Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for March 3, 2022

On March 3, 1779, the British Army met America forces in Screven County, Georgia.

On March 3, 1779, 238 years ago [] , the first major battle of the British Army’s push into the American South took place at Brier Creek at the old road between Savannah and Augusta. According to Battle and President of the Brier Creek Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution Craig Wildi, the American loss resulted in the deaths of at least 200 patriots.

Studies done by Battle in conjunction with other professional organizations have uncovered evidence that some of Georgia’s soldiers who lost their lives in the fight for independence may still lie in graves at the battle site.

“This was the 16th bloodiest of all battle sites throughout the Revolutionary War,” Battle said. “We found so many artifacts under our original permit, Georgia DNR (Department of natural Resources) shut the study down.”

The land around the battle site is public, managed by Georgia DNR as part of the Tuckahoe Wildlife Management Area. The wildlife management area is about 15,000 acres. Battle and Wildi said they want 500-600 acres set aside to fully study the site, but said DNR hasn’t been willing to dedicate more than about five acres for site preservation and management.

Last year, the Sons of the American Revolution held a commemorative event to place flags in honor of those who died at the battlefield. Because the event was hosted by a non-profit organization, Wildi said Georgia DNR waived the requirements for certain liability insurance policies and other fees for group events. This year, he said they are requiring the group to pay for those requirements; payments the small non-profit says it can’t afford.

During the surveys for and original push for the Palmetto Pipeline, bulldozers and other equipment were brought onto the site to widen roads across it inside the wildlife management area. The proposed pipeline map originally had the right of way slated to cross the battlefield. While both said they were relieved the pipeline was stopped, they say other challenges remain in saving the site.

Note that story above was from the Augusta Chronicle and published in 2017. The Brier Creek Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution can be found on the internet and on Facebook.

On March 3, 1820, Congress passed the Missouri Compromise.

In February 1819, Representative James Tallmadge of New York introduced a bill that would admit Missouri into the Union as a state where slavery was prohibited. At the time, there were 11 free states and 10 slave states. Southern congressmen feared that the entrance of Missouri as a free state would upset the balance of power between North and South, as the North far outdistanced the South in population, and thus, U.S. representatives. Opponents to the bill also questioned the congressional precedent of prohibiting the expansion of slavery into a territory where slave status was favored.

Even after Alabama was granted statehood in December 1819 with no prohibition on its practice of slavery, Congress remained deadlocked on the issue of Missouri. Finally, a compromise was reached. On March 3, 1820, Congress passed a bill granting Missouri statehood as a slave state under the condition that slavery was to be forever prohibited in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36th parallel, which runs approximately along the southern border of Missouri. In addition, Maine, formerly part of Massachusetts, was admitted as a free state, thus preserving the balance between Northern and Southern senators.

The Missouri Compromise, although criticized by many on both sides of the slavery debate, succeeded in keeping the Union together for more than 30 years.

On March 3, 1845, Congress overrode a Presidential veto for the first time.

On March 3, 1874, Governor Joseph Brown signed legislation permitting persons or companies to lease Georgia prisoners for terms from one to five years, with the Governor setting the rates.

The act required the humane treatment of convicts and limited them to a ten-hour work day, with Sunday off. Equally important, leases had to free the state from all costs associated with prisoner maintenance. Once all state convicts were leased, the law provided that all state penitentiary officers and employees be discharged.

Just think of how much progress Georgia has made with privatizing the justice system — now, instead of leasing convicts, we have private probation companies overseeing released prisoners.

Two years ago today, the big story was that two coronavirus cases had been confirmed in Georgia, according to the AJC.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Under the Gold Dome Today – Legislative Day 23

TBD Senate Rules upon Adjournment 450 CAP

8:00 AM HOUSE Judiciary Non-Civil Smith Subcommittee 132 CAP HYBRID

8:00 AM HOUSE Compensation Resolution AD HOC Committee 341 CAP HYBRID

8:00 AM Senate Ethics Committee 307 CLOB

8:30 AM HOUSE WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE 406 CLOB HYBRID

