ATLANTA — In an exclusive interview with Channel 2′s Richard Elliott, Gov. Brian Kemp talked about the bills he’s signed into law, including some controversial ones.
“We fulfilled our priorities once again,” Kemp said.
The governor crisscrossed the state, signing everything from a bill requiring Georgia schools to conduct active shooter drills, to one forcing local municipalities to enforce their own ordinances on the homeless.
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Kemp said the $32 billion budget fully funds K-12 education.
“(We) did what we told people we were going to do on the campaign trail. So we did teacher pay raises, law enforcement pay raises, again, with the amended budget, we gave billions of dollars back to the taxpayers,” Kemp said.
He also talked about the bill that makes recruiting children into street gangs a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Other than banning outside money for local elections offices, perhaps the most controversial bill he signed is the one creating a prosecutorial oversight commission.
It’s a commission that oversees district attorneys and other prosecutors across Georgia.
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Many critics believe the bill was designed to target Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis for her investigation of former president Donald Trump and others.
Kemp said that’s not the case.
Instead, he insists the commission will go after prosecutors it believes are not prosecuting certain crimes either on purpose or through incompetence.
“People are just fed up. People are fed up of local prosecutors who are not doing their job,” Kemp said. “They’re not fulfilling their duties and their oaths under the law and prosecuting crimes that are on our books.”
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Prosecutors, including Willis, dispute that.
Willis herself testified against the bill while it was still in committee.
Her office had no comment on the bill signing Wednesday.
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