Week in Review, 4/14/2025

Reviewing the Latest Georgia State Assembly Session

BUDGET

The budget is always, by far, the most impactful piece of legislation to emerge from an Assembly session, so let’s take a look at the upcoming FY 2026 state budget. Unless otherwise indicated, graphs and information come from the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, This first one is the proposed budget from the Governor going into the session, which has been modified, but largely holds:

You can see how the various budgets stacked up, including the final compromise that was passed here (PDF file). The final approved budget numbers are the ones on the far right. The only significant disagreement with the budget wasn’t a partisan one, but had to do with Kemp’s desire to use cash to pay for capital projects; historically, Georgia has used bonds, which makes more sense, because that then frees up more cash for other necessary programs. The House moved to do that, the Senate blocked, and eventually a compromise was reached where some of the capital projects were bonded, but over $700 million were not. This money could have gone to additional child services, healthcare, or infrastructure. Why Kemp did this is not known, but it wasn’t helpful. Still, only 4 representatives voted against the budget, and only 1 state senator did…care to guess which one?

Of course he did.

Some very good news did emerge on education spending, an opportunity weight was added to Georgia’s school funding formula for the first time. This will shift more resources toward poorer school systems, and Georgia is no longer one of six states without this feature.

With a few exceptions, north Georgia’s student poverty rate tends to be toward the lower end of the spectrum, although “lower” is still way too high.

School budgets expanded in areas such as mental health support, after-school programs, and social services. The bad news? The diversion of $141 million for vouchers to private schools. This is money that could and should go toward public education.

An additional negative was the lowering of Georgia’s already flat income tax rate an additional 0.2%. This costs the state budget $748 million, with two-thirds of that amount going to the upper fifth of income earners. (HB111 - of course, Cameron and Moore voted YES on that one.)

TORT REFORM (aka Insurance Industry Handout)

Senate Bill 68 was one of two “lightning rod” pieces of legislation to pass (SB 36 below being the other), and it’s predictably bad, as almost all Republican-led “tort reform” efforts are. The “reform” is to protect the insurance industry and make it harder for people like you and me to file legitimate personal injury lawsuits. (Cameron voted YES, Moore, to his credit, voted NO.)

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM (aka It’s Ok to Discriminate Against Trans and Gays In the Name of God)

Senate Bill 36 was the so-called “Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” Let’s get down to brass tacks, as they say, about why this is bad. A lot of states have similar statutes, but most of them have anti-discrimination clauses in them to protect vulnerable minorities. THIS one does NOT. There’s no evidence of widespread “religious discrimination” in Georgia of the kind that this bill is supposed to prevent, but it will give people the leeway to discriminate against people of different sexuality, perhaps even going beyond those people to other minority groups, all in the name of “religious freedom” because of the lack of any anti-discrimination protections. No surprise that Moore and Cameron both voted YES on this.

Please feel free to highlight other legislation in the comment section. TM