So 25% of the rental homes in Atlanta, georgia are currently owned by these large institutional investors.

The latest data that we've seen on the actual resale of these homes is there in metro Atlanta, 30% of all single family homes that are listed for sale will get sold to an investor.

A senate bill passed this afternoon is looking to lock out institutional investors buying homes in georgia, impacting the housing market, specifically in Atlanta, and first time home buyers.

Good evening and welcome to georgia legislative day.

26.

I'm donna lowery in Atlanta tonight.

My extended interview with lieutenant governor burt jones, I asked him about a couple of legislative priorities and what it's like to serve as president of the senate while running for governor.

And the bill inspired by the late conservative activist Charlie kirk to protect students' first amendment rights to organize, gather and speak in public schools, regardless of political or religious viewpoints.

Let's get right down to the capital first though with our sarah calls donna lawmakers took on their highest combined bill count yet.

Psychedelics property taxes, and protests all came up with a side of peanut butter.

The day kicked off with a beloved annual tradition, grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to celebrate georgia's peanut farms.

Then the house was off to the races with nearly 20 bills on their calendar.

House bill 717 sparked controversy.

The bill would lay out guidelines for ketamine clinics, which administer the psychedelic drug for physical and psychological therapy.

Board of medicine, who has asked for this bill would set up rules for them to follow, like having the safety equipment, putting parameters about what doses they give.

Right now it is wide open and they're giving these drugs, ketamine four.

That means it's going straight into your blood system and straight to your heart.

The bill also requires that a physician owns a majority stake in each clinic.

Some lawmakers raise concerns that nurses would be excluded from the business.

This bill pushes ownership by physicians and denies well qualified nurse from becoming business owners.

.

How can we say that we're the number 1 state to do business and continue to tell well qualified nurses that they're not good enough to become business owners.

After the debate, the bill received 73 yes votes and 88 no votes and failed.

Supporters signal that they will move to reconsider the bill tomorrow.

It passed 167 to nine.

After lunch, the house took up a measure that could significantly reduce the property tax on primary residences.

It starts by reducing the taxable value over a period of ten years from 40% to 10% at 3% a year.

It also takes 100% disabled veterans homestead exemption up to 100% of their homes value.

.

Opponents say that the constitutional change was rushed and a reduction in property taxes could trigger an increase in sales taxes in some counties.

And the math is not mathing.

It does not add up.

And this is not a responsible thing to do.

We are called to be leaders.

We are called to stand in this moment and it's not about your politics, it's about good, sound public policy that can stand the test of time.

And I submit to you today, this is not ready.

House resolution 11 14 was originally written to eliminate homestead property taxes entirely, but was amended to significantly reduce the taxes instead.

The bill failed to pass the required two thirds majority, 99 to 73.

Republican leaders asked for the bill to be reconsidered again tomorrow.. The senate took up ten bills in a resolution today in a late start this afternoon sb 443 would increase the penalty to a high aggravated misdemeanor for obstructing highways or streets during protests or other unpermitted gatherings.

It is a simple common sense bill.

It is something that parents should have taught people a long time ago.

Don't block the streets.

It has nothing to do with sidewalks, others.

It's simply that don't block any kind of roads because that way you don't stop a parent from getting to school or vice versa.

You don't stop an ambulance, you don't stop a fire truck, whatever you want to protest.

I'm all for it.

I'll sit there and protest with some folks.

Just don't do it in the middle of the roads.

That's what senate bill 443 says.

One senator questioned if marches like the 1965 march to selma would fall foul of this law today, if that type of civil rights demonstration were to take place here in georgia,, would it be illegal under this bill of a high and aggravated misdemeanor In regards to the march, the civil rights administration led dr King led a group of protesters across the edmund pettus bridge and it became known as bloody sunday as they were met by national guard and state patrolmen.

So if that type of demonstration were to take place again today and they were to march across a bridge in georgia, that would be a high and aggravated misdemeanor.

It is my understanding that would be receive a permit and then that would be, it would not be.

