Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2023 #3

The Senate is Starting to Roll . . .

For three weeks, office-less freshman legislators have roamed the halls looking for a place to land. I’m happy to report that finally, everyone has an office! While the Senate hasn’t had a single floor vote yet on an actual bill, Committees, County Delegations, and various Caucuses are finally up and running. This week, I was elected Vice Chair of both the DeKalb Senate Delegation and the Working Families Legislative Caucus.

On a Roll for Reproductive Freedom

While the courts hash out the constitutionality of Georgia’s abortion ban, Rep. Shea Roberts and I partnered with a coalition of reproductive justice organizations to introduce the Reproductive Freedom Act (RFA). The RFA not only reverses Georgia’s abortion ban, it also eliminates many of the barriers to access such as restrictions on insurance coverage and unnecessary waiting periods.

You can sign Amplify Georgia’s petition to send a message of support and get updates on ways you can advocate for the bills. Let my Republican colleagues know that we are not going away on this issue.

Rolling out the Red Carpet for Gov. Kemp

“Mr. President, his Excellency the Honorable Brian P. Kemp, Governor of the State of Georgia, and his committee of escorts await entrance into the Chamber.” — Georgia House of Representatives Doorkeeper

Pomp and circumstance returned this Wednesday in a special Joint Session of the Georgia House and Senate for the Governor’s State of the State Address. I always enjoy seeing my colleagues, old and new, in the House chamber, where I served from 1999 – 2005.

There were no surprises in the Governor’s State of the State Address. Three weeks into the session, most of the Governor’s priorities have already been revealed, especially during the budget hearings. The Governor failed to mention some impactful budget omissions.

Huge Costs Are Rolling Downstream

Every morning at 9 am, the Senate Democratic Caucus meets to discuss what’s coming our way. With no bills on the floor this week, we dove deeper into the Governor’s proposed budget to talk about issues hiding below the surface, such as enormous costs rolling down to our local school districts.

Insurance Costs: We learned that the cost of the State Health Benefit Plan (SHBP), the insurance plan that covers state and public school employees, is set to increase by 67%! Governor Kemp’s budget includes funds to offset this increase for state-funded teachers, but not for other school employees like bus drivers, administrative staff and cafeteria workers. Local school systems will have to foot this very expensive bill, to the tune of $745 million.

Pay Raises: These same school employees were overlooked again when the Governor extended pay raises to teachers, but not to “classified employees” (non teachers). Local school districts that want to give equitable pay raises to all of its employees will have to fund those salary increases themselves. This is a continuation of a larger years-long trend of the state underfunding education by shifting more and more costs to local districts.

While our local officials have to figure out how to make ends meet, the Governor’s proposed budget maintains record state reserves and gives politically-motivated tax refunds. I often wonder how many people would choose to forgo these modest tax refunds in order to keep their local school system and government whole.

Foster Kids Get Steamrolled by the System

In my last Snapshot, I mentioned the heartbreaking practice of “Hoteling,” where Georgia’s most vulnerable foster kids get placed in seedy hotels when there is no other place for them to go. Thankfully this got the attention of Sen. Ben Watson, Chair of Senate Health and Human Services. On Wednesday, he and Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, Chair of the new Children and Families Committee, co-Chaired a special Joint Committee hearing to get to the bottom of why this is happening.

It was a tough hearing to watch. A range of professionals who see these cases everyday all shared gut wrenching stories of kids with severe behavioral issues. The parents can’t handle them and the family becomes endangered by their untreated behavioral issues. Many of the kids have severe autism. Once they enter the foster care system, they get bounced around from foster families, to short-term Crisis Stabilization Units, to psychiatric hospitals, to hotels, and then back again. They are often left in limbo waiting for a managed care insurance company to pre-approve medical needs that get denied so often that DFCS has hired a team of lawyers to fight through the red tape. Service providers for these kids are scarce because our provider reimbursement rates are so low.

So much of this — unattainable services, lack of providers due to low reimbursement — echoes my disabilities work. The system is terribly broken, and government leaders are finally taking note. The Department of Human Services Commissioner brought this issue to members of the powerful Appropriations Committee — many of whom are influential Committee Chairs. Now two of them are committed to rolling up their sleeves and working together to help these children get the support they need.

Getting the Ball Rolling on Part-Time University Fees

On Thursday, I welcomed University Chancellor and former Governor Sonny Perdue to my office to open a conversation about my work to push for prorated university fees for part-time college students. Part-time students often pay 100% of fees, resulting in degrees that cost thousands of dollars more than degrees cost for full-time students.

Chancellor Perdue is in a tough spot. University enrollment is down at many schools, and the state still funds the University system well below the rate it did back before the 2008 Recession. I’m determined to continue to advocate for part-time students. My intern Anna, a recent UGA graduate, joined us for the meeting and offered the Chancellor first-hand experiences of part-time students struggling to pay for school. This was the first of many conversations to come.

Rolling into Next Week

Monday is the ninth day of the legislative session. By the Georgia constitution, our session is limited to 40 days — so we are almost one-quarter of the way there. And freshman legislators just got their offices! Hopefully next week we will see some bills start rolling through the process.

January 28, 2023/by Sally Harrell

Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2023 #2

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In the Weeds with Georgia’s Budget

“There is nothing that we will do in this building that directly touches your constituents more than this document.”

— Senate Appropriations Chair Blake Tillery

Week Two: Word spread through the halls — “The budget’s out!” Legislators queued up to get their inch-thick, spiral bound copy of the Governor’s proposed budget — a document the Governor’s Office of Planning & Budget has been working on since last summer.

