Go dogs.

Both chambers hunkered down for a game as the 2023 session of the General Assembly gets underway.

Good evening and welcome to lawmakers.

On day one of the 157th Georgia legislative session.

I'm Donna Lowrey in Atlanta.

It's the second year in a row for the session to start on the day the University of Georgia plays in the national College football championship.

And that is pretty much set the tone for the start of the session.

But there's so much more.

New leadership.

New members.

New biennial, which means new bills filed because no bills carried over.

We're going to talk about what to expect over the next 40 days with journalists who are covering the session.

And joining me in the studio is our new lawmakers, Capitol correspondent Rochelle Ritchie.

We're so glad to have you here today.

I'm very excited to be here, Donna.

But before we get to today's business, the wild hog dinner serves as the official kickoff for the session, which also serves as a fund raiser for Georgia food banks.

There are a slew of new and enthusiastic legislatures for the 157 Georgia Congress who are eager to get to work.

Well, of course, trying to advocate for victims of assault and not just children, but women and men.

Anybody who's been a victim as well as criminal justice reform, because I am a defense attorney.

Well, I would love to see happen.

Number one.

It's a problem with housing and evictions and tenants rights.

And right now, it's not just a problem in my area.

It's a.

Problem all over Jordan.

While key issues are top of mind.

It is worth noting the diversity that is now very present with the election of new members, which is expected to prove beneficial as.

A caucus of change.

Right.

And being Nigerian-American naturalized since 2006.

I believe that we need to include everyone in this can in our great country, America, to make the changes that we need.

I'm part of the Asian American caucus.

I'll be serving as a vice chair, and I'm also part of the Gwinnett County legislative delegation, which is one of the largest delegation and very diverse.

We have amazing lawmakers who are coming in with extensive experience.

And now that experience will be put to the test in the House and Senate.

That I am not the holder.

Of the 2023 legislative session officially underway after 180 members were sworn in by Chief Justice Michael Boggs, ensuring their commitment to serving the people of Georgia.

Representative John Burns now confirmed as the Speaker of the House.

This House will continue to lead.

It will continue to be independent while working with our colleagues in the Senate and the governor.

Burns replaces the late David Ralston, who was the longest serving state House Speaker in the nation until his death in November of 2022.

The passing of Speaker David Ralston has left a hole in the heart of this House.

I was honored to call him my speaker, but I considered it an even greater honor to have called him my friend.

Representative Jan Jones served as a Speaker pro-tem following Ralston's death and was the first woman to assume the role.

Her historic position recognized this morning by the Women's Caucus.

JONES His duties as Speaker pro-tem will continue for the 2023 session.

I look forward.

To joining with both of you, the minority caucus leadership team and the Democrat caucus as we strive all together, all 180 of us, to make Georgia an unparalleled place of opportunity for our constituents.

And in the Senate, Lieutenant Governor elect Burt Jones stopped by the chamber that he will be presiding over during the coming session.

And like the House, new Senate members were sworn in.

I do hereby solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of this state to be most conducive to the interests and prosperity of this state.

All races.

John Kennedy, the Republican senator from Macon, was elected Senate Pro-Tem.

We all committed to a successful legislative session, and the Senate's role in the as the upper chamber where we perfect legislation.

But no speech can be as inspiring as knowing that our flagship university is on the cusp of another monumental achievement.

Out in that strange land to the West.

So I'll leave you with this.

Go, dogs.

And may God bless the great state of Georgia and all of us senators who will serve in this chamber and the families that support us.

And they adopted resolutions informing the governor that the legislature was officially in session.

But despite potential political differences between the members, there is consensus on one issue.

But we got a very important game this afternoon.

Ladies and gentlemen, we need to buckle down.

Get ready and go down.

I believe the senator knows of which he speaks.

And while tonight's championship game kicks off at 730, the General Assembly returns Wednesday to kick off the session.

And that is my capital report.

Dana, back to you.

Well, thank you so much for that.

And while we have you here and people are just getting to know you, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, hi, I'm Rochelle.

I just moved to Georgia from Chicago, actually, and I worked on the Hill as a press secretary.

And then I was, you know, participating in political analysis for CNN and Fox News, MSNBC.

So very balanced reporter, as you know.

Yeah, and you bet you're new to Georgia.

It's a whole different here.

All right.

Good to have you.

Thank you.

So thanks for being here and thanks for sticking around for a few more minutes because joining us now is Gp-B Public policy reporter Riley Bunch.

Welcome, Riley.

Hi, Donna.

Thanks to both of you ladies for being here.