They could do that if they received the permit sb 443 pass 35 to 17 along party lines.

Sb 463 would prohibit large institutional investors from buying more than 500 single family homes.

Grok that have already met that inventory would not be allowed to purchase more.

The bill would not allow foreign investment groups to purchase homes for rental purposes and disallow tax depreciation credits for these large investors.

So 25% of the rental homes in Atlanta, georgia are currently owned by these large institutional investors.

The latest data that we've seen on the actual resale of these homes is there in metro Atlanta, 30% of all single family homes that are listed for sale will get sold to an investor.

It was passed 49 to three.

And for you gardeners sb 240 would make april the official georgia native plant month.

The bill also changes the state flower from the cherokee rose to the sweet magnolia.

The cherokee rose actually came from china.

We want to change it from the cherokee rose to the sweet bay magnolia.

The sweet bay magnolia happening to be a native georgian plant, actually native to here to georgia.

We even have letters from the cherokee nation.

They have no objection to this yes change it.

That's fine with us.

The bill passed unanimously tomorrow on day 27.

We expect another busy day of bills as the countdown continues to cross over day on friday donna thank you sarah now to my interview with lieutenant governor Burt Jones in 2022, he was sworn into the office that includes serving as president of the georgia senate.

We spent time last week discussing several issues.

I started with his push to join neighboring states in eliminating income taxes.

I've always said our long term goal is to eliminate the state income tax, which we've been able to do in the four years that I've been lieutenant governor.

We've lowered it every year.

And in this year's proposal, we actually have two proposal.

One is a more aggressive proposal that eliminates a state income tax for about 70% of the population.

And then the other one is just taking it down to about 3.9%.

And that's a good thing look I would ultimately like to give everybody a 5% raise across the state, but we've always said that we're not gonna do it in one year, but we are going to put a plan in place to responsibly ratchet it down best we can.

And that's what the proposal is this year.

It's already in motion.

That's what you want.

Governor Brian Kemp has worked to bring down the state's personal and corporate income tax rate, and he's asking for it to come down under 5% this year in this state in his state of the state address, I should say he said quote this tax cut doesn't promise to pay for itself years down the road or create future budget holes with today's one time money.

Will eliminating the income tax pay for itself down the road and not create budget holes with a one time money well that's why you go through the budgetary process every year donna you know, and that's why I've always said we're going to be very responsible about it.

Governor Kemp has been a great partner to work with in my four years as lieutenant governor and we have lowered the state income tax every year.

We'll do it again this year.

And we we're planning on getting us to that point of zero, but we've always said we're going to be very responsible with it and that's why we have the annual budgetary process and our main, our constitutional obligation is to balance the budget and we're going to be very responsible look I come from a business background and I know exactly.

You always got to be, you know, having checks and balances and looking at what your spending is and what you're take it in and all that kind of stuff.

That's just common sense approach to things.

So we're going to be fiscally responsible and we're going to come at it from a common sense point of view.

Are you hearing from people eliminating some of those tax credits, how they feel about it well yeah, obviously anybody who's a beneficiary of a tax credit, you know, obviously they might have concerns, but we've been doling out tax credits for two decades now and we have over $30 billion in tax credits that have built up.

Some of them have been very good for the state.

Others are probably just padding the bottom line for some corporation.

So I think it's our duty as elected officials to be looking at what is the highest and best use for some of those tax credits and some of them will go by the wayside and sunset and we appreciate the job they've done, but, you know, they're not needed anymore.

I want to talk about a bill that you announced earlier this week as a priority during this session, and it's the true patriotism and universal student access act.

And it's to prioritize legislation that honors the life and legacy of the late Charlie kirk.

So tell us a little bit about that yeah sure.

Turning point usa is an organization that is really a grassroots organization that was started by the late Charlie kirk.

I mean, it really was a movement.

It was a movement of really wanting to promote American exceptionalism or want to promote christian values.

And and I think we need more of that in this country.

I think we have too much really anti American chatter out there when we should be, you should be proud of where you're born and you should be proud of the country that you live in.

