Update from the Capitol: Week Six

By: Sen. Larry Walker (R – Perry)

As we pass the halfway mark of the 2018 legislative session, things are really moving along here at the capitol. This week, we covered a variety of topics with 20 bills passing through the Senate. We look forward to maintaining this pace of passing legislation as we close in on the deadline of Crossover Day, and eventually, Sine Die.

Of the pieces of legislation that passed this week, the most important were the bills to help compensate our local law enforcement officers. Senate Bills 366, 367, 368 and 369 were part of a package put together by the Compensation of Police Officers and Sheriffs Task Force, spearheaded by Sen. Greg Kirk from Americus, Lt. Governor Casey Cagle and members of the task force. The purpose of these bills, which passed the Senate with bipartisan support, was to help understand the barriers we face to properly compensating our law enforcement officers. Some of the measures in the legislation include creating a wage compensation study to better understand where the gaps in compensation occur, expanding the place an indemnification payment can be made to when an officer dies in the line of duty to include an estate, providing technical support to in-need law enforcement agencies and requiring $5 of every pre-trial fee to be paid to the Peace Officers’ Annuity and Benefit fund. These pieces of legislation are just the beginning of doing all we can to ensure that our men and women in blue are fairly compensated for all they do to protect our life, freedoms and property. I look forward to hearing other recommendations that come from the task force and the information these bills will provide for us.

Senate Bill 315 was another bill of importance that passed through the Senate this week. As technology expands, our laws must follow suit. This bill would make unauthorized computer access a crime in Georgia, punishable by a year in prison and/or a $5,000 fine. This bills aims to protect the private information of Georgians while keeping up with technology.

One piece of legislation that I was excited to see pass the Senate was Senate Bill 362, which would set up a pilot program to allow schools to look at different methods of testing students. The people who are best prepared to tell us how our students should be tested are the ones who work day in and day out, side-by-side the students. This is a great bill that will give more control back to the school systems to design and implement their own testing procedure and will allow us to learn from their expertise.

In addition to these Senate bills, we also took up an important House bill, HB 683, also known as the Amended Fiscal Year 2018 budget. This budget looks at the Fiscal Year 2018 General budget from last year and makes amendments to certain budgetary items that run through June 30, 2018. This legislation passed by a unanimous vote in the Senate and will head back to the house for their approval of our substitute. I look forward to now focusing on the General Fiscal Year 2019 budget in the coming weeks.

As we draw closer to Crossover Day, I encourage you to continue to call my office with questions, concerns or to voice your opinion on legislation. I enjoy hearing your ideas and appreciate your willingness to be just as involved in this process as I am. Let me know if there is anything I can do for you, my phone line and door are always open.

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For Immediate Release:
February 19, 2018

Elisabeth Fletcher,  Communications Specialist
elisabeth.fletcher@senate.ga.gov
404.656.0028