.

416. 4:14:28

     Colleagues, Dropout Recovery School, we voted on this unanimously. Great bill. Everyone loves it. Not a single change. My only bill this year that the House did not try to perfect, so I just ask your favorable consideration one more time. I yield the well.

417. 4:14:49

     That was the last thing I did. Any other senator wish to speak for or against it? Chair hears none. Senator has made a motion to agree to the House substitute on SB-369. All those in favor of vote, yay. All opposed, nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

418. 4:16:31

     On the passage of the bill, the yays are 49, the nays are 0, and this has prevailed.

419. 4:16:40

     Recognize senator from the 29th. Mr. President, I move the Senate agree to the House substitute to SB-503 as amended by amendment one.

420. 4:16:52

     Read the caption. Senate Bill 503 by Senators Harbin of the 16th and others, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Chapter 7 of Title 33 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to kinds of insurance, limits of risk and reassurance so as to exempt a rental home marketplace guarantees from the definition of property insurance to require certain language to provide for compliance with certain registration requirements to provide for definitions, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes. Through property insurance and other purposes. Mr. President, the House offers the following substitute to Senate Bill 503, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Title 33 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to insurance so as to update and modernize provisions of the Georgia Insurance Code to improve consumer protections, enhance department authority and increase government efficiency to incre- to exempt rental home marketplace guarantees from the definition of property insuran- insurance and other purposes.

421. 4:17:44

     Robertson. Mr. President, Senator Robertson of the 29th District offers the following amendment: amendment one. Amend the house substitute to Senate Bill 503 by replacing lines one through the end with the following: To amend Chapter 24 of Title 33 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to insurance generally so as to require health benefit plans, policies or contracts executed by the state to cover medically necessary orthotic devices and prosthetic devices and the materials and components to revise the definition to provide for related matters, to provide for contingent effectiveness upon appropriation of funds, to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes.

422. 4:18:20

     Mr. President, that completes the order.

423. 4:18:29

     Recognize senator from the 29th.

424. 4:18:38

     Friends, we all know how this happens. An insurance bill by the senator from the 16th went across to the House. The House stripped it out, filled it up with a bunch of their insurance stuff and sent it back. But we had already taken care of those insurance issues. So what we have now done is we've taken all that language out and we have put language in here that balances what we did last session when we required that private insurance allows and provides prosthetics for Georgia citizens who need those for their everyday life.

425. 4:19:24

     So what we've done with this legislation is we've required the state healthcare benefit plan, when appropriated properly and funded, to do the same thing for state employees. So when this, when the appropriations process funds this legislation, a state employee who loses a leg, an arm or some other appendage, they will have the ability to go through the state healthcare benefit plan and get what they need to move through life, and I'll be happy to yield to any questions.

426. 4:20:05

     You have no questions, Senator. Thank you. I yield the well.

427. 4:20:13

     Does any other senator wish to speak for or against the measure? Recognize the senator from the 32nd. I just had a question, but I guess it was asked.

428. 4:20:25

     You, would you like a parliamentary inquiry?

429. 4:20:33

     Recognize the senator from the 32nd. Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. President. State your inquiry. I was just gonna ask, uh, the senator from the 29th before he left what other appendages he might be talking about.

430. 4:20:48

     Senator, would you like to retake the well for us real quick?

431. 4:20:55

     The lady knows of which she speaks.

432. 4:21:07

     Yeah, I wasn't touching that one, Senator. Okay, um,

433. 4:21:15

     anybody else like to speak for or against it? Hearing none, all those in favor of the senator's motion to agree to House substitute as amended on Senate Bill 503, all those in favor of vote yay. All opposed, nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

434. 4:22:31

     On the motion to agree, the yays are 50 and the nays are 0, and this motion has prevailed.

435. 4:22:41

     Ladies and gentlemen, I recognize the floor leader...

436. 4:22:51

     Of the year. Senator from the 50, everyone. Oh, thank you, Mr. President. Um, I move that the Senate disagree to the House substitute to Senate Bill 398. All right, so Secretary, Secretary, read the caption. Senate Bill 398 by Senators Hatchett of the 50th and others, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Part 1 of Article 3 of Chapter 11 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to wiretapping, eavesdropping, surveillance, and related offenses so as to establish criminal offenses of virtual peeping, to prohibit the use of a generative artificial intelligence system to generate images of individuals without the knowledge that such generation was without authorization or consent, to provide for penalties, to provide for an exception, to provide for definitions, to provide for related matters, to provide for an effective date and applicability, to repeal conflicting, conflicting laws and for other purposes.

437. 4:23:46

     Mr. President, the House offers the following substitute to Senate Bill 398, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Code Section 16-11-61 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to peeping Toms so as to establish a criminal offense of virtual peeping on an adult, to provide for definitions, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes. Mr. President, that completes the order. Senator, if you'd like to speak to it, you can, but if nobody objects to your disagree- I would like to speak to it. You would like to speak to it? Okay. All right.

438. 4:24:18

     All right. Floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. President. We've had a lot of fun tonight, but this is something serious and I, I would like for y'all, I need to speak to this because of the severity. We passed a bill out of this chamber a few weeks ago, Senate Bill 398, and what it dealt with is a serious problem that I'm trying to communicate the severity of, not only to this chamber, but to the chamber across the building, and it deals with artificial intelligence and people using AI systems to generate pornography of real people.

439. 4:24:49

     I got up here and was very impassioned because I have four daughters and talked about the importance of this bill because their dignity to me means a lot, and if there is something that I can do to protect them, I'm going to do it. What happened when this bill went over to the House was they took the provision out about children. I don't understand why they did that yet, but the bill that came back only, only addressed adults.

440. 4:25:20

     And I think if someone takes a picture of a child and puts it in an artificial intelligent program and generates pornography, that it should be a severe felony. And so I'm asking that we disagree to the House and let's get it done. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the will.

441. 4:25:40

     Senator's moved that the Senate disagree to the House substitute. Is there objection? Hearing no objection, then we will send it back to the House.

442. 4:25:56

     Recognize the senator from the 27th.

443. 4:26:02

     I move the Senate agree to the House substitute to Senate Bill 131 as amended by amendment one.

