That's what this event is all about.

Promoting the continued success of the aerospace industry and really a statewide economy through partnerships that benefit all Georgians.

The work that you do here doesn't just support community statewide.

It also ensures the safety of our entire nation through a modern, well equipped military and infrastructure network.

That's something that we are always mindful here under the gold Dome.

Governor Brian Kemp has a high flying adventure promoting Georgia's aerospace industry.

Today at the Capitol.

Good evening and welcome to Lawmakers.

It's day 11 of the Georgia legislative session.

I'm Donna Lowry in Atlanta.

More on the governor's high flying adventure in a moment.

Should Georgia join the gold rush?

What's behind the move to recognize gold and silver as legal tender?

On the show today, two lawmakers discuss what that might mean for the way you pay for purchases.

Also, it's an election year, and a blue ribbon committee has a recommendation on election procedures.

One of the committee members joins the show, but we get started with this busy day at the Capitol, both on the inside and the outside of the chambers.

Here's Capitol correspondent Sarah Kallis.

Donna, today was Girl Scout Day at the Capitol, and hundreds of scouts filled the Gold Dome.

Meanwhile, in the chambers, lawmakers passed several bills, including another look at property tax exemption.

In the House, representatives approved a bill that would create safe devices to place an infant in.

For parents who surrender custody of their newborns.

How this process works is a newborn can be surrendered at a safe fire hall.

When they open the front door of this device, they placed the baby inside.

It's like almost like an incubator.

They closed the box.

An alarm goes off silently inside the fire hall.

Then someone comes out of the back side of the device.

They take the newborn out.

Then the process is to take the newborn to a medical facility to be checked out.

Usually with EMS.

When the child gets to the hospital, they notify human services.

They check the baby out.

And once the baby is deemed to be safe and okay, then within 6 hours, the Department of Human Services picks the baby up and places them in care.

That way, we get them in a safe place where they'll be there.

House Bill 350 passed unanimously.

They also passed a bill aimed at addressing Georgia's invasive wild hog problem.

House Bill 946 would remove the following burden barriers, therefore helping to remove even more of these invasive animals.

Section one of the bill would allow residents and nonresidents to trap and kill feral hogs without a hunting or trapping license.

Other provisions of the bill would allow hunters to hunt a hog while in a vehicle, and use drones to track hogs.

That bill passed 160 3-1 and members gave approval to a bill that would allow magistrate courts to charge a fee that they would use to fund technology.

House Bill 999 passed one 60-4 in the Senate, two bills were brought to the floor.

SB 420 would add a $10 fee for fishermen wanting to catch certain fish species off of Georgia's coast, such as red snapper.

Using funding generated by this license endorsement, the database of endorsement holders.

Georgia DNR can produce more accurate catch estimates for popular species like red snapper and king mackerel.

Then they're currently produced by federal law.

For the past several years, Georgia anglers have only been allowed to harvest red snapper for one, maybe two days a year.

When that species is way more abundant than than has been documented by by the feds.

The bill passed unanimously.

Senate Bill 382, was a bit more contentious.

The bill would make the statewide homestead exemption measure mandatory, not allowing local municipalities and counties to opt out, which previous legislation passed in 2024 allowed.

We're here because the original bill got changed on the other side with an opt out, and I know many House members over there didn't want that either, including the two that helped us in Bartow County.

The senator from the 37th and me in the the two House members to put a local measure on us.

So shockingly or not shockingly, 70% of the school districts opted out.

About 20% of the cities did.

And so here we are with the majority of Georgians not having the protection that others have.

The bill would tie property tax increases to the inflation rate at the time of assessment.

It also adds a penny flat tax or a floating local option sales tax to help offset local government revenue losses.

Allow a penny to apply towards property taxes.

39 counties put it on the ballot.

90% of them passed it this year.

One of them said the money doesn't get to us quick enough, and they didn't like that part of it.

So this is going to address that.

And if this passes, it will be available for all 159 counties and 535 cities.

Some Democrats supported the bill's attempt to help with affordability, but had concerns about the one fit for all measure.

Our counties have widely varying economic conditions, so it really is not.

In addition to not being particularly smart, policy wise, to demand a blanket condition.

It also isn't necessarily even practical or equitable, and it does tie our local officials hands.