And a turning point organization is one that really started a movement with young people on college campuses all across the country.

And so we're excited about partnering with them on this legislation and us being the first ones in the country to actually introduce it.

So georgia will be first.

Georgia will be the first yeah okay so let's talk about one of the items in that provides for public school students to engage in political speech and political activities yeah right right talk about that a little bit well I mean, I think what so many times that people want to shut down political speech, especially in christian based speech in a lot of the school systems.

And so, you know, we don't want it to interfere with classroom work obviously, but it's just like clubs that you have within the schools, they ought to be able to have a club that talks about American exceptionalism and talks about christianity and your religious beliefs.

Do you expect some pushback from the school systems?

You know, there probably is.

I don't think there's anything we do up here that gets 100% buy in donna but you know, it could be, but we're looking forward to the schools who have invited us to be a part of this, this rollout.

Let's talk the amended budget.

It recently passed in the senate last week and one of the things it champions is appropriating $409 million for the construction of a 300 bed mental health services hospital.

Tell us why there's such a need here well I mean look there's been a need for quite some time.

I mean, all you have to do is talk to any of your sheriffs around the state and they will tell you that a lot of their jails, local jail systems have inmates in them that really need more attention than what our local people can provide them.

And because there's a lot of mental health issues that are going on in this country.

There's a lot of people who need more attention to those mental health situations and really they're kind of overflowing our jail systems.

And so what this hospital system, this dal health hospital system that we put together is really is trying to help out our local sheriffs and law enforcement agencies who are have these overcrowding jails that really are not befit a lot of people who have them.

It's something I heard when I was in the senate, that a lot of people that are in there need more mental health professionals than they need just to be locked up and trying to get a deputy or a bailiff to handle them.

You're running for higher office aside, with it being an election year though, does it change your role in the senate or how you approach job this year?

Not really.

I mean look I've always been pushing issues that I'm actually running on right now.

I've always talked about lowering taxes, whether it's income property I've always talked about getting rid of red tape.

I've always talked about educational opportunities and and also public safety as well.

So all these things that I'm doing in the senate are the same things that I'm running on for governor and and and quite frankly, I all the people all the people who I'm running against right now, they're trying to run on the same platform that I have and I've already accomplished most of the things they say they're going to do so but it just makes your day a little busier obviously when you're when you're sitting here running statewide.

Obviously it's a big state and then you're also trying to preside over the senate during the legislative process, which is, as you well know, a very busy time anyway.

So it does increase your workload, but look, it is what it is.

It'll be over with soon.

So, I just keep grinding and keep running.

So what are you most proud of as lieutenant governor that you've done during this time well you know, we've accomplished a lot of things, a lot of things from a from a common sense conservative aspect that that that have been talked about around these hallways for a while, whether it was on the educational opportunities with school choice, whether it was on lowering taxes and capping property taxes.

We did those things under my tenure.

But one of the things that I started that I'm very proud of is with our family and children's committee that we started with focus on defects, focus on foster care, it focused on trying to improve both the foster care system as well as the dc system where all these children who were born into tough situations that they could not control, we need to be more responsible about how we, you know, take care of them and try to get them because it's not just while they're in the system, how they transition out of the system as well.

We've passed probably 20 pieces of legislation in the last 3.5 years that focuses on providing educational opportunities for them, providing post secondary opportunities for them, as well and job opportunities once they transfer out of the system.

So those you see real impacts with that age and on that children and family front.

But there's a lot of things to be proud of, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

I want to thank lieutenant governor burt jones for talking to me today well we'll be right back Georgia Farm Bureau, , a grassroots organization dedicated to preserving georgia agriculture.

Farm bureau advocates for all georgia farmers at the state capitol during the session and year round.

Georgia Farm Bureau, the voice of georgia farmers, explore the stories that move you.

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It's a georgia thing Welcome back to lawmakers.. I'm donna lowery.

It's time to focus on health issues affecting georgians and more.

Joining me is democratic representative amari Crawford of decatur.