444. 4:26:10

     Secretary, read the caption. Senate Bill 131 by Senator Hodges of the 30 and others, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Chapter 10 of Title 49 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to the Georgia Board of Healthcare Workforce so as to provide for the establishment of the Georgia Healthcare Professionals Data System, to provide for definitions, to provide for collaboration with state licensing boards, to provide for a publicly accessible website, to provide for collection of data from state licensing boards, to provide for specified data, to provide for seeking of funding sources, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes. Mr. President, the House offers the following substitute to Senate Bill 131, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Article 1 of Chapter 2 of Title 37 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to general provisions regarding the administration of mental health, developmental disabilities, addictive diseases, and other disability services so as to add a member to the Behavioral Health Coordinating Council, to establish a parity compliance review panel, to provide for its composition and duties, to require healthcare professionals to report parity concerns to the panel, to provide for evaluation of parity concerns reported, to provide for recommendations for punitive actions, to provide for definitions, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes.

445. 4:27:10

     Mr. President.

446. 4:27:14

     Mr. President, Senator Dolezal of the 27th offers the following amendment. Amendment 1, amend SB 131 by replacing lines one through the end with the following, to amend Chapter 12 of Title 13 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to automatic renewal provisions so as to provide to certain consumers a pro rata refund relative to a canceled service contract in the event of a price increase, to provide for related matters, to provide for an effective date and applicability, to repeal conflicting, conflicting laws and for other purposes. Mr. President, Senator Dolezal of the 27th offers the following amendment. Amendment 1A, amend A- AM440285 by replacing line 32 with the following, days of the specified period of the renewable term and the seller shall remit such refund to such consumer within 45 days of the date of the consumer's request.

447. 4:27:56

     Mr. President, that completes the order.

448. 4:28:01

     Recognize the senator from the 27th.

449. 4:28:10

     Thank you, Mr. President. This bill's changed a little bit because the underlying bill has passed in other forms. Uh, this bill is an auto renewal bill that touches the same title section. We currently have laws around auto renewals that occur at every 24 months. This will add a provision for auto renewals that occur at 12 months if and only if the renewal rate increases by 50% or more, and the provision that we're adding is that if you increase by 50% or more, uh, you have a right to cancel within 30 days and receive a pro rata refund

450. 4:28:44

     Uh, we did make a change based on recommendation from the senator from the eleventh in committee, and that is amendment 1A, and that is to put a time certain for that refund to occur, which is within forty-five days of the customer's request. Uh, Mr. President, I'm helping my house rep on this. He's worked hard on this bill on the other side of the, uh, building, and we're looking to get this across back to them so they can agree. I'm happy to answer any questions if there are none. I'll yield the floor. You do, you do have a question, Senator. Recognize the senator from the 20th.

451. 4:29:17

     Will my former suite mate take a few questions on this matter? Uh, I will. Thank you very much. So what committee did this come out of? What Senate committee did this- This was, this went, uh, through trial and tribulation in the Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee, and after great deliberation over there, uh, did not make it out, but that is why you have amendment 1A. Um, this was some feedback that came from that committee, and we are looking to get it done over here with that adjustment.

452. 4:29:48

     So Senator, it, it sounds like you're circumventing the Senate committee process. Is that correct? Uh, Mr. President, um, I am working the process that is available to me by the Senate rules. I s- I see that. Uh, would you further yield, Senator? I will. So I believe I've heard you opine over the years about us doing things in the state of Georgia that impacts companies that have, say, an app that is used nationally or a product that is used nationally, and if each state starts enacting their own rules surrounding that, it creates a big problem for interstate commerce.

453. 4:30:37

     Is that not correct? I would certainly agree with that characterization. Yes, sir. And so have you changed your view on that, that you think we need to be a nanny state and hold all the Georgia citizens' hands with regard to their contracts and how they, uh, what apps they want or don't want and- Only when it relates to insurance products, Mr. President.

454. 4:31:02

     All right. I'm gonna respectfully be a no on this for the s- I think you can understand why. Thank you. Absolutely. I do think you do need to have a light touch when you do these things, and I think the light touch is the 50% trigger on the price increase. And I would say that I think most of your good businesses do give someone a refund within the first thirty days anyway. Uh, but I certainly understand your hesitation and have shared it as this bill's gone through the process and got this kind of to the most agreeable point that we can and want to get it done this year.

455. 4:31:32

     So it's, uh, it's buttoned up. Recognize the senator from the 23rd. Thank you, Mr. President. Senator, yield? I do. Uh, isn't it true, Senator, that when this bill went through Ag and Consumer Affairs, we did have a spirited discussion debate? You did. I actually watched it, uh, on the, when I was driving somewhere. I don't remember where I was going. And, uh, isn't it also true that, uh, as we asked for industry input, uh, very limited input was provided? Is that not true? I think in your committee that is, yeah, that is true.

456. 4:32:02

     I think that was a, perhaps a frustration to some of you. Uh, isn't it also true that, you know, Senator, I support the underlying concept of this bill, uh, but I also believe that we should be working with the industry to find a more, uh, compatible solution. Uh, and at the end of the day, isn't it true, Senator, that, uh, the committee tabled the bill and took no action on it? They did table the bill, yes, sir. Uh, th- thank you, Senator. And again, while I support the underlying concept, I don't believe that this is the appropriate forum, uh, to bring this legislation at this time.

457. 4:32:32

     Thank you, Senator. Understood. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would, um, I, I guess just opine that as the, r- as Representative Barrett has c- been going through this process, there's been a lot of conversation with the industry. I've had the opportunity to take part in a decent bit of that conversation, and we had a deal struck essentially where everyone was in agreement, um, on amendment one. And that changed in the midnight hour, as sometimes happens, um, and then 1A was added based on y'all's committee feedback.

458. 4:33:04

     But this has been a process we've tried to get the industry there. The challenge, Senator, is there's a lot of players in the industry. So you touch obviously everything from, uh, trash services, um, and more physical recur- uh, services, but then also obviously a lot of s- players in the online space from Amazon to, um, things you may not think of, like video streaming services as well, as well as the chamber and tag. So we've... I, I think, um, there are actually industry professionals, someone just texted me today, they're in support of this bill.

459. 4:33:35

     Um, I know that the, there was a flip on one of them that y'all heard in c- or you didn't hear from... I guess you did hear from them in committee. Do you have a couple more questions? Recognize the senator from the 30th.

460. 4:33:49

     Gentleman yield? I do. Is it not true last year we had a bill very similar to this that went through regulated industries? I believe that's correct, and I, uh, this bill in various forms has passed the House a couple times I think as well. Is it also not true that was my bill that went through regulated industries, and we were trying to make sure that we protect small businesses that may not know when this comes up. They may have a three-year contract and just wanna make sure that they're familiar so if they do get a price increase, they don't have accounts and everything working for them. Is that not true? That is true. Thank you, sir.

