Legislation with Tracking Level = Support (135)
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Date of Last Recorded Action: 3/29/2024

HB 0022 SupportAuthorization for Telephone Coops to Provide Broadband Service Penny Houston
4/2/2019 House Withdrawn, Recommitted Economic Development and Tourism --
2019/01/31 Report Broadband Econ. Dev. & Transportation Land Use/Zoning Policy Council
Preemption Todd Edwards Utilities
Mirroring SB 17, this legislation authorizes Georgia's Telephone Cooperatives to provide broadband services, either directly or indirectly through a contractual arrangement or through an affiliate.  Coops will also be eligible to apply for federal or state loans and grants to provide this service.  This proposal is part of the House Rural Development Council's recommendations to facilitate broadband deployment to rural areas of the state.
HB 0023 SupportAuthorization for EMCs to Provide Broadband Service Penny Houston
1/13/2020 Senate Recommitted Economic Development and Tourism Regulated Industries and Utilities -
2019/01/31 Report Broadband Econ. Dev. & Transportation Economic Development Land Use/Zoning
Todd Edwards

Mirroring SB 2, this legislation authorizes Georgia's Electric Membership Corporations (EMCs) to provide broadband services, either directly or indirectly through a contractual arrangement or through an affiliate.  EMCs are prohibited from cross-subsidizing broadband services through funds from their electric or gas accounts, and an annual audit will be conducted to ensure this prohibition.  Furthermore, EMC members in good standing can sue (in the superior court of the county where the EMC is headquartered) to also ensure no cross-subsidization. EMCs will not be able to disconnect, or threaten to disconnect, a customer from their electric or gas services for failure to pay their broadband bill.  EMCs will be eligible to apply for federal or state loans and grants to provide broadband service.  This proposal is part of the House Rural Development Council's recommendations to facilitate broadband deployment to rural areas of the state.  

HB 0030 SupportAmended State Fiscal Year 2019 Budget David Ralston
3/12/2019 Effective Date Appropriations Appropriations -
2019/01/25 Report 2019/02/08 Report 2019/02/22 Report Debra Nesbit
 The Amended Fiscal Year 2019 budget recognizes $435.7 million in additional revenue for a 1.6% increase over the FY 2019 budget passed during the 2018 Special Session. This brings the total appropriation for Amended FY 2019 to $26.9 billion. Please click here for the overview of the Amended 2019 Budget.
HB 0031 SupportState Fiscal Year 2020 Budget David Ralston
5/10/2019 Effective Date Appropriations Appropriations -
2019/01/25 Report 2019/03/01 Report 2019/03/15 Report 2019/03/22 Report 2019/03/29 Report
Debra Nesbit
House Bill 31, the Fiscal Year 2020 budget, is set by a revenue estimate of $27.5 billion, an increase of $1 billion or 3.95% over the FY 2019 original budget. All education agencies receive 55% of available funds, followed by 22% budgeted for health and human services agencies, 8% for public safety activities and the remaining 15% for economic development and general government agencies.  Please click here for an overview of the 2020 Budget.
HB 0034 SupportQualifications and Removal of Development Authority Directors Rhonda Burnough
4/2/2019 House Withdrawn, Recommitted Governmental Affairs --
2019/01/31 Report 2019/03/08 Report Econ. Dev. & Transportation Economic Development Larry Ramsey
This legislation authorizes licensed business owners paying property taxes to be a development authority director without living in the county or city that created the authority.  It also authorizes directors to be removed by the governing authority for cause.
HB 0065 SupportCloud Based Services Eligible for SPLOST Eddie Lumsden
1/30/2019 House Second Readers Ways and Means --
2019/01/31 Report Larry Ramsey Sales Tax-Local
This legislation adds cloud based software services to the list of eligible types of capital projects in the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax Law.
HB 0075 SupportClarify Law on Passing a Stopped School Bus Bill Hitchens
1/30/2019 House Second Readers Public Safety and Homeland Security --
2019/01/31 Report 2019/03/29 Report Debra Nesbit Public Safety and Courts Roads
Traffic Enforcement
This legislation clarifies when it is illegal to pass a stopped school bus on a divided highway.  This clarification is part of ACCG's 2019 Policy Agenda.  The language of this bill is the same as SB 25.
HB 0085 SupportOrgan Procurement Organizations Sales Tax Exemption Penny Houston
4/2/2019 House Disagreed Senate Amend or Sub Ways and Means Finance -
2019/01/31 Report 2019/02/15 Report 2019/03/15 Report 2019/03/29 Report Larry Ramsey
Revenue & Finance Sales Tax-Local
This bill would grant a sales tax exemption to nonprofit organ procurement organizations, similar to the existing to the sales tax exemption for blood banks. The text of this bill was added to SB 104.
HB 0100 SupportAuthorization for EMCs to Provide Broadband Services Don Parsons
2/6/2019 House Second Readers Economic Development and Tourism --
Telecommunications Todd Edwards Utilities
This legislation, similar to HB 23 and SB 2, authorizes Georgia's EMCs to provide broadband service.   
HB 0167 SupportCOVID-19 Liability Protections Darlene Taylor
6/23/2020 Senate - Senate Transmitted House Insurance Insurance and Labor -
2020/06/19 Report Kathleen Bowen
This legislation, titled the "Georgia Pandemic Business Protection Act", seeks to provide liability protection from COVID-19 related lawsuits. County government employees and county government facilities are included in the definition as being afforded liability protection. 

