[March 15, 2026] | This past week follows a very long Friday of what we call Crossover Day. I got home at 3:00 in the morning after our Friday session, so we were a bit tired. If you remember, I've told you that Crossover Day is the day a bill has to cross over from the House to the Senate, or from the Senate to the House for their consideration. A lot happens on that day; we passed 52 bills, and those will move over to the Senate.
If you would like to complete list of all bills passed last week, you're welcome to send me an email, and I'll send them to you. Lots of good stuff was done: tax credits and tax cuts, literacy for improving reading, improving the Hope Scholarship, all sorts of things. I won't take time here to talk about them, because now the Senate will take a look at the very same bills and put their touch on the legislation.
The biggest thing we did this week was to vote on the 2027 State Budget. A little unknown fact is that all spending bills have to originate in the House, and the '27 State Budget was one of them. I am on the Appropriations Committee, and we have been working since January to get the spending plan ready to be voted on. Lots of meetings and discussions and thought get us to what we think the '27 Budget should look like. HB 974 passed with only 4 no, and 159 yes.
I will hit some high points, but if you want the total rundown, you'll have to email me or call my office, and I'll send it to you. We fully funded education; you should know that Education is the largest part of our spending. About 55% of our total dollars go toward education. A highlight is that a significant amount of money will go to our literacy initiative. Our goal to get our children reading at third grade level by the time they're in the third grade.
This budget makes substantial investments to strengthen public safety across Georgia. This budget will pay our corrections workers more, to increase retention and safety by lowering the inmate: correction officer ratio. We had a very big problem, not being able to keep corrections workers. From what has been reported, improving their pay and working conditions has been successful.
In other work during the week, we created a study committee to look at how pharmacy benefit managers ("PBM's") are manipulating consumer access and the cost of your prescription medications and also driving some pharmacies out of business. This is something I've been working on for the past couple years.
Georgia is a big state and has a very long coastline. With lots of fishing going on, we passed a bill to improve the oversight and management of offshore fishing. A $10 fee will be added to those who fish offshore to create a fund to allow our state to do their own research and create an accurate picture of what our fish population is instead of relying on the federal government. OK, that's good.
Well, I'm looking through my notes. There are so many other things I can talk about, but there is just so much room. If you ever want any more detail of what we do at the Capitol, you know you can call my office or email me, and we will fill you in. My Capitol office number is 404-656-7153. My email is rick.jasperse@house.ga.gov.
As always, thank you for allowing me to serve as your State Representative.