Gold Dome Report 2017 Session Georgia General Assembly
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GOLD DOME REPORT 2017 SESSION GEORGIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY By Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP 404-322-6000 GOLD DOME REPORT 2017 SESSION GEORGIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY TABLE OF CONTENTS Description Page No. Agriculture 3 Alcoholic Beverages 4 Animals 6 Appeal and Error 6 Aviation 7 Banking and Finance 7 Cardiac Care Centers 10 Child Welfare 10 Civil Practice 15 Commerce and Trade 17 Constitution 22 Corporations, Partnerships and Associations 22 Courts 23 Crimes and Offenses 35 Criminal Justice Reform 47 Criminal Procedure 51 Debtor and Creditor 55 Domestic Relations 55 Drugs 60 Education 70 Elections/Ethics 91 Eminent Domain 92 Estates 93 Evidence 94 Fire Protection and Safety 94 Gambling 95 Game and Fish 96 General Assembly 97 Guardian and Ward 98 Handicapped Persons 98 Health 99 Highways, Bridges, and Ferries 115 Hospital Provider Fee 116 Insurance 117 Labor and Industrial Relations 125 Law Enforcement Officers and Agencies 127 Local Government 131 i Description Page No. MARTA 136 Medical Marijuana 137 Mental Health 138 Minors 140 Motor Vehicles and Traffic 141 Narcotic Treatment 144 Natural Resources 146 Penal Institutions 148 Professions/Businesses 153 Property/Liens 163 Public Officers and Employees 168 Public Utilities and Public Transportation 172 Retirement and Pensions 174 Revenue and Taxation 175 Social Services 191 State Government 196 Torts 200 Veterans Affairs 203 Waters of the State, Ports, and Watercraft 207 Budget 208 Study Committees for the Interim 221 ii Gold Dome Report 2017 Legislative Session June, 2017 The 2017 Session of the Georgia General Assembly concluded at 12:50 a.m. on March 31, 2017. Leaders of both chambers decided to work past the historical midnight "deadline" and continued to pass legislation well into the night. Although some lawmakers left the Capitol disappointed that their bills were not called for a vote, there was still a sense that it was a successful session overall. Some sessions of the General Assembly reverberate with tension and highly publicized issues, such as the 2016 Session when the religious freedom and campus gun carry issues dominated the media. Others are quieter, but full of solid achievements. Much of this year's focus involved looking at issues related to education, the opioid crises, guns and weapons' carry provisions, casinos and economic development, medical marijuana, and tax reform. While not every issue received a major piece of legislation, progress was made throughout the committee process and during floor debate. Legislation that did not make it for a vote this year will carry over to the 2018 Session. The House and Senate crafted an education reform bill meant to support failing schools and their systems, after the constitutional referendum to permit an additional, statewide "opportunity school district" for persistent underperforming schools failed in the 2016 election. The Governor had vigorously supported that amendment, but it was characterized as anathema to local control of schools, and teachers and systems led the effort to defeat the measure. The Governor signed the new bill, HB 338, which creates steps for the State Department of Education to support underperforming schools without removing them from local system control. It pushes systems to insist that its schools do well. The Governor's budget enjoyed a continuing increase in revenue for the third straight year and teacher and state employee pay raises were approved. Some raises are made across the Board for all employees, while others reward high performance. School and Medicaid enrollment growth were moderate compared to recent years, but still consumed sizeable portions of the increased revenue. The teacher pay raises generate future demands on the teacher retirement system under the extant funding formula. As much as $400 million new dollars need to be appropriated in the next fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2018. The Governor's criminal justice reform efforts continued, and included SB 174, SB 175 and SB 176, all of which passed. These bills are discussed in our Report below. The funding of diversion courts continued and the multi-year effort has been impressive. The increased revenues also permitted the Governor's admirable efforts to reform the child welfare system to rise by an additional $90 million. Such reforms include a 19% salary increase for case workers as an attempt to reverse high turnover, new supervisor positions for case workers, additional support personnel for foster care support services, and a sizeable 1 increase in the per diem payments to foster parents recruited by State workers. The legislature added a per diem increase for foster parents recruited by child placing