Georgia right now is recognized as having the most secure and safest election in the entire country.

But don't take my word for it, fox news said that on fall of 2024 after the election, this fellow, jonathan turley, said that georgia and florida run the best elections in the entire country, but we've got been ranked number 1 by the heritage foundation in 2021.

We've been number 1 ranked by the bipartisan policy center.

Georgia runs the most secure and safe elections in the entire country tonight my extended interview with secretary of state brad raffensberger, we talk about elections legislation dealing with the securities division, an investigation into an alleged ponzi scheme, and more.

Good evening and welcome to lawmakers on day 25 of the georgia legislative session.

I'm donna lowery in Atlanta.

Tonight we're looking at a move to add information on the 988 crisis response hotline to student id badges.

Another bill wants an annual review of the state minimum salary schedule for teachers, plus legislation to require private schools to have student safety plans.

We also get a taste of the lemon pepper wings bill from the author who wants to make it georgia's official wing flavor first a rundown of what took place today from capitol correspondent sarah calls.

Hi donna.

Today at the capitol, lawmakers got a visit from Atlanta braves legend dale murphy before diving into over a dozen bills for the day.

The day kicked off with a ceremony to honor georgia's law enforcement officers.

Then insurance reform was the theme in the house.

Members approved four bills aimed at giving georgians relief from insurance costs with little pushback.

House bill 13 44 is an omnibus oversight bill inspired by other states protections for insurance payers.

The bill would increase penalties for driving without insurance and hopes of reining in auto insurance increases.

We're increasing 40 insurance fines for insurance companies if they violate the law, if they violate policy provisions, they're going to have consequences under this bill.

It strengthens enforcement of uninsured motorist laws.

I heard from the commissioner of dds recently.

We have over 9.1 million drivers in georgia.

If you drive on 285, you could believe that.

But unfortunately about 20% of those drivers, nearly 2 million are uninsured.

This bill enforces the law on uninsured motorist coverage.

So hard working georgians who pay their insurance bills are not subsidizing folks who drive without obtaining insurance.

It would also streamline the claims process for homeowners after storms.

It tightens up georgia law about claims processing, particularly in cases of storms.

Hurricane helene was the biggest insurance event we have in georgia.

We want to make sure when the next storm comes that georgians are protected.

The bill passed 166 to three, another measure to tamp down auto insurance rates, House bill 12 74.

The bill would require car insurance companies to estimate their profits for the upcoming year and drop rates if they consistently profit above the estimation.

What this says is when the insurance companies make their insurance rate filings, one of the line items in their filing is anticipated profit.

If that is underestimated and they profit higher than that by 5% or more for three straight years.

They are mandated to come back in and file a rate decrease.

Of course, the insurance company or insurance commissioner gets to look at the historical profit amounts at the time of the filing.

And what this does is it promotes the insurance companies to go ahead and set their rates modestly so that customers in georgia benefit from lower rates.

That bill passed 169 to one house bill 12 62 looks at violations of the state's mental health parity law in surprise billing.

It increases penalties for insurance companies violating those rules.

House bill 12 62 increases the unintentional violations from 2000 to 10,000 and the intentional violations from 5,000 to 25,000.

It's been 15 years since the unintentional fines have been addressed and updated, and it's been 30 years since the intentional fines have been changed.

It passed 170 to one.

And hb 12 63 would require insurers to refund erroneously charged fees within three years.. That bill passed with little opposition.

After a lunch break, house members unanimously approved a bill to close a loophole for pimping in the georgia code.

When you read the code section on pimping and pandering and human trafficking and all that goes along with it, It's it's really serious.

Pretti serious thing.

And if you read those definitions, they're all about the same, what they mean.

And pimping in georgia right now, first offense is a misdemeanor.

This bill changes it to a felony if the person has a prior conviction of human trafficking.

The senate took up seven bills today.

Most notable sb 470 would prohibit the use of signal jammers and make their use felony.

What are signal jammers?

You may have seen this in the movies or on television from a small handheld device that might get a room to something that can take out an entire building from a football field away.

It will disrupt all communications, cell phone wi fi satellite gps radio, rendering them with no communication, no communication from alarms or for 911 centers, no ability to call for help.

The bill passed unanimously sb 513, the everyday counts act, would keep teenagers with chronic absenteeism from extracurricular school activities, as well as receiving their learner's permit or driver's license.

