Senate floor session, February 3, 2026 (legislative day 11) Video: https://vimeo.com/1161179760 (a timestamp t plays at https://vimeo.com/1161179760#t=s) Page: https://georgiacommons.org/meetings/2026-02-03/senate-floor This is a machine transcript of the General Assembly's video, made by a speech-recognition model. It is not an official record and can mishear words, names, and numbers. Speakers are not identified. The video is the record: every timestamp links to the moment it plays. [0:03:24] Good [0:23:20] morning, good morning. The time for convening has arrived. The Senate will come to order. At this time, we'll ask all unauthorized personnel to exit the chamber. I recognize the senator from the 6th. [0:23:36] Good morning, Mr. President. Got a busy day today. A lot of groups here, a lot of people to see. But some of the most important people in the Capitol today are our great pages, [0:23:54] and I'd like to tell you who they are. We got Aria Bell from Griffin. We got Maeve Finnegan from Marietta. We got sisters Amara and Laniya Hairston from Grovetown. Got another set of sisters, Kay- Kaisa and Kira Jones from Evans. We got Maya Joshi from Atlanta, Nathan Oliver from Conyers, Arya Patel from Alpharetta, and Kelly Anne Waddell from Milledgeville. [0:24:28] Y'all give these pages a big round of applause. We appreciate your service to this great state and this great Senate. Mr. President, the journal has been read and found to be correct. I move we dispense with the reading of the journal. [0:24:45] Thank you, Senator, and thank you, pages, for being here today. We appreciate all our young people- [0:24:50] Mercy [0:24:50] ... coming down and joining us for a day at the Capitol. Is there objection to the dispensing of the reading of the journal? Chair hears none. The reading of the journal stands with. Is there objection to the confirmation of the journal? Chair hears none. The journal is confirmed. All senators who have bills and resolutions to introduce, please bring them to the secretary's desk at this time. First reading and references to Senate bills and resolutions. Secretary? [0:25:19] Senate Bill 444 by Senators Kirkpatrick of the 32nd and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend chapter 46 of title f- 33 of the official Code of Georgia Annotated. [0:25:27] Education, Labor. [0:25:28] Senate Bill 445 by Senators Dolezal of the 27th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend code section 20-14-27 of the official Code of Georgia Annotated. [0:25:36] Education, Youth. [0:25:37] Senate Bill 446 by Senators Dixon of the 45th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend chapter 2A of title 20 of the official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to student scholars. [0:25:49] Finance. [0:25:49] Senate Bill 447 by Senators Dixon of the 45th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend chapter 7 of title 12 of the official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to control of soil erosion and sedimentation so as to provide provisions regarding denial or non-acceptance of permits. [0:26:02] State and Local Government, General. [0:26:04] Senate Bill 448 by Senators Mallow of the 2nd and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend article 2 of chapter 7 of title 48 of the official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to imposition. [0:26:14] Finance. [0:26:14] Senate Bill 449 by Senators Mallow of the 2nd and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend article 1 of chapter 7 of title 31 of the official Code of Georgia Annotated relating- [0:26:23] Health and Human Services. [0:26:27] Senate Bill 450 by Senators Wicks of the 34th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend article 1 of chapter 5 of title 20 of the official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to state public library activities so as to am- [0:26:36] State and Local Government, General. [0:26:38] Senate Bill 451 by Senators Davenport of the 17th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend chapter 8 of title 35 of the official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to employment and training of peace officers so as to provide for training in the evacuation- [0:26:50] Public Safety. [0:26:51] Senate Bill 452 by Senators Hatchett of the 50th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend code section 47-2-357. [0:27:02] environment. [0:27:02] Senate Bill 453 by Senator Summers of the 13th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend code section 48-7-27 of the official Code of Georgia- [0:27:10] Finance. [0:27:11] Senate Bill 454 by Senators Williams of the 25th and others. A resolution to be entitled an act to amend chapter 2 of title 25 of the official Code of Georgia Annotated. [0:27:18] Public [0:27:21] Safety. [0:27:21] Senate Resolution 6- 668 by Senators Dolezal of the 27th and others. A resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution so as to authorize the General Assembly to provide- [0:27:29] Finance. [0:27:32] Senate Resolution 673 by Senators Wicks of the 34th and others. A resolution recognizing the League of Women Voters of Georgia and for other purposes. [0:27:41] Health and Human Services. [0:27:48] I'm sorry, Ethics. Senate Resolution 684 by Senators Halpern of the 39th and others. A resolution recognizing February 2026 as American Heart Month and- Health and Human Services. Mr. Mr. President, that completes the order. First reading references the House bills. [0:28:20] Recognize the Majority Leader for a motion. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to suspend Senate Rule 3-3.1A to allow the, the refer, the referral of the Governor's appointments. The Majority Leader has moved that we suspend the Senate rules to allow the referral of the Governor's appointments. Is there objection? Without objection, Secretary. [0:28:46] Dear Secretary Tripp, attached is a list of appointments to various boards, commissions, authorities, and other entities requiring Senate confirmation. This list is submitted pursuant to Senate Rules 3-3.1. If we could pro- provide you with any additional information to assist your office in the confirmation process, please let us know. Thank you for your assistance. Sincerely, Brian P. Kemp. Committee on assignments. Mr. President, that completes the order. [0:29:11] First reading references the House bills and resolutions. [0:29:17] House Bill 557 by Representative Hawkins of the 27th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend code section- Judiciary. House Bill 659 by Representative Green of the 155th and others. A bill to be entitled an act- Health and Human Services. House Bill 960 by Representative Clark of the 108th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend- Judiciary. House Bill 1029 by Representative Thomas of the 21st and others. A bill to be entitled- State and Local Government. Mr. President, that completes the order. [0:29:52] Secretary, report of standing committees. [0:30:00] Mr. President, the Senate Committee on Finance has had under consideration the following legislation, and has instructed me to report the same back to the Senate with the following recommendation. Senate Bill 403, do pass by substitute. House Bill 79, do pass by substitute. Respectfully submitted, Senator- Hufstetler. Chuck Hufstetler of the 52nd District, Chairman. [0:30:26] Dear Mr. Secretary, pursuant to Rule, Senate Rule 2-1.6, I hereby give notice that I will introduce a minority report to be read along with the majority report of House Bill 79, which passed out of the Senate Committee on Finance on February 2nd, 2026. [0:30:42] Mr. President, the Senate Committee on Ethics has had under consideration the following legislation, and has instructed me to report the same back to the Senate with the following recommendation. House Bill 414, do pass by substitute. Senate Bill 422, do pass. Respectfully submitted, Senator Watson of the 11th District, Chairman. [0:31:01] Dear Mr. Secretary, pursuant to Rule, Senate Rule 2-1.6, I hereby give notice that I will introduce a minority report to be read along with the majority report of Senate Bill 422, which passed out of the Senate Committee on Ethics on February 2nd, 2026. [0:31:18] Mr. President, the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services had, has, has had under consideration the following legislation, and has instructed me to report the same back to the Senate with the following recommendation. Senate Bill 411, do pass by substitute. Respectfully submitted, Senator Watson of the 1st District, Chairman. [0:31:41] Mr. President, the Senate Committee on Public Safety has had under consideration the following legislate- legislation, and has instructed me to report the same back to the Senate with the following recommendation. Senate Bill 384, do pass by substitute. House Bill 77, do pass by substitute. House Bill 549. House Bill 61, do pass by substitute. Respectfully submitted, Senators Albers of the 56th District, Chairman. Dear Mr. Secretary, pursuant to Senate Rule 2-1.6, I hereby give notice that I will introduce a minority report to be read along with the majority report of House Bill 61, which passed out of the Senate Committee on Public Safety on February 2nd, 2026. [0:32:22] Mr. President, the Senate Committee on Rules has had under consideration the following legislation, and has instructed me to report the same back to the Senate with the following recommendation. Senate Bill 1... Pursuant to Rule, Senate Rule 2-1.10B, the Committee on Rules has referred the follow- following legislation from the general calendar. Senate Bill 116 to the Committee on Rules. Respectfully submitted, Senator Brass of the 6th District, Chairman. Mr. President, that completes the order. [0:33:02] It is now time for the morning roll call. Are there any motions to excuse? No motions to excuse. Oh, wow. Oh, there they are. [0:33:20] Recognize the gentlelady from the 44th. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I'd like to ask for unanimous consent to excuse the senators from the 41st, 33rd, and 36th for business inside the Capitol. 41st, 33rd, and 36th. Without objection, the senators are excused. Recognize the senator from the 56th. Thank you, Mr. President. I ask unanimous consent that the senator from the 42nd be excused for business inside the Capitol. [0:33:51] Without objection, senator from the 42nd is excused. Recognize the senator from the 43rd. Good morning, and thank you, Mr. President. I ask for unanimous consent to excuse the senators from the 5th and the 26th. Without objection, the senators from the 5th and the 26th are excused. Any other motions to excuse? Hearing none, secretary will call the roll. Senators, signify your presence by voting to yeas. Will the secretary unlock the machine? [0:35:33] It is now time for our morning devotion. All senators, please take your seats and cease all conversation. I would ask that the doorkeeper secure the chamber at this time. I now recognize the senator from the 44th to lead us in our pledge and introduce our pastor of the day. Senator. [0:35:53] Thank you so much, Mr. President. Colleagues, please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And now the Georgia flag. I pledge allegiance to the Georgia flag and the principles for which it stands, wisdom, justice, moderation, courage. [0:36:25] I am so thrilled today to have one of my very, very favorite, uh, ministers here as pastor of the day. Her speaking at church always inspires me, and I'm grateful that Natasha Reid Rice is spending some time with us today. Um, just a, a little more about her background other than that she is a, a minister that, at my church that I very much respect. She is also a global equity and inclusion strategist and attorney and a transformational and impactful preacher, which I can personally attest to. [0:37:04] Um, Natasha Reid Rice is also, she wears many hats, Habitat for Humanity's international vice president of housing opportunities and mission engagement and is leading the development and execution of Habitat's global strategy in that regard. She also served as associate general counsel at Habitat for Humanity, where she managed financing programs and strategies to generate sources of capital to enable Habitat affiliates to build affordable housing with families throughout the United States. [0:37:39] Uh, in, in addition to her work at Habitat, Natasha served as an associate pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church for 11 years before now serving as the minister for public life at All Saints Episcopal Church, where my family and I attend services. Uh, in addition to all of her professional pursuits, uh, Natasha also does so much good work in the community, putting her passion into action by serving on the following boards: the executive committee of the Global Harvard Alumni Association, the International Women's Forum, Goodwill of North Georgia, the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, the Redress Movement, Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, and Out of Hand Theater. [0:38:30] And in her free time, although I can't imagine how she has any, um, Natasha enjoys cooking, hiking, traveling, and spending time with her husband, Corey, and their three adult children, Kayla, Malachi, and Caleb. Thank you so much. Pastor Reid Rice. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you to the senator from the 44th and to Mr. President and to all of you all for extending this space for me to join you this morning. [0:39:02] I must say, um, in a personal, point of personal privilege, as a daughter of Georgia from Atlanta, now living in Henry County with my roots in Snellville, Georgia, this is a great honor. So thank you all for having me with you today. Um, here is a topic, and I'll be brief. I was told by Mr. Brown I have a little window of time. Um, but I'd like us to think and consider this topic, don't run from the shadows. And if I had a subtitle, it would be have more courage than the groundhog. [0:39:37] As you all know, yesterday was Groundhog Day, and in this frigid environment, apparently the groundhog saw its shadow and ran back into its hole, so winter for six more weeks. Based upon Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that says that if a groundhog known there as Punxsutawney Phil comes out of hibernation and sees its shadow and runs back into the hole, then winter will last for another six weeks. And there appears to be some historical connection between the wintertime celebration of the Groundhog Day and the ancient Christian holiday called Candlemas. [0:40:15] Some of you might be familiar with it. Candlemas is a Christian holiday that commemorates the Virgin Mary presenting Jesus to God. Stay, stay with me. I'm not gonna get too churchy because I know our audience and what it is I'm trying to press us forward into. And that's also a day when people would bless candles in churches to bring blessings to their households. In the story of Candlemas, Mary is a witness of what it looks like not to run from the shadows, because in spite of the scary environment in which she birthed her son, Jesus, the threats against Jesus's life as a firstborn son, she made her way to the temple, a place that was the central institution in the lives of the people, to raise light, her baby, Jesus, in the midst of darkness and to raise love in the midst of division. [0:41:05] That took courage. [0:41:07] So I've been reflecting quite a bit these days on what courage means. What does it actually mean beyond concept and when put into practice? Here are a few of the great courageous folks that we know of through history, and this is what they've said. Winston Churchill says, "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, and courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." Mandela says, "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it." And Dr. [0:41:40] Maya Angelou says that, "Courage is the most impertin- important of the virtues, because without it, no other virtue can be practiced consistently." She says, "You can be kind and true and fair and generous and just, even merciful occasionally. But to be that thing time after time, you have to have courage. And courage is not always loud, but it is never silent." Courage can help us to confront evil and violence rather than cower and run from the shadows, and this is the type of courage that calls out evil and demands that it leave. [0:42:20] This is the type of courage that I believe that we need in the world today. A courage that stands on integrity, is imbued with kindness, relies upon honed expertise, has a groundedness and a flat-footedness that declares just reality in the face of injustice, that declares unity and community in the face of divisiveness, that decare- declares truth in the face of lies and love in the face of hate. So how do we, those who are serving communities throughout the state of Georgia, embrace this call to courage? [0:42:54] Well, the first I would put forth as a, as a how to is to choose curiosity over fear. Irish poet James Stephens wrote that, "Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will." With the curiosity that you all approach in your particular representative capacities, you're asking your folks, your constituencies, what are the real problems, and then together thinking through what the real solutions could be. That is the type of curiosity that pushes us all to stand up in the face of the mountains that we're all facing. [0:43:30] Curiosity causes us to ask questions, helps us to better understand others, the solutions, the situations, and develop, to develop more innovative policies that can move mountains and impact generations to come. I also think that this call to courage is calling us to imagine. The great author Toni Morrison says, "As you enter positions of trust and power," like the seats you all hold, "dream a little before you think." What does it look like to dream? [0:44:04] In the midst of all the social media algorithms and all of the to-do lists, what would it look like if we paused for one moment to dream, to think together, and to imagine? This call to courage to not run from our shadows I believe calls us into spaces where we're willing to dream bravely, where we're willing to dream beyond partisan entrenchment into a place where we create a reality for all Georgians to thrive. This call to courage is a call to