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Senate committee advances bill to double death indemnity for public school employees to $150,000
Summary
A Senate committee advanced House Bill 105, which would raise the Georgia public school employee death indemnity from $75,000 to $150,000 and use existing indemnification trust funds to pay claims, committee members heard.
A Georgia Senate committee on an unspecified date considered House Bill 105, a measure to raise the death indemnity paid to families of public school employees killed in the line of duty from $75,000 to $150,000.
The bill’s sponsor on behalf of Gov. Brian Kemp, Senator Bo Hatchett, told the committee the change updates a benefit that “has remained at $75,000 since 02/2001.” He said, “What this bill does is it raises the indemnification for a public school employee from 75,000 to 150,000, in the case of their death.”
The change would be paid from the Georgia State Indemnification Fund program, which Hatchett described as a trust. He told the committee the fund “has roughly 3,434,000 as we sit right now,” and later summarized that the increase “will not require any additional funding.” A committee member asked whether the payment would require an appropriation; Hatchettanswered that it would be paid from the trust and would not require extra appropriations.
Hatchett said the bill was brought after high-profile recent school tragedies. He cited the shooting at Apalachee as a factor that “brought this to our attention,” saying those events made the change necessary.
Robert Aycock, who identified himself as with the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, which he said represents about 93,000 public school educators, urged support for the bill and said he hoped the benefit would never need to be used.
Committee members raised questions about who would be eligible; Hatchett clarified the benefit would cover any public school employee who died in the line of duty, including paraprofessionals and custodial staff. A committee member asked whether the benefit might be tied to inflation; Hatchett said that idea had not been advanced for this bill but could be considered later.
Senator Halpern moved favorable consideration; Senator Parent seconded. The committee approved the bill by voice/hand raise.
The measure was reported favorably to the next stage of consideration.
