U.S. Sen. David Perdue speaks at the State Capitol after qualifying for the 2020 election on March 2, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA — U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., has restructured his retirement savings to eliminate individual stock trades.
In a financial disclosure statement filed last month, Perdue reported that he and his wife, Bonnie, sold shares in dozens of companies and bought shares in exchange-traded funds. The couple already was invested in mutual funds and bonds.
Perdue’s announcement came one month after Georgia’s other senator, fellow Republican Kelly Loeffler, announced in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that she is liquidating her family’s holdings in stocks in individual companies and moving those investments into exchange-traded funds and mutual funds.
Loeffler – and, to a lesser extent, Perdue – had been caught up in media reports that they sold a large number of stock shares following a briefing by health officials about the coronavirus pandemic.
Perdue spokeswoman Cherie Gillan pointed out that he did not attend that briefing and said he has never shared or acted on any “nonpublic” information. She also noted there was no major selloff since more purchases were made at that time, reinforcing did not profit from the COVID-19 crisis.
In a statement issued late last week, Perdue said he and his wife have retained independent advisors including Goldman Sachs and fund managers to handle most of their stock investments since 2005, almost a decade before he was elected to the Senate.
“Goldman Sachs or these independent fund managers bought and sold individual stocks without consulting with us,” he said.
Perdue said the couple continues to own three specific stocks he earned as compensation for serving on corporate boards before entering the Senate.
“Right now, I remain focused on helping Georgians recover from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and getting America back to work,” the senator said.
“This was a personal decision Senator Perdue and his wife made to avoid any confusion about their retirement savings,” Gillan added. “They did so voluntarily.”
ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers due to reconvene the 2020 legislative session next month face a daunting task: plugging a projected budget shortfall of $3 billion to $4 billion inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s a different world than it was three or four months ago,” said state Rep. Terry England, R-Auburn, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. “Nothing’s going to be easy.”
England’s committee and its Georgia Senate counterpart began meeting online this week to start looking for ways to meet a target of 14% across-the-board state agency spending cuts, which the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget ordered up May 1 in a joint memo also signed by England and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia.
In deciding on that percentage, lawmakers and state officials looked at several studies but particularly at a report released last month by Moody’s Analytics, which predicted Georgia’s revenue shortfall could range between roughly 12% to 15% depending on the severity of the economic downturn.
During a meeting Thursday, legislative budget writers got their first look at just how much Georgia’s economy is reeling. They were greeted with the dismal news that state tax revenues fell by more than $1 billion last month compared to April of last year.
With those numbers actually reflecting taxes collected in March, when the pandemic was just starting to affect Georgia, lawmakers were told worse is yet to come.
The only silver lining in the scenario is that the $27.5 billion fiscal 2020 mid-year budget adjustment the General Assembly adopted in March already incorporates 4% spending reductions Gov. Brian Kemp ordered for state agencies last summer, when revenues were showing slow growth for reasons other than COVID-19.
Still, lawmakers returning from a nearly two-month break brought on by the pandemic will have to find about $1 billion to address the looming shortfall in tax revenues through June 30.
England said he expects much of that money will come by drawing down the state’s reserves, now a healthy $2.8 billion.
Saving for a rainy day
In fact, Georgia is among several states that likely has enough in its “rainy day” reserve fund to keep the budget afloat along with “relatively limited amounts of spending cuts or revenue increases,” the Moody’s report notes.
But state lawmakers may not dip too deep into the reserve fund again this year after already approving Kemp’s request in March to pull $100 million from the fund for the coronavirus response.
Tillery said he expects lawmakers may look at using some reserves to plug shortfalls for the current fiscal year, which runs through June. But beyond that is up in the air.
“It’s going to be difficult,” Tillery said. “We’ll have to make hard decisions and sometimes deadlines are quite the catalyst for hard decisions.”
There is precedent, however, for significantly raiding Georgia’s reserves in times of economic downturn. The rainy-day fund was shrunk to just $116 million to make up for losses of tax revenue during the Great Recession a decade ago and to less than that during a recession that hit the state in the early 2000s.
