‘Lawmakers’ Day 19: House passes criminal justice bills, Senate passes farmland bills

On Wednesday, Capitol lawmakers recognized nurses, midwives and Kennesaw State University before moving on to legislation.

In the House, members passed a couple of bills related to criminal justice.

House Bill 162 would seal and restrict the records of first-time offenders for some crimes at sentencing instead of after their sentence was completed.

“We know that everything is on the internet now, and so that has become a problem for a lot of people who think they're pleading first offender and are going to get that second chance, but since their records are already out in the cloud, it's not the second chance they had been promised,” Rep. Leesa Hagan (R-Lyons) said.

But if the offender does not complete the sentence, the record would be unsealed, the bill proposes.

The bill was unanimously approved.

HB 177 would allow domestic violence victims to add pets to a temporary protective order against their abuser.

"Nothing is worse than a father — and it's usually the father, not always — threatening to kill, in front of the children, a family pet," said Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Marietta Republican. "That's something that stays with the child for the rest of their life, and it seems like we are getting a major part of our society that is using this type of threat more often."

That bill passed 164 to 3.

The House also passed HB 117, which would require restaurants to notify customers if their shrimp was imported from a foreign country.

Supporters of the bill say that it is harder to ensure that imported seafood is safe.

"Some of us who served in Vietnam saw the conditions that these shrimps came out of, and it has not changed," Rep. Al Williams (D-Midway) said.

Meanwhile, the Senate remembered one of its own when it paid tribute to the late Democratic Senate Whip Vincent Fort.

Fort served in the Senate for 21 years. The former educator was known for his clamorous speeches from the dais, and his passion to serve.

"He cared deeply about people — all people," Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones II said. "And when I took his place as whip, I realized very early that I would not be able to follow his footsteps as far as coming to the well and maybe being as vociferously as he talked about issues. But what I did see is that I could follow in his footsteps as far as caring about people."

He died last December from cancer.

The business of farmland then took up most of the chamber's attention as a resolution, and two bills dominated the rules calendar.

Senate Resolution 56 would allow a statewide vote to change the state constitution so that a single individual owner could double the amount of farm or timberland that classifies as a bona fide conservation use property.

"To increase that due to the increase in our farms and our farming operations so that you're not penalized if you own more than 2,000 acres," Moultrie Republican Sen. Sam Watson said. "Today you could put 2,000 acres in your individual name, your spouse's name and your child — your child's name, and we just want to be able to try to clean that up and allow for an individual to put 4,000 in their sole name."

Senate Bill 45, a companion bill, would make those changes into law. Both the resolution and bill passed 51 to 1.

SB 59 would make the same changes, but this time on leased land.

"All we're wanting to do in this legislation is allow to family farm entities to come together to be able to go out and lease land, to farm that land, and keep it in conservation use and still get the benefit without having to worry about the fear of going into a breach of covenant," Watson said.

That bill also passed overwhelmingly.

SB 89 would increase the tax credit for family child care.

"It creates a tax credit for families with children over the age of 7 to help with the cost of caring for kids that are not yet in school most of the day," Sen. Brian Strickland (R-McDonough) said. "It expands an existing tax credit to help parents with child care expenses and expands eligibility for an existing tax credit for businesses that offer child care for their workers.

"While there's more work to be done to help our working moms and dads, Senate Bill 89 recognizes that as a legislature we believe that families shouldn't have to choose between having a career and being a parent."

It passed unanimously.

Later in the day, reproductive freedom advocates spoke in favor of legislation to pull state funding from so-called crisis pregnancy centers.

"These centers are nonprofit, usually faith-based facilities dressed up as reproductive health clinics," Rep. Anne Allen Westbrook (D-Savannah) said. "They do not provide, however, the range of services a medical provider would, including contraception, sexual health treatment or abortion services. Instead, they counsel pregnant people against abortion. They often engage in deceptive practices, first to bring people into their centers, then to pressure or mislead them out of seeking abortions."

The Carter Center brought its annual Mental Health Parity Day press conference to the Capitol, where it said more work is still needed on the topic.

"It's fine to pass legislation, but if the legislation just stays on the books and is not implemented, we don't help anybody," said Eve Byrd, director of the Carter Center Mental Health Program.

Also, a Senate bill called the Red Tape Rollback bill passed out of committee. Republicans say it would reduce government regulations.

Watch Lawmakers tonight to see Rep. Omari Crawford (D-Decatur), Rep. Brent Cox (R-Dawsonville), Rep. Lydia Glaize (D- Fairburn), and Rep. Rick Townsend (R-Brunswick) discuss the latest on the legislative session.