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The ADVANCE, Februory 24,2021/Page 4A
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Tillery: Week Six Highlights
By Sen. Blake Tillery
(R-Vidalia)
We’ve almost
reached the halfway
point of the 2021
legislative session.
Day 20 of the 40-
day session will be
next week. With
the Amended Fis
cal Year budget now
signed by the Gov
ernor, much of my
focus will redirect to the General Fiscal
Year 2022 budget and continuing to find
ways to be the best stewards of your hard-
earned tax dollars. The budget is not the
only issue we tackle, as you know. We’ve
also been working on a number of legisla
tive issues that try to address the concerns
you’ve voiced, from healthcare to election
reform and several others in between.
Here’s a summary of some of the bills that
passed the Senate this week that I believe
you’d take interest in:
Senate Bill 87, the “Senator Jack Hill
Veterans’ Act,” continues the work Sen.
Hill started during his time in the legis
lature to serve our military communities
and specifically, would allow Georgians
to make a voluntary contribution on
their income tax return to go towards or
ganizations that assist disabled veterans.
It passed the Senate 50 to zero. Another
measure, Senate Bill 27, would assist those
who obtained professional licenses in the
military for things like HVAC and electri
cal contracting to qualify for a Georgia
professional license for the same by ex
tending the time they may apply to do so.
It passed the Senate 49 to zero.
Senate Bill 46, authored by Sen. Dr.
Dean Burke, (R-Bainbridge), would allow
certain medical professionals, like phar
macists and EMTs, to administer vaccines
during a declared public health emergen
cy and should help address some of the
problems you’ve had with obtaining the
COVID-19 vaccine. The Governor has al
ready permitted this through an executive
order in January, but codifying it in legis
lation makes us better equipped moving
forward. It passed the Senate 47 to 3.
Senate Bill 88 aims to address our
statewide teacher shortage by providing
a pathway for armed forces veterans to
become certified teachers, revise tiered
evaluation systems, and adjust some of the
duties of the Professional Standards Com
mission. It passed the Senate 50 to zero.
Senate Bill 52 tries to protect small
businesses and promote increased safety
from cybersecurity data breaches by pro
viding a safe harbor from cyber security
breach litigation if a company establishes
and maintains a certain level of cyberse
curity standards. It passed the Senate 31
to 18.
Since the beginning of the legisla
tive session, I’ve discussed our work on
elections reform matters. We’ve seen nu
merous election related bills that try to
address concerns I’ve heard from you.
Almost three dozen such bills have now
been filed. They began moving through
the legislative process two weeks ago and
we discussed them then. Several were
heard by Senate Ethics subcommittees
this week and five were passed by the full
committee (Senate Bills 67, 89, 40, 184
and 188). The others are still moving, but
these five are now waiting to be taken up
by the full Senate:
• Senate Bill 89 - would create a Chief
Elections Assistance Officer within the
Secretary of State’s office to provide over
sight on our state’s elections process. This
person would need at least five years of ex
perience working in elections and would
be responsible for things like helping to
train poll workers, monitoring superin
tendents and identifying low performing
counties (areas with election violations,
poor administration, etc.). The bill also
authorizes the State Election Board to
remove elections officials in consistently
poor performing counties.
• Senate Bill 67 - would require any
elector that requests to vote by absentee
ballot to include either their Driver’s Li
cense number or personal identification
card numberwith that request. If someone
doesn’t have one of those, the bill outlines
other methods of verifying identity. This
ID requirement would replace the current
signature match process, which should in
crease security and help verify the identity
of those requesting an absentee ballot.
• Senate Bill 40 - would speed up elec
tion night reporting times by requiring
election officials to begin scanning (but
not tabulating) absentee ballots before
election night. This change is expected to
help get election results out on election
night instead of days later.
• Senate Bill 184 - would establish a
new deadline for local elections boards
to update voting information in the state
wide voter registration system, revising
the time the board of registrars must input
credit for voting data from 60 days to 30.
