On February 4, 1789, George Washington was unanimously elected by the Electoral College as the first President of the United States; Washington’s runner-up John Adams served as Vice President. Washington would repeat the feat four years later on February 4, 1793.
On February 4, 1801, John Marshall took office as Chief Justice of the United States. Marshall continued to hold the post of Secretary of State until March 4th. In one of American history’s rich ironies, Marshall, who served at the same time in the judicial and legislative branches of the federal government, would write the Court’s opinion in Marbury v. Madison, establishing the supremacy of the Supreme Court in matters of applying the Constitution through judicial review and establishing the doctrine of separation of powers. Marshall would serve during the terms of six Presidents.
On February 4, 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress convened in Montgomery, Alabama, where it would draft a Constitution for the Confederate States of America, beginning with a near-verbatim copy of the United States Constitution.
On February 4, 1976, the Georgia Senate approved a resolution previously passed by the State House proposing a Constitutional Amendment to allow Governors of Georgia to serve two consecutive terms and voters approved in November 1976. Then-Governor George Busbee won reelection in November 1978, and since then Democrat Roy Barnes is the only Georgia Governor to not win reelection.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Under the Gold Dome Today – LD 11
8:00 AM HOUSE MOTOR VEHICLES 515 CLOB
9:00 AM HOUSE RULES 341 CAP
10:00 AM HOUSE FLOOR SESSION (LD 11) House Chamber
TBD SENATE RULES UPON ADJOURNMENT 450 CAP
1:00 PM SENATE ETHICS – CANCELED 307 CLOB
1:00 PM HOUSE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM 341 CAP
1:00 PM HOUSE Energy Subcommittee of Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications 606 CLOB
1:30 PM HOUSE Alcohol Tobacco Subcommittee of Regulated Industries 605 CLOB
2:00 PM SENATE REGULATED INDUSTRIES & UTILITIES 450 CAP
2:00 PM SENATE VETERANS, MILITARY & HOMELAND SECURITY 310 CLOB
2:00 PM HOUSE RETIREMENT 515 CLOB
2:00 PM HOUSE JUDICIARY CIVIL 132 CAP
2:00 PM HOUSE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES 606 CLOB
2:00 PM HOUSE WORKING GROUP ON CREATIVE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT 403 CAP
2:00 PM HOUSE Ways and Means Public Finance and Policy Subcommittee 133 CAP
2:00 PM HOUSE REGULATED INDUSTRIES 506 CLOB
2:30 PM HOUSE Ways and Means Tax Expenditure Subcommittee 133 CAP
3:00 PM SENATE NATURAL RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT 310 CLOB
3:00 PM SENATE BANKING & FINANCIAL INSTITUTION – CANCELED MEZZ 1
3:00 PM HOUSE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS 403 CAP
4:00 PM SENATE TRANPORTATION 310 CLOB
4:00 PM SENATE AGRICULTURE & CONSUMER AFFAIRS 450 CAP
SENATE RULES CALENDAR
SB 159 – Motor Vehicles and Traffic; operation of motorized mobility devices; provide (Substitute)(TRANS-51st)
Governor Brian Kemp and State School Superintendent Richard Woods announced a proposal to reduce standardized testing, according to AccessWDUN.
Both Woods and Kemp oppose the current amount of testing, part of a national backlash to a system largely built by Republicans in Georgia.
“By reducing high-stakes testing, we’ll remove heavy burdens in our classroom for our teachers and our students,” Kemp said in a statement to The Associated Press. “We’ll restore parents’ peace of mind about their children’s education, and we’ll let educators focus on what they do best — teaching children.”
The biggest changes would come in high school. Students would no longer have to take tests in geometry, economics, physical science and American literature.
The proposed legislation would also let the state Board of Education drop the high school exams from being considered in course grades. Now, state law requires that exams be included in course grades. The board’s policy requires that a test count for one-fifth of a student’s overall course grade.
For younger students, the plan would drop a fifth-grade social studies test not required by the federal government, but would hang onto an optional eighth grade test in Georgia history.
The Club for Growth announced it will spend $3 million dollars discussing Rep. Doug Collins’s voting record, according to the AJC.
[T]he conservative Club for Growth organization unveiled plans to spend $3 million to clog Georgia’s airwaves with attacks scrutinizing Collins’ voting record. The group has been critical of Collins’ 57% score on its legislative scorecard in the last year.
The four-term congressman, who launched his campaign last week with a promise to support President Donald Trump, swiped back with a digital ad highlighting one of the votes the anti-tax group has slammed him for taking: The U.S. House passage of a sweeping farm package.
“Why team up with a Washington special interest group that’s against Georgia farmers?” a narrator in a digital ad asked, as grainy images of Loeffler splashed on the screen.
