03/07/17 – Rep. Alan Powell Weekly Legislative Update

As Chairman of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, I have long championed protecting our Second Amendment Rights.

On Friday, the House passed two Bills to that end.

HB 280 known as the “Campus Carry Bill”, We believe this Bill meets the concerns of Gov. Nathan Deal, who vetoed a similar bill a year ago. This bill is just another bite at the apple. We’re not doing all we’d like to do. We’re doing what we can do to advance this cause. The dire effects that opponents predicted after lawmakers in 2015 passed legislation that allowed guns into many other public areas in Georgia never materialized.

HB 280 allows licensed holders to keep their weapon on their person while in or on any building or real property owned by or leased to any technical school, vocational school, college, university, or other institution of post-secondary education. This exception does not apply to buildings or property used for athletic events or student housing, which includes sorority and fraternity houses.

The exception also excludes preschool space that is advertised on site that such preschool is designated for operations licensed or regulated under the Department of Early Learning. The division does not apply if the campus has more than three buildings designated as housing preschool space. This provision would only apply to the concealed carrying of handguns so as not to actively get the attention of others.

HB 292 amends Title 16 of Georgia Code. The bill includes several “housekeeping” provisions in the statute relating to firearms and the carry and possession of firearms. The bill provides for new Georgia residents, who have a carry license issued by a state which recognizes Georgia licenses, to have 90 days to secure a valid Georgia license. The bill states that persons who have a valid hunting or fishing license are not required to have that license on their person when they are engaged in legal hunting, fishing, or sport shooting on recreational or wildlife management areas owned by the state. The bill also allows probate judges receiving applications for permits to issue printed information on firearms safety courses.

The bill requires the Department of Natural Resources to provide information on their principal website on state hunter education classes that render gun safety instruction. Another provision of the bill expands the exemption for retired law enforcement carry privileges, to include those officers who: are citizens of this state and have an aggregate of 10 years in law enforcement with arrest powers; separated from service in good standing, and have an identification card for retired law enforcement.

The bill clarifies the definitions for “commercial service airport” and “major airline carrier” as they apply to those who carry a weapon into a commercial airport. An additional provision is the establishment of an appeals process for those who have been involuntarily hospitalized for relief of mental illness. The statute provides for a hearing of: the evidence concerning the circumstances of hospitalization; the person’s mental health and criminal history, if any; the person’s reputation as described by character witnesses; and changes in the person’s condition or circumstances since hospitalization. Should the court find that the person is not likely to act in a manner dangerous to himself or public safety, relief may be granted and a license granted.

Finally, the legislation provides immunity from civil liability for injuries caused by the failure of a person to use a firearm properly or lawfully to those instructors who provide safety
training. The bill also provides that no state be required to give effect or recognize a license given to any person under the age of 21.

HB 406 specifies that no other state with which Georgia has a reciprocity agreement is required to recognize or give effect to any license to carry given to a person under the age of 21 years old. This Bill furthers my efforts working with other states so our Georgia holders of licenses to carry will have their licenses in other states in which we have reciprocity agreements.

Several other bills I sponsored that passed last week are listed below.

HB 149 provides statute to regulate trauma scene cleanup services. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation will be responsible for registering trauma scene waste management practitioners. The registration is valid for three years and may be renewed for additional three year periods.

The initial registration fee is $275 and $275 upon renewal. The bureau will maintain a current list of all registered trauma scene waste management practitioners on their website. Each practitioner, before being registered, must submit to a fingerprint based background check and every three years following the initial background check. No person convicted of a felony is eligible for registration. Each practitioner must be bonded in the amount of $100,000. An additional requirement is to have liability insurance. The director of the bureau is authorized to issue temporary registrations in the event of a declared public emergency or a state of emergency.

Such registrations would terminate no later than 90 days from issuance. This legislation does not prevent a private property owner from cleaning up a scene on their property themselves.