agencies and for kinship placements from both the public and private provider efforts. These efforts collectively proceeded smoothly and reflect the significant reform efforts led by Governor Deal. The push to pass a referendum on permitting and regulating casino business continued, but was put off an additional year as the factions and cities bargain about permitted locations for casino destinations and how the net proceeds to the State should get used. A lively discussion to regulate balanced billing by out-of-network physicians generated active debate between physicians and insurers, but related legislation did not pass. However, lawmakers have already commenced a review of this issue in the interim in an effort to reach a compromise. The legislature successfully pressed efforts to address the opioid overdose, misuse, suicide and addiction issues by setting up a stringent regulatory system for the licensure of narcotic treatment programs. Such efforts included moving the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to the Department of Public Health from the Georgia Drugs and Narcotics Agency and requiring physicians and pharmacists, by mid-2018 (under certain conditions), to check the system for patient misuse or overuse. There were also new initiatives addressing the wider uses of medical marijuana, autism treatment for adolescents, and mental health screening for young children. Thus, the General Assembly was active and successful on many fronts, but the "heat" was less on the two emotional carryover issues. The campus gun carry legislation was raised again and passed with much less drama than in 2016. It included the amendments the Governor had requested when vetoing the 2016 bill, which prohibits registered gun carry on campus day care facilities, faculty student conferences, and administrative disciplinary or appeal settings. The Governor signed the bill this time in May. After Governor Nathan Deal's highly publicized veto of the 2016 version of the religious freedom (RFRA) bill that generated a stark and applauded contrast between North Carolina and Georgia, the Governor, Speaker David Ralston and Lt. Governor Casey Cagle had each indicated their preferences that no religious freedom bill should move through the process during 2017. Several bills were again introduced, but not one moved. The issue was quiet until an attempted RFRA amendment was made in the Senate Judiciary Committee to a House adoption reform bill in the last week of the Session. However, the Senate Rules Committee would not support the amendment and remanded the bill to Judiciary where it sat. Both the popular adoption bill and RFRA amendment appeared dead for the Session. The House next attached the adoption bill to another Senate matter and passed it unanimously. Thus, the adoption bill was poised for a celebratory passage as the last bill of the year, but the Senate could not move the Senate bill without a vote on the religious freedom Amendment. These issues are described below in more depth. 2017 was a good, but quiet, year, perhaps ending on a disappointing note. Next year will be different as Governor Deal enters his final year and multiple candidates vie for the statewide elected posts. But Georgia continues to 2 distinguish itself for its serious efforts on criminal justice, welfare reform, restoration of education funding, and improvements in mental health. An interest in Medicaid changes and perhaps expansions was postponed by the lack of Congressional action on the reform and replacement of Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act. Large new revenues loom, but current obligations will consume huge portions of it. We are pleased to provide you with an overview of many of the bills which we worked or followed this Session. We have also included in our Report some of the many initiatives which could be tackled in the 2018 Session. AGRICULTURE Legislation Passed HB 290 – Rep. Sam Watson (R-Moultrie) introduced this ad valorem property tax exemption legislation amending O.C.G.A. § 48-5-41.1. It revises definitions relating to qualified farm products and harvested agricultural products, adding definitions for the terms, 'agricultural equipment' and 'lease-purchase agreement.' Governor Deal signed this bill as Act Number 192; it takes effect on July 1, 2017. SB 69 – Sen. John Wilkinson (R-Toccoa) offered this bill which amends O.C.G.A. § 2-21-4(e) concerning the packaging and labeling and registration of organic products and certifying entities. It eliminates the registration requirement with the Department of Agriculture, which has been in place since January 1, 2003, for persons who produce, process, distribute, or handle in Georgia any advertised, promoted, identified, tagged, stamped, packaged, or labeled organic food or feed ingredient, article, commodity, or product. The law still requires, however, certifying entities