No cause of action (lawsuit) shall exist for the transmission or contraction of COVID-19 unless an entity or person performed willful and wanton misconduct or intentional infliction of harm.
HB 0174 SupportRequirement that License Plates on Vehicles Be Fully Displayed Including all Renewal Stickers David Wilkerson
4/2/2019 House Withdrawn, Recommitted Motor Vehicles --
2019/02/08 Report 2019/03/01 Report Debra Nesbit Traffic Enforcement
This bill requires that all license plates on vehicles be fully displayed at all times with no obstruction of view by tag holders, etc.
HB 0182 SupportSales Tax on Out of State Vendors Brett Harrell
4/28/2019 Effective Date Ways and Means Finance -
2019/02/08 Report 2019/02/15 Report 2019/02/22 Report 2019/03/01 Report 2019/03/08 Report
2019/03/15 Report 2019/03/29 Report Larry Ramsey Revenue & Finance Sales Tax-Local
Under present law, out-of-state vendors that sell $250,000 or more of goods (or 200 or more transactions) into Georgia must either collect all sales taxes or send the purchaser and the Department of Revenue (DOR) annual notice of those purchases. This bill would lower that threshold to $100,000 or more and would eliminate the notice option, with the result that all such vendors will be required and remit to DOR all sales taxes.
HB 0184 SupportSmall Cell (5G) Legislation - ACCG Compromise Language Brett Harrell
1/13/2020 Senate Recommitted Economic Development and Tourism Regulated Industries and Utilities -
2019/02/08 Report 2019/02/15 Report 2019/03/15 Report General County Government Todd Edwards

Mirroring SB 66, this is the compromise Small Cell (5G) legislation.  By way of background, over the past two years, ACCG has opposed legislation which would have greatly preempted local government of the public's rights of way for the placement of small cell (5G) poles, antennas and equipment.  At the urging of the General Assembly, ACCG, GMA, Verizon and AT&T negotiated this reasonable compromise over the 2018 interim that has incorporated many safeguards which ACCG had called for in previous legislation.  

Key points of this ACCG compromise include: incentives for collocation in order to limit new poles; protections for historic districts and residential areas; the requirement that telcoms share build-out plans prior to deploying new facilities; a safe-harbor in case the current FCC order preempting state and local regulation of 5G deployment is overturned; the prohibition of speculative permit requests by third parties; and safeguards for local aesthetic and decorative pole conditions, among many others.  For a summary of the bill's key provisions, please click here. 

For a detailed, section-by-section summary of the bill, please click here.  

