Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2020 #11

This Father’s Day, I remember how proud my dad was when I won my election to the Georgia Senate, but if he were with us today, he would have been ringing his hands at the thought of me returning to work.

It was a rough week at Georgia’s State Capitol. After three months of mostly staying at home to avoid Covid, and the Atlanta shooting of Rayshard Brooks the weekend before, the agitation in the air had me pretty nervous about returning to the Capitol. Plus, I wondered which bills the majority party would choose to act on, given the hundreds of bills that would remain on the table due to the difficulty of legislating while observing physical distancing rules.

Monday morning there were police everywhere —  even on the roofs of buildings. Since police presence was not as intense the rest of the week, I can only assume they were there due to a NAACP march that culminated at the Capitol at 10 am.

I took a little walk around the Capitol Monday morning to watch the NAACP march. Unfortunately, I missed the rally, but I was so happy to see and talk with lingering attendees back inside the Capitol, affirming that it truly still is the People’s House.

The Best Laid Plans Go Awry

The careful protocols the Senate established to keep legislators and staff physically distanced from one another all went out the window first thing Monday morning when many members of the Republican Caucus decided to ignore the rules.  To limit the number of people in the Senate chamber, most Senators were supposed to watch the session from their offices or on Capitol grounds until it was time to speak or vote. By Tuesday, I realized they weren’t giving us enough time to get to the chamber and back between votes, so most of us eventually gave up and remained in the chamber.

While the majority of Senators wore masks, some Republicans outright refused. I noticed that many lobbyists and all the police went without masks. When I asked them about it, they didn’t offer good answers. I was so frustrated that I went to the Senate well on Friday (video) to remind my colleagues that wearing a mask is a science-based way to protect each other, and a necessary measure for our police force to keep all of us, members of the public, and our families safe.

Georgia’s Bare Bones Budget Gets Slashed Again

HB 793, the FY 2021 General Budget, came to the Senate floor on Friday. It called for painfully deep cuts in essential services, including a $1 billion cut to local school funding, a $122 million cut in Behavior Health and Developmental Disabilities funding, $127 million in Public Health and Human Services, $250 million less for Georgia’s universities and colleges and $40 million less for our technical schools.

In March I gave the late Sen. Jack Hill, Senate Appropriations chairman, the courtesy of informing him that I would probably vote against the budget. He replied by telling me that it’s a long-standing tradition for the Senate to pass the budget unanimously, and instructed me that “We must govern.” I am proud to report that not a single Democrat voted for this budget. We understand the steep financial challenges we face due to the pandemic, but we also can no longer ignore the bad decisions that made a terrible situation so much worse. Well before the pandemic, years of tax cuts, special interest tax breaks, a refusal to expand Medicaid, and the defunding of critical programs have left us with severely underpaid state employees, underfunded schools and mental health services, and an unconscionable number of uninsured Georgians. Georgia’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) funding formula had been consistently underfunded since the early 2000s. Often these “temporary” cuts become permanent. Georgia can’t afford another lost decade of under-serving its communities.

Another important “no” vote this week was my vote against confirming the Governor’s 200 or so board appointees. These individuals have mostly been chosen, sworn in, and are already doing their jobs, so confirmation by the Senate is basically a “rubber-stamp” vote, and I wasn’t elected to be a rubber stamp. Plus, many of the appointees govern with values very different from the values I campaigned on, and their positions will continue to shape education, social justice, healthcare and many other policy areas for years to come.

The Hate Crimes Bill Takes a Troubling Turn

In my last email I mentioned that there might be some back and forth between the House and the Senate about HB 426, the Hate Crimes Bill. Sure enough, by mid-week, the Lt. Governor announced a new version. There were some good things in his bill, but also some very bad things. The Speaker of the House objected to the bill and urged the Senate to pass the House version.

By Friday, following behind the scenes negotiations, instead of advancing the Lt. Governor’s bill, the Senate Judiciary Committee considered the House version of HB 426 but added law enforcement as a protected class of citizens. After a heated debate, it passed in Committee along party lines. It immediately drew ire from the Georgia NAACP who went from supporting it to strongly opposing it. Law enforcement officers are an important group of people who perform a difficult and valuable public service. But law enforcement already enjoys special protections in existing state laws. Senator David Lucas said it well (watch video).

