2025 Capitol Update - Week 4
2025 Capitol Update - Week 4
February 10, 2025
The legislature is already a quarter of the way through the 2025 legislative session and will be meeting this week for Legislative Days 14 through 17.
On Tuesday of last week, the 2025 GDOT Board Elections occurred:
Doug Stoner will now represent District 6
Ret. Maj. Gen. Joe Stein will now represent District 7
Tim Golden was re-elected to represent District 8
On Thursday of last week, the House passed the amended FY 2025 budget. The budget mirrored the Governor’s recommendations, but the House added an additional $200 million for Hurricane Helene relief.
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Open Records Act Clarification
Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate Bill 12 by Senator Frank Ginn, which would clarify that political subdivisions of the state, rather than private contractors doing business with governmental entities, are the correct point of contact for fielding open records requests. A friendly amendment clarified what local governments should do if the record requested is subject to the open records act but in the custody of the private contractor.
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Tort Reform
SB 68 and SB 69 by Senator John F. Kennedy, the Governor’s tort reform package, passed out of the Senate Judiciary committee late last night by a vote of 10 to 4. We expect some additional changes to this legislation will be made as the Senate works through the bills.
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PE Exam Decoupling
SB 125 by Senator Larry Walker is our PE exam decoupling legislationand it passed out of the Senate Regulated Industries committee yesterday. We look forward to working with the good Senator from Perry to pass this legislative priority!
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Qualifications-Based Selection
Our QBS legislation received a hearing in the State and Local Subcommittee of the House Governmental Affairs Committee. ACEC Georgia’s own Sully, and members Taylor Anderson of Blue LandWorks and Cedric Clark of Southeastern Engineering spoke in support of the legislation. As expected, ACCG spoke in opposition of the legislation. It was hearing only during the committee last Tuesday and we expect it to come back up in committee next week.
LEGISLATION ACEC GEORGIA IS FOLLOWING:
Local Government
HB 137 by Representative Victor Anderson (R-Cornelia) would increase the dollar threshold for contracts exempt from public bidding from $100,000 to $250,000 for local governments, most state agencies, and school boards.
Status: Passed the House Governmental Affairs Committee
Position: SUPPORT
HB 152 by Representative Matt Reeves (R-Duluth): would extend the existing Mini Brooks Act to local governments. This would require Qualifications-Based Selection for the procurement of A/E services for projects where professional services are estimated to be $75,000 or more or for any project with a total preliminary construction cost of $1 million.
Status: Assigned to the House Governmental Affairs Committee
Position: SUPPORT
HB 168 by Representative Mitchell Horner (R-Ringgold): would revise the way in which SPLOST can be reinstated. Current law allows local governments to reimpose a SPLOST in the original way in which it was enacted, however this legislation would require that any reimposition of such SPLOST must also go through the general assembly as a local bill.
Status: Assigned to the Ways & Means Committee
Position: Reviewing
HB 317 by Representative Ron Stephens (R-Savannah): would create a new option for local governments to help finance essential infrastructure needs called a “Workforce and Residential Infrastructure District (WRID). If approved by the local government, this would allow landowners within the district to self-impose taxes to fund these public infrastructure projects & improvements. A constitutional amendment would be required for the enactment of the legislation, HR 192 by Representative Ron Stephens (R-Savannah).
Status: House Hopper
Position: Reviewing
SB 12 by Senator Frank Ginn (R-Danielsville): revises the Georgia Open Records Act by redefining what is considered a public record to include only documents that are prepared, maintained, or received by a public agency and not the possession of a person or group who has contracted with a public agency.
Status: Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee
Position: SUPPORT
SB 51 by Senator Ed Setzler (R-Acworth): would extend the existing Mini Brooks Act to local governments. This would require Qualifications-Based Selection for the procurement of A/E services for projects where professional services are estimated to be $75,000 or more or for any project with a total preliminary construction cost of $1 million.
Status: Assigned to the Senate State and Local Governmental Affairs Committee
Position: SUPPORT
SB 70 by Senator Tonya Anderson (D-): would authorize the creation of the Conyers Community Improvement District
Status: Assigned to the Senate State and Local Governmental Affairs Committee
Position: Monitor
Industry & Professions
HB 34 by Representative Dale Washburn (R-Macon): would allow the professional licensing board division to utilize a continuing education tracking solution software that would monitor compliance of licensees with their respective continuing education requirements. Currently, this legislation does not affect the PELS Board.
Status: Assigned to the House Regulated Industries Committee
Position: Monitor
HB 107 by Representative Bethany Ballard (R-Warner Robins): would require all professional licensing boards in the state to adopt a process by which spouses of military members or transitioning service members may obtain a digitally verifiable license.
Status: Assigned to the House Defense & Veterans Affairs Committee
Position: Reviewing; NCEES is the national database for all holders of PE & LS licenses, so this legislation may not affect the PELS Board.
SB 28 by Senator Greg Dolezal (R-Forsyth County): would allow for the request of an impact analysis of any legislation on small businesses, similar to a fiscal note where an analysis on the potential cost of legislation is conducted.
Status: Assigned to the Senate Economic Development & Tourism Committee
Position: Monitoring
SB 68 by Senator John Kennedy (R-Macon): this is part of the legislative tort reform package. It proposes to limit phantom damages (including in medical malpractice), eliminates double recovery of attorney’s fees, allows admissibility of seat belt nonuse, and includes comprehensive premises liability.
Status: Senate Hopper
Position: SUPPORT
SB 69 by Senator John Kennedy (R-Macon): this is part of the legislative tort reform package. It proposes to regulate third party litigation financing and prohibits foreign third party litigation financing.
Status: Senate Hopper
Position: SUPPORT
SB 125 by Senator Larry Walker (R-Perry): decouples the exam and experience for professional engineers.
Status: Senate Hopper
Position: SUPPORT
Transportation
HB 76 by Representative Stacey Evans (D-Atlanta): would require the Department of Transportation to host public hearings for local transportation projects of significant impact.
Status: Assigned to House Transportation Committee
Position: REVIEWING
HB 164 by Representative Steven Meeks (R-Screven): would remove the sunset date of July 1, 2025 on the increase of truck weight limits to 88,000 on state roads for trucks carrying agricultural and farm products.
Status: Assigned to House Transportation Committee
Position: Monitor
HB 224 by Representative Josh Bonner (R-Fayetteville): would allow GDOT to authorize the construction or maintenance of any private road on a military base or installation so long as the funds for such roads are derived from the US DOD.
Status: Assigned to the House Transportation Committee
Status: Monitor
Water & Environmental
SB 34 by Senator Chuck Hufstetler (R-Rome): would prohibit an electrical utility provider from recovering the cost of servicing a data center from regular ratepayers.
Status: Assigned to Senate Regulated Industries & Utilities Committee
Position: Monitoring