We’ve heard voters say they didn’t know
whether their vote counted. This change
aims to answer that question quicker.
Those counties that go beyond the 30
days, would be subject to a fine.
• Senate Bill 188 - would require the
Secretary of State’s office to establish and
maintain an election results reporting sys
tem that counts the number of ballots cast
for each type and what the results were.
This information would be available on
a public website, to try and provide you
with some transparency. This bill would
also require counties to post the total
number of ballots cast in that county —
all in-person, absentee and provisional
ballots received — at the time the polls
close before they can upload any vote total
into the statewide system. The goal here
Bill to nix student discipline
from Georgia schools score
advances in state Senate
By Beau Evans
Staff Writer
Capitol Beat News Service
A bill to remove stu
dent discipline from factor
ing into a five-star rating
for schools and districts
cleared a state Senate com
mittee Wednesday.
Rather than include
discipline in a climate rating
that rates a school’s health,
safety and attendance, the
bill would require schools
and school districts to
maintain separate data on
disciplining that would
have to be provided upon
request by a parent or com
munity member.
Backers of the bill,
sponsored by Sen. Jeff Mul-
lis, R-Chickamauga, say
removing discipline from
the rating would encourage
teachers to actually punish
bad-acting students rather
than shirking that respon
sibility, since many schools
skip disciplining students
to avoid poor scores that
could hurt future enroll
ment.
“Teachers are being
told by district and school
administrators not to write
kids up,” said DeAnna Har
ris, the director of govern
ment relations for the ad
vocacy group Educators
First. “While this sounds
admirable, it does not im
prove student behavior or
school climate.”
Opponents have ar
gued scrapping the disci
pline score would hollow
out the school-climate rat
ing system, clouding over
public reporting on prob
lematic schools and gut
ting a tool intended to hold
schools accountable for
frequent behavioral issues
among students.
Pamela Carn, a founder
of the advocacy group End
Mass Incarceration Geor
gia Network, said stripping
discipline from the climate
score could curb struggling
schools from receiving
needed resources to help
improve student behavior
and lead to worsening the
school-to-prison pipeline.
“The fact is that the
school climate rating al
lows for the community to
see the environment that’s
created in a school,” Cam
said.
The bill passed the
Senate Education and
Youth Committee with re
porting changes added by
Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-
Marietta. It now heads to
the Senate floor.
The education commit
tee did not vote Wednesday
on a separate bill by state
Sen. Lester Jackson, D-Sa
vannah, to raise Georgia’s
mandatory age to attend
school from 16 to 17. Cur
rent state law allows Geor
gia students to drop out of
school when they turn 16.
The committee’s chair
man, Sen. Chuck Payne,
R-Dalton, signaled he may
call for votes on the raise-
the-age bill in an upcoming
meeting after debate was
held on the bill earlier this
month.
“I think we are all con
cerned that this is some
thing we need to look at to
make sure we’re not letting
those kids fall through the
cracks,” Payne said.
JOB WELL DONE—Legislators welcomed Harold Quarterman, Lead Custodian at Mont
gomery County Middle/High School to the Capitol last week. Quarterman, second
from left, won the first-ever Georgia RISE Award, which honors classified school em
ployees, Shown with Quarterman, from left, are Senator Blake Tillery, Governor Brian
Kemp and Representative Greg Morris.
is to have an immediate count of the to
tal ballots available immediately after the
close of the polls.
Other election-related bills that have
also been introduced include:
• Senate Bill 175 - would require each
absentee ballot to include a photocopy of
one form of identification. This provision
appears in several other bills already dis
cussed above.
• Senate Bill 176 - would establish in
creased penalties for individuals that ille
gally tamper with, alter, destroy, modify or
falsify election data and voting machines.
• Senate Bill 177 - would limit absen
tee voting to those out of town, with a dis
ability, observing a religious holiday, that
cannot leave their job, or 65 or older.
