Rules Committee clears a large consent/consideration calendar, advancing dozens of bills to the Senate floor

The Georgia State Senate Rules Committee spent the latter portion of its Feb. 25 meeting presenting and advancing a broad consideration calendar of bills to the Senate floor.

Committee members gave short summaries of numerous measures and used consent or single-motion procedures to move many items. Highlights included:

- SB230 (sponsor Steele): increases the cap on condominium master-policy deductibles from $5,000 to $25,000 and adds notice provisions related to master-policy deductible changes.

- LGIP proposal (sponsor: Senator at mic): discussion of the Local Government Investment Pool and a referenced $82,000,000,000 managed by the state treasurer; the bill would require municipal approvals to invest outside the state-managed pool.

- SB261 (magistrate retirement): described as not using state tax dollars and allowing governance changes to the magistrate retirement board; presenters noted the fund was roughly 150% funded per committee remarks.

- SB405: raises the small-claims threshold from $15,000 to $50,000, enabling more self-representation in court for higher-amount claims.

- Education and professional measures: bills covering parental notification for school counselors (parents’ bill of rights), cursive instruction in schools, coordination of AED locations with 911, and governance changes for behavioral-health boards were all presented in rapid succession.

Committee members then selected a subset of bills for consideration and moved several to the Senate calendar by unanimous voice vote. Senator Albers made at least one calendar motion and Senator Ginn, among others, participated in the selection process. The committee adjourned after selecting calendar items and setting a floor-return time.

Next steps: The advanced measures will be considered on the Senate floor per the chamber calendar.