His house committees include insurance, intragovernmental coordination, and judiciary.

Also here is our own capital correspondent, sarah calls.

Welcome to lawmakers.

Welcome to being here in the studio for a change.

Thanks for that.

All right, representative Crawford, you have a bill to help people with sickle cell anemia who are on medicaid.

And first, for those who are not familiar with sickle cell anemia, here's how the centers for disease control and prevention describe it.

Sickle cell anemia is an inherited blood disorder where red blood cells become c shaped like a sickle instead of round, making them rigid and sticky.

These cells block blood flow, causing pain and organ damage.

And so I've known people to have this representative Crawford, tell me your reasons for bringing this bill to begin with.

Thank you for having me.

Sickle cell disease is very prevalent in the district that I represent and I grew up with friends that had or have sickle cell.

I became a sickle cell advocate by joining a nonprofit organization called my three sickler, started by a woman who has three daughters with sickle cell disease.

I learned a lot about sickle cell disease by being on this board and I wanted to figure out a way to help people in our state with sickle cell disease.

You mentioned that it is a blood inherited disease that makes blood flow more difficult.

It impacts organs and it reduces life expectancy.

We have about 14 to 15,000 people in our state that are impacted by sickle cell disease.. And so it's very prevalent in our state, making georgia one of the top five states in the country of individuals who are impacted by sickle cell.

And I wanted to find a way to advocate for those individuals.

And by being on the board, you learn about some of their stories, you learn about their challenges, medications and treatments that sometimes may exacerbate some of their pains and some of their really just day to day challenges.

And so how do we help that?

That's why I wanted to get involved and that's why I brought house bill 334.

Now I know you had a previous bill, but this one, tell us about this one.

House bill 334 would require our department of community health to conduct an annual review every year on what types of sickle cell disease treatments and medications are available for recipients on medicaid.

The bulk of people who are impacted by sickle cell in our state are medicaid recipients.

We just want to make sure that as as treatments are being Introduced that we're not standing still.

There were two medications that were introduced treatments in 2023 more will happen.

So as those treatments and as those medications evolve, we want to make sure that experts and individuals who are impacted by sickle cell, they have an input on this annual review.

So the community centers will, community health centers, I should say, will pass along that information exactly all right then well and get to you more in a moment sarah thanks for being here.

It's been a long day.

You had a hard time getting here.

And actually I think as we speak they may still be at it in the house a little bit.

Tell us the big bill that kept people involved a long time today.

A lot of debate yes well, the biggest bill was actually a resolution which would significantly reduce property tax for homeowners in the state.

The bill did end up getting a majority of the votes, but it didn't get the required two thirds majority needed since it was a constitutional amendment.

And so that was a priority of speaker of the house, john burns.

And although it didn't reach that two thirds majority, house leadership has already signaled that they'll be calling for another vote on it tomorrow.

How did you vote?

Voted against the bill and tell us why briefly.

I think that the bill, while it sounds great for property owners, it would also take away a lot of funds from our services.

So you think about our schools, you think about our police forces.

And in this area that I live in, dekalb county, we would have a bigger challenge than some of the other smaller counties throughout the state okay I want to get into some of some other legislation you might have.

I know that we're going to talk in a moment about something very special you're doing, but what else are you looking at as crossover day approaches, especially as a lawmaker yourself.

Anything you have in particular or you're looking to see yeah there is a bill that I'm hoping to get a committee hearing going and it would criminalize what we have as these machine gun converters, house bill 11 27.

When a person has a handgun, they can get a metal switch, a small metal device, they put it inside of the handgun and it converts a handgun into a machine gun.

A lot of states have outlawed this and they've criminalized it.

Machine guns are already federally illegal.

This bill would make handguns and the machine gun ban congruent.

And so now our local prosecutors won't have to look to different interpretations from the federal laws to make sure that again, these converters are criminalized and it just it will save lives yeah you don't have a whole lot of time, but you're going to start on it.

Not a lot of time, but we'll keep up with whether or not it makes it by crossover day.

