2023 Capitol Update – Week 1
2023 Capitol Update – Week 1
January 9, 2023
Today is a monumental day in Georgia politics—despite what is expected to be a very short session day. Today marks the first day of the 2023-2024 biennium session, as well as the first day for a new Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives since 2010, a new Lieutenant Governor, 53 freshmen legislators, and new leadership in each chamber.
We expect a streamlined legislative day for both chambers, with a smooth transition from the current Speaker of the House, Jan Jones (R-Alpharetta), who became Speaker following the unexpected passing of former Speaker David Ralston [you can read Sully’s tribute to Speaker Ralston on page 5 of the latest issue of Engineering Georgia], to Speaker-nominee Rep. Jon Burns (R-Newington). Speaker Jan Jones, following the transition, will re-join leadership in her former role as Speaker Pro-Tempore.
New majority leadership on the House side includes the following:
- Majority Leader: Rep. Chuck Efstration (R-Dacula), formerly Rep. Jon Burns
- Majority Whip: Rep. James Burchett (R-Waycross)
- Majority Caucus Chair: Rep. Bruce Williamson (R-Monroe), who formerly served as Majority Caucus Secretary/Treasurer
- Majority Caucus Vice-Chair: Rep. Houston Gaines (R-Athens), an ACEC Georgia member
- Majority Caucus Secretary/Treasurer: Rep. Ginny Ehrhart (R-Marietta)
And while not all new House chairmen have been announced—we don’t expect those announcements in each chamber to be made until the second or third week of session—Rep. Matt Hatchett (R-Dublin) will be the new Chairman of House Appropriations.
On the Senate side, former Senator Burt Jones will be presiding for the first time over the chamber.
Majority leadership on the Senate side has also experienced a shake-up:
- President Pro-Tempore: Sen. John Kennedy (R-Macon), who formerly served in leadership and chaired the Senate re-districting committee
- Majority Leader: Sen. Steve Gooch (R-Dahlonega), one of the Senate’s most influential transportation advocates who formerly served as Majority Whip
- Majority Whip: Sen. Randy Robertson (R-Columbus)
- Majority Caucus Chair: Sen. Jason Anavitarte (R-Dallas)
- Majority Caucus Vice-Chair: Sen. Matt Brass (R-Newnan)
- Majority Caucus Secretary: this position is vacant, following the appointment of Sen. Dean Burke (R-Bainbridge) to Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Community Health
On top of the 10 new Senators and 43 new House members, there will be four vacant seats (three in the House, one in the Senate) during the first month of the session. Special elections for these seats are set for this month.
Despite the new faces, the state will continue to be led for the next four years by Governor Brian Kemp, who handily won his re-election bid in November. Governor Kemp and the new legislature will begin this session with a $6.6 billion surplus, even after appropriators fill the state’s rainy-day fund to the legal limit. Gov. Kemp has pledged at least $3 billion of this surplus to fund to another round of one-time tax rebates for Georgia’s taxpayers. The remaining surplus may be used to pay down state liabilities and replace the lost revenue resulting from the suspension of the Georgia state gas tax this past year, which the Governor pledged to backfill after the suspension was enacted during the 2022 session—this suspension set to end tomorrow, January 10th, 2023.
ACEC Georgia’s top legislative priorities in 2023 are the following:
- Funding the PELS Board: this year we will be working on the second step of the two-step legislative process, which will include working with appropriators to ensure that the PELS Board is fully funded. For more information about this effort in its entirety, please view our last Capitol Update of 2022
- Working with coalition partners on innovative workforce development solutions and supporting AEC industry advocates and the Chamber of Commerce’s efforts to address the current workforce shortage
- Promoting pro-business policies that continue to preserve Georgia’s ranking as the #1 state in which to do business
- Supporting efforts for Freight & Logistics planning and funding, including revenue generation methods stemming from the former Freight & Logistics commission from 2021, and the 2022 joint study committee on the electrification of transportation
The weeks ahead:
- We expect very light legislative activity tomorrow, January 10th
- On Wednesday, the Chamber of Commerce will host their premiere legislative event: Eggs & Issues. Lawmakers will likely convene for a few hours following the event.
- On Thursday, the Governor and constitutional officers will be officially sworn in and begin their terms. Traditional inaugural fanfare will follow.
- Next week, beginning Tuesday, January 17th, will be “budget week”, in which all the major state agency heads will present the Governor’s budget recommendations for their respective agencies to appropriators over a three-to-four day period.
- During the following week (beginning on the 23rd), we expect committee chairmen and assignments in both chambers to be released, if they have not already. On the 25th, the Governor will give his annual “State of the State” address to a joint session of the legislature. This address will lay out his legislative initiatives (which will be advocated for by his legislative “floor leaders” as the Governor cannot legally introduce legislation), and his budget highlights.
ACEC Georgia’s Government Affairs Council will be meeting every other Friday at 10:30am, beginning January 27th. Any employee of any ACEC Georgia member firm is welcome to join! Please reach out to Christy for more details.
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