Cover Story: 2015 Legislative Preview

The dust has settled after 2014’s high-stakes election. With Gov. Nathan Deal back for another term and the GOP’s dominance intact, state reps and senators returned to Atlanta this week for the 153rd General Assembly.

The 40-day session will feature political jockeying, grandstanding, and taxpayer-funded frat house antics. A flurry of new bills ranging from pointless proclamations to meaningful measures will be considered. Only a few of the latter have a chance of passing. Over the past month Creative Loafing has interviewed dozens of legislators, lobbyists, advocates, and political observers about the upcoming legislative session’s key issues. And from what we’re hearing, it appears to be business as usual, with a few twists.

This year attention will revolve around Georgia’s pressing transportation needs, education reforms, insolvent rural hospitals, and budget, budget, budget. The state’s lack of cash has led lawmakers to take serious looks at raising taxes — and possibly expanding a major program offered by the dreaded federal guvmint.

Lawmakers will also spend their energy discussing controversial social issues, such as legalizing medical marijuana while avoiding total decriminalization, and giving people the right to discriminate based on their religious beliefs. Guns, immigration, and abortion — seemingly always at play during the legislative session — are expected to take a backseat in 2015. But everything’s subject to change inside the Gold Dome. Never rule out anything. Besides legal pot or an assault weapons ban, that is.

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?page?BUDGET
The Georgia General Assembly does many things every year. But it’s only required by law to do one thing: Pass the budget. This year, three big issues — transportation, education, and health care — will fight over a limited pool of cash.

An improving economy has helped state tax revenues climb more than $700 million since December 2013. Despite the extra money, funding shortfalls remain throughout many departments. So that means state reps and senators more inclined to cut taxes are contemplating a tax hike, expanding Medicaid, and other measures unheard of in the GOP-controlled statehouse. Some lawmakers have personally called for re-evaluating all of Georgia’s tax credits (Delta still enjoys a special fuel tax break despite projecting a more-than-$4 billion profit in 2014). But who are we kidding? The chances of that happening are slim to none. So back to the taxes, or, er, um, “user fees.”

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TRANSPORTATION FUNDING

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Every few years, when a situation reaches a crisis level, the General Assembly is forced to respond. It happened in 2011 when lawmakers finally approved legislation allowing voters to decide whether to levy a 1-percent sales tax to fund new roads and transit. Metro Atlanta flatly rejected the measure, though intowners supported it. Lawmakers threw up their hands and walked away from the problem.

But the issue never went away. Georgia ranks 49th nationally on transportation funding per capita. It allocates no cash to operate MARTA, the state’s largest transit system. Metro Atlanta’s various bus systems run independent of each other. According to a new transportation committee study, Georgia needs to spend up to $1.5 billion a year — roughly 7 percent of the state’s budget — just to maintain Georgia’s current roads and bridges.

Lawmakers this session are dead set on finding the money and are using the 23-page committee report as a guide. Though the state could continue cutting into bone to carve out cash for transportation, making a difference could require raising revenue, or a tax to maintain the existing roadways and build new roads and transit. The easiest option would be to raise the state gas tax, which, at 45.89 cents per gallon, is lower than the national average of 49.28 cents. Other ideas being entertained include fees on electric vehicles, toll lanes, shifting that portion of the gas tax that currently goes into the general fund to pay for transportation, and a statewide sales tax. If this last notion were to pass, some lawmakers have pondered allocating half of the revenues to reducing the state income tax. In other words, levying a tax that could hit low-income people the hardest and put more money in the pockets of wealthier people.

The one shining spot from the entire report is the recommendation that lawmakers in an anti-transit state finally “acknowledge” mass transportation. Some observers think the turnaround job MARTA CEO Keith Parker has performed could help persuade the state to give the transit agency some cash. Whether new transportation cash should be spent operating or expanding transit could get ensnared in rural and urban politics. Mayor Kasim Reed says 55 percent of new funding in metro Atlanta should fund roads, with the rest going to transit. The Sierra Club of Georgia thinks at least half the new funding should favor transit. And other groups will be watching to make sure additional needs aren’t starved.