Thank you sarah let's talk about the rest of the day.

Lots more.

Can you mention some of the other bills that they worked on yeah I mean in both the house and the senate were very busy.

It was the highest day of bills cumulatively between the two chambers, which we're seeing as the countdown across every day continues.

We saw a bill in the senate that also garnered a little bit of debate that would increase the penalty for obstructing a street or a highway during an unpermitted event.

We also saw a criminal offense created in the house if the bill were to pass dealing with obstructing a police officer with a vehicle, then we saw another potential new criminal offense in the house bill dealing with trespassing related to wild animals.

So that would be something like throwing an object into the cage of an animal at a zoo or something similar to that.

I know the bill that we had representative tangy hering on for the other day dealing with putting 988, the crisis number on the back of ids for kids in school yeah that came up in the house today as well.

The hope with that bill is that it would help students who are struggling, let them know that they have resources, that they have a reason stay here, and they're not alone in their struggles.

So one of the things we talk about all the time, like everybody should know what crossover day is.

So to explain that crossover day is an important day if bills don't make it out of one chamber or another by crossover day, which is this coming friday, then they don't have as much of a chance to make it as law.

There are ways that they will find.

And you've actually experienced that personally where you had one crossover and then it changed a little bit later.. I've had the good and the bad.

I've had a bill crossover.

I presented a bill on the house floor, got to the senate.

Looked completely different when it got to the senate.

But on the positive, I had a bill that was primed for the floor, was not called to the floor.

And I spoke with senators to see if I could put my language in a bill that was related.

That bill was eventually signed by the governor.

So there is a way that you can get your policies into other bills, but There's also a way that people can get their policies in your bills.

You just have to be on the lookout.

And for you sarah let's talk about this.

The reason, you know, we see these bills come along, but these last few days before crossover and crossover day on friday are just crucial for so many absolutely and it's crunch time.

I like to describe it as sort of the end of the semester.

If you think about back when you were in school, where you have so many assignments piling up and you're pulling all nighters and that type of thing, we're seeing that happening at the state capital as well yeah they may actually have an all nighter on friday.

We'll see that well representative Crawford, I wanted to get into something that personally you're doing.

I want to draw attention to your working on running a half marathon in every state.

Tell us about that.

And I know it's personal to yeah it's personal and I appreciate you asking about that.

My mother recently passed from breast cancer and as she was going through chemotherapy and treatment, she being a good mother and father, they recognized that I was not taking that news well.

So my mother had a very tough conversation with me and that was I need to get back to doing the things that I like.

She saw that I was tired.

She saw that I wasn't my best.

And so she asked, I need you to go and run.

Can you promise me to go and run?

I need you to be your best if you're going to help me.

So my father created this hashtag in our group text hashtag miles for mom, where we would take pictures of ourselves, film ourselves walking or running miles around the neighborhood.

And so I said to my mother, you know, what if I ran a half marathon in every state around the country?

My father loved the idea and so I started, I've been doing one a month.

She saw my first part of the journey.

She saw 12 half marathons.

You've done 12.

I did 12 and she passed on 29 December, so she saw my last one in memphis tennessee okay.

And so you've got that mini.

You're going to keep at it.

What's your next state?

I did 13, which was indiana in february.

14 will be in annapolis maryland okay, there's a lot of planning involved in that, but your mom's looking down and she's happy that.

We re having fun as a family yeah well, thank you for sharing that with us sarah friday is crossover day for us.

It's a one hour show here on lawmakers and you're going to have lots of interviews at the cal.

Did mention a few of them quickly yeah I'll have live updates from the capitol.

I'm excited to talk to from the democratic side.

We have representative phillie and then you're speaking with lieutenant governor burt jones as well.

And so we should have a good line up yeah we're going to have a busy show, so we want everybody to tune in.

Thanks so much for coming.

You rushed down here, both of you did, so appreciate that.

Thank you.

That does it for lawmakers today.

We'll be back tomorrow for day 27.

Have a good night