In terms of how they can deal with their own budgets and provide the fiscal accountability that they are tasked with providing for their constituents by virtue of their own duly elected positions.

And they were concerned about the Republican bill reneging on the compromise made with Democrats on the original 2024 bills opt out option.

The reason why we're even here is because we actually did have a compromise between the two parties, between the two parties here late at night, to actually be able to send this to the voters actually brought Democrats and Republicans to the table to where we actually had to work through these particular issues.

And we actually had an opportunity to influence that legislation.

And then we were able to take it to our voters.

And where, after hearings, our voters then made a determination that was actually real, working together.

Now, though, because we only need a majority vote, we now today have decided we're about to basically scuttle all of that and determine what local communities may have decided is wrong.

The bill was passed 31-19 The Senate also recognized Girl Scouts today, as well as Aerospace and Defense Day at the Capitol.

There's more to our military installations than just the bases, the surrounding communities and defense industries are key players in our economy.

Governor Brian Kemp celebrated the event by taking a quick flight in an F-35.

Well, sort of an Air Force flight simulator was set up in the rotunda to highlight the $57 billion industry in the state and show off the country's latest high tech fighter.

Today, as it was mentioned, Aerospace is Georgia's number 1 export, totaling $12.6 billion in the most recent data that we have.

And the industry itself, as was mentioned, is now the second largest in the state, producing an economic impact of over $57.5 billion annually.

Those numbers are literally out of this world.

Habitat for humanity volunteers framed a house in Liberty Plaza across the street from the Gold Dome for capital Build Day.

The event took place to promote their cause of providing affordable housing throughout the state, and the Carter Center brought their annual mental Health Parity Symposium to the Capitol to advocate for mental health care to be treated the same as physical health.

Tomorrow, speaker of the House Jon Burns will unveil his Georgia family's first policy initiative.

Lawmakers will also reconvene for day 12.

That's my Capitol report, Donna.

Thank you.

Sarah.

Election issues are always top of mind during legislative sessions, and we see lots of bills introduced.

They're among the most controversial pieces of legislation.

We had hoped to have a discussion today from both sides of the aisle.

We reached out to several Republicans who were unable to make it.

We will have them on an upcoming show to talk about the topic.

Joining me now is Democratic Representative Saira Draper of Atlanta, who is minority Caucus chief deputy whip.

Her House committees include Budget and Fiscal Affairs, oversight, Judicial and judiciary.

I should say, and juvenile.

Welcome to Lawmakers for the 2026 session.

I'm the first.

I'm happy to be here.

Thank you for being here.

You recently wrote in a newsletter about what you call the most important election issue that no one is talking about.

You were referring to SB 189 that passed in 2024.

That requires the state to phase out the use of QR codes by July 1 of this year.

It passed along party lines.

You voted against it.

Tell us more about it.

Well, I voted against the bill as a whole.

That was one portion of the bill.

A very small portion of the bill, but it was a portion of the bill that required time to address, because our current voting system uses QR codes.

If you ever go vote in person, you vote on a touchscreen, you make your selections, and then a ballot gets printed out and there's a QR code on that ballot that has your selections.

But there are folks in Georgia that had concerns about that.

They said, I can't read the QR code.

I don't actually know what's embedded in that QR code.

So how do I know that what I, who I wanted to vote for is actually reflected in that QR code.

And so the legislature listened to that and they said, okay, we'll get rid of the QR code.

But that's only the first step.

We have to figure out the how as well.

Okay.

So you were the only Democrat on a blue ribbon study committee over the last few months on election procedures.

It was released.

The report was released yesterday.

And I want to point out that we invited the chair of the committee, Republican Representative Tim Fleming, to come on the show, but he was unable to make it.

He has agreed to come on in the future, but among the recommendations is to extend the committee to the end of December of this year.

So tell us about that and why?

Well, I think there's a lot of issues that we have to grapple with when it comes to elections.

The system that we are currently using is coming to a contractual end.

We can either choose to renew it or we can move into a different direction.

I know there's a lot of folks that want us to move into a different direction.

And let me just say, being on the Blue ribbon committee, we went to several places.

We we traveled all over Georgia this year because we wanted to go to the people, and we wanted the people to tell us, you know, what do you want out of your elections?

