Evans Examiner: Week 11 (Sine Die!)
We have officially made it to the end of the 2026 Legislative Session! Last week on Thursday, the House adjourned Sine Die! Read below about some of the bills that did and did not get final passage in both chambers. Please look out for a newsletter next week with the full list of what passed and did not pass, and please come to the Sine Die Legislative Town Hall on April 14 to hear more details of what did and didn't pass this session (town hall details at the end of this newsletter).
Some of the Most Watched Bills that Passed & Didn’t Pass
This was the final week for bills to be considered. There's still a lot to unpack about what passed and didn't. However, here are a few highlights of what did and didn't make it through the process this Session. Read about them below.
Passed both Chambers
HB 297: Transit and 1 cent sales tax for MARTA
This legislation underwent a major transformation this session, shifting from a bill about off-road vehicles to a comprehensive overhaul of how we manage transit in Metro Atlanta. It establishes a critical principle: local voters must have the final say. Under this new framework, any transit expansion in our region will require a countywide referendum, ensuring that you and your neighbors are the ones deciding how your community grows. While the reorganization of transit boards is a significant change, I believe giving you a direct voice at the ballot box is the right way to plan for our future. The bill also included a critical extension of a penny sales tax for MARTA that was necessary to ensure we did not risk the loss of federal grant funds that support MARTA. I voted yes.
HB 369: Targeting Metro County Elections
This piece of legislation began as a bill regarding mobile sale of food and beverages when it left the House. However, the Senate stripped out the original HB 369 and replaced it with a terrible bill to require non-partisan elections in county races ONLY in the five metro counties. This bill is a raw political power grab and is likely unconstitutional. The cherry on top is that the original author of the bill was not available to speak to the bill, nor were they involved in crafting the substituted language. I voted no and I urge Governor Kemp to veto this unconstitutional bill.
HB 463: A Short-Sighted Handout
This bill is a $4.1 billion hit to our state budget, and the benefits are almost entirely for the wealthy. Under this plan, nearly 70% of the tax break goes to people making over $159,000 a year. While the bill includes some small exemptions for tips and overtime, it chooses giving money to those who don't need it over expanding Medicaid or providing school lunches for every child. I voted no.
HB 1009: Taking Cell Phones Out of the Classroom
Beginning July 1, 2026, students in grades K-8 are prohibited from accessing personal devices bell-to-bell, with the restriction expanding to grades 9-12 by July 1, 2027, subject to limited legal, medical, and IEP/504 exceptions. The bill mandates clear storage procedures, enforcement mechanisms, parent communication protocols, progressive discipline, and off-campus guidance, while allowing continued use of school-provided technology and making the policy non-waivable across school system types. Teachers told us they need cell phones out of classrooms and we listened. I voted yes.
HB 1118: Support for New Mothers
I was proud to support this win for working families, which provides 120 hours of paid maternal birth leave for eligible state employees. We need to ensure that the people serving our state, like our teachers and state agency staff, have the time they need to recuperate and care for their newborns. This bill passed unanimously through the House and Senate.
HB 1193: A Bipartisan Win for Literacy
One of the most important things we did this year was pass the Georgia Early Literacy Act. This bill invests nearly $100 million into the "science of reading" to make sure our kids are proficient by third grade. It puts literacy coaches directly into our elementary schools to work with students and teachers every single day. I was thrilled to vote yes.
While this bill was framed as property tax relief, it would lead to increased sales tax and hurt the ability of local governments to provide essential services. I could not support it. It creates a Local Homestead Option Sales Tax (LHOST), a new one-percent sales tax that communities can adopt to offset property taxes. My concern is that sales taxes are regressive; they shift the tax burden onto everyday purchases made by everyone, including renters who receive no benefit from the property tax reduction. We shouldn't be funding tax breaks for homeowners by making life more expensive for struggling families and renters. This bill is also unconstitutional because the Senate stripped a hemp bill in the Senate to make this property tax bill. All revenue bills must originate in the House. This one did not and so it is unconstitutional. I urge Governor Kemp to veto this bill.
