Georgia Bills Passed & Failed

Good Bills Passed

HB 954 Prohibits abortions after 20 weeks.

HB 60 Made Georgia #1 in 2^nd Amendment protection by expanding gun rights.

HB 772 subjects Food Stamp recipients to drug testing.

Good Bills Not Passed

HB 707 The Georgia Healthcare Freedom Act, declaring that healthcare was the sovereign right of the State to control.  It would have exempted Georgians from Obamacare. It would have affected some federal grants (bribes)   This Bill was critical to the survival of small business facing the 30 hour work week rules. 

HB 195 Amending HB 277 the Transportation Investment Act of 2010 that allowed the T-SPLOST vote. HB 195 would have allowed counties to act on their own.

HB 167 Prohibiting national standards would have protected Georgians from Common Core. It would have allowed each school board to opt out of Common Core or not.  It would have affected some federal grants.   It passed in the Senate 34 to 16.  It was poisoned in the House with bad amendments and died.

SB 203 would have allowed Georgia to set its own education standards free from federal control.

HB 1031 would have required State Drivers’ License exam to be English only.

Bad Bills that Passed

HB 897 passed in this legislative session.  On lines 876-877, the Bill authorizes a fee to be charged to local systems.  It states, *"that in no event shall the amount of tuition charged to and paid by the local school system on behalf of such student exceed $250.00 per student per semester course." * That appears to have the possibility of a major drain on local systems if very many students opt to take a number of courses using this method.

Bad Bills that Failed

HB 907 would have increased the cost of car-service companies like Uber and Lyft.

Bad Law Not Repealed

HB 1216 passed in 2008 created Regional Commissions with appointed, unelected bureaucrats in 12 regions composed of clusters of counties, to usurp county sovereignty and accountability and remove voter control.   This is an Agenda 21 enabling law.   

HB 277 passed in 2010 created the T-SPLOST that failed by 66% in 2012.  This is an Agenda 21 enabling law.

Bad Law to Correct with Future Bills

Georgia law allows all other Agenda 21 enabling laws including “conservation easements” that allow land and property owners to sign up for lower county property tax if they forfeit their land rights.  Regional bureaucrats come back later and tell the farmer what they can and can’t do with their land.  The land value plummets and speculator cronies buy it cheap.  It’s a scam.

Georgia law allows cities to establish draconian zoning that dictates what land owners can do with their land through Land Use Zoning Plans. This may include zoning for certain lot sizes for residential or an arbitrary refusal to allow any development on private land.  It’s a scam.

Georgia law allows cities and counties to borrow up to 10% of the value of all privately held land and property on their tax registry.  This is excessive and is no limit at all.  What cities and counties are allowed to borrow should be limited to the value of audited city or county assets.  This lack of restraint resulted coupled with EPA overreach rendered Jefferson County Alabama bankrupt over an attempt to meet EPA standards in replacing their sewer system.   It also allowed a dozen cities in California to over-invest in economic development projects that failed. They are now bankrupt.

Georgia law allows cities and counties to issue Bonds without voter approval.  The Cobb County approval of $300 million in debt for the Braves stadium is the largest example.

Georgia law allows cities and counties to establish “Special Tax Districts” and appoint unelected bureaucrats to manage tax money and issue Bonds without voter approval.

Georgia law allows cities and counties to condemn property with no voter oversight or property owner protections.  They do this on property that doesn’t look like it should be condemned, but this allows the city to waive property taxes for the benefit of the new developers.

The Georgia redevelopment powers Act allows cities and counties to create redevelopment corporations and appoint unelected bureaucrats to recommend tax holidays and subsidies for commercial property owners to attract business.  It also allows cities and counties to create development corporations to do the same. This is corporate welfare.  It also authorizes the formation of Community Improvement Districts with additional taxes coming from commercial members, but with borrowing powers that can leave the cities liable for debt and losses.

Georgia law allows cities, counties and school boards to issue Bonds and incur debt without voter approval.  School boards routinely issue Bonds when instead they could set up accrual accounts for school maintenance, restoration and new construction.  30 year Bonds at 5% interest cost double. It acts like a home mortgage, and your $100,000 house will cost you $200,000.   This is a wasteful “gift” of interest and fees to Banks, Bond Marketers and lawyers from taxpayers.  Government entities are not new home buyers with no alternative but to borrow the money.  Government can set up accrual accounts and save for planned improvements and maintenance and pay cash without borrowing.  Bond should be left to restore critical public infrastructure ruined in natural disasters.

Georgia law allows taxes to be collected for one purpose and used for economic development.  These are subsidies to favored businesses and developers.  The Public Private Partnerships are a scam.  This is trickle-up redistribution of wealth and corporate welfare.  It allows private companies to receive project funding without any debt liability. The debt liability falls to the taxpayers.  Many of these projects fail.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader