Regulated Industries and Utilities
SB 34
This bill relates to data centers in Bartow County, Floyd County, and Rome. These centers do not hire many Georgia workers and do not have much impact on state taxes, but they do contribute significantly to property taxes. They also require considerable resources and should have to pay for those resources. Consumers near these data centers have seen significant increases in their rates and have been paying a surcharge since 2011 that was supposed to end in 2017 but is just now actually ending. These data centers will be using the power that the consumers have paid for since 2011 because the rates are now built into consumers’ base charges for the next 60 years; as a result, residential bills have increased significantly and are now some of the highest in the country. As more data centers are built, the higher the rates will continue to increase.
This bill does not seek to prevent revenue from going to Georgia Power but instead aims to shift the cost of additional electricity to the data centers because consumers cannot continue to absorb costs unfairly.
The bill was only heard and will return to committee at a later date.
SB 86
This bill places a safeguard on the pricing of retail-backed incentives. Currently, alcohol retailers may not provide their customers with incentives that offer discounts on beer, wine, and distilled spirits. Retailers are free to adjust their prices as long as the adjusted price does not fall below the actual retail cost, preventing Georgians from maximizing their household budget. The lack of incentives serves no meaningful regulatory purpose and does not promote the public interest. Customers are buying these products cheaper from bordering states, which hurts brick-and-mortar stores in Georgia.
This bill would allow Georgians to use coupons for wine, beer, and distilled spirits to save money and help retailers build a customer base.
The bill was only heard and will come back to the committee at a later date.
Judiciary
SB 9
This bill was discussed earlier in the week (see HERE). It concerns punishments for illegal activities committed with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI). Changes to the bill include removing language to ensure any minimum sentence for a crime will remain as is, confirming bifurcation (juries are not aware of a defendant’s previous conviction), and rejecting potential Romeo and Juliet clauses for the creation of obscene images of an underage person.
The bill passed committee.
SB 10
This bill adds a third judge to the Alapaha judicial circuit. The amendment is to change the start date to January 1, 2026.
The bill passed committee.
SB 12
This bill was discussed earlier in the week (see HERE). SB 12 concerns public records requests when the records are being held by a private contractor. This version of the bill requires these contractors—whether private persons or entities—to produce public records to the custodian (public agency responsible for the record) upon the custodian’s request. Individuals must request the record from the public agency; this agency has to respond to the request, meaning the contractor must produce the document. The agency cannot hide the record by allowing a private entity to hold the record.
The bill passed committee.
