Senate Economic Development and Tourism Committee, January 29, 2026

Transcript

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1. 0:16:14

   with this. Y'all, y'all gonna have to give me a little grace this morning. Uh, welcome to our, uh, our first, uh, economic development, uh, committee meeting. Uh, my name's Drew Echols.

2. 0:16:25

   Mr. Chairman, that has economic development and tourism.

3. 0:16:27

   And-

4. 0:16:28

   Yeah. Thank you

5. 0:16:29

   ... thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair for, uh ... We didn't, Frank and I didn't know how to spell tourism, uh, going into, uh, going into the off-season, and we got beat in the head pretty hard with it. Uh, I appreciated having my good friend with me, uh, traveling the state and, uh, and learning all that. But, uh, we're gonna go ahead and get started. I'm gonna call the meeting to order. And, uh, Mr. Vice Chairman, do you mind opening us up in a word of prayer this morning?

6. 0:16:54

   Be glad to, Mr. Chairman. Yeah. Dear Lord, we come to you with the, uh, open minds and, uh, open hearts. And we'd like to make sure that we're doing the work of the people of Georgia. We do wanna make sure that we include tourism in our, uh, efforts, because we know economic development makes the state move, makes everything better in our state. We hope that you'll use our service to your betterment, the, uh, these names an- and these, uh, ideals we, we put in your name.

7. 0:17:26

   Thank you, God. Amen.

8. 0:17:28

   Amen.

9. 0:17:32

   Thank you, Mr. Chair- Vice Chairman. Um, we got a couple bills this morning that we're gonna, uh, go through and try to get them, uh, through committee, get a good vote on them, and, uh, and get them through. Glad everybody showed up to this 8:00 AM. But I do wanna take just a second, and if you don't have a bingo card, um, we've got some bingo cards. Everybody should have one in your folder up here on the committee. But if you want a, a really cool bingo card, uh, they're up here on the, uh, on the front, uh, next to where, uh, our presenters will be.

10. 0:18:04

    Um, all in honor of our good friend, Representative Powell, Chairman Powell. So, uh, Representative, if you would come up and talk to us about your bill this morning. I think it came out of committee last year. Give us a little refresher. We've all slept since then. We'll try to get you on your way.

11. 0:18:21

    Well, I thank you, Mr. Chairman, and the honorable committee members. And thank you so much for not having this 6:00 meeting.

12. 0:18:29

    I think that was the last Senate committee I was in last year at that time of the day. And, uh, let's see. I bring to you today House Bill 455, bingo bill. Just a short preference to it. Georgia only has two forms of legalized gambling. One is the lottery, another is bingo. Bingo is very specific that it's got to be handled. It's can only be granted to not-for-profit organizations where the revenues go to a, a profit, a not-for-profit, for a not-for-profit organization.

13. 0:19:01

    Hope y'all don't mind me standing. It is not out of anything other than the fact that I got titanium knees, and they ain't thawed out yet this morning. So, uh, these folks that do the bingo for charitable causes, and this is, quite frankly, they call this the Cloister Bill, and it doesn't only affect them, but we do have some other not-for-profits, a lot of the fraternal and military organizations that do bingo to, to give back to the community and things like that. So it affects all these folks.

14. 0:19:32

    But our bingo statutes have been sort of antiquated for a number of years. Tell you a real quick story about the, uh, the Cloister. The Cloister's been having bingo since the 1930s. Uh, well-known for visitors down there. It's a recreational activity, and they have quite a fund down there that goes to a lot of the charitable organizations down on the coast. And what they've done, they've realized that it's time to upgrade something that would help them. If you look through the bill, there's just a few minor changes to it.

15. 0:20:04

    Uh, if you look on, uh, line 46, uh, we're allowing them instead of a single location to have multiple locations. And the purpose of that is, uh, they have these bingo games in the ballroom there at the Cloister, uh, and they want to be able to do them in other locations. They're such a busy facility. Sometimes the ballrooms are full. They might want to move it to another ballroom or over to the, to the club over at the, uh, oceanfront and things like that. Uh, currently, they can have one bingo session per day.

16. 0:20:38

    We're allowing them to go to three bingo sessions a day, not more than five hours per session. Uh, they're so popular. If any of y'all has had the honor and the pleasure of going to the, to the Cloister to these, you know you can't get in a ballroom. That's how popular these things are. And, uh, they'd like to break these apart so they can have up to three a day, uh, not to exceed five hours per. We're raising the prizes from 3 to $6,000 in a calendar week. So that means if they have three sessions, then they can't do more than, probably won't do more than $2,000 per session.

