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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2023 THE JACKSON HERALD PAGE 5A State updates Georgia Senate committee puts its stamp on medical cannabis measure House tables controversial school voucher measure By Dave Williams Capitol Beat News Service Legislation aimed at moving ahead with Geor gia’s long-delayed medical marijuana program cleared a state Senate committee Thursday but with signif icant changes from a bill the Georgia House passed early this month. The version of House Bill 196 House lawmakers approved March 6 called for increasing the number of medical cannabis pro duction licenses the state awards to 15. up from the current six. That would have let nine companies that filed lawsuits after they were denied licenses a new opportunity to compete. But the Senate Regulat ed Industries Committee scrapped that provision from the bill after represen tatives of two companies already awarded licenses to grow marijuana in Georgia By Rebecca Grapevine Capitol Beat News Service Georgia's banks are in a strong position in the wake of the failure of two large American banks this month, the deputy commis sioner of the state agency that oversees banks said Tuesday. “The state of banking overall in this country is very strong, and that’s es pecially the case in the state of Georgia,” Bo Fears of the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance told the state Senate’s banking committee. The problems that caused the collapse of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) do not plague Georgia banks. Fears said, pointing to three major dis tinctions between the failed banks and Georgia’s banks. First, SVB and Signa- By Rebecca Grapevine Capitol Beat News Service Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a con troversial bill Thursday ban ning most gender-affirming care for transgender Geor gians under 18. Kemp wasted little time in signing the bill, which re ceived final passage from the General Assembly just two days earlier. Senate Bill 140 will ban Georgia transgender youths from receiving hormone re placement therapy and gen der-affirming surgery. Hospitals could lose their permits and doctors their li censes. The legislation also opens up doctors to civil and By Dave Williams Capitol Beat News Service Georgia’s unemployment rate is holding steady despite persistent inflation. Joblessness in the Peach State stood at 3.1 % last month for the seventh month in a row and was half a percentage point lower than the national unemployment rate of 3.6%. Georgia had the highest labor force participation rate in the Southeast at 61%. “It is clear that Georgia means business,” state Com- and convert the leafy crop to low-THC cannabis oil testified they will be able to provide more than enough oil to Georgia patients reg istered with the state to re ceive the drug. Officials with Botanical Sciences LLC and Tru- lieve Georgia are currently ramping up their operations in Glennville and Adel, re spectively, and plan to have cannabis oil available no later than June. “It looks like we have enough capacity for up to 1 million patients already, and we only have 26,000 to 27.000 patients on the list.” committee Chairman Bill Cowsert. R-Athens. said Thursday. The House bill intro duced by state Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, also got pushback for essential ly promising the nine com panies that went to court after they lost bids for li- ture’s business was heavily concentrated in the high- tech industry. The banks were focused on serving hntech (financial technol ogy) companies, venture capitalists who supported hntech, and cryptocurrency companies, Fears said. “In Georgia, we don’t have that concentration.” he said. “We’re much more diversified. I’m unaware of any Georgia state-char tered bank that even banks a crypto-company.” Second, 90% or more of SVB and Signature Bank’s deposits were uninsured, Fears said. No Georgia bank comes close to ap proaching that very high level of uninsured deposits, he said. Third, like most banks, SVB and Signature were heavily invested in securi ties. criminal liability for provid ing such services. The new law does allow transgender youths to take puberty blockers. It also pro vides exceptions for youths with certain medical condi tions who need hormone re placement therapy and gen der-affirming surgeries. Kemp and other Republi can supporters framed the law as a measure to protect chil dren from irreversible physi cal changes. “As Georgians, parents, and elected leaders, it is our highest responsibility to safe guard the bright, promising futures of our kids — and SB 140 takes an important step in fulfilling that mission.” Kemp missioner of Labor Bruce Thompson said of the latest numbers. “Due to sustained investments in the state’s economy and talented work force, Georgia remains a top destination to live, work, and raise a family.” The number of jobs in Georgia rose by 3.200 in Feb ruary to nearly 4.8 million, an all-time high. Job sectors reporting all-time highs in cluded private education and health services at 648,900 jobs, and leisure and hospitali- censes that they would get licenses if they agreed to drop their