choose the prophetic over the partisan. [0:44:38] And before you cancel out the prophetic and think that you're not a prophet of old, let's just be reminded of what a prophet is. A prophet is like an artist who looks at a blank canvas and paints a masterpiece. A prophet is a home builder who looks at communities that have been neglected and says, "We can build community here," and walls get erected and windows get put in and roofs get put upon it. A prophet is like each one of you. When you come into this space and listen to all those bills that were read so magnificently fast, and think about how do we turn that into policies that change the generations to come in the state of Georgia, that is the work of the prophetic. [0:45:20] Old Testament theologian and scholar Walter Brueggemann says, "I think a prophet is someone that tries to articulate the world as though God were really active in the world." He says that a prophet identifies with some clarity and boldness the kinds of political economic practices that contradict the purposes of God and then pivot and talk with confidence that God is working out an alternative world of wellbeing and justice and peace and security in spite of that contradiction. We are being called to the prophetic work over the partisan work. [0:45:53] We are being called to think about things with courage and cross over divisions and divides because our children are depending upon us to be courageous and not run from our shadows. And when we imagine together, we ignite our collective hope. Not a hope that sits on a shelf, but a hope that is gritty, that has bloodied knuckles, that has grit between its teeth, that says in spite of what it may look like, we together can build a Georgia, can build communities that actually turn into hopeful solutions for generations to come. [0:46:27] Call to curious, call to imagine, and finally call to community. And how do we build community in this moment? We have to figure out how to love out loud. Justice is what lo-look, what, what love looks like in public. Justice is what it looks like to love neighbor as self. Justice causes us to build bridges across difference, to have courageous conversations, to push aside the isms, and to figure out what unites us more than what divides us. I love this quote from Barbara Brown Taylor who says, "The only clear line I draw these days is this. [0:47:02] When my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will always choose my neighbor because my God never told me to love my religion." The call to community is a call to figuring out the hard stuff, which is what we're elected, you are elected in this place to do. Figuring out the hard stuff, to figure out how we create solutions that benefit our state, our cities, and our towns. I'm the child of a white woman who came to Spelman College in 1968. [0:47:34] She met my father, a Black man from Snellville, Georgia, and they fell in love. And in spite of her father's hate letter writing campaign, they married. They went on a date after they married. My mother was carrying me in her belly at the old Rialto Theater before it became part of Georgia State. And they were held at gunpoint by a man who did not agree with their love or the fact that she was carrying the fruit of her love. And he held my mother at gunpoint. [0:48:05] I often say I was held at gunpoint, that the love that was produced, the pro- the fruit that was produced by my parents' love was held at gunpoint because of racism. Fortunately, they survived that moment, and my parents two years later, went up to see my grandfather, who had written all of these hateful letters. And I toddled out of the back of this orange van again, I'm dating myself, and ran to my grandmother and jumped, and my grandfather, and jumped, and all he could do was catch me. And when he did, he bawled with tears. [0:48:37] And from that day forward, never said another hateful word. Love always wins. When we love out loud, we become the representatives of what community looks like, of what courage looks like, and we're able to dwell in this world house that we've all been given. Dr. King's final book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, he writes a final chapter that talks about this world house vision. [0:49:08] And in it, he says, "This is the great new problem of humankind. We have inherited a large house, a great world house in which we all have to live together, Black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Muslim and Hindu, a family unduly separated in ideas and culture and interest, who because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace." Don't run from the shadows. [0:49:44] Won't you join me in a word of prayer? [0:49:51] To the Great One who created each and every one of us in this amazing world to live in and to figure out how to do so together and in peace, we give you thanks this morning. We don't take it for granted that we're here, that we're in representative capacities to bring forth justice and wellbeing to our state, our cities, our towns, ultimately our nation and our world. Help us to be the leaders who can lead with courage, with curiosity. [0:50:23] Help us to dream and imagine what it could be if we loved out loud. Help us to figure out how to move the mountains before us, the divisions before us, out of the way that we might create thriving communities. Help us to listen so that in doing so, innovation is birthed, strategies are birthed, policies are birthed that impact positively the generations to come. [0:50:58] We give you thanks for this great mantle of responsibility and ask that you might give us the strength and the courage to shepherd them accordingly. In your name we pray. Together we all said, amen. [0:51:13] Amen. Good job. Good job. Wonderful. Wonderful job. [0:57:12] It is, uh, now time to introduce our doctor of the day. It's always nice having our physicians come down here and volunteer their time. And to do that, I recognize a senator, a good doctor herself, senator from, uh, Cobb County to introduce, uh, our doctor of the day. Cobb County. Where are you? [0:57:35] Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like for you all to meet Dr. Stephanie Stiglitz. Dr. S- [0:57:45] Dr. Stiglitz is a family physician in my district in Marietta with WellStar. But the most exciting thing, I think, about Dr. Stiglitz is she went to nursing school first and worked as an ICU nurse before going to medical school at MCG in Augusta. She's dedicated to patient-centered comprehensive care, and as a family physician, she's well-equipped to take care of any of all, y'all that have problems today. So with that, I'll introduce Dr. Stiglitz. [0:58:14] All right. [0:58:15] Come on up. [0:58:19] Thank you, Senator. As a primary care physician, a big part of my job is creating long-term relationships with my patients and listening to their concerns, validating their concerns. Um, I know that a lot of the decisions that are made in this room and in this building have a direct impact on my ability to deliver care to my patients. Um, so with that being said, I do wanna thank you all for your service. Thank you for all that you do for Georgians, and I appreciate, and it's a huge honor to be able to serve as your doctor of the day, so thank you. [0:58:59] All right. Good job. [1:00:14] We have some very special guests here today that we would like to recognize. Secretary will read the resolution. [1:00:24] Senate Resolution 611 by Senators Walker III of the 20th and others. A resolution recognizing and commending the Georgia Association of Community Care Providers and for other purposes. Whereas the Georgia Association of Community Care Providers represents home and community-based service providers across the State of Georgia who deliver compassionate, high-quality care to individuals with disabilities, complex care needs, and aging populations. And whereas these providers serve communities throughout Georgia with a significant number operating in underserved and rural areas where access to care is limited and community-based providers are often the primary source of support for individuals and families. [1:00:59] Now therefore, be it resolved by the Senate that the members of this body recognize and commend the Georgia Association of Community Care Providers and extend best wishes for continued growth and success. Mr. President, that completes the order. Is there objection to the adoption of resolution? Chair hears none and the resolution is adopted. I recognize the Pro Tem to introduce our special guests. [1:01:26] Thank you, Mr. President. Colleagues, I'm excited to recognize the Georgia Association of Community Care Providers today. Their members, some of whom are behind me, their president, James Pettus, secretary, y'all raise your hand. James Pettus, Secretary Claire Russell, uh, Vice President Shane Wellman, Treasurer Alan Jernigan, and Deanna Albritton. Um, so they deliver critical home care and community-based services to Georgians with disabilities, cl- complex care needs, and our aging population. [1:02:04] Across the state, particularly in our rural communities, these providers make it possible for individuals to receive quality care at home, stay connected to their families, and live with dignity and independence. We're grateful for their commitment to compassionate care, for the essential role they play in Georgia's healthcare system. Please join me in welcoming them to the Capitol today. [1:02:32] And I'm gonna ask, uh, Mr. Pettus to make a remark or two. Thank you. [1:02:39] Uh, Mr. Pro Tem and my state senator and governor, thank you both very much and the, uh, Senate for the work they do supporting, uh, elderly and disabled waiver population in, uh, m- middle and, uh, Georgia. Thank you very much. All right. Good job. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. [1:02:59] Well done. [1:05:04] All right. We've got more guests here today. Secretary, read the caption. Senate Resolution 626. A resolution recognizing February 3rd, 2026 as Georgia Utilities Contractors Association Legislation- Legislative Awareness Day at the State Capitol and for other purposes. Whereas the Georgia Utility Contractors Association is a 55-year-old nonprofit trade association representing the underground utility construction industry with the mission of promoting safety and responsible installation of new and rehabilitation of existing underground utility infrastructure to consist of water, sewer, gas, electrical, telecommunications, water and wastewater treatment plants, dams, and landfills. [1:05:41] And whereas the Georgia Utility Contractors Association is committed to the mission of promoting safe and responsible installation and is proactively involved in the formulation of policy and legislation critical to the utility industry by addressing safety issues, regulatory compliance, and underground utility infrastructure needs within this state. Now therefore, be it resolved by the Senate that the members of this body recognize February 3rd, 2026 as Georgia Utilities Contractors Association Legislative Awareness Day at the State Capitol and commend the Georgia Utilities Contractors Association for its efforts in promoting safe and responsible installation of underground utilities in the State of Georgia. [1:06:14] Mr. President, that completes the order. All right. Are, is there objections to the adoption of resolution? Chair hears none. The resolution is adopted. I would like to recognize the senator from the 10th to speak to the resolution and introduce our very special guest. Senator? [1:06:36] Thank you, Mr. President. It is indeed my honor to present the Georgia Utilities Contractors Association. This association represents the underground utility construction industry in the great State of Georgia. And I was told by one of the members that, "Oh, by the way, we represent everything that has to do with underground." This association is well over 55 years old, and they provide the highest quality safety, education, training, network opportunities, and leadership platforms. [1:07:10] GUCA, as they are known, is the voice of the industry in Georgia regarding the regulatory issues and key legislation. They really are on the forefront of legislative issues. They're always active in the Capitol, and they are always available to work with us as well. Joining me on the rostrum is the president of GUCA, Ms. Kenya Simmons, who is a veteran utility contractor. She is also joined by her husband from T&J Industries. [1:07:44] Together, they have well over 37 years of experience in the particular contracting industry. And may I also add that Ms. Kenya Simmons is the first woman of color to serve on the board as well as to be elected president of GUCA. Joined with her members of her team, I have Ms. Vicki Temple. Raise your hand, say hello. [1:08:14] She is the civil site services contractor. Mr. Scott Brummlow, Executive Director. And Dion Allen, who is president of GS Construction. Mr. President, with your permission- [1:08:29] Yeah [1:08:29] ... may I allow- [1:08:30] Oh, absolutely [1:08:30] ... Ms. Kenya Simmons to tell us more about their organization? [1:08:33] This is my lane. This is my wheel. Man, I should be, I should be interviewed. [1:08:36] Thank you, Senator, um, Jones and to our Lieutenant Governor. Um, I just want to say that we are appreciative for this, uh, resolution that has been brought forth. And our- we're celebrating this year our 55th year as an association, which makes it our emerald year. So to have this honor today makes it extra special. And I'd like to bring up our director of the Georgia Utility Contractors Association, Mr. [1:09:08] Scott Brummlow, who's been with us almost forever, and see, see if he would like to have a few words to say. [1:09:16] Yes. [1:09:16] Thank you, Madam President, and thank you, Senator Jones and Lieutenant Governor Jones for your consideration here today. As, uh, Ms. Simmons has said, our association is 55 years strong, and we look forward to more, another 55 years. But again, we are the largest utility construction trade association in the country, and our job is to keep Georgia citizens connected, and we will do everything in our power to do so. And again, thank you for this opportunity. [1:09:45] All right. [1:09:45] Thank you. [1:09:45] Good job. [1:12:24] All right. Well, we've got some very special guests here. The KSU football team is here today. We'll recognize KSU, but also their football team for all their wonderful accomplishments this year, and we are very proud of them and the job that, uh, Coach... [1:12:47] I mean, first year head coach. You don't have many first year co- coach win championships like this. So that's, that's outstanding. So, uh, Secretary, read the caption. [1:12:57] Senate Resolution 658 by Senators Kirkpatrick of the 32nd and others. A resolution congratulating and commending the Kennesaw State University Owls football team for winning the 2025 Conference USA Championship and for other purposes. Whereas under the leadership and guidance of Head Coach Jerry Mack, the Kennesaw State Owl football team has demonstrated exceptional skill, dedication, and sportsmanship. And whereas the Owls clinched their Conference USA Championship title with a 19-15 victory over Jacksonville State on Friday, December 5th, 2025, marking a significant milestone in the university's athletic history. [1:13:31] And whereas Coach Jerry Mack was named Conference USA Coach of the Year, G5 Coach of the Year, and a finalist for the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year. And now therefore, be it resolved by the Senate that the members of this body congratulate Kennesaw State University Coach Jerry Mack and the Owls football team upon the grand occasion of winning the 2025 C-USA Conference Championship and in recognition of their exemplary commitment to sportsmanship and collegiate excellence. Mr. President, that completes the order. [1:13:59] Is there objection to the adoption of res- of the resolution? Chair hears none, and the resolution is adopted. Recognize the senator from the 37th to speak to the resolution and introduce our guests of the day. Senator? [1:14:13] Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning again, everybody, and hootie hoo to all the people up there in the gallery. [1:14:22] Hootie hoo. [1:14:23] We're so glad you're here. This year marked a significant enrollment milestone for KSU as the university welcomed more than 51,300 students and enrolled more Georgians than any other in-state public university. KSU President Kathy Schwegg is with us today. [1:14:43] Hey. [1:14:43] And members will find a copy of the 2025 KSU Annual Report on your desk, which highlights the extraordinary academic enrollment, research, and institutional progress achieved under her leadership. In 2025, Kennesaw State football also celebrated historic milestones on the field. In only its second year in the FBS and in its first year of bowl eligibility, the Owls captured the Conference USA Championship and earned a berth in the Myrtle Beach Bowl. [1:15:16] Joining us on the floor today is Head Coach Jerry Mack, whose vision and leadership fueled one of the most impressive turnarounds in collegiate football. In recognition of his achievements, Coach Mack was named the 2025 Conference USA Coach of the Year and the 2025 Paul "Bear" Bryant National Newcomer Coach of the Year. [1:15:38] All right. [1:15:38] So with that, I'd love to have Coach Mack make a few remarks. [1:15:41] All right. [1:15:41] Let's welcome them to the chamber. Thank you. [1:15:46] Good job. Good job. [1:15:49] First of all, I would like to thank all the members and our lieutenant governor and also, uh, Senator Kirkpatrick for allowing us to come and celebrate this wonderful, uh, accomplishment of winning a Conference USA Championship. Uh, my family and I, we're extremely happy and, and excited to be in Georgia right now. Uh, the energy and the excitement around KSU and our community has just been outstanding. It shows you what a group of people, when there's alignment at our university, can do when we all come together. Our president Ka- K- uh, our President Schwegg, Milton Overton, our athletic director, our players, our coaches, all our support staff. [1:16:26] It has just been a wonderful year for KSU and everything that we have going on at our university. The support in this room means everything to us, and understanding how much it really means