17. 0:21:16

    So it, it, that kind of puts a limit on that because they're restricted to the $6,000 in a week. And when you put that into days, that kind of, kind of puts a stifling on that. And then if you look to the last page, uh, starting on line 70, and then on 77, they've been restricted to paying $30. And they've reached a point with, uh, inflation and all, because they use professional auctioneers and, and, uh, barkers that do this stuff, and they can't get them at $30.

18. 0:21:46

    So they want to be able to pay these people who run the bingo and help them up to $150 a day. Quite a simple bill, and I would certainly appreciate your consideration. I'll stand for questions.

19. 0:22:00

    Go ahead, Mr. Vice Chairman.

20. 0:22:02

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The, uh, oh, you know, I got a great step, state representative h- here, said I think he's, uh, one of our more esteemed senior, uh, members over in the House, and he happens to be in front of us this morning. The, uh- I like to sell, uh, rotary raffle tickets. Does that have anything to do with bingo?

21. 0:22:24

    No.

22. 0:22:25

    The, uh-

23. 0:22:25

    No, it doesn't

24. 0:22:26

    ... you know-

25. 0:22:27

    Although, technically, technically those raffle tickets might be considered a violation, but not where we come from.

26. 0:22:36

    Thank you, Mr- Mr. Chairman. So the, uh, uh-

27. 0:22:39

    When it's a worthy cause

28. 0:22:40

    ... and, and, uh, I know you- you've been a, a loyal purchaser of those raffle tickets. I just wanna make sure that I'm not outlawing, uh, selling them, uh, a handicap ramp. So, uh-

29. 0:22:49

    I'll just appreciate if I ever win that $10,000 purse again that y'all don't file a 1099 on me.

30. 0:22:54

    So y'all, y'all did hear him said, "I win it again."

31. 0:23:01

    I, I, I congratulate, congratulate him. He gave $10,000 to his grandkids.

32. 0:23:05

    Yeah, he hadn't told the other part of that story. I gave that money to my grandchildren for the scholarship, and then I got a 1099 at the end of the year, and I had to pay taxes on it. So there you go.

33. 0:23:15

    You did that with grace. I appreciate it.

34. 0:23:18

    Of course, he get-

35. 0:23:18

    Welcome to Old Ladies

36. 0:23:19

    ... with gravel in my mouth.

37. 0:23:22

    But we, we appreciate it, Mr. Chairman, and, and I do like your bill.

38. 0:23:25

    Thank you.

39. 0:23:25

    So I, I get one X on your bingo card over here.

40. 0:23:29

    Very good.

41. 0:23:31

    Questions, Mr. Chairman?

42. 0:23:32

    Go ahead, Seth.

43. 0:23:34

    Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, Mr. Chairman, as, as you presented the bill, you indicated there are only two-

44. 0:23:38

    Yeah

45. 0:23:39

    ... forms of gambling. Is that right?

46. 0:23:40

    That's correct.

47. 0:23:41

    So that would be the lottery and bingo?

48. 0:23:43

    That's correct.

49. 0:23:44

    How do you classify co-op?

50. 0:23:47

    Well, the courts, I can only say what the courts have described co-op. The gambling is considered the paying out of cash. That's the reason that these, uh, the locations in past years, and probably currently, if they're caught paying out cash, then they're in violation of commercial gambling.

51. 0:24:04

    Well, uh, is it not true, Mr. Chairman, that they're currently paying out Visa cards?

52. 0:24:09

    No.

53. 0:24:10

    Are they, they're-

54. 0:24:10

    Not currently

55. 0:24:11

    ... not currently.

56. 0:24:12

    Not currently.

57. 0:24:12

    All right. E- then enlighten me, please.

58. 0:24:14

    They will, hopefully they will in July, July the 1st. We're moving the co-op division so that they're paying out gift cards. Right now you can, uh, if somebody wins on a co-op machine, they can trade it for merchandise in a store.

59. 0:24:28

    That's correct.

