2023 Capitol Update – Week 6
2023 Capitol Update – Week 6
February 13, 2023
This past week, while Georgia lawmakers met for legislative days 13 through 16, puppies and alligators roamed the halls to raise awareness of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day.
Including today, 12 legislative days remain until “Crossover”, which is the deadline for a bill to pass out of the chamber in which it was introduced. Any bill that fails to meet this deadline is considered dead for the session.
Last Thursday, the House Transportation Committee met to discuss HB 189 by Representative Steven Meeks which proposes to create a 12.5% variance on the codified weight limit for heavy duty trucks, which is currently 80,000 pounds, ultimately legally allowing up to 90,000 pounds on state and local roads. This follows on the heels of the Governor’s executive order from 2020 which created the variance in an attempt to ease supply chain constraints. The five and a half hour long meeting included compelling testimony on each side of the issue. The pro-side made various business arguments to codify the variance, while the opposition focused on road and bridge maintenance as well as safety arguments against the continuation of the variance. The committee ultimately gave the bill favorable consideration, by a vote of 18 to 11. This bill is now in the House Rules Committee, which sets the calendar for debate on the House floor. ACEC Georgia does not have a position on the bill, but we are watching it.
Last week, the proposal to create the City of Buckhead City was re-introduced after failing to pick up steam last year. Should the bill pass, residents within the proposed city limits would vote to decide on the fate of the city in November of 2024. A companion bill, SB 113, would allow for the transfer of municipal services from an existing city to a newly incorporated city. SB 113 would be necessary to ensure uninterrupted use of critical services by residents, should Buckhead City become a reality. ACEC Georgia historically does not take positions on new cityhood proposals.
In budget news, House appropriators have begun hearing the Governor’s recommendations and agency requests for the full fiscal year budget for 2024. We expect that the full budget will be on the floor of the House for a vote sometime late this week or next week.
The week ahead:
Legislators will meet for legislative days 17 through 20.
This afternoon, PELS Board member Russ Pennington will speak to the Government Operations subcommittee of the House Appropriations committee about the proposed budget for the Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors Board for fiscal year 2024.
We may see the amended budget pass out of the Senate this week. We will keep you updated on the PELS Board budget.
Be sure to mark your calendars for Engineers at the Capitol Day on February 28th from 8:00-10:00am! Join us for a meet-and-greet breakfast with legislators. While we won’t have animals joining us, we will have delicious chicken biscuits and the Mayors of the Capitol Lobbying Corps. Following breakfast, there will be an optional tour of the Capitol. This is a great opportunity to meet your elected Representative and Senator, as well as other legislators from across the state! Please contact Christy or Chandler for more.
LEGISLATION ACEC GEORGIA IS FOLLOWING
Budget & Appropriations
HB 18 by Representative Jon Burns (R-Newington): is the amended FY 2023 budget. It currently has $300,000 of the $500,000 request for the Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (PELS) Board.
Status: Passed the House Appropriations Committee on February 1st. Passed the House by a vote of 170-1 on February 2nd. Assigned to the Senate Appropriations Committee, where subcommittees have begun hearing testimony from agency heads and other stakeholders.
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
HB 19 by Representative Jon Burns (R-Newington): is the full fiscal year 2024 budget. It currently has $1,027,895 of the requested $2.5 million for the PELS Board for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Status: Assigned to the House Appropriations Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
Industry & Professions
HB 128 by Representative Soo Hong (R-Lawrenceville): would revise provisions relating to minority, women owned, and veteran owned businesses procuring or involved in the procurement (as subs) of state contracts. The bill defines these types of qualified “classified” businesses and would expand the 10% tax deductions for payments to these small business subcontractors to all classified businesses.
Status: Assigned to the House State Planning & Community Affairs Committee.
ACEC Georgia supports this legislation
HB 267 by Representative Tyler Paul Smith (R-Bremen): would allow an individual to pursue a civil action and seek injunctive relief if an employer, other than a governmental entity, fails to withhold taxes properly from wages paid to an employee.
