Georgia Today: Body cam requirements, unjamming medical marijuana rules, Savannah's giant cranes

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Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Friday, Feb. 10. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, some lawmakers are pushing for all police officers to be required to wear body cams. The legal logjam that has held up Georgia's medical cannabis program for years may finally be coming to an end. And a historic shipment arrives in the Savannah Harbor. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1

Peter Biello: The new bill in the Georgia House aims to promote police accountability. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports from the Capitol.

Sarah Kallis: The bill filed this week by Democrats would require all police in Georgia to wear body cameras. House Bill 325 sponsor Rep. Tanya Miller says transparency in policing will help law enforcement gain public trust.

Tanya Miller: We have been given this sort of false choice that you either are pro-public safety or you're pro-police accountability, but you can't be pro-both. And I think you can absolutely be pro-both. Our communities deserve to be safe. They want to be safe and they want to be treated with dignity in the process.

Sarah Kallis: The bill was filed the same day as police body camera footage was released of a shooting that wounded a state trooper and killed activist Manuel Teran on the site of a future police training center in Atlanta. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis at the state Capitol.

Story 2

Peter Biello: The Georgia Senate has advanced a bill that instructs state agencies not to require a college degree for jobs unless it's really necessary. Roswell State Sen. Republican John Albers says administrators should reexamine the education and skills needed to perform state jobs.

John Albers: We want to make sure that we're not requiring a four-year degree or advanced degree or a certification that may not apply to that job and lose out in the opportunity of having our best and brightest apply for that job. And I'll give you an example: We have many technology jobs available in our state that Bill Gates is not qualified to apply for.

Peter Biello: Gates famously dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft. The bill is a reaction to difficulties agencies have faced in attracting workers in a tight labor market and follows moves in other states. It passed overwhelmingly yesterday and now goes to the state House for more debate.

Story 3

Peter Biello: A Georgia House committee has approved legislation aimed at breaking a legal logjam that has held up the state's medical cannabis program for years. House Bill 196 cleared the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. It would expand the number of medical cannabis production licenses the state awards to 14, up from the current six. The eight licenses not already awarded would go to companies that filed lawsuits when their bids for licenses were denied. Those legal protests remain pending and, if unresolved, could drag on for up to two years, preventing the program from moving forward in providing low THC cannabis oil to Georgia patients suffering from a range of diseases. The bill now heads to the House Rules Committee to schedule a vote on the House floor.

Caption

BigLift Baffin

Credit: Benjamin Payne / GPB News

Story 4

Peter Biello: A historic shipment arrived at the port of Savannah last night. GPB's Benjamin Payne had a front row seat to all the activity from Savannah's downtown riverfront.

Benjamin Payne: That's the horn of Biglift Baffin, a ship carrying four giant cranes. Just how giant? Each is more than 300 feet tall, too tall to fit neatly inside the ship. So they hung well over its side, stretching above the waters of the Savannah River. Duke Bertke came out to the riverfront to watch.

Duke Bertke: I think this is amazing. It shows the development of the port and how much more this town's getting. Just huge economic development. It's just pretty cool to see.

Benjamin Payne: He brought his grandson Sawyer along.

Sawyer: It's like the size of the river.

Benjamin Payne: Sawyer's favorite thing about the crane ship.

Sawyer: That its got lots of helpers.

Benjamin Payne: In this case, tugboats and even helicopters escorting it to the final destination. Once installed, the cranes will be the biggest in use on an East Coast port. For GPB News, I'm Benjamin Payne in Savannah.

Story 5

Peter Biello: A state House committee advanced legislation yesterday to increase the weight limit on large trucks from 80,000 to 90,000 pounds. The House Transportation Committee voted 18 to 11 for the bill, sending it to the full House for more debate. That's despite objections from local government officials, traffic safety advocates and the Georgia Department of Transportation. They say heavier trucks will tear up roads and bridges and threaten road safety. Loggers, farming and trucking groups say the measure could save money by hauling the same amount of freight over fewer trips. An emergency order has allowed some trucks to haul 95,000 pounds since the beginning of the pandemic.

Story 6

Peter Biello: Workers who care for people with disabilities could receive an hourly pay increase if the Legislature follows the recommendation of a wage study. GPB's Devon Zwald has more about the bump in pay for these workers.

Devon Zwald: The increase would boost the hourly wage to $15.18 from $10.63, according to estimates released Thursday from the State Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. DBHDD Commissioner Kevin Tanner told GPB's lawmakers the state is in a workforce crisis.

Kevin Tanner: And that's really across the spectrum of job classifications. When you drill down to health care, it's much, much worse. And when you drill down a little deeper and you go to behavioral health and developmental disabilities, it's — it's as bad as it can get. So we're at a state of emergency on workforce.

