u/GwinnettDemocrats

As someone who has never voted, and will be doing so for the first time. I'm curious about these proposed constitutional amendments. And I'm curious about the general opinions about them. I would like to make an informed, and good choice. The third option about the next generation 911 service seems to be an obvious yes. But the other two I don't know anything about.

1

Increases the maximum qualifying acreage for assessment and taxation as bona fide conservation use property.

House Resolution 32

Ga. L. 2025, p. 1081

 “Shall the Constitution of Georgia, for the purpose of protecting family farmland, be amended so as to increase the maximum acreage to qualify for assessment and taxation as a bona fide conservation use property from 2,000 acres to 4,000 acres?"

2

Provides for the nonpartisan election of all probate court judges.

House Resolution 251

Ga. L. 2026, p. 1110

“Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to require that all probate court judges be elected in nonpartisan elections?"

3

Authorizes creation of Georgia Next Generation 9-1-1 Fund for 9-1-1 systems expansion, maintenance, and operation.

House Resolution 1243

Ga. L. 2026, p. 1109

“Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to authorize the General Assembly to dedicate certain existing revenues, including revenues reallocated by law, to a nonlapsing fund to be used exclusively for the expansion, maintenance, and operation of emergency 9-1-1 systems in this state?"

I just wanted to make a quick reminder that there's a range of opinions in this subreddit. It is intended to be a left-leaning subreddit where people can post their opinions and they don't necessarily reflect the opinion or position of the official Gwinnett Democratic party.

I'm also just one person so if you see something sketchy hit the report button and I'll take a look at it.

TLDR: Gwinnett parents pay more for daycare than college tuition while the state government of Georgia hoards over fourteen billion dollars in a surplus vault. We are getting squeezed by corporate daycare monopolies while the state refuses to fund childcare relief for working families.

​Gwinnett parents do not need to be told how brutal the childcare crisis is. If you have a toddler in Suwanee or a baby in Lawrenceville, you are probably paying over ten thousand dollars a year just for basic daycare. For many families, that is literally more than in state college tuition. It is a massive, crushing tax on working parents.

​You are forced to pay it because you have to work, but it feels like you are working just to pay the daycare. Meanwhile, the actual workers at these centers are getting paid poverty wages while giant corporate daycare chains rake in record breaking payouts.

​It is an absolute nightmare, and it is a direct policy choice.

​Right now, the state of Georgia is sitting on a historic, mind blowing fourteen billion dollar budget surplus. More than nine billion of that is completely unallocated, undesignated money just sitting in a state vault. That is our tax money. It is money collected from our paychecks and our local Gwinnett businesses.

​But instead of using that massive pile of cash to help working families, the state government of Georgia actively chooses to hoard it.

​They flat fund critical programs like the Childcare and Parent Services subsidy, which only helps a tiny fraction of the families who actually qualify for it. They refuse to invest in early childhood education or cap costs for middle class parents.

​The state government of Georgia loves to brag about having a massive rainy day fund. But for a young family in Gwinnett trying to survive in this economy, it is already pouring.

​Hoarding fourteen billion dollars of public money while local families go into debt just to keep their toddlers safe is not good financial management. It is a total betrayal of the working class. It is a choice to let corporate daycare chains squeeze every last dime out of young parents while the state sits on a mountain of gold.

​We do not need a state government that treats our tax dollars like a high score in a video game. We need to elect leaders who will release those surplus funds to cap daycare costs, raise wages for childcare workers, and give working parents some actual breathing room.

​How much are you currently paying for childcare in Gwinnett, and what could your family actually do with that money if the state government of Georgia used its massive surplus to cap daycare cos

ts?

TLDR: If your boss steals your wages in Gwinnett, the state government of Georgia will not help you. They purposefully keep our state labor department toothless to protect corporate profit margins, leaving underpaid workers to pay for private lawyers just to get their own paychecks.

​Most of us in Gwinnett assume that there are basic safety nets when you work a hard job. If you spend forty hours a week busting your tail at a warehouse in Buford or a retail shop in Lawrenceville, you expect to get paid for every single minute of that labor. That is just common sense.

​But what happens if your boss decides to short your paycheck? What happens when they make you clock out but force you to keep folding clothes or cleaning the kitchen? What happens when they conveniently forget to pay your overtime?