Budget Basics: According to Georgia’s constitution, the budget bill must originate in the House. This year the Governor’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024 (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024) is HB 19. There’s one other budget bill, HB 18, commonly called the “little budget” or “amended budget” that allows for adjustments to the 2023 budget (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023). The Appropriations Committees will take up the “little” budget first.

What’s a Budget? I like to think of the budget as containing thousands of little bills, since each line-item has the potential to impact the lives of many Georgians. I also see the budget as a statement of values — what we decide to fund and what we decide to leave out is a direct reflection of what we value as a state.

Lots of Fertilizer Produces Revenue Growth

Everyone’s abuzz about Georgia’s $6.6 billion “surplus.” I don’t actually think of this money as a surplus. The size of Georgia’s budget is determined by the Governor when he sets the next year’s revenue estimate. Purposefully setting that estimate low can almost guarantee that revenues will be higher. A “surplus” makes it sound like we collected more money than we should have, which can give the wrong picture when you look at the State’s unmet needs (not an accident). If the revenue estimate was set higher and these needs, such as the 7,000 people waiting for disabilities services, were actually budgeted for, there wouldn’t be so much leftover money. The Governor has plenty of room for playing around with these numbers, depending on the impression and message he wants to create.

So what about that unspent money? First, the Governor proposes that $1.1 billion go to the Georgia Dept. of Transportation (GDOT) to make up for the six months of not collecting motor fuel taxes. Second, the Governor intends to give $2.1 billion back in income and property tax cuts. That leaves about $3 billion for legislators to squabble over during the next few weeks. Because it is projected that next year’s revenue will not be quite as flush as last year’s, the focus will be on one-time spending projects. The 2024 budget revenue estimate is set at $32.5 billion.

Weeding the Medicaid Rolls

Medicaid Expansion (miniature style): The new House Speaker has already stated that he does not see a full Medicaid expansion happening this year because he wants to give the Governor’s plan a chance. This plan, named “Georgia Pathways,” does several things. First, it allows significant subsidies to Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace insurance companies for high-cost claims, resulting in a projected 12% reduction in premiums. Second, it replaces the healthcare.gov ACA website with a Georgia version that merely links consumers with brokers. Third, it expands Medicaid to about 50,000 low-income people who must meet a work requirement, leaving 350,000 uninsured. This miniature Medicaid expansion will earn a much lower federal match than full Medicaid expansion, resulting in a higher cost for fewer covered people.

Medicaid Unwinding: Here’s something that’s not being talked about much. During the COVID public health emergency, over 500,000 Georgians became eligible for Medicaid and under emergency rules, their Medicaid could not be terminated. When the Public Health Emergency expires at the end of March, the State will hire hundreds of caseworkers to reassess eligibility, resulting in hundreds of thousands of Georgians who will lose their Medicaid, many of whom will then be uninsured. It doesn’t have to be this way. By not expanding Medicaid, as forty other states have done, Georgia’s Republican leadership continues to be complicit in the suffering of Georgia families. Which leads me to the next subject.

When Georgia Fails to Water the Garden: “Healthcare, not Fostercare”

When I was in south Georgia last fall for a Disabilities Study Committee meeting, a hospital CEO told me he is often forced to discharge high-risk foster kids to hotels in his community, where they share rooms with caseworkers. When I asked him if these hotels were of the Holiday Inn-type or the Roadway Inn-type, he said these places weren’t even really hotels, describing instead $20 places billed by the hour or the night.

These kids being “hoteled” are the most vulnerable and troubled kids — those with significant behavioral problems due to trauma, drug addiction, mental health challenges or disabilities. During the budget hearings, Commissioner Candace Broce emphasized that the biggest challenge is that these kids should never have been in foster care in the first place.

“These kids need access to healthcare, not foster care,” she said. I agree, but I’d take it one step further. These kids’ parents need healthcare too.

When the Budget Blooms Flowers: K-12 Public Education

Generally speaking, funding for K-12 education in the Governor’s budget looks better than recent years, with no austerity cuts to the funding formula. Of course, no austerity cuts is a pretty low bar during good economic times. In the meantime, Georgia Republicans can’t even decide just how much K-12 education should currently cost. A Senate Study Committee last summer took another look at the funding formula, known as the Quality Basic Education Act (QBE), which dates back to 1985. We’ll see if the Senate does anything about it this year.

Planting Seeds through Higher Education

Four-Year Colleges: Chancellor Perdue told us that enrollment has dropped at 20 of the 26 four-year institutions. Since colleges are funded based on enrolled credit hours, this loss of enrollment will result in lost revenue. The Chancellor also says Georgia is experiencing a greater migration of students attending college out-of-state, and he’s going to do a deep dive to determine why. I can tell him a few reasons, straight from the mouths of my constituents. Guns on campus and abortion bans.

Technical Schools: On the other hand, enrollment at technical schools is up 2% overall and 6% overall in high demand career paths. In 2022, our technical school system served 13% more students than the year before. I plan on continuing to work on obtaining funding to help bring a satellite campus of Georgia Piedmont Technical College (GPTC) to north DeKalb. The GPTC President tells me it would be full of students the day it opens!

Speaking of Weed . . .

With this week’s “weed” theme, I just couldn’t resist. The Georgia Access to Medical Cannibas Commission recently met to hear from the public before approving regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries. This has been long in coming, since the initial legislation allowing use of low THC oil was approved in 2015.

Stay tuned. We’ll be back in the Chamber next week and hopefully we’ll see some Committee meetings scheduled so bills can begin moving. Have a good week and stay warm and dry!

January 22, 2023/by Sally Harrell

Sally’s Senate Snapshot 2023 #1

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