State Sen. Sonya Halpern (D-Atlanta) and state Rep. Stacey Evans (D-Atlanta) held a virtual town hall meeting for constituents Tuesday evening.
Participants on the 90-minute Zoom call asked questions ranging from what to do about excessive muffler noise from cars to ranked choice voting and managed care providers.
The primary discussion topics included education, mental health and Medicaid.
In the online presentation, Evans celebrated educational policy "wins" that she said will support Georgia's students, including the state budget fully funding the HOPE Scholarship and allowing Georgia high school students to attend a public college in Georgia tuition-free if they have a "B" average.
Evans has advocated for the HOPE Scholarship throughout her time in the House.
"That's very important to me, personally, as a former HOPE scholar that wouldn't have been able to go to college without that full-tuition scholarship," she said. "So I'm super excited that happened. That coupled with the literacy bill and killing of the voucher bill in the House were just huge wins."
Both the House and the Senate passed bills that bolstered literacy education for kindergarten through first grade students. Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bills into law.
A controversial education bill, dubbed the "voucher" bill by critics, did not receive passage in the House. Senate Bill 233 would have created a $6,500 scholarship for students at the bottom 25% of public schools to attend private schools, charter schools, or receive tutoring.
While Evans and Halpern commended the Legislature for its work on educational issues, they expressed disappointment that the Senate did not vote on House Bill 520, a mental health bill with bipartisan support.
The bill built upon 2022's mental health bill, and Evans expressed hope for HB 520's future.
"It's alive for next year," she said. "I have a feeling that there will be a lot of work over the offseason with regard to anything specific that Lt. Gov. Burt Jones wants, and with regard to this mental health bill, so that that is hopefully something that we do early on."
Evans also noted the constituent support for the bill.
Halpern shared that while HB 520 did not pass, Fulton County, which both she and Evans represent, received more funding for mental health services.
"Fulton County was able to get an appropriation through this in this next state budget for $6.65 million," Halpern said. "And so that is going to be used towards a 24-bed and 616-temporary-bed-for-observation behavioral health crisis center, right here in Fulton County. So while we weren't able to get the big bill over, we were able to secure ... some real dollars in Fulton County."
Hapern and Evans also said that they would like to see expanded Medicaid in Georgia. North Carolina recently adopted Medicaid expansion, and Halpern said she hopes to see momentum in Georgia as well.
"What they're starting to recognize is it's not so much what Medicaid will cost the state — it's what is the cost for not doing it," Halpern said. "And the more and more that we have hospitals that are threatened, the more that we've got to be serious about what are we going to do to make sure that our patients or Georgians are insured and able to get what they need."
Both lawmakers said that in the 2024 legislative session they expect to see more momentum on the mental health bill and tax break reform. They said they do not expect Republican leaders to implement more abortion restrictions and do not expect to see momentum on election reform.
