The General Assembly convened for legislative day one on January 10, then took Tuesday off to attend the National Championship football game. They reconvened for legislative days two through four on January 12 through 14.

Last week the legislature was in recess for the Joint House and Senate Appropriations Committee hearings. They heard from the Governor and several state agencies on their recommendations for the 2022 amended and 2023 fiscal year budgets. The legislature will reconvene on Monday, January 24 for the fifth legislative day. They are scheduled to be in session through Wednesday of this week. We expect the legislature to pass an adjournment resolution this week to set out the schedule for much of the remainder of the legislative session.

The Governor presented his proposed budgets on Tuesday to the Joint House and Senate Appropriations Committees. The Governor is proposing a $5,000 raise for all state employees, as well as tax refunds to all Georgia taxpayers. You can review the Governor’s full budget proposal here and watch his budget presentation here.

Reports of interest from legislative study committees:

Final Report of the Joint Commission on E-Commerce and Freight Infrastructure Funding can be accessed here.

Findings from the Joint Study Committee on Airport Infrastructure and Improvements can be accessed here.

This weekly Legislative Update report is courtesy of the Regional Business Coalition of Metropolitan Atlanta (RBC), an organization of over a dozen of the largest and most active Chambers of Commerce throughout the metro Atlanta region. RBC member chambers represent over 15,000 member companies who employ millions of metro Atlanta residents. The RBC’s primary goal is to represent the interests of RBC Chamber members on regional public policy issues impacting our transportation, water and air quality and to advocate for solutions that improve metro Atlanta’s quality of life and economic vitality.