is just we're continuing to build a great program. It is our hope and it's our dream to continue to host championship trophies just like this every single year, and we're working hard to make KSU something that the entire state of Georgia can be extremely proud of. Thank you. [1:16:54] All right. Good job, Coach Mack. [1:19:40] All right. And, uh, now it is time to recognize a special group of young ladies that come down here every year, and that is our Girl Scouts. And they are everywhere. I don't know if y'all noticed or not. But they are in the hallways, in the gallery. I mean, they are, they are... I hope y'all buying some cookies. We're gonna find out. Yep. They always say that, they always tell me their worst sales is when they come down to the legislature. So y'all need to pick your game up a little bit. So- But, uh, but anyways, we're glad to have them. [1:20:12] They are hardworking role models in their communities, and we love having the Girl Scouts down here. Secretary, read the caption. Senate Resolution 637 by Senators Parent of the 44th and others. A resolution recognizing February 3rd, 2026 as Girl Scout Day at the sk- state capitol and commending the Girl Scouts as a national leader in providing the best leadership development experience in the world to American girls, and for other purposes. Whereas more than a century ago, native Savannahian Juliette Gordon Low started the movement known as the Girl Scouts. [1:20:43] Whereas the life mission of Juliette Gordon Low was to build girls of courage, confidence and character. And whereas today, the Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia and Greater Atlanta Councils serve approximately 43,000 Girl Scout members in the State of Georgia. Now therefore be it resolved by the Senate that the members of this body recognize February 3rd, 2026 as Girl Scout Day at the State Capitol, and commend the Girl Scouts as a national leader in developing girls of courage, confidence and character. Mr. President, that completes the order. [1:21:24] Is there objection to the adoption of the resolution? Chair hears none, and the resolution is adopted. I'd like to recognize the senator from the 44th to recognize our very special guests and speak to the resolution. Senator? Terrific. Thank you so much, Mr. President. I am so excited to have the Girl Scouts. It is my favorite day in the State Capitol when we have all the Girl Scouts here, and this year there are a thousand of them, um, all throughout our halls, and that really warms my heart to see all of these young women, um, who are gonna grow up to be such incredible leaders here in Georgia and beyond. [1:22:04] But I have to tell you, when I first walked in the chamber this morning, I almost had a heart attack because there weren't any cookies. And I always, you know, we always make sure, the Girl Scouts always make sure that there are cookies- Yay ... on our desks. And I walked in and instead of cookies, there were like toothbrushes. And I was like, "You know what? We got to get rid of these toothbrushes." "Please bring the sugar that we are all waiting for. Where are the cookies?" And I have to give credit to the staff because they did that switch. [1:22:36] Bye bye toothbrushes. Hello dessert. Um, and there are some new flavors this year, so I do encourage you to, you know, peek around at what your neighbors have. Um, colleagues, I've spon- had the honor of sponsoring this resolution for many years now and, and because in particular the Girl Scouts were founded by, uh, Juliette Gordon Low in Savannah, Georgia, right here in our state in 1912, we have a special relationship with the Girl Scouts. And all of you already know that they are a national leader in providing leadership development experiences for girls here in the States, but even around the world. [1:23:15] They run hands-on, girl-led, girl-centered learning focused on STEM, the outdoors and entrepreneurship. And the number of women leaders in our country, including many of, uh, myself and many of my, our colleagues here in the chamber were Girl Scouts when we were young. That's right. S- senator from the 43rd. Um, so it's, uh, it's just, it's such an honor to recognize the great work being done by the Girl Scouts, and to commend these young leaders for what they are doing in their communities today, and what I know they will do once they are adults. [1:23:58] Um, but the treat is always getting to hear from the Girl Scouts themselves. So I'll just introduce our special guests. We have CEO of Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, Jai Farrell. Yes. And we have, um, Girl Scouts Gloria Campbell, and her mother is here, too, although Laura, she's in the back I think. Oh, there she is. There's, um, Ms. Laura Campbell. And we also have Sidneth Gorton Causey joining us up here at the podium. [1:24:29] So I am going to turn it over to Ms. Gloria Campbell. All right. Gloria? Okay. Hey. Yes. Hello, my name is Gloria Campbell, and I'm a Girl Scout from Atlanta, Georgia. I've been in Girl Scouts for seven years, and some of my favorite things about Girl Scouts are the traveling, camping, and fun activities I get to do with all of my friends in my Girl Scout troop. [1:24:59] I really recommend Girl Scouts to anyone who can join because it has fun, friends, adventure, and most importantly, cookies. Yes. Thank you. Yay. [1:25:15] Good job. Well, I guess I can't come behind cookies, but my name's Jai Farrell. I'm the CEO of Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta. I'd be remiss if I don't acknowledge the CEO of Greater of Historic Georgia, which is in that Savannah corridor. Uh, where are they? They're up there in the front. I mean, up there at the top. We have about 1,000 girls here today, but I want to tell you guys thank you. Thank you for advocating for our girls. Uh, the Greater Atlanta Council is over 35,000 girls in 35 counties throughout Georgia. So wherever you turn and you see, you see a Girl Scout, but you also see a, a future leader of courage, confidence and character. [1:25:48] So again, thank you so much. Um, we have some things that are coming up very soon, particularly our license plate tags, so we look forward to your delicious support, as is the boxes of the cookies on your table. Thank you. [1:26:03] All right, ladies. [1:28:59] Are there any, uh, unanimous consents? Does any senator wish to rise on point of personal privilege? Recognize the senator from the ninth for a point of personal privilege. [1:29:29] Thank you, Mr. President. I know we have already acknowledged the Girl Scouts today, but I wanna acknowledge the ones that are specifically from my district, in District 9. So I rise today for a personal point of privilege to recognize Girl Scout Troop 22109, the eighth grade Girl Scouts at Crews Middle School, and the Girl Scout freshmen at Brookwood High School. Are you guys up there at all? Oh, yeah, I'm gonna say they're probably out in the hall. Being part of the Girl Scouts, as we know, is about more than earning badges. [1:30:00] It's about learning, it's about courage, it's about leadership, it's about cal- confidence. It's everything that we would want for any woman that would stand in this space, as an elected or otherwise, and it's about understanding what you will stand for and knowing that your voice matters. Each of you is living through one of the most important influential stages in your life. These are the years when you will discover who you are, what excites you, what you believe in, and what is possible. But choosing to be part of Girl Scouts, you are already doing something powerful. [1:30:34] You are showing up, you're trying new things, and you're pushing beyond your limits. As you grow and push beyond your limits, one of the most meaningful lessons you will learn is that none of this happens alone. None of what we are doing here today happens alone. One of the greatest strengths of the Gwinnett County Girl Scouts is the community that you build together. The friendships you form and the trust you create teach you how to work with others, how to listen, and how to lead with empathy. [1:31:05] What young girls l- when young girls learn these skills early, our democracy becomes stronger. As you continue on the path of leadership and service, I will leave you with a thought to carry you forward. There are plenty of ways to enter the pool. The stairs are not one of them. And with that, Mr. President, I yield the will. [1:31:42] Recognize the senator from the seventh for a point of personal privilege. [1:31:49] Hey, what's up, y'all? [1:31:56] Thank you, Mr. President. Today, many are recognizing Mental Health Parity Day here at the Capitol. I want to start with something simple. Mental health is health. That's why in 2022, this chamber voted for the Mental Health Parity Act. It was understood what Georgians already knew. When you ignore mental health, you don't save money, you just shift the cost. You shift it to emergency rooms, you shift it to jails, you shift it onto teachers and grandparents, and you shift it onto kids who can't focus in schools and parents who can't sleep at night. [1:32:37] Parity means equality. It means mental healthcare must be treated the same as physical care. It means insurance companies don't get to play games, denying treatment, delaying care, charging more, or throwing up extra barriers for mental health. But here's the hard truth. A right on paper is not a right in practice if nobody enforces it. Parity without enforcement is just hopes and dreams, because laws don't enforce themselves, regulators do. [1:33:09] And in Georgia, that job belongs to the Insurance Commissioner, John King. So tell, so let me tell you about John King's failures. When we passed this law to protect Georgia families, we passed it to make sure a mom seeking therapy after postpartum depression isn't treated like she's asking for a luxury. We passed it so a teenager with panic attacks isn't met with a denial let- letter instead of care. We passed it so a working dad battling addiction can get treatment before he loses his job, his home, his life. [1:33:42] And where was our insurance commissioner? Nowhere. For years, Georgians kept getting denied, families kept getting slammed with extra requirements. People kept getting told, "Try again. File another form. Wait another month. We don't cover that. We don't cover that provider. We don't cover that level of care." And where was John King? He was lambasted in the news for being idle. He said, quote, "My job is to maintain a stable marketplace for insurance, so we ought to be respectful of that because nothing's free. [1:34:16] I'm not interested in throwing money or beating up on the insurance industry." End quote. He said his job was to protect insurance companies, not people. Getting King to understand the law has been a challenge because he is not talking with mental health advocates or professionals, advocates said. Even his own party, Republican legislators, said King wasn't enforcing the law. It should not take a newspaper story to force the insurance commissioner to do his job. [1:34:46] And even when John King's hands were forced to, w- even when John King's hands were forced to enforce the mental health, health parity law- He refused to, to tell last year's insurance study committee who he was actually fining because he said, quote, "The biggest offender might have the biggest market share." End quote. He is protecting insurance companies, not people. The insurance commissioner finally levied fines last month. Now, let me be clear. I support penalty- the penalties when companies break the law. [1:35:19] But if penal- but if the penalty is small compared to what these companies make off Georgians every year, what message does that send? Does that lower premiums? Does that get people to, into treatment faster? Does that stop the next denial letter from landing in someone's mailbox tomorrow? If the cost of breaking the law is just a small fee, a rounding error, then it's not a deterrent, it's a price tag. I will repeat that again. If the cost of breaking the law is just a small fee, a rounding error, it is not a deterrent, it is a price tag. [1:35:55] And that means insurance companies didn't fail the system, they played the, they played the system exactly as it was designed. Because when the referee refuses to call this f- the foul, the fouls keep coming. That's not leadership, that's politics. I came to this chamber to fight for Georgia families because I know what it's like when peop- when the system is built to tell regular people no, and it's built to protect the people with money and influence. Mental health parity day should not be a ceremonial moment. It should be a demand. [1:36:26] A demand that the promise we made in 2022 becomes real in 2026, not just in theory, not just in headlines, but in the lived reality of Georgia families. Because parity does not mean a loophole. It does not mean a paperwork maze. It does not mean we'll get to it when we feel like it. Parity means equal. Parity means now. Parity means a law applies to everyone, including powerful insurance companies. John King had years to protect Georgians. He chose insurance companies instead. He only acted when he was forced to. [1:36:57] Georgia deserves an insurance commissioner who works for the people, not a puppet of the insurance companies. Thank you, and I yield the well. [1:37:21] Recognize the majority leader. Mr. President, point of order. State your order. Isn't it ironic or is it not true that none of the Republicans running for statewide office are coming down to this well to give their campaign speeches while the Democrats wanna keep coming down here and wasting our time? Ah, well, the senator is passionate about what he speaks. [1:37:52] Got a lot of folks running for statewide offices, I tell you. Senator from the 36, are you running for statewide office? You'll stay right there? [1:38:05] All right, recognize the senator from the 32nd. [1:38:26] Hey, colleagues. Um, I'm back again to tell you that today is Aerospace and Defense Day at the Capitol. As some of you know, I serve on the Georgia Joint Defense Commission, and we've discovered that there's more to our military installations than just the bases. The surrounding communities and defense industries are key players in our economy. Please take the opportunity to stop by the rotunda to see the F-35 simulator provided by Lockheed Martin and talk with one of the pilots. [1:39:00] I think there are some people from the aerospace industry in the gallery. If so, would you stand up? They may not have made it here yet. In any case, Georgia's a leader in aerospace and I'm proud to welcome this industry to the Capitol. Please take advantage of the opportunity. Thank you. I yield the well. All right. Good job, good job. Thank you, Senator. And if you hadn't seen that exhibit downstairs, I would re- I would recommend going down there. It, it is, it is r- it is really neat, that simulator they have down there. [1:39:34] It's pretty neat to get in and attempt to fly if you can. Recognize the Chairman of Public Safety, senator from the 56 for a point of personal privilege. [1:39:53] Thank you, Mr. President. It is Firefighter Day here at your Georgia Capitol. Always very excited and honored to represent my brothers and sisters in the fire service. We have representatives here from our Fire Chiefs Association, from our Firefighters Association, as well as numerous other groups that are in the building today. Uh, you will notice, uh, on, uh, a lot of the announcements that at 2:30 on the south steps we're gonna have the large gathering, uh, where we'll have, uh, numerous speakers, uh, and celebrate the great work and the mission of what we do each and every day, uh, in all your communities. [1:40:30] And as a quick reminder, there are over 900 fire departments in our great state of Georgia with over 30,000 men and women who are serving either a full-time, a part-time, or a volunteer capacity to respond in your most critical time of need. Part of our umbrella of first responders that are always out there serving Georgians. So I'd ask you today, as you see firefighters not just from your district, but from all over the state, you take a moment and shake their hand. You thank them for their service to our community, and thank you for this Senate and the president of our body and lieutenant governor for passing so many pro- [1:41:08] firefighter and first responder pieces of legislation because they know that we have their back. Please give them a round of applause. [1:41:17] Uh, yes, sir. [1:41:22] Thank you, Governor. [1:41:25] Thank you, Senator, and we do greatly appreciate all our firefighters for being down here today and appreciate everything that you do, all the men and women across the state. So thank y'all very much. [1:41:38] Recognize the senator from the 40th for a point of personal privilege. [1:41:54] Thank you, Mr. President. I rise this morning to talk about healthcare and our young people because you see, I had a constituent who came to me who has a child who just turned 26 last fall. I too have a child that turned 26 last fall. This is, um, a critical age because at this point our, our kids cannot be on our health insurance anymore. [1:42:25] So hopefully by this time they've graduated from college and they've gotten a job and they're able to afford healthcare on their own. But it turns out that life is pretty tough for our young people who are struggling to get along in the world. What happened to my constituent's kid is they got, they got him signed up for an ACA plan. It was subsidized because this kid is at the beginning of his career and isn't making a whole lot of money yet. All of us were in that same, um, situation at one point. [1:42:59] And the policy cost like $106 a month, which was totally affordable. But then in mid-December, he got a letter saying that the rate had gone from $106 to over $500 a month, which meant he didn't have enough money to have the policy, so he ended up becoming uninsured. This is somebody's kid. According to what I've heard, 200,000 people who had health insurance last year are now uninsured. [1:43:36] So this was one story, but there are 200,000 other stories. When I heard this story, my, my, my heart fell because I'm like, "I wonder if my kid got one of those letters." So I immediately got on the phone and my child is, is checking on it, um, but I'm worried. As a parent, I'm worried. H- what does this feel like to a young person who has done all the right things, is trying to still do the right things, and can't afford health insurance and has to just take the risk that nothing bad happens? [1:44:12] How do you think this makes parents feel who do all the right things when they raise their kids, teach their kids about, um, f- financial, how to, how to handle finances and, and how to get along in the world and, and then their kid is uninsured. And you know that your kid can end up in the hospital and in debt for hundreds of thousands of dollars, which if the kid can't afford to pay that kind of debt, all of a sudden it's like all that money that the parent has saved for retirement or whatever is at risk because you're gonna help your kid if your kid's in the hospital, right? [1:44:54] I mean, this is, these are heartbreaking stories, um, and very real stories. And, you know, a $250 tax rebate, that's gonna buy about two weeks of healthcare. A homestead exemption, a, a property tax break or elimination isn't gonna help these kids because they don't own homes. An income tax break isn't gonna help because they're not making that much money so their, their tax bill is already either zero or next to zero. [1:45:31] And it's Republicans in Washington that chose, made a decision to not do anything to help these young people. You probably have young people in your lives. Maybe they're not old enough to be affected by this or maybe they're older and they're established and they have their healthcare, but it's gonna hit you at some point. You're gonna have a grandkid who's uninsured. It's hit 200,000 people already here in Georgia. [1:46:06] And so I ask you, each and every, every individual in this, in your seat, is this really what you want? Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the well. [1:46:18] Recognize the senator from the 33rd for a point of personal privilege. [1:46:46] Thank you, Mr. President, my fellow senators, colleagues, friends, and y'all. [1:46:54] Today is, this month in February is Black History Month, and I'm gonna start it out with a little story here, but I want to let everybody know in the chamber, all the senators, that you should be receiving an email shortly where you can sign up to come up and say a few words on Black history. Today, I'm gonna talk about Paul Laurence Dunbar. Born in 1872, the son of former slaves, Paul Laurence Dunbar overcame abject poverty to become one of the first Black poets to achieve national acclaim. [1:47:35] The only African American in his high school class, Dunbar excelled academically, serving as the editor of his high school newspaper and class poet. After graduating, Dunbar struggled in hi- in pursuit of his dream to become a writer, publishing his first book of poems, Oak and Ivy, in nine- in 1893, with his own money and selling copies to those who, uh, to those r- riding the elevator on which he worked as an operator. [1:48:12] Refusing to abandon his passion for writing, Dunbar published Lyrics of Love, Lowly Life in 1896, a work which pr- received positive reviews and served to launch Dunbar's career. Although most known for his dialect poetry, which conveyed the character of the Black community, Dunbar penned a large body of fi- literary works including essays, short stories, and novels and plays which work to make him the successful poet he is. [1:48:54] I thank you very much. That was your Black History Moment, brought to you by Senator Rhett. Don't forget Senator Rhett. [1:49:13] Recognize the senator from the 22nd for a point of personal privilege. [1:49:31] Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I don't know if I can beat the cookies, but we'll try with our Masters hats that are here because today is actually Augusta Day. We have members from Augusta here from our Leadership Augusta. They'll be here and also, um, members from Augusta business community are also here. So if you see them in the hallway and they have a Augusta badge on, please welcome them. They are responsible for giving you these great hats that people have asked for more, but we only have one per, um, legislator, so that's all we get. But I do wanna recognize, I think we have a couple of folks in the gallery. Please join me in recognizing our folks from Augusta. [1:50:02] If you please stand real quick. [1:50:09] Thank you. And with that, Mr- Mr. President, I yield the floor. Recognize the senator for the 1st. [1:50:26] Thank you, Mr. President. I'll be brief since I'm not running for any office by any means, uh, but maybe I should, uh, 'cause so much misinformation out there and just I wanna give the big picture relating to, uh, healthcare and insurance. If you'll recra- recall, eight sessions ago, Governor Kemp's first bills were the waiver to the ACA. And guess what? Georgia did a fabulous job of this. We have done, uh, on the ACA, a state-based exchange which insures, wow, over 700,000 Georgians. [1:51:03] And on the federal poverty level, the, the below 100% on our waiver, we are used as an example for the rest of the nation who have done Medicaid explosion, I mean, expansion. Yes, what has been done recently on the exchange is drop back what was done under the emergency health orders back to what President Obama did in Obamacare. [1:51:39] The exact same, maybe 0.1% or 0.2% difference, much less than inflation. So let's get our facts straight when it comes to that, uh, when it comes to the exchange, when it comes to healthcare, when it comes for insurance, especially if you're running for office. Thank you. [1:52:29] Recognize the senator from the fifty-fourth. [1:52:45] Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, my friends, a few years back, we did a bill that I carried in this chamber and was very proud, um, to get it passed because of passion-- It was a personal passion of mine in civic education and developing of young people. And we passed Senate Bill two twenty a few years back that created the Georgia Commission on Civics Education, and I was always been so extremely proud of that. Well, today in the same light, today we have with us, um, Engage Youth in Government in Georgia here with us. [1:53:20] And we have, we have some in the gallery. If y'all will please stand. Could we give them a round of applause? [1:53:30] Mr. President, the, this Engage Youth with Government, they literally are the res-result and the purpose, same as our Senate Bill two twenty passed, we passed. They provide opportunities for students to learn about the positions that serve in federal, state, and local municipalities for governor, from government, governor, mayor, council members to police, fire, national security, and military. And so they literally are opening up doors to these young people, and we're so proud of them, and we are so proud to have each and every one of you. [1:54:01] And don't ever, ever forget, we're the present, you are the future. God bless each and every one of you. Thank you. [1:54:24] Recognize the senator from the thirty-sixth. [1:54:37] Senator from the thirty-sixth. You got to get your speech. [1:54:41] Yeah. [1:54:41] Don't leave it. [1:54:59] You wave? [1:55:06] Okay. Senator, I called on you because I know you won't lamblast me like the re-- some of your colleagues did yesterday, you know. Had friends. [1:55:16] Thank you. Th-thank you, Mr. President. I will take that as an invitation to, uh, make, uh, daily appearances here down at the well then. Thank you. Uh, I, I, I, I, I'd like to take issue with a comment that was made, uh, earlier, uh, from this well this morning, uh, about the appropriateness of, of, of commentary that's shared by senators who take the well for a point of personal privilege, which I am now doing. And let, let's be clear about something. [1:55:46] The Senate rules allow every senator, all fifty-six of us, time to do a point of personal privilege. It doesn't matter if they're running for statewide office or not. We seem to hear a message from the majority leader that, that somehow if you're running for statewide office, if you're running for higher office, y-you somehow have lost the ability to speak from the well freely about subject matter that, uh, that, uh, concerns you and that you would, on, on, th-th-with-- and you'd like to share your opinion about it. [1:56:21] So I would just say, here's a cautionary note. Don't pay any attention to when, if someone is trying to tell you that your time in the well is not your time in the well, but that it's, it's, uh, dictated by an imaginary, uh, caution that was just issued from this very well, that if you're running for higher office, somehow th-there's a guard rail that you can't cross, uh, in talking about an issue, framing an issue, talking about your history on the issue, talking about the state of the state, uh, of Georgia, talking about how federal, uh, decisions impact what we're s-seeing and going on here on the ground here around people losing, uh, health insurance in massive numbers. [1:57:11] So they can comment, we can comment on any issue of interest to them and hope that it would be of interest to others within earshot. And, uh, my friend from the seventh will surely remember, uh, since his first year in the Senate, uh, when, uh, she was a necessary presence in a study committee chaired by the majority leader. And I'm sure the majority leader remembers that well, uh, and the topic, which was quite pertinent to the duties of the, uh, Department of Insurance and the Insurance Commissioner. [1:57:50] So I just want to stand and, um, loudly proclaim, uh, the right t-to access the well, to bring messages that we deem as senators to be appropriate, uh, and, uh, in the interest of the public and of the Senate. Uh, that is a time-honored, time-honored, uh, privilege which we have as a member of this body. And, uh, I would, I would, uh, urge you, don't let anyone dissuade you from that fact. [1:58:22] Uh, that's, that's simply the truth of the matter, and I wanted to share, uh, my thoughts on that with you today. And I appreciate the privilege of, uh- [1:58:33] Points of personal privilege and let us uphold this tradition, uh, as we go forward. Thank you so much. I yield the well. [1:58:52] Recognizing the senator from the 34th. [1:59:09] Good morning, Mr. President, colleagues. Today I rise in recognition of Girl Scout Day. I wanna recognize Troop 24089 from Hewitt Elementary School in Clayton County. 36 young ladies consistently think outside the box, especially when it comes to serving others. They host, uh, globe parties, motivate students to donate canned goods, and their creativity turns giving back things fun and impactive. [1:59:41] If g- uh, Troop 24089 are in the well, can, can they raise their hand? Nope, they're gone. Well, thank you, Mr. President. I yield the well. Thank you, Senator. All right, recognize the senator from the 17th. [2:00:10] Hey, I got a topic for you. Come here. Yeah. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Senators, in 2024, Republicans in this chamber voted against Medicaid expansion. You can call it Affordable Care Act, or you could call it Obamacare. I say Obamacare because he cares. [2:00:43] Since that vote, over 200,000 Georgians have lost their health insurance. Those aren't statistics. They're hardworking families, seniors, veterans, and kids. Across Georgia, people are struggling with rising costs, especially healthcare. Coverage is slipping away while premiums, deductibles, and hospitals' bills keep climbing. [2:01:14] Too many Georgians are delaying care, rationing medicine, or skipping doctors altogether. There is a clear solution: expand Medicaid. Just expand Medicaid now. Year after year, we propose real, tangible solutions to the health crisis, and year after year, the Republicans in this chamber block those bills. Expansion will cover hundreds of thousands of Georgians who are currently stuck in the coverage gap. [2:01:51] It would stabilize hospitals, especially in rural communities that are barely hanging on. Instead, the state relies on a limited program with strict requirements that reaches only a small share of those who need help. That approach leave workers uninsured even when they are doing everything right. At the same time, federal health subsidies are at risk, which could drive costs even higher for families who already can't afford them. [2:02:26] More people will lose coverage unless this legislature acts, the Georgia Legislature. Medicaid expansion is fiscally responsible. The federal government covers the vast majority of the cost, bringing billions of dollars back to Georgia. So why would we not expand Medicaid? [2:02:52] States that expand Medicaid saw job growth, stronger local economies, and healthier communities. This is not about politics. It's about whether Georgians can see a doctor when they get sick. No one should die because they do not have healthcare when they get sick. And I'm not just advocating for it because I have is- health issues. It's the right thing to do. Democrats are offering solutions. It's time for this body to do the same. [2:03:26] Expand Medicaid, protect families, strengthen hospitals, and stop forcing Georgians to pay the price for inaction. Colleagues, we need to expand Medicaid now. Just do the right thing and expand Medicaid. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the well. [2:04:14] Recognize the senator from the 14th. [2:04:30] Thank you, Mr. President. I am the senator from the 14th, and this is a point of personal privilege for North Fulton County in my district. Uh, in honor of Girl Scouts Day, we have visitors here in the gallery from Troop 18224. That's, uh, from Haynes Bridge Middle School, Autrey Mill Bridge, and Mount Pisgah Christian School. And we've got troop leaders Jill Hardison, Melissa Blanton, Miranda Wiggleston. Uh, I understand that the cadets are working on their Democracy for Cadets badge. So if you could please stand, if you're still here. [2:05:01] There they are. Great. Awesome. We are so honored to have you today, and can everybody help me join, uh, these cadets from North Fulton County? Thank you very much. [2:05:12] Thank you, Mr. President. [2:05:25] Recognize the senator from the 55th. [2:05:33] My distinguished colleagues, I paused just a moment. There are great, uh, beginnings, and right now we wanna pause to, for today is Tucker Day. It is 10 years ago that a baby was born, and that baby is now... I present the mayor and the people from Tucker, which you all recognize, the good people from Tucker, the city of Tucker, Georgia. This is Tucker Day. Thank you. [2:06:04] Tucker Day. Thank you very kindly. All right. [2:06:11] Very nice to have the city of Tucker and their leadership here today. Glad to have each and every one of y'all down here today, so thank you. Does any other senator wish to rise on a point of personal privilege? [2:06:26] All right, you have before you a consent calendar of privilege re- resolutions. Does any senator wish to remove a resolution from the consent calendar? Is there objection to the adoption of the resolutions on the consent calendar? Chair hears none. The resolutions on the consent calendar are adopted. [2:10:40] Are there any motions to withdraw or commit? Recognize the majority leader for a motion. [2:10:51] Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Senate Bill 382 be engrossed. The majority leader has moved that Senate Bill 382 be engrossed. Secretary, read the caption. Senate Bill 382 by Senators Hufstetler of the 52nd and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to ad valorem taxation of property so as to make the statewide base year homestead exemption mandatory for all political subdivisions, to repeal a related tax bill requirement, to make conforming changes, to amend Article 2B of ti- Chapter 8 of Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to special district option sales and use tax so as to remove a condition precedent to the call for a referendum for such tax, to provide for effective dates and applicability, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes. [2:11:37] Mr. President, that completes the order. [2:11:41] Majority leader has moved. I see an objection- Objection ... from the minority leader back, uh, back there in the back. And a second objection right there. [2:11:55] All right. We'll take it to the boards. All those in favor of the motion will vote yay. All opposed, nay. Secretary will unlock the machine. [2:13:06] On the motion to engross, the yays are 31 and the nays are 22. So this motion has prevailed. [2:13:16] Move it on to the rules calendar. Secretary read Senate Bill 420. [2:13:28] Senate Bill 420 by Senator Echols of the 49th and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Code Section 27-2-23 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to license, permit, tag, and stamp fees so as to provide for fees for reef and migratory fish endorsements, to amend Code Section 12-2-2 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to Environmental Protection Division, appeal procedures generally, permit applications and inspections, Code Section 27-1-39 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to rules of regulation used to establish criminal violations, and Code Section 52-7-26 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to penalty, respectively, so as to re- revise effective dates, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes. [2:14:10] The Senate Committee on Economic Development and Tourism recommends that this bill do pass. [2:14:20] Mr. President, that completes the order. I recognize the senator from the 49th District to speak to Senate Bill 420. [2:14:42] Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, good morning, colleagues. I know some of y'all are here. When y'all saw SB 420, you got here in a hurry. You thought this was about something, uh, totally different. But, uh, it's actually about fishing this morning. I'm, uh, bringing this to you at the request of Georgia Saltwater Fishing Industry. With the support of, uh, the DNR, I bring before you Senate Bill 420. This bill creates an annual reef migratory fish endorsement for the Georgia Recreational Fis- Fishing License, and with associated fees of $10 for residents and $20 for non-residents. [2:15:18] It also contains language authorizing recent actions, um, of our Board of Natural Resources [2:15:24] - to, uh, enforce their, codify their, uh, rules and laws that they passed, their, their rules