Major issues await Georgia lawmakers for 2024 legislative session
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - It’s the new year and Georgia lawmakers are days away from the start of a new legislative session in the Peach State. Lawmakers will have plenty to keep them busy starting on day one.
Right when lawmakers walk through Gold Dome doors one week from Monday, they’ll have bills to consider. Some carried over from last year and on top of that, Georgia is once again set to be the center of the national political world as well.
On Jan. 8, they’ll return to the Gold Dome for the 2024 legislative session.
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Off the bat, legislators will take another look at sports betting. Some state senators tried to barrel the language through in a last-minute scramble, attaching it to a bill on soap box derbies — to no avail.
With the Israel-Hamas conflict still raging, lawmakers will also reconsider House Bill 30. The bill would allow prosecutors to tack on antisemitism charges to crimes committed against Jewish people or places. It just barely failed in 2023.
A controversial school voucher program that would give parents of students in the state’s lowest-performing districts vouchers for private or homeschooling was also carried over from last year.
And lawmakers will have plenty of new bills to weigh too, including a contentious proposal by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones that would give teachers stipends to take firearms training and carry guns in the classroom.
As the start of the 2024 legislative session nears, University of Georgia Professor Charles Bullock said the ongoing historic prosecution of former president Donald Trump is sure to loom large over Georgia and U.S. politics in 2024.
“If we talk about things that have a lasting impact, then a conviction of Donald Trump in Georgia is that kind of event,” Bullock said.
Attorneys and prosecutors are still going back and forth in the courtroom while they debate a trial start date, which could be in August 2024 —almost a year after the indictment itself was handed up.
“We know that his getting charged, his being indicted, that doesn’t take away anything from Republican excitement for him. But the polling indicates that a conviction would change some people’s minds and if it’s a close election that could tip the balance in favor of the Democrats,” Bullock said.
And Georgia is entering the year with another surplus, so state employee bonuses — or even tax rebates are also a possibility for Georgians this year.
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