461. 4:34:19

     Thank you, Chairman. Recognize the senator from the 14th. Thank you, Mr. President. Senator yield? I do. Senator, isn't that true that this only applies to contracts that automatically renew for one year or more, meaning that if there were a way for the business to package the product even at six-month intervals or one-month intervals, they could maintain continuity and predictability in their revenue without locking the consumer into a one-year or more contract. Is that not true? Yes, and this would not preclude kind of your traditional, "Hey, get three months for $10, then we're gonna renew you at, at $25." It does not precl- preclude that.

462. 4:34:51

     And I would point you to what I think is the, the key piece here that I think really only allows us to catch the bad actors, um, is that on line 26. It, it's only if you do, if you raise your price by 50%. And all that we're saying is that if the company does raise their price by 50%, you catch it on your credit card statement, you didn't realize it was gonna renew, and you didn't realize they're gonna raise your price, you can call and get a pro-rata refund.

463. 4:35:13

     So is it not true, Senator, kind of summing up the whole point of the bill, that between the parameters of the one-year automatic renewal and the 50% price increase, you can pretty safely conclude that the business model of these companies operates on the basis of deception, that they're essentially making revenues off of a consumer's inability to express their real intent about how much of the service to purchase. Is that not true?

464. 4:35:36

     Yeah, I certainly think a 50% price increase on a one-year contract is extreme.

465. 4:35:40

     Thank you, Senator.

466. 4:35:40

     Yeah.

467. 4:35:42

     Recognize Senator from the 19th.

468. 4:35:45

     Thank you, Mr. President. Sir, do you yield?

469. 4:35:47

     I do.

470. 4:35:48

     Sorry, my seatmate made me laugh for a second. But I- I've heard everyone talk about defending the companies and protecting the companies in this. Let's talk about the consumer for a second. Does your amendment not provide some consumer protection so that when these consumers are getting over 50% increases in a bill on a renewal that they may have not seen before, that they finally have some avenue to appeal to someone to get relief?

471. 4:36:09

     That's, that's the intent of the bill, Chairman.

472. 4:36:11

     Can I... Will you yield for another question?

473. 4:36:12

     I do.

474. 4:36:13

     Is it not true that Amendment 1A actually limits that right of appeal?

475. 4:36:17

     Limits that what? I'm sorry. I didn't hear.

476. 4:36:18

     That right of appeal.

477. 4:36:20

     Um-

478. 4:36:21

     Ti- at least that's the timeframe, correct?

479. 4:36:23

     No, it, it requires the refund to be issued with a date certain. So the question the senator from the 11th asked in committee was, all right, we're giving them a 30-day window to get their, to ask for a pro-rata refund. When do they get their money back? And so we then tried to ensure they get it back within a reasonable amount of time, and we came up with 45 days.

480. 4:36:40

     So Amendment 1A actually provides additional consumer protections, correct?

481. 4:36:43

     That's, that's correct.

482. 4:36:44

     Thank you.

483. 4:36:47

     Recognize the senator from the 37th.

484. 4:36:50

     Does Senator yield?

485. 4:36:51

     I do.

486. 4:36:52

     So let's put this in plain terms. If I gave consent to, if I paid $10,000 for a product over the course of a year and I gave consent to renew me for another year for $10,000, is it fair to say I did not give consent to pay $16,000?

487. 4:37:06

     I would agree with that, with that characterization.

488. 4:37:07

     So all this does is, it says if I give consent for 10,000 and renew at 10,000, I did not give consent for 16. That's a pretty basic thing and I appreciate the bill.

489. 4:37:16

     Thank you.

490. 4:37:19

     Recognize the senator from the 38th.

491. 4:37:22

     Thank you, Mr. President. Senator yield?

492. 4:37:24

     I do.

493. 4:37:25

     Is it not true that this consumer protection bill was heard in the Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee twice over two years?

494. 4:37:33

     I know of one, but I, yeah, I know you're on that committee, so I would take your word for that.

495. 4:37:36

     Is it not further true that this bill passed the House 169 to two?

496. 4:37:41

     I believe that is correct.

497. 4:37:42

     And is it not further true that during this hearing in that ag committee, industry was asked three times to speak to this bill and only one representative of the industry took up that offer?

498. 4:37:54

     That is correct.

499. 4:37:55

     All right. Thank you, sir.

500. 4:37:56

     Thank you, Senator. Mr. President, I'm gonna yield the well.

501. 4:38:01

     The senator has yielded.

502. 4:38:05

     All right, the question is on the adoption of amendment number one authored by the senator from the 27th. Is there objection on amendment number one? Hearing no objection, amendment number one is-

503. 4:38:19

     1A.

504. 4:38:20

     1A, excuse me. 1A is amended. Now we are in the posture of the senator has moved that we agree to the House substitute on Senate Bill 131 as amended by Amendment 1A. All those in favor vote yay. All those opposed, nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

505. 4:39:44

     On the motion to agree to Senate Bill 131, the ayes are 39 and the nays are 11, and this motion has prevailed.

506. 4:39:57

     Recognize the senator from the 20th.

507. 4:40:02

     Mr. President, I move that the Senate agree to the House Amendment to the Senate substitute to HB 134.

508. 4:40:12

     Secretary, read the caption.

509. 4:40:14

     House Bill 134 by Representative Camp of the 135th and others, a bill to be entitled in act to amend Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to revenue and taxation so as to provide for definitions to revise and expand a sales tax exemption for manufactured homes, to provide for a sunset date, to provide for legislative findings, to provide for related matters, to provide for an effective date, to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes. Mr. President, the Senate offers the following substitute to House Bill 134, a bill to be entitled in act to amend Title 33 and Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to insurance and revenue and taxation respectively, so as to reduce the personal income tax rate, to remove provisions relative to annual reductions of the income tax, to reduce the rates of taxation on corporate and partnership, and for other purposes.

510. 4:40:54

     Full caption.

511. 4:40:55

     Mr. President, the House offers the following amendment. Amend House Bill 134 by replacing lines one through the end with the following. To amend Article 2 of Chapter 7 of Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to imposition, rate, computation, exemptions, and credits relative to income taxes so as to provide for various tax credits for forestry manufacturing facilities, to provide for transfer tax credits and conditions, to provide for reporting, to provide for aggregate maximum amounts of tax credits, to require ap- approval of future amendments by a two-thirds vote of each chamber of the General Assembly, to provide for effective dates and automatic repeals, to provide for definitions, to provide for a short title, to provide for related matters, to provide for an effective date and applicability, to repeal con- conflicting laws and for other purposes.

512. 4:41:32

     Mr. President, that completes the order.

513. 4:41:37

     Recognize the senator for the 20th, the pro tem.

514. 4:41:44

     Thank you, Mr. President.

515. 4:41:50

     So on March 23rd, 2026, this body supported our forestry industry by passing House Bill 1085 to allow for investment tax credits for forestry manufacturing and job tax credits for forestry manufacturing. That bill passed, House Bill 1085, by a vote of 50 to zero. So you were unanimous in your support of our forestry industry. There was some concerns with the bill as it traveled, um, back.

516. 4:42:26

     And so anyway, the, there was some concerns with the fiscal impact that it could potentially have. House Bill 1085 had a cap of $250 million of tax credits per year. Um, the second floor in particular ha- particular had concerns with that and wanted to, us to pare that back. So we are, we put House Bill 1085 on House Bill 134 that you have before you tonight, and it reduces the aggregate cap on the credit to a total of $250 million.

517. 4:43:06

     So it's, uh, got a five-year sunset, but the maximum tax credit allowed would be $250 million total instead of $250 million a year. It also narrows the definition of eligible manufacturers to ensure that they are using domestic timber. Uh, it limits the SIC codes. It would be L... I ask for your favorable consideration. You have no questions, Senator. Thank you. Does any other senator wish to speak for or against the measure?

518. 4:43:37

     Chair hears none. Senator has moved that the Senate agree to the House Amendment to Senate Substitute to HB 134. All those in favor will vote yay. All opposed, nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

519. 4:44:06

     Senator from the eighth, for what purpose do you rise? Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. President. State your inquiry. Mr. President, isn't it true that this tax credit is most, uh, needed so bad for rural Georgia? They can put in a- No questions, Senator. All right. Is it not true, Mr. President- ... that this doesn't just help, this helps the cut down man, this helps the man driving the log truck, the local parts store, the tax digest. This is the heart of rural Georgia and two-thirds of our state's covered in timber land. Senator knows what he speaks.

520. 4:44:54

     On the motion to agree, the yays are 50 and the nays are zero and this motion prevails. Recognize senator, the majority leader. Mr. President, may the Senate agree to the House Substitute to Senate Bill 17 as amended by amendment number one. Secretary, read the caption. Senate Bill 17 by Senators Anavitarte, the 31st and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Article 11 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 and Article 10 of Chapter 3 of Title 38 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to public school properties and facilities and statewide first responder building mapping information sy- system respectively, so as to enact Ricky and Alyssa's law to require local school systems to implement a mobile panic alert system capable of connecting disparate emergency services technologies to ensure real-time coordination between multiple state and local first responders or agencies in the event of a school security, to authorize the Georgia Emergency Management and a Homeland Security Agency to adopt rules and regulations for the requirements for school mapping data, to provide for a definition, to provide for related matters, to provide for an effective date, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes.

521. 4:45:59

     Be entitled an act and for other purposes. Mr. President, the House offers the following substitute to Senate Bill 17, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Article 11 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 and Article 10 of Chapter 3 of Title 38 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to public school property and facilities and statewide first responder building mapping information system respectively, so as to enact Ricky and Alyssa's law and for other purposes. Be entitled an act and for other purposes. Mr. President, Senator Anavitarte of the 31st District offers the following amendment.

522. 4:46:31

     Amendment one, amend the House Committee on Rules Substitute to Senate Bill 17 by replacing lines one through 90 with the following: To amend Chapter 30 of Title 36 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to general provisions regarding provisions applicable to municipal corporations only, so as to provide for a conclusive evidence of termination or continuation of certain municipal corporations, to provide for a review commission for distressed municipalities, to provide for investigation of distressed municipalities, to provide for reports by a review commission, to provide for a petition to p- or appoint a receiver, to provide for certain hearings, to provide for the appointment of a receiver, to provide for the qualifications, powers, and duties of the receiver, to provide for certain restrictions on receivers, to provide for a recovery plan, to provide for extensions to a recovery plan, to provide for an automatic end of a receivership, to provide for certain emergency assistance, to provide for a roster, and for other purposes.

523. 4:47:17

     Mr. President, Senator Anavitarte of the 31st District offers the following amendment. Amendment 1A, amend the amendment to the House Committee on Rules Substitute to Senate Bill 17 by inserting after withheld on line thir- 346 th- with the following: On or before the fifth legislative day of each regular session of the General Assembly, the state auditor shall furnish a written report to each member of the General Assembly providing a list of local governments which are delinquent in the filing of any reports required by code section 36-81-7 and the years such local governments are delinquent. Mr. President, that completes the order.

524. 4:47:49

     All right. That was a long one. Senator from the 31st

525. 4:48:00

     Thank you, Mr. President. So tonight, under Senate Bill 17, Senate Bill 17 used to be an education bill, and we are replacing the language in Senate Bill 17 with a bill we just passed out of local government operations related to distressed cities. Um, this act is gonna be known as the Georgia Local Government Transparency and Rescue Act, and contains a few components, and I'll try and be brief.

526. 4:48:31

     Um, one, it basically defines distressed municipality. Um, a few examples of what is that defined as is an inability to pay employees for thirty days, the in- inability to prepare and approve an annual budget for two fiscal years, um, a- and accumulated and operated deficit equal to five percent or more. Um, with the help of the committee, uh, we did create a ten-year look-back, and also in terms of the five percent, um, or more of its revenues in terms of deficit over the course of two years to help demonstrate what is a trend.

527. 4:49:06

     Um, in terms of expediting a review, a commission would be appointed upon the governor's, uh, written request from the majority of senators and representatives whose district includes all or a portion of distressed cities and municipalities, um, in a specific area. If the commission determines a municipality is in distress, the governor will review the findings and may direct the attorney general to file a pet- file a petition in the superior court of the judicial circuit of the alleged distressed municipality. This bill also creates a hands-on approach.

528. 4:49:36

     The attorney general, in the event a municipality is determined to be distressed, may be directed by the governor to appoint a receiver for the distressed mu- municipality. Why is this important? This is important to try and take some of the politics out of all the distressed cities that we've been dealing with. A lot of these distressed cities have been put in this place for various different reasons, either not budgeting properly, going back to ARPA funds, going back to, um, during COVID times, uh, struggling in terms of, you know, how they're managing their budgets or projecting revenue going forward.