that they passed last year. Using funding generated by this license endorsement, the database of endorsement holders, Georgia DNR can produce more accurate catch estimates for popular species like red snapper and king mackerel than they're currently produced by federal law. For the past several years, Georgia anglers have only been allowed to harvest red snapper for one, maybe two days a year, uh, when that species is way more abundant than, uh, than has been documented by, um, by the feds. [2:16:01] Our anglers are consistently losing opportunities, uh, to fish, um, and our neighboring states to the southeast around the Gulf of America, they're, they're working, um, with the feds. They've taken over, um, they've taken over this, um, into s- into state hands, and what this bill does is basically a user fee. It's $10. If you wanna, uh, catch red snapper, it's a simple $10. The industry wants it. It's pretty rare that an industry comes to you and they say, "Hey, charge us for what we're doing." Um, we, they want reliable data. [2:16:39] They want to, uh, the, s- that species in particular, red snapper, to be managed more appropriately than what it is. Um, so with that, I ask for your favorable consideration of SB420. Mr. President, I yield for questions. Chair recognizes the senator from the 42nd for a question. Thank you, Mr. President. Does the senator yield? Yes, I yield. Sorry I was a little late getting in on this one. [2:17:09] Um, Senate Bill 420, I see looks like we're allowing for recreational reefing in this. Is that correct? Is that something you support? Rec- excuse me. Would you repeat that? It's recreational reefing. Is that something that you support? I know- That's reef, not- Reef ... E-R. That's R-E-E-F. Do you further yield? Senator, I further yield. So what's the difference between reefing or reefer and reef? I don't know. I would yield to the senator from the 42nd. I'm sure he can teach a lesson on that. [2:17:40] No more questions. [2:17:44] Thank you, Mr. President. Any other questions? Chair recognizes the senator from the 2nd for a question. Thank you, Mr., Mr. President. Senator, do you yield? Uh, yes, sir. Uh, Senator, does this bill involve anything with moral turpitude? Um, understanding the previous questions that were asked, could you enlighten us on that? I'll let you and, uh, the senator from the 42nd have a, uh, conversation about that offline. Thank you, sir. Any other questions? [2:18:14] Are you a freshman? Uh, yes, sir. Okay. A few more months. All right. [2:18:21] No more questions, Senator. Thank you. D- 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, and 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? The chair hears none. The report of the committee is agreed to. Is there objection to the main question being ordered? Chair hears none, and the main question is ordered. The question is on the passage of the bill. [2:18:52] All those in favor will vote yay. Opposed, nay. The secretary will unlock the machine. [2:20:03] No, it's not a touch screen. On the motion, on the passage of the bill, the yays are favored. On the passage of the bill, the yays are 52, the nays are zero. [2:20:14] This bill having received the requisite constitutional majority is now passed. [2:20:34] Chair recognizes the senator from the 50th. Point of order, Mr. President. What's your point of order? Isn't it true that because of the senator from the 49th, it's a bad day to be a red snapper in the state of Georgia? Gonna wear him out. Thank you, Senator. [2:20:51] Secretary will read. Secretary will read the caption of Senate Bill 382. [2:21:01] Senate Bill 382 by Senators Hufstetler f- of the 52nd and others. A bill to be entitled an act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to ad valorem taxation of property so as to make the statewide base year homestead exemption mandatory for all political subdivisions, to repeal a related tax bill requirement, to make conforming changes, to amend Article 2b of Chapter 8 of Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to special district option sales and use tax so as to remove a condition precedent to the call for a referendum for such tax, to provide for effective dates and applicability, to provide for related matters, to repeal conflicting laws, and for other purposes. [2:21:36] The Senate Committee on Finance recommends that this bill do pass by substitute. [2:21:44] A bill to be entitled an act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 48, well, of Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated relating to ad valorem taxation of property so as to make the statewide base year homestead exemption mandatory for all political subdivisions, to repeal a related tax bill requirement, and for other purposes. Mr. President, that completes the order. [2:22:03] I recognize the senator from the 52nd to speak to Senate Bill 382. [2:22:17] Thank you, Mr. President. We have Senate Bill 382 before you today [2:22:23] It will restore what the Senate passed by a forty-two seven vote on February 15th, two thousand twenty-four. That was Senate Bill three forty-nine two years ago. We had seen property taxes being increased on homeowners by double-digit increases year after year. We saw local governments increase property taxes by eighty, ninety, some over a hundred percent when you looked over several years. We had seen local school board surpluses increase from seven billion to over fourteen billion in the bank in the same time frame, and we've heard from homeowners who say they can't afford the massive increases in their home taxes. [2:23:03] They can't afford it anymore. Affordability is a word you've heard a lot of this year. You've heard a lot of it from me for multiple years. And yet, with a billion sitting in the bank, we have local governments, mostly school districts, saying they will not be able to pay their bills unless they continue these double-digit increases. And they forget that while homeowner taxes can only go up the rate of inflation, they can still increase the millage rate, and that the majority of property which is not homeowner property can still go up unchecked. [2:23:38] This in no way keeps any government from getting the revenue they need. I have a long history with caps. I helped put a cap on the Floyd County taxpayers from the county commission in two thousand and two. I heard all the horror stories. I refuted them in the press about businesses were gonna leave, and they wouldn't pay their bills. Twenty-four years later, it still exists. It hasn't slowed down the government at all. As a matter of fact, right after that, we got a double A bond rating, our first ever for Floyd County. [2:24:09] And many other districts, many of you here have done similar measures in your communities, and they somehow still pay their bills. Um, in one of my counties, Bartow County, after the school board had opted out, we put it on the ballot last November to make it mandatory, as many others here did. Having dealt with ninety percent tax increases over the past few years, the citizens came out for a second vote. [2:24:42] This one to make it mandatory, and it passed by ninety percent. In that same election, there was a PSC election. Some people voted one way, and some people voted another, but they all came together and voted for this measure, this simple measure. So we're here because the original bill got changed on the other side with an opt-out. And I know many House members over there didn't want that either, including the two that helped us in Bartow County, the senator from thirty-seventh, and me and the, the two House members to put a local measure on. [2:25:17] Um, so shockingly, or not shockingly, seventy percent of the school districts opted out. About twenty percent of the cities did. And so here we are with the majority of Georgians not having the protection that others have. And I looked around the country at other states who have a cap in place, some for a while, some recently. In Florida, Texas, Nebraska, Massachusetts, which has a two and a half percent cap, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, New Mexico, and Iowa. [2:25:50] I didn't see an opt-out in any of them. That guts the protection for the homeowner. That means affordability is continuing to be a major problem. Now, there's a second part of the bill, and that's the FLOS penny that came out of the House, but we agreed to that, that would allow a penny to apply towards property taxes. Um, thirty-nine counties put it on the ballot. Ninety percent of them passed it this year. [2:26:21] One of them said, "The money doesn't get to us quick enough," and they didn't like that part of it. So this is gonna address that. And if this passes, it'll be available for all a hundred and fifty-nine counties and five hundred and thirty-five cities. In Gordon County, in my district where it passed, the City of Calhoun says they will eliminate their property tax. In fact, the data shows that two-thirds of the cities in Georgia will be able to eliminate their property tax. The one change in this bill is to address their concerns, which was legitimate, which is to get the money to the citizens earlier. [2:26:58] The original bill says the money collected this year will be taken off of property taxes next year. The change says that the penny tax collected through June, June 30th of this year and any subsequent years will be taken off the taxes in this year. This November, those thirty-four counties will see, in many cases, hundreds of dollars less on their property tax bill. So this will correct what we probably should have done in the original bill, and that's to get the money to the people as soon as possible. Now, I did hear one concern that I, I did wanna address because many people have stricter restrictions. [2:27:35] In Floyd County, we don't have a, an inflation. It's, it's frozen what it is. Others have restrictions in place very similar around the state, and that was like, "We don't want to op- we don't want this to supersede what we've got." And it doesn't. It doesn't change the original language in House Bill 581. Line 316 says, "The homestead exemption that is larger or more beneficial for the taxpayer with respect to the particular tax and jurisdition- jurisdiction to which more than one base year value homestead applies, that one will apply." So if you have a better measure in place, it already applies. [2:28:17] My county didn't opt out even though they got a freeze because they said, "We don't have to opt out. The law says our freeze occurs." Some counties, perhaps with misunderstanding, opted out thinking they needed to. They didn't need to. Their, their freeze would have stayed in place. So I did wanna address that. Um, the, um, bill simply restores the original intent that this Senate overwhelmingly passed out and gets the FLOS money to the taxpayer sooner. Mr. President, I urge that we pass this affordability bill in a bipartisan matter, and I'll certainly yield for any questions. [2:28:53] Thank you, Mr. President. [2:28:57] You do have questions, Senator. Uh, chair recognizes the senator from the thirty-second for a question. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Chair, would you yield? Certainly. Um, isn't it true that this bill does not affect senior tax exemptions in the counties? Correct. This has nothing to do with any senior tax exemptions in place. I know, uh, you've got a pretty generous one in Cobb County as one of your counties, and I don't know which county you're, you're referring to, but it does not affect that at all. [2:29:31] And would you further yield for one more? Certainly. And Senator, isn't it also true that this does not affect the sales taxes in the various counties? It has no effect on the sales tax. I think some people, because the House has a bill that they're looking at that does affect the sales tax, maybe you're getting them confused, but this has no increase in sales tax. The only thing that's there is or- that original penny of FLOS that they can go before the voters and ask for. Thank you, Senator. [2:30:03] Chair recognizes the senator from the thirty-seventh for a question. Does Senator yield? Certainly for my good, uh, co-senator of Bartow County. I appreciate that. Um, as you know, I represent not only, uh, Bartow County, but parts of Cobb County as well. Um, a big issue I'm hearing from my constituents is housing affordability and predictability and stability. Um, we heard some discussion earlier about, you know, cost of insurance going up. Um, lots of things are coming at our constituents. Isn't it true this bill gives certainty and predictability in the c- overall cost of your home that wouldn't exist without this bill? [2:30:40] Correct. In your, in your home, the maximum they can increase it is the rate of inflation instead of the assessments that have gone up sometimes a hundred thousand dollars on homes and people get massive tax increases that they didn't budget for. And in many cases with some of the seniors, um, they, um, are on fixed incomes and it's certainly affecting their ability to stay in their home. D- does the gentleman further yield? Certainly. Um, I represent a county that's got a, a large school district. [2:31:10] Um, you know, our school district's budget's round about a billion dollars in scale and scope in Cobb County. We've got more than a hundred thousand students. Um, I talked about school districts. Um, this is gonna have an impact on revenue in our school district, um, per year, potentially fourteen million dollars. Um, but isn't it true that relative to a billion dollar budget, a fourteen mil- bill-- If you have a billion dollar budget and you have a fourteen million dollar fiscal impact, isn't that a relatively low fiscal impact for a school district that scale when you balance that against the impact it has of predictability and stability for homeowners? [2:31:49] It, it is. We, we've seen that in, in Floyd County where we've had the free zone since 2002. It's not that big of an impact. Um, in addition, all the property other than homeowners, which still goes up the rate of inflation, it just doesn't go up more than inflation. All the other property is unchecked and there is a millage rate, though, uh, I found a lot of them would much rather have a backdoor tax increase than raise the millage rate. Does gent- gentleman yield for one further question? Certainly. Um, so as a, a- as a lawmaker from a constituency such as ours, if we've got a very strong commercial base, as, as Cobb County does, there's a very strong commercial tax base, um, that's gonna continue to grow v- in a very healthy way. [2:32:32] This really only limits the costs on homeowners. So conceivably, if our commercial digest continues to grow in a healthy way, there may be almost a very, very little fiscal impact, but it's really only businesses that are covering that and commercial entities that homeowners are locked in ki- kind of kept, kept stable by that. Yeah. I certainly think the senator from the thirty-seventh knows of which he speaks. Appreciate the bill. Thank you, sir. [2:32:58] No further questions, Senator. Thank you, Mr. President, and I urge your yes vote on this bill. [2:33:07] Chair recognizes the senator from the forty-fourth to speak to the measure. [2:33:35] Thank you, Mr. President. Um, this legislation has a lot of great things in it and, um, certainly is a well-intentioned effort to help with the affordability crisis so many of our families are feeling in, feeling in many, many different aspects of their lives. Um, one concern I have that I know has been expressed to me and maybe to some of the rest of you by my, by my constituents is that a one size fits all is potentially not a great policy for a state with a hundred and fifty-nine counties that are so disparate in their population, in their median income, whether they're even urban or rural. [2:34:22] We have school systems in widely different states of fiscal solvency, as was made extremely clear this year with the, the, uh, situation some of our school systri- districts found themselves in. Just to point out that they're all not similarly situated. And having sort of more, um... [2:34:42] increased state control, because that's what it is. It's increased state control saying you must do this when we've got a 159 counties and almost, ah, well, actually even potentially a few more than that on the school systems don't have that number right at the, uh, tip of my tongue. Um, to sort of say we are gonna impose on you dually elected school boards, dually elected local governments a one size fits all, I do think that, you know, is something that we should think about carefully because the moment we're in now is not necessarily the situation or the moment that we will always be in and when you tie hands, remove flexibility, things may not work out as well as we would hope in the present moment. [2:35:37] Our counties have widely variant economic conditions, so it really is not, in addition to not being particularly smart policy-wise to demand a blanket condition, it also isn't necessarily even practical or equitable. And it does tie our local officials' hands, um, in terms of how they can deal with their own budgets and provide the fiscal accountability that they are sup- tasked with providing for their constituents by virtue of their own dually elected positions. [2:36:16] So that is, um, my main concern about the notion of a one size fits all. Also I, I think it bears, um, repeating, you know, how we got here because this is sort of a, this is a very speedy, uh, retread of a subject that we only dealt with two years ago. So we had a constitutional amendment on this, uh, p- this exact topic. [2:36:46] It was a compromised piece of legislation that went before the voters, um, between, uh, legislators here in, in the building, between Democrats, between Republicans, and by all the leaders, um, in this, in this building and across the sta- across the state. And 65% of Georgians cast that vote based on what was being presented to them at the time with the ballot language. And now, but before anyone can catch a breath, two years later we're coming back to do a little bit of a bait and switch because this is quite different than the enabling legislation that was present at the time that we presented this to the voters. [2:37:33] So I think from the perspective of what we have done from a constitutional standpoint, we should be cautious in so