Subcommittee OKs housekeeping bill letting engineers and surveyors keep incidental fees

Chairman McDonald presented House Bill 1428 as a narrow housekeeping measure requested by professional land surveyors and engineers to correct an omission after their licensing boards moved from the Secretary of State’s office in 2022.

"All this does is allow that the professional licensed engineers that they can do what every other board in the state is doing," Chairman McDonald told the committee, explaining the bill would let those boards retain certain incidental fees tied to licensing materials and services.

Michael Sullivan of ACC Georgia, the trade association representing Georgia’s engineering industry, told the committee the provision was missed when the boards separated from the Secretary of State’s office and said the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget had reallocated about $300,000 the association believed it had been retaining. Sullivan also highlighted improved licensing software and gave an example of a license-by-comity approval completed in "three hours."

With no committee questions after public comment, the subcommittee moved and passed HB1428 and sent it to the full committee at 2:00 p.m.

The bill’s fiscal or specific fee amounts were not specified during the subcommittee hearing.