Status: Assigned to the House Ways & Means Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
HB 289 by Representative Roger Bruce (D-Atlanta): proposes to create a Division of Supplier Diversity within the Department of Administrative Services. It defines parameters for the definition of diversity supplier, contractor, or subcontractor. It further creates a state-wide advocate who would serve as a liaison for minority and women owned business enterprises to assist with various business related operations and investigate complaints by those businesses.
Status: Assigned to the House Governmental Affairs Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
SB 3 by Senator John Albers (R-Roswell): "Reducing Barriers to State Employment Act of 2023". This proposal would direct all state entities to regularly assess the relevant academic background and experience requirements needed for each position within their agency, reduce those requirements which are arduous and unnecessary, and reduce the number of positions for which four-year college degrees are required as a condition of employment.
Status: Passed the Senate Government Oversight Committee. Passed favorably on the Senate floor, by a vote of 49 to 1. This bill awaits assignment on the House side.
ACEC Georgia supports this legislation
SR 85 by Senator Larry Walker (R-Perry): would create a Senate study committee on occupational licenses. If the Senate were to vote to create this study committee, during the session interim, the committee would be tasked with reviewing occupational licenses and onerous requirements for receiving these licenses.
Status: Assigned to the Senate Rules Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
Transportation
HB 52 by Representative Brad Thomas (R-Woodstock): is HB 1438 from last year, and as Rep. Thomas put it, this bill “Sine Died” on the last day of session last year. This was last year’s annual GDOT housekeeping bill and proposes to revise meeting notice provisions for the election of board members for the Department of Transportation as well as clarify other provisions regarding public-private partnership negotiations and exempt some records from public disclosure requirements. This bill was amended to include a separate provision that relates to the duties of coroners and county medical examiners regarding major interstate highway deaths, as well as increase the modular home transportation square footage limit by 4 feet to align with neighboring states’ restrictions.
Status: Passed the House Transportation Committee on January 30th. The House voted in favor of this bill, by a vote of 167 to 0. This bill has been assigned to the Senate Transportation Committee.
ACEC Georgia supports this legislation
HB 189 by Representative Steven Meeks (R-Screven): this bill proposes to add a 12.5% variance on top of the 80,000-pound truck weight limit. This bill received a 5 and a half hour hearing on Thursday afternoon. There were incredibly compelling arguments on both sides of the issue; however, GDOT Commissioner McMurray presented a lengthy argument against codifying this variance discussing concerns about damage to bridges and roads throughout the state.
Status: Passed the House Transportation Committee on February 9th by a vote of 18 to 11 after a five and a half hour hearing. This bill is now in the House Rules Committee.
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation. We historically have not taken a position on this legislation.
HB 288 by Representative Butch Parrish (R-Swainsboro): proposes to create an East Georgia Regional Airport Authority Act. This would primarily focus on Emanuel County.
Status: Assigned to the House Intragovernmental Coordination Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
HB 259 by Representative Kim Schofield (D-Atlanta): would require the Georgia Department of Transportation to publicly publish any disparity study that is conducted by the Department and to publish an annual review and summary of the Department’s efforts to increase the number of minority business enterprises involved in contracts.
Status: Assigned to the House Transportation Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
HB 307 by Representative Alan Powell (R-Hartwell): deals with the regulation of electric vehicles broadly. It creates a framework which aims to allow for “competitively neutral policies” that requires the creation of a subsidiary for electric vehicle charging infrastructure to ensure that electric suppliers cannot recover costs for implementation and execution of EV charging from its ratepayers (defined as those consumers not utilizing public charging stations). The bill also allows for charging by the kilowatt hour (there are discrepancies as to whether kilowatt hour charging is allowed under current law). It also endows the Public Service Commission with the authority to provide oversight of the industry and entities engaging in charging infrastructure.
Status: Assigned to the House Technology and Infrastructure Innovation Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
HR 140 by Viola Davis (D-Stone Mountain): is an urging resolution asking MARTA to reaffirm its commitment to extending a rail system alongside interstate 20 in south DeKalb County.
