• Among the successes of the 2018 General Assembly, one that touches every Georgian is the passage of legislation cutting state personal and corporate income tax rates from 6% to 5.75% in 2019 and 5.5% in 2020. This is a $5 billion tax cut over five years, the first state income tax reduction since it was implemented in 1934.

• We gave final passage to the Fiscal Year 2019 (FY 2019) budget. Among many, many important budgetary appropriations, the final FY 2019 budget includes an additional $166.7 million for local school systems and $16 million for school security. These additional education dollars fully fund Georgia’s Quality Basic Education formula (QBE) for the first time ever.

• I am very happy to report that we passed SR 426 that places a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to provide victims explicit rights in Georgia’s Constitution. We passed SB 127, enabling legislation for SR 426, that provides a process for victims to be heard by the court when the victim’s constitutional rights to participation and information have been denied. I was the author and sponsor of the "Victims' Bill of Rights" a few years ago, and I look forward to, with the passage of the constitutional amendment in November, enshrining the rights of victims of crime into our state constitution.

• A conference committee report on SB 402 was approved. This legislation means to provide more extensive broadband deployment throughout the state. There remains much work to be done on rural broadband. I am happy that it contains two major provisions listed below from legislation I have authored and sponsored:

1. A comprehensive report on the deployment and availability of broadband throughout the state with recommendations for future legislation will be performed by the Georgia Technology Authority and provided to the Governor and the General Assembly.
2. It sets in place a mechanism for local governments to attain "Broadband Ready Community" status by removing impediments often put in place by local governments to the provisioning of broadband.