“If the idea is, how do we bring in a billion dollars and how do we raise that money, that’s the conversation we need to have,” says Alan Essig of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. “If it’s about accounting gimmicks, robbing the general fund to pay for transportation, we need to avoid that altogether.”

See how complicated this could become?

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EDUCATION

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For the first time in recent memory, the governor and state lawmakers made education a top priority in 2014. Deal poured $547 million dollars into the state’s annual K-12 education budget and promised major education reforms in his second-and-final term as governor. Critics viewed those promises as an election-year tactic largely designed to undercut Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jason Carter’s campaign platform. Throughout the campaign, Deal never properly addressed more than $8.3 billion in austerity cuts since 2003. Now Deal must decide whether education will remain a priority or return to being ignored.

The issue is expected to take a backseat, at least until the transportation cash grab threatens education funding during budget talks. If the GOP attempts to siphon money from schools, Dems will likely drum up fierce opposition.

“We hear a lot of talk about resolving funding for transportation,” says Senate Minority Leader Steve Henson. “But we’re hearing less conversation about how to address the education funding shortfall.”

Deal has already pledged to partially expand the HOPE grant during his campaign. State Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Smyrna, has returned with another series of proposals that aim to restore funding and expand eligibility for both the HOPE grant and scholarship. But her decision to back Carter’s HOPE track record in the heated 2014 election drew ire from Republicans, namely state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, who chairs the subcommittee responsible for higher education spending. So while there’s more money to be spent as lottery revenues climb, expect any movement on the issue to be Republican-led.

The governor and state lawmakers are likely to begin figuring out a plan to retool the state’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula, a complex methodology used by education officials to distribute state funds to local school districts, for the first time since it was created 30 years ago. Everyone agrees that changes are needed. Deciding how to reform is much more divisive. Many lawmakers expect a committee to study QBE in 2015 in hopes of approving a new funding plan during the 2016 session.

Deal will also likely form a committee to look at a “Louisiana-style” recovery district model, which would allow state education officials to take control of failing school systems or convert them into charter schools. Public school proponents could revolt if he pursues such changes. Look for additional legislation pushing for stricter cyberbullying laws and a proposal that, according to state Rep. Mike Dudgeon, R-Johns Creek, would make the state school superintendent a position elected by the General Assembly rather than voters.

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HEALTH CARE

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In 2014, it was good politics for Republican politicians to thumb their noses at the Affordable Care Act. President Barack Obama’s health care mandate prompted numerous bills blocking its rollout. Deal even helped pass a bill last year that allowed him to give up his sole authority to expand Medicaid, a move that would provide more than 400,000 uninsured Georgians with medical coverage. But reality has set in with some GOP lawmakers: Georgia is facing a health care crisis.

Democratic lawmakers and health care advocates will continue to raise hell, as they did last year, in their efforts to expand Medicaid. Several states with Republican governors decided to expand Medicaid after the 2014 election. In those states, officials found ways to make the federal health care mandate more politically palatable. A growing number of conservative lawmakers in Georgia are willing to look at possible alternatives.

Why? Some federal funding that used to help cover costs for patients who couldn’t afford to pay their medical bills is set to expire in 2016. Expanding Medicaid would help offset the loss of funding. If Georgia officials don’t do so, they’ll need to find funding in the state budget.

The forthcoming funding gap doesn’t affect just an urban safety-net institution like Grady Memorial Hospital. It will also affect numerous rural hospitals on the brink of insolvency. No hospitals have taken up Deal’s offer to scale back services to keep open their doors. Raising the state’s cigarette tax could be one way to find more cash. There isn’t a clear-cut solution to the problem except for, well, Medicaid expansion.

“Medicaid expansion is the elephant in the room,” says Cindy Zeldin, executive director for Georgians for a Healthy Future. “This is the biggest funding source available to hospitals. It’s not a silver bullet. It’s not the only thing they need. Without doing this piece, it’s going to be very difficult for rural hospitals to continue to serve the role they do in communities.”

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND MILITARIZED POLICE

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Protesters nationwide have called for drastic changes to policing laws throughout 2014. That movement has grown in the wake of numerous high-profile killings of young unarmed black males at the hands of law enforcement officers, who suffered few-to-no repercussions for their actions. Police in Ferguson, Mo.; Staten Island, N.Y.; and even in Atlanta responded to demonstrators by bringing out military-style weapons and armored vehicles in excessive fashion.

