ATLANTA – Lawmakers have approved a plan to increase penalties for those who vandalize a monument and to further limit where local officials can move a monument, requiring them to be moved to a place of similar visibility.

The controversial proposal, which has now made it through both chambers, follows years of national debate of what to do with embattled Confederate statues located in public places.

In the measure, offenders would have to pay triple damages for vandalizing or destroying a monument, which covers plaques, statues, markers, flags and other tributes.

Proponents of the bill have pitched it as a protection for all monuments – not just the ones honoring those who fought for the Confederacy.

“History is what history is,” said Rep. Alan Powell, a Republican from Hartwell who carried the bill in the House. “And if you’re not willing to protect somebody else’s views and to protect history, then how can you expect in the future that they’re going to honor the same for you.” 

Powell argued it had become “chic” to destroy monuments. He cited a few examples, including the Peace Monument in Piedmont Park in Atlanta and a marker at Michelle Obama’s ancestral home south of Atlanta.

“Let’s preserve our history,” said the sponsor, Sen. Jeff Mullis, a Republican from Chickamauga. “Good, bad or indifferent, it has made us who we are in this state and this great country.”

Mullis argued the better solution is to add new monuments, even though he said there is no guarantee that those won’t be considered offensive one day too. He noted lawmakers recently erected a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. on the lawn of the state Capitol and that another one was in the works for the late Gov. Zell Miller.

The measure ran into staunch opposition from Democrats. 

“(This bill) is disguised as the bill to protect all historical monuments in Georgia, but it is not lost on anyone that its purpose is to silence the debate surrounding the morality of Confederate monuments in public spaces,” said Rep. Angelika Kausche, a Democrat from Johns Creek and someone who grew up in Germany as it grappled with its past.

Critics also panned a provision that further strips local communities from having leeway to decide what to do with their Confederate monuments. State law already bars them relocating or concealing them. This measure goes further to clarify that if a monument is moved because of construction, it must be returned to a place of equal prominence. It specifically rules out moving a monument to a museum or cemetery. 

Democrats also questioned the increased penalties, which would require vandals to pay three times the value of or cost to repair a monument. 

“Don’t let this General Assembly send the message today that we care more about statues than people,” House Minority Leader Bob Trammell said.

The measure passed the House Thursday with a 100-to-71 vote that fell along party lines. It received a final vote Friday in the Senate and now heads for the governor’s desk.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites.