The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Voters will choose whether to pay indicted officials
It’s now up to Georgia voters to decide whether to pay state officials who have been suspended from their jobs while facing felony charges.
The question will appear on the 2022 ballot after the Georgia House gave final approval to Senate Resolution 134. The Senate backed the resolution earlier this month.
The legislative votes came nearly two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars after Georgia Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck was charged with fraud and suspended by Gov. Brian Kemp.
Beck was indicted in May 2019, a few months after taking office, on charges alleging that he swindled his former employer out of $2 million, in part to fund his campaign for office. He has denied the charges and awaits trial.
SR 134 was proposed a few weeks after The Atlanta Journal-constitution reported that by June 30, the state will have paid about $400,000 in salary and benefits to Beck.
That doesn’t include salary and benefits to John King, Kemp’s choice to do Beck’s job while he is under suspension.
During what amounted to debate on SR 134 — the House approved it on a vote of 169-0 — state Rep. Matthew Wilson, D-brookhaven, said Beck “is about to go a whole term without doing a job Georgians put their trust in him to do, but the taxpayers have been on the hook for his salary, health care and benefits the whole time.”
“If you can’t do the job, you shouldn’t get paid for it. I think he should have resigned,” Wilson said. “But since no one can be compelled to that end, we’ve got to make it so public corruption doesn’t get so comfortable you can just hang around picking up a paycheck until the clock runs out.”
While the legislation is all about Beck, it also has nothing to do with him.
SR 134 would apply to state officials who are indicted on charges related to their performance in office, while the allegations against Beck involve activity that took place before he became the insurance commissioner. Plus, the law would apply to future cases.
Under SR 134, indicted officials who are exonerated would return to their jobs and receive back pay.