It was such a privilege to get that feedback, and we are taking that feedback, and it's part of our recommendations.

But I think the thing about election issues is there's you have to hear from all the stakeholders.

You have to hear from the voters, you have to hear from the counties who actually administer the elections.

And you have to take all that information.

And then you have to execute.

You have to execute a system that works for as many people as possible.

So it's a long term process.

It's more than what we can do in a 40 day legislative session.

So I'm so pleased that we're extending the committee to do that work and to do it well.

That's what's so important.

December 31st.

So we'll hear more about that.

Now.

Another recommendation from the committee is to adopt legislation, to, quote, provide voters with the option to utilize preprinted hand-marked paper ballots on Election Day, beginning with the 2026 general election.

The legislation should require all ballots that contain a QR code of any kind to be hand-counted for the purposes of official tabulation.

What are your thoughts on this?

So that is the recommendation that the committee made to address the QR issue, QR code issue that you opened the segment with.

This would be a solution to the QR code issue that we are trying to resolve this session before July.

I will say in the report, I was opposed to recommendation number 2.

I just don't think there's enough time before the November 2026 election to make such a major change in how we run elections, and I think it's a tricky issue.

I think we as a committee are still kind of trying to figure out what is the best approach to the QR code issue, whether it's what's in the report, or maybe we make a different kind of shift in a different direction.

I think as a committee, we are still trying to figure that out.

So more to come on that one.

Can you tell us whether we will see QR codes in in November?

Well, look, I mean, the law is the law says we have to phase them out by July 2026.

So unless we rescind that law, that is an option.

We could rescind that law, we could delay that law, or we can come up with another solution.

My hope is that whatever solution we come up with is a responsible solution that doesn't throw the 2026 elections into disarray.

Okay.

Do you think the Hand-marked paper ballot system is the best route?

Look, I actually am pretty agnostic as to what kind of system we use, whether it's with the machines that we have now or hand-marked paper ballots.

There's pros and cons to both methods, as there are to many things.

What's again, what's most important to me is that whatever system we use has great processes and works for Georgia voters.

Okay, what concerns what concerns do you have about the upcoming elections for statewide seats and the midterms in overall overall?

Well this is an opportunity to pivot to what happened in Fulton County last week, because what happened in Fulton County, I think one of the worst things we can do is minimize the threat that it poses.

The state has the election administration function.

Georgians have been.

And folks in the legislature have been in the legislature, where folks on both sides of the aisle have been saying we don't want outside interference with our election.

This is an attempt to involve the federal government in what should be a state function.

And I don't care who what you are Democrat, Republican, independent.

We should not want the federal government inserting themselves into our election.

But that is exactly what is happening.

And the threat is being made by President Trump that he wants to nationalize our elections, and that makes our elections less secure, less safe.

And it's something that we should all be pushing back against.

When you first, I noticed that you went down there.

I saw you in some video.

Yeah.

So you were there when it was all taking place with this, the FBI raid.

What were your thoughts about what was happening at the time?

Many different thoughts.

It's incredibly undemocratic.

What happened?

But I think my, my, the main thought was this isn't about 20:20.

So the warrant that was executed on said they wanted all the materials about the 2020 election from Fulton County.

But anybody who follows the evidence, anybody who follows the facts, knows that the Georgia election in 2020 was the most scrutinized election of all elections.

We had recounts, we had audits, we had a independent performance review of Fulton County.

There were almost 60 court cases that challenged the election results here.

All that failed.

So if you were looking at the evidence, there is no question that there was no systemic voter fraud in Georgia and that President Trump did not win Georgia in 2020.

So what was going through my mind when I was there was this is not about 20:20.

This is about undermining the 2026 election.

Because if you think you are going to win the 2026 election and your party is going to win the 2026 election, you don't want to undermine the results because that goes against your credibility.

But if you're afraid of losing, you start laying the foundation now to sow doubt.

Okay, well, we'll hear more about this.

We're only on day 11, so thanks so much for coming in, I appreciate it.

My pleasure.

Well, coming up, will Georgia take advantage of what some consider a golden opportunity?

Two lawmakers will discuss if we should start paying for the things that we buy with gold and silver.

Stay with us.

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It's not a mountain thing or a coastal thing.

