Highlights from the House — Rep. Shaw Blackmon

Wednesday, March 29, brought the close of the 2023 legislative session. Over the last three months we worked diligently to pass meaningful legislation on behalf of our Georgia citizens for the betterment of our state. Below is an overview of the a few bills we passed in the final days of the session.

Foster Care Reform

To avoid placing children in foster care unnecessarily, we passed Senate Bill 133. This bill will clarify several code sections to improve juvenile court proceedings for children who need services for child delinquency or dependency. Through this bill we are working to ensure that all avenues have been explored prior to placing a child in the system. Stipulations of the bill are as follows:

•Courts required to consider what state services have been provided to the child or the parent/guardian or what services may be available to allow the child to remain in their home.

•Courts required to attempt the secure placement of a child other than in custody of DFCS.

•Mandates a preliminary protective hearing take place within 72 hours of DFCS placement.

•Requires all parties to provide copies of medical, psychological, and educational assessments and reports of the child or the child’s parent/guardian to DFCS.

Public Safety

Senate Bill 107, or Izzy’s Law, was also passed to lessen accidental drownings for children. This law requires the development of a model safety plan for private swim instructors to utilize by January 1, 2024. Requirements of the plan are as follows:

•Minimum standards for student-to-instructor ratios

•Secondary supervision recommendations

•Parent or legal guardian attendance

•Cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification.

Violations of SB 107 would be considered a misdemeanor charge with a minimum fine of $200 for the first and second violation, as well as a $1,000 maximum fine for third and subsequent violations.

To help ensure that the state’s criminal case information is accurate, up-to-date, and easily accessible to appropriate parties, we passed Senate Bill 272. This bill would reestablish the state’s Criminal Case Data Exchange Board. This board will be charged in the regular review of best tracking practices and procedures to ensure accuracy of case data. In addition, this board will work with criminal justice experts to develop a human trafficking tracking system to better stay informed of where the courts are on their proceedings regarding these crucial cases. Ensuring our criminal case data exchange is up to date will assist our overloaded court system in the streamlining process while allowing all parties involved to stay abreast of the latest happenings of their criminal case proceedings.

Regulatory Reform

As Georgia driving trends have shown an increased use of Electric Vehicles, we passed Senate Bill 146. This bill will provide a regulatory framework for elective vehicle (EV) charging stations and allow our state to regulate these charging stations to the same extent as gas pumps.

•Georgia Department of Revenue will be tasked to ensure that our state collects revenue like revenue that is typically collected from gasoline sales.

•Department of ‘Agriculture will have regulatory authority over EV charging stations, including inspecting these stations.

•Retail sale and include meters to record the total kilowatt-hours. These charging stations would also be required to provide accurate readings of electricity to their customers.

•Electric utilities could not provide, own, operate or maintain any publicly available charging station unless it is done through a separate legal entity.

To help ensure that the state’s criminal case information is accurate, up-to-date, and easily accessible to the appropriate parties, we passed Senate Bill 272. This bill would reestablish the state’s Criminal Case Data Exchange Board. This board will be charged in the regular review of best tracking practices and procedures to ensure accuracy of criminal case data is made available to interested parties. In addition, this board will work with criminal justice experts to develop a human trafficking tracking system to better stay informed of where courts are on each individual case. Ensuring our criminal case data exchange is up to date will assist our stretched judicial system and all parties involved stay abreast of latest happenings of within each criminal case.

Budget News

We are pleased to report that the General Assembly came to agreement on the Conference Committee Report for House Bill 19, or the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY 2024) budget. Effective July 1, this final version of the FY 2024 budget is set at a revenue estimate of $32.4 billion, which is $2.2 billion, or 7.4 percent, more than the Fiscal Year 2023 budget. There are many ins and outs of the Budget and what it entails. Be on the lookout for a detailed report in the coming days covering all aspects of the 2023 Amended FY Budget and the Full 2024 FY Budget.

In total, our House body sent 87 general bills, 183 local bills and three resolutions to the governor for his consideration. This total does not include Senate legislation that received final passage. It is important to remember that bills introduced this year are still up for consideration during the 2024 legislative session. Although we have officially finished the session, the real work begins. Please be on the lookout for monthly updates for the remainder of the year as there is much to cover where our government is concerned. In the meantime, if you need anything at all, please let us know. Thank you for the honor of allowing us to serve as your voice under the Gold Dome as we continue to work towards simple, smart, and effective government. May God bless you and may He continue to bless the great state of Georgia.

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