“Public trust in many communities, if it ever existed, has been destroyed,” says state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, who also wants to repeal the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law and reform the grand jury process. “The question is: ‘Can we survive when you have such broad distrust of the police?’ It’s not a rural, urban, or suburban problem. It’s not a white or black problem. It’s a Georgia problem.”

Clamping down on militarized local police, though supported by some state officials, likely needs to take place at the federal level. Lawmakers will instead turn their attention to requiring police officers to be equipped with body and dashboard cameras. But doing so comes with a hefty price tag: at least $125 million to equip all officers throughout the state. Given the costs, lawmakers will probably look at whether it makes more sense to require all officers to install cameras or to incentivize cameras through financial subsidies. Atlanta, which has taken the lead to equip its officers with body cameras, will be watched closely by state lawmakers as a test case.

Bipartisan support has grown around the need to reform no-knock warrants following a botched drug raid in Habersham County, Ga., during which a stun grenade nearly killed a toddler. Fort has promised to once again push legislation that would limit the use of no-knock warrants — echoing an unsuccessful 2007 bipartisan effort following the death of 92-year-old Atlanta resident Kathryn Johnston during a police raid. State Rep. Kevin Tanner, R-Dawsonville, will also push a related bill that limits no-knock raids to daytime hours, forces officers participating in drug raids to attend training sessions, and require a supervisor to oversee raids. Tanner, who in 2013 authored a law that made the state’s death penalty process less transparent, now wants to open up the secretive decisions of the state board of pardons and parole for public review and more transparency.

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MEDICAL MARIJUANA

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The biggest surprise of the 2014 legislative session came in the form of Republican-backed legislation seeking to legalize medical marijuana. Not the leafy kind that can be smoked, but a specific kind of marijuana-derived oil to help people suffering from seizures and a limited number of other diseases. But the bill pushed by state Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, stalled during the session’s final hours. Some parents have since relocated to Colorado to gain access to treatment unavailable in Georgia.

After studying the issue for months, state lawmakers are now rallying behind Peake’s legislation with a sense of urgency. Georgia’s recently launched its first clinical trial for medical marijuana. Now comes the hard part in passing legislation. Some final details are still being sorted out regarding which illnesses would qualify for medical marijuana use, according to state Rep. Margaret Kaiser, D-Atlanta. After briefly considering the legalization of medical marijuana production, Peake scaled back his bill to simply protect residents from prosecution. Law enforcement officials, as expected, have also expressed some concerns about legalization.

Progressive groups would like to see legislation include medical treatment with higher ratios of THC and to make more diseases eligible for treatment, including multiple sclerosis and post-traumatic stress disorder. They have at least one champion under the Gold Dome in state Sen. Curt Thompson, D-Norcross, who’s pushing such a bill as well as gunning for the outright decriminalization of marijuana. Sounds nice, right? Don’t get your hopes up.

“It’s ridiculous to think Georgia would fully legalize marijuana, being a red state,” says state Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford. “Sen. Thompson’s bill expands it down to PTSD. I told some committee members that I have PTSD every session — I think I could qualify for it!”

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Last year, Georgians paid more than $3 million in settlements to several former ethics commission staffers who were effectively ousted from their government positions for attempting to investigate Deal’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Those payouts, plus the general dysfunction of some state-appointed ethics watchdogs, reignited a long-standing push to do two things: establish an independent commission to oversee public officials and create a funding stream to help that group do its job.

That effort could clash with a 2014 campaign promise from the governor to turn the current ethics commission into a 12-member body made up of four appointees each from the judicial, executive, and legislative branches. Ethics commission members would recuse themselves from investigations involving the branch of government that appointed them. State Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, who has championed ethics reform in years past, isn’t sold on Deal’s approach.

“We need to reform how the commission is composed,” McKoon says. “I don’t know if the 12-person thing makes the most sense. But it’s the right concept.”

