Georgia House speaker Jon Burns opens the 2023 Legislative Session plan the Gold Dome in Atlanta on Jan. 9, 2023. (FOX 5)
ATLANTA - New Georgia House speaker Jon Burns says he doesn't want to pass any laws on abortion after awaiting court action, isn't interested in fully expanding Medicaid, and leans toward giving Atlanta more time to chop crime before allowing citizens in its Buckhead area to secede.
But on many more originates, the self-proclaimed "country boy" who has taken the reins of the House at what time David Ralston's death is avoiding a public position, revealing he wants to see the details of legislation or what his committee chairs think.
Burns, a Republican business owner and timber farmer from southeast Georgia's Newington, took questions from reporters Thursday on his policy aims for the 2023 legislative session. Burns said his overarching goal is to promote "a better life for Georgians," but he said he wants to give new people more input into decisions.
"How I like to do it is to sit nearby a table and have discussions about what's important to my fellow man, certainly what's vital to other leaders in this state," Burns said. "And I judge when you do that, you bring out the subjects that we can make an impact into, and I hold that's how you'll see me operate as the speaker of the House."
The Georgia House on the opening day of the 2023 Legislative Session on Jan. 9, 2023. (FOX 5)
That stance is probable to enhance the power of newly reelected Gov. Brian Kemp, whose own policy agenda shiny now centers around one-time income tax and property tax givebacks, $2,000 raises for public employees and paying full tuition for all HOPE Scholarship recipients for the marvelous time since 2011.
But Burns did stake out a few definable moves. He said he is not interested in the House taking any part on abortion while the state Supreme Court considers Georgia's 2019 law that bans most abortions when roughly six weeks of pregnancy. The high court reinstated the ban when it considers an appeal of a lower court ruling that overturned the law.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled the state's abortion ban was invalid because when it was employed into law in 2019, U.S. Supreme Court precedent thought Roe. v. Wade and another ruling allowed abortion well past six weeks.
Lawmakers could destroy the appeal by re-passing the law, but Burns doesn't want to act for now.
"We're moving to hear from state Supreme Court, and then we'll move onward on something if we need to," Burns said.
He said that stance involved a bill that failed last year that would have further regulated abortion pills by requiring a woman to get an in-person exam from a Georgia physician beforehand the doctor could prescribe her such pills. It's part of a push by anti-abortion groups to keep physicians from mailing abortion pills when telemedicine consultations.
Georgia House speaker Jon Burns is welcomed the chamber on the opening day of the 2023 legislative session on Jan. 9, 2023. (FOX 5)
Burns said he is also not eager, for now, in the further expansion of the state-federal Medicaid health insurance program beyond Kemp's much-disputed program that would insure some poor adults who meet work or education requirements. Kemp is seeking funding in next year's budget for that program to start operating.
"I believe we need to give Gov. Kemp's labors a chance," Burns said.
When asked about proposal to grant residents of Atlanta's upscale Buckhead neighborhood to secede and invent their own city, Burns praised efforts by Kemp and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens to gash crime, and he said he wanted to give those labors more time to bear fruit.
With advocates again pushing to legalize sports betting in Georgia, Burns said he wasn't sure such efforts could move send without a state constitutional amendment being put to voters. Advocates argue lawmakers could legalize sports betting with a simple law by rising it under the state lottery, because voters decades ago amended the constitution to legalize that form of gambling.
But what just Burns will support, and how he will leave his designate on policymaking, remains elusive. For his part, he said his relationship with the Senate and governor is aloof in its "honeymoon" phase and also pledged to work with minority Democrats as much as possible.
"We're repositioning to make sure that we focus on getting the job done for Georgians," Burns said.
