2025 Capitol Update - Week 5
2025 Capitol Update - Week 5
February 18, 2025
This week, the Georgia General Assembly will meet for legislative days 18 through 21—meaning we’re already nearly halfway through the 2025 legislative session!
Last week, ACEC Georgia had a busy Thursday! Our decoupling legislation and our QBS legislation were heard at the same time Thursday afternoon.
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PE Exam Decoupling
SB 125 by Senator Larry Walker is our PE exam decoupling legislation which passed out of the Senate Regulated Industries committee unanimously on Thursday. This legislation is now pending in the Senate Rules Committee.
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Qualifications-Based Selection
Our QBS legislation received a hearing in the State and Local Operations Committee of the Senate on Thursday. The committee passed the legislation unanimously! This legislation is now in Rules.
If you know of any local governments who have questions about the legislation, please send them our way: christy.tarallo@acecga.org
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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 last week after a marathon hearing that began at 4pm and ended after 9pm on Monday. This package will be on the floor this week. Please visit justicenotjackpots.com to fill out a form to contact your Senator and/or Representative and ask them to support tort reform legislation!
SB 68 deals with:
Premises liability (i.e. clarifying what you are responsible for when actions happen on your property without your knowledge or involvement)
Limits phantom damages
Eliminating anchoring (a practice of announcing to the jury what a plaintiff’s attorney believes is a “fair” compensation)—the Senate committee revised the legislation slightly to allow plaintiffs’ attorneys some flexibility in suggesting a monetary value for damages
Repeals the gag order on evidence relating to seat belt use
Eliminates double recovery of attorney’s fees
Eliminates plaintiff dismissal during trial
Allows bifurcated trials (which would split a trial into multiple stages allowing juries to determine liability in one stage then damages in another stage)
SB 69 reforms third party litigation funding by requiring the disclosure of this practice and prohibits foreign governments from financing litigation.
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; Passed the House 152 to 9; Assigned to the Senate State and Local Governmental Operations 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: Assigned to the House Governmental Affairs Committee
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: Passed the Senate State and Local Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously; Currently in the Senate Rules Committee
Position: SUPPORT
SB 70 by Senator Tonya Anderson (D-): would authorize the creation of the Conyers Community Improvement District
Status: Passed the Senate State and Local Governmental Affairs Committee; passed the Senate 49-0; Assigned to the House Intragovernmental Coordination 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: Passed 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: Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee
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: Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee
Position: SUPPORT
SB 125 by Senator Larry Walker (R-Perry): decouples the exam and experience for professional engineers.
Status: Passed the Senate Regulated Industries Committee
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
HB 387 by Representative Brad Thomas (R-Holly Springs): would require a service delivery agreement to include a growth boundary agreement component
Status: Assigned to the House Governmental Affairs 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