Devon Zwald: He said behavioral health providers haven't seen a pay increase in 15 years, making it hard to attract and retain workers. Service providers say the increase is appreciated but isn't enough to address the crisis at a time of rising costs. For GPB News, I'm Devon Zwald.

Story 7

Peter Biello: A global entertainment company, has bought the Atlanta-based music label behind the rise of hip hop acts like Migos, Lil Baby and Lil Yachty. Hybe America said yesterday that it bought QC Media Holdings, the parent company of quality control music. The New York Times estimates the price at around $300 million. Hybe America is the Los Angeles based division of South Korea's Hybe, the company behind K-Pop darlings BTS, among other groups. QC co-founder Pierre Thomas says in a social media post that people aren't selling out but selling in.

Story 8

Peter Biello: There is a national debt ceiling crisis looming over the country. So what is the debt ceiling and how could the current debate over it affect Georgians? We've got some answers for you today, courtesy of GPB's Leah Fleming, who spoke recently with Raymond Hill, senior lecturer of finance at Emory University's distinguished Goizueta Business School in Atlanta.

Leah Fleming: So what is the debt limit or the debt ceiling, as it's called?

Raymond Hill: We have this strange thing that Congress can spend money. That's what its function is under the Constitution, to authorize spending. But then in order to spend more than we take in in taxes, then we're going to have a deficit and that's going to then add to the national debt. So in addition to Congress voting to spend money without raising taxes, it has also imposed — on itself — another requirement, that from time to time, it raises the amount of borrowing that the government can do to pay for those expenditures which are not paid for by taxes.

Leah Fleming: We've heard about this every few years or so. We'll hear about, you know, that this crisis could be looming. And I'm wondering: How bad are the consequences of an actual default, if that would ever happen?

Raymond Hill: Well, the consequences of an actual default — so we go to the end and there's never a resolution — are disastrous. And so — for every one of us. We'd go into a huge recession. The world financial system would be in chaos. It would be, you know, 10 times worse than what we went through in COVID or went through in the financial collapse of 2008 and 2009. It really would be a huge disaster.

Leah Fleming: So —

Raymond Hill: The reason is — there are two reasons. One is that because we need to keep borrowing in order to fund our expenditures. So that would cease immediately. But it's also that the U.S. dollar is where countries keep their international reserves. It's the currency for international trade. So it'd really bring the whole world's financial system to a grinding halt.

Leah Fleming: I was doing some reading and I saw that back in 1835 and 1837, the U.S. was actually debt free. I'm wondering, is that ever possible again, do you think?

Raymond Hill: Well, not in your lifetime and certainly not in my lifetime. But you have to remember that in, in the '90s, OK, we had a booming economy and we had we actually ran some budgetary surpluses from year to year. So the debt fell. And in the 1990s, economists were contemplating, "Well, if we keep running these services, what's going to happen when there's no national debt?" People actually thought about it for a brief period of a couple of years. But then we had, you know, the spending returned and you know, we're going to have a national debt for, you know, I guess I said your lifetime and my lifetime and in my children's lifetime as well. You know, the issue here is that the reason people feel strongly about it is we don't know how much national debt is too much. We know that all of us currently are pushing this burden to the future generations. At some point, the national debt becomes so large that it either cuts into other things we want to do — it's a matter of national security because we can't spend money on defense — or people begin to worry that we're not going to repay it and then we have a financial crisis. But we don't know what that number is. And that's why there's so much anxiety here — especially on one side here — that we, you know, we do something to control it. And it's exactly why I think, you know, you're not going to see Congress get rid of the vote on the debt ceiling because they don't want to be seen as not caring at all about the national debt. But they still like to spend money.

Peter Biello: That's Raymond Hill, senior lecturer of finance at Emory University's Goizueta Business School, speaking with GPB Morning Edition host Leah Fleming.

The Super Bowl is this weekend. And if you need ideas for delicious offerings to bring to the party, we've got you covered here at GPB. Our list of Touchdown 'Tizers features things like baked ham and cheese sliders, pepperoni bread, Coca-Cola chicken wings, cookie dough dip, taco sticks and more. You can find all of these recipes by going to GPB.org/Touchdown.

And we have made it to the end zone of this edition of Georgia Today. If you haven't yet kicked off your effort to subscribe to this podcast, do it now or risk interference by something else in your busy life. And if you've got feedback, we'd love to hear it. Email us at GeorgiaToday@GPB.org.

I'm Peter Biello. Thank you so much for listening. Have a great weekend and enjoy the game.

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