60. 0:24:29

    They can trade it, uh, for other lot- for more l- uh, lottery tickets and all of that, or they can get a gift card. And you've seen like if you go to some of the stores like Walmart, you'll see a, a board of gift cards from everything from a Cracker Barrel to somewhere else. They can pay them in that. But the prohibition is you cannot pay cash. Courts have described that, that's considered gambling. And we're moving to, thanks to the House and the Senate- ... uh, two years ago, this coming, uh, this coming July the 1st, then it goes to the one thing that you can only pay out three ways.

61. 0:25:05

    One is a redemption for lottery tickets, uh, in-store redemption, and a gift card. So we're moving to the non-cash payable gift cards that could be downloaded.

62. 0:25:20

    In the infamous-

63. 0:25:21

    Hopefully, as, hopefully as a sec- as a secondary to that, what I'm, what I-

64. 0:25:25

    Follow-up. Yeah. Just a quick follow-up. In the infamous words of Yogi Berra, they give you money or they give you, give you cash, it's the same thing. So I can, I can have cash or I can have a gift card. It still has the same value. Is that not true?

65. 0:25:41

    Well, I don't know. Yogi's not with us, but, uh-

66. 0:25:43

    Not anymore.

67. 0:25:44

    Yeah.

68. 0:25:44

    We lost a, a giant.

69. 0:25:46

    Right.

70. 0:25:47

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

71. 0:25:48

    Yeah. As a secondary answer to that, I will also tell you one of the things that we're promoting is that when we go to the gift cards, and I've said this from the floor of the House, any store, any location that pays out cash is too stupid to be in business. The way the mechanism works today is that every one of those machines are their legally licensed machine. They're tethered by, uh, communications devices back to the lottery so they can see what these machines are doing. That's how we're getting the revenue from them.

72. 0:26:18

    Now, other than that, people in Georgia, you know, and I know it, it's been tough to put a constitutional amendment up for gambling, and I've been a promoter of it for one, one and only one cause, that that money needs to go to something that benefits every Georgia citizen. And in my mind, that would be healthcare. As all you distinguished senators know, that's one area in Georgia that we've never had enough money-

73. 0:26:44

    Mm

74. 0:26:44

    ... past, present, or in the future. It benefits every Georgia across partisan lines, gender, race, and everything else. The lottery doesn't need any more money. They've got tons of shortfall reserve funds over there. So that's just a-

75. 0:27:01

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman

76. 0:27:01

    ... and I'm not encouraging you to amend this bill, by the way.

77. 0:27:04

    I share your, uh, your interest in making sure that any gaming of any kind is legalized, is legally conducted in Georgia.

78. 0:27:14

    It would tell you something about the good folks of Georgia that, uh, play those machines.

79. 0:27:18

    Thank you.

80. 0:27:19

    If 13% of that, uh, money that goes into those machines is paid out, has, uh, raised over $200 million last year to the lottery, folks in Georgia must like to game.

81. 0:27:31

    Yes.

82. 0:27:31

    They must like to play games.

83. 0:27:34

    Thank you.

84. 0:27:35

    Thank you, Senator. Senator Hodges.

85. 0:27:38

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since this bill's about bingo and not co-op, can I make a motion?

86. 0:27:43

    Yes, sir.

87. 0:27:44

    I move due pass on House Bill or House Bill 455.

88. 0:27:49

    Got a motion.

89. 0:27:50

    Second.

90. 0:27:50

    Got a second. All in favor? Raise your hand.

91. 0:27:56

    Thank you.

92. 0:27:57

    Uh, thank you very much. And Senator Brass-

93. 0:28:00

    Senator, you were asking-

94. 0:28:00

    ... Chairman Brass-

95. 0:28:00

    ... me to bring a change

96. 0:28:01

    ... is gonna be handling this bill-

97. 0:28:02

    Well, I wanted to make a personal point

98. 0:28:03

    ... going forward.

99. 0:28:05

    I'll get you an apple ticket.

100. 0:28:06

     You won't return.

101. 0:28:07

     I'm waiting for it.

102. 0:28:07

     The lottery returns.

103. 0:28:09

     I know.

104. 0:28:09

     I'm gonna get Mike one too.

105. 0:28:10

     We do understand that.

106. 0:28:11

     Did I mention that change?

107. 0:28:12

     Not the public money.

108. 0:28:14

     That, that's-

109. 0:28:15

     I'm sure they'll be-

110. 0:28:16

     I'm sure there'll be a bigger discussion, but-

111. 0:28:18

     So just not so much-

112. 0:28:19

     I think, of course, he's gonna put it in power.