529. 4:50:13

     And I know in the r- in recent years, and even this year, we've had more conversations with them, and I've even had, even in my own case, two cities in my own county, um, under fiscal distress. Uh, moving on, this also includes local awareness. The AG would publish a notice filing petition in the legal organ, uh, related to the municipality, uh, so there's public, um, awareness. And also, too, um, a couple of things that we've added to the bill, um, which I know was provided, um, on recommendation from the senator from the second, is just that at the beginning of every General Assembly, uh, regular session, the state auditor already publishes a list of what are the distressed cities that are not completing sit- uh, their audits to the state.

530. 4:51:04

     Um, I believe his recommendation was r- really good to go ahead and put this in state statute so that at the beginning of every General Assembly, the House members and senate- senators have full transparency on, you know, who these cities are, um, what the challenges are, and also how there can be conversations for this to, uh, be addressed. With that, Mr. President, I'll open it up for questions.

531. 4:51:30

     You have no questions, Senator.

532. 4:51:32

     Thank you, Mr. President.

533. 4:51:35

     Recognize the senator from the 14th.

534. 4:51:46

     There we go. Thank you, Mr. President. Let's talk about what this bill does as it's amended. The bill would create a process by which a distressed municipality would require the appointment of a receiver by a court to manage the city's affairs. That's pretty much exactly what the amendment does. I wanna break down for you as somebody who has litigated civil cases in which receivers were appointed just how big of a deal that is. For anybody who doesn't know, a receiver is a court-appointed official who takes complete control of an entity that, for whatever reason, is distressed.

535. 4:52:20

     So let's take a business as an example, that if a business is insolvent, it can't pay its debts, there's multiple competing creditor claims. The court, in an extreme case, can appoint a receiver to basically take the business away from the owners of the business who normally direct its affairs and completely call the shots. So again, Georgia law, anybody who's litigated a receiver case, the standards are structured in such a way as to create a strong presumption, a very strong presumption against appointing a receiver in a case unless it's absolutely ne- necessary to protect the assets of a business.

536. 4:52:59

     Now, that's just in the business context. This layers on a whole bunch more values that I think at this late hour are really tough to talk about in a detailed way. But suffice it to say that this is not an ordinary business where owners have capital, stock, whatever, within the company. This is a democratically, small D, elected government. We're talking about governments that have home rule powers under Georgia statutes, uh, that are elected by the people who live there, whether it's a mayor structure, a council, you know, city commission.

537. 4:53:33

     These are people who have not just a vested interest economically in the performance of the city or the county, but they have a democratic, again, lower D- lowercase D democratic interest in the public interest being protected by the officials that they have trusted to do that. So what we're talking about is a judicial override of democratically elected officials being able to navigate their way using their home rule powers out of a situation of being distressed.

538. 4:54:06

     Now, your response to that might be, in some cases... It does really get that bad and wouldn't it be great to have a process for a receiver in cases that are actually extreme? But the list of conditions,

539. 4:54:22

     the list of conditions that create the definition of or the, the condition of being a distressed municipality starts on page six,

540. 4:54:34

     line one forty-seven. Term distressed muni- municipality means met two of the following criteria within the immediately preceding ten-year period.

541. 4:54:47

     So one, the municipality has failed to comply with the requirements of Code Section 3681.7 for two consecutive audit periods. And I assume there are technical violations in that code section that it would be easy to find a violation of. Th- this is kind of like the whole, you know, I made the comment weeks ago that people commit traffic misdemeanors on the way to the Capitol. It's easy to fail technical violations when you are up against bureaucracy. I think everybody in here would agree that bureaucracy creates tripwires people can easily trip over.

542. 4:55:19

     Now look, I'm not gonna contest preparing or approving an annual budget. That's obviously very important and municipalities should do that. But something like judgment creditors, what if there's a nuclear verdict and there's a judgment against a city and they haven't paid it in ninety days 'cause there's a good policy reason for delaying it? Or what if there's a default on payment of principal or interest on bonds or notes, but there's a contract with the note holder or the bond holder that enables some kind of limited default remedy or cure? There's lots of nuance that goes into a lot of these deficiencies and it's easy to trip a lot of these wires.

543. 4:55:58

     But to be very clear about the process laid out in this amendment, once you qualify as a distressed municipality according to these definitions, all that a petitioner has to do is go to superior court and say, "Judge, this is a distressed municipality. You shall give me a ruling." In this amendment, if you start on line two two three, subsection D, if superior court finds that municipal corporation is a distressed municipality according to the definition, the court's order shall, yada, yada, yada, declare the distressed municipality to be in a recei- receivership and this is not discretionary.

544. 4:56:36

     The superior court shall appoint a receiver not to exceed two years, which essentially means that if any one of those tripwires or two of those tripwires rather within ten years is triggered, it is not discretionary with the superior court. The superior court has to appoint an individual, a receiver as an individual who would take over the entire affairs of the municipality. So again, the oppos- opposition to this amendment is not going to claim that there should never be a case where a receiver is appointed, but some of the conditions here are much less severe than others and this is not the kind of thing that you wanna do without a full committee process and ha- having ACCG and GMA testify.

545. 4:57:21

     We want the local governments to be able to explain some of what I'm talking about with regard to technical violations with real world examples and to walk you through just how difficult it is to get out of this situation. I don't think that a receiver necessarily would be up to the challenge of embracing the complexity of a local government's finances as quickly as you might expect if you're in the majority and you wanna pass this. It's already hard enough for an entire city's finance department to come to these conclusions on its own.

546. 4:57:55

     Vesting all this in one person, not giving the superior court discretion as to whether to do it is a lot of policy to be doing at 11:00 PM. So I know you all love good government. I know that's why you ran for state senate and got elected. I would just ask that you table this for now. Let's come back to it when we have a better deliberative process around it and just consider that we do not wanna be handing the entire control of state, or excuse me, local governments, counties, cities in this case over to a single court appointed receiver without giving the court discretion to craft a remedy that's appropriate for these situations.

547. 4:58:32

     With that, Mr. President, I'll yield the

548. 4:58:37

     floor. Recognize the senator from the twenty-second.

549. 4:58:52

     Thank you, Mr. President. I'll be brief. Also rise in opposition to this particular legislation because quite frankly this is not what you call fiscal oversight, Mr. President. This is actually a takeover bill and we should not be in this particular business. The president of this body actually just said basically or something of this nature that we're running out of Republicans and these actions basically confirm that. Whether we're talking about this particular bill or other bills similar, it is a tremendous government overreach. And I would say this, the days of talking about Democrats and big government should be over because now we're getting engaged to completely take, basically destroying and taking over cities, taking over everyone's life at this point in time.