“In a perfect world, you don’t go that deep,” England said. “[But] at this point, you’ve got to go with the hand you’re dealt.”
England pointed out that Georgia never lost its AAA credit rating from Moody’s and other bonding agencies despite thinning out the reserves, a practice the bond market tends to look upon unfavorably.
Hoping for help
After addressing the mid-year fiscal 2020 shortfall, lawmakers will have to deal with the heavy lifting of the fiscal 2021 budget, which takes effect July 1.
While some of the spending reductions will come through such obvious steps as freezing vacant positions and furloughing employees, budget writers will have to get creative to achieve the deep cuts necessary to fill the huge shortfall.
England said one possibility that has emerged from the pandemic is letting some state employees keep working from home and save costs on office space after the all-clear is given to return to work.
“This teleworking thing has worked out pretty good,” he said. “Productivity is actually up in some areas and folks are happier because they’re not having to drive an hour to work.”
But no matter how innovative lawmakers approach cutting the budget, spending reductions alone won’t get the job done. England and Tillery conceded as much this week when they sent a letter asking members of Georgia’s congressional delegation to release $500 billion to help Georgia and other states prop up their coronavirus-ravaged budgets.
Georgia already is set to benefit from billions of dollars in federal relief, part of a $150 billion package for state and local governments inside a $2.2 trillion economic-stimulus bill Congress passed in late March. But those funds for now can only be used for specific purposes like public schools and costs to curb the virus’ spread – not to bolster state budgets.
The outlook for the additional federal funds is far from certain. President Donald Trump has said he won’t sign another economic-stimulus bill without a payroll tax cut, a step U.S. House Democrats don’t support.
Taxes to the rescue?
Absent a federal bailout, the General Assembly likely will be pushed to raise some taxes as an alternative to relying completely on spending cuts to plug the shortfall.
The legislature passed and Kemp signed a bill in January to collect taxes on online purchases made through such “marketplace facilitators” as Amazon and Google. That should raise as much as $15 million per month in additional tax collections, said State Economist Jeffrey Dorfman.
But lawmakers must look at more revenue-raising alternatives, said Danny Kanso, a policy analyst for the Atlanta-based Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
“State leaders should do everything in their power to avoid making devastating cuts that would be likely to disproportionately hurt public schools and higher education – and possibly weaken Georgia’s already stretched-thin health care system,” he said. “Lawmakers should approve common-sense options to raise revenues, such as lifting the tobacco tax to the national average and closing special-interest loopholes that cause the state to forego billions of dollars every year.”
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, said those options will be on the table when the legislature reconvenes under the Gold Dome.
“We’re looking really at all the tax credits and potential revenue sources to see what we can do, even if it’s items that would sunset in a couple of years that could help out on the revenue side,” Hufstetler said.
“I think there’s the potential to maybe not eliminate credits but maybe tailor them in a way that really helps Georgia, not so much people outside of Georgia,” he added.
Tobacco targeted
The American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network is calling for raising Georgia’s tax on cigarettes from 37 cents per pack, third lowest in the nation, to $1.87. That would generate more than $425 million a year in state tax revenue.
“Today’s pandemic has placed a heightened awareness on the need for strong public health infrastructure,” said Andy Freeman, the organization’s government relations director in Georgia.
“Increasing our state’s alarmingly low cigarette tax … would place us at a significant advantage in our [COVID-19] response plan and benefit the health of thousands of Georgians long after the pandemic passes.”
But Rep. Brett Harrell, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said such a huge increase in the cigarette tax would unfairly single out one product.
Harrell, R-Snellville, supports raising the tax to 62 cents per pack, which would make Georgia’s cigarette tax comparable to what surrounding states charge. That would generate about $50 million a year, he said.
“I’m willing to move legislation out of our committee that would raise taxes,” he said. “[But] I don’t think it’s right to zing the hell out of a product nobody likes. That’s not sound policy.”
Gregory McMichael (left) and Travis McMichael (right) were arrested on May 8, 2020, in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery. (Glynn County Sheriff’s Office)
Two men were arrested late Thursday by state investigators in connection with the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, the coastal Georgia resident whose death has sparked widespread outrage.
Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, were booked into the Glynn County jail on charges of murder and aggravated assault in the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Arbery, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
A Glynn County grand jury is expected to weigh charges after court restrictions related to coronavirus are relaxed potentially next month.
The arrests came about 36 hours after GBI agents formally launched an investigation into the fatal shooting, which happened on Feb. 23 and was passed between several local investigating agencies before reaching state authorities.
At a news conference Friday morning, GBI Director Vic Reynolds said it quickly became clear that evidence already gathered by other investigators involved in the case was enough to warrant probable cause for murder.
“If we believe it, then we’re going to put the braces on,” Reynolds said Friday. “And that’s exactly what we did yesterday.”
The arrests also come amid a firestorm of criticism over the handling of the shooting investigation by Glynn County authorities, which intensified this week following the release of video that shows the fatal encounter between Arbery and the two McMichael men in a neighborhood near Brunswick.
The video quickly drew comparisons to other high-profile killings of unarmed black men in recent years and prompted accusations of police corruption, given that Gregory McMichael formerly worked as a Glynn County police officer and as an investigator with the Brunswick District Attorney’s Office before retiring last May.
Captured in the video are the final moments in which the McMichael men, who are both white, armed themselves and used a truck to follow Arbery while he was jogging in the Satilla Shores neighborhood. Arbery is seen grappling with Travis McMichael shortly before three shots are fired, then stumbles to the pavement.
At Friday’s news conference, Reynolds acknowledged the video played a major role in hastening charges against the McMichael men after more than two months of investigations by local authorities, but that there was other critical evidence in the case as well. He declined to elaborate.
However, Reynolds did indicate that additional charges could be brought against other persons related to the case. He did not acknowledge whether investigators were probing the actions of any officials involved in the case from either the Glynn County Police Department, the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s office or the Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s office.
“[GBI’s investigation] will only expand to what’s relevant to this murder investigation,” Reynolds said. “We’ve been asked to conduct a murder investigation [and] that’s what we’re conducting.”
Tom Durden, the Atlantic Judicial Circuit district attorney who agreed to take over the case in mid-April, said public pressure following the video’s release did not influence any decision to bring charges.
“We don’t let that influence the decision,” Durden said Friday. “We can’t just make a snap decision.”
Hate-crimes charges cannot currently be brought in the shooting since Georgia does not have a law on the books regarding hate crimes, Reynolds said Friday. Citing the Arbery shooting, many state lawmakers renewed calls this week to pass a hate-crimes bill sponsored by state Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, that cleared the Georgia House last year but has stalled in the Senate.
Legislation also stalled earlier this year in the General Assembly that would put to Georgia voters whether to abolish county police departments such as the one in Glynn County. That bill, sponsored by Sen. William Ligon, R-Brunswick, stemmed from a grand jury report last November condemning the Glynn County Police Department over alleged officer misconduct and poor coordination with the local sheriff’s office.
Coronavirus has sickened thousands in Georgia and killed hundreds. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday that anyone in Georgia can be tested for coronavirus after expanding the criteria beyond only those with symptoms, health-care workers, the elderly and the chronically ill.
Shortages in testing supplies like nasal swabs and diagnostic kits had previously forced state health officials to limit tests to groups most at risk of contracting the virus.
But help from universities, corporations and the federal government has boosted the state’s testing capacity in recent weeks ahead of a push for contact tracing to head off local outbreaks before they start, the governor said at a news conference Thursday.
“Let’s build on this momentum in the days and weeks to come,” Kemp said.
As of late Thursday afternoon, around 31,000 people in Georgia had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel strain of coronavirus that sparked a global pandemic. It had killed 1,340 Georgians.
Testing is a critical part of the push to curb the virus’ spread now that previously shuttered businesses have started reopening in Georgia and the state’s shelter-in-place order has largely been lifted.
Around 110,000 tests were done in Georgia in last two weeks, said the state’s public health commissioner, Dr. Kathleen Toomey. That accounts for more than half of the total roughly 217,000 tests take through Thursday afternoon.