This bill does not begin with punishment, it begins with support.

Senate bill 513 requires local school systems to implement a three tiered framework to promote attendance first school wide strategies that encourage every student to show up second targeted supports for students who are at risk of falling into chronic absenteeism.

And third, individualized attendance intervention plans for students who become chronically unexcused.

It passed 46 to one, but before the senate took up a highly anticipated bill sb 34, senate majority leader Jason called for a surprising end to the day's session, pushing the bill to next week.

Sb 34 was originally written to prevent a utility company from passing along the cost of electric service for commercial data centers to its customers, but the language forbidding passing on those costs was removed from the bill in committee this week.

Democrats objected the shortened rules calendar.

We rise to object to this motion because there are important bills that remain on the calendar for today.

Most importantly, it's in a bill about affordability.

And so if we are to punt this down the road even further, once more, we deny georgians an opportunity to have more affordable energy bills.

So we object to this motion and urge you all to continue with the calendar as outlined.

Lawmakers will be back at the capitol on tuesday for day 26.

It'll also be peanut butter and jelly day where legislators can enjoy a grilled pb and j sandwich to celebrate peanuts, an agricultural staple in georgia.

That's my capital report donna thanks sarah.

I recently sat down with the secretary of state, brad raffensberger, to discuss several issues involving his office that have become flashpoints this session.

I started by asking him about a bill to transfer the securities and commodities division from the secretary of state's office into the department of banking and finance.

In full transparency, I often moderate financial seminars for the securities division.

Raffensperger is against moving the division and I asked him why.

Because if you look at what they do in most other states, the securities is separate from banking.

They're really two different industries yes they're both financial, but one is really related to banking and this one is actually related to securities, financial securities.

And it's always been here for a lot of times, since the beginning of time.

And so I think this is where it belongs and there's no reason to move it.

I do know that we right now are investigating a $150 million ponzi scheme that is probably stepping on a lot of toes because what happened is it's an organization that really was in the political circles, republican conservative political circles.

But at the end of the day, our job is to do our job and protect everyone and we want to make sure definitely we protect our seniors.

So you were talking about first liberty banking and loan and noonan.

Tell us what the investigation involves for your office.

Well about a year ago in july, what happened is the sec made an announcement and it's a co investigation that we're doing with the sec that there was a $140 million ponzi scheme.. And so we've been very cautious in what we say out in the public as an ongoing investigation, but it's investigating first liberty building alone.

In effect, what happened is a lot of affinity fraud, which is when you say well hi, I'm just like you, I'm a conservative republic hey I'm just like you, I'm a conservative christian.

They went out in these circles and they're really enticing people to invest, you know, in these securities and eventually, you know, it all blew apart and people weren't getting any money and that's when it blew up a year ago.

So we've been doing a deep dive.

We've been doing you know subpoenas we've been getting depositions, but what we're also getting is a lot of stiff arms in the face that we weren't moving it fast enough forward.

So two weeks ago I signed on and got a special investigator.

And so jason doss now has been equipped and empowered that he has subpoena power.

He's got deposition power, and he also has a team of forensic auditors and so they're following the money trail.

And we kind of showed them where we were and it was a maze of where all the money went and who was involved.

And now we've already, you know, have our first finding of fact.

We sent to brantford frost fifth, first of all announcing that and telling him that here's the findings of facts and we are assessing you a $500,000 fine.

And we're also referring this to the county da in the county that you live in, kwa county, all the findings of fact.

So that has gone to the local prosecuting attorney.

I know a lot of people are wondering whether they'll get their money back.

Is it too soon to be able to tell them anything?

It's $140 million fraud and it's tough to ever get you know someone whole.

What's really sad is that we had a bill last session, senate bill 284, and it died on day 40.

And what that would have done is the money when we get the $500,000 coming back for say example brant foss, the fifth, because of his fine, it would have gone directly into the pool of money to help on those folks.

But now it comes to the general assembly, the back to the state funds.

And we don't need the money.

It needs to go to these people that were hurt but it's still active And today, tomorrow the house could pass that bill and get it on the governor's desk.

So if that money did roll in in the next 30 days, it could actually then go to some of these families.

And we're talking about millions of dollars that people put into this.

