Health-services jobs hit an all-time high in Georgia last month.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate held steady at 3.1% last month even as the state added 16,200 jobs, the Georgia Department of Labor reported Thursday.
The number of jobs reached more than 4.9 million in March, an all-time high.
Job sectors hitting record highs included private education and health services, with 674,900 jobs; leisure and hospitality, with 527,000 jobs; and financial activities, with 283,600 jobs. Construction employment reached 225,200 jobs, the highest in 17 years.
Jobs were down in the film industry, which lost 16,800 jobs between March of last year and last month. Other job sectors suffering losses included administrative and support services, down 12,100 jobs during the past year; and transportation and warehousing, which lost 8,700 jobs during the same period.
Georgia’s labor force hit an all-time high in March at more than 5.3 million, as did the number of employed Georgians, which reached nearly 5.2 million.
The number of unemployed declined slightly to 163,483 Georgians, the lowest since July 2022.
Initial unemployment claims also fell by 22% last month compared to March of last year, to 17,847.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp signed a package of tax cut bills Thursday that the General Assembly passed during the recently concluded legislative session.
“All of these bills will help keep money where it belongs – in the pockets of our hardworking families,” Kemp said during a ceremony in Augusta.
The highlight of the package is a measure that will accelerate a reduction in state income taxes that took effect in January. Under House Bill 1015, the tax rate will fall from 5.49% to 5.39%.
To match that, Kemp signed House Bill 1023, which will set Georgia’s corporate income tax rate at the same 5.39% applicable to individual income taxpayers.
House Bill 581 is aimed at limiting annual increases in local property taxes, subject to Georgia voters ratifying a separate constitutional amendment.
House Bill 1021 will increase the state’s child tax credit from $3,000 for each dependent child to $4,000.
Senate Bill 496 will extend the expiration dates of two state tax credits aimed at encouraging the rehabilitation of historic homes.
In an election year, all five bills received overwhelming support from the legislature’s Republican majorities as well as from most Democratic lawmakers.
ATLANTA – A third round of rural housing grants will invest more than $6.3 million in infrastructure improvements that will support more than 123 housing units in three Georgia communities.
Gov. Brian Kemp announced the state’s Rural Workforce Housing Initiative last year during his annual State of the State address. Since then, the General Assembly has allocated more than $85 million to the OneGeorgia Authority to support the program.
“We have already seen a great response to the Rural Workforce Housing program,” Kemp said Wednesday. “This latest round of grants will further strengthen communities experiencing incredible economic growth.”
The third round of grants includes $2.5 million to the city of Savannah for sewer system improvements needed to complete a 66-acre development that will provide 30 new single-family homes and 20 townhouses.
The city of Louisville will get $2.2 million for infrastructure projects necessary for a planned 18-acre subdivision consisting of 46 new homes and townhouses in two phases.
The city of Lyons was awarded a grant of more than $1.6 million for infrastructure improvements needed to complete a subdivision of 27 single-family homes on 14.5 acres.
Two previous rounds of rural housing grants awarded in January and last September provided more than $17 million to nine local government applicants across Georgia.
“With economic growth occurring in every part of the state, demand for workforce housing continues to grow,” said Christopher Nunn, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. “The OneGeorgia Authority is pleased to support these local communities that are pursuing deliberate workforce housing strategies.”
ATLANTA – Three Georgia district attorneys have filed a new lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of legislation creating an oversight board with the power to discipline and potentially remove prosecutors.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed a bill last year creating the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission (PAQC) to handle complaints against local prosecutors. The panel can remove district attorneys it deems guilty of a variety of offenses including mental or physical incapacity, willful misconduct or failure to perform the duties of the office, conviction of a crime of moral turpitude, or conduct that brings the office into disrepute.
The commission has been stalled since the state Supreme Court ruled last November that it does not have the authority to review the rules the commission adopts, as the 2023 bill had provided. GOP lawmakers responded during the recently concluded legislative session by passing a follow-up bill giving that authority to the commission itself, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed last month.
The suit alleges the legislation violates the constitutional separation of powers by giving the General Assembly authority over duly elected prosecutors and violates district attorneys’ free speech rights.
