The 2025 legislative session ended in controversy with the Senate’s unexpected early adjournment. Despite Friday’s strange anticlimax, the session yielded important policy changes in several key areas. With Sine Die in the rearview mirror, now is a good time to unpack what happened—and what didn’t—under the Gold Dome over the past three months.
Tort Reform
The central issue of this year’s session was tort reform. Curbing lawsuit abuse was Gov. Brian Kemp’s top priority, and he scored a significant political victory with the passage of Senate Bills 68 and 69.
Georgia has ranked among the worst states for lawsuit abuse. High-profile “nuclear” verdicts, frivolous lawsuits and unfair practices have harmed the state’s economy and small businesses. The impact of excessive tort costs amounts to an estimated $1,400 “tort tax” paid by Georgia residents each year. These costs manifest in higher healthcare prices and increased liability insurance for businesses ranging from restaurants to grocery stores.
Senate Bill 68 is an omnibus reform package. It limits premises liability, requiring plaintiffs to show that a property owner failed to address reasonably foreseeable security risks. The bill eliminates “phantom damages” by requiring damages be based on actual paid medical expenses, rather than inflated billed amounts. It also allows for bifurcated trials, so juries decide liability and damages separately.
Senate Bill 69 targets the growing practice of third-party litigation funding. It prohibits funding from hostile foreign entities, requires funders to register with the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance and increases transparency to protect clients from predatory lending practices.
Gov. Kemp invested significant political capital into passing these bills, even threatening to call a special session if the measures failed. Ultimately, SB 68 passed the House with exactly 91 votes—the minimum needed—including three Democrats, while seven Republicans opposed it.
Education
Following last year’s enactment of the Promise Scholarship Act, the focus turned to how the legislature would support and expand educational access. There was a near-miss when the House’s proposed FY 2026 budget removed nearly $100 million in Promise Scholarship funding. The Senate’s version restored the money, avoiding a rollback of the program.
The legislature also passed Senate Bill 82, aimed at incentivizing local districts to approve charter schools. While charter schools can be authorized by the state or local districts, only one locally approved charter has been created in Georgia in the past five years—despite over 20,000 students on waitlists. The state process is slower and more expensive.
SB 82 offers $250,000 annually for three years to local districts that approve charter schools. It also disallows waiver renewals for districts that repeatedly deny qualified charters later approved by the state.
School safety was another education priority. House Bill 268, introduced after the Apalachee High School shooting, creates a statewide alert system to track students who threaten or commit violent acts. An earlier version proposed using data from juvenile courts and welfare agencies, but this was removed over privacy concerns.
Two additional school safety bills focused on speed cameras in school zones. One sought to regulate their use; the other aimed to ban them outright. Both passed the House but stalled in the Senate due to the chamber’s early adjournment.
Taxes
As always, tax policy featured prominently. House Bill 111 reduces Georgia’s income tax rate from 5.39% to 5.19%, continuing a multi-year tax reform effort that began in 2022. House Bill 112 authorizes a one-time rebate of up to $500, providing immediate relief to taxpayers.
Lawmakers also addressed rising property tax burdens. In 2024, Georgia voters approved a statewide floating homestead exemption, capping annual increases in home value assessments. Some local governments opted out of the exemption, citing revenue concerns. House Bill 92 extends the deadline for opting out and allows jurisdictions to opt back in, balancing taxpayer relief with local needs.
Missed Opportunities
The House failed to pass legislation that would have addressed Georgia’s growing regulatory code and required more transparency and accountability for the state’s bureaucracy when enacting regulations that burden Georgia’s small businesses. Georgia’s regulatory code has expanded over time, often without proper oversight. The result is a maze of rules that impose hidden costs on entrepreneurs and job creators. Efforts to streamline these processes didn’t make it across the finish line—an unfortunate outcome given how burdensome red tape remains.
In healthcare, the General Assembly again failed to address Georgia’s physician shortage. A bill to allow more foreign-trained doctors to practice in Georgia stalled, just as it did last year. With rural areas especially underserved, this was a missed opportunity to expand access without increasing costs. The inability to pass such a practical measure is one of the more disappointing outcomes from this session.
Looking Ahead
The 2025 session saw lawmakers navigate through difficult issues and deliver some encouraging results. On tort reform especially, lawmakers delivered results, but the abrupt Senate adjournment and the failure to advance needed reforms in healthcare and regulation were disappointing results.