It's a Georgia people, places and stories thing.

Morning edition on Georgia Public Broadcasting.

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It's a Georgia thing.

Welcome back to Lawmakers.

I'm Donna Lowry a Georgia Senate bill would recognize gold and silver as legal tender and create a state approved bullion depository.

You would be allowed to make payments through a system much like a debit card.

Joining me is the sponsor of the bill.

Republican Senator Marty Harbin of Tyrone.

He is chair of the Insurance and Labor Committee Committee and vice chair of retirement.

And his other committees include Finance and Ethics.

Also here is one of the bill's many co-sponsors, Democratic Senator Sonya Halpern.

She is Senate Minority Caucus vice chair.

She is vice chairman of the Urban Affairs Committee in the Senate, and her other committees include finance, appropriations, education, and youth.

Welcome to Lawmakers for this year.

Good to have you both here.

Now let's talk about this.

What problem does the bill solve?

Then?

Why should we?

Should the average person care about gold right now?

Well, gold is a commodity that has been around for six, 6,000 years.

If you look at it where we we look at the power of what we're doing is through the U.S.

Constitution, our founding fathers had a lot of wisdom back in those days.

And article 1, section ten says that states cannot create currency, but they can have gold and silver depositories that are regulated by the state.

Therefore, if you want to put gold and back in the 1800s that was done, you would have money that was placed there under state supervision.

And you and I could write a check to you for a gold check.

You could go to the bank and get your gold.

And gold has been recognized for years.

It's also been a hedge against inflation.

And it's it's a commodity, if you will.

And, you know, another part is that for banks, it's a tier one asset for banks.

Banks buy gold for a reason.

And that is it is a stabilizing force, if you will, in their portfolio.

Now it goes up and down just like any other commodity.

But the average person does not have the ability to transact business that way.

Okay.

Here's here's a here's a coin.

That's a gold coin.

That's a gold coin that coins worth right at 5,000, $5,000 today, the average person can't come up with $5,000 in that respect.

And so what we're looking at is you can buy this via a fintech technology.

You can buy $100 or $50, hold it in your gold account, and then through a fintech transaction, which would be like a debit card, which is here.

This technology is available today.

I can swipe my card, buy my Chick-fil-A or my Coca-Cola, and then it fractionally takes my money from my gold coin.

And when you look at that, this gives the how to say any investor the ability to invest in something that he couldn't get to before.

And really it's just another way to pay.

We have someone asked me, he says, well, how about, Bitcoin?

I said, But Bitcoin is not constitutional.

And that was the issue that I look at is is it constitutional?

We have five states that have already passed legislation.

Texas has its own depository.

They were the first to have a depository where gold could be stored.

Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Louisiana.

Those states have already passed legislation to do that.

So they see that.

And like I said, it's another way to pay, but it's a way for you to have something that's a hard currency just like this.

Someone once said, land by land because they're not making any more of it.

And gold has held its value again, up and down.

But inflationary as we've seen, inflation occur.

And a lot of that is because as they can tax you tax me print money they don't have that makes your money my money worth less.

But gold has been a great hedge for inflation.

And what this does for the citizens of Georgia is it gives every person the opportunity to invest in something they could not otherwise invest.

The bill number is SB 424.

I'll say this.

It's for Georgia and it's 24 karat.

I see I had a feeling there was something to that.

I love that I love when the when the bill numbers have some cool you you have signed on to this I have.

Tell us why.

Well, you know, I just like so many of my colleagues, continue to hear from families about affordability and inflation is pressure against their money.

There are so many Georgians that are doing the right thing saving money.

Think about a family that is saving $50 a month.

Well, that money, you know, with the cost of groceries going up and gas going up and rent going up, that savings actually is not growing at the same pace, but the ability to fractionally buy gold, which has held its its value steady over the years, is really an interesting way for people to be able to protect their money that they've worked so hard to earn and save and still have the ability to spend it if they need to.

Yeah, and it doesn't fall apart like money does, like terror or anything.

Yeah.

And don't get me started on pennies not being around anymore.

So let's talk a little bit about what the depository would be about and how that would work.

What we have looked at is we don't believe that Georgia needs to spend the money to build a depository, per se.