“Governor Kemp and the state lawmakers who supported this measure willfully ignored the concerns raised by the Georgia Supreme Court and did the absolute minimum to force the PAQC into existence,” said DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston, a Democrat and one of the prosecutors who filed the suit.
“We will continue to push back against this shameless attempt by state Republicans to control how local communities address their public safety needs and work to restore that power to Georgia voters.”
Besides Boston, the other district attorneys filing suit are Democrat Jared Williams of Augusta and Republican Jonathan Adams of the Towaliga Judicial Circuit in Butts, Lamar, and Monroe counties.
“The lawsuit marks a crucial step in fighting back against a growing national trend of states threatening the independence of local DAs,” said Josh Rosenthal, legal director of the Public Rights Project, a nonprofit representing the prosecutors in the suit. “Georgia communities elect DAs to pursue the solutions that will keep them safe and promote justice, and this new commission aims to take that power away.”
During the legislative debate over this year’s bill, Republican lawmakers argued a commission is needed to act as a check on what they called “rogue” DAs who refuse to prosecute certain cases.
ATLANTA – The Port of Brunswick enjoyed its busiest month ever in March, the Georgia Ports Authority reported Wednesday.
The Colonel’s Island Terminal at Brunswick handled 77,236 units of Roll-on/Roll-off cargo last month, including autos and heavy machinery, an increase of 21% over March of last year and a new record.
The port moved 628,937 units of Ro/Ro cargo during the first nine months of fiscal 2024, up 16% over the first three quarters of the last fiscal year. With a monthly average of 69,882 units, Georgia ports likely are headed for an all-time record by the end of the current fiscal year June 30.
“Import and export trade has increased as automakers expanded production,” said Griff Lynch, the ports authority’s executive director. “Colonel’s Island processors have captured additional market share in the South Atlantic region.”
Another factor just starting to show up in increased traffic at the Port of Brunswick is the impact of a container ship knocking down the Francis Scott Key Bridge at the Port of Baltimore late last month. Baltimore is the nation’s leading port for importing autos.
The ports authority is building additional infrastructure at Brunswick to accommodate the growth in autos and heavy machinery. A $262 million expansion due to be completed by late this summer will add 122 acres of Ro/Ro storage and 640,000 square feet of new processing space.
Also, a fourth Ro/Ro berth is being added to more efficiently handle vessels capable of carrying more than 7,000 vehicles.
University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue
ATLANTA – In-state undergraduates at Georgia’s public colleges and universities will be paying 2.5% more for tuition during the coming school year.
After keeping tuition flat at all but one of the University System of Georgia’s 26 institutions for six of the past eight years, the system’s Board of Trustees approved the tuition hike Tuesday. Out-of-state students will see a 5% increase, and a new third level of tuition for out-of-country students will be set at 2% above the out-of-state rate.
System Chancellor Sonny Perdue attributed the increase to inflation.
“Our institutions face increasing costs to operate, and we must sustain their momentum as some of the best in the nation at helping students succeed on campus and in the workforce,” he said.
Even with the tuition hike, Georgia offers the third-lowest average tuition and required fees among the 16 Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states, according to national data.
Middle Georgia State University, the only institution to raise tuition during the last academic year, will be finishing the last year in a three-year plan to align its undergraduate tuition with other system universities in the same academic sector.
The regents also adopted a new mandatory fee structure for the growing number of students taking classes fully online. Those students at 20 of the 26 institutions will be charged an online learning fee equivalent to their institution’s technology fee, as well as 50% of their institution’s mandatory fees.
In other business Tuesday, the board voted to extend the system’s temporary waiver of test score requirements. With state colleges already test optional, no test scores will be required for admission to 23 of the 26 institutions during the 2025-26 academic year.
The temporary waiver does not apply to the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, and Georgia College & State University.
Test scores will continue to be required to apply for Zell Miller scholarships, which go to students who earned at least a 3.7 grade-point average in high school.
The university system began waiving the test requirements in 2020 with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The waiver has been in effect for all but 10 months since then.
