Sen. Blake Tillery. Reads from First Lady Melania Trump’s book, in which she said she was debanked. Tillery’s debanking bill failed in the Senate by a wide margin. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
Lawmakers passed a heap of bills by a key legislative deadline Thursday, signing off – again – on an accelerated income tax rate cut and a plan to slightly expand the state’s medical cannabis program while attempting to ban THC-infused drinks.
But by the end of the day, many high-profile proposals were left on the cutting room floor, for now.
A late push in the House to legalize and regulate online sports betting never made it to the floor for a vote Thursday.
And a proposal to overhaul how the state compensates those who are wrongfully convicted in Georgia showed new signs of momentum this year but ultimately did not get a vote Thursday.
“I’m definitely very disappointed. I think it’s a missed opportunity to improve the system,” said Rep. Scott Holcomb, an Atlanta Democrat and co-sponsor.
House lawmakers did, however, overwhelmingly pass a measure that included individual compensation resolutions for five people who served time in prison after being wrongfully convicted. That measure, House Resolution 128, passed with a 151-12 vote and now moves to the Senate.
“Each of these men were denied their opportunity to an education, to build a career, relationships and family time, to seek a financial future for themselves and their loved ones,” said the bill’s lead sponsor, Rome Republican Rep. Katie Dempsey.
“Compensation will not buy back those opportunities or those years, but it will help them move forward, and it is the least we can do,” she said.
Dempsey said afterwards that she is still hopeful that the bill overhauling the process can pass this year through legislative maneuvering.
“It’s not over until day 40,” she said, referring to the final day of the legislative session on April 4.
DEI ban dies
Another crossover dud was Tyrone Republican Sen. Marty Harbin’s Senate Bill 120, which seeks to ban K-12 schools and colleges from promoting, supporting or maintaining “any programs or activities that advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
The controversial bill was on the calendar of bills to be voted on Thursday, but when Lt. Gov. Burt Jones banged his gavel to signal it was time to go home, the DEI bill had still not been voted on.
Harbin said there were some changes that needed to be made but declined to say what they were. He implied that the bill could come back in 2026, which is the second in this two-year legislative cycle.
“We got down tonight, and we had our last proofing of the reading, and we said there’s some things we need to make right. This is a biennial. We’d rather do it right than do it halfway,” he said.
Harbin also declined to say that the bill would not be grafted onto other legislation later this year.
While Crossover Day is mostly do or die, dead bills can sometimes be revived before the end of the session by attaching language from the deceased legislation onto a related bill. That could happen any time before April 4, the last day of the session, also known as sine die.
That’s what Grayson Democratic Sen. Nikki Merritt said she fears will happen.
“Yeah, it could get zombie’d again,” she said. “So I’m going to tell you, we’re going to stay vigilant. I’m going to keep my eye out and we’re going to continue to tell our educators and the public, we’re going to continue to call to action, it’s not over until we sine die, and really it’s not over until next year because it can come back, if it stays alive or gets attached to something, it’s still in play until we’re done for the biennium.”
Still, Merritt said she would be smiling on her drive home from the Capitol Thursday night.
“As a minority party, we don’t get a lot of wins, and it’s really hard for us to push back once it comes out of (the rules committee) or it gets to the floor, we kind of never know,” she said. “So I do feel like this is a win for now, and it’s the power of getting the public engaged.”
Gutting local gun ordinances
Georgia cities and counties that attempt to institute gun safety measures could be subject to steep fines under a bill that passed the Senate Thursday.
Northwest Georgia Republican Sen. Colton Moore’s Senate Bill 163 would allow people aggrieved by local gun regulations to recoup actual damages or up to $50,000, whichever is greater. That’s up from $100 under current law.
Moore indicated his bill was a response to a Savannah ordinance requiring people traveling with guns to keep them locked up and out of sight when the vehicle is parked.
“When citizens in northwest Georgia go to a place like Savannah, and there is a mayor there who has put in ordinances that violate their Second Amendment rights, my piece of legislation simply says that those citizens, just like your citizens, have a right of tort to sue those governments for violating those rights,” Moore said.