So let's get right into it.

Let's dig into it, starting with most notably the change in leadership in the Senate.

Lieutenant Governor elect Bert Jones won't be sworn in until Thursday during the inauguration ceremony for Governor Brian Kemp.

But in the House, this is the first legislative session in 12 years.

We haven't had David Ralston as speaker.

And while the overall mood was celebratory, I felt there was a bit of an emotional undercurrent when the new speaker took the took came on board.

What did you think, Riley?

Absolutely.

And really the question is, how is the House going to move forward after this?

David Ralston was such kind of the string that tied everything together and, you know, John Burns, who's coming up after him, was a close ally and friend of his.

So we'll see.

Probably a lot, some consistency, but there's still a lot of uncertainty on the House side.

Yeah, there really is.

Let me ask you, was your first time being in the Georgia Chamber and you were in the house today?

What were you feeling?

What did you get out of it?

Look, I felt like it was you know, it's the first day of session.

You know, new members are being sworn in.

So a lot of people were just very, very excited.

And it seemed to be that there was going to be a sincere effort to work across the aisle.

I mean, when you look.

Listen to what Speaker Burns had to say about, you know, having disagreements, but being respectful than those disagreements.

Obviously, everybody's united around the game tonight.

So it just felt very supportive.

And then to see the members there with their families and their children, that was really a beautiful sight to see.

So it was really a great way to be welcomed into the House today.

So you felt part of the celebration, too, because you're new to.

So yeah.

So let's switch a little bit.

One of the the only constitutionally mandated job that lawmakers have to perform in the next 40 days is passing a budget.

And last night at the Wild Hog Supper, I spoke to the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Blake Tillery, who says he and House Appropriations Chair Matt Hatchett, have already started on the budget.

Georgia has a $6.6 billion budget surplus, too.

And I asked Chairman Tillery and the House minority leader, a Democrat, James Beverly of Macon, to both give their ideas on what to do with that surplus.

First of all, remember where it came from.

It came from the taxpayers.

So I think the governor has been very prudent and very diligent in saying that he wants to make sure it goes back where it came from.

That will eat into a good portion of it.

Then also remember, and I think it'll be highlighted there in budget week that we have a lot of state liability and our liabilities will always outpace our revenues just because of the size of government we have.

We're really well managed, but those liabilities are always going to be there.

I imagine we'll take care of some of those, too, and let's see where we are.

If we give refunds, what are we not doing as opposed to giving refunds?

And I think infrastructure building is the way that we should be building.

Georgia into the future.

So Beverly says he would like to see high speed rail between Atlanta.

Savannah is one of his infrastructure projects.

So what do you think those talks of rebates?

What are you hearing?

You know, $6.6 billion.

It sounds like a lot of money, but it goes really fast when you're funding everything that goes with a state.

So the debate right now and will be the debate until we get our final budget document is how are we going to spend it?

And with Governor Kemp in his hand campaigns, he's focused on tax rebates, like you said, Donna.

Property tax relief, kind of one time expenditures that he can ease the pocketbooks of Georgians with.

But there's on the flip side of things is that we have this extra cash.

Do we use it to invest in state services that so desperately need it in some cases?

So we'll see this back and forth, but it's hard to see going forward that we're going to get long term spending proposals out of this.

And we still have to wait and see what the governor has to say.

And later on the week of his inauguration speech, which will sit here some more.

So I also spoke with Senator Kolton Moore of Trenton.

That's in north Georgia, about the budget surplus.

I would love to see a reduction in our income tax.

I would love to see our tax liabilities.

I think close to like $8 billion in tax liabilities.

A lot of that is the film tax credits.

I would love to see a complete repeal of the film tax credits in Georgia.

So, Rochelle, you might be trying to repeal the repeal the film tax credit.

A little tough.

It's very popular in Georgia and even coming in new.

You probably understand that.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

I mean, you can't watch a movie now in days without seeing that piece, that Georgia peach up at the end of it in some of our favorite movies and series from Stranger Things two, What kind of forever have been filmed right here in Georgia?

And I think that he probably doesn't realize that it was already pulled in 2022.

I hope he does.

But listen, a lot of people love this idea of the film tax credit because they believe that it brings a lot of money into the state of Georgia and provides a lot of jobs.

But when I did some research, I found that this professor at Kennesaw State University found that 90% of the money that is earned actually goes out of state.

And so I don't think that people truly understand that.

While it seems that just because something is being filmed right here in Georgia, that we're the ones getting the jobs and we're the ones benefiting from this, these companies are actually taking that money out of our state.