9:00 AM HOUSE RULES COMMITTEE 341 CAP

10:00 AM HOUSE FLOOR SESSION (LD 23) House Chamber

10:00 AM Senate Floor Session LD 23 Senate Chamber

1:00 PM HOUSE EDUCATION COMMITTEE 606 CLOB HYBRID

1:00 PM Senate Public Safety Committee Mezz 1

1:30 PM HOUSE JUVENILE JUSTICE COMMITTEE 403 CAP HYBRID

2:00 PM HOUSE TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE 506 CLOB HYBRID

2:00 PM HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE 132 CAP HYBRID

2:00 PM HOUSE INSURANCE COMMITTEE 341 CAP HYBRID

2:00 PM HOUSE HUMAN RELATIONS & AGING COMMITTEE 606 CLOB

2:00 PM Senate Transportation Committee 450 CAP

2:00 PM Senate Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee Mezz 1

3:00 PM HOUSE Special Committee on Access to Quality Health 403 CAP HYBRID

3:00 PM HOUSE Ways & Means Income Tax Subcommittee 341 CAP HYBRID

3:00 PM HOUSE Energy Utilities, & Telecommunications EV Charging Subcommittee 406 CLOB HYBRID

3:00 PM HOUSE CANCELED Special Committee on Election Integrity 606 CLOB HYBRID

3:00 PM Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities 450 CAP

4:00 PM Senate Government Oversight Committee 450 CAP

Senate Rules Calendar

HB 910 Supplemental appropriations; State Fiscal Year July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022 (Substitute) (APPROP-19th) Ralston-7th
SR 504 Native American Tribes; recognize (RULES-53rd)

HOUSE RULES CALENDAR

Modified Structured Rule
HB 508 Commerce and trade; commercial recordings, musical performances, and audiovisual works; provide protections (CA&E-Carpenter-4th)
HB 916 Superior and State Court Appellate Practice Act; enact (Substitute) (Judy-Leverett-33rd)
HB 1150 Freedom to Farm Act; enact (Substitute)(A&CA-Dickey-140th)
HB 1216 Traffic offenses; enhanced penalties for violations of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer; provide (Substitute)(PS&HS-McDonald-26th)
HB 1324 Health and insurance; clarify that the prudent layperson standard is not affected by the diagnoses given (Substitute)(Ins-Camp-131st)
HB 1348 Georgia Smoke-free Air Act; revise (H&HS-Rich-97th)
HB 1349 Natural Resources, Dept. of; attempt to prevent net loss of land acreage available for hunting on state owned lands; extend date (GF&P-Ridley-6th)
HB 1355 Childhood Lead Exposure Control Act; revise (H&HS-Dempsey-13th)

Structured Rule
HB 997 Ad valorem tax; timber equipment and timber products held by timber producers; provide exemption (W&M-Watson-172nd)
HB 1058 Income tax; affiliated corporations file separate or consolidated returns; provisions (Substitute)(W&M-Williamson-115th)

A Special Election in House District 45 will be held April 5, 2022, according to the AJC.

Cobb County will hold a special election April 5 to fill the vacant House District 45 seat of former state Rep. Matt Dollar, but whoever wins shouldn’t get too comfortable in their new office.

Because of a quirk of the election’s calendar, the winner might not even vote on a single bill as a state lawmaker.

The special election for the East Cobb district will be held one day after the 2022 legislative session is scheduled to end, and about a month before voting begins for the May primary election, which determines the two major party candidates for races up and down the ballot. That includes Dollar’s old seat, which by law has to be filled in the interim.

To further complicate matters, the May election will be run under new legislative boundaries that are shifting due to redistricting that takes effect next year.

As a result, the stakes for the special election are unusually low. The winner won’t automatically earn a spot on the November general election ballot for the redrawn district.

Governor Brian Kemp will visit Waverly Hall, Georgia on Saturday, according to WTVM.

U.S. Representative Drew Ferguson, District Director Andy Bush, and State Representative Beth Camp will also be in attendance.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R2.0) spoke in Dalton, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

Former president Donald Trump lost Georgia in 2020 because 28,000 Georgia voters skipped the presidential race, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said here Monday.

