HB 0015 |
Negotiating | Mandatory Electronic Filing for Civil Cases in Superior and State Courts |
Wendell Willard |
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3/30/2017 |
Senate Conference Committee Appointed 46th, 30th, 19th |
Judiciary |
Judiciary |
- |
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| This legislation mandates all clerks of superior court accept electronically filed cases by January 1, 2018. The cost of such filing shall not exceed $7.00. The bill includes a hardship clause that extends that deadline for six months for counties who need additional time. An amendment was added to the bill that prohibits the Council of the Superior Court Clerks, any state entity, or governing authority of any local government from keeping any portion of the fee. NOTE: This bill has been added to SB 407, the Governor's Criminal Justice Reform Bill. |
HB 0068 |
Negotiating | Construction Zones - Required Emergency Pull Off |
Andrew Welch |
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1/25/2017 |
House Second Readers |
Transportation |
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| This legislation requires counties to provide an emergency pull off shoulder for the entire distance of a road expansion project that is wide enough for a vehicle to safely exit the road or to bypass traffic in a construction zone. ACCG is working with the author to address concerns. |
HB 0090 |
Negotiating | Land Purchase - Illegal for Board Member to Discuss if Conflict of Interest |
Robert Gasaway |
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3/30/2017 |
House Withdrawn, Recommitted |
Judiciary Non-Civil |
- | - |
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| This legislation makes it a misdemeanor for members of the board of commissioners, city council, school board or local board or authority to knowingly and intentionally vote, attempt to influence a vote, or be present in executive or closed session when their respective body is considering or discussion the acquisition of property if the member has direct or indirect ownership interest in the property, or any business in which the member serves in a fiduciary capacity has an ownership interest in the property. |
HB 0144 |
Negotiating | Retail Pet Stores - Preempt Local Ordinances |
Earl Ehrhart |
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3/30/2017 |
House Withdrawn, Recommitted |
Agriculture & Consumer Affairs |
- | - |
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| This legislation preempts counties and cities from adopting or enforcing ordinances that directly or indirectly prohibit the sale, delivery or transfer of a dog or cat from a properly licensed retail pet store or from imposing restrictions in addition to the requirements of state law. Many attempts were made to add this preemptive language to other bills late in the session. All attempts failed. |
HB 0152 |
Negotiating | Worker's Compensation For Firefighters Diagnosed with Cancer |
Micah Gravley |
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3/30/2017 |
House Withdrawn, Recommitted |
Industry and Labor |
- | - |
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| This legislation allows worker's compensation benefits for firefighters who are diagnosed with cancer that, upon a preponderance of competent and credible evidence, can prove the cancer was directly related to their duties as a firefighter. |
HB 0367 |
Negotiating | Public Employees Privacy Protection |
Brian Strickland |
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2/16/2017 |
House Second Readers |
Judiciary |
- | - |
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| This legislation allows certain public safety and judicial officials to execute a certificate of redacted information that requires counties to redact the home address and telephone number of the public safety or judicial official and their relatives from the county's website or other Internet access point within the county's control. |
HB 0399 |
Negotiating | Ethics - No Longer Filing Campaign Disclosure Reports at Local Level |
Wendell Willard |
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2/21/2017 |
House Second Readers |
Judiciary |
- | - |
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| This legislation amends the Ethics in Government Act in many areas, particularly to charges, hearings and evidence before the ethics commission, and penalties for violations. Of possible concern to county commissioners is that campaign contribution disclosure reports can only be filed on paper (for a $40 fee) or directly on the ethics commission's Web site. Candidates may no longer file with their local election superintendent. ACCG would like to have all the aforementioned methods available to candidates. |
HB 0451 |
Negotiating | Exceptions to County Road Restrictions |
James Epps |
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3/30/2017 |
House Withdrawn, Recommitted |
Governmental Affairs |
- | - |
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| This legislation requires counties and cities to allow vehicles
weighing over 36,000 pounds or longer than 30 feet to use any county and city
roads if the vehicle is making a delivery on the road, using the road as the
route to make a delivery or pick up, providing service on the road, or if
avoiding the road would cause the driver to go more than ten miles out of the
most direct route. This legislation allows counties and cities to adopt a local
ordinance that would make the driver justify the presence of their vehicle on a
restricted road.
