Legislative Flurries

Sunday Solutions — March 17, 2024☘️

Good morning! We’re almost past the spring breaks and greenings, so we’re prepping today for what’s up next: The end of the 40-day Georgia General Assembly. Day 36 opens Monday, so this edition will have notes on what’s up and things to watch. And, we’ll share what you’ve been telling us in our latest surveys and passing along food for thought when we consider what we want the long-term fruit of such lawmaking gatherings to be. Onward.

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Countdown to sine die: Last-minute move

Count on the next few days to be active ones for the General Assembly, which is only 4 days shy of its 40-day session limit. As we’ve noted before, bills that pass should have already passed on house by now, but those successful bills can still be changed/hijacked by the chamber that’s considering it. On Thursday, House Bill 1312 was gutted in the Senate Regulated Industries & Utilities Committee to address the unelected and expired-term members of the Public Service Commission. The earlier version, which dealt with extending the authority of the Department of Agriculture over electric vehicle charging revenue and taxes, already passed the House 167-0. We’ve had earlier stories about the PSC situation, and the most recent one from our news partners at Grist/WABE reminds us why these elected officials are so important: The commission decides how much you pay for electricity and how much expense the utility companies can share with you for their expansions and fuel.

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Local legislation includes Weeping Time

As time gets tight, both House and Senate legislators still have some local measures on the table that could face Monday votes. Savannah-area Reps. Carl Gilliard, Ron Stephens, Anne Westbrook and Jesse Petrea have sponsored House Bill 1425 to create the Weeping Time Cultural Heritage Corridor Authority. The new entity would focus on community and education resources, including land, related to the two-day event in 1859 where 429 enslaved Africans from Butler Island Plantation were sold in Savannah.

Also of note for Monday:

• In the Senate, Sen. Mike Hodges has pieces affecting McIntosh and Camden counties. HB 1442, sponsored by Rep. Buddy DeLoach and passed in the House, would authorize Darien to hold a referendum on the Redevelopment Powers Law. And, there’s
• HB1455, sponsored and passed in the House by Rep. Steven Sainz, would provide a $25,000 homestead exemption for people 62 or older in St. Marys.
• In the House, Rep. Sainz has a new bill to authorize an excise tax in Camden County.
• A bill that would allow the Savannah-Georgia Convention Center Authority to increase its capacity to issue bonds faces a Senate vote, as well. It’s already passed the House.

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Thanks! Now, tell us more….

We spend a lot of energy sorting through and then explaining how things work — and we’ll be doing more of that. In the recent survey we asked you to fill out, many comments went to the heart of it all: How do things work? And, you said you wanted to know more about local issues in order to take action in some way. Here are messages you’ve given us — some specific, some less so.

• “These issues all affect the quality of life we experience as a community.”
• “State and local politics have a more immediate impact on residents than national politics, state politics feed up to determine national politics, and there’s more of an opportunity to change and affect local politics.”
• “People don’t appreciate how important local politics is for day-to-day life especially vs. national politics. Your city manager and state house rep is more important than your senator and president in DC.”
• “I’d like to better understand how taxes are collected across the area and subsequently allocated.”
• “Do we have the infrastructure to support the progress in Savannah and what is the cost to the homeowners of this progress?”

We’re taking you at your word. We’ll work to focus on local issues and how higher levels of government affect you. We’ll also work to explain how you can get involved/show up – that’s the point of our new Monday newsletter, Coastal Navigator. We’ve moved our online list of public meetings straight to your inbox. One more thing: We have a new survey request now that the local ballots are set. We need your feedback — and please share it with at least one other person. That will help us understand even more. Click here to start.

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Time to take your quiz

There’s been a little news this week – and here’s your test. The Current’s weekly News Quiz lets you test your news knowledge with a few short questions related to stories we published earlier in the week.

Want your chance to be featured in next week’s leaderboard? Leave a first name or nickname so we can keep track of your score.

Here’s this week’s quiz.

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Your second cup: When systems fail

While we try to keep this space timely and explanatory, sometimes we just want to show off good reporting that makes you think differently about the systems around us that we could take for granted. Are they as good as they could be? This story from The 19th, one from a series on the nation’s child care system, tells the story of a mother whose baby died after being in a home-based daycare and her fight to make sure that didn’t happen to any one else’s child. It traces the tangle of state and federal rules and the lack of oversight for day care injuries in some states. The needs for transparency, data and full compliance are clear when it comes to the safety of children. This story points out what’s missing and helps us understand what results citizens can ask their representatives for when they are making law that affects the most vulnerable among us.

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