Doubling lawmakers salaries, compensation for exonerees and horse racing: Legislative update

At the midpoint of Georgia's legislative session, bills on education, voting and compensation for the wrongfully convicted have moved forward. Earlier this week the chambers worked long into the evening to pass bills before the end of Crossover Day, which closes the window for legislation that hasn't been voted on by one of the bodies.

Big raise for Georgia lawmakers could head to ballot

Georgia voters would decide whether their representatives in the General Assembly should get a raise under a proposed constitutional amendment the state House of Representatives passed Tuesday. The House approved the legislation 136-33, well above the two-thirds majority needed for constitutional amendments to clear the chamber. It now moves to the Georgia Senate.

If voters ratify the amendment in November, annual salaries for members of the state House of Representatives and Senate would be set at 60% of the median household income in Georgia. Based on the state's current median income of $58,000 a year, lawmakers would be paid about $35,000 annually.

Legislators currently are paid just more than $17,000 a year. Lawmakers haven't gotten a raise since the 1990s, Rep. Wes Cantrell, R-Woodstock, the constitutional amendment's chief sponsor, told his House colleagues before the vote.

Election reform 2.0

Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly are re-fighting the war over election laws sparked by the controversy that continues to swirl around the 2020 presidential results.

The GOP-controlled Georgia House of Representatives passed legislation Tuesday night Republicans said provides ballot security measures aimed at restoring trust in elections but Democrats criticized as more voter suppression on top of an election law overhaul lawmakers passed last year.

House Bill 1464 passed 98-73 along party lines shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday. The 37-page bill includes provisions aimed at securing the chain of custody of ballots. The bill requires employers to make time for their workers to vote, not just on Election Day but also during the early voting period. It also added a voter ID requirement for absentee ballots and restricted the location of absentee ballot drop boxes.

House Democrats' strongest objections were over a provision giving the Georgia Bureau of Investigation "original jurisdiction" to investigate complaints of election fraud, meaning the agency wouldn't have to wait to be called into a case by the State Election Board or attorney general's office.

"The GBI conducting voter fraud investigations ... will be used to intimidate Georgia voters and election workers," said Rep. Derek Mallow, D-Savannah. "This is another attack on the right to vote."

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Wrongful conviction compensation

The state House passed legislation to replace the current system for compensating wrongfully convicted Georgians who spent years in prison with a new process supporters say is clearer and more consistent.

Under House Bill 1354, which passed unanimously early Tuesday evening, those who have been exonerated of a crime for which they were wrongfully convicted would no longer have to find a member of the House willing to introduce a private compensation resolution.

Instead, they would apply to a newly created panel of legal experts that would include a criminal court judge, a prosecutor, a criminal defense lawyer and two other attorneys. The panel would review the case and make a recommendation to the House Appropriations Committee.

Under Holcomb's bill, compensated would range from $50,000 to $100,000 for each year the individual was incarcerated. The average compensation among the states is about $70,000 a year, he said.

The Georgia Innocence Project, an advocacy group that fights to free the wrongfully convicted, praised the House for passing the bill with bipartisan support. “No piece of legislation can give back the years taken from people who have suffered the tragic consequences of imprisonment for a crime they did not commit," said Clare Gilbert, the group's executive director. "This bill does provide some financial security for exonerees to rebuild their lives in freedom.”

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Georgia Senate kills horse racing measure

Once again, the push to legalize some form of gambling in Georgia has fizzled in the General Assembly.

The state Senate killed a constitutional amendment Tuesday that would have put legalizing pari-mutuel betting on horse racing on the ballot for Georgia voters in November. Senators voted 33-20 in favor of the legislation Tuesday morning, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass a constitutional amendment.

Citing a study conducted by Georgia Southern University, Sen. Billy Hickman, R-Statesboro, who raises racehorses, said legalizing pari-mutuel betting on horse racing would grow an equine industry that would create 8,500 jobs - including many in rural Georgia - and deliver nearly $1 billion in annual economic impact. But opponents warned horse racing would lead to gambling addiction.

The legislation called for dedicating the state's portion of proceeds from horse racing to education, health care and rural economic development.

Technically, legalizing gambling in Georgia remains a live issue even though Crossover Day has come and gone. A constitutional amendment the Senate passed last year asking voters to decide whether to legalize sports betting remains alive in the state House of Representatives.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: GA lawmakers advance slew of bills: salary hikes, voting restrictions