HB 258 amends the Code regarding the aggravated assault of a peace officer by increasing the minimum sentence to ten years of imprisonment. If the aggravated assault of a peace officer involves the discharge of a firearm, none of the mandatory minimum sentence can be probated, stayed, suspended, deferred or withheld.

Moreover, HB 258 amends the Code for resisting a law enforcement officer by increasing the punishment for second and subsequent convictions. For a second such offense, the punishment is increased to not less than two but no more than 10 years of incarceration. Upon the third or subsequent conviction, the punishment is increased to not less than three but no more than 15 years of incarceration.

HB 458 allows registered or certified local law enforcement to use an automated traffic enforcement safety device or a stationary speed detection device within a school zone. This device may be capable of taking still photos or videos and can detect speed from these images. Law enforcement employing this technology will be required to erect signs warning drivers of the detection device, and data or image collected is not public information. Fines are $125 for the violation plus a fee for the processing of the fine which shall not exceed $25.

Several tax measures we passed last week:

HR 51 and HB 85 eliminates the 2008 baseline formula in the Forest Land Protection Act, empowers the Department of Revenue to establish the appraisal methodology for timberland, and establishes a new class of land known as “timberland prosperity” which will be assessed using a fair market value established by the income approach-a more accurate valuation of land that is calculated based on the land’s actual ability to generate income from timber production.

HB 329 rewrites Georgia’s income tax law by eliminating the current graduated income tax brackets which vary from 1% to 6%. Most Georgians pay in the 6% category. HB 329 establishes a flat 5.4% rate, eliminating the income tax deduction for Georgia income taxes – Georgia was one of only 4 states that permitted this deduction. The Bill also provides for a non-refundable work credit for low-income families equal to 10% of what the individual is allowed under the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, and indexing the standard deductions and personal exemptions to the rate of inflation or deflation.

HB 204 provides that property tax bills cannot include any non-tax related fees or assessments such as sewer and trash collection fees, seeking to prevent property tax bills from being used as a debt collection tool for unrelated fees.

Education:

HB 114 prohibits local school systems from excluding dual enrolled students from eligibility for class valedictorian or salutatorian to ensure these students are not punishes for taking on the challenge of collegiate coursework in high school.

HB 338 is an attempt to once again address the issue of improving the performance of our lowest performing public schools. The Bill creates an alternative system of supports and assistance for the lowest-performing schools that fall under the State Board of Education’s intervention power in the form of a turnaround school. This code section requires the SBOW to articulate a plan of assistance and support for schools which receive and unacceptable rating and sets out annual interventions for a period of five years. This turnaround system will be governed by a Chief Turnaround Officer, an employee of the Department of Education meeting certain qualifications: a minimum of ten years of experience in K-12 education, experience in a principal position or higher in a public school system for at least three years, extensive experience in turning around failing schools.

Improvement in Rural Health:

This session, my colleagues and I have focused a great deal of our attention to supporting our state’s rural hospitals and health care needs, and this week, we demonstrated our support for these areas by overwhelmingly passing legislation to would expand the current service cancelable loan program for physicians and practitioners in underserved areas.

HB 427 expands the program by making loans available to dentists, physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses who have completed their medical or health care education and would allow those loans to be repaid by those health care practitioners agreeing to provide health care services in rural areas. This legislation would address the shortage of physicians and other health care practitioners in underserved rural Georgia and reflects a statewide push to solve this issue, as the bill’s intent is to attract quality providers to areas in dire need of medical assistance.

Other Bills of Interest:

HB 314 the Georgia Agribusiness and Rural Jobs Act is intended to raise funds for investment capital for approved projects in rural Georgia. Upon making a capital investment in a rural fund, a rural investor earns a vested right to a credit against such entity’s state tax liability that may be utilized on each credit allowance date of such capital investment in an amount equal to the applicable percentage for such credit allowance date multiplied by the purchase price paid to the rural fund for the capital investment. The amount of the credit claimed by a rural investor shall not exceed the amount of such entity’s state tax liability for the tax year for which the credit is claimed. Any amount of credit that a rural investor is prohibited from claiming in a taxable year as a result of this Code section may be carried forward for use in any subsequent taxable year. It is the intent of this Act that a rural investor claiming a credit under this Code section is not required to pay any additional tax that may arise as a result of claiming such credit. Under the bill a Rural Business Investment Company or Small Business Investment Company fund manager applies to manage funds and raise capital with DCA.