Identifying positive cases quickly will allow health officials to implement contact tracing, a meticulous process that identifies the web of interactions that an infected person has with others.
Toomey said Thursday the state has brought on about 550 workers and students to perform contact-tracing tasks, marking about half of the full 1,000 tracers that are needed.
“We want to be able to identify everyone in the community who may be infected, whether symptomatic or not, so that we can ensure we can stop that spread,” Toomey said.
As the outbreak in hard-hit Albany starts to ease, health officials are now turning their attention to the Gainesville area in Hall County where an outbreak affecting poultry workers in the Latino community is occurring.
Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King, who was born in Mexico and is bilingual, said Thursday he is working with local Hall County leaders to broadcast Spanish-language messages on social distancing and protective measures to the community.
“This task force will focus on communicating with them in their own language,” King said.
Beyond the Gainesville area, elderly care facilities continue to be a top priority for health officials and members of the Georgia National Guard, which has been busy disinfecting the state’s 790 long-term care facilities over the past month.
Kemp said Thursday elderly residents in those facilities have accounted for more than half of all deaths in Georgia caused by the virus to date.
Meanwhile, the federal government is poised to send 210,000 test swabs to Georgia in weekly shipments throughout May, said the state’s emergency management director, Homer Bryson.
The governor also touted efforts by companies like CVS and Walmart to set up testing sites, as well as a screening app run by Augusta University to connect patients with doctors via online video feeds.
So far, more than 14,400 people have been screened on the app and 8,300 referred for testing, said Augusta University President Brooks Keel.
Also Thursday, the governor batted down concerns over some forecast models indicating Georgia could see a spike in positive cases and deaths from coronavirus, following his decision last week to start lifting mandatory statewide business and social restrictions.
“I think it’s important for Georgians not to get scared or panicked because someone has a new model that says something,” Kemp said.
Kemp stressed health officials are seeing a steady decrease in the percentage of positive COVID-19 cases compared to testing amounts, indicating the rate of infection appears to be slowing. He urged Georgians to keep wearing masks in public and to avoid large gatherings.
The governor also highlighted the dire economic downturn spurred by business closures and stay-at-home habits, which has sent tax revenues plummeting and prompted the need for deep cuts in the state’s $27 billion budget.
“We must fight for both the public and economic health of our state,” Kemp said.
ATLANTA – The state board created last year to oversee Georgia’s new medical marijuana program has appointed its first executive director.
Andrew Turnage, who has headed both the state Board of Cosmetology and Barbers and the Georgia Board of Nursing, will take the helm of the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission.
Commission members voted Wednesday to hire Turnage based on the recommendation of an outside search firm that consulted national medical cannabis experts before suggesting a Georgian with experience in state government.
“Mr. Turnage not only has the experience The Goodwin Group recommended, but specifically in the area of state licensing, which is essential to getting us up and running and producing low-THC oil,” said Dr. Christopher Edwards, the commission’s chairman and principal surgeon at the Atlanta Neurological & Spine Institute.
The General Assembly passed legislation last year legalizing the cultivation of marijuana in Georgia, conversion of the leaf into low-THC cannabis oil and sale of the drug to patients suffering from a wide range of diseases, including seizure disorders and Parkinson’s.
Parents of children suffering from those diseases unable to get relief from any treatment other than cannabis oil played a large role in convincing lawmakers to approve the bill.
But the effort has gotten off to a slow start. The seven-member commission in charge of the program wasn’t appointed until last November, more than four months after the legislation took effect.
It has taken nearly six months more to get an executive director on board.
Turnage has a law enforcement background, having served as a deputy sheriff in Hall County, an important qualification considering many in law enforcement have expressed reservations about legalizing the growth of marijuana in Georgia even under the close supervision the new law requires.
Turnage also has a master’s degree from the University of Georgia in adult education.
“We have one goal, and that’s to get oil for families in need,” Turnage said. “We have families in Georgia that have struggled for years to get this basic need, low-THC oil, and our task will be to ensure that they receive it.”
The new commission will be able to buy and import cannabis oil from out of state while the in-state licensing program the law establishes unfolds.