113. 0:28:21

     But if you could just tell us why you think-

114. 0:28:23

     Did... I don't... I'm afraid I missed him. Did I mention that?

115. 0:28:27

     No.

116. 0:28:27

     Something about the lottery.

117. 0:28:28

     I think so.

118. 0:28:29

     Never mind.

119. 0:28:30

     The vote passed.

120. 0:28:31

     Right.

121. 0:28:31

     Can you go check on it?

122. 0:28:32

     Yes. And-

123. 0:28:51

     All right. Um, now we've got, um, SB 420. I'm gonna, um, present that right quick. I'm gonna let, uh, Vice Chairman Ginn, um, hopefully not treat me like a pinata. Mr. Vice Chairman, you want me to go up there or you want me to do it here? I don't care.

124. 0:29:09

     You're, you're the chairman. You can do it right where you are.

125. 0:29:10

     I don't know how this work. I don't know how this works. Okay.

126. 0:29:13

     I think you-

127. 0:29:13

     Okay

128. 0:29:13

     ... I, I think you're doing, doing fine. We gonna, we gonna coach you up.

129. 0:29:18

     Hopefully, hopefully get this done. Maybe by the time session's over with I'll be decent at this. So, uh, committee, we're gonna be looking at LC, uh, 443323. And, uh, what this bill does, li- it passed, uh, last year. Um, uh, the House and the Senate then got, um, got a little, uh, language on, uh, raw milk put on it, and, and, um, when it came back to the Senate, we didn't agree with that.

130. 0:29:48

     So we started this over and there's a couple changes. But what this bill does, um, recreational saltwater fishing, um, as most of y'all know, is huge in the state of Georgia. $300 million, um, dollars per year in economic impact, over 3,000 jobs. Um, since 2006, uh, many, uh, federal species have been managed under catch limits, meaning every fish must be caught and accounted for, uh, via survey. This is very difficult. We're not getting very mu- very accurate, uh, data.

131. 0:30:22

     Uh, there's no silver bullets when it comes to this issue. Um, the, the feds are, uh, in some cases, very hard to deal with. Um, last year we stepped into the gap and we funded, um, additional personnel, um, for, uh, DNR. Now what we're looking to do is require anglers, uh, who land, um, any of non-federal species, um, to purchase an endorsement.

132. 0:30:53

     Uh, DNR will accurately define how to, how these, um, anglers pursue these sp- uh, species, and when combined with increased dockside interviews, we'll improve our catch estimates. Um, some of the bill, it also talks about allows the department to require reporting if it determines mandatory reporting to be a better method than the current survey meth- methodology. Um, red snapper's the big one. Uh, Florida has their, uh, uh ... Florida's managing their own.

133. 0:31:24

     They have multiple days. The season's been extended in Georgia. Um, we're kind of, uh, for lack of better terms, all over the place with a, um, a little bit of season here, a little bit of season there. And, um, we're, we ... I look at this, um, as an opportunity to get an, an issue out of the fed's hands and into our hands. That's, that's the way I look at it. I think we can manage our resources better than the federal government has. There's a lot of details in this bill, but to me it just boils down to that, uh, what would be local control, and I trust our DNR more than I trust anything out of Washington, DC.

134. 0:32:04

     Um, also, there's a, there's a couple sections of the bill that, um, the, the last section deals with, uh, just simple rules that the, uh, DNR board has, um, made over the past year, and this would ... In any other circumstance, these would probably end up in another agency bill, but we had an opportunity to put these together and, um, and hopefully get this across the finish line. Uh, we have, uh, the commissioner and, um, deputy commissioner here. Um, would you guys like to speak on behalf of the bill?

135. 0:32:38

     I think you did a great job of laying out what the bill is. If we have any technical questions, we have our coastal resource division director that's very familiar with the bill and the language, um, if there are questions.

136. 0:32:55

     You run it. You run it.

137. 0:32:57

     Well, you've, you've done a good job, Mr. Chairman.

138. 0:32:59

     I'll consult her.

139. 0:32:59

     He's done.

140. 0:32:59

     The, uh ... One thing I do notice in the bill, the, uh, on, on lines 31 and 32, it talks about the fees that are collected go back to the department.

141. 0:33:09

     Okay.