“Why team up with that special interest group that tried to defeat Donald Trump and is attacking Doug Collins for defending Donald Trump and voting with Johnny Isakson and David Perdue to save Georgia farmers?”
State Rep. Wes Cantrell (R-Woodstock) continues the good fight against the scourge that is Daylight Savings Time, according to the AJC.
Under House Bill 709, voters’ options in the [non-binding] referendum would be to keep the annual time change, switch to year-round standard time (marked by winding clocks back an hour in late fall) or to switch to year-round daylight saving time (marked by moving clocks ahead an hour in early spring).
“By and large, people cannot stand the time change,” Cantrell said.
In a Monday meeting of the House State Planning and Community Affairs Committee, Cantrell cited research that has found an increase in car accidents corresponding with daylight saving time changes. Passing HB 709 and setting the referendum for this year’s November election would help the state gauge whether there’s an appetite for stopping the twice-yearly time changes.
If the referendum were to come back with a clear preference for discarding the current system, Cantrell said he would bring a bill adopting the preferred option to the House next year, pending his own re-election. If voters were to choose standard time, Georgia would be able to make the move on its own. But if year-round daylight saving time was the preference, a switch would require approval from the U.S. Congress.
Senate Bill 302 by Sen. John Albers would allow outside auditors for the film production tax credit program, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
Senate Bill 302 comes after a scathing set of audits the state Department of Audits and Accounts released last month that found Georgia’s film tax credit has been poorly managed while being touted as having more economic impact on the state than it actually does.
Sponsored by Sen. John Albers, the legislation would let the governor’s budget office contract with outside auditors to scrutinize up to five tax-incentive programs each year, upon request from state lawmakers.
Auditors would dive into the economic pros and cons of the state’s many tax credits, exemptions, rebates, deferrals and other business incentives.
“All the things that each one of us would do if we were investing our money,” Albers, R-Roswell, said Monday of the audit’s scope.
The bill passed unanimously out of the Senate Finance Committee and heads to the floor for a vote of the full Senate.
“We can do better here at making sure we’re making the best use of taxpayers’ dollars,” Hufstetler, R-Rome, said Monday.
From the Dalton Daily Citizen News:
The legislation, known as Senate Bill 302, is sponsored by Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The bill calls for economic analysis of tax benefits upon the request of lawmakers.
Under the bill, chairpersons of the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Finance Committee could request up to five tax benefit audits through the Office of Planning and Budget on or before May 1 of each year.
A new provision, on the terms of Gov. Brian Kemp’s veto, would require contracting independent auditors to complete the reports by Dec. 1 of each year. Each request is limited to one specific exemption, exclusion or deduction from the regular tax rate.
The report would be mandated to include the net change in state revenue, state expenditures and economic activity and — if applicable — the change in public benefit. A fiscal note would also be required to be included and within the year time frame to provide lawmakers relevant information.
The State House Special Committee on Access to Quality Health Care voted for HB 789, legislation on surprise billing, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
A committee the House formed last year to explore ways to increase access to quality health care passed a bill Monday to set up a rating system Georgians could use to determine which physician specialty groups in their insurance plan’s provider network serve a given hospital.
The measure would apply to anesthesiologists, pathologists, radiologists and emergency room doctors, typically specialists responsible for the most incidents of surprise billing, the extra hospital charges that result from procedures performed by out-of-network specialists.
The legislation would strike a blow for transparency in the delivery of health-care services, said Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta, the committee’s chairman and the bill’s chief sponsor.
“If I want to have elective surgery … I don’t know if the anesthesiologist at my hospital is in my network,” he said. “I have no way to find out.”
A Senate bill on surprise billing, in fact, would go further than the House measure. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, would essentially prohibit the practice. Disputes between insurance companies and medical providers would be subject to arbitration conducted by the state Office of Insurance.
Senate Bill 296 by Sen. Bill Heath (R-Bremen) will allow chemical cremation of human bodies, according to the Albany Herald.
Senate Bill 296 would permit crematories to undertake the process of alkaline hydrolysis, which combines water, alkaline chemicals, pressure and heat to liquify most human remains. The dissolving process breaks down fat and tissues into liquid, leaving behind bone fragments.
Alkaline hydrolysis, or “aquamation”, is used as an alternative to traditional fire-burning furnaces or burials in several states, according to the advocacy group Cremation Association of North America. The group describes it as more environmentally friendly, a “gentler process.”
“It has been an accepted process,” [Sen. Heath] said.
“Given the option, a lot of families do find that this is less abrasive than fire,” [funeral home owner Mindy] Miller-Moats said at a Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee meeting last week.