The Hate Crimes Bill is expected to be on the Senate floor on Tuesday and the Senate Democrats will stand strongly united against it in its current form. Please take time before the bill comes to the Senate floor on Tuesday to call or email all the Senate Republicans to tell them to remove occupations from HB 426.

Legislative Highlights

I’m proud to join my Democratic Caucus in signing the Georgia Justice Act, a slate of 10 bills that have now been bundled together to create sweeping criminal justice reform. The Act includes reforms that had previously been introduced and adds new measures to address recent issues.

Some other noteworthy bills that moved forward this week:

 

    • The Senate passed HB 888 which would reduce surprise hospital billing by requiring insurers to cover certain care regardless of whether the provider was in or out of network, and prohibits certain balance billing. I voted yes.

 

    • The Special Judiciary Committee heard HB 903, originally a short traffic citation bill that was “hijacked” with new language calling for a referendum to potentially allow on-line sports betting administered through the Georgia Lottery, which could then allocate 20% of proceeds to Pre-K and the HOPE Scholarship. I voted against the bill. The Georgia Lottery has not experienced an economic downturn, so current funding for Pre-K and the HOPE Scholarship are not in jeopardy. For government services that benefit all Georgians such as education, I prefer progressive tax structures.

 

  • After a very lengthy debate, HB 545, passed largely along party lines. The bill severely limits the conditions and time-frame that an agricultural operations facility can be sued for nuisance. I voted no.

What’s Coming Up:

This week we were in session Monday – Saturday. Next week we are currently scheduled to be back in session all week, ending the session, Sine Die, Friday, June 26th.

Some of you might have noticed that I have not asked for campaign contributions for over six months. This is not because I don’t need the money, but because the Georgia Ethics Commission chose to interpret Georgia law banning fundraising during session to include the “suspended” session for the last three months.

I do have Republican opposition in the November 2020 election, so if you have appreciated these emails and are able to make a contribution, you can do so after June 26th. At that point, I will need all the help I can get! Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Voting “No” on the budget
Protester beside confederate statute
Bad examples of mask wearing
Signing the “Georgia Justice Act”
Crowded Senate Chamber
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The Legislature Goes Back To Work

Back to Work, 2020 Style

On March 12th, 2020, the legislature was suspended on day 29 of a 40 day session. On June 15th, three months later, the Georgia General Assembly will return to work to finish the last ten days of the legislative session.

How the Next Ten Days Will Work

During the time between when I served in the House and when I was elected to the Senate, I occasionally had a dream that I was back in the legislature, but instead of sitting in the chamber, I was relegated to the “overflow” room.

For the next two weeks, until Sine Die, I will literally be in the overflow room, watching the session through video streaming instead of my seat in the chamber. In order to adhere to physical distancing, only designated leaders of both Parties will actually be in the chamber. If we want to speak, we must notify the leadership, entering the chamber only temporarily. We will be called in to vote in small groups. Like one-way grocery store lanes, there’s a diagram showing us where we enter, the direction we walk, and where we exit.

There will be no student Pages, no special presentations, and the press will be in the gallery instead of the people. There will be no rope line to greet constituents, and, of course, no hand shaking. Those who want to watch democracy in action will have to do so through streaming on the internet. Committee testimony by the public will be limited due to lack of space.

Debate, both by the people and the legislators, will be severely limited. While this new way of getting our work done might be necessary, it is not good for democracy. Let’s hope it’s short-lived; let’s get through the next ten days; and then get busy on those November elections!

Finishing the Work of the 2020 – 2021 Georgia Budget

The state budget begins in the House: According to Georgia’s constitution, the state budget must begin as a House bill, and prior to the suspension of the session, the House passed its version of the budget and sent it to the Senate. But now the state’s projected revenue is at least 11% lower than the revenue estimate the House based its budget on — so for all practical purposes, the budget process must start over — in the Senate. For the last three weeks, the Senate Appropriations Committee has been hearing testimony from State Department heads, who were ordered by the Governor to cut budgets by 14%. In watching these hearings, it’s clear to me that Georgia currently lacks the revenue it needs to do what it is mandated to do. But still, according to Georgia’s constitution, the legislature must pass a balanced budget. The Governor, in consultation with the State Economist, will set a revenue estimate, and the legislature must budget within that estimate. If we had national leadership, I believe at this point the federal government would be bailing out the states, as states cannot “print money” as congress can. Without federal help, or without a tax increase, schools across the state will lose another 1.5 billions dollars, on top of the 9.2 billion they have lost since the 2008 Great Recession. Georgia cannot afford another lost decade.

