ATLANTA — Georgia lawmakers waited until the very end of Crossover Day to pass a bill to cap property tax increases at 3% and reject a measure to overhaul the state’s voting system.
Channel 2’s Richard Elliot spent all day at the Georgia State Capitol for Crossover Day, the deadline for legislation to pass at least one chamber to remain active for the session.
The property tax bill passed at approximately 9:15 p.m., while the voting legislation failed about 30 minutes later.
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Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming) introduced the failed voting bill to overhaul the state’s voting process. The bill would have eliminated voting machines in favor of hand-marked paper ballots and ended county-wide early voting.
It also sought to place any election recount under the control of the Republican-led State Elections Board.
In the House, lawmakers approved property tax reform that would limit annual tax increases to 3%.
Other successful measures included a bill to limit out-of-state political contributions and a House bill to further lower the state income tax rate.
The Senate also passed a bill designed to protect Georgia Power customers from paying for infrastructure upgrades required by data centers.
The legislation eliminated sales tax exemptions on equipment for new data centers while maintaining credits for existing facilities.
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Sen. Matt Brass (R-Newnan) spoke in favor of the changes.
“Along with that, we were taking back the subsidies that we’ve been providing through their sales tax exemption on equipment,” Brass said. “And I think at the end of the day, it’s a good win for our citizens. It’s a good win for the rate payers.”
Democratic lawmakers, who had supported an earlier and more stringent version of the bill, argued that the Senate leadership weakened the protections.
Sen. Harold Jones (D-Augusta) claimed the final bill favored corporate interests over Georgia residents.
“The majority party, the Republicans, said we’re not going to protect Georgians,” Jones said. “What we’re going to do is we’re going to look after the interests of corporations. That’s what happened here today.”
Several other bills failed to meet the Crossover Day deadline. These included proposals to legalize gun silencers, create statewide grand juries and make district attorney races non-partisan.
Under legislative rules, bills that do not pass by the end of Crossover Day are typically considered dead for the remainder of the session.
However, lawmakers can still use procedural methods to revive stalled legislation before Sine Die, the final day of the legislative session.
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