On February 5, 2025, the following four Georgia State Senate committees met to discuss bills to potentially advance:
- Public Safety voted on SB 21, SB 7, SB 64, and SB 84
- Finance voted on SB 2 and SB 47
- Economic Development and Tourism heard SB 38
- Health and Human Services voted on SB 58
Select the associated links to read each bill in full.
Public Safety
SB 7
The Atlanta mayor wants to separate non-violent offenders from violent offenders, and there is also a concern for individuals who are mentally and medically fragile. This bill will allow the Atlanta Detention Center to be used to house these detainees.
This bill will force Atlanta to lease the facility to Fulton County at a reasonable rate. It was tailored specifically only for the Fulton County Jail and the Atlanta Detention Center and will be used to create a long-term opportunity for the county to lease the center.
The bill passed committee
For additional background on the bill see the link below:
SB 21
This bill states that if a local government official does not enforce Georgia immigration law, they waive their sovereign immunity and are open to civil lawsuit from anything that may occur from not following immigration law. Explicit intent of the bill was not voiced, but it appears to be a form of punishment for officials who choose to not comply with the immigration laws.
After significant discussion and public comment, the bill passed committee.
SB 64
This bill prohibits state and local governments from purchasing unmanned aircraft drones from Chinese-owned companies and prohibits companies owned by foreign adversaries from submitting bids or proposals—either directly or through a third party—to the state government for technology products such as computers and printers. The bill is presented as a national security measure.
The bill passed committee.
SB 84
This bill would create two specialty license plates, one for the Shepherd Center and the other for Georgia Transplant Foundation. The funds raised by the sale of these license plates would be disbursed to the respective non-profit organizations.
The bill passed committee.
Finance
SB 2
This bill proposes exempting tips from income taxes. The bill defines tips as cash tips received directly from customers; tips from customers who leave a tip through electronic settlement or payment, such as a credit card, debit card, gift card, or any other electronic payment method; the value of any noncash tips, such as tickets or other items of value; and tip amounts received from other employees paid out through tip pools, tip splitting, or any other formal or informal tip-sharing arrangement. For purposes of this bill, the term does not include service charges that customers must pay, such as automatic gratuities.
The bill passed committee.
SB 47
The bill proposes creating a 11-day window during each year in which firearms, ammunition, gun safes, and related accessories are exempt from sales and use tax. The author claims the bill is to incentivize outdoorsmen to make more purchases and thereby put more money into the economy.
The bill passed committee.
Economic Development and Tourism
SB 38
The proposed bill will roll school development impact fees into the Development Impact Fee Act. Under this act currently, a local municipality can choose to levy fees for roads, parks and recreation, and 911 and other emergency services but not for schools. To levy an impact, you need to form a development impact fee committee to determine the new developments pro rata share of the infrastructure expense, such as the impact to maintain roads with additional use. This amount is the max you can charge, and the impact fees must be used for their intended purpose in the service area they were collected. Unspent fees are returned to the taxpayer.
The addition of schools to this act is restricted to “High Growth” school systems, which are defined as:
- A total increase in system-wide student enrollment of 20 percent or more during the immediately preceding 10-year period
- Total expenditures of $250 million or more for the construction of new educational facilities as defined in Code Section 20-2-260 during the immediately preceding 10-year period.
Currently, this only affects Forsyth County. A developing constitutional amendment could expand this to other schools, but additional legislation would be needed to include them. The benefit of this bill is to prevent current homeowners from carrying the burden of paying for new schools and associated infrastructure that will be used by new residents.
The bill was read. and a lengthy discussion followed. A vote was not completed.
Health and Human Services
SB 58
This bill would allow licensing and operation of emergency organ transport vehicles as ambulance services. These vehicles would have lights and sirens similar to ambulances and would be operated only by those permitted to drive this class of vehicle. The vehicles would only be running their emergency lights when a situation is deemed to be urgent. These vehicles can enable life-saving organs to be transported to those in need.
The bill passed committee.