lawsuits. Powell argued that otherwise the companies could tie up the medical cannabis program in court for years, forcing patients in dire need of the drug to go without it. “We are not just statuto rily going to award licens es to protesters that lost.” Cowsert said. The Senate committee did respond to Powell’s criticism of the Georgia Access to Medical Canna bis Commission, the state agency created in 2019 to oversee the state’s medical marijuana program. The commission has come un der fire for delays first in awarding licenses and sub sequently for a licensing process that prompted so many lawsuits. A House committee passed separate legisla tion this week abolishing “When the interest rates were relatively flat, that was fine,” Fears said. “But within the last year, when there have been the interest rate raises, that’s created unrealized losses - so es sentially paper losses in the bond portfolio.” Just before its collapse, SVB liquidated a large por tion of its security portfolio and the losses were real ized - to the tune of about $1.8 billion. Public notice of those losses helped fuel the run on the bank and its failure soon thereafter. Most banks have unreal ized losses on their secu rities portfolio, like SVB did, Fears noted. But those losses - unlike in the case of SVB - continue to re main unrealized. “Our [Georgia] banks have done a very good job of accounting for that in- said Thursday in a statement on Twitter. “I appreciate the many hours of respectful debate and deliberation by members of the General Assembly that resulted in the final passage of this bill.” The legislation drew fierce criticism from legislative Democrats, parents of trans gender youth, and major medical societies who argued it would harm vulnerable transgender youths’ mental health. They also maintained it violates parents’ rights to make decisions about their children’s care and prevents doctors from following med ically accepted standards of care. ty at 510,900. Leisure and hospitality was among the hardest hit job sectors during the pandemic, losing 222.300 jobs. But last month, it became the last pri vate sector group to regain all jobs lost during the economic shutdown following the out break of COVID-19. Georgia’s labor force also increased in February for the fifth straight month to nearly 5.1 million. However, the number of unemployed Georgians rose last month the commission and turn ing over responsibility for medical cannabis to the Georgia Department of Ag riculture. However, the Senate committee stopped short of getting rid of the com mission. The bill the panel passed Thursday instead instructs the agriculture de partment to examine how the commission has han dled its duties and make recommendations by Dec. 1 that may or may not in clude abolishing it. The bill now heads to the Senate Rules Commit tee to schedule a floor vote next week. With key differ ences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation, a joint confer ence committee likely will be needed to try to reach a compromise by Wednes day, when the General As sembly adjourns for the year. terest rate risk by hedges or other mechanisms, so they don’t have that same exposure,” Fears told the committee. In addition, since the two banks’ collapse, the Feder al Reserve has established a program to provide the face value of securities rather than the lower mar ket amount if a bank needs the securities as collateral in order to prevent an SVB- like situation from happen ing again. That new program pro vides further guarantees that other banks do not face the same risks SVB and Signature did, Fears said. “This is very different than the [2008] recession,” he said. “I’m very confi dent in the safety and the strength of the banking system in the state of Geor gia.” ‘This really is about us bullying children in order to score political points.” said Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, while speaking against the bill on the Senate floor earlier this week. “It does not protect children...” The law is slated to take effect on July 1. 2023. Advo cates for transgender youth have vowed to fight it. “Courts around the country have already stopped similar laws from going into effect on constitutional grounds, and we expect Georgia courts would do the same,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Geor gia said in a statement released this week. The group plans to sue the state. to 162.981. First-time unemployment claims declined last month from January by 45% to 23,055. However, initial job less claims were up 4% from February of last year. More than 120,000 job openings in Georgia were list ed online at Employ Georgia in February. Industries with the most openings included accommodation and food ser vices with 18,000, retail trade with 8,600, and manufactur ing with 7,800. By Rebecca Grapevine Capitol Beat News Service Legislation providing private-school vouchers to Georgia students attend ing low-performing public schools is struggling to get through the General Assem bly in the final days of this year’s session. After a lengthy debate late Thursday, the state House of Representatives tabled a bill that would create $6,500 vouchers for Georgia stu dents. House Speaker Pro Tem pore