House Speaker Jon Burns isn’t ready to take new steps to limit abortion. He’s skeptical of the push for a new “Buckhead City.” And he closed the door on a full-scale Medicaid expansion, at least for now.
Those were the takeaways from the first news conference with Georgia’s new House leader, a Republican from Effingham County now in his second week leading the chamber following the death of the late House Speaker David Ralston.
Burns, who at several points called himself an “old country boy,” called mental health a “front-burner issue” after last year’s mental health overhaul bill, but took a wait-and-see approach on more divisive issues that could come before the General Assembly.
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
On abortion, Burns said he won’t push new limits while the Georgia Supreme Court weighs a legal challenge to the state’s 2019 restrictions. When asked about Buckhead cityhood, he heaped praise on public safety plans promoted by Gov. Brian Kemp and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.
And he said Kemp’s limited plan to add tens of thousands of low-income Georgians to the Medicaid rolls, so long as they meet work and education requirements, should be given time to work before there’s a new discussion on a full-on expansion.
“We need to give Gov. Kemp’s efforts a chance,” he said.
He staked out a more definitive stance on housing, when he referenced The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s recent investigative “Dangerous Dwellings” project that detailed profound problems with Georgia tenant protection laws.
Burns said that he’s open to a “robust discussion” with local leaders on how to address the crisis, but that he wants to “respect” local governments on zoning-related issues.
“We’ll be looking into those protections with our local partners to make sure Georgians are protected but (while) being very respectful of local leadership in that area.”
Here’s what Burns said about other key issues:
- Sports betting: “I believe the position in the House is that we’re still looking. We’re still considering. We want to make sure we consider all the implications … I’m not sure, at this point in time, about the ability to do something with sports betting or any other type of gambling issue without a constitutional amendment.”
- Electric vehicles: “I’m convinced that Georgia can lead the nation when it comes to technology, and certainly I believe with the production of electric vehicles in the state that we’re poised to certainly take that leap.”
- Runoff overhaul: “I look forward to this discussion of runoffs. I have not made a decision as far as runoffs go.”
- Education policy: “I think we’re gonna have a very robust discussion when it comes to school funding, when it comes to vouchers and other issues that come before us. … Nothing is off the table for us.”
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
DAVOS DIS.The inevitable sniping has begun over Gov. Brian Kemp’s trip to the World Economic Forum, but it’s coming from an unexpected source — the Republican lieutenant governor of Florida.
Appearing on Newsmax on Thursday, Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez called the gathering “the Woke Elite Forum,” and said: “In Florida, we care more about what the people in cities like Dunedin and Destin and Deerfield Beach and Delrey … what those think, and not the elites in Davos.”
She also said that Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis is fighting to let people “drive what they want to drive,” a swipe at Kemp’s plans to make Georgia the “electric mobility capital of the country.”
Unlike Georgia, Florida’s governor chooses his lieutenant governor as a running mate. So consider the criticism to be coming from Team DeSantis. And with the Florida governor widely assumed to be running for president, Nunez’s criticism has been received by Georgia Republicans as a not-subtle attempt to poke Kemp, whose national profile is also on the rise.
In another glimpse of the backlash, Kemp was asked about his trip to a “five-star luxry hotel event in the Swiss Alps” amid high inflation and looming economic headwinds. Kemp has called the event a “one-stop shop” for pitching Georgia for economic development.
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LISTEN UP. The Friday edition of the Politically Georgia podcast is now ready in your feeds. We round up new House Speaker Jon Burns’ first session with reporters; our interview with Gov. Brian Kemp from Davos, Switzerland; and answer your questions from this week’s mail bag.
Listen and subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher.
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NOT-LANTA BUILDING BOOM. Gov. Brian Kemp’s office highlighted a report this week touting the state’s economic development bonanza for the first half of fiscal year 2023.
It estimated that 213 newly announced business expansions will create 17,500 jobs, with more than $13 billion in investment, an increase over the same period last year.
Credit: J. Scott Trubey/AJC
Credit: J. Scott Trubey/AJC
Kemp’s office said that 85% of the jobs and 92% of the investment from new economic development projects were in areas outside of metro Atlanta.
Our AJC colleague James Salzer notes that’s the kind of news the General Assembly — led mostly by rural Republicans — loves to hear. Lawmakers have made creating jobs outside of metro Atlanta a priority.
Four of Georgia’s largest industries — advanced manufacturing, automotive, aerospace and food processing — accounted for the majority of the new investment over the past six months.
The largest so far came in October, when Hyundai broke ground on a new electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Bryan County, outside of Savannah, which Kemp said will support more than 8,100 new jobs.
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Credit: Casey Sykes for the AJC
Credit: Casey Sykes for the AJC
UNDER THE GOLD DOME:
- 9:00 a.m.: The state House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees meet for the final day of budget week;
- The state House and Senate will return for session on Monday.
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Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
FLOOR LEADERS. Gov. Brian Kemp has named his floor leaders for the new Legislative session. Consider them the trusted Republican lieutenants tasked with moving the governor’s policy priorities through the House and Senate.
On the House side, Kemp named state Reps. Lauren McDonald from Cumming, Soo Hong of Lawrenceville, Will Wade from Dawsonville, and Matthew Gambill of Cartersville. For the Senate, Kemp chose state Sens. Bo Hatchett, from Cornelia, and Brunswick’s Mike Hodges.
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- The House and Senate are in recess.
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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
OSSOFF ON THE ROAD. U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff has been using the Senate recess this week to crisscross the state, announcing new federal initiatives and funding at events in Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus and Albany.
On Thursday, he announced a partnership with Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols to create the “Georgia Hydrogen Energy Braintrust,” an initiative with Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute to attract research and investment to the state in order to develop hydrogen as an energy source.
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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
MORE JOBS. U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick was named to the House Foreign Relations Committee Thursday. Earlier this week, the former Marine was also appointed to the House Armed Services Committee.
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FLYING THE FLAG. Macon City Hall will get a new flag this morning, when Muscogee (Creek) Nation leaders, who flew in last night from Oklahoma, join local Macon officials to raise the official flag of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation over the city.
It’s part of an ordinance declaring Macon a sister city of the nation, and recognizing the land in and around Macon-Bibb County as ancestral homelands of the nation before native American tribes were forced off the land by white settlers.
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AS ALWAYS, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