Democratic Sen. Derek Mallow, who represents Savannah, said the ordinance was a reaction to more than 200 guns being stolen from unlocked cars in 2024.
“Dr. King said you cannot legislate morality, you can only legislate behavior, and so what the city of Savannah did was to try to create some recourse to have folks just lock their vehicles if they’re going to leave a loaded firearm in their vehicle,” he said.
The bill passed 33-23 along party lines. Senators rejected a Democrat-sponsored amendment to require guns to be locked up in places where minors may be present.
Debanking debunked after lengthy debate
After more than an hour of debate, a bill authored by the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Blake Tillery failed 43-13.
Tillery’s Senate Bill 57 seeks to outlaw ideological debanking, or banks shutting down accounts of people based on their ideology.
The bill would also prevent providers of essential services like water and power from cutting off services to people for ideological reasons.
Some prominent conservatives and tech founders, including first lady Melania Trump, have claimed they were debanked under the Biden administration, but it’s not clear whether the alleged debanking was for ideological reasons or because the banks had issues with their investments or some other problem.
Many of Tillery’s fellow Republicans had problems with trying to meddle with banks.
“This is a bill that has some good ideas, but it’s looking for a place to land and it does so in a really, really bad way,” said Senate President Pro Tem John Kennedy. “One of the problems is, passage of this bill puts banks in a horrible position because, as the bankers have said, nine times out of ten when they choose to either not bank somebody or sever a relationship with a client, they can’t talk about under federal regulations why they made the decision that they made. So this puts them in a horrible position of not being able to explain the decision that was made but yet leaves them fully exposed to being sued about it.”
House backs bill banning pop-up sales of dogs, cats and rabbits
A proposal to crack down on unscrupulous breeders sailed through the House.
The bill, sponsored by Concord Republican Rep. Beth Camp, would ban the practice of selling dogs, cats and rabbits along the roadside, in parking lots, on sidewalks, seasonal flea markets and other areas that tend to be hotspots for unlicensed breeders who prioritize profit over the wellbeing of the animals in their care.
Breeders would still be able to sell dogs, cats and rabbits from their home, business, a veterinarian’s office or other designated locations, like outside a police department.
Camp described the measure as a “consumer and animal protection bill” that creates a legal pathway for legitimate breeders and makes it harder for puppy mills to sell in Georgia.
And she argued her bill might help ease the strain on Georgia’s public animal shelters.
“Often animals that are purchased on impulse in parking lots and later found to have poor health end up in animal shelters, which cost every single one of us tax wise,” Camp said.
The bill passed 161-13 Thursday and now heads to the Senate.
Senate advances ‘doxxing’ bill
The Senate backed a bill Thursday that would make it a criminal offense for so-called doxxing, the act of recklessly posting someone’s personal information that places them at risk of being stalked or injured.
Roswell Republican Sen. John Albers presented Senate Bill 27, which he said would provide some teeth for fighting a chilling crime that can put unsuspecting people in dangerous situations. He said the intent is not to infringe on an individual’s freedom of speech.
“Doxxing is a contemporary and pernicious form of harassment involving publicizing private information of individuals on the internet, usually with malicious intent,” Albers said. “It’s a gross violation of your privacy, resulting in emotional distress, reputational damage, and, in many cases, physical harm.
“This bill takes a step in the right direction towards securing the digital safety of all Georgia citizens, and sends a clear message that Georgia will not tolerate online harassment,” Albers said.
If the doxxing bill becomes law, the first conviction would result in a misdemeanor. However, the penalties could increase to an aggravated felony if there is significant harm caused to the victims or with subsequent violations. A person convicted of aggravated doxxing will be sentenced to one to three years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
Sen. Sonya Halpern, an Atlanta Democrat, said she supports SB 27 because neither a public official or private citizen should be fearful of having their personal information weaponized against them. She said the legislation strikes a “delicate balance of safeguarding freedom of speech while acknowledging the seriousness of the crime.”
Georgia Recorder freelancer Maya Homan contributed to this report.