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HB 0641 |
Negotiating | Voting Machines - Require Permanent Paper Record |
Scot Turner |
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1/8/2018 |
House Second Readers |
Governmental Affairs |
- | - |
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| This legislation requires all direct recording electronic (DRE) voting systems purchased on and after July 1, 2017, to be equipped with paper audit records. ACCG has no concerns if the State of Georgia provides the funding to meet this or other state-required voting equipment upgrades; however, the association opposes unfunded state mandates as one of its guiding principles. |
HB 0674 |
Negotiating | Sovereign Immunity Waiver for Injunctions and Declaratory Judgments |
Wendell Willard |
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1/18/2018 |
House Second Readers |
Judiciary |
- | - |
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| This bill would waive the sovereign immunity of the state and local goverments as to particular types of lawsuits: requests for injunctions and declaratory judgment claims. Sovereign immunity would not be waived for claims for monetary damages and attorneys fees. If passed, governments could be sued for violations of the constitution, state law, or local ordinance, with a judge having the power to enter an injunction ordering the government to stop such violations. The substance of this bill has been added to HB 791. |
HB 0680 |
Negotiating | Voting Machines - Require Ballot Scan Voting Systems |
Scot Turner |
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1/19/2018 |
House Second Readers |
Governmental Affairs |
- | - |
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| This legislation prohibits, effective January 1, 2019, the use of direct recording electronic (DRE) machines for Georgia's primary and general elections. Instead, elections must be conducted utilizing ballot scan voting systems along with electronic ballot markers - which leave a paper trail of votes cast. Rather than dictate which specific systems to use the bill spells out specifications which must be met and all systems must be certified by the Secretary of State. ACCG opposes unfunded state mandates as one of its guiding principles and there are no state appropriations for replacing Georgia's voting equipment in the proposed FY 2017 supplemental or FY 2018 budgets. Additionally, ACCG has concerns that elections superintendents were neither consulted nor involved in this endeavor; there is not enough time to implement this successfully before the Jan. 2019 deadline; there will likely be challenges with ballot confidentiality and security; and there will likely be ballot transportation and storage issues. |
HB 0705 |
Negotiating | Increase Jurisdictional Limits of Civil Cases in Magistrate Court |
Trey Kelley |
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2/8/2018 |
House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute |
Judiciary |
- | - |
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| This legislation increases the jurisdictional limit to $25,000 from $15,000 in certain civil cases in magistrate court. The current filing fee in magistrate court is $22.00, this bill will increase that filing fee to $40.00 per case that is over $15,000. This may result in an increase in the number of cases filed in magistrate court in lieu of filing in state court. |
HB 0716 |
Negotiating | Pre-Arrest Diversion for Drug and Mental Health Treatment Act |
Paulette Rakestraw |
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1/23/2018 |
House Second Readers |
Judiciary - Non-Civil |
- | - |
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| This legislation sets forth requirements for local law enforcement to transport any citizen request transportation to a substance abuse treatment programs as well as a number of additional administrative duties. There is no funding or resources available to assist in the provision of the required services. |
HB 0746 |
Negotiating | State Mandated Policies and Procedures for Law Enforcement Contact with Sexual Assault Victims |
Scott Holcomb |
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1/29/2018 |
House Second Readers |
Judiciary - Non-Civil |
- | - |
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HB 0791 |
Negotiating | Sovereign Immunity - Waiver for Certain Claims against the State |
Chuck Efstration |
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3/27/2018 |
Senate Tabled |
Judiciary |
Judiciary |
- |
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| Following recommendations of the Governor's Court Reform Council and in response to several recent Georgia Supreme Court decisions, this bill would allow for a limited waiver of the state's sovereign immunity so as to allow lawsuits against the state for injunctions and/declaratory judgments where a state law is alleged to be unconstitutional. As amended in House committee, the substance of HB 674 was added to this bill, waiving county and city sovereign immunity for injunctive/declaratory relief for allegations that the local government has violated a constitutional provision, statute, state rule/regulation, or local ordinance. Immunity would still apply to any related monetary damages. The amended version also permits direct appeals of trial court orders ruling that immunity does not apply to a claim (from HB 256). A substitute version approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee removes local governments from the scope of this bill but retains the direct-appeal authorization. |
HB 0855 |
Negotiating | Increase in Joshua's Law Add-on Fee to all Traffic Violations |
John Deffenbaugh |
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2/13/2018 |
House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute |
Public Safety and Homeland Security |
- | - |
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| This legislation doubles the amount of the fine add on to all traffic violations to fund driver training (Joshua's Law) from 1.5 percent of fine to 3 percent of fine. |
HB 0858 |
Negotiating | Occupation Tax - Expansion of Businesses Exempt from Gross Receipts Tax |
Shaw Blackmon |
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2/12/2018 |
House Second Readers |
Ways and Means |
- | - |
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| This bill adds more professions/occupations to the so-called "$400.00 Club" and will allow contractors and others who are required to be licensed by the state to choose what type and amount of occupation tax they pay. They can choose the amount that would otherwise be determined under general law, or, they can choose a set amount of $400.00. Importantly, anyone in this 'club' cannot be required to provide local government with any information regarding gross receipts. The author has agreed to pursue a study committee rather than this bill.