So you condemned attempts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in georgia.

Multiple audits recounts confirm a fair outcome.

Are there any regrets in the way you handled that donna georgia right now is recognized having the most secure and safest election in the entire country.

But don't take my word for it, fox news said that on fall of 2024 of the election, this fellow, jonathan charley, said that georgia and florida run the best elections in the entire country, but we've been ranked number 1 by the heritage foundation in 2021.

We've been number 1 ranked by the bipartisan policy center.

Georgia runs the most secure and safe elections in the entire country, but they're also the fastest.

We give people quick results and that just builds trust.

And that's why uga also did a poll and over 92% of all georgians trust our election process here in georgia.

Any thoughts on the fbi raid in fulton county?

Not really.

Not a lot of information shared.

And so I think a lot of it is just rehashing old stuff from the past.

And I want to ask you a little bit more about elections.

You started this year with the looming mandate from the legislature to end the use of QR codes, printed ballots.

.

It was a july deadline, so explain why that won't happen well right now we actually have a special election that's going on in the 14th district.

Plus we've just finished up a special election.

I think it was on tuesday.

So we have these special elections going on all the time.

Then we're going to have the general election, the primary that's coming up.

We'll have a may primary, then the runoff for that, which takes us to June, and there's just really no time in the cycle.

But the other key point is they have this mandate, there's no funding for it.

And so how are the county supposed to do this without any funding?

So the general assembly is going to have to step up.

Looked at the governor's budget.

He kind of put in the money that we said should be put in there.

Plus what we've recommended is to push that date out for one or two years.

But at the end of the day, this is on the state senate, you know, they just never funded it.

And now they got a problem.

It's their mess.

The monkey's on their back.

Let them figure it out well recently a committee has recommended that the state use hand marked paper ballots and the QR codes during the general elections coming up this november.

What are your thoughts on that well there's still going to be a cost involved with that just because the scanners and other things that need to be updated.

And if that's it, then just make sure it's fully funded.

But it needs to happen quickly because otherwise you won't have enough time to get it ready just because of the election cycle.

Should georgia get a new voting system well that's something the contract that we have with dominion voting systems that they've been since purchased that comes up in 2030.

It was a ten year contract.

So really, I think you always want to look at it because you can update technology, what has happened?

Maybe something really even more secure than what we're doing right now, even faster than what we're having right now.

If you have security and speed, that would be the great combination.

So we'll see.

And that's probably leave that to the next governor, leave that to the next secretary, leave that to the next general assembly that meets next year, they can start working on it.

The main thing is for georgians can feel that the upcoming elections are secure absolutely most secure in the country.

And I'm really proud of that.

So I was going to ask you that, what are you most proud of in terms of legislation or anything else during your term as secretary of state.

Every division that we have as secretary of state, we have improved in corporations.

Now you can renew your corporation for up to three years 12, or three years, and it's really quick and speedy.

So that's great customer service and you get a three year option.

Take what you want 12, or three.

The professional licensing.

We took that old clunky software, the amlo system from 2002, updated it on the Salesforce architecture and now we've taken like the nurses, their first registration as a nurse, it used to be 48 days with the old clunky system.

We got it down to 18 days almost immediately.

Now it's down to ten days.

And now this team is just, they're just running with their tongues hanging out saying, how do we get this thing down to seven days?

How do we get it down to six days?

And that's customer service.

And I'm really proud of their spirit and just really great that we can offer that to people.

It also has a dashboard.

So if you're asking, you don't need to reach out to our office, just look where you are on the dashboard oh they're still looking.

Need my transcript oh they need proof of citizenship oh they need this.

And all these different processes oh I just got my license.

And if it's just a straight renewal, that's happening in less than a day.

And so proud of that elections, the most secure in the country, security and charities.

We have a dynamite team of ten people and they've been investigating several ponzi schemes and you know right now obviously is the biggest one they've had on their plate but $140 million fraud, they've thrown all of our resources at it.

Most states have 50 people.

We only have ten people.

Like you think about alabama, half our size has 50 people.

We have ten, but they're just, you know, a dynamite team.

And then they also do financial empowerment programs, financial education programs.

Our ladies on our team actually have gone into women's prisons because they know when people get out of prison, they better know something about money so they don't get into trouble again.