HB 0195 SupportIncrease Benefit Amount Payable by the Georgia Firefighters' Pension Fund Tommy Benton
7/1/2020 Effective Date Retirement Retirement -
Debra Nesbit Fire Services Public Safety and Courts
This legislation increases the benefit amount payable to beneficiaries after a member of the Georgia Firefighters' Pension Fund upon death from $5,000 to $10,000.
HB 0201 SupportRules and Regulations for Live-Aboard Vessels Don Hogan
1/1/2020 Effective Date Natural Resources and Environment Natural Resources and the Environment -
2019/02/15 Report 2019/03/01 Report 2019/03/08 Report 2019/03/22 Report 2019/03/29 Report
Kathleen Bowen Nat. Res. & the Environment
This legislation authorizes the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to create rules and regulations to addresses live-aboard vessels including where they can be anchored and how sewage material can be disposed within estuarine areas of the state. 
HB 0215 SupportRules of the Road for Electric Assisted Bicycles (E-Bikes) Teri Anulewicz
4/2/2019 House Withdrawn, Recommitted Natural Resources and Environment --
2019/02/15 Report 2019/03/01 Report Econ. Dev. & Transportation Kathleen Bowen Transportation

This legislation establishes regulations for electric assisted bicycle, "e-bikes" and defines three classes of e-bikes. E-bikes would follow the same rules of the road as human powered bikes and local governments would have the authority to allow or restrict the use of e-bikes on bicycle paths or shared paths where bicycles are permitted.

For more details, click here for an info sheet prepared by People for Bikes who are in support of the bill.    

*Language from this bill is was included in HB 454 that passed during the 2019 Session.

HB 0216 SupportCOVID-19 Liability Protections Teri Anulewicz
6/17/2020 Senate - Senate Read Second Time Motor Vehicles Public Safety -
2020/06/19 Report General County Government Kathleen Bowen
This legislation, titled the "Georgia Pandemic Business Immunity Act", seeks to provide liability protection from COVID-19 related lawsuits. County government employees and county government facilities are included as being afforded liability protection as long as those parties are acting in good faith to comply with guidelines issued by the Governor, the Georgia Department of Public Health, or the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Immunity would not apply where the government has acted recklessly or intentionally to cause harm.
 
Immunity protection is only in effect upon the Governor issuing an executive order declaring that a state of emergency or disaster exists due to COVID-19. Such immunity shall apply to causes of action that occur between the date of the declaration of a state of emergency or disaster and two years after the date of the last executive order issued by the Governor.
HB 0220 SupportReauthorize Hazardous and Solid Waste Trust Funds Terry Rogers
6/30/2019 Effective Date Natural Resources and Environment Finance -
2019/02/15 Report 2019/02/22 Report 2019/03/08 Report 2019/03/15 Report 2019/03/29 Report
Kathleen Bowen Nat. Res. & the Environment Solid Waste
This legislation renews the fees that make up the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund (HWTF) and the Solid Waste Trust Fund (SWTF) for three years, from July 1, 2019 to July 1, 2022. 

Effective from July 1, 2020, until June 30, 2022, the  75¢ per ton of solid waste disposal fee would be reduced to 51¢ per ton. Effective from July 1, 2020, until June 30, 2022, the $1 fee imposed upon the retail sale of all new replacement tires would be reduced to 38¢ per tire sold. In effect, the fees are reduced by the percentages that were not appropriated for their intended purposes in the last completed fiscal year, 2018.

The HWTF and SWTF support efforts including clean-up of abandoned contaminated sites, leaking landfills, scrap tires and illegal dumps; in addition, funds go towards waste reduction and recycling programs. 

ACCG supports the reauthorization of both trust funds but is advocating for the successful passage of HR 164, a constitutional amendment that authorizes the Georgia General Assembly to establish, by statute, true and dedicated trust funds.
HB 0224 SupportTax Credits for Job Creation in Rural Counties Hugh Williamson
6/1/2019 Effective Date Ways and Means Finance -
2019/03/29 Report Kathleen Bowen
This legislation would allow certain rural and economically distressed counties to utilize the investment tax credit against payroll withholding. In addition, for certain rural and economically distressed counties, the number of jobs necessary to qualify for the quality jobs tax credit is lowered - creation of 10 new jobs in Tier 1 counties, creation of 25 new jobs in Tier 2 counties and at least 50 jobs created for all other counties.

