Other notable bills that passed Thursday on the last day of the 2013 legislative session:
HB 487 — Would give Georgia Lottery power over legal video poker machines and directs a percentage of profits to HOPE scholarships.
HB 407 — Would extend the use of ignition locks after a second DUI conviction to a year.
HB 517 — Would give local governments power to allow retail sales of beer and wine near college campuses.
HB 156 — Would tighten restrictions on Web-based child pornography.
HB 475 — Would make it easier for foreigners in the country legally to get Georgia driver’s licenses.
HB 320 — Would exempt some inert landfills from some permit rules.
SB 160 — Would block illegal immigrants from obtaining state driver’s licenses and homestead tax exemptions.
HB 372 — Would return the HOPE Grant’s GPA requirement to 2.0 for technical college students.
HB 283 — Would expand the state’s private school tax credit program to allow donors to student scholarship organizations to claim $58 million in state tax credits.
Did not pass this year:
SB 101 — Would allow guns in churches, bars, parts of college campuses, unsecured government buildings and allows school boards to arm administrators in schools
SB 213 — Would authorize the state to invest in large flow augmentation projects, pump water from aquifers and redirect it to waterways. Critics say the bill also would threaten riparian rights landowners have to water on their property, a move that would adversely affect people such as farmers dependent on the water for their crops.
SB 92 — Would allow an excise tax on rental cars to be used to fund public transit.
HB 246 — Would allow the Georgia World Congress Center Authority to set its own benefits policy for employees; abortion coverage under health benefits plan for state workers also would be banned.
HB 541 — Would double Fulton County’s homestead exemption to $60,000.
HB 199 — Would allow the state’s Reservoir and Water Supply Fund to expand its efforts beyond reservoirs.
For more details, check ajc.com.
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