HR 158 provides for a constitutional amendment to be placed on the ballot allowing legislators to dedicate fees for specific purposes. Over the years, many Bills have passed imposing fees or fines for certain activities with those fees and fines collected being dedicated for a specific purpose. Unfortunately, most of the time these fees and fines have gone into the general treasury and not been dedicated specifically to the purpose the General Assembly enacted the fee or fine. If passed, HR 158 would assure the General Assembly’s direction is followed.

HB 116 seeks to address instances where juveniles commit the offenses of aggravated assault with a firearm or aggravated battery against a police officer or corrections officer, adding these offenses to the current list of eight juvenile offenses over which the superior court has original jurisdiction-this list includes murder, rape, and armed robbery with a firearm.

HB 124 updates the language in Code regarding fraud in obtaining public assistance and moves the sections criminalizing fraud in obtaining public assistance from Title 49 (concerning social Services) to Title 16 (concerning Crimes and Offenses).

HB 213 adds fentanyl and fentanyl derivatives to the list of prohibited substances contained within the drug trafficking code. Currently being used as a cutting agent for heroin, fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is fifty to one hundred times more potent than heroin and is resulting in significant increases in heroin and opioid-related deaths.

HB 279 addresses instances where victims of family violence defined as any felony or violent crime against a blood or legal relative living within the same household, and seeks to change their names or their children’s names to provide a separate process for such changes.

HB 360 allows for a licensed practitioner who has diagnosed a patient with chlamydia or gonorrhea to prescribe antibiotic drugs to the sexual partner of the patient without physically examining such partner.

HB 51 reforms the manner in which Georgia colleges and universities address accusations of sexual assault on campus.

HB 275 addresses body surfing and wake surfing by requiring safe boating practices for those engaging in these watersports: requiring the individual body or wake surfing to wear a lifejacket, and prohibiting body surfing behind a vessel unless it has an outboard or jet-drive motor.

HB 391 expands the locations where a mother may drop off her newborn child into safe physical custody from only medical facilities to include fire stations and police stations, as well as increases the age from one week to thirty days.

HB 202 increases the governor’s annual salary to $175,000, effective January 1, 2019. The Governor currently earns $139,339 per year. Further, the bill revises our State Commission on Compensation by reducing its membership from twelve to seven members, who may not be employed by the state nor an immediate family member of an officer or employee of the state.

HB 331 authorizes a kinship caregiver to give legal consent for educational services, medical services relating to academic enrollment, and curricular and extracurricular participation.

HB 341 expands the sexual servitude portion of the Human Trafficking laws in Georgia to include the “demand” portion of the human trafficking equation by adding those who patronize or solicit a person who is the victim of sexual servitude to the offense of sex trafficking; moreover, persons convicted of patronizing or soliciting a knowingly coerced and deceived victim of sexual servitude will be required to register as a sex offender.

Hunters and Fishermen – Get Your Lifetime License!

HB 208 increases Georgia’s hunting and fishing license fees which will bring home millions of federal matching dollars from the Pittman-Roberts Act. The 1937 Act created an excise tax paid by hunters on hunting equipment and ammunition. Those matching funds come back to Georgia to promote sound state management of wildlife habitat and species, and are based on the dollar volume of the state’s hunting licenses sold. You may want to consider obtaining a Lifetime License before July 1, 2017.

Our House website, www.house.ga.gov, has a number of tools to help you stay up-to-date on what’s going on at the Capitol. You can watch a live stream of the House proceedings, view live and archived committee meetings and review legislation we are considering.