Moving the Hate Crimes Bill

It is clear from the number of emails I have gotten that the people of Georgia want a Hate Crimes bill to pass. And I am very hopeful that this will happen before the last day of the 2020 session.

Many people have also communicated with me that it’s not enough just to pass a Hate Crimes bill — that we need additional legislation addressing police brutality and the repeal of laws such as Stand Your Ground and Citizen Arrest laws. I agree. But because it is past Crossover Day, according to the legislative rules, we can no longer act on bills that haven’t passed their respective chamber. While rules can be waived, they cannot be waived without the support of the Majority Party, which we do not have at this time. The Democratic Party in both the House and the Senate have unveiled legislative packages that can be acted on when we reconvene in January 2021, following the November elections.

We are able to pass the Hate Crime bill, HB 426 now, because it already passed the House with bipartisan support. Until now, the Senate Judiciary Chair, Sen. Jesse Stone, has refused to hear the bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee. But due to the upset over the brutality in the murder of George Floyd, and now the Atlanta police murder of Rayshard Brooks, and your emails to Sen. Stone, the political environment has changed. On the second night of the Atlanta demonstrations, Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan placed personal phone calls to members of the Senate Black Caucus, asking for their input on what needs to happen. Shortly after, he released a statement calling for the strengthening of HB 426.

Expect there to be some back-and-forth between the House and the Senate on the Hate Crimes bill. Many are asking for the bill to be passed unchanged, but some say the bill as passed by the House is weak. If HB 426 is changed by the Senate, it must be voted on again by the House, as they must agree or disagree with the Senate changes. Because HB 426 passed the House narrowly, House members are concerned another vote could jeopardize the passage of the bill. But clearly, the political climate has changed since the House voted on HB 426. The Republican leadership in both the House and Senate now want this bill to pass.

Why is HB 426, as written, weak? Because it is merely a penalty enhancement bill, which would put it among the five states with penalty-only statutes. In addition to penalty enhancement, other states include independent crime offenses, training, data collection and civil action. Incidentally, Georgia already has statutes on two independent crime offenses, including crossing burning (O.C.G.A. 16-11-37) and church vandalism (O.C.G.A. 16-7-26).

The Lt. Governor, who presides over the Senate, said in his statement that he would like to add training and civil action to HB 426, which would make the bill somewhat stronger.

The purpose of any law is to create an awareness of the parameters that society will tolerate, and to set penalties for behavior that cross these lines. In that regard, passing any kind of Hate Crimes legislation in Georgia is a huge symbolic step forward, and will create the positive momentum for bringing about further change.

Looking Ahead

If the June 9th Democratic electoral turnout is predictive of November elections, we will take additional seats in both the Georgia House and the Senate to help pass these “Justice” bills next year. Picking up 16 seats in the House would end the Republican majority and the political gerrymandering they are planning in order to rig the system for another decade. An increase of five seats in the Senate will close the gap, slowing the far-right agenda and putting Georgia back on the track of progress. We have great candidates in all those districts, so let’s support them, and give Georgians a reason to go vote!

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Protests Are Needed To Disrupt Our Comfort

Demonstrations and protests during a pandemic are unsettling. Many have asked me, “what can we do?” To start, we need to listen to black people. Last week, my neighbor Deontez Winbley published an essay on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s news website about the need to be uncomfortable, and he has given me permission to reprint it here.  Please hear what Deontez has to say. After reading, I hope that you’re motivated to do more, and there are some calls to action at the end of the email. –Sally

The recent protests in response to the death of George Floyd have sparked a lot of discussion, activism and social unrest. I write this to provide what I believe is necessary context and perspective. —Deontez Wimbley

THE WHY

I would like to believe that everyone understands why this weekend happened, but I do not want to rest on that assumption. People are BEYOND tired. Literally since 1619, Black people in America have been working generation after generation to be treated like human beings. Unfortunately, federal and local policies have not been sufficient at achieving that goal. The discontinuation of the trans Atlantic slave trade did not do it. The signing of the emancipation proclamation did not do it. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments did not do it. Brown v. Board did not do it. LBJs civil rights legislation did not do it. The 1990s crime bill set us WAY BACK. And even electing America’s first Black president DID NOT DO IT.

