The 40-day Georgia legislative session gaveled in on Monday, January 13 and legislators quickly handled ceremonial and preliminary duties that accompany new terms.
The House reelected Rep. Jon Burns, R-Newington, as Speaker and Rep. Jan Jones, R-Milton, as House speaker pro tempore. On the Senate side, Sen. John Kennedy, R-Macon, was reelected president pro tempore of that chamber.
The chambers also set the entire calendar for the year. Legislative Day 40, also known as Sine Die, is scheduled for April 4. Crossover Day, or Legislative Day 28, when bills must pass out of one chamber to survive, is March 6.
Here is a recap of what else happened this week:
- Gov. Brian Kemp delivered his State of the State address on Thursday. You can watch it here. During the speech, Kemp made a strong push for tort reform and hinted at a special session if it is necessary. Kemp also threw his support behind legislation to lower the income tax rate from 5.39% to 5.19%, which would save $7.5 billion over the next decade.
- Earlier in the week at the Georgia Chamber’s annual Eggs and Issues breakfast, Kemp outlined his priorities for this session.
- Gov. Kemp, along with Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Speaker Burns, announced their education platform, which “fully funds K-12 formula earnings, provides funding for additional school safety grants, enhances mental health support and crisis counseling, and boosts technical education and transportation funding.”
- Speaker Burns announced his priorities for the year in a pre-session press conference, where he highlighted “revisiting tax cuts, advancing child literacy initiatives with collaboration from the Senate and governor’s office and ensuring the protection of gender-specific sports participation.”
- Lt. Gov. Jones named chairmen for the 2025-2026 legislative session. Many chairmen remained the same from last session. New chairs include: Sen. Billy Hickman, R-Statesboro, will serve as chair of the Education and Youth Committee, Sen. Sam Watson, R-Moultrie, will serve as chair of the Ethics Committee, Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, will serve as chair of the Higher Education Committee, Sen. Mike Hodges, R-Brunswick, will serve as chair of the Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee and Sen. Clint Dixon, R-Gwinnett, will serve as chair of the State and Local Governmental Operations Committee.
- The House has added two new committees, the Rural Development Committee, which will be chaired by Rep. Leesa Hagan, R-Lyons, and the Special Committee on Resource Management, to be chaired by Rep. Brad Thomas, R-Holly Springs.
- A full listing of updated committees can be found here.
- Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, expects to draft legislation to make the floating homestead exemption created by House Bill 581 mandatory — eliminating the option to opt out. The exemption was overwhelmingly adopted by voters last fall after being put on the ballot by lawmakers, but many — if not most — local governments are planning to opt out during the next three months.
- New legislation has been introduced to exclude tips from taxation. Senate Bill 2 was drafted by Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming.
- Next week, lawmakers will be in adjournment for budget hearings. The next day of the session, Legislative Day 6, will be Monday, January 27.
Please feel free to reach out to me anytime at my Capitol office at 404-656-0152, or by email at dale.washburn@house.ga.gov.
As always, thank you for allowing me to serve as your representative.
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