2025 Georgia Legislative Guide

ABOUT THE GUIDE Georgia Trend’s Legislative Guide provides contact information for legislators and other elected officials. Information that was not available at press time, including some committee assignments, is indicated by NA. All other information in the guide was correct as we went to press but may have changed since.

When 236 lawmakers commenced the 40-day session on January 13, they returned to a legislature that has a Republican majority in both houses led by a very popular Republican governor. And the number of bills they’ll see introduced is mind-boggling. In the 2023-24 session, 2,107 bills were introduced, and 1,167 were acted on. During the 2025-26 session, it’s pretty unlikely those numbers will go down.

Two organizations – Georgia Budget & Policy Institute (GBPI) and Georgia Public Policy Foundation (GPPF) – are public policy advocates in the areas of fiscal decisions; education; regulatory, tax and tort reform; healthcare and more. Both are striving to create solutions for Georgia’s challenges. With few exceptions, both want to see changes in our tax code and how healthcare and education are managed and funded, but their viewpoints on such changes couldn’t be more different.

Democracy Through the Dollar

“We haven’t met our fiscal obligations to Georgians,” says Staci Fox, president and CEO of the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute (GBPI), whose mission is to promote policies that help all Georgians prosper. “Our revenue shortfall reserve coffers are maxed out at $5.4 billion, while undesignated reserves will hit an estimated $11.6 billion during fiscal 2025. [Gov. Brian] Kemp calls this ‘surplus.’ I call it unspent public funds that come directly from Georgians’ pockets.”

Fox says there are many ways this historic surplus could be distributed to help Georgians, including investing in the state’s struggling healthcare infrastructure and establishing a self-sustaining childcare trust fund. Fox sees Georgia’s spending on education as another issue that needs equitable funding. She says statistics show the state has gone from bad to worse in this area. “In 2004, Georgia’s per capita spending on elementary, secondary education and higher education combined was 32nd in the nation; in 2021, it was 42nd,” says Fox.

Fox says vouchers signed into law last year drain millions from public schools. “Between 2008 and 2022, Georgia’s existing voucher programs diverted $1.3 billion to private schools,” she says. Instead, she advocates equitably funding education at schools with high poverty rates, so they experience some equalization.

As of 2022, when the most recent figures were available, the state ranks third in the nation for residents without healthcare. Yet Fox remains hopeful. “We are not giving up on the possibility of expanding Medicaid and thus closing the coverage gap for thousands of Georgians. And while the state’s Pathways to Coverage program has failed to cover the number of Georgians promised, we hope the state will reconsider the work requirements and work to make the program more accessible.”

Healthcare and Childcare: Staci Fox, president and CEO of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.

Pathways to Coverage, which is Georgia’s program for limited Medicaid expansion, kicked off in June 2023. Eligibility applies to 100% of the federal poverty level ($25,820 for a family of three, $15,060 for an individual in 2024) with enrollment contingent upon meeting work requirements of least 80 hours a month or performing some other state-approved activity, like volunteering at a nonprofit.

As of November 2024, 5,500 adults were participating out of an estimated 175,000 eligible. The program has cost at least $40 million, with more than 80% of funds going toward administrative and consulting costs. Georgia is currently the only state authorized to condition access to Medicaid coverage on reporting working hours.

“The infrastructure and requirements for coverage are a real barrier to participation in Kemp’s Pathways plan,” says Fox. “And the heaviest burdens fall on Georgians living in rural communities and on people of color. Georgia’s healthcare system ranks 45th overall based on measures like healthcare access, cost, avoidable hospital use, reproductive care and women’s health, and prevention and treatment.”

Kemp issued a statement saying his administration is working to make the plan more accessible, but stands behind it. In it he said, “had Georgia followed the advice of those who pushed traditional Medicaid expansion, less Georgians would be covered by higher quality insurance while receiving lower quality, government-run care instead.”

The program is set to expire on September 30, 2025, unless the state elects to request an extension from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Finally, Fox would like to see changes to the tax code and a reexamination of Georgia’s generous tax breaks for industries. The state’s goal is to reduce the flat tax rate a tenth of percent each year, so it is 4.99% by 2029. Fox says that will primarily benefit the highest earners. “The savings are negligible for the rest. Plus, the plan forgoes over $2 billion in annual tax revenues, which threatens the long-term stability of our tax revenue system.

“Policy is where change happens,” says Fox. “We’re always focused on solutions that work for the most marginalized of Georgians, so everyone wins. We’d like the state to move away from prioritizing corporations over people, with large tax credits, deductions and tax breaks that deliver very little benefit to Georgians.”

Tort and Tax Reform: Kyle Wingfield, president and CEO of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

While education and taxation are certainly critical issues for Kyle Wingfield, he contends the state’s legal environment is a huge threat to the state’s vigorous pro-business environment. In fact, Kemp recently told state lawmakers tort reform is his No. 1 priority.

“I hear stories every week from business owners who can’t get insurance or can’t afford it,” says Wingfield, president and CEO of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, a think tank that advocates for free-market approaches to public-policy issues.

“It’s the most pressing problem for Georgia right now, more than anything on the tax front or anything else,” says Wingfield. “It’s gotten to the point where there needs to be some adjusting of how liability is assigned and compensated – from medical malpractice to landlords. There’s got to be more balance.”

According to the Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s “Guide to the Issues,” Georgia is “notorious” for awarding exorbitant damages in so-called “nuclear verdicts,” which are $10 million or more. The GPPF guide also says, “the American Tort Reform Association estimated that Georgia could increase its gross [state] product by $13.1 billion by reforming lawsuit abuse.”

When it comes to education, Wingfield’s organization backs Promise Scholarship Accounts, which go into effect in July with the state contributing $6,500 per school year to each participating student. Eligibility only extends to students residing in the attendance zones of schools performing in the bottom 25% academically, according to a statewide ranking.

“It’s not a voucher, and it isn’t just for private schools or private school tuition,” says Wingfield, who worked for years to get the measure passed. “It enables innovation at all levels – for micro-schools, homeschoolers, special or different needs. It’s about creating the right fit for every kid because every kid is different.”

The challenge will be ensuring its coffers are funded and working toward expanding it to every student. “Florida, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina have universal eligibility for their versions of savings accounts,” says Wingfield. “We should follow suit.” This year, legislators are expected to look at modernizing Georgia’s education funding program, known as the Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula.

Regarding tax reform, Wingfield says, “I’d rather see a low tax rate that applies to everyone instead of special breaks that are applied rather indiscriminately.” And while Georgia now enjoys a roughly $11 billion surplus fund, he’s concerned with potential revenue slowing. Kemp has proposed spending more than $1 billion of the surplus on income tax refunds.

“People move to where opportunity is abundant and taxes are low,” says Wingfield. “Florida and Tennessee don’t have an income tax. North Carolina has done a great job of using its surplus to reduce income tax rates and may ultimately be able to eliminate corporate income tax rates. And they’ve done it without any wild swings or big budget cuts. We’d like to see Georgia move a little more aggressively in that direction.”

“Our goal is to advocate ideas and policy that effect meaningful change and provide Georgians with opportunity and quality of life with an approach that supports policy over politics,” says Wingfield.

See the Georgia Trend 2025 Legislative Guide in the digital edition of the February issue. The Guide was compiled by Christy Simo.