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??page??CITYHOOD AND ANNEXATION
As DeKalb County works to redeem itself after numerous corruption scandals involving its suspended CEO and county commissioners, growing numbers of residents want to form their own cities to reassert local control. Or just distance themselves from the train wreck. Cityhood proponents in north DeKalb are pushing two proposals: LaVista Hills (population 65,000) and Tucker (population 35,000). After a contentious fight over Northlake Mall, lawmakers split the surrounding business district in half, requiring each group to revise its feasibility study to proceed through the legislative process. Residents in the county’s southern reaches that haven’t seen major investment in years are pushing Stonecrest (population 50,000) and South DeKalb (population 294,000). But it’s unclear at this point whether either one has a large enough tax base to cover basic government expenses.

Other residents of unincorporated DeKalb would rather join another city than start anew. Together in Atlanta, a group of Druid Hills residents hoping to be annexed into Atlanta, have already submitted a proposed map to state lawmakers that includes Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The initiative has found some supporters. But state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, says residents could push back over potential tax hikes or the loss of DeKalb’s more favorable homestead exemption. Some residents outside the neighborhood, whose taxes helped pay for DeKalb schools and the Fernbank Science Center, are furious over losing those public assets.

And it’s not just DeKalb. State Rep. Roger Bruce, D-Atlanta, has once again prefiled a bill to create the city of South Fulton in the county’s final frontier of unincorporated land. But some residents of the Sandtown community (population 20,000) near southwest Atlanta are pushing for annexation by Atlanta, especially after Mayor Kasim Reed hinted that he’d offer the area a 10-year freeze on property taxes. According to sources, annexation attempts in south Fulton County, a predominantly black voter bloc, would counter the influx of white voters brought into the city by Druid Hills’ potential annexation.

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??%22RELIGIOUS FREEDOM%22
It’s back! One of the lawmakers behind the contentious “religious freedom” bill last year is planning to resurrect his measure that, essentially, could bring back discrimination to the good old state of Georgia. State Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, says the measure would protect Georgia resident’s right to freely exercise religious beliefs, which is protected at the federal level, but not the state level.

But LGBT community members fear the legislation would let business owners deny gay people services or open the door for workplace discrimination based on religious grounds. There’s also concern from opponents that such a bill would make it more difficult for women to get access to birth control or for someone to leave a household affected by domestic violence. Or that religions could claim smoking marijuana is a religious ritual.

State lawmakers anticipate the “religious freedom” scrap will take place sooner rather than later during the session. LGBT and business group leaders started drumming up opposition as far back as Thanksgiving. “Georgia is better than this,” wrote Trey Childress of business coalition Competitive Georgia in a lengthy missive to lawmakers on Dec 16. “Our reputation, as a state, is at risk.”

McKoon claims the fears about his bill are misguided. He says it will do the opposite. But expect Democratic lawmakers — and maybe even some Republicans — to fight this bill.

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Every year, City Hall officials put together a list of issues that they want state lawmakers to address at the Gold Dome. The city has a few on its 2015 list that have popped up in the past: raising 911 call fees to cover rising costs, allowing the city to take quicker action against blighted properties, and loosening alcohol sales laws at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Officials also want the state’s OK to raise fees for people who pass through its courtrooms and jail.

Those higher fees — including a $10 court surcharge, $20 jail-bonding fee per charge, and $125 jail-booking fee per inmate — could raise more than $3 million each year. Megan Middleton, the city’s intergovernmental affairs manager and point person at the Gold Dome, says court fees would help cover rising costs and modernize the city’s judicial branch with much-needed software upgrades. The jail-booking fees would go toward training officers to better take care of inmates’ mental health needs and provide inmates with drug treatment programs. And the bonding fee would help cover construction, operating, and staffing costs for the jail.

The Southern Center for Human Rights has expressed concerns about the burden those fees potentially place on low-income or homeless residents. Should any of the proposals gain traction under the Gold Dome, SCHR attorney Melanie Velez says lawmakers should adopt specific instructions outlining what happens if people can’t pay the fees and consider waiving some fees for low-income individuals.

“While a single fee may not seem like a lot, for a person with nothing it is,” she says.

