The Georgia Assembly session ends at midnight tonight, and while legislators are scrambling to complete their final tasks, Habersham County’s local representatives say it has been a productive session.
Sen. Bo Hatchett carried Gov. Brian Kemp’s agenda to the floor again this year, and the governor is likely to see many of the bills he pushed reach his desk.
“One of the biggest things was the charter school bill, which saved Mountain Ed. and Foothills Charter, and that is a big deal in our area,” Hatchett said. “It was a successful session with a lot of bills going through that are aimed at the protection of children.”
Hatchett’s bill increasing the consequences for gang recruitment also will wait for Kemp’s signature after the final agreements are made between the houses on small late changes.
Rep. Victor Anderson also said he felt good about where things stood in the final days of the session.
“I have seen a lot of the bills I sponsored go through,” Anderson said. “Most of everything I set out to do, we have done. There have been major changes in purpose to the bills, just friendly amendments.”
The House and Senate worked up to 11 p.m. Monday night in preparation for the final stretch. Hatchett said the primary duty the assembly had left was to agree on a budget, which is the only constitutional duty the body has in any session.
The houses are expected to debate late into the final two nights of the session, with a few things still left to decide.
“The easy stuff is done, but we still have some work to do, and a lot of these debates end up going along party lines and addressing the philosophies between one another,” Anderson said. “In general, I think the two parties have worked well together.”
One decision the legislature will have to make is regarding sports gambling, which was previously thought to be dead for this go-around.
A bill originally meant to declare the Southeast Georgia Soap Box Derby as the official such event for the state was taken over in the Senate by those who wanted to give gambling another look.
“I don’t like the way that happened,” Anderson said. “It does happen, but I don’t appreciate the way it was handled. It is not a good practice.”
Hatchett said he would consider regulation of online sports betting only with no casinos or horse racing added.
“We have to put guardrails up, because it is happening already in Georgia to the tune of a $200 million industry,” Hatchett said. “If we have a bill that regulates bets that people are placing already, then I would consider it, because people are gambling here if they have a bank account in another state.”
The Senate tabled the bill Monday, putting it in a position where it could be brought off the table to the floor for a vote in the final days of the session.