142. 0:33:09

     Sidney, uh, do we do that with any other-

143. 0:33:11

     No

144. 0:33:11

     ... oh, fees that are collected by the department for hunting or fishing purposes?

145. 0:33:16

     Park pass fees come back to our agency-

146. 0:33:20

     Okay

147. 0:33:20

     ... for, for maintenance on our parks. Um, other than that, no.

148. 0:33:26

     Okay. And, and, uh, on the last page, on, uh, line 58, it's talking about the, uh, January 1, 2026. Expound on that to me, Sidney, uh, 'cause, 'cause that's retroactive, uh, for us, and do we need to ... Is, is there something ... I'm just looking at that date, kind of jumped out at me.

149. 0:33:48

     That, as, as the chairman said, this bill circulated last year. We were in hopes of getting that done, so we would be open to any changes today.

150. 0:33:59

     Well, it had a stri- strike through from 2025 to 2026, and I'm just wondering do we need to update that again or, or, you know, if you-

151. 0:34:07

     So I believe that's in reference to any of the rules or regulations that the board would promulgate in the past year or so. It just codifies and updates the year, so any rules that were passed last year would be codified, um, into law again.

152. 0:34:22

     Yeah.

153. 0:34:23

     Okay. There you go. Thank you.

154. 0:34:25

     Just one question.

155. 0:34:26

     And, and the, uh-

156. 0:34:29

     Senator Bearden said they would ... Well, would, would y'all mind coming up to the microphone so everybody else can hear you? This, this, I know there's a big time TV audience out there

157. 0:34:39

     Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So those, those years are just, uh, codifying any rules or regs that would've been passed by the Board of Natural Resources last year, um, and bringing them, uh, into law for starting in 2026. So each year we, we do like to, uh, update that year to encompass any rules or regs that would've been passed in the previous year.

158. 0:34:59

     I'm not gonna pull an Alexander Haig here. Mr. Chairman, you're, you're still in charge, so you, you're running the meeting. You, you, you go ahead and call on Senator Bearden or whatever you wanna do. You just, you just test- was testifying about the bill.

159. 0:35:13

     Uh, Trevor, if you don't mind sign- signing that just for the record, please.

160. 0:35:20

     What number are you?

161. 0:35:21

     Eight.

162. 0:35:24

     Okay. Senator Bearden.

163. 0:35:25

     Mr. Chairman, I had a question. Since occasionally you can take a... Or not occasionally, you take a boat out deep sea fishing from Sea Island, can you have a bingo card- ... on the boat that will talk about the different species of fish you catch, and have a bingo win?

164. 0:35:38

     I'll get my bingo card back out. I think we get two on that one. It was a funny-

165. 0:35:41

     That's over my, that's over, that's over my pay grade.

166. 0:35:45

     J- just want to check, so-

167. 0:35:46

     Thank you

168. 0:35:46

     ... but I appreciate it.

169. 0:35:49

     I had to try to get the check on it.

170. 0:35:51

     Try to factor.

171. 0:35:52

     Yeah.

172. 0:35:54

     Do we have any other questions?

173. 0:35:57

     Mr. Chairman.

174. 0:35:57

     Mr. Chairman.

175. 0:35:59

     Do we ha- do we have anybody else that wants to speak to the bill?

176. 0:36:06

     Okay, we have a-

177. 0:36:08

     Move to pass.

178. 0:36:09

     Second.

179. 0:36:10

     All in favor, say aye.

180. 0:36:12

     Aye.

181. 0:36:12

     Aye.

182. 0:36:14

     Thank you. Ms. Anderson.

183. 0:36:18

     Aye.

184. 0:36:18

     Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Senator Anderson.

185. 0:36:21

     The passage-

186. 0:36:21

     Uh, I'm sorry, that was a little bit painful. Uh, but we got done in, uh, how many minutes? 23 minutes. Uh, a little bit painful. I'll get better, I promise, and we'll get some Jay Moore fried pies in here, uh, at the next one. Do you want to take the microphone and testify? You can. Does he want to? Do you want to? Mr. Griffin, do you wanna testify? I'm sorry ab- about-

187. 0:36:45

     No.

188. 0:36:45

     Oh, okay. All right. I'm sorry about that, um-

189. 0:36:48

     No.

190. 0:36:48

     ... earlier.

191. 0:36:48

     No.

192. 0:36:48

     All right. Well, with that, uh, we stand adjourned. Thank you, guys.