The Georgia Funeral Directors Association backs the bill and alkaline hydrolysis as a more environmentally friendly and efficient cremation process.
Two members of the Georgia Department of Transportation Board were reelected by legislators from the Congressional Districts each represents, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.
Tim Golden continues serving as chairman of the state transportation board.
Golden of Valdosta, representing the Eighth Congressional District, and Vice Chairman Rudy Bowen of Columbus, representing the Seventh Congressional District, were unanimously reelected to full five-year board terms by a caucus of state representatives and senators from their respective congressional districts, according to state officials.
The new terms begin April 15.
“The Georgia Department of Transportation and the people of Georgia are fortunate to have dedicated individuals like (Chairman )Tim Golden and Rudy Bowen representing them on the transportation board,” said Russell R. McMurry, P.E., Georgia Department of Transportation commissioner. “All 14 state transportation board members perform a vital function in advancing transportation across all of Georgia.”
Dougherty County voters will be able to test drive the new voting system, according to the Albany Herald.
Dougherty County voters can get a look at the new voting machines they will be using multiple times this year during a Thursday presentation. The Dougherty County Voter Registration and Elections office will show a video presentation and have some of the machines on hand for a demonstration.
Some of the confusion may lie in the impression some voters have that they receive a paper copy to keep.
“There’s no receipt,” Dougherty County Elections Supervisor Ginger Nickerson said.
“You get to review your ballot, your choices, on paper, and if you’re happy, you submit that. We want to kind of get our voters out and let them see what they’ll be voting on for the first time.”
The informational meeting starts at 6 p.m. in Room 100 of the Albany-Dougherty Government Center at 222 Pine Ave.
State Rep. Kevin Tanner (R-Dawsonville) announced he will run for Congress, according to the Gainesville Times.
“I have spent the last several days praying about the decision and talking it over with my family,” Tanner said in the post. “I have truly enjoyed serving in the State House, but I feel the call to try to make a difference at the national level.”
Georgia’s 9th Congressional district includes all of Banks, Dawson, Elbert, Fannin, Franklin, Gilmer, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, Union and White counties and parts of Clarke, Forsyth and Pickens counties.
“I am ready to continue our district’s 27-year history of having conservative leadership in Congress,” he said. “I am ready for the fight to stop the radical left and work alongside President Trump to protect the conservative values that make North Georgia and all of America great.”
“I’ve had the pleasure of working and serving the citizens of Dawson County for 30 years now in various roles from law enforcement to county manager to their state representative,” he said. “I’m proud of where I come from, I love the community that I’ve been blessed to grow up in and to live in and I look forward to having the opportunity to continue to serve them at a different level.”
Dawson County Board of Education member Will Wade is expected to announce a campaign for House District 9, which is being vacated by State Rep. Kevin Tanner, according to FetchYourNews.
Wade is senior vice president and marketing executive at Southern Bank & Trust and a member of the school board since 2004.
Wade has devoted many years to public service and, in 2017, was named to Georgia Trend’s 40 Under 40. He was appointed by Gov. Sonny Perdue to serve on the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission in 2010. He was selected vice chairman of Georgia Mountains Workforce Development in 2012, president of the Georgia School Board Association in 2017 and, last year, Gov. Brian Kemp appointed him to the Georgia Student Finance Commission in the 9th district.
Announced candidates for the election include attorney Zack Tumlin and attorney Steven Leibel.
Three Georgia cities and a county are seeking certification of a class action lawsuit against AirBNB, according to AccessWDUN.
In a federal lawsuit filed Friday, the three cities and one county are seeking class-action status to include communities throughout the state as plaintiffs.
They say the allegations in the lawsuit affect more than 100 Georgia counties and hundreds of municipalities.
The suit was filed by lawyers representing Rome, Cartersville, Tybee Island and Hart County. They’re among several Georgia communities with ordinances to collect taxes for short-term rentals.
A new Georgia law is expected to change the way taxes are collected from companies in the online marketplace.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp last month signed the new law that’s supposed to facilitate the collection of state and local sales taxes from online providers including Airbnb beginning April 1. It’s unclear what effect the new law will have on the lawsuit.
Salvagers working on the M/V Golden Ray, which is capsized in St Simons Sound, hope to have most of the hulk removed before hurricane season, according to the Statesboro Herald.
The salvage team in charge of removing a cargo ship that overturned on the Georgia coast nearly five months ago wants to surround it with a giant mesh screen to contain any loose debris as the vessel gets cut into pieces.
A document issued by the Army Corps of Engineers said the salvage team’s goal is to have “all large sections” of the South Korean ship Golden Ray removed before hurricane season starts June 1. No timeline was given for complete removal of the hulking ship that measures 656 feet (200 meters) long.
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