The Georgia General Assembly’s annual 40-day session ended last week in victory for anti-abortion forces, fans of the Confederacy and public-school advocates.
A “religious liberty” bill that upset the LGBT+ community, its allies and corporations alike never surfaced this year, but another bill on a controversial social issue did draw national attention. The “heartbeat bill”—a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, unless the fetus won’t survive, the mother’s life is in danger or she files a police report alleging rape or incest—is one of the strictest abortion laws in the nation. As of press time, it sits on Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk, and he has vowed to sign it, over the objections of Hollywood, which spent $9 billion making movies in Georgia last year.
Other bills that passed include a measure that makes it virtually impossible to move a Confederate monument like the one in the middle of Broad Street downtown. The legislature also loosened regulations on CBD and low-THC medical marijuana oil. And Republicans opted for new touch-screen voting machines, rather than optically scanned paper ballots, which Democrats and cybersecurity experts preferred. (The new machines will print paper receipts.)
Bills that didn’t pass muster include hate-crimes legislation that would have added penalties for crimes based on the victim’s race, gender, sexuality or other characteristics. It passed the House, but never got a vote in the Senate. A bill allowing parents to spend public tax dollars on private-school tuition stalled out. Another bill that would have prohibited local governments from regulating single-family home design never made it to the floor.
Those bills will remain alive in 2020, though, and lawmakers left themselves plenty more to deal with, including reconciling House and Senate versions of bills that would force Uber and Lyft to collect sales taxes and tack on fees to pay for rural transit. Banning car booting on private property, taxing streaming services to pay for rural broadband and barring domestic abusers from owning guns are other issues the legislature could take up again next year.
Kemp has already signed the voting machine bill and 20 others, but dozens more await his signature.
Here’s a look at how Athens’ delegation voted on a few key bills:
HB 213
Allows farmers to grow hemp for CBD oil.
Rep. Spencer Frye (D-Athens): Y
Rep. Houston Gaines (R-Athens): Y
Rep. Marcus Wiedower (R-Watkinsville): Y
Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens): Y
Sen. Frank Ginn (R-Danielsville): Y
Did it pass? Y
HB 316
Authorizes the purchase of new touch-screen voting machines.
Frye: N
Gaines: Y
Wiedower: Y
Cowsert: Y
Ginn: Y
Did it pass? Y
HB 324
Legalizes the production and sale of low-THC medical marijuana oil.
Frye: Y
Gaines: Y
Wiedower: Y
Cowsert: N
Ginn: Y
Did it pass? Y
HB 426
Sets additional penalties for hate crimes.
Frye: Y
Gaines: N
Wiedower: N
Cowsert: N/A
Ginn: N/A
Did it pass? N
HB 454
Prohibits parking e-scooters on sidewalks.
Frye: Y
Gaines: Y
Wiedower: Y
Cowsert: Y
Ginn: Y
Did it pass? Y
HB 481
Bans most abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy.
Frye: N
Gaines: Y
Wiedower: Y
Cowsert: Y
Ginn: Y
Did it pass? Y
SB 77
Increases penalties for moving or defacing monuments.
Frye: N
Gaines: Y
Wiedower: Y
Cowsert: Y
Ginn: Y
Did it pass? Y
SB 128
Taxes online “facilitators” like Uber and Airbnb.
Frye: N
Gaines: Y
Wiedower: Y
Cowsert: Y
Ginn: Y
Did it pass? N
SB 173
Provides tax funding for private-school vouchers.
Frye: N/A
Gaines: N/A
Wiedower: N/A
Cowsert: Y
Ginn: Y
Did it pass? N
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