Georgia’s General Assembly ready to open 2017 session

ALBANY — State lawmakers are streaming to Atlanta as the General Assembly prepares to open its 2017 session Monday under the Golden Dome in Atlanta.

The 2016 session was a wild affair that featured passage of the controversial religious liberty and campus-carry bills in addition to placing the Opportunity School District amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot. Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed the two bills, and the OSD constitutional amendment was soundly defeated by Georgia voters.

The 2017 session could be wilder than 2016, with education reform and the religious liberty and campus-carry legislation likely to make appearances early in the session. Medicaid expansion also is likely to figure into the mix.

The wild card in health care, however, will be Donald Trump, who will become that nation’s 45th president on Jan. 20.

Deal’s top priority at the moment is education reform and the OSD, the linchpin of that plan, didn’t happen.

According to Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Deal will reportedly push a plan which would not give the state the power to take over failing schools, but would allow for a six-step process that would give the state School Board the authority to allow students in troubled schools to go elsewhere.

Deal is also expected to take a closer look at the November 2015 report from his Education Reform Commission, particularly in the area of reformulating the state’s nearly two-decades-old process in determining funding of Georgia’s public schools.

“Governor Deal’s Education Reform Commission report from November will be an overall legislative issue,” Rep. Darrel Ealum, D-Albany, said. “My feeling is that much like Transportation HB 170 consumed a tremendous amount of energy in the last session, educational issues such as revising the formula for funding local districts and teacher pay considerations will take center stage.”

Rep. Gerald Greene, R-Cuthbert, recommended caution when the Legislature visits the school funding reformulation issue.

“You have to keep in mind that what is good for urban Georgia is often bad for rural Georgia,” Greene said. “I know how hard things have been down here for some of our students. Ever since the ’80s, every governor tried to put is mark on education.

“More than 50 percent of the state budget goes to education and, as usual, it always comes down to the money. In my 34 years in the House I have never seen education fully funded.”

Expanding Medicaid coverage is also a hot button item the lawmakers are expected to deal with in the new session.

According to Andy Miller at Georgia Health News, repealing the Affordable Care Act — or making extreme changes to it — is expected to be on the front-burner in Washington this month. Opposition to the 2010 law has united Republicans for years, and the party retained control of Congress in addition to capturing the White House.

But under a repeal, what would happen to the 20 million Americans, including hundreds of thousands of Georgians, who gained coverage under the ACA? The national uninsured rate hit an all-time low this year, powered by the full implementation of the ACA.

It’s hard to say with any certainty what a Trump administration means for health care in Georgia, but health care experts suggest the effort to expand Georgia’s Medicaid program now faces steeper odds than ever.

Meanwhile, last May Deal vetoed HB 859, known as the Campus Carry Bill, legislation that would have allowed licensed gun holders to carry weapons onto state college and university campuses with exceptions that included student housing and athletic events.

“From the early days of our nation and state, colleges have been treated as sanctuaries of learning where firearms have not been allowed,” Deal said in his veto statement. “To depart from such time honored protections should require overwhelming justification. I do not find that such justification exists.”

Last month, Rep. Ed Rydners, R-Leesburg, said, “Don’t be surprised if this does not come up again next session.”

Deal also vetoed The Religious Liberty Bill (HB 757), infuriating many of the evangelical wing of the General Assembly who considered the bill a top priority.

And like the Campus Carry Bill, another version is expected to pop up on the Senate and House floors in this session.

Monday morning, the first order of business with be swearing in of House and Senate members.