And so one of the things within the former bill that they wanted to see happen was to make sure that these phone companies had a permanent home here in Georgia.

Yeah, that was one of the discussions that we've had before.

So we'll see what happens on that.

Let's change gears a little bit and talk about a few issues that fall under health care that are likely to come up.

And here are two issues mentioned by a Democrat and a Republican.

Medicaid is going to unwind in the next few months.

And what that means is that 500,000 Georgians are going to lose their health care.

We're not talking about that.

And the question becomes, why not?

The reality is right now we receive 72% federal funding and if we were to extend Medicaid benefits all Georgians, it would go to 90%.

The difference in that number that 72 to 90 is $3 billion to $3 billion left on the table right now because the government won't extend Medicaid to all Georgians.

Also, the certificate of need.

We had two hospitals in my district battling out for that certificate of need.

Ultimately, the people aren't served because there wasn't a hospital nearly two and a half years.

So let's talk about those briefly with you.

Really, because you're the one who's been around and covered these in the capital previous years.

Let's start with the Medicaid expansion.

It's been tried.

The governor has had waivers the whole bit.

What do you think we were looking at this year?

Well, it wouldn't be a Georgia legislative session without debate about Medicaid.

Right.

And at what James Beverly is talking about is this unwinding process that the federal government is going through after they've ended some pandemic era protections.

So basically, Medicaid is going to reassess whether people are eligible for these benefits, and it will leave a lot of Georgians kind of high and dry.

So what do we do about that?

And, you know, there's there's whispers back and forth that there's, oh, maybe those the votes, Jesse, or maybe there's a vote this year for Medicaid, but it never comes to fruition.

And also, Governor Kemp has his Medicaid waivers.

On the other issue, the rural hospitals.

There's always new ideas of how to bolster our rural health care system.

The certificate of need is kind of a bureaucratic step to get a facility in one area, but white rural hospitals that are already established are concerned about are is competition.

So that will be an issue that they'll have to hash out.

Okay.

Well, let's get one more medical issue out that's likely to come up this session.

And that has to do with abortion.

We are at least going to make sure that the legislature understands that women are not going anywhere in the state.

And we are going to continue to demand that we should have the same freedom and rights to safe abortion access, as well as just reproductive care and our right to privacy.

Now, Riley, this is the first Georgia session that we've had since Roe versus Wade was struck down and since Georgia's abortion law, the so-called heartbeat bill, which bans abortions after the doctor detects a fetal heartbeat that came into effect, that usually around six weeks and for a lot of before, a lot of women know they're pregnant.

So what might we see?

What are you hearing?

Well, lots of change this year in regards to Georgia's abortion laws back and forth.

But I think lawmakers would be wary to make any changes to the 2019 law as it's moving for the state Supreme Court.

We hear arguments in March, but I think we'll see things like attempts to ban medication abortions or put restrictions on how people can access them is something that's going to come up this session.

Yeah, the mail in abortion pills came up last year, but things are different now that everything is in place.

So we'll see what happens.

Thank you for joining us, Riley.

And thank you, Rochelle, for being here in the studio.

But we'll see you again on Wednesday when things resume at the Capitol, working hard for us.

And we appreciate that.

So thank you both.

Coming up now, two more journalists join me to discuss what we might see from lawmakers on public safety, gun issues, education, housing.

You're watching lawmakers on GPB TV.

And lawmakers as made possible by Georgia Farm Bureau.

With over 80 years of helping everyone understand the importance of agriculture in our state, after all, AG is Georgia's number one industry.

Food and fiber production represents over 74 billion and output of Georgia strong economy.

The Georgia Farm Bureau legislative team works to represent producers across Georgia at the state capitol during the session and year round.

Georgia Farm Bureau, The Voice of Georgia Farmers.

Here's what's new this month with Passport making continue as long as we're together is perfect seems to come through.

Reload seems to do.

Something deeply dangerous.

Is happening.

This is just beginning.

These and all of your favorite shows are available with passport support your PBS station and stream more with passport on the PBS app.

My heart is racing right now.

Now fasten your seatbelt.

This season we have 21 incredible guests.

It's wild.

It's really something.

And there are so many highlights.

I feel like a time traveler.

You're uncovering the truth.

These are consequential things I'm blown with.

You have spies.

Working for you.

You find them.

Oh, look at everybody.

You have a DNA because.

That's Bill Hader.

Yeah, well, of course.

I wish my mom could be here to see this was.

That's very moving, actually.

Your ancestors make you.

I've got history.

I feel the presence of one man.

