ATLANTA (WSAV) — For the past 40-legislative days, state lawmakers have worked to push legislation across the finish line with the goal of ratifying a state budget and with public safety a key focus area.

“The fact that the governor has made it too is a bad idea especially with some people getting guns for no particular reason,” said State Rep. Roger Bruce (D-South Fulton County). 

State Rep. Mark Newton (R-Augusta) explained, “I am looking forward to giving the tools to the Department of Corrections so people are not running a gang from a Georgia prison with a cell phone.”

One bill that’s cleared is Senate Bill 62 which will require local governments to enforce bans on public sleeping to curb homelessness. 

State Sen. Harold Jones says everything is interconnected. 

“We start talking about the poverty issue, education issue all of those things are connected,” Jones said. “I think we have to address mental health, drug abuse or lack of opportunities that causes homelessness and it’s not just one size fits all.”

Another bill that heads to Governor Kemp’s desk includes Senate Bill 92 which would create a commission to remove or punish prosecutors who fail to uphold the law.  

State Sen. Jesse Petrea said, “Unfortunately we have a lot of DA’s across the state who ran on a political platform that were soft on crime that’s having a direct correlation on crime in our communities.”

State lawmakers say this session focused on a slew of issues from electric vehicle rollout, school safety improvements, gender affirmation care, antisemitism, truck weight limits and tougher gang penalties.