The State of Georgia’s Constitution has 11 articles, including the preamble.
Article III of the Constitution describes the legislative branch while Article V and VI discuss the executive branch and judiciary respectively. Just as with the U.S. Constitution, the legislative branch is the first noted branch of government for Georgia. Yet, Georgia’s legislative branch is less than part-time structures of government while the executive branch and judiciary are full-time.
How can the branch of government that makes law be in session for “a period of no longer than 40 days”? How can Georgia have effective, meaningful legislation to ensure thoughtful policy if legislators are in session for 11% of the calendar year? Simply, Georgia cannot.
How can citizens understand what is happening in the legislative session if critical items are crammed into what amounts to less than a month and a half? What information is missing? What information is glossed over? Simply, lots of information is missing and glossed over.
Georgia is one of 26 states that have a legislature that is not fully staffed for all legislators and the effective time spent in session to make law is less than a quarter of the calendar year.
At one point in history, it might have made sense to have such a short legislative session when voting and the unspoken qualifications for office were limited, yet as we have moved forward in time, it is curious that Georgia remains holding on to the limitations of the past.
Even though the legislative session is combined into two-year blocks, the rush to compress important legislation, impacting people’s lives and finances, into a short window does a disservice to the citizens and legislators.
In the legislative block for 2025-2026, 5,656 bills were introduced in the House and Senate in the regular session as well as in the special session in 2026. Of these 5,656 bills introduced, 1,218 bills had a recorded vote and 724 bills were signed into law.
Let us imagine having to read, understand and make an informed decision on 5,656 bills in less than 100 days. Realistically, how many of these bills are read by the legislators? How many of these bills are passed based on a summary or on a party-line vote without much discussion or consideration of the bill?
How appropriate is it for lawmakers to rush into making critical decisions about the considerations of our state in such a manner? Perhaps some of the bills were introduced as amendments or ‘fixes’ to previous bills that were incomplete or lacked considerations that only became clear after additional discussion or implementation of a bill.
After understanding, or trying to understand, how so many pieces of legislation are passed through the legislature, there is also the actual and invisible cost to legislators.
While legislators have a constitutional responsibility for making law for the entire state of Georgia, legislators make about one-tenth of the salary of the mayor of Atlanta — that is, the people who make law for the entire state makes 10 times less than the mayor of Atlanta.
If the legislator is a single person in the household, that person makes a few thousand dollars too much to qualify for social welfare. And if the legislator has two people in the household, the legislator can qualify for social welfare based on income, yet will be disqualified for not having a job outside of being in session to meet the work requirement. In essence, we are asking people to be public servants, to consider the needs of the entire state and govern for the same money people who qualify for a salary near the poverty line.
One argument against having a full-time, fully paid state legislature, which includes full-time, fully-paid staff, is that state legislators should be citizen legislators. This argument includes people noting our state legislature should not be full time so that Georgia’s General Assembly is not filled with full-time “politicians.” This argument appears nonsensical since all other Constitutional positions in Georgia are full time. This argument is also unreasonable considering the nature of the legislature, to make law, to only be in legislative session 11% of the calendar year making long-term, impactful law for the state.
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Further, how can “citizen” be the adjective for the state legislature when there are certain groups of people who can afford to miss their employment for about 100 days a year, at minimum January through April? The people who are able to have such a privileged position are people who are retired or usually self-employed. Of course, there may be exceptions, yet those exceptions are far from the norm. This appears to be a selective legislature, rather than a citizen legislature because we should consider who can afford to live on the salary provided to the members.
State legislators also do not have full-time staff to help with public facing efforts, for example constituent services, to ensure their constituents are aware of their legislator as well as voters are able to communicate timely with their elected official. Again, other elected officers across the state have such a full-time staff member or members, why not our state legislator?
Perhaps it is time. Perhaps it is time to change the Georgia Constitution to allow for the state to be a full-time legislature so that our state legislators can be thoughtful and more deliberate about contemplating the laws that will govern our state. We all deserve more than a part-time legislature that rushes through thousands of bills in a short period of time with little to no full-time staff and expected to do all this on little pay.
Georgia is facing expanding complex societal matters from an increase in diverse industries bringing jobs and opportunities to the state, economic challenges, environmental concerns, continued increase in population, healthcare concerns and new technology. With these challenges, it is curious that we continue to be move along using the same method of the past to guide and govern the Georgia of today and tomorrow.
Tammy R. Greer has a PhD in Political Science and teaches public policy.
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