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SB 0162 |
Negotiating | Eminent Domain - Payment of Assessors' Costs and Condemnee's Attorneys Fees |
Frank Ginn |
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2/14/2017 |
Senate Read and Referred |
- | Judiciary |
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| This legislation would require the county to pay all assessors' costs, as well as the condemnee's attorneys fees, in a condemnation case where the total amount awarded is 10 percent or more of the highest amount offered by the county. |
SB 0333 |
Negotiating | Deferred Compensation Plans - Automatic Enrollment of Municipal Employees |
Ellis Black |
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5/8/2018 |
Act 447 |
Governmental Affairs |
Retirement |
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| This bill would allow municipalities to automatically enroll employees in deferred compensation plans and to pay certain fees from those plans. |
SB 0366 |
Negotiating | State Mandated Completion of Salary Surveys for Employees of the Sheriff's Department |
Steve Gooch |
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3/23/2018 |
House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute |
Appropriations |
Public Safety |
- |
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| This legislation is based on the report of the Compensation of Police and Sheriff's (COPS) and requires that every county conduct a wage and compensation study once every five years or lose their qualified local government status. A detailed summary can be found here. |
SB 0386 |
Negotiating | Transit Governance & Funding for Metro Atlanta |
Brandon Beach |
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3/7/2018 |
House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute |
Transportation |
Transportation |
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| During the House Transportation Committee meeting that took place on 3.6.18, the language from SB 386 was stripped and in its place, the language from HB 930 was inserted. HB 930 is the transit bill authored by House Transportation Committee Chairman Kevin Tanner that addresses transit governance and funding options for the Metro Atlanta region (Cherokee, Clayton, Coweta, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, Paulding and Rockdale Counties). On 3.23.18, the Senate and the House insisted on their position to HB 930; therefore, a conference committee has been appointed where the differences from the House and Senate transit bills will be discussed with the goal of an agreed upon version will pass both chambers. HB 930 Conference Commitee composition: Rep. Kevin Tanner, Rep. Jan Jones, Rep. Calvin Smyre, Sen. Brandon Beach, Sen. Steve Gooch and Sen. David Lucas. Original Senate Transit Bill Language: This bill provides a new transit governance structure for the Metro Atlanta region and allows for an optional local funding mechanism to fund transit projects (Transit SPLOST). The newly created Atlanta-region Transit Link "ATL" Commission is a new division that would be placed under the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority. The purpose of this commission is to plan and coordinate transit services, transit facilities, and the funding of those purposes throughout its jurisdiction. This jurisdiction consists of any county which has approved a MARTA tax or any county which has approved a Transit SPLOST. The ATL Commission is initially composed of 14 members including the Governor, GDOT Commissioner, CEO of MARTA, Executive Director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, and appointments made by the Mayor of the City of Atlanta, President of the Atlanta City Council, Chair of the Clayton County Board of Commissioners, Chair of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners, CEO of DeKalb County, Chair of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, Chair of the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners as well as an appointee selected by a majority vote of a caucus of the mayors from the municipalities in each county (Clayton, DeKalb, Fulton). If an additional Metro Atlanta county approves a Transit SPLOST, they shall have an appointee to the commission. The legislation provides for a 1% Transit SPLOST for a period of 30 years. An IGA between the county and qualified municipalities must be agreed upon that includes the list of proposed transit projects, an agreement with MARTA for all rail based projects and/or an agreement with the ATL Commission approved bus operator. The ATL Commission will have final approval of the transit project list. |
SB 0428 |
Negotiating | Statewide Regulations for the Practice of Booting Vehicles |
Matt Brass |
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2/15/2018 |
Senate Read and Referred |
- | Transportation |
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This legislation (similar to HB 774) defines and sets statewide standards for vehicle immobilization devices and services - commonly known as "booting". In addition, this bill allows a county or city to pass an ordinance stricter than the provisions set out by this bill; however, of concern is that the language does not clearly state that a local government can ban the practice of booting vehicles. |