InsiderAdvantage has learned that any version of the so-called “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” introduced last year by several legislators including Sen. Josh McKoon of Columbus, will be deep sixed by the leadership of the House and Senate in the upcoming legislative session.
One longtime insider described the legislation as “the Cobb Commission anti-gay resolution on steroids” in a reference to the resolution which led to Cobb County losing its role in the 1996 Centennial Olympics. Top leaders from both the legislature and governor’s office have reportedly assured business leaders that any bill this year will receive “a pretty chilly and very rapid dispensation.”
McKoon has earned a reputation as a firebrand legislator who is willing to take on powerful legislators over issues he deems important. But, according to a high placed source, any legislation he introduces on the matter for 2015 will “either have to have no bark and no bite or won’t see the light of day.”
As an underlying issue, observers are questioning whether the Metro Atlanta Chamber and Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s strong early opposition to any form of McKoon’s bill, coupled with reported support for some form of tax hike to fund transportation in Georgia, will create a reprisal of past “conservative caucuses” such as have emerged within the GOP House and Senate in prior years.
“I guess if the Tea Party and the Christian conservatives were to form some coalition over the two issues, it could conceivably create some division within the GOP” said former state lawmaker and InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery. “But,” he added, “I experienced the Cobb resolution and its ramifications first hand as Newt’s (then-Speaker Newt Gingrich) Chair and as a Cobb legislator. We as a county lost a great deal and gained nothing in return. And it really politically damaged the commissioner credited with its introduction.”
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