SB 433: Protecting the Autism Community
This is a lifesaving piece of legislation that I was honored to support. It creates a specialized license plate to alert first responders that a driver or passenger may have autism or a developmental disability. More importantly, it mandates that all Georgia police officers receive training on how to safely interact with and de-escalate situations involving the neurodivergent community.
SB 444: Human Oversight for AI in Insurance
Technology should help us, not replace us, especially when it comes to healthcare. This bill allows insurance companies to use Artificial Intelligence to review claims, but we fought to ensure AI cannot be the only reason a claim is denied. A human medical professional must still have the final word on your health. There was a lot of hard work done on this bill in the Technology and Infrastructure Innovation Committee. I was proud to be part of that work and proud to vote yes.
Didn't pass both Chambers
HB 54: The Anti-Trans Overreach
What started as a helpful bill for nurses and physician assistants was hijacked by the Senate to launch a cruel attack on transgender Georgians. This legislation would now ban puberty blockers for children and strip medical coverage for gender-affirming care from the state health plan for children and adults. We believe the government should stay out of private medical decisions made between parents, children, and their doctors. I'm so glad to report that this bill never made its way back to the House for a vote.
HB 154: The Time Zone Distraction
We originally intended this bill to finally recognize our EMS workers as the "essential services" they truly are. Instead, the Senate replaced that language with a plan to move Georgia to the Atlantic Standard Time Zone to stop changing our clocks twice a year. While clock changes are annoying, we shouldn't have abandoned the support our first responders desperately need just to make a point about the time, and we should not change our time from coinciding with the entire eastern seaboard. This bill mercifully never came up for a vote in the House.
HB 295: Lawsuits Over Homelessness
This bill is a lawsuit-first approach to a crisis that needs a housing-first solution. It allows property owners to sue their local city or county government if they feel homelessness isn't being addressed quickly enough. Instead of providing resources for shelters or mental health, this bill will drain city budgets through legal fees and endless litigation. I voted no on this bill in the House and I'm so glad the Senate did not pass the final House version that was sent over on Sine Die.
Firearm Legislation
Many of you reached out to my office about a number of gun bills that were up for consideration this session. None of those firearm bills passed through both chambers, so we ended where we began on this topic.
Election Legislation
There were also many of you who reached out to my office about election bills being considered this session. No election legislation passed through both chambers. Just like the firearm legislation, we ended the session where we began on this issue. While I'm glad to report that no negative election bills passed, the Legislature needed to pass an election bill to stop using machine-only readable QR codes to count ballots in order to be compliant with a law passed in an earlier session. The House passed a bill to do so (SB 214), but the Senate failed to take it up. I see no way around the need to fix this issue than a special session. Stay tuned.
Epstein Amendment Work
You may have heard that the Georgia General Assembly was considering its own "Epstein Amendment" to make sure that state legislators involved in sexual harassment settlements could not hide those settlements from the public.
The Senate passed several bills with language to close this gap in our sunshine laws. However, every time a bill passed from the Senate to the House with this accountability language, it was taken out of the bill. This happened several times. When I asked a House presenter of one such bill why the language was taken out, I was met with non-answers. When I asked a Senate presenter in the Rules Committee why the language was taken out, he said he did not know, but that he supported keeping it in the bill (his bill). Watch my questioning below
Ultimately, the language did get inserted into a bill on the last day of the legislative session. It was attached to House Bill 1247 which passed. Watch my questioning below.
Legislative Page Highlight — Clinton Goode
I was privileged to have Clinton Goode with me as a page on Sine Die this last week. Clinton is officially a seasoned page, because this was his second Sine Die! Clinton is on his way to being an engineer. I can't wait to see where he goes to college and to watch him thrive!
Post Sine Die Legislative Town Hall — One week from today!
Make sure your calendars are marked for my joint townhall with State Senator Sonya Halpern. We will be giving a summary of what we saw under the Gold Dome this session. We will be holding this Town Hall next Tuesday, April 14th!
We also will be answering questions, so please come with a curious mind! RSVP is not necessary but encouraged so we can anticipate crowd size. RSVP to Elijah Johnson at elijah@staceyevans.com.
Additionally, I will be sending out a list of legislation that was considered this session for those who attend our Town Hall. There was a lot to be considered this year, so be on the lookout for that information!
In service,
Stacey Evans