All these people.

What a treasure.

Those are some of the incredible stories of the new season of Finding Your Roots Tuesday on GPB.

Welcome back to lawmakers.

On this first day of the 2023 Georgia legislative session.

Joining me are two journalists who will cover gold on issues over the session.

Emma Hurd is with Axios Atlanta, which is part of Cox Enterprises.

And Chauncey Alcorn is with Capital B, Atlanta.

And Capital B is a nonprofit news organization that centers on Black Voices.

Thank you both for being here.

So I want to explore some topics we didn't get to in the first segment and let's start with public safety issues, gun issues, crime, the Wild Hogs Supper.

I asked two new lawmakers about their legislative priorities.

Representatives Omari Crawford of Decatur and Esther PANITCH of Sandy Springs.

Public safety being one of the issues criminal justice reform, making sure that our communities are also safer.

We have way too many lax gun laws.

There was just a story with somebody who walked in full body armor with long guns.

AK 47 sure out Publix didn't break any law, but do you want to go shopping with somebody who's walking around with long guns and full body armor?

I know I don't.

AMA This is an issue on both sides I care about.

The governor has indicated he's getting a handle on it.

He wants to get a handle on crime issues.

That's so likely.

We're going to hear some more from him.

What have you heard?

We are you know, Governor Brian Kemp kept a lot of his second term priorities, mom, on the election trail.

He talked more about what he had done already.

But public safety and crime was one thing he could tell us about that he wants to increase penalties related to gang activity and make some reforms related to no cash bail and terms of making sure that judges don't have too much leniency in his mind and on on how much is set.

And I think that while at this moment at the Capitol, everyone's trying to make sure that everyone everyone hopes to have a happy session without too much angst and partizan rancor that we've had in the past.

This is an issue that I think we can all see could get difficult, because where Republicans are on increasing these penalties is very different from where Democrats are.

When we talk about gun policy, same thing.

Yeah.

Let's let's talk about that a little bit.

Jon.

So you've spoken to a few Democrats about this.

Yeah.

Leader Beverly spoke with us back in December just for a preview story on a legislative session.

And he talked about the concern around, first and foremost, high crime rates across the state of Georgia, particularly Atlanta area metro area.

We've seen homicides go up for the third consecutive year.

There's certainly a lot of of optimism around the issue we've seen at the federal level.

Lawmakers pass a bipartisan gun safety bill.

So that gives some indication that maybe Republicans might be looking to compromise.

But obviously, it's been a wedge issue in the state of Georgia for a long time.

The issue that they're trying to work a little bit around the edges on, particularly on issues like the release, the gun storage for kids from getting guns, getting their hands on guns.

And another one of the issues is on trying to keep people with a history of violence and making violent threats from having guns and having background checks related to that.

Not sure if Republicans are gonna be looking to compromise, but that's what the Democrats are looking to do.

Yeah, the we had criminal justice reform under Nathan Deal.

It was a major issue.

I'm not sure if we'll get to that point.

Do you think this time?

I mean, it's always a hope and everyone always says they're looking for common ground on this, but with the different postures of the parties right now, I'm not too sure.

However, you know, everyone wants pilot crime to drop.

Everyone agrees on that.

And so there is some hope that there could there could be some some things on the sides, as you said, that that might work.

I heard a Democrat, a Democratic lawmaker, say we'll take our crumbs when they're looking for things that they they can team up with Republicans on.

Yeah, I know the governor is focused on human trafficking in the past and both sides want crack down when it comes to gangs.

So we'll see what happens with that.

Let's talk about another issue of major concern, and that's housing.

And Chauncey, I know you've done quite a bit on this issue, so talk a little bit about that.

Well, as it relates to housing, first and foremost, Atlanta in particular has earned the distinction of being the most unequal city in the country.

A major city in the country.

And it's a big concern for both local leaders and leaders at the state level.

A lot of black communities in the state are across the state of complained about issues relating to wanting to do rent control, which obviously has been banned for almost what has been for decades now.

Since the eighties, Democrats have talked have talked about doing issues as it relates to eviction reform and giving tenants more rights around the issues of eviction and doing some legislative measures to try to bring down the cost of housing as it relates to rent and and as well as home ownership.

But again, I'm told from some sources on the Republican side that there may not be much of an appetite for that issue either.

Typically, they tend to side as on the on the side of owners as opposed to renters.

So that's something that's an area of concern as well.

Yeah, there there is a feeling and I know the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has done some things on what's going on when it comes to these absentee landlords and the conditions that some people are living in and that there might be I mean, because of the publicity that the issue has received, there may be something that comes out of that.

