What to watch for as the Georgia legislative session begins

Today’s newsletter highlights:

• Gov. Brian Kemp backs $500 million for Savannah water project.
• Local governments debate property tax exemption.
• U.S. Senate resumes debate of the Laken Riley Act.

Welcome to the start of another legislative session.

Over the next 40 days — splayed over about three months — lawmakers will wrangle, deliberate and debate hundreds of bills. Many will go nowhere. Some will pass. And some will make a lot of news.

Here are a few things we are watching:

How political will this session get? Gov. Brian Kemp has urged politicians from both parties to resist the urge to jump in 2026 races for a few more months. But the race for his term-limited job is already well underway, with Attorney General Chris Carr in the hunt. Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has said he’ll wait until after the legislative session to join him, but it’s hard not to paint everything he does through the lens of a future gubernatorial candidate. And that’s just the top job. More than a dozen state senators — and more than a few House lawmakers — are jockeying already for the down-ticket jobs that are up for grabs next year.

Will lawmakers reach a quick accord on preserving in vitro fertilization treatment? It seems like the measure is on a glide path after both House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, and Jones endorsed legislation to protect IVF treatments. But some worry that the wording of the yet-to-be released legislation could open the door for abortion. How leaders navigate this issue could get tricky.

Will some Democrats join Republicans in backing the transgender ban? Democrats are struggling over how to address transgender issues after Republicans leveled repeated attacks during the 2024 campaign with the punchline: “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you.” Georgia Republicans are leaning into the issue this year and are set to quickly bring a new measure that would ban transgender girls from competing in women’s sports. Some Democrats vow to oppose the bill as discriminatory, while others are quietly urging their colleagues not to so fiercely fight a policy that resonated with some voters.

Is this the year “religious liberty” passes? State Sen. Ed Setzler, a Republican from Acworth and the measure’s longtime champion, thinks so. A year ago, the Senate passed the measure along party lines before it petered out in the House. But this year, supporters say it has its best chance of passing since 2016, when then-Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed it amid threats of boycotts from big businesses.

Will Medicaid expansion proponents make any headway? Last year was a hallmark one for advocates of expansion. The session opened with legislative leaders openly mulling ways to boost the program’s rolls and in March held a surprise committee vote that drew several GOP supporters — and was squelched only after direct intervention from Kemp. The governor said he’ll oppose any expansion in 2025, but supporters could use the year to recalibrate.

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Politicians and lobbyists gathered for the Wild Hog Supper in Atlanta on Sunday ahead of the legislative session.

GOOD MORNING! Georgia’s legislative session officially starts today, but it unofficially started last night with the 62nd annual Wild Hog Supper. The dinner at the Georgia Freight Depot attracted lots of lawmakers and raised about $60,000 for food banks up and down the state, according to Danah Craft, executive director of Feeding Georgia.

The event is a mostly joyful celebration of Georgia’s agriculture industry. But it will likely be a somber session for farmers, many of whom are still recovering from a series of storms that wiped out their harvests.

State Sen. Russ Goodman, a Republican from Cogdell and chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he’s interested in putting more money into a low-interest loan program for farmers and passing a reforestation tax credit to help timber owners who lost their investment.

“It’s important this year as we begin our legislative session … that we remember what has happened and transpired over the last couple of months,” Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said during his opening remarks. “In helping those farm families, we’re also able to help families all across this state.”

Here are four things to know for today:

• The Georgia Legislature will convene today with a slightly more diverse group of lawmakers, the AJC’s Maya T. Prabhu and Phoebe Quinton report.
• State lawmakers are not expected to make changes to Georgia’s abortion law this year, Prabhu reports.
• The years of booming state revenue in Georgia might be over, the AJC’s David Wickert reports.
• Who to watch at the Georgia Legislature in 2025.

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The Georgia Capitol in Atlanta.

TODAY UNDER THE GOLD DOME:

• 10 a.m.: The House gavels in.
• 10 a.m.: The Senate convenes.
• 4 p.m.: Gov. Brian Kemp and legislative leaders hold a news conference on school safety priorities for the session.

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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp delivered an update on the state response to the winter storm last week at the Georgia Emergency Management agency headquarters.

H20 DOLLARS. Gov. Brian Kemp will roll out his 2025 midyear budget later this week, and among the spending items is $502 million to solve the Savannah area’s water woes.

