ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate is back in the single digits, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
Unemployment in Georgia stood at 9.7% for the month of May, down 2.9% from April’s jobless rate of 12.6%.
“I think we are going to continue to see big drops in the unemployment rate as Georgia continues to open back up,” state Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said. “We have to remember that the recent unemployment was not caused by an economic catalyst, but instead by a medical emergency. Those jobs are still out there for the most part.”
Jobs were up 94,300 last month over the month of April, posting gains in all sectors. The accommodation and food services sector led the way with an increase of 46,600, followed by health care and social assistance with 11,800, and administrative and support services close behind at 10,100 jobs.
Although over-the-month job growth increased, jobs are down 370,000 when compared to this time last year.
The filing of initial unemployment claims also is continuing to fall. Last week’s claims totaled 131,997, down 3,257 from the previous week. Initial claims have declined in six of the last seven weeks.
“The decrease in regular weekly claims is indicative of a recovering workforce who are now ready to return to work,” Butler said. “We predict a continual decrease in these weekly claims as businesses return to pre-COVID conditions and Georgians increase their spending habits.”
The state paid out $147.7 million in regular unemployment benefits last week, down $9 million from the previous week. Since March 21, when Georgia businesses began closing their doors to discourage the spread of coronavirus, regular benefits payments have totaled more than $1.6 billion.
ATLANTA – A controversial update to Georgia’s Right to Farm Act cleared the state Senate Thursday after a debate of nearly two hours.
The bill, which originated in the Georgia House of Representatives last year, passed the Senate 29-21. Because of changes senators made to the measure, it must return to the House before gaining final passage.
The legislation would make it more difficult for property owners living in areas zoned for agricultural use to file nuisance lawsuits against nearby farms generating offensive noise, dust, smells or sludge runoff.
In order to sue, owners would have to live within five miles of the alleged nuisance.
Also, under an amendment approved on the Senate floor Thursday, lawsuits would have to be brought within two years after a nuisance occurs. More restrictive language in the original bill would have set the clock for lawsuits at within two years of an applicant obtaining a permit to start or change a farm operation.
Supporters argued the original Right to Farm Act the General Assembly enacted during the 1980s contains ambiguities that expose farmers to costly lawsuits that could be avoided by a clearer statute.
“Georgia has a booming agricultural economy that makes a $75 billion [annual economic] impact on our state,” said Sen. John Wilkinson, R-Toccoa, chairman of the Senate Agriculture & Consumer Affairs Committee. “But people are not going to be able to continue to farm and invest millions of dollars in equipment if they don’t understand what they can and can’t do.”
The bill was endorsed by the state’s major agricultural organizations in Georgia, including the Georgia Farm Bureau, Georgia Agribusiness Council and Georgia Poultry Federation.
But opponents, led by environmental groups, said the measure was designed to provide a legal shield to large farms owned by out-of-state or foreign corporations at the expense of small family farms.
“We’re putting our great agricultural economy at risk. Why? For Big Ag,” said Sen. Zahra Karinshak, D-Duluth. “We’re selling out the small farmers.”
During Thursday’s debate, senators also disputed what types of nuisances the bill was designed to combat. Supporters said property owners already are protected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) from farm operations that cause air or water pollution.
“[This bill] is about odor, dust, noise,” said Sen. Larry Walker III, R-Perry. “It’s not about clean water or violating environmental law.”
But opponents said government environmental agencies typically offer little protection from violations of air- or water-quality rules.
“The EPA or EPD can take years to resolve issues,” said Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, D-Dawson.
Sen. Jesse Stone, R-Waynesboro, brought the statute-of-limitations amendment as a way to offer property owners living near farms more protection than the original bill would have provided.
Stone said that without the amendment, a farm applicant could get a permit but not actually begin operating for two years. In such a case, a nuisance could not occur until two years after the operation began, leaving property owners with no right to sue, he said.
But Sen. Tyler Harper, R-Ocilla, said farm operations are too capital-intensive for farmers to sit on permits for two years before beginning their operation.
The Georgia Senate passed legislation Thursday that would punish convicted human traffickers who transport victims via commercial vehicles by banning them from obtaining a commercial driver’s license.
House Bill 823, by Rep. Houston Gaines, would impose a lifetime ban on driving a commercial vehicle for persons convicted of human trafficking-related offenses. The ban would only apply to people who used commercial vehicles to traffic victims.
The bill passed unanimously out of the Senate and heads back to the House for final approval since it was tweaked recently. It cleared the House by a unanimous vote in March.
Gaines, R-Athens, said in March the bill would go a long way toward reversing Georgia’s status as a state with one of the highest rates of human trafficking in the nation.
Sen. John Albers echoed that sentiment from the Senate floor Thursday, noting it makes sense to take driver’s licenses away from those who use vehicles for human trafficking.
“The punishment certainly will fit the crime,” said Albers, R-Roswell.
He previously tapped his wife, first lady Marty Kemp, to head a newly formed state commission to tackle human trafficking.
A separate measure on human trafficking, Senate Bill 435, is now winding through