swiftly undoing the bargain that was presented to the voters a mere two years ago. And we all wish that, um, dealing with, uh, doing an inflationary cap restriction on property taxes would be a big step towards solving our housing affordability crisis. [2:38:07] But the reality is it just won't be. We have got to deal with the housing affordability crisis by building more homes. We do not have enough supply. We've got to stop institutional investors and, and we need to have local governments be a, a, we need local governments to permit housing, uh, more housing projects and that is something that where there's legislation pending I know in the House and I believe also over here, legislation called the Choice Act. [2:38:47] That would go much farther towards actually leading to housing affordability in the supply and demand of economics in our state. This is much more of a talking point, "Oh, we did something." But, but the something being done can have a lot of effects that certainly just don't, aren't equitable and don't work for 159 different counties, 180, I remember the number, 180 school systems. [2:39:18] Um, so meanwhile we should really be focusing on like real solutions that are gonna cut out a lot of the red tape that we currently have with the, that leads to the lack of building that we really need to see. We really need to see a lot more build, baby, build, and this just isn't gonna get the job done so let's not kid ourselves that, that this will result, um, in anything that's gonna make a meaningful dis- difference in housing affordability. So, um, with that, Mr. President, I'm ha- happy to answer any questions or I shall take my seat. [2:39:48] You do have questions, Senator. Um- Thank you, Mr. President. Chair recognizes senator from the 36th. [2:39:56] Thank you. Does the senator yield? Yes. I yield to the senator from the 36th. Uh, Senator, uh, we I believe, uh, represent, uh, uh, the families with children in Atlanta schools. Yes. You on the DeKalb County side and I on the Fulton side. Um, and isn't it true that, uh, our school system in Atlanta, which is one of the, uh, uh, two largest school systems in the state I would, I would argue, uh, has ha- had to, uh, conduct a, a tremendous, uh, assessment of how many schools can continue to be opened. [2:40:36] Isn't that correct? That is correct. Yes. And, and we've s- and we've seen, uh, or, or v- very close to where you live, close to where I live, we've seen schools shuttered- Yeah ... uh, in the plan that the, that the school board in its wisdom has had to devise, uh, to, uh, make the, make the, uh, finances work. Isn't that true? That is true. And, uh, f- uh, further question [2:41:02] Isn't it true, and you may not be aware of this given that we are in, in different counties, but in the county of, of Fulton, our commercial assessment revenues that are produced, uh, are lower than a year ago. [2:41:20] They fell. That's right. [2:41:20] That's right. [2:41:21] Yeah, the digest fell. [2:41:21] So how much, uh, how much do we wanna hobble, uh, public education? Just, uh, how far should we go i-i-in that regard? Um, and doesn't this, d-d-don't this, doesn't this set of facts lend itself to, uh, uh, the wisdom of a decision to vote no on this bill at this point in time? [2:41:43] Well, you, you make some great points, Senator, and there are actually a number of other school systems in my district, and I'm sure many of our colleagues, that are in the same position with falling enrollment, and they're having to make tough decisions. And, um, I think that it, it just goes to show how not all counties are similarly situated. And with the falling digest, you know, we've had a, a digest that's gone way up, and part of that is 'cause of the lack of supply. But there are market forces at work, and, and you point that out by saying Fulton's digest has actually gone down now, and it won't be the only one, and it won't be the only time. [2:42:23] And so when you're in a, a, a period where, where housing prices are falling, that's the market correcting. And how much do we really wanna interfere with some of these free market forces that are important for funding services? So I agree with you, Senator. [2:42:38] Thank you very much. [2:42:41] No further questions. [2:42:42] Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor. [2:42:45] Chair recognizes the senator from the 31st to speak to the measure. [2:43:03] Thank you, Mr. President. I rise today to address a fundamental disconnect between the rhetoric we hear from our colleagues across the aisle and their actual voting record when it comes to the financial wellbeing of Georgia families. Every day in this chamber, we hear about passionate speeches about affordability, about the cost of living, about helping working families end meet. When yet presented with the opportunity to re-return hard-earned money to Georgia taxpayers through meaningful property tax relief, those same voices fall silent. [2:43:42] Their votes tell the real story, a story of a political philosophy that rather see government grow than see Georgians fulfill the American dream. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle work every day and talk about affordability. They express concern about rising costs. They speak very eloquently about the struggles of working families. They vote to maintain a system where local governments fe-no- face no meaningful constraints on their ability to burden homeowners with ever-increasing tax bills. [2:44:20] This is not mere hypocrisy. It represents the fundamental misunderstanding of what affordability actually means to Georgia families. High property taxes that do not pay a family for the cost that they cannot budget for at home. When the air conditioner breaks in July, when the car needs unexpected repairs, when medical bills arrive, property taxes just don't downward accommodate these realities. Instead, they represent an infle- inflexible, ever-growing obligation that families must meet regardless of their circumstances. [2:44:58] Homeownership has become- been considered the cornerstone of the American dream, yet property taxation represents something more insidious. It's a tax on the dream itself. Indeed, it's the very essence of the cradle-to-grave government to require citizens to continue paying rent to the government for as long as they own their home. You purchase a home, you pay your mortgage, you maintain your property, you invest in your community, and yet you truly never own it because failure to pay your property taxes and the government will come take it from you. [2:45:39] This is not ownership in any meaningful sense. It's a perpetual tenancy with the government as your landlord. Ronald Reagan understood this principle deeply as the governor of California and later as president. In the late 1970s, as governor, he witnessed firsthand the property tax crisis devastating California property owners. Property assessments were skyrocketing, and in some cases doubling and tripling within just a few years. Senior citizens who had paid off their mortgages decades earlier were being forced from their homes because they could not afford tax bills. [2:46:14] Young families were locked out of home- homeownership entirely. The crisis reached peak in 1978 with the passage of Proposition 13, the landmark initiative that pro- that capped property taxes and limited assessment increases. Governor Reagan was an enthusiastic supporter, and he declared that, quote, "The people have spoken. The era of tax and tax and spend and spend is over." But Reagan's support wasn't just a political calculation. It reflected his deep political and philosophical conviction about the property relationship between the citizens and their government. [2:46:50] He understood that when the government could seize your home for failure to pay for every increase in taxes on your home you already owned, you weren't truly free. You were a tenant of the state. This understanding only deepened, went deeper during Reagan's presidency. This relationship between taxation, freedom, prosperity that Democrats today don't understand and they can't sell it. Georgia Senate Democrats believe that just like Reagan said, quote, "Government's view of the economy can be summed up in just a few simple words. [2:47:22] If it moves, tax it. If it moves, if it keeps moving re- move and regulate it, and if it stops moving, subsidize it." This is a devastating critique of the progressive philosophy that sees government as the engine of prosperity rather than pe- than the people themselves that are in South Georgia or inner city Atlanta right down the street from here. High taxation is not an economic problem, it's a moral one. Every taxpayer is involuntarily working on the part of, of their government. The question is, how much can your labor, your time in your life does the government have a right to claim? [2:47:56] Taxation represents a fundamental transfer of decision-making power from individuals to bureaucrats. When government can claim an unlimited share of your income or your unlimited portion of your property's value through taxation, you are not free. You're a subject and not a citizen. This is the vision that we must apply to the t- property taxation in Georgia today. Local governments have grown beyond consent of the governed. [2:48:27] They have increased their taxpayers not through explicit voter approval, but through the passive mechanisms of rising assessments. They have expanded s- expanded spending to match inflated revenues than providing relief to the taxpayer. And now, some resist limitation on their power to continue this pattern indefinitely. Reagan once warned us about this rhetoric that we would hear from those oppo- that oppose tax relief. He said the most terrifying words in the English lang- language, "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." When local governments tell us you need unlimited access to property values to, quote unquote, "Help the community," remember what Ronald Reagan warned. [2:49:11] When they claim that limiting taxes will devastate essential services, ask yourself, did they provide proportionally better services when the revenue was doubled? Republicans focus on affordability, and that requires government con- committed to doing more with less. We believe that Georgia families, not the government bureaucrats, are best positioned to, uh, decide how their money is spent. We believe that homeownership should achieve, truly achieve sustainability and not contingent on the government's restraint in raising taxes. [2:49:43] We believe local governments, like families, should live within their means and make hard choices about provi- priorities rather than simply raising taxes to, to increase revenue. The property tax relief measure that is before this body represents these principles in action. It provides meaningful constraints on automatic tax increases while still allowing local governments to make their case to the voters when additional revenue is truly necessary. It respects the needs of local government and the rights of taxpayers and homeowners. [2:50:17] Mr. President, the choice before this body is very clear. We can continue down the path of an ever-expanding government funded by ever-increasing taxes on Georgia homeowners. We can allow the American dream of homeownership to become the elusive province of Wall Street investors while working families are priced out in their own communities. Or we could choose the path of fiscal responsibility, limited government, and respect for the homeowner and the taxpayer. We can insist that government at every level can learn to do more l- with less, just as everyday Georgia families have to do. [2:50:56] My colleagues across the aisle speak eloquently about affordability. It's time for their votes to match their rhetoric. It's time to give Georgians their hard-earned money back. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the will. [2:51:11] You do have a question, Senator. Senator's yielded the will. Uh, chair recognizes the senator from the 47th to speak to the measure. [2:51:43] Well, thank you, Mr. President. I think all my colleagues in here know how much I hate coming to the will, talking about legislation and what we're doing. But I wanna tell you, Senator, for me, it's a little bit different. Most of y'all in here know that I, I spent 20 years as, as a, 10 as a city manager, 10 as a county manager. I've also run two development authorities for another decade. Probably more than, than most people, we, uh, I understand a little bit about, oh, taxes and what's going on. [2:52:14] And, you know, for me, I, I agree with, with, uh, the senator from the 52nd. You know, when we, we talk about what's going on with people needing relief, they've gotta have some help. You know, I always felt like, "Wait a minute, do I own my home? I, I paid off my mortgage luckily. I'm, I'm old enough to do that. The, uh, but I get to pay the, uh, government all the time." Now, I'm not against po- uh, paying the government, Senator. And in this case, you know, the best part about when I pay my local tax bill, it's all local. [2:52:46] It's people that I get to see in the grocery store. It's people that, that, uh, are leaders in my community that, that are setting my tax rate. But, you know, unfortunately, they've got a job to do, and they, some of them have very limited capacity to where they can collect money. So to me, the more that I look at it, the more I look at it, I said, "Okay, there's gotta be a way to make this work." The, uh, I hate it that, that, uh, I feel like I do pay rent on the property that I've paid for, uh, to my local government, but I'm glad it all stays local. [2:53:17] You know, one of the things I've said, and, and believe me, I've, I've done about all the things you can do on the local side of the, the government. I, uh, oh, been lucky enough to be able to serve in the state senate. And you know, I understand a lot better about the state budget and what's going on. One of the things that I'm really proud of what's going on in Washington, D.C., and what's going on in, ac- all across America, because we have a relationship with not only the local government, the state government, and the federal government. And we've gotta do what's right the, uh, for all our citizens. I guarantee you every one of your constituents is paying taxes to a city or a county or both, and you can't get away with that. [2:53:56] Said they're also my constituents. Uh, and to me, we live in a great country. It's one of those things. Taxes are a necessary evil. Now, I wanna share with you, and, and it's one of those things that for me... I don't know. Some of y'all read, read all the emails that come to you. I, I try to read every email that I get. And I had a constituent send me an email Sunday. I was reading it, and he, uh, unfortunately, he, he attached a, a Word document that I don't just open a Word document from somebody I don't know. [2:54:30] So I s- texted him back, or emailed him back and said, "Hey, would you send that to me so that I can read it without opening up on a thing?" Just because we live in a virus-filled world. Pretty sad state of things. But this, this, uh, email was from Investigator Sean Allen Parton. He, uh, he's a constituent of mine, lives over outside of Comer, Georgia. He, uh, you know, he, he goes on and, and it's, it's kind of a lengthy, the, uh, four-page document. [2:55:00] He, uh, but he goes on and tells me a little bit about him and, and what's going on in his world. He talked about in, in, uh, oh, he always wanted to be in law enforcement. He said the, his first experience there was he was a ranger at Stone Mountain Park. He, uh, eventually he went to work for Newton County actually as a ditch digger, worked in their, their water, uh, system. He, uh, from there, he got an opportunity in Oconee County to, to be a jailer, the, uh, for the sheriff, oh, back in 2000. [2:55:30] He went on to l- the, uh, police academy, graduated and became a sheriff's deputy, the, uh, there in, in Oconee County for several years. Fast-forward today, he's an investigator for the Jackson County Solicitor General's office. The reason I bring you this is b- not because of him, but because we all have our lives, and to me, one of the things that, that he goes on to talk about is his daughter, Brianna. His, his daughter, he, he, he got a, a, uh, phone call from one of the medics in the fire department that said they, uh, oh, they, they received a call from his granddaughter. [2:56:08] They, uh, she was six. They, uh, "My mom's unresponsive. What, I don't know what to do. My mom can't do anything." She's, she had, and, and I'm gonna share this 'cause he told me I could. They, uh, he said that, that, uh, his daughter was hypoglycemic. Any of y'all that are, that are diabetics and know what that means, they, you go into h- shock in that case. They had all the right things to try to address that, but unfortunately, the technology failed. [2:56:39] And so for me, his daughter suffered with the fact that she's, she's now, oh, fully bedridden. She has to be cared for twenty-four hours a day and, and h- he has her at his home, which he built in Madison County a few years ago. And I'm gonna read this to you because this is the important part of the letter. "Our rainy day fund couldn't hold up to the disastrous storm we are facing and dwindled overnight. Any and available savings we had had, had been spent. [2:57:13] The money set aside for our property taxes now have to make a choice. Use the last bit of savings we have to pay my property taxes, which will save me from losing my home, or keep the last bit of savings we have left held back to pay for funeral expenses for my daughter. This is an impossible choice we have to make." And this is the p- kind of choice that our everyday citizens are looking at. [2:57:46] They, uh, nobody has a crystal ball. Only God can tell how long his daughter will live. But he goes on in the letter to say, "My tax bill was due twelve twenty, twenty twenty-five. I've already received letters from the county threatening action regarding my thirty-day delinquency." Taxes are real. I understand the need for taxes. I think everybody in here does. To me, we wanna make them as, as plain and simple as we can be. [2:58:18] Doing something like passing this measure that senator from the fifty-second has brought to us is gonna do that. And this is where