Listen: GPB's Donna Lowry on what to expect during new season of 'Lawmakers'

Donna Lowry is the host of GPB's Lawmakers program. She spoke with GPB's Orlando Montoya about what's on tap for the show, which kicks off its 54th season tonight at 7 p.m. ET on GPB-TV.
 

TRANSCRIPT:

Orlando Montoya: State lawmakers convened this year's General Assembly at the state Capitol this morning. And joining me now to talk about what to expect in the 2024 legislative session is Donna Lowery. She's the host of GPB's Lawmakers, which begins its 54th season tonight. Donna, good to have you here.

Donna Lowry: Glad to be here.

Orlando Montoya: Let's start with the basics. We have 56 senators, 180 representatives. I think there are two vacancies right now. Who are the players to watch?

Donna Lowry:  Well, I'd say all of the Republican leadership. It's an election year. All the seats in both the House and Senate are up for grabs. So we will see everyone in campaign mode, first of all. And I mentioned Republicans in particular because they are the party in power and will want to push the party’s agendas the same way the Democrats would do if they were in power. And during the special redistricting session in December, we got a kind of preview of things. Republicans brought up some resolutions to try to get Democrats to commit to votes on issues they did not expect. One resolution condemned Hamas and supported Israel. And the other was to support Atlanta's public safety center, better known as "Cop City," which is now under construction. And Democrats accused Republicans of political gamesmanship for forcing votes on issues that have traditionally split Democrats, both locally and nationally. Both resolutions passed, though, and some Democrats abstained or excused themselves from voting on both issues.

Orlando Montoya:  Now, the only thing lawmakers are constitutionally required to do is pass a budget. And although tax collections aren't growing as fast as they were several years ago, there's still room to spend and that $11 billion surplus sitting there. So what proposals are we likely to see on the budget?

Donna Lowry: So as a reminder, in Georgia at the beginning of the budget process, the governor sets the revenue estimate and we expect to learn what the governor is going to do when he gives his State of the State address on Thursday. Last month, the governor announced plans for a couple of areas of the amended fiscal 2024 budget. One is the $1,000 holiday bonus. He called it an employee retention pay supplement. And that's to all state workers. That went to about 112,000 state employees, 196,000 teachers and school support staff statewide. That initiative will cost the state roughly $330 million. So that is part of the amended fiscal 2024 budget, before we look at the fiscal 2025 budget. The budget will also include more than $100 million for K-12 schools to beef up security and safety plans. This will be a line item for the very, very first time. That's roughly $45,000 for every public school in Georgia. Another item dealing with the budget we will see the governor talk about? His — he wants to accelerate a decrease in the income tax rate. A little complicated, but basically a bill last year already passed that will reduce the rate. But given the state surplus that you mentioned, he wants to do it sooner. So he calls it the largest income tax cut in state history.

Orlando Montoya: Now, the way the Legislature works is that if a bill doesn't pass in the first year after an election, it can return the next year. So this is actually the second year in a two-year legislative cycle. Are there any high-profile bills from last year that lawmakers kicked the can on that we might expect to return this year?

Donna Lowry: Yeah, the first one that we expect probably this week or the next few days, one of the first they'll deal with is the antisemitism bill. The anti-Semitism bill passed in the House last year, not the Senate. It has been controversial in the language. The language deals with the IHRA definition — which is the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition. And some people who have a problem with it say that it will now not allow for any criticism of Israel. So people are afraid that they may face charges if they criticize Israel at all. So that has been very controversial. But we've heard from Republican leadership that that is something that they want to see happen and fairly soon. The other bill certain to come back is the school voucher bill. The Senate approved the bill by Sen. Greg Dolezal, Senate Bill 233. But the House shot it down. It was really, really close, 89 to 85, with a handful of Republicans actually crossing party lines to seal its fate. That is likely to come back. The school voucher bill has been something that the Republicans have wanted for a while. They have really pushed, but some Republicans in rural areas are afraid of money being taken out of public education and going to these vouchers. So there has been a lot of work, we understand, behind the scenes to try to pull those Republicans in. I will tell you that state groups, such as teacher groups, have been totally against this. And overall, Democrats are against anything dealing with school vouchers, anything coming out of public education.

Orlando Montoya:  So-called "divisive concept" bills were front and center in recent years. Are there any bills this session that are likely to stir up debate and controversy?

Donna Lowry:  I think that we're going to see some issues dealing with abortion. That is likely to be controversial again this year, of course. There has already been talk about that. And bills dealing with voting. We are likely to see some things where the Democrats in particular, are going to push back on some of the legislation that has come through, some of the laws that have come through in the last few years, that — that change the way people vote. Some of the legislation has been pre-filed dealing with voting. It may not go anywhere. We also may see Republicans have some bills that will come out that will deal with voting. As you know, the 2020 election is still front and center in everybody's mind when it comes to anything going on, both at the state level and at the national level.

Orlando Montoya: GPB's Lawmakers airs every night the Legislature is in session on GPB-TV, starting tonight at 7 p.m. Tell me a little bit about the broadcast and what you have new this year.

Donna Lowry:  Yeah, we're very excited that we the broadcast, as you know, is a half-hour, but we do four shows that are an hour long, including this week. We will have an hourlong show for the State of the State. If you missed the State of the State in the morning — and of course that is live streamed, you can get that through gpb.org — but we will have it also on our show that Thursday night, and it will show the entirety of Gov. Kemp's message. We also air the Democratic response. So that is one of our hourlong shows. Of course, we do an hourlong show on the budget, which, as you mentioned, is the only mandated reason that the General Assembly meets. We do Crossover Day and of course, Sine Die. Our first show tonight will deal solely with the priorities. And we're excited because we expect to have leaders on both sides of the aisle come on our show and talk about their priorities.

Orlando Montoya:  Donna Lowery is host of GPB's Lawmakers. Thank you very much.

Donna Lowry:  Thank you.