And they've taken upon themselves on their own free time going into prisons and that's just something I really respect and that came just out of the heart to serve people.

And I really am grateful for the team we built here.

And it's all about public service.

I think that's how government works.

When you put your taxpayers, put your people first.

I want to thank secretary refers burger for that interview.

Now coming up legislation aimed at helping teachers and students and help for convicts who have served their time.

Plus what's the fuss all about lemon pepper wings as the state's official wing flavor.

Two house member join us, including the author of a mouth watering bill who did not bring us lemon pepper wings.

The crew's upset.

We'll be right back.

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

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Morning edition on georgia public broadcasting that keeps georgians everywhere dialed into home.

Tune in to gpb.

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

We want to get to a lot of bills introduced by guests from serious to a little more fun.

Joining us is democratic representative tangy hering of macon.

Her committees include code revision and urban affairs.

Also here is democratic representative eric bell of jonesboro.

His committees include defense and veterans affairs and small business development.

Welcome to lawmakers, to both of you.

Thanks for having me.

So I'm going to start with you with something really serious.

You have the, let's start with your, you are not alone awareness act.

Talk about it, but first tell us what led to you even having this bill.

So back in 2020 my daughter, she came home from school and she was just talking to me about how some of her friends after the covid epidemic were having problems with anxiety, with depression,, and sometimes substance abuse.

And so we were having those conversations and she was saying that there weren't any resources that her friends could go to when they were having an episode or having a difficult time.

And so after that conversation, I was like, you know, it's something so simple to just have the 988, you are not alone act on the back of a student's id.

So whenever a student is in a crisis, that information is right there for them to call to get the help that they need.

We don't need to lose another student to suicide or from drug overdoses when we have something right there that they have every day, they carry it in their pockets, it's on their backpack.

And not only for the student, it's a great resource for the families because a lot of times parents don't even know what resources are available.

So just having that 988 hotline on the back of a student id is not a mandate.

It's something that's going to give students hope for another day and give parents the support that they need to make sure that their children get the resources that are available.

And I think you said earlier, people know 911.

They don't know 988.

That's right.

At a hearing today for your bill, people became emotional.

And I want to play a clip from the house education committee meeting and this is representative will wade of dawson county.

I happen to be a representative that represents the district that has the highest percentage of teenage suicides in the last seven years.

Thank you for doing this for the families in my community that are suffering.

He wasn't the only one to get emotional.

This really means a lot to people.

And I didn't also didn't know about dawson county.

So your reaction to that and what happened today in that hearing, You know, it's heartbreaking when you hear parents talk about how they can't find resources for their children or how they've lost a child.

I just recognize in the house a fight against suicide.

Sam ashbury, who lost his life to suicide.

His father was telling us that he was a great kid, You know, nothing seemed to be wrong, but we never know what's going on with an individual.

And sometimes just having someone there that can say, you know what, you're not alone or a resource that's right there in front of them can give them that hope to say hey you know what?

Tomorrow can be a better day.

And so today, listening to my colleagues support my bill, I thought about all those kids that we were going to be able to save.

I mean, we put a lot of money into our budget to make sure that kids are safe and having those resources in our school.

And I really thank commissioner tanner for putting the spotlight in the state of georgia on mental health and in our schools, , making sure we have those resources for our kids.

So this is just another way to make sure that our kids know that they matter.

We want them to have long, healthy lives and that they're alone yeah and it passed on the committee, so we'll see it move on.

So representative bell, tell us about your education bill.

It's hb 5050, and it would require private school to come up with a safety plan.

What, what brought that about well on the emphasis of the voucher bill, I noticed that we were sending students to private schools and unlike our public schools where we have a rigorous course standards and benchmarks to meet not only in curriculum but also in safety programs.

Every single public school has a safety plan, whether it's a tornado drills, you're now your active shooter trainings.

You remember being in school and you had to do the fire drills or I, I always remember the tornado drills where we would go out in the hallway and put our book bags over our head.

.

They did it in my era too.

But and private schools aren't required to do that.

And if we're going to send public students our babies, our students to these institutions, We need to make sure that they're protected.

And that's simply by making sure that each school that we send our students to, they accept our voucher program.

There may be some schools that don't want voucher students.