I'll ask you to vote favorably on the measure to, to let, make sure that every one of our Georgia citizens understands we feel their pain, we know what's going on, and we wanna try to make it as open and honest as we can. Thanks for your time. The, uh, I'll yield the will. [2:58:45] Chair recognizes the senator from the fifty-fourth to speak to the bill. [2:59:05] Thank you, Mr. President. Um, my friends, I, uh, you, you hear these kind of things go back and forth and you just think, "Who are we working for?" Because, you know, all we're, the, the purpose of this is, you know, in the 1980s, when I graduated high school in 1982, the average age of a first-time homeowner was in their 20s. [2:59:32] By the time we got to year 2000, now it's in the thir- early 30s. You know what's the average age of first-time homeown- homeownership is in Georgia right now? It's 40 years old. [2:59:48] 40 years old because first-time ho- My son is one of those. [2:59:55] First-time young people just starting out, maybe as a new married couple, they can't afford what's happening in the inflation of our m- our home market for that first time starting out. Then on the other end, you have the elderly. [3:00:12] I mean, we are literally have b- been... When the times got tough just a couple years ago, we're literally watching elderly people who get these, they might have bought the house, an, um, a, an el- a couple bought a house in 1979. [3:00:32] They did never move. They grew old in that house. They grew, had their grandkids in the house. Now you've got one of them has passed on. So now there's a single widow who still lives in that house that they bought with modest means years ago. But now they get a property tax assessment that says their home is worth $400,000 to $500,000? [3:01:01] That elderly person has but one option: I've got to sell my house. I've got to move out. Forget the grandkids getting to keep the property. Forgettin- forget the keep, the property that was in our, in our namesake. Forget all that. It's got to go 'cause I g- I got to have somewhere to live, and the government that says they're gonna take care of me is literally the one that's putting me out of my home. That's what this is about. [3:01:31] We're not trying to railroad something through. We're just trying to make sure we're taking care of those on the front end and those on the back end and with homeownership. Because I'm sorry, but, you know, when you can't take care of those who are in need of care, that says a whole lot about a society. Says a whole lot about a society that won't care for those who need care. And when we're not doing everything we can to make sure that future generations have access to homeownership, because that was the quintessential American dream. [3:02:09] That was the cornerstone of the American dream, was homeownership. Now you have to wait till you're 40 years old in 2025 to get access to that American dream. That's all this is about. [3:02:26] So let's just make sure that we're doing everything we can to cap the ones that are out of control. That's all this was ever about, is making sure that we're not... There are some entities that they literally, let's b- let's be honest. There are some communities, they were gonna put local ordinances in place for home, new home development, and by the time they put those new ordinances in place for the new home development, we're talking about half a million dollar homes. So they're literally assessing these properties so high that, uh, they're, they're, they're gonna drive off the people in the middle class. [3:03:04] They're gonna drive off those people who can't afford that first time home. All we're doing is trying to make sure that we're keeping the field, the playing field fair for both the young and the old and everybody in between. That's all this bill does. So I would encourage everyone to please vote for this. Let's help those on the f- young, those young people that are fir- trying b- homeowners, and let's he- help the elderly keep the homestead that they've had in their home for maybe 60 years, and not have to, have a widow woman have to give up her, her family's home because she can't afford the tax man's bill. [3:03:44] Mr. President, I, I yield the well. Thank you. [3:03:53] Chair recognizes the senator from the second to speak to the bill. [3:04:06] Nice sports coat. I like it. Well, thank you, Mr. President. I did not plan to take to the well today, but since my colleagues have talked about the issues with affordability and folks owning a home, I want to talk about the folks that can't even buy a home. I want to talk about the state minimum wage in the State of Georgia that's $5.15. I want to talk about the corporate welfare that we hand out. I want to talk about how we've cut the corporate income tax rate before we've cut the personal income tax rate if we were serious about it. [3:04:39] I want to talk about the cost of living and how much groceries cost. I want to talk about the senator from the 28th had legislation to talk about how do we address the ever-growing population of corporations that go up on the rent three to five times the amount than what folks may make. Uh, we could talk about payment source discrimination. We could talk about HOAs and POAs and how they have taken folks' property. Uh, but we want to address property taxes. It's easy to go after local government because we can't go after, uh, the big corporate bailout that we gave. [3:05:11] The same way I came to this well last year and I talked about tort reform [3:05:15] the bailout for insurance companies. We're good at doing one thing and saying another. If we truly wanted to help the lowest common denominator, Matthew 25 says, "When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was naked, you clothed me. When I was in prison, you came and ministered to me." And, and when asked when, "When did you do all these things to Jesus?" He said, "When you've done it to the least of these, you've also done it to me." Then we would absolutely fund and make sure the children had summer lunch programs and folks weren't hungry. We would make sure that there weren't any homeless folks sitting on a $14 billion surplus, because if we truly wanted to help the least of these among us, we have the power through a budget to appropriate it and do something about it if we were serious about it. [3:05:57] Now, the question becomes: Where does our moral compass actually lie? Because if we wanted to make sure the folks did not lose their homes for property taxes, then I would've saw a bill to make sure that family in Sparta, Georgia, wanted to keep their property so the railroad didn't come through. We didn't talk about them folks. We pick and choose what we wanna come and discuss in this well. Now, we wanna talk about affordability. Well, the Georgia Senate Democratic Caucus has been talking about affordability. We've been talking about raising the minimum wage. We've been talking about an earned income tax credit. [3:06:29] We've been talking about fixing this childcare issue that we have in our state. You're talking about homeownership. Well, some folks can't even own a home because they're paying childcare that costs just as much as a mortgage payment. If we're serious about it, we would address the things that folks are actually, uh, dealing with, because many of my folks aren't even homeowners. They're renters. So they're paying double and triple the taxes because they're renting the property. So what are we gonna do to help renters to stay in the homes that they're renting? [3:06:59] How are we gonna address those issues with affordability? 'Cause everybody is not a homeowner. Are we gonna end the loophole where you can depreciate an appreciating asset, where if you own multiple divisions of property, you don't get all of these tax, uh, deductions and incentives? Are we gonna do something about that? We're talking about cutting property taxes. Well, let's make sure we can end the deduction where if you've got multiple properties, you can't depreciate them. Let's do that. Let's get serious about it. Let's not come and talk about we gonna cut taxes in the local community, because guess what? [3:07:29] The trash man is in somebody's community. The police officer is in somebody's community. There are essential services that government funds, and they rely on property taxes to do it, and guess what? If you cut property taxes, you may not have the base of sales tax to absorb all of this. And this is not a, a one-take Jake, a one-size-fits-all, because what works in North Georgia doesn't work in South Georgia, and I keep saying that every time I come to the well. Just because it works for the folks in the more metro areas, it does not work for the folks in the more southern part of the state. Because folks wanna see the road get paved. [3:08:01] They wanna see the sidewalk get fixed. They wanna see these things happen. Well, the only way that that happen is somebody gotta pay the concrete man. Somebody gotta pay the street paving man. Somebody gotta pay the trash man, the, the fire woman, the police woman, all of those things. And nobody, uh, ever thinks about, "Well, you know what? I may need insurance," until you get sick or hurt. That's when you think about insurance. You don't think, "I need these services from government," until you pick up the phone and say, "Somebody should do something about that." Oh, who's that gonna be? That's gonna be government. So if we really wanna address the issues with affordability, we wouldn't just be coming out in this budget with needs-based aid either. [3:08:32] We would've been doing that. If we were serious about it, we would address childcare. If we were serious about it, we'd address the income inequality. We'd address, uh, the healthcare inequality that we face as a state. If we were serious about it, we would've expanded Medicaid by now to ensure that working folks had healthcare. So if we wanna be serious about affordability, come talk to me. We've got a slew of bills that the Democratic Caucus has put together, and I would ha- be more than happy to have you co-sign on any of these pieces of legislation so we can actually do something about affordability. Now, if we wanna work together on this, colleagues, we can do that in a bipartisan effort, but just don't come and just say, "This is exactly what it is," and expect me to vote yes. [3:09:09] If you wanna work with us, we'll work with you. Come talk to us, and we'll find a way to do it together. But if you wanna have a top-down approach, then guess what? That's what this'll be. But if we're gonna talk about affordability, don't come and give me a vain speech about affordability when we've been talking about it for a while. You just talking about affordability 'cause you done lost a few elections. And with that, Mr. President, I yield the well. [3:09:29] Thank you, Senator. You have several questions. [3:09:36] Ooh. [3:09:36] Sadly, the senator has yielded the well. [3:09:44] All right. Chair recognizes my neighbor, the senator from the 13th, to speak to the measure. [3:10:04] Thank you, Mr. President. Okay, guys. I think we all can agree we don't like taxes. Nobody in this room wants taxes higher. I doubt anybody in this room really wants to pay their taxes. But the reality of it is, taxes are taxes, you know? It's a ugly word. Here's the problem, and I'm gonna take blame for this. I made a mistake. I voted for this bill last year when it had an opt-out clause in it, and I knew better. [3:10:36] I knew dang well that bill, we should've never... We should've stood our ground here in the Senate, sent it back to the House, and not have an opt-out clause in it. Because we knew darn well what was gonna happen is open up Pandora's box. Hello. She's here. Where we at right now is, can we make a difference? Can we help communities? Well, I can tell you right now, I can echo the s- what several of the senators have said about people in their communities. We got people that's... I got a lady 80 years old in my community. [3:11:07] 82, actually. She inherited her house from her mother, like, 40 years ago, 45 years ago. She's been in there this all this long. It is on the lake in our community, which has now become, you know, this destination spot, like all water properties do. And her taxes used to be like $800 a year. Now they're 7 to 12,000 depending on what have- 'cause all the houses around her are selling for 500 to $700,000. [3:11:38] We have to do something. We have to put this bill in place. I'm for this bill to, to where there's not an opt-out. I'm for this bill because I know I have talked to my commissioners and my, and my tax people in my community, and they're telling me this bill will help people. That's all I care about. This bill will help people. That's what we're here for, guys. We're arguing all the time about who's go- who's got the bigger pencil in this room here, okay? [3:12:08] I- the reality of it is, is I don't care. I'm here to help people. I'm here to help people, and that's what we should be con- that's what we should be focused on. And I do believe this bill is r- really right. Now, is any bill 100% perfect? I doubt it. But this bill is really getting close to being right and putting a bill in place that will help people. And folks, that's what we need to be doing. I ask for your favorable consent on this bill to help these 80-something-year-old people get their taxes down where they can afford to live and not have to sell their home and move into some other whatever because of the taxes that's being created across this state. [3:12:51] Mr. President, I yield the well. Senator yields the well. Chair recognizes the senator from the 37th to speak for the measure. [3:13:11] Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, I'm gonna reach out to regular Georgians and explain what this bill's doing in plain terms, and I sh- I share this in the spirit of, of bipartisan outreach. Uh, I believe members, uh, of the Democrat caucus would be well advised to support this 'cause I think it's good for your constituents. I think this is simply and plainly good policy. And this, this, this is what I would share, and I'd really share to Georgians who are listening to this debate. What this bill does is, is with respect to property taxes, you've got homestead properties where people live in their own home, and then you have every other form of property. [3:13:47] Every other form of property and the value and the taxes assessed on that can rise with the market without any limitation under this bill. So if you live in a community that's got commercial buildings, you've got a manufacturing plant, you've got a warehouse, you've got a data cen- whatever you have in your community that's commercial, those values will continue to rise as the market assessment rises without any limitation, and all those dollars pour into the government coffers as they always have. Any property in your community that is not owner-occupied, even homes, if you're, you have, have landlords. [3:14:22] Landlords, their property's gonna continue to rise with market values, and the governments that are being talked about here will still get their revenues. This bill only deals with that subset of property, 25 to 30% of the property value in my counties, just a very small fraction. And that 25 to 30% of the properties can still increase in value and, and the tax revenue can still go up every year, but that increase is limited to the rate of inflation. [3:14:54] Friends, where else do you get that deal, that you get a guaranteed increase the rate of inflation for yourself, um, and for 25 to 30% of the properties and everything else is unlimited in the, in the increase and, and the revenue that can come in from other properties? That's a really, really good deal because you know what? Governments are not gonna be significantly impacted by this revenue-wise because at the end of the day, you know what they're, you know what governments always have the power to do? They've got the power of taxation. [3:15:25] They can set their tax rates however they want to. This doesn't take any ability for governments to set tax rates. All this does is it says the assessed value on 25 or 30% of all the land in your, in your community can still go up but go up the rate of inflation. Friends, that is a very, very small impact on government's ability to tax. But you know what that is? That is a significant impact for homeowner predictability and certainty to be able to stay in their homes. [3:15:59] There's a lot of words that are thrown around as well, a lot of distractions we've heard today in this debate, but I'm talking to my friends in the Democrat caucus. I want you to join your Republican colleagues and support this proposition because the powers to tax in our governments are still very, very significant across the entire commercial property base, and they can still go up at the rate of inflation for the residential homes, 20 or 5, 20, 25, 30% of the land value in your communities. Y- government can still see increases in those values go up at that rate. [3:16:33] Government still controls the keys. But what's important is there is nothing this Senate has voted on in my time in this Senate that's had a bigger impact on housing affordability for regular people, not concepts, not down the road, not setting conditions, not a big broad bill, but specific impact for homeowners to give them affordability, predictability, and stability of the c- overall cost of their homes than this proposition. [3:17:04] I say that with hopes that members of both parties can support this, and whether you're a Republican or whether you're a Democrat. If you understand these issues and you think about the details and you're representing your constituents, this is a very easy vote to make. And hope our Democrat colleagues will join us and support this proposition. Thank you, Mr. President. [3:17:25] Chair recognizes the minority leader to speak to the bill. [3:17:33] Thank you, Mr. President. I'll be brief. One of the reasons why we're here, the reason why we're even here is because we actually did have a compromise between the two parties, between the two parties here late at night to actually be able to send this to the voters. We actually brought Democrats and Republicans to the table to where we actually had to work through these particular issues. And we actually had an opportunity to influence that legislation, and