550. 4:59:34

     At this point I'm not even sure if we're talking about partisanship or even some may even argue some type of demographic or racial bias, but maybe it's a true desire at this point that this body led by the majority truly believes that government is the answer, that government should actually be controlling everyone's life. The problem with these cities is not necessarily just bad management. They're depressed because they also are poor. They're depressed because they have high poverty rates. They're depressed because they have lower healthcare. Their education system is not the best.

551. 5:00:05

     Yet instead of trying to work with these folks on these issues, we just wanna act- actually say the answer is to destroy them.

552. 5:00:12

     But the intrinsic issues that face the people, not the cities, but the people still exist. Those intrinsic issues still do exist. This just masked over them because we can say that we've cr- created these triggers to take them over, but those intrinsic issues still exist. And are those intrinsic is- issues actually gonna be met by this body? And the answer to that is no. So we may feel good about ourselves and say, "Oh, we've, we've showed them that they had bad management, and we showed them, didn't we?

553. 5:00:44

     We took it from them. We had all these metrics and all these things that we had in place, and we got them." But their people are still suffering. Their people are still poor. People still have low education. Those issues still exist, and we won't do anything about those issues. Those issues we'll let linger and still kind of sit out there, but we got them. We got those leaders, didn't we? We showed them. And what we're finding now is that this is endemic to this body, this government overreach. This government overreach is really endemic to us.

554. 5:01:14

     We now are in business telling people who they can vote for, how they can vote, when they can vote. That's what we're doing and now engage with. It was a couple of weeks ago, one of the things I said at this well was that this Democratic Party was not your grandfather's Democratic Party, and I can say the same thing about this Republican Party because that party would have said, as Ronald Reagan said, that government is not the solution, it is the problem. What this new party says is that government can dictate everything. Government, if we don't like what you do, we would dictate everything to you, whether it's in your personal life, whether it's in your voting, whether it's how you conduct your business affairs in your cities.

555. 5:01:53

     This government now knows best for you. That is the intent. That this particular bill, when you wrap it around with other bills that exist, that is what's really coming out. And it's very interesting that the same party that talks about they want to get rid of red tape creates a red tape bill for cities to actually survive. You want to get rid of red tape, but you create a red tape bill for cities to survive, but you do nothing about the intrinsic problems facing those cities, and that's the key. So we can say, "Oh man, we got those elected officials. They're doing a terrible job.

556. 5:02:25

     Go look at their poverty rates. Go look at their education rates. Go look at their healthcare rates. What are you doing about that?" And the answer to that is nothing. But that's to where we are at this particular point in time. Government knows best apparently now within the Georgia State Senate. Government dictates everything, except it doesn't dictate how to actually improve people's lives. And with that, I yield the well.

557. 5:02:54

     Recognize the senator from the 35th.

558. 5:03:11

     Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, stand in opposition to this bill. Uh, can't say it any better than the minority leader. Thank you for those comments. Um, this is yet another, uh, big government bill, a- another takeover bill, another, uh, flex bill to show how powerful we are over people who don't do what we want them to do. Uh, we're seeing a pattern here. We're seeing it with our transportation systems. We're seeing it with how, uh, uh, we vote, whether it's partisan or nonpartisan. We're seeing it with when a local community can put something on a, on the ballot for a, a transit re- referendum.

559. 5:03:46

     Uh, we are seeing the, this ar- this body decide that we like big government. And I know that I'm not the, uh, the typical Democrat that fits neatly into a Democrat box, but I did not expect to c- come up here so often to talk about how much red tape we're starting by Republicans. I did not expect to talk about how much, uh, Republicans tend to really like big government, uh, imposing on the freedom of local folks. We have folks in municipalities that are under, they're u- under a process to improve, to get better, and here I think we're gonna, we're gonna su- uh, provide support, but nope, we're gonna provide more law.

560. 5:04:27

     I thought we were about freedom. What happened to the Freedom Caucus over there in my row? They're, they're not over there. Um- I, I, yeah, I don't, I don't know. So apparently freedom is what we're about if you agree with our party, I think. So I'm just, I'm, again, I'm learning, and I'm understanding, and I really appreciate it, but, um, I think that we can take a moment, catch our breath. Uh, can we also remember that this bill was introduced last minute last week, and it introduces sweeping changes to law?

561. 5:05:02

     I mean, I have communities and, and we all have communities that do more debate about a pocket park. But no, here we are with another sweeping bill, big government, more red tape, because we wanna show... Well, let me... You know what? I don't know why we're doing it, but it just feels like we're doing it to show how strong and powerful we are. I don't know where we get this mentality where we start doing all these things using government to show how strong and powerful we are. It's almost like if we had the ability, we'd start a war of choice to show how powerful we are.

562. 5:05:35

     I don't know. There's just so much happening here where it just reminds me of something. Anyway, I want us to really work on this. Um, I know everybody in here individually are very principled folks, but let's not get together on our teams and start having really lazy group think.

563. 5:05:56

     It's 11:00, and somehow we have big, big government right in front of us. Let us, uh, consider our local municipalities making the best decisions. Let them go through a process before we jump in and show them just how powerful state government can be. We've been doing this over and over and over again over the last couple of weeks. Imagine how we'd feel if the federal government did that to us. But, um, yeah, I guess Democrats are up here talking about freedom.

564. 5:06:30

     America. I yield the will.

565. 5:06:35

     Recognize the senator from the 19th.

566. 5:06:47

     All right, bring it home. Thank you, Mr. President. Members of the Senate, big government? Give me a break for a second. Red tape causing extra problems? Let's talk about what this bill does. You have cities that have not made budget for years. You have cities that have not filed audits for years. You have cities that have not followed other provisions of the Constitution, and now we're sitting here trying to figure out what we should do with them.

567. 5:07:18

     And the argument that I've heard from some in the minority party is, "Well, if we do anything about them, we're being big government." Well, guys, let's be honest about it. They don't need to be cities. They don't need to be cities at all. What we really ought to do is talk about how we limit the cities that aren't really cities. But in his act of trying to defend that, the majority leader has come up with a middle compromise plan for now. The middle compromise plan allows a receiver. A receivership is a court-appointed position that allows a city to get its act together, get its feet back from under it, and possibly hang on.

568. 5:07:56

     But if it can't, what we really need to do, and what I hope this body will do in future years, is look at whether or not those governments should exist at all to begin with. If they're not helping their citizens, they're simply a pariah on their taxes. This is a middle gap measure, allows for a time period of savings, a chance for the city to possibly get its feet back under it. And if it doesn't exist then, then what I hope we would do is come with amendment in the future that says they probably should have never existed at all.

