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Members of the Georgia House are learning that votes have consequences.
In their first day back in session since the House on Thursday passed a $1 billion transportation plan, those members who supported House Bill 170 saw their bills float to the top of the agenda.
The House had eight bills on its original agenda for Monday, then added 13 more. It already has a dozen planned for floor debate on Wednesday. What do all of those bills have in common? Every single one is sponsored by a lawmaker who voted with Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, to support HB 170, which passed the House 123-46.
The movement of those bills — and the lack of movement of others — is particularly important this week as Friday is “Crossover Day,” the last day this year for a bill to move from one chamber to the other without parliamentary trickery. After Monday, the only days the Legislature will be in session this week are Wednesday and Friday
In interviews with more than a dozen lawmakers, none were willing to say on the record that the 46 representatives who voted against HB 170 — 43 of whom are Republicans — are having their bills blocked because of their vote on the transportation bill.
Ralston himself attributes it to simple math.
“The bill passed so overwhelmingly that the law of probability is such that those who voted for the bill will have a bill on the calendar,” Ralston said.
He was also smiling broadly when he said it.
Ralston, of course, is no stranger to retribution from a speaker of the House. In 2009, Ralston was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and challenged then-Speaker Glenn Richardson for control of the speaker’s gavel. He lost and had his chairmanship stripped away as payback.
Punishment or reward for transportation vote?
No, instead of punishment against the 46 who voted against HB 170, many lawmakers say the opposite is true: That the 123 who voted with Ralston are being rewarded.
Rep. Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, is among those hoping that's the case. He has two major bills still pending in the House. One, House Bill 122, would end the state's tax credit for the purchase of electric vehicles. That bill has stalled in the Ways & Means Committee, but its language was added to the transportation bill.
The other is House Bill 393, which would allow Tesla to sell its electric vehicles in Georgia directly to consumers, something the Georgia Automobile Dealers Association has opposed. Martin's bill gained momentum Monday in the Motor Vehicles Committee, even though Martin voted against the transportation plan.
Does he fear having his bill’s squashed because he voted against the speaker?
“You hear that all the time,” Martin said. “I would hope we’re not doing things that are contrary to good policy for Georgia. I would hope they would not otherwise punish good policy because the author voted his conscience.”
Rep. Sam Teasley, R-Marietta, too, hopes the House is not operating from a position of retaliation. Teasley is the sponsor of House Bill 218, one of two "religious liberty" bills moving through the General Assembly.
Teasley's version has yet to get even a hearing from the Judiciary Committee. As a result, Teasley said Monday that he is turning his attention instead to supporting Senate Bill 129, by Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, which has similar language. That bill passed the Senate last week.
But, Teasley said, he did not make that decision because he fears retribution for voting against HB 170.
“It’s unimaginable to me that the House would not end up taking a vote on SB 129,” he said. “It’s something Republicans and Democrats have supported in the past, and it’s my hope it’s something Republicans and Democrats will support in the House.”
Teasley said there “is no line to be drawn” between his decision to focus on SB 129 and his vote on HB 170.
‘It’s hard not to miss the the signs’
But other Republicans, who refused to speak on the record for fear of further angering Ralston, said they’re concerned that retaliation is real.
“It’s hard not to miss the signs,” one lawmaker said of the fact that every bill now eligible for floor debate was sponsored by a supporter of HB 170.
Among the bills that have gained the speaker's blessing for consideration by the House are several sponsored by Democrats. Rep. Roger Bruce, D-Atlanta, had asked the Rules Committee for weeks to allow two of his bills — House Bill 89, which would extend the time for local governments to create "drug-free zones," and House Bill 514, which would create the city of South Fulton — to be voted on by the House. But each time leadership had other bills it wanted instead.
Suddenly on Monday, HB 89 and HB 514 were set for debate later that day, although they, along with more than a dozen other bills, were postponed until Wednesday. Bruce voted in favor of HB 170 on Thursday.
Rep. Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain, saw similar treatment. His bill to create a city of Tucker, House Bill 515, is set for debate on the House floor Wednesday.
House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, would not bite when asked whether Democrats' bills were suddenly reaching the floor after 57 of their 60 members voted in favor of the transportation bill.
“I believe the speaker recognized the merits of Democrats’ bills and gave them due consideration,” Abrams said.
Reals answers could come ‘Crossover Day’
That may be, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the speaker has less appetite for bills sponsored by those who voted against HB 170. In fact, 18 House committee meetings were scheduled for Monday afternoon — committees that were to consider 45 bills, only five of which were sponsored by those who voted “No,” on HB 170.
In addition to Martin's Tesla bill in the Motor Vehicles Committee, Rep. Bert Reeves, R-Marietta, a freshman who voted against HB 170, had a bill that would bar certain individuals from serving on grand juries on the agenda for a Judiciary subcommittee on Monday.
Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, also had a bill on that Judiciary subcommittee agenda. The only difference is Fleming is the subcommittee chairman.
Fleming, though, also had a bill scheduled to be heard by the full Judiciary on Monday. Rep. Andy Welch, R-McDonough, did, too. Rep. Jason Spencer, R-Woodbine, had a bill on the Health and Human Services Committee agenda.
Those, however, are just committee votes. The real test of whether Ralston is simply thanking supporters or punishing detractors won’t be known until late Friday when the House adjourns on the crucial Day 30 and the record shows whose bills passed and whose got left behind.
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