“They voted down ballot in the other races but didn’t vote in the presidential race,” he said. “Republican congressmen got 33,000 more votes than President Trump, and that’s why President Trump came up short.”

“One of the reasons I talk to folks is to let them know that their vote counts and it will be counted accurately,” he said. “If people believe a lot of this disinformation, they may believe their vote won’t count. That could suppress turnout, and that’s not a good thing. As secretary of state, part of my job is to ensure honest and fair elections. I take that seriously.”

“No one from Delta, no one from Coke, no one from any of these major corporations (that criticized the Election Integrity Act) ever called me,” he said. “I would have sat down with anyone, just like I did today, to explain what that law did and did not do.”

The State Senate Regulated Industries Committee voted to move forward a statewide referendum to allow horse racing, according to the Associated Press via AccessWDUN.

Georgia voters could get a chance to legalize gambling on horse racing after a Senate committee on Wednesday passed a constitutional amendment, but the fate of the legislation remains uncertain.

The Senate Regulated Industries Committee voted to approve Senate Resolution 131, but did not act on the accompanying Senate Bill 212 that would allow up to five horse racing tracks with gambling anywhere in the state. Committee Chairman Bill Cowsert, an Athens Republican, pledged a vote on the accompanying bill in coming days.

No proposal has yet emerged in the House, although proponents are hoping for action before the March 15 crossover day, when legislation must make it out of its originating chamber. The House could also still act on Senate Bill 142, which authorizes sports betting regulated by the Georgia Lottery Corp.

Senators are taking a different approach, pushing forward a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow betting on live racing at Georgia tracks or betting on simulcast racing from other tracks. But the amendment advanced Wednesday would not allow other forms of gambling such as slot machines or casino table games at racetracks.

From the Capitol Beat News Service via the Henry Herald:

[S]ome lawmakers worried the horse-racing industry could be set up for failure in the Peach State if racetracks are limited to live or simulcast horse racing.

The constitutional amendment would prohibit casinos from setting up slot machines and table games at racetracks. Other tracks around the nation have come to rely on income from casino operations for a major portion of their businesses.

An “enabling” bill accompanying the constitutional amendment calls for the construction of up to five horse racing tracks in Georgia, to be overseen by a five-member state commission whose members would be appointed by the governor.

Applicants for licenses to operate a racetrack would pay a $500,000 non-refundable fee and a $250,000 renewal fee each year.

If Georgia voters approve horse racing in a statewide referendum, local city councils or county commissions would have to vote by ordinance to allow a racetrack to be built in their community.

The State House Health and Human Services Committee voted to recommend passage of HB 1013, the Mental Health Parity Act, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Henry Herald.

Wednesday’s vote came after House Speaker David Ralston, the bill’s chief sponsor, urged the panel to act on what he said is the most important issue lawmakers are facing this year.

“This discussion impacts most every family in Georgia in one way or another,” said Ralston, R-Blue Ridge. “Many Georgians are suffering with mental health issues. Their families are suffering.”

“They’re looking for help and either don’t know where to turn or may not have a viable option for mental-health services.”

The Mental Health Parity Act would require health insurance companies to treat mental illness in the same way they treat physical illness. The parity provision also would apply to Georgia’s Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids programs and to the State Health Benefit Plan for Georgia teachers and state employees.

To address the shortage of mental health and substance abuse workers, the bill would create a service-cancelable loan program, an initiative expected to cost $8 million to $10 million.

“Whoever can be part of growing and expanding the workforce is paramount to what we do,” said Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome.

Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, one of the bill’s cosponsors, said the state’s mental health system serves most mentally ill Georgians well but is broken when it comes to those in the most distress.

“The money we’re trying to spend in an effective way is about the folks who are not being managed well,” she said. “They end up in jails, as homeless or in our emergency room system.”

From the AJC:

House Bill 1013 would require insurance companies to cover mental health care the same way they cover physical health, establish state grants for outpatient treatment and take other steps to improve care. House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, called it “just the beginning of what I expect will be a multiyear conversation” about mental health.

“This is not a partisan issue,” Ralston told the House Health and Human Services Committee, which approved the measure. “This is not a geographic issue. This is not an income issue.”