569. 5:08:28

     Mr. President, thank you, and I yield the will.

570. 5:08:37

     Recognize senator for, senator from the 8th.

571. 5:08:45

     Thank you, Mr. President. I don't normally get up here and talk about these kind of bills, but I want to share with y'all something that happened in my district in a small city of 1,800 people. That city, the mayor has been arrested on 16 felony counts. The mayor pro tem has been arrested on a felony count. The city clerk has been arrested on a felony count. They owe about, they owed about $3 million. Um, their trash service, they had a million-dollar judgment against them on that.

572. 5:09:17

     10 out of the 12 lift stations in the city were not working. We had sewage backing up into people's homes, buckling the floors. They had to shut down the water to the school system. At one point, the mayor, who has now been arrested, he actually shut off the water to the school kids. I don't know who does something like that. They've been under a boil water notice. They haven't done their au- they had not done their audit since 2019.

573. 5:09:49

     2019. And so w- we start trying to, myself and the representative that, that represents that area, we're trying to help these folks, and we can't get them any resources because they haven't done their audits. And then we go and, and we try to talk to them and get them to turn over their s- their water and their sewer to the county because we're up to date on their audits, and they didn't want to do it. And y'all know I'm not a heavy-handed person, but I went on television and told them that if they didn't do it, I was gonna bring forth legislation to do away with their charter because in 2026, no American should have to live like that.

574. 5:10:28

     I have never been so infuriated with a group of folks in my life. Finally, they voted to turn it over, but then they wouldn't sign the document. And so I went to calling the lawyers that are in this caucus. I went to talking to other outside counsel because I was about ready to file suit myself to see if I had standing as the senator to be able to sue them to try to put them into a receivership. I wanted to share that story because we've got to have some way that when things just absolutely run off the rails and they're not able to deliver essential services to their citizens, because at the end of the day, if somebody ended up getting sick and dying, they're not gonna be calling out that mayor that's been arrested.

575. 5:11:12

     They're gonna be looking at the representative, myself, the governor. And we found out that there was not a current mechanism to put it in receivership. There was one county over in West Georgia that it was a situation where a mayor got elected and the entire city council resigned, and the mayor actually went to the court and asked them to report a s- a receivership or, and, uh, the attorney that was appointed to do that is now their city attorney, and they're doing well. I wanted to share that story with y'all because I, I think this is something that needs to be done.

576. 5:11:47

     Again, when situations like this happen, y'all, I'm talking about people pleading with us, pleading with us. They can't trust their water. The water's under a boil water notice. Literally sewage backing up into their homes. The, the, everything has run off the rails. They can't get anybody to do their work because they haven't paid anybody. That's the kind of situation that we've got to have a mechanism to help these folks. And so I'm gonna vote for this. I ask you to do the same.

577. 5:12:18

     With that, Mr. President, I yield the will.

578. 5:12:22

     All right.

579. 5:12:30

     S-

580. 5:12:33

     Senator, uh, majority leader, did you speak on amendment 1A? Did you speak to it? Yeah, go ahead and close.

581. 5:12:50

     Thank you, Mr. President. So I find it so ironic the Democratic Party wants to come up here and talk about, once again, what they think big government is, try and quote Ronald Reagan, not even close, um, make excuses to defend bankrupt cities like we've seen in blue states all over America, but not to, you know, hold cities accountable.

582. 5:13:23

     Hold cities accountable that

583. 5:13:30

     are in rural areas, urban areas,

584. 5:13:36

     and we wanna talk about what's morally wrong going on in cities. Cities like I represent that are millions of dollars in deficits and wanna put their deficit on the backs of the taxpayer with a new property tax because they can't pay their bills. They want the property owner that leaves Paulding County, Georgia every single day to put food on the table, to pay rent, to pay their mortgage, to pay their expensive water bill.

585. 5:14:14

     Those elected officials and politicians wanna pay, make those citizens have to pay for their mistakes. And granted, I would say in Hiram, Georgia, there's only one elected official that don't even own the problem. But you got the mayor and a couple of city councilmen, they wanna go partner with Fair Fight.

586. 5:14:36

     Yeah. Wanna go there? Let's talk. We're all friends. But that's what this is about.

587. 5:14:47

     That part of the political spectrum wants to come in, tell cities what's best to do, defend the city, defend the city, defend the city, because God, we can't lose. We're willing, we're willing to make the taxpayer have to pay the bills because we gotta politically win, and that's what this is about. We could talk about poverty in communities. We can talk about the de-industrialization of Georgia, just like Michigan saw with Detroit.

588. 5:15:19

     Whether you're in Dalton, whether you're in Doraville, whether you're in South Georgia, that's what's led it, and those are the problems that we have to solve in this, in this state. And if we're gonna rely on local governments, government, again, is what I just heard from the Democrats, to solve these problems, these cities will fail and fail and fail again, and put the, put the problem and the burden of the things they don't wanna address on the back of the taxpayer.

589. 5:15:50

     So as we talk about economic gaps, pulling people out of poverty, addressing the job losses in parts of urban, rural Georgia,

590. 5:16:05

     is that gonna be solved with a new property tax that has never existed in a community before? That's what I'm hearing. When you see nearly four million dollars disappear when a city's budget is only barely over seven,

591. 5:16:28

     somebody please do the math to me. We've got people who have served on school boards and served on city councils like myself. Please do the math for me of where we're borrowing this money. It sounds like it's either from the sky or the pocket of the taxpayer.

592. 5:16:49

     So as we go and, and pick these fights in, in communities, when people are sick and tired of seeing government run into the ground, and sometimes, yeah, people are afraid to speak up. Sometimes people are afraid to lead and make controversial decisions, and maybe that's what one of this, this situation is. But at the end of the day, I'm gonna defend the residents that can barely afford to pay the bills before they have to pay the bills of the government when the government's asking them to tighten their belt and do more.

593. 5:17:28

     That is preposterous. That is ludicrous. That is immoral. That is just plain wrong. So Mr. President, as I wrap up and we talk about this bill and this legislation, just remember one thing.

594. 5:17:51

     Those families that are asking you for help, don't come to this well and patronize them by saying you're gonna save the government when all you're doing is doing more harm to them, when they're trying to rise up, do better for their family, and contribute to this state and contribute to America. So Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to vote green on both amendments, send this bill to the House, and let's just get this bill done and sign it, die, to save our cities, make them prosperous, but also at the end of the day, protect the taxpayer and those that are in blue-collar, low-income family communities like Hiram, Georgia.

