These weren’t Kemp’s first proposals for laying out cash.

In December, he announced he’d push during the legislative session to speed up cuts in state income tax rates, and he awarded $1,000 retention bonuses to more than 300,000 teachers, school workers and state agency staffers.

Many of those same employees would receive 4% raises — up to the first $70,000 in salary — under the plan Kemp announced during his State of the State address.

State law enforcement employees, who received $6,000 increases last year, would get an additional bump of $3,000 in the coming year. Child protection and placement services caseworkers in the Division of Family and Children Services would also receive $3,000 raises.

Teachers would receive an additional $2,500.

The raises would cost the state about $700 million a year, administration officials said.

Danny Kanso, senior budget analyst for the left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said on social media that the “pay raises are urgently needed to keep Georgia’s workforce intact.”

He said the state reported earlier this month that turnover among its full-time employees was 21%.

Kemp made numerous other requests, including:

Kemp’s budget proposal continues a trend of increased spending.

The state spent about $26.6 billion — excluding federal funding — in fiscal 2020. Last year, it was more than $32 billion.

That same period also includes several years with huge surpluses, leaving the state with $16 billion in “rainy day” and undesignated reserves.

Kemp told state lawmakers that state finances are in good enough shape to continue the big increases in spending.

That’s despite a recent trend of flagging tax collections.

For December, collections were down 5% from the same month in 2022.

For the first six months of the current fiscal year, which began July 1, collections are up 1.6%, but that comes with an asterisk.

Revenue would have been down by 2.5% if Kemp had not suspended the state’s motor fuel tax over that same period during the previous year.

Medicaid expansion gains some momentum

A full expansion of Medicaid in Georgia is not a certainty, but it’s starting to bleed into the conversations of people who could help make it happen.

That includes state House Speaker Jon Burns.

“When it comes to health care, there has certainly been a lot of discussion of late about Medicaid expansion,” Burns said during a press conference this past week to announce his priorities for the legislation session. “Expanding access to care for low-income working families through a private option — in a fiscally responsible way that lowers premiums — is something we will continue to gather facts on.”

Georgia GOP leaders have spent more than a decade blocking a full expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, which was a key initiative of Democrat Barack Obama when he was in the White House.

Georgia remains one of 10 states that have not expanded the government-funded health insurance program for poor children and some poor adults.

Some Republicans still believe a full expansion of Medicaid would be too expensive. The federal government pays at least 90% of the cost of care for Medicaid expansion patients, but the state’s share, if hundreds of thousands of patients take part, could exceed $100 million.

But state House GOP leaders have recently signaled they would be interested in expanding Medicaid in exchange for a deal to roll back regulations that protect hospitals from competition, called certificate of need.

The option they seem to favor would require a federal waiver to adopt a program modeled after Arkansas’ system that uses Medicaid money to buy traditional insurance policies on the ACA marketplace.

Gov. Brian Kemp launched his own waiver program, Georgia Pathways, on July 1.

It provides coverage to low-income adults who perform certain state-specified activities at least 80 hours per month. Those may include working a job, working for a registered nonprofit or enrolling in higher education. Caretaking for an elderly relative, however, does not qualify, nor does being disabled but not government-certified as disabled.

So far, Georgia Pathways has seen minimal participation. Out of 370,000 Georgians that could be eligible, just 2,344 had enrolled in the program as of Dec. 15, according to the Georgia Department of Community Health. An examination by the AJC showed the Medicaid eligibility signup system is all but broken.

Burns, though, is not ready to give up on Georgia Pathways.

Asked whether it was successful, he said, “It’s moving in the right direction.”

Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

Burns’ priorities for session include focus on ballot coding

Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, in setting his priorities for this year’s legislative session, has put a target on the computer codes that appear on Georgia’s paper ballots.

He wants them gone.

“We know that 2024 will once again be a pivotal election, and Georgia will again be the political epicenter of the nation,” Burns, a Republican from Newington, said during the annual Eggs & Issues breakfast. “It is therefore critical that we do everything in our power to continue safeguarding our elections, increasing transparency and building on our efforts to increase voter participation at every turn.”

Conservative voters and election security advocates lack total trust in Georgia’s voting technology, and the bar codes that appear on ballots — known as QR codes — are among their biggest concerns. Critics say voters have no way of knowing whether the QR code accurately reflects their choices.

“We are going to strengthen the security of our ballots by moving away from the QR code — which many voters find confusing — and toward visible watermarks on security paper to denote voter selections,” Burns said.