The state will fund the construction of new infrastructure in Effingham and Chatham counties that will carry 20 million gallons a day from the Savannah River. The system improvements involve three water authorities and will cut the region’s reliance on groundwater drawn from the Floridan aquifer system, a 100,000-square-mile underground reservoir.

The network, projected for completion in 2030, will serve the Hyundai electric vehicle factory in Bryan County. The automaker’s water demands — 4 million gallons a day — increased the sense of urgency for the state to invest in the surface water system. Withdrawals from the aquifer are restricted in Chatham, Bryan and parts of Effingham County because of the risk of saltwater intrusion into a source that serves 10 million people in Georgia and Florida.

Our AJC colleague Adam Van Brimmer breaks down the details in a story that published this morning.

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Mourners left flowers in remembrance of those killed in a fatal shooting in September at Apalachee High School in Winder.

MORE OF THE SAME. Greg Bluestein had a great quote from longtime lobbyist Neill Herring over the weekend about Georgia’s legislative session, which you might have heard begins today.

“Call it the session of the living dead,” he said.

Herring was referring to the horde of failed bills that will likely lurch back to life at the start of the session — something that seems to happen every year.

That includes gun safety. The issue appeared to gain momentum in September after a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder killed two students and two teachers. A Senate study committee met in the weeks after the shooting to study safe gun storage, but did not release any recommendations.

New House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus, said her caucus plans to continue pushing the issue, but noted “we’re in the minority and not driving the agenda.”

“When you look at the stats in terms of how many children are affected by gun violence … we cannot pretend that it’s not a real thing,” she said.

House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, indicated last week that any legislation would be limited to tax credits offering incentives for people to purchase gun safes and trigger locks.

“We think that’s a reasonable alternative for Georgians and we’ll go back and look at that legislation again,” he said, adding: “I’ll tell you first and foremost that we’ll not impede the Second Amendment rights of Georgians.”

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OPTING OUT. The clock is ticking for local governments across Georgia to decide whether to opt out of a voter-approved property tax exemption.

Voters overwhelmingly OK’d the exemption in November. But local governments can vote to opt out of it if they have three public hearings before March 1.

The decision will put some local elected officials in the hot seat. They’ll have to choose between either saving money for homeowners or cutting their already stretched budgets.

But it’s not a dilemma for everyone. In Marietta, the new exemption isn’t as good as the one the city already has. If the city doesn’t opt out, homeowners there would have to pay more. It’s a safe bet that an opt-out vote will be popular.

But it’s a different story for most school districts. Gwinnett County Public Schools says the tax exemption would cost them more than $100 million over three years. They’ve already scheduled their three public hearings in preparation for an opt-out vote later this year.

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State Sen. Harold Jones, a Democrat from Augusta, is a guest today on the "Politically Georgia" show.

LISTEN UP. Today on “Politically Georgia,” new Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones, D-Augusta, joins the show to discuss the first day of the legislative session.

Be sure to download the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Have a question for the show? Give us a call at 770-810-5297.

On Friday’s show Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, previewed the legislative session. Then, Democratic state Rep. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, offered her perspective.

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DNC DEBATE. Candidates for Democratic National Committee officer jobs took part in a forum over the weekend, a lineup that included Georgia U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, who’s running for for a vice-chair slot.

Greg Bluestein moderated the forum involving all eight contenders for the DNC chair. You can watch the event here.

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Laken Riley was a nursing student at the time she was killed on the campus of the University of Georgia last February.

LAKEN RILEY ACT. The U.S. Senate will resume consideration of the Laken Riley Act this afternoon after voting overwhelmingly Thursday to debate the measure.

Both of Georgia’s Democratic senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warncock voted in favor. The bill, named for the nursing student killed on the University of Georgia’s campus last year, would let law enforcement officials detain and begin deportation proceedings for immigrants who are living in the country illegally and have been accused of burglary or theft. Current law only lets them do this for violent crimes.

Asked why Senate Democrats had mostly agreed to move the immigration measure forward, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, told The Washington Post, “It was a blinding flash of common sense.”

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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:

• President Joe Biden will speak about his foreign policy accomplishments. Later, he and Vice President Kamala Harris will receive a briefing on the federal response to the wildfires in Los Angeles.
• The U.S. House returns for evening votes.
• The Senate will continue consideration of the Laken Riley Act, with another procedural vote possible.