This legislation defines "rural county" as a county that has a population of less than 50,000 with 10 percent or more of such population living in poverty based upon the most recent, reliable and applicable data published by the US Bureau of Census.  For a list of county tier rankings see here.
HB 0244 SupportEMCs - Public Service Commission to Determine Pole Attachment Fees Ron Stephens
1/1/2021 Effective Date Economic Development and Tourism Regulated Industries and Utilities -
2019/02/15 Report 2020/02/07 2020/03/13 Report 2020/06/19 Report General County Government
Telecommunications Todd Edwards

This legislation alters the process by which Georgia’s Electric Membership Corporations (EMCs) determine the fees charged to communications service providers which place telecommunications equipment on EMC utility poles.  The fee/rate will be determined by the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) after the PSC considers what is just, reasonable, nondiscriminatory and commercially reasonable.  The PSC will promulgate, by January 1, 2021, the rules explaining how the above factors will be determined.  Current PSC charges will remain in effect until the date of their natural or lawful determination.           

HB 0276 SupportSales Tax - Marketplace Facilitators Brett Harrell
4/1/2020 Effective Date Ways and Means Finance -
2019/02/15 Report 2019/03/01 Report 2019/03/08 Report 2019/03/22 Report 2019/03/29 Report
2020/01/17 Report 2020/01/31 Larry Ramsey Revenue & Finance Sales Tax-Local

This bill would expand the definition of "dealers" who are required to collect sales taxes to include "marketplace facilitators", such as online platforms that allow vendors to sell goods or services through those platforms. Annual sales via such a platform of $100,000 or more into Georgia would require the facilitator to collect and remit all state and local sales taxes on all such sales. Franchising operations that have at least $500 million in annual Georgia sales (such as large hotel chains) can decide to have their franchisees collect sales taxes rather than having the franchisor be considered a marketplace facilitator.

 

HB 0314 SupportBoat Titles Ron Stephens
7/1/2020 Effective Date Ways and Means Finance -
2019/02/15 Report 2019/03/01 Report 2019/03/08 Report 2019/03/15 Report 2019/03/22 Report
Larry Ramsey Revenue & Finance
This bill would require the issuance of ownership titles for all watercraft used in state waters. Title applications would be processed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. An amendment in House committee eliminated the proposed sales tax cap in boat sales as was proposed in the original version.
HB 0316 SupportElections - Voting Machine Replacement and Elections Bill of 2019 Barry Fleming
4/2/2019 Effective Date Governmental Affairs Ethics -
2019/02/15 Report 2019/02/22 Report 2019/03/01 Report 2019/03/08 Report 2019/03/15 Report
Elections General County Government Todd Edwards

This omnibus elections legislation provides that the state will provide new, uniform voting machines for every county in Georgia "as soon as possible".  Voting equipment would consist of ballot marking devices (electronic devices, similar to the DRE interface currently used) which produce a paper ballot that is then scanned into a recording device that tabulates votes.  Among other election revisions, the bill provides additional notice before a voter's registration is rejected, before a felon is removed from the rolls, and to those appearing to have moved to another state; changes from 3 to 5 years the period of inactivity before a voter is removed from the rolls, also requiring notification prior to removal; requires counties to provide additional notice of any precinct changes; provides a cure period if a voter's signature on an absentee ballot does not mirror that used in registration; and lifts the 10-voter limit on persons assisting disabled or other individuals complete absentee ballots.  Lastly, the bill enrolls Georgia in a 25-state collaboration - the Electronic Registration Information Center - to share voting information in order to track and cancel voters who move out of state.  For a more thorough summary of HB 316, please click here.

     

HB 0317 SupportRemoval of Collection Receptacles - Jurisdiction Removed from Superior Court and Given to Magistrate and Municipal Courts Dewayne Hill
4/2/2019 House Withdrawn, Recommitted Judiciary --
2019/03/01 Report Debra Nesbit Public Safety and Courts
This legislation transfers the jurisdiction of removal petition of collection receptacles from the superior court to magistrate or municipal court.
HB 0321 SupportExtension of the Hospital Provider Fee for Medicaid Financing Program and Transparency Requirements for Hospitals Jodi Lott
4/25/2019 Effective Date Appropriations Finance -
2019/03/29 Report Debra Nesbit Health and Human Services Hospital Authority
 This legislation extends the sunset provision for the hospital provider fee known as the "Medicaid Financing Program" as state match in pulling down edicaid dollars until June 30, 2025.  The bill also provides for reporting of donations to rural hospitals whereby donors receive a tax credit.
Green background on status indicates a bill has been acted on the last recorded legislative day.








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