then we were able to take it to our voters and where after hearings, our voters then made the determination. [3:18:09] That was actually real working together. Now, though, because we only need a majority vote, we now today have decided we're about to basically scuttle all of that and determine what local communities may have decided is wrong. What we decided that night when we actually did have a compromise, we actually did work together, was wrong, only because now it, it only takes majority. That is very interesting. But, uh, we should not be lectured to, as a good friend from the senator from the second was saying, as far as who cares about whom. [3:18:40] Very interesting thing, Georgia just recently applied for the Rural Health Transformation Program, program coming out of the, uh, president's office. In that application, Rural Health, in that application, it stated that Georgia's rural community suffers from higher poverty rates. Had to say that to be able to get the money. That's the application from the governor's office of the governor of Georgia. How is anybody gonna lecture us when many persons in this room represents rural communities and you refuse to actually expand Medicaid? Where you refuse to do ACA tax credits, ACA credits as far as for the state. [3:19:13] How is you gonna lecture us when your own communities, by your governor, as it applies for funds, says that rural communities suffer from poverty? That's not a Democrat saying that. That's the State of Georgia saying that to get money. You know what your communities suffer, but you're gonna come in here and lecture us that we don't care about our communities because we won't pass something that as basically as redicking on something that we agreed on. But yet you have not done something as far as Medicaid is concerned, as far as healthcare is concerned, but yet the state acknowledges that those communities are suffering from poverty. [3:19:44] How is anyone gonna lecture us when those same communities where many people realize that you would destroy your public schools, have actually said those things, that you'll destroy your own public schools, but yet you vote for vouchers and allow those schools to be destroyed. But gonna come in here and lecture us about who cares and doesn't care about their communities when you actually can admit and say that these things are actually gonna happen, but actually still vote against the interest of your particular community. So we're not gonna take any lecturing. We were at the table before. We came to this compromise. And now because it only takes a m- m- majority, the compromise goes away and we're supposed to go back to our communities and say, "Even though you, you guys wanted this, many of your communities have actually opted out of this. [3:20:21] Even though this is what you wanted after hearing, after hearing, hours after hours of discussions, we had debates all, all over the place in Augusta, w- we-- you were wrong, and the Republican majority is right now." But don't come in here and lecture us about who cares about what. In fact, I could go through the same mechanics that senator from the second talked about. As far as all the things, when we start talking about higher costs as far as rent is concerned, we have a bill that's been presented by the senator from the 28th to talk about giving the counties the option of even having local rent control. That can't even come up for a hearing. [3:20:54] So there's gonna be no lecturing today. We ought to vote this bill down because what the people decided just two years ago, as far as a real compromise in bringing us to the table as Democrats was real. Now what's basically happened is trying to give us a lecture and say, "You better do what we say at, at this particular point in time." And we're not gonna go for that. We're not gonna take lectures from somebody when their own State of Georgia says that many of your communities live in poverty and you won't even help them. With that, I yield the will. [3:21:20] Senator yield the will. Chair recognizes the senator from the 31st. He waves. Chair recognizes the senator from the 27th to speak to the measure. [3:21:40] Thank you, Mr. President. I rise in support of this bill. I can think of a lot of forms of taxes: income taxes, sales taxes, capital gains taxes, death taxes, emissions taxes, gasoline taxes, road taxes, tolls. But in my mind, none of them are nearly as un-American as property taxes. [3:22:10] And all that this bill is saying is that we're gonna do the exact same thing to government that American families have to do, and that is live within your means. We just cap the rate of their increases at the rate of inflation. That's it. 'Cause what's been happening without this bill, and what will continue to happen without this bill, is there will be no upside limit on how much a family can be taxed to stay in their own home year over year. [3:22:46] Not because they made money, not because they sold a stock or got a promotion or did anything else, but because their neighbor sold their house for more money. And you wake up one day and you get an envelope in the mail, and all of a sudden you're looking at a 25% increase in your property taxes over last year. And the politicians, they get to sit back and say, "Well, I didn't raise your taxes. I didn't raise your millage rate. Your neighbor sold their house for more money. Congratulations. [3:23:18] Send us a couple thousand extra dollars, and we will say that we didn't raise your taxes." Well, the charade is up. People have realized that the tax digest doesn't magically create the exact amount of money every single year that cities, counties, or school boards need to run their government And sadly, most of these local governments have not rolled back their millage rate in years of double-digit inflation. Now, the irony of the pushback from the no- from the minority party on this, of course, is that two years ago, all but seven Democrats voted for this exact language. [3:23:57] It wasn't a compromise in this chamber, it was a compromise across the hall, and the opt-out language we have realized from our constituents who are continuing to get the double-digit increases is something they just can't handle anymore. And so there's been a lot of dialogue about, well, increase housing supply, bring down regulation. We can do all of that, and we should look at doing a lot of those things. But not one of those things will help my in-laws who are in their 70s, are looking to retire, and can't retire because their property taxes have gone up year after year after year in the home that they've lived in for 30 years. [3:24:40] So this is not something that just kinda we can think about in terms of, well, we can just push this aside and increase housing supply, that'll solve the problem. It won't solve the problem. Property taxes are the only place that I can think of in the entire American economy, and certainly within the Georgia tax code, where we tax an unrealized gain. It's unjust. It's unfair. This gets us into a posture where we don't solve the problem. The ultimate solution here really is to get rid of property taxes altogether. [3:25:12] All that this does, though, is as a temporary step to say that the do- the days of double-digit property tax increases need to end. And Mr. President, I'm happy to stand with the party that is in that posture today. And with that, I'll yield the will. [3:25:29] Senator's yielded the will. Uh, chair will recognize the senator from the second. [3:25:36] Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. President. State your inquiry. Mr. President, does the majority party have a bill to end the development authority's ability to give property tax abatements in its legislative priorities? [3:25:53] That's a question each and every senator will have to answer for themselves. [3:26:01] Chair recognizes the senator from the 27th. Parliamentary inquiry. State your inquiry. Mr. President, is it not true that one can abolish a local development authority if they wish by dropping local legislation? I believe the senator knows of which he speaks. Chair r- recognizes the senator from the 14th. Parliamentary inquiry. State your inquiry. Mr. President, is it true that I'm going to purchase for the majority leader a little bell that he can ding any time a candidate for statewide office speaks in the chamber? [3:26:33] That, that's a excellent idea. Kind of reminds me of the rules chairman's bell. Maybe we could get the same make and model. Okay. Chair recognizes the senator from the 35th to speak to the measure. And just so you know, I think I will offer the senator from the 52nd an opportunity to close debate after this, I hope. [3:27:04] All right. Thank you, Mr. President. I really have appreciated the debate on the floor, um, today. I wanted to just give y'all a few numbers. Uh, during the ca- during the campaign trail as I'm n- newly a state senator, uh, I made a promise to myself to make sure I'm still spending hours talking to everyday folks from District 35. And this past Saturday, while we're all, uh, iced in and snowed in, I got a chance to take a couple hours and just call voters. [3:27:37] And a familiar conversation came up, and I was talking to a woman who was not quite old enough to take the senior exemption, but not making quite enough to keep up with everything going on with her, her property taxes. Uh, we had a really long conversation. Let me just share some numbers with you, and I see many of you are, have your calculators out, um, on your calculator app. From '22 to '23, uh, her property taxes rose $119. [3:28:09] From t- uh, '22, excuse me, from 2023 to '24, her property taxes went up $489. [3:28:20] From 2024 to 2025, her property taxes have increased by $1,013. This woman was in tears saying, "Do something." It didn't feel appropriate at the time to say, "Well, Republican strategy is this, and Democratic strategy is that." Th- there has to be some kind of boiling point where it says the strategy of this state is to do something, [3:28:56] that our solution, the scale of our solution needs to match the scale of the problem. I don't think this solution is great. It's okay. It's something, [3:29:12] but it's not enough. And just like you have been in plenty of presentations where somebody is telling you what they're doing in their organization and they have a bullet point saying, "We're doing this for literacy, this for this," but you know well it sounds good, but the scale of the solution is nowhere near to the scale of the problem. [3:29:35] If we're going to be honest about having this unpredictable rates when it comes to property values, I am assuming that this body is gonna have that same passion with the unpredictable rates when it comes to car insurance. [3:29:48] The unpredictable rates when it comes to health insurance. I hope that we're not going to just bore down into our little rabbit holes and our silos when it comes to other areas of affordability. This is one step, but it's like medicine. If you take an antibiotic for a day, for a partial dose for one day, it's not gonna do anything. That antibiotic gotta be at full strength for ten days if you want that thing gone. [3:30:19] And those of you who've been through some situations, you know. You take the right medicine for the right dose and for the right length of time. The scale of the solution has to match the scale of the problem. [3:30:35] It is my prayer, it is my prayer that this body will take seriously the full scale of the solution. I am looking forward to just as a robust debate when it comes to our other unpredictable costs. I'm a small business owner. I need to be able to predict what's coming the best I can with my few employees. [3:31:06] They're depending on me to make good decisions to plan for the future. I'm looking forward to this body taking affordability seriously and not just take, you know, putting a dollar in our front pocket while we take five dollars out your back pocket. [3:31:30] I yield the will. [3:31:33] Chair recognizes the senator from the 52nd to close debate. [3:31:52] Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I hate that we got off on a lot of other issues here today. I do try to work, uh, as always in a bipartisan manner. Um, I've heard local control, but I know I've got citizens totally outraged all over the place about this. We've got the lady who got her Social Security cost increase of two point eight percent, and this asks the local governments to do the same two point eight percent, but not even that restrictive, just on the minority of the property that's homeowner. [3:32:31] Stick to that two point eight percent for that lady and do it. Um, the capital gains brought up by the senator from the 27th, you know, reminded me that a lot of people look at this as they're being taxed on an unrealized gain and feel that's unfair. They haven't got the money from the capital gains, but they're being taxed on it. Um, this was... [3:32:58] Uh, also the senator from the second talking about corporate welfare. I think nobody has fought corporate welfare any more than I have. I look for not spending unnecessary money that we should, and I'll continue to do that. That's not in this bill. That's a, a different issue, but I don't disagree with him on that. Um, the senators of the... A- and, and I do think this was a compromise last year. I don't feel like it was any different. The senators from the 36th that talked, the 42nd and the second all two years ago on our Senate Bill 349 that had no opt-out in it voted for that with us. [3:33:37] We worked on it together. I didn't think I was bringing anything new on there. I didn't think it would work. The opt-out was between the House and the Senate. We disagreed with them. It was the last day. It was a 30% solution. It took care of the 30% of the people who didn't have those governments opt out, the other 70%. So some people got the advantage. We've seen others not get it, and we've seen over a few years some increases of different counties. I won't call them out of 62%, 95%, 85%, 77%, 73%. [3:34:12] People getting taxed out of their homes. We've got to take care of these people. Um, I think this measure puts us back to what we all voted for two years ago. The citizens approved it, and too many local governments took advantage of the opt-out and said, "We don't want any control," and the citizens are crying for help all over the state. Does this solve all the problems in the state? Absolutely not, but it will help those homeowners perhaps stay in their home and not get these outrageous increases. [3:34:48] So I would urge everyone here to vote for affordability for our homeowners in Georgia. Mr. President, I yield the will. [3:35:00] The 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 report of the committee which is favorable to the passage of the bill? The chair has none. The report of the committee is agreed to. Is there objection to the main question being ordered? The chair hears none, and 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. Opposed, nay. The secretary will unlock the machine. [3:35:47] Order! [3:35:58] On the passage of the bill, the yays are 31, the nays are 19. [3:36:36] This bill, having received the requisite constitutional mar-majority, is therefore passed by substitute. [3:36:47] Senator from the 19th, what's, what purpose do you rise? [3:36:50] Mr. President, I ask your unanimous consent that we transmit that bill to the House. [3:36:56] The senator has asked for unanimous consent that Senate Bill 382 be immediately transmitted to the House. Is there- [3:37:03] Okay. [3:37:10] Uh, senator from the 19th, what purpose do you rise? [3:37:14] We're gonna hold our objection. [3:37:15] Okay. We do have an objection. Um, do y'all wanna put it on the board? [3:37:20] Put it on the board. [3:37:21] All right. All those in favor will vote yay. Those opposed vote nay. The secretary will unlock the machine. [3:38:34] All right, on the motion to admit- immediately transmit Senate Bill 382 to the House, the yays are 30, the nays are 20. The motion fails. [3:38:52] Oh, my gosh. This is, um, something we've been looking forward to. Uh, chair recognizes the senat- senator from the 31st. What purpose do you rise? [3:39:01] Mr. President, after we just passed the bill that addressed affordability in Georgia, I move that the Senate stand adjourned till 10:00 AM, Wednesday, February 4, 2026. [3:39:13] Secretary will read the announcements. [3:39:16] The Rules Committee will meet upon adjournment in Room 450 of the Capitol. [3:39:20] After this. [3:39:21] The Children and Families Committee will meet at 2:00 PM at, in Room 450 of the Capitol. The Retirement Committee will meet at 2:00 PM in 310 of CLOB. The Education and Youth Committee will meet at 3:00 PM in Room 307 in the CLOB. The Insurance and Labor Committee has been canceled at 3:00 PM in Mezzanine 1. The Higher Education Committee at 4:00 PM is, will be in Room 307 CLOB. The Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee will meet at 5:00 PM in Room 450 of the Capitol. Mr. President, that completes the order. [3:39:53] Chair recognizes the senator from the 8th for an announcement. [3:40:00] Well, we've had a spirited debate today, but I hope we'll never debate the fact that we all support our state's farm families and our number one industry. So today at 5:00 in the Blue Room at The Depot is the Georgia Agribusiness Council Reception, and in the morning at 7:30 is the Agribusiness Council Breakfast. So I hope all y'all can join if you can. Thank you, Mr. President. [3:40:21] The majority leader has moved that the Senate stand adjourned. [3:40:27] Standby. I recognize the senator from the 19th for an announcement. [3:40:35] Thank you, Mr. President. Subcommittee chairs of Appropriations, if you could meet me over here at the corner for just one second after we adjourn. Thank you, Mr. President. You're welcome. [3:40:42] I recognize the senator from the 43rd for an announcement. [3:40:52] Senator Anderson. Senator Anderson. [3:40:57] Recognize the senator from the 43rd for an announcement. [3:41:03] He waives. [3:41:06] All right, the majority leader has moved that the Senate stand adjourned until 10:00 AM on Wednesday, February 4th, 2026. All those in favor of the motion will say aye. [3:41:17] Aye. [3:41:19] Those opposed, no. [3:41:22] No. [3:41:22] On the motion the ayes clearly have it, and the Senate is adjourned.