Jan Jones, R-Milton, moved to table Senate Bill 233, likely because it did not have the votes to pass. The House voted 95-70 in favor of the motion, with many Dem ocrats voting against putting off a vote on the measure. That leaves just two leg islative days - Monday and Wednesday - to get the bill passed. ‘This is a chance to say to those children, those families, ‘We are here to give you an opportunity, a choice to be able to go to an alternative, to be able to do something at home or through hybrid, to be able to allow you to extend the educational opportuni ty.’” said Rep. Todd Jones, R-South Forsyth, who spon sored the bill in the House. “We can help the public school system and provide choice. We [have] got to be able to provide a system that allows the family to have an opportunity.” The Georgia Student Fi nance Commission would By Rebecca Grapevine Capitol Beat News Service The state House of Repre sentatives gave final passage Thursday to legislation that would prohibit government agencies from requiring proof of COVID-19 vacci nation to access government facilities or services. Last year, the General As sembly enacted a measure barring the use of a person’s COVID vaccine status to prevent access to govern ment facilities, services or licenses. The law included an automatic repeal date of June 30,2023. The bill passed Thursday removes the repeal date, making the provision a per manent part of Georgia law. The bill passed the Repub lican-controlled chamber by a 99-69 nearly party line vote. Senate Bill 1 continues a long debate about what role COVID vaccinations should play in public life in Geor gia after they first began to be administered in Decem ber 2020. “SB 1 is a simple bill. It extends in perpetuity the current law as it relates to the COVID-19 vaccination status by removing the sun set clause,” said Rep. Todd Jones, R-South Forsyth. “The current law prevents government and all of its subdivisions, agencies and authorities from discrimi nating against citizens and denying services based on COVID vaccination status. I believe in [Georgians’] freedom and their liberty. I expect them to take all prop er precautions just like they did before 2020.” House Democrats op posed the measure, argu ing the bill politicizes what should be a public health matter and expressing con- oversee the program, and parents would be required to live in Georgia for one year before availing their children of the scholarships. Parents could spend the money at private or virtual schools, or for home-school ing and other expenses such as tutoring. Up to $500 could go for transportation. Students using the schol arship would need to take at least one assessment test each year to help ensure account ability. House Democrats criti cized the measure, arguing it would harm public schools. “We should not be divert ing resources to support pri vate interests that undermine Georgia’s public schools.” said Rep. Miriam Paris, D-Macon. Paris said private-school tuition is usually around $10,000 to $12,000 annual ly, far more than the $6,500 voucher the bill would pro vide. ‘This is a gift to our most well-off Georgians,” she said. “School vouchers do not address the root causes of poor educational outcomes. ... We need to fully and equally invest in our public schools.” The state Senate earli er this month approved the “Georgia Promise Scholar ship” bill 33-23 along party lines. If the House passes the voucher measure next week, the Senate would have to vote again to approve it be cause it has been amended by a House committee. cems about how it limits local control. “This bill aims to elimi nate the ability for govern ment agencies, including public schools, to require COVID vaccination ‘as a condition of providing any service or access to any facility’,” said Rep. Mi chelle Au, D-Johns Creek. “The harms posed by bills like this are not abstract. ... Bills like this tie our hands with respect to the response we can provide.” “I thought local control was a huge thing.” added Rep. Shelly Hutchinson. D-Snellville. “When does local control matter?” The Georgia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics opposes the measure, according to a letter the organization’s leaders sent to the Sen ate Health and Human Services Committee last month. “Permanently prohibit ing schools from requiring vaccination could severely hinder our ability to combat the pandemic,” states the letter, which is signed by the group’s president, Dr. Angela Highbaugh-Battle, and legislative chairwoman Dr. Melinda Willingham. “A permanent ban sets a dangerous precedent which may lead to erosion of the current vaccine require ments for school atten dance for other diseases.” Georgia has had 2.4 mil lion confirmed COVID-19 cases and 35,153 deaths, according to the Geor gia Department of Public Health. Only 59% of Geor gians are fully vaccinated with both COVID vaccine doses. The bill now moves to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature. State bank regulators: Georgia’s banks in very strong position, not at risk Governor Kemp signs bill limiting health care for transgender youth Georgia unemployment holding steady State House approves bill banning discrimination based on COVID vax status