There may be some schools that feel like vouchers program doesn't work for them, but if you do accept it that you, you need to make sure that you're providing a safe environment with our students when there's an emergency that happens, there's a clear plan to make sure that everyone in that institution is safe okay good safety bills.

I appreciate that.

I want to get you another bill that deals with education.

It deals with teachers and the salary schedule for teachers.

So explain briefly what that is for people who don't understand.

So I had a house bill last year, house bill 333, talking about inflation pay for teachers., I did make some amendments to it for it to be the cost of living increase for teachers, which is 3%.

We get that already as retired teachers.

And so having that conversation about teacher pay is very important.

The average teacher right now is making $45 to $48,000 a year.

And a lot of teachers once they get to that max scale, I believe it's like 21 years they really don't get a raise.

And so, you know, the senate resolution, I think it's 237.

Thank you to senator hickman for the work he's doing on that.

We're now having that conversation about teacher pay and workforce because we want our young people to go into the profession.

We have a lot of talent here in georgia.

We want to keep those young people here and have them teaching in our schools, but we need to make sure that we're having a real conversation about teacher pay yes we're thankful for all that the governor has done to make sure that we get that extra $2,000, which a lot of teachers saying they wish it wasn't taxed, but you know, we need to continue to have that conversation about how we're going to compensate teachers, what other incentives that we can give young people to go into the profession okay well, and I should mention you're a former teachers yes I am.

And the years ago I did a story on you.

You are my one of my class act teachers.

I'm so glad about that.

All right, representative bell, and we don't have a lot of time, but I want to get into, you have two bills that deal with the formerly incarcerated individuals and you want hope scholarships for people who had drug convictions And another one you call the presidential felon freedom act.

Yes okay quickly tell us about those so the first one is house bill 206 would allow drug offenders, specifically felon drug offenders, to get the hope scholarship.

It repeals the post secondary drug act of 1990, which during that time period in America there was a war on drugs propaganda put on by the government to student affairs things wherever you may believe.

But now that we've moved on to a better place in time where we understand addiction isn't a reason why someone should be incarcerated or addiction isn't a reason why someone should be left behind, whether that's addicted to a substance or a lifestyle, that people deserve second chances and often people need first chances.

So this would just give clearly individuals in our communities suffering from addiction or poverty chances to reach higher incomes by having access to the hope scholarship by attending our state schools and our state technical schools, whether they want to be a mathematician or a beautician, giving them not only a first chance but a second chance at life as well okay I want you to get the presidential felon freedom act so that was born out of if the president could be a felon, so could my barber, so can my real estate agent, so can my next elected official in the state of georgia, if you have a felony, you can't hold a professional license, you can't vote, you can't run for office unless you're running for president or a federal state, you can't serve in jury duty.. There's so many things that are holding our individuals who serve their time behind.

And if the president can do it, why can't someone that simply had a bad day and couldn't afford to get their child's food.

So they held up a local convenience store just to make ends meet or rather they're again suffering from addiction.

This is their third dui and now they're held back for reasons that we see released on the epstein files that aren't stopping to anybody.

So individuals need chances.

Individuals deserve that.

And in America, the land of the free, someone should be let free once they're no longer incarcerated.

All right.

How do you feel about these bills making it well having trouble with the presidential and freedom act honestly I think it's some of the name.

Our president doesn't like to be associated with being called a felon, but some people don't like being associated with a lot of things before we leave, I don't want to cut you off, but I haven't talked about these lemon pepper wings.

I have to get in.

So you know, really quickly I I know tuesdays that you're going to have I'm in pepper day at the capital.

In partnership with American deli it's a day about heritage, culture and advocacy, not only about lemon pepper wings, but whatever may be important in your life, whether it's the safe homes actus me, what is that act again represent representative here for tiny homes for the for tiny homes act or whether it's about individuals who've been held back from drug convictions to getting a hope scholarship, or whether you care about housing and whether senior citizens have judicial reform or the hoas are taking people's property or real estate investment companies have way too many homes.

It's today about georgians advocating for themselves and sharing their shared heritage of lemon pepper wings.

.

And you feel it's uniquely georgian.

Oh yeah okay yeah.

All righty well thank you so much.

Thank you both for coming on the show.

That does it for lawmakers today.

We'll be back on tuesday for day 26 and I'll have an interview with lieutenant governor Burt Jones.

Until then, have a good night Carson