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ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

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First off, forget any talk of lawmakers taking action on climate change. Many state lawmakers prefer to keep their heads in the sand rather than do anything about how the state can help address the issue. Many won’t even comment on whether it’s happening and what role mankind plays. But that doesn’t mean the environment will get overlooked this year. Some lawmakers, including Dudgeon, will continue pushing for homeowners to have the choice of financing solar panel installation on their rooftops. Georgia Power has fought the measure. Not only could it help homeowners save money, but it’d boost solar power business in Georgia. Environmentalists, including the Sierra Club of Georgia, will also be watching for resolutions opposing the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to curb emissions across the country. An eco nonprofit called 100 Miles — that’s approximately how many miles of coastline Georgia has — and other members of the Georgia Water Coalition want to make sure lawmakers don’t assault stream buffers on the state’s vital waterways.

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GUNS

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Republican lawmakers — and plenty of Democrats — last year passed the now-infamous “guns everywhere” bill that made it easier to carry firearms in airports, bars, churches, and government buildings. There likely won’t be a repeat performance from gun toting legislators and lobbyists in 2015. Georgia Carry Executive Director Jerry Henry wants to see clarification on gun carry restrictions inside government buildings. For the most part, he says it’s likely to be a quiet year when it comes to Second Amendment issues.

“We don’t expect any comprehensive bills,” Henry says. “But it doesn’t mean we won’t try to get something passed.”

That is, of course, unless any gun control legislation lands in the hopper or someone attempts to scale back last year’s measure. And what about campus carry? Maybe next year. But don’t hold your breath for that fight in 2015.

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CRAFT BEER

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Georgia’s craft brewery industry has exploded in recent years. But despite the growth, the state’s industry lags behind that in most of the nation, ranking 47th in breweries per capita while having the nation’s eighth-largest population. Georgia is one of five states, and the only one in the South, where direct beer sales are still illegal.

To change that, the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild has hired a lobbyist for the first time in hopes of passing legislation that would allow breweries and brewpubs to sell up to six pints during on-site tastings and a 12-pack for off-site consumption. New legislation will need to be introduced, as the last effort died during the 2014 session. Brewers say they don’t want to change the current “three-tiered method,” which requires that three different companies make, distribute, and sell alcoholic beverages. Expect distributors and wholesalers to talk about higher costs and concerns over fewer regulations on a controlled substance in response.

If such a bill passes, the Guild estimates that more than 1,400 jobs would be created, $375 million would be pumped into the economy, and more brewers would be persuaded to open up shop.

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UBER, LYFT, AND TESLA

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Disruptive tech companies that have eaten the taxi cab industry’s lunch and wooed an increasing share of car buyers’ attention are on the defensive this year once again. The battle over ridesharing services offered by Uber, Lyft, and other Silicon Valley companies will pick up from where it left off last year, when lawmakers failed to pass legislation that would have required the companies to register with the state. At issue now is how much, if at all, the state should regulate this industry — with more stringent background checks and fees, perhaps, or let that good ol’ fashioned free market decide. A laundry list of recommendations released by a special committee that studied the issue late last year suggests requiring drivers to obtain chauffeur’s licenses, having companies register with the state, and even eliminating the safety inspection to help deregulate the entire industry. Considering the lobbyist might hired by Uber and Lyft (and the outrage from the companies’ fans and free-market boosters), expect fireworks. The auto dealer lobby will also set its sights once again on forcing Tesla, which bypasses the traditional dealership model and instead sells directly to consumers, to comply with the outdated law.

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??STUPID BILLS
State lawmakers don’t face voters again until 2016, which means we won’t see stupid legislation aimed at pumping up their base and scoring headlines, right? Wrong. The Gold Dome runs deep with boneheaded bills about abortion, seceding from the rest of the country, and involuntary microchip implantation (yes, really). We’ve already seen one imaginative measure filed in advance of the session: McKoon’s bill that would make driver’s licenses off limits to undocumented immigrants who have received special status from the feds to not be deported. But we’ll also see measures aimed at legalizing pari-mutuel betting and horse racing in Georgia and lawmakers bending over backward to discourage college sports fiends from coaxing athletes into situations that could get them suspended, à la University of Georgia running back Todd Gurley. Mention college football and lawmakers are quick to react. Say rural hospitals are shutting down and you won’t hear a peep. And if one lawmaker has his way, you’ll see fireworks all across Georgia, literally.