That could come with a big price tag.

The secretary of state’s office has previously estimated it would cost $15 million to buy 32,500 new ballot printers statewide that can produce a larger 18-inch ballot it says would be necessary if a QR code is omitted.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has suggested a less expensive option, asking legislators to spend $4.7 million for devices that would allow voters to verify QR codes at polling places.

Tort overhaul will have to wait, Kemp says

Gov. Brian Kemp hinted during the summer that he would move this year to overhaul the state’s tort regulations in an effort to curb what he called “frivolous” lawsuits and limit large jury awards.

This past week, though, he moved the timeframe back, saying it would take a multiyear approach.

That decision came after months of meetings between his staff, industry experts and legislators, Kemp told politicians and business executives at the Georgia Chamber’s annual Eggs & Issues breakfast.

Some involved in the discussions say it was doubtful there were enough votes in the Legislature to approve an overhaul. They said, however, that there’s a chance several piecemeal changes could be adopted.

This year, Kemp plans to take a “first step” by introducing draft legislation to open the debate.

Powerful groups will take an interest on both sides of the issue.

Corporate leaders, medical organizations and the insurance industry will press for changes.

Meanwhile, trial lawyers will try to preserve the current system.

Doctors and hospitals say the measures could help bring more physicians to Georgia, and business lobbies say speedier out-of-court settlements and limits on jury awards will help lower insurance premiums and cut legal costs.

Trial lawyers and patient advocacy groups see an overhaul as a giveaway to powerful corporations and say it would deny Georgians of their legal rights.

The last major overhaul came after Republicans first won control of the General Assembly in 2004.

Supporters in Senate move quickly on sports betting

The annual push to legalize sports betting got off to a fast start.

On the second day of the legislative session, the Senate Regulated Industries Committee approved legislation to create a gaming commission to oversee sports betting.

Senate Bill 172 — sponsored by the committee’s chairman, state Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens — would also direct sports betting revenue to needs-based college scholarships, addressing poverty, promoting Georgia as a sporting event destination, improving education and offering gambling addiction services.

The bill is what’s called “enabling legislation,” meaning it would only take effect if Georgia voters approve changing the state constitution to allow for sports betting.

That’s not an easy task.

Amending the state constitution requires the support of two-thirds of each chamber, and then a majority of Georgia voters must vote for it in a referendum.

There’s some dispute, however, over whether a constitutional amendment is needed to legalize sports betting. Some supporters say gambling can only be expanded in Georgia through a constitutional amendment. Others say sports betting should be considered a lottery game and can be legalized without changing the constitution.

Analysts at the Capitol have been inconsistent on whether the state constitution allows sports betting. That ambiguity was the reason that Legislative Counsel Director Rick Ruskell in 2019 recommended making a constitutional amendment a requirement for legalizing sports betting.

A lot of money is at stake.

Supporters of sports betting say Georgians illegally bet nearly $5 billion a year on sports, and they say sports betting could bring anywhere from $30 million to $100 million in revenue to the state each year.

Those estimates are questioned by opponents, many who believe any form of gambling is immoral, addictive and leads to crime.

Georgia lawmakers have tried every year to expand gambling in the state since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that states other than Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon could allow it. Now, sports betting is legal in 38 states.

But each year the bills fall short in Georgia. Last year, it was a resolution Cowsert proposed to allow the state’s voters to decide. It failed to get two-thirds support in the Senate.

Could this year be different?

Gov. Brian Kemp has said he would work with legislative leaders on sports betting — something he previously opposed. When Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was a state senator, he sponsored legislation to make sports betting legal. And House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, has indicated he is open to the idea.

Under the Gold Dome, that’s a power trifecta.

Lawmakers plan to target ‘swatting’ during session

Security was possibly a more personal concern for many lawmakers as they returned Monday for the beginning of the legislative session.

The source of that heightened awareness was a series of “swatting” incidents, hoax calls that brought police to the homes of numerous Georgia officials in recent weeks.

Those subjected to the potentially dangerous harassment included Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a handful of state senators, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

You could add the Georgia Capitol to the list after a state employee received an email threat last week that led to a short evacuation of the Statehouse while it was searched.

Senate Public Safety Chairman John Albers, a Roswell Republican and a swatting target, called the hoax phone calls “foolish and dangerous.”

“This literally could have cost someone their life,” Albers said. “And for those who think this is a prank, it is a crime.”

Senators plan to introduce a bill making swatting a felony.

Political expedience

Capitol Recap: The 2024 Legislative Session

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