ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia lawmakers made multiple key decisions Wednesday on the final scheduled day of their 2023 session.
Most important, the General Assembly passed the state budget. Lawmakers also raised the weight limit for some trucks on state roads. Bills that would have improved mental health care and offered vouchers to children attending poorly performing public schools failed to pass.
Some key proposals had already passed, including a bill that would set up a commission to discipline and remove elected prosecutors and bills that seek to improve how reading is taught in Georgia’s public schools. Gov. Brian Kemp has already signed a ban on some types of gender-affirming care for transgender people younger than 18, as well as a $1 billion income tax break.
Other measures that are dead for the year include a bill that would raise the age for filing adult criminal charges against people from 17 to 18 and a bill that would make rioting a felony. Anything that didn’t pass Wednesday can still be considered in 2024.
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