​If you think you can just call the Georgia Department of Labor and get it sorted out, you are in for a massive shock.

​The state of Georgia does not actually investigate wage theft. They do not have state wage inspectors. They do not have a dedicated department to make sure bosses are actually paying workers their legal wages.

​If you go to the official state government website, they will tell you exactly how little they care. The state government of Georgia explicitly advises underpaid workers to either hire a private lawyer and sue their employer in local small claims court, or file a complaint with the federal government in Washington and wait years for help.

​This is not an accident. The state government of Georgia purposefully keeps our state labor department toothless and underfunded.

​It is a massive, quiet handout to the shareholder class and out of state corporate chains. These corporate executives know that a working class guy who is living paycheck to paycheck cannot afford to hire a lawyer over a shorted five hundred dollar check. They know the federal government is understaffed and backlogged. By refusing to enforce basic wage laws at the state level, the state government of Georgia has effectively legalized wage theft for greedy employers.

​This is a policy choice. In other states, if a corporate boss steals your wages, a state investigator steps in, audits the company, and forces them to pay you back with penalties. But the state government of Georgia has rigged the system so that the burden of enforcing the law falls entirely on the worker who just got robbed.

​We deserve a state government that actually stands up for working families instead of protecting corporate profit margins by looking the other way.

You do not have to choose between protecting your family and protecting the Second Amendment. Most of us in Gwinnett who own guns (including me) are incredibly responsible people. We teach our kids respect for firearms, we buy heavy duty gun safes, and we do not leave loaded weapons lying around on the kitchen counter. We do these things because we are part of a community.

So it is incredibly frustrating when the state government actively blocks us from being responsible.

A perfect example of this is House Bill 79, which was previously introduced as House Bill 971. This was a brilliantly simple piece of legislation. It would have given Georgia gun owners a state income tax credit of up to three hundred dollars to buy a gun safe, trigger locks, or to take a two hour gun safety training course.

It was a common sense incentive. No mandates, no registries, just a direct financial reward for being a responsible neighbor. Gwinnett Democrats joined with the vast majority of Republicans in the House to pass it in a massive landslide. The vote was 165 to 8.

But when it reached the state Senate, the bill was quietly tabled and left to die.

Why would the politicians kill a bill that encourages gun safety without restricting anyone's rights? Because the corporate gun lobby hates the words safe and storage. To those out of state lobbyists, encouraging you to lock up your guns implies that leaving them unsecured might be a problem, and they refuse to allow anything that might slow down their quarterly sales margins. They care about moving as much product as possible, even if it means keeping families in the dark.

Instead of helping you buy a gun safe, look at what the state Senate actually spent their time passing. They fast tracked Senate Bill 204, which legally bans local Georgia cities from requiring gun owners to lock up their firearms in unattended cars. They literally tried to make it illegal for a city to penalize someone for leaving a loaded gun sitting in an unlocked glove box, even though stolen car guns are the primary source of illegal weapons flowing into our local high schools. Even Governor Kemp thought they went too far and ended up vetoing it.

We do not want to take away your firearms. We want to stop state politicians from playing games with our kids' safety just to keep big corporate lobbyists happy. If we want common sense laws that reward responsibility instead of coddling negligence, we have to change who is running the Senate.

Would a three hundred dollar tax credit for a gun safe or a safety class have been useful for your household, and why do you think the politicians in Georgia are so terrified of supporting responsible gun storage?

If you work fifty hours a week at a warehouse in Buford or a store in Lawrenceville and your rent takes up half your check, you already know the truth.

​The majority party politicians love to brag that Georgia is the number one state for business. But they are hiding the quiet part. Good for business just means cheap for corporate bosses. The billionaire class built that slogan on the backs your lower wages.

​It is a rigged game by design. Under Georgia state law section 34 4 3 1, our local Gwinnett County commissioners are completely banned from raising our local minimum wage. The state majority party explicitly passed this law to stop our community from helping our own neighbors. They legally locked your wages down to guarantee massive profit margins for out of state tech billionaires.

​While wealthy investors collect record breaking payouts, you get stuck trying to survive an economy where basic necessities cost a fortune. We do not need a state government that treats Gwinnett like a bargain bin for cheap labor.

​What does being the top state for business actually mean for your bank account? How has it affected you personally?