At this point people are wondering what is there to do. I do not want to be misinterpreted as thinking these vital pieces of policies did not do anything, but they did not fully achieve the goal of Black people being treated as full humans in this society. So the first purpose of the protests is to work towards raising public consciousness on the value, beauty, and humanity of Black people.

The protests were designed to deliberately disrupt the comfort of this city and ultimately this nation. In disrupting the city’s comfort, the city is forced to evaluate its consciousness.

THE HOW

There has been considerable discussion about the rioting and looting. Let me be clear. I did not participate in the rioting and looting and I do not think that such actions are the answer. I do want to offer a perspective on why some feel it is. For far too long there have been people who have cocooned themselves in the comforts of their luxury homes, turning a blind eye to the injustices faced by people a few blocks away. The means many believed will wake them up is to do strategic destruction.

From downtown to Buckhead, everyone is thinking about black life, suffering, and injustice, and that matters. Today, folks can’t just run to Lenox and the CNN center to continue to ignore injustices in the world. They have to pause. They have to reflect. The city has to wonder how to rebuild from this. The comfortable have been afflicted.

We see how quickly Mayor Bottoms terminated the cops for excessive force on the two AUC students. This is the result of protest. The ten tolerance is slowly making its way to zero tolerance. You know what is taking it there? Voting didn’t do it. A petition didn’t do it. Volunteering at a shelter didn’t do it. DISRUPTION is doing that. CHAOS is doing that. PROTEST is doing that. Let me be clear. I vote in EVERY election. I sign petitions AND volunteer with my community EVERY WEEK. But I know this is not a one solution issue. These measures happening are going to wake up this nation and make all of us uncomfortable.

THE PROTESTS

The overwhelming masses of protesters DO NOT believe in rioting and looting. They simply want to be heard and seen. Anyone who thinks otherwise, is being disingenuous. Young people DID listen to the voices of the mayor, Andrew Young, and other members of older generations.

Look at the actions that took place on the 17th street bridge Sunday evening. It was strategic. It was unified. It was disrupting. I will even say for many, it was cathartic. I call on elected leaders, public intellectuals, journalists, clergy, business leaders, and others to listen to our voices, take seriously our concerns, and work on a multi-pronged platform to lead us to liberation.

I call on white people to do some deeply uncomfortable introspection, examine unconscious and conscious biases, and have conversation with each other about the “isms” that are so rooted in their hearts and minds. White supremacy is like rain. It drenches us all. It just drowns some, while others get to float.

Deontez Wimbley lives in Senate District 40 in north DeKalb County and works as a health educator.

He says about himself, “I am a millennial born and raised right here in Atlanta. I am a PROUD Grady baby, and I am a PROUD Black, Gay man.”

This essay was originally published by GPB at https://www.gpbnews.org/post/opinion-protests-are-needed-disrupt-our-comfort, and includes audio of Mr. Wimbley reading his essay.

 

What Can I Do? — Calls to Action

Help pass HB 426, Georgia’s Hate Crimes Bill. The bill is stalled in a Senate Committee.  Call or email the following people and ask them to move the bill to the floor for a vote. While you have them on the phone, also ask them to repeal the “Citizens Arrest”, and “Stand Your Ground” laws.

  • Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan: (404) 656-5030; https://ltgov.georgia.gov/contact-lt-governor
  • Senate Judiciary Chair Jesse Stone: (404) 463-1314; Jesse.Stone@senate.ga.gov
  • Senate Pro-Tem Butch Miller: (404) 656-6578; Butch.Miller@senate.ga.gov
  • Majority Leader Mike Dugan: (404) 656-7872; Mike.Dugan@senate.ga.gov

Passing a Hate Crimes bill is a big step for Georgia, but we must also address police brutality head-on. In 2015, following Michael Brown’s murder in Ferguson, Missouri, President Obama convened a Task Force on how to prevent police brutality. The final report, “The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing”  provides a roadmap that is still very useful and relevant today.

Based on the 21st Century Roadmap, Campaign Zero has continued to provide research-based action steps for eliminating anti-blackness and police brutality. Use this site to educate yourself on what kinds of things can be done at the federal, state, and local levels.

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