Status: Assigned to the House Transportation Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
Water & Environmental
HB 206 by Representative Steven Sainz (R-St. Marys): would create Commercial Property Assessed Conservation, Energy, and Resiliency Development Authorities and would allow some qualifying entities to pay for qualifying green improvements through C-PACE financing options.
Status: Assigned to the House Governmental Affairs Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
HB 306 by Representative Tim Fleming (R-Covington): would allow energy cost savings measures, which include facility alterations, retrofitting, renovation, or new construction that reduces energy or water consumption or is designed to generate revenue, to be excluded from competitive bidding processes.
Status: Assigned to the House Governmental Affairs Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
Local Government
HB 145 by Representative Regina Lewis-Ward (D-McDonough): would create an alternative dispute resolution option to liens placed on lots for unpaid assessments to property owners’ associations. This bill’s Senate companion is SB 29.
Status: Assigned to the House Judiciary Committee.
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
HB 146 by Representative Derek McCollum (R-Chestnut Mountain): proposes to revise the term “municipality” as it relates to water and sewer projects and costs tax (MOST) to include any municipality with a corporate boundary that extends into three or more counties.
Status: Assigned to the House Ways & Means Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
HB 160 by Representative Gerald Greene (R-Cuthbert): proposes to create a community improvement district in the city of Albany.
Status: Passed the House Intragovernmental Coordination Committee. The House passed this bill by a vote of 166 to 0. This bill is awaiting assignment in the Senate.
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
HB 193 by Representative Victor Anderson (R-Cornelia): proposes to raise the minimum dollar amount for bids for public works contracts which are required to go to a competitive bidding process from $100,000 to $250,000. This adjustment proposal is the result of inflation. The original bill passed in 2000 and has not been adjusted since its original passage.
Status: Passed the House Governmental Affairs Committee; is now in the House Rules Committee and is eligible to be put on the floor of the House chamber for a vote.
ACEC Georgia supports this legislation
HB 220 by Representative Rob Leverett (R-Elberton): would allow owners’ associations with the option to pursue injunctive relief, without the need to first pursue or utilize other available or alternative remedies.
Status: Assigned to the House Judiciary Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
HB 230 by Representative Mark Newton (R-Augusta): proposes to create a special purpose local option sales tax for a “coliseum capital outlay project”. The capital outlay project’s definition is narrowly tailored, with operation and ownership provisions limited to a consolidated government or one or more local authorities, among other very specific provisions. The SPLOST would be referendum led and would include 0.5% sales tax on applicable goods defined in the bill and a 0.5% sales tax on motor fuel when price per gallon is less than $3.00. The narrow definition indicates that this would very likely only affect Augusta-Richmond projects.
Status: Assigned to the House Ways & Means Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
HB 303 by Representative Viola Davis (D-Stonecrest): is the “Community Association Transparency and Protection Act”. The bill proposes to significantly reduce lien rights of owners’ associations and creates an alternative dispute resolution when dealing with delinquency on association assessments.
Status: Assigned to the House Governmental Affairs Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
SB 29 by Senator Donzella James (D-Atlanta): would create an alternative dispute resolution option to liens placed on lots for unpaid assessments to property owners’ associations. This bill’s House companion is HB 145.
Status: Assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
SB 113 by Senator Randy Robertson (R-Cataula): is a proposal to allow for the transition of existing services in a municipality to another newly incorporated municipality and to allow a new city to purchase existing water or sewer systems from the existing city. This bill is complimentary to the City of Buckhead City proposal below.
Status: Assigned to the Senate State & Local Governmental Operations Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
SB 114 by Senator Randy Robertson (R-Cataula): proposes to create the city of Buckhead City out of portions of Atlanta. If passed, the city would only be incorporated following a successful referendum.
Status: Assigned to the Senate State & Local Governmental Operations Committee
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
SR 37 by Senator Donzella James (D-Atlanta): would create a Senate property owners’ associations, homeowners’ associations, and condominium associations study committee. The committee would be tasked with researching and making recommendations on excessive regulation and fees imposed by some associations in the state.
Status: Assigned to the Senate Rules Committee.
ACEC Georgia is monitoring this legislation
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