• Senate Bill 178 - would codify into
law that the Secretary of State’s office or a
county election official cannot send out
an absentee ballot application without
first receiving a request from the elector.
• Senate Bill 192 - would provide
electors with the opportunity for a hear
ing when their right to register to vote or
remain on the list of electors is being chal
lenged.
• Senate Bill 202 - would prohibit
parties outside of the Secretary of State’s
Office from sending absentee ballot appli
cations to people who are not registered
or who have already received their ballot.
The House has its own set of elections
bills moving, too, and I look forward to
addressing them if and when they move
into the Senate.
The highlight of this week was wel
coming Mr. Harold Quarterman, the
Lead Custodian at Montgomery County
Middle/High School to the Capitol. Mr.
Quarterman won the first-ever Georgia
RISE Award, which honors classified
school employees. Superintendent Hugh
Right and Mayor Joey Fountain escorted
him into the Governor’s office. Mr. Quar
terman began working for the Montgom
ery County School System right when he
graduated there some 43 years ago. He’s
still there today. He and his family, espe
cially his grandson Braylon, raised the
spirits of everyone who had the oppor
tunity to meet them at the Capitol. Mr.
Quarterman is a great example of selfless
service.
The Senate will be in session all five
days next week. I expect a lot of committee
work to be done and possible movement
on some of the bills I just mentioned. If
you have any questions about those, other
bills we covered or more things affecting
District 19, please reach out to my office. I
want to thank you for letting me serve you
here on these issues.
Sen. Blake Tillery serves as Chairman of
the Senate Appropriations Committee. He
represents the 19th Senate District, which
includes Appling, Jeff Davis, Long,
Montgomery, Telfair, Toombs, Treutlen, Wayne,
and Wheeler counties and a portion of Liberty
and Tattnall counties. He can be reached by
email at blake.tillery@senate.ga.gov.
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“Gas prices rose 15
cents overnight. Price
per gallon has in
creased locally by 50
cents per gallon since
November 6. Many
thanks to the newly
elected administra
tion for making life so
much better for us
Americans."
“To the young man
who returned my little
blue wallet to the
Thriftway Food Store,
thank you so very
much for your honesty
and compassion. May
God bless you. The
world needs more
honest people like
you. Thank you
again."
“I wish that the city
of Lyons would fill in
that well right next to
Luella and Tom's
pond. There's a big
hole and If anybody's
sitting there, you can't
turn in without running
through it. And if they
aren't sitting there,
you're gonna run
through it anyway.
The city needs to cor
rect this problem."
“I have a solution
for this country. First,
get rid of all the old
demagogues, repub
licans and democrats
up in Washington.
Give 50 seats to re
publicans, 50 seats to
democrats, and tell
them to hash it out for
the good of every
body. And if they
can't, we'll replace
them in 4 years. They
work for us, we're the
employers, they are
the employees.”
“I think the people
working in the hospi
tals and clinics that
don't take the COVID
shot should be fired or
dismissed. They
shouldn't be working
there if they don't
want the shot."
“Handicap ramps
and entrance into the
Montgomery County
Courthouse are an
embarrassment and
safety issue for elderly
or handicapped per
sons to use. The city
manager and com
missioners need to see
how dangerous they
are."
“I’m 65 years old
and on Wednesday,
February 17, one of
the 2 greatest Ameri
cans that ever lived in
my lifetime died, and
that's Rush Limbaugh.
The other is Donald J.
Trump. We are going
to put Trump back in
office in 2024. The
move is here to turn
this country into a
conservative country
again."
“Why does Walmart
not have cashiers any
more? You can get in
the store and spend
your hard-earned
money. Then you
have to wait and ring
it up and bag it your
self. Why are there no
registers open? It's
hard on us."
“To the manage
ment at Food World,
your employees
should speak to cus
tomers rather than be
on their cell phones."