Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Good morning! It’s a busy week — Super Tuesday, a State of the Union address on Thursday and a visit by Joe Biden to Georgia on Saturday. But today we focus on the status of major pieces of legislation sponsored by Coastal Georgia lawmakers, consider legislative priorities, and look at some of the session’s lighter moments. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com.
Getting buy-in
For readers of The Current who participated in a survey of their legislative priorities earlier this year, the 28 days leading up to Crossover Day last week were hit-and-miss.
Having hurdled one obstacle, Coastal Georgia lawmakers sponsoring major pieces of legislation now face another: how to get the buy-in of counterparts on the other side of the state capitol.
Measures that cleared either the House or Senate by last Thursday’s deadline — i.e., Crossover Day — must now be considered by the other chamber. The bills can only succeed if agreement is secured in both legislative bodies by the close of session later this month and then sent to Gov. Brian Kemp for his approval (or veto).
Whether the subject is immigration, religious rights, HBCUs, or where to get water for homes being built to handle southeastern Gerogia’s economic boom, area lawmakers such Jesse Petrea, Ron Stephens, Derek Mallow, Bill Hitchens, Ben Watson, and Billy Hickman have a lot on the line. But agreement won’t happen easily, if at all, The Current’s Craig Nelson reports.
Priorities
With some bills surviving and others hitting the trash bin last week, we were reminded that a government’s budget should be treated by citizens first and foremost as a political document, one that reflects a community’s priorities and values more than any political speech or other official record.
So, it was noteworthy that in Gov. Brian Kemp’s interim budget, approved last week by the legislature, $392 million was set aside to build a new legislative office building for lawmakers and to renovate the 1889 Capitol building.
Meanwhile, the “Leave No Child Hungry Act,” a bill introduced by Rep. Carl Gilliard (D-Savannah) early last month, didn’t even receive a committee hearing — a first step in ironing out the viability and details of any proposed legislation.
And while the Senate OK’d a five-day tax holiday for the purchase of a new gun, a scope, trigger lock, ammunition, or gun safe, the House didn’t approve a bill by Rep. John Corbett (R-Lake Park) providing tax exemption on the sales of clothing and school-related supplies the last two weeks of July.
‘Official state crustacean’
The current session of the state legislature hasn’t lacked for lighter moments.
After all, the House passed a measure, sponsored by Lake Park’s Rep. John Corbett, designating the fourth Friday in November as National Sugarcane Syrup Day.
It also christened cornbread as the state’s official bread and named an intersection in Carroll County after legendary sportscaster Keith (“Whoa Nellie!”) Jackson.
Then for lawmakers and their aides there was the fine print in legislation co-sponsored by Senators Mike Hodges (R-Brunswick) and Billy Hickman (R-Statesboro). The bill would allow faith-based chaplains to work alongside or in lieu of school counselors in public schools — so long, that is, they aren’t “satanists.”
The light-heartedness may have reached its zenith, though, when the House last week passed a bill, authored by Steven Sainz (R-St. Marys) and backed by House Speaker Jon Burns (R-Newington), making the white shrimp as the official state crustacean. Jesse Petrea, in jest, proposed amending the bill to name Don Hogan, a former state representative from St. Simons, the state crustacean.
It fell to Reps. Buddy DeLoach (R-Townsend) and Anne Allen Westbrook (D-Savannah) to inject a sobering note into the frivolity, pointing out that Coastal Georgia’s shrimping industry is experiencing what Westbrook called an “existential crisis” due to the amounts of imported shrimp in the market and needs help from the legislature.
4 things for your radar
1. Thanks for the memories: Two former mayors of Tybee Island, Shirley Sessions and Jason Buelterman, reminisced last week about their eventful tenures in office, in a discussion led by WTOC’s Dawn Baker, sponsored by Forever Tybee and held at the Tybee Post Theater. Click here, on Forever Tybee’s website, to find a videotape of the discussion.
2. Ossoff visits Hinesville: The Current’s Liberty County reporter, Robin Kemp, tells us that staffers from U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff’s office met with about 10 constituents in Hinesville last week. Citing privacy concerns, the staffers declined to discuss the concerns that constituents shared with them but said most pertained to the Veterans Administration and Medicare. Last October, Ossoff sent a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough, asking about “extensive and unacceptable…years-long wait times” in response to appeals by veterans about appeals concerning their benefits claims.
3. Candidate qualifying: The deadline in Chatham County to apply to run as a candidate in this spring’s primary on May 21 or in the general election in November is Friday at 12:00 p.m. The qualifying period started yesterday. Local partisan candidates will qualify with their political parties; state candidates will qualify in Atlanta. Elsewhere in Coastal Georgia, check your county government’s website for exact office times and deadlines.
According to Chatham County’s supervisor of elections, Billy Wooten, qualifying as of 3:30 p.m. Monday yesterday at the Chatham County Board of Elections were Gregory Sapp (state court judge); Elizabeth Coolidge (state court judge); Derek White (state court judge); Tracie Macke (magistrate court); M.C. Moss (chief magistrate judge); Barbara Hubbard (school board, District 1); Dionne Hoskins-Brown (school board, District 2); Cornelia Hall (school board, District 3); and Michael Johnson (school board, District 7).
4. More charges: Federal prosecutors have added felony charges to the Jan. 6 case of Dominic Box, a former Savannah car salesman accused of participating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Click here for the updated indictment, obtained and posted by GPB’s Benjamin Payne.
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