595. 5:18:38

     they need a little help right now in order to be a successful city for the next fifty to a hundred years in this state. Thank you, Mr. President.

596. 5:18:53

     Okay, the question is on the adoption of amendment 1A by the senator from the 31st. Is there objection to amendment 1A? Without objection, amendment 1A is added.

597. 5:19:09

     Senator has moved that Senate agree to house substitute on SB17 as amended by 1A. All those in favor vote yay. All opposed nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

598. 5:19:26

     On

599. 5:20:24

     the motion to agree on SB17, yays are 32, nays are 17, and this motion has prevailed. Recognize the senator from the 6th.

600. 5:20:40

     Mr. President, I move that the Senate agree to the House substitute to SB589. Secretary, read the caption. Senate Bill 589 by Senator Brass of the 6th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend part three of article six of chapter two of title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to educational programs under the Quality Basic Education Act so as to revise the date by which a child must attain a certain age to be eligible for enrollment in kindergarten or first grade, to provide for parents and guardians to elect for their children who have attained the age of four or five to be enrolled in a voluntary pre-kindergarten program provided and operated as part of Georgia's pre-K program, to provide for an effective date and applicability, to provide for related matters to repeal conflicting laws and for other purposes.

601. 5:21:23

     Mr. President, the House offers the following substitute to Senate Bill 589, a bill to be entitled an act to amend Code Section 20-2-150 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to eligibility for enrollment, program assignments for students, and student Social Security numbers so as to provide for parents and guardians to elect for their children who have attained the age of four or five to be enrolled in a voluntary pre-kindergarten program provided and operated as part of Georgia's pre-K program, to provide for parents and guardians of students who are eligible for initial public school enrollment in first grade to elect for their children to be enrolled in kindergarten rather than first grade, to amend part three of article 16 of chapter two of title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to student health in elementary and secondary education so as to enact the You Are Not Alone Awareness Act to require public schools that issue student identification badges to include certain information about the 988 crisis response hot, hotline on such badges, to provide for an effective date and applicability for other purposes.

602. 5:22:15

     Mr. President, that completes the order.

603. 5:22:18

     Recognize the senator from the 6th.

604. 5:22:27

     Thank you, Mr. President. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring back Senate Bill 589. If you remember, this was the pre-K bill allowing the parents to decide when their kids can start pre-K, especially helping our children that have late summer birthdays. Uh, the House added a provision, uh, similar provision to do the same thing for kindergarten. This empowers parents to decide when to enroll their children and, uh, it really does help these kids with these late summer birthdays.

605. 5:22:59

     And then a third provision was added and if a school has student ID badges on the back, they will put 988, you are not alone, and this is a, a number that these kids can text or call if they're experiencing suicidal crisis, emotional distress, or challenges with substance abuse. I'll yield for questions. You do have a question. Recognize the senator from the 37th.

606. 5:23:29

     Thank you, Mr. President. Gentleman yield? I yield. Just confirming this does absolutely nothing to change the compulsory age of attendance for school, correct? That is correct. Thank you. Do you have, do you have any more questions? It just says you have to put 988. You are not alone.

607. 5:23:48

     Yeah, there's no more questions, Senator. I don't know. You want to stay here? Get out of the way. Get out of the way. I'm tired of listening to you. Big government brass.

608. 5:23:58

     Tell you what, still can't believe you passed that bill.

609. 5:24:04

     Unanimously. I mean, you got zero no votes.

610. 5:24:10

     Man, unbelievable. All right, senator has moved that the Senate agree to the House substitute on SB589. All those in favor will vote yay. All opposed nay. Secretary, unlock the machine.

611. 5:25:25

     On the motion to agree to the House substitute is the yays are 49 and the nays are zero. And this motion on SB 589 has prevailed. Recognize the majority leader.

612. 5:25:41

     Mr. President, it's unanimous consent that the following be bills be taken from the table, HB 141, HB 320, HB 618, HB 1114, HB 111133, HB 1134, HB 1138, HB 1277, and HB 1295.

613. 5:26:02

     So just so everyone will know, in order for these bills to be available on Thursday, we have to take them off the table and then put them back on the, on the table. So that's what we're doing right here. So Secretary, read the caption.

614. 5:26:16

     House Bill 141 by Representative Bomb to handle the 17th Rev- Revenue and Taxation allow businesses and practitioners to provide affidavits for certified public accounts in lieu of tax returns. House Bill 320 by Representative Kelly of the 16th, Waste Management require recycling of solar panels. House Bill 618 by Representative Campbell, the 171st, Property require any seller of real property to make certain disclosures regarding flood damage to such real property. House Bill 1114 by Representative Yerta of the 152nd, uh, Quality Basic Education Act allow for students in ninth and tenth grade to complete the high school graduation financial literacy course requirement. House Bill 1133 by Representative Dickey of the 134th, uh, Georgia Environmental Finance, Finance Authority finance and perform certain duties in connection with projects related to facilitating solar installations cl- and cl- on closed landfills authorized.

615. 5:26:58

     House Bill 1134 by Representative New of the 40th, Property repossessors of motor vehicles revised notice requirements. House Bill 1138 by Representative Camp of the 135th, Increasing Access to Contraceptive Act enact. House Bill 1277 by Representative Barton of the fifth, Conservation of Natural Resources increased project cost threshold for public roads or airports requiring environment- environmental evaluations. House Bill 1295 by Representative Cooper of the 45th, Physician Li- physician assistant, licensure compact enter into an interstate compact. Mr. President, that completes the order.

616. 5:27:26

     Is there objection? Hearing none on motion from the majority leader.

617. 5:27:32

     Mr. President, I move the Senate table the following legislation. HB 141, HB 320, HB 618, HB 1114, HB 1133, HB 1134, HB 1138, HB 1277, HB 1295.

618. 5:27:47

     Is there objection? Okay. Now, majority leader one more time.

619. 5:27:53

     Mr. President, I move the Senate stand adjourned pursuant to HR 998 till 10:00 AM, Thursday, April 2nd.

620. 5:28:01

     All right.

621. 5:28:43

     Majority leader has moved. Are there any announcements? No announcement. Majority leader has moved that the Senate stand adjourned until 10:00 AM, Thursday, April 2nd. All those in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye.

622. 5:28:58

     Aye.

623. 5:28:58

     All those opposed, no.

624. 5:29:00

     No.

625. 5:29:00

     The ayes clearly have it. See you on Thursday