The move to expand mental health services comes as overdose deaths are rising in Georgia, along with suicide deaths in rural areas. And it comes as the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities has lost nearly 1,100 of its 3,837 employees over two years. The staffing shortage meant 185 psychiatric hospital beds couldn’t be filled.

The bill now goes to the House Rules Committee, which will determine whether it gets a vote by the full House of Representatives.

State legislators may go to the voters for a pay raise, according to the AJC.

A bipartisan resolution sponsored by state Rep. Wes Cantrell, R-Woodstock, who isn’t seeking reelection this year, would put a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall to take the issue out of the General Assembly’s hands.

If the resolution passes the General Assembly — it may be up for a vote in a committee next week — and is OK’d by voters in November, legislators would be paid 60% of the median household income of Georgians, starting in 2025.

Cantrell said he decided on the 60% figure because a study showed lawmakers do the work equivalent to two-thirds of a full-time job. Some, such as the Legislature’s budget chairmen, work pretty much full time.

Cantrell, a minister, said Georgia’s low salary “limits how many Georgians can serve.”

“I’d like to see a schoolteacher be able to serve in the General Assembly,” Cantrell said. “I’d like to be able to see a police officer serve in the General Assembly.”

The Lincoln County Board of Elections is being criticized for their alleged unwillingness to share information on prospective poll closures, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

“They’re making it very difficult for people to access services that should be a right that people have,” said Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia. “Trying to put a veil over it doesn’t help anything.”

The elections board revealed a plan last year to close all seven existing polling places and require voters to use a new central location. Last month, the plan changed to closing all but two sites and combining the remaining five precincts into one.

Rather than provide information about the proposals, the board, through its director, chairman and attorney, has refused to release any information about them — to voters, lawyers, reporters — ahead of planned votes on them, including one Feb. 23.

Athens Clarke County Commissioners voted to raise their pay, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

The base salary of commissioners will nearly double to $28,693, effective in the first month of 2023. Commissioners Mariah Parker, Melissa Link, Tim Denson, Jesse Houle, Russell Edwards, and Carol Myers all voted to support the pay raise.

Commissioners Patrick Davenport, Allison Wright, Ovita Thornton and Mike Hamby voted against the motion to raise commission salaries.

Three of the commissioners who voted for the raise will be unable to reap its benefits, due to changes during redistricting. They are ineligible to run in 2022 as incumbents in their existing seats.

Muscogee County homelessness is up for the first time since 2016, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

The number of individuals experiencing homelessness in Muscogee and Russell counties increased slightly from last year based on preliminary data from a survey conducted Tuesday and Wednesday.

This is the 14th annual survey, known as the Point In Time Count, conducted by Home for Good of United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley. The organization conducts a count of the sheltered and unsheltered population across Muscogee and Russell counties, said Home for Good Executive Director Pat Frey.

Until 2022, the number of those experiencing homelessness in the region had declined every year since 2016, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials were shocked by the decreased numbers in 2021, Frey said, but attributed the lower numbers to the fact that the federal eviction moratorium prevented some from losing their homes.

The number of people experiencing homelessness rose by 2% from 2021 to 2022, according to the preliminary data provided in the news release. The increase was most likely due to the pandemic.

Savannah-Chatham County public schools discussed how parents can ask for the removal of a book from the library, according to WTOC.

Currently, parents can submit a material reconsideration form to have a book removed if they feel it’s inappropriate for kids in a particular school.

The program manager for Media Services says no reconsideration forms have been submitted yet.

No one in support of removing any books spoke at today’s meeting.

Robins Air Force Base produces nearly $6 billion dollars in annual economic effects from tourism for the surrounding area, according to 13WMAZ.

Statesboro City Council adopted an ordinance to allow and regulate package liquor sales, according to the Statesboro Herald.

Hall County Board of Education member Mark Pettitt is running for reelection, according to AccessWDUN.

Dougherty County Commission Chair Chris Cohilas kicked off his reelection campaign, according to the Albany Herald.

Floyd County Board of Elections members are interviewing candidates for election supervisor, according to the Rome News Tribune.