And what we would do is there would under the bill, we would have a committee led by the treasurer of the state of Georgia, an appointment by the governor, two members by the House and two members by the Senate.

And they would be the regulatory authority that would overlook the the depositories.

The depository could be Brinks.

Brinks is one of the ones we've talked to.

They could do that instantly.

So we don't have to spend any capital for the depository.

And then the state would be responsible to do the audits to make sure that they're handling that money.

But your money would be your money.

Unlike a bank today, your money is on deposit and you are a creditor.

This is your money that if you wanted to do it, you could go to the depository, take that money out because it's yours, and you would pay a fee for storage, and therefore it's not going to cost anybody anything except the initial start up cost.

We see from that standpoint.

Yeah.

So that's what I was going to ask you.

Is there a fiscal note on this?

Yes, we've ordered one for it.

What we think will happen, you'll need maybe one person to help get it started up.

That would work for the Treasury or for the treasurer.

And basically they would do the RFP for the storage and the RFP for the technology to do the transactional goal from that standpoint.

And it's up and running right now.

One of the companies that's up and running and does a really good job thus far has been glint and they are in England.

And that's where my money currently I have gold there and I can go in and swipe my card and buy a Chick-fil-A with gold.

What a what a novel idea.

So it wouldn't be a different card or anything.

No special card.

It would be similar to what we're used to using.

Yeah, it's I mean, this is an actual card right here.

Right.

And I can take that and buy what I want to buy.

And then fractionally they take it off of my gold account and they charge that.

I believe that that's something that can be negotiated where the fees should actually be less for this, possibly because it's backed by gold.

It's not a credit card, it's backed automatically.

So I think that's a we would do this, we'll do an RFP from the state to say, what are the prices.

And we could have multiple storage facilities.

But what we want is you want to be constitutional.

We need that to be regulated by our treasurer and the board there, and then have vendors that we could do to do our transactions with from that standpoint.

Okay.

It's just another way to pay.

I see that.

So so some places have said this is kind of some symbolic.

What do you say?

I say it's not symbolic at all.

I mean, at the end of the day, people are feeling the pressure.

Their money is not going as far.

And really think of this as like the piggy bank for the modern economy.

And gold holds its value.

So over time, gold has steadily held its value.

If I were to have saved $400 in the 20s and could buy a suit, a belt, a shirt, boots and a hat, well, that same $400 today can't do that.

But if I had that same $400 in whatever the ounces of gold would have been at that time, I could still, in fact, buy all those things today because the gold holds its value.

And even though it can fluctuate, it holds its value over time against inflation.

Yeah.

So we talked let's talk about the fluctuation.

The other day.

It made the news because it dropped dramatically.

Yes, I said this.

If you bought it last week you're sad.

If you bought it last year, you're happy because it has maintained its value.

I mean, if you go back a year ago, it was in the $20,800 an ounce.

It closed today in the 4,900.

So, I mean, it's still been there.

And if you look at it, it's it's still a stable value that you hold that has a value that's not like a company can go bankrupt, a stock can go bankrupt.

It's something that's there.

And it's like I said, 6,000 years of history is backing up that people desire gold and it's a value.

So do you expect like a gold rush?

Like people are just, like, going to go, well, you know, how about jewelry.

There, there.

There's gold on the gold dome.

Okay.

88, 80 plus ounces there.

That's it.

So I say if the dome should be covered with gold, the people of Georgia should have their own goal.

Okay, that's the slogan going there.

You agree with that?

That's the slogan going forward for all of this.

Maybe so.

Yeah.

You, you you've got a lot of interest.

I hear.

We want to make Georgia gold.

We believe that it's a good thing.

And that's that's what's happening.

It gives and it's like this.

This is not this is not for rich or poor.

It opens the door to people that couldn't get in otherwise.

And I think it's just good economic sense to be able to have diversification.

Okay.

So let's watch this happen.

I think a lot of people will be very excited.

It won't replace like the peach or other things.

It's just gold.

And we have Dahlonega.

Yes.

All right.

Yeah.

Thank you guys for coming on.

We'll see how this bill goes.

Thank you.

We appreciate it.

Thank you Donna.

Well that does it for today's show.

Tomorrow is the state of the judiciary address.

We break down what we learned from Chief Justice Nels S.D.

Peterson.

Have a good evening.