There might be.

I mean, the editorial board at the AJC is really pushing it.

So we'll see what influence that has at the legislature and housing.

One thing I'm watching for is a fight regarding regulation of investor owned housing.

I know that there there very likely will be a push by investors to preclude counties from regulating them in any particular way.

But Atlanta particularly has been a hotbed for this kind of investment from hedge funds, etc., and has an effect on the housing market and affordability as well.

So the counties will not be will not be taking that line down.

Yeah, they're coming in and taking over entire subdivision regions.

And then the the price of housing is really hard.

Okay.

Another issue, a couple of laws where there's interest in changes or expanding them.

One is the massive mental health bill of last year.

But first, I want to talk about election laws and changes to runoff elections.

In particular.

What we should do is create a steering committee for runoff elections so that we can go around the state of Georgia, talk to people and see what they think for real.

Now, we've heard about interest in changing what happened with the runoffs from both sides.

We've heard from the secretary of state's office and of course, the Democrats are talking about it.

Where do you think we're going to land here?

Yeah, it's a big question.

But what we do know is that there is interest.

Everyone is tired.

Counties are hurting.

Their bank accounts are drained from this.

The cost of another high profile runoff.

The question right now for what?

What I'm hearing from my reporting is everyone's kind of trying to figure out what will benefit me, which is what happens when you change election law.

Right.

And so Republicans were the ones that first raised the threshold a decade or two decades ago, I believe, from 45% to 50%.

But now the idea of dropping it back to 45% is on the table.

And then there's ranked choice voting, which we have in some pilot form with overseas military voters.

But it's a little bit harder to understand than just lowering the threshold.

But many advocates are pushing for that.

Lobbyists are pushing for that as well.

But regardless, the commerce nations are happening in full force behind the scenes.

But I don't think there's a clear avenue out quite yet.

I don't know if you're hearing anything different.

What can you tell us?

I mean, similar conversation is on the Democratic side.

I'm told that this could be something that takes years to sort out.

A lot of people on the Democrat side point out that it's interesting that the secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, and some of his allies are now looking to reform runoffs now that they're not winning them.

There are on the Republican side, as much with the last two major ones going the way of the Democrats.

So there is concern around that and the impact that's going to have, particularly on black voters across the state.

We've seen surges in black voters in the runoff races in the last couple of years.

So Democrats definitely want to take a close look at how that's going to impact them first and foremost before they come to a decision on the matter.

Okay.

Well, I want to look at one more issue before I lose both of you.

One of the major legacies of the late speaker, David Ralston, he leaves is this overhaul of the mental health delivery system in Georgia, its massive law.

Some of the aspects of the law are still rolling out.

But here's Democratic Representative Al Williams explaining what concerns him.

We've got to expand upon the speaker's program for mental health.

Mental health is a major problem, and it's still not addressed enough in this state.

But I think we're making some good steps.

But we have to help.

And there's so many veterans who are suffering who get some help from VA as slow as they are, but they still need the state's help.

Suicide is rampant.

And so this is an issue that really touched a lot of hearts and will continue to, I think, this session.

Absolutely.

And I mean, I'm hearing from all different corners that there's going to be movement on this.

There's a lot of ideas about what needs to be done next.

I think it's important to note that Speaker Ralston's legacy is still very much present in this session.

And so no one's going to try to undermine continuing that priority of his.

And also Commissioner Kevin Tanner, new commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.

This is crucial because he's a former state lawmaker, so he knows how to pass legislation and get things done.

And that is a key post in advocating for whatever.

And he was also, I should add, an architect of the Mental Health Parity Act as well.

So the puzzle pieces are in place for change there or continue.

You know, it's quick.

Time for quick response from you.

Yeah, I was just going to say as it relates to, you know, providing mental health resources for veterans, it's something that I know at the federal level with Senator Raphael Warnock has done a lot of work as it relates to advocating for medical services for folks at the VA and at the at the airport, the different military bases across the state.

So we could I can envision that similar situation happening at the state level as well.

Now, we've just touched the surface on all that.

We're going to talk about this legislative session.

But I want to thank you both for being here as we kick it off.

But that does it for lawmakers today.

The General Assembly is taking tomorrow off because of the national college championship game.

Whether they're in California or watching on TV, lawmakers like the rest of us will celebrate the win tomorrow.

Join us on Wednesday night at seven for a wrap up of day two of the 2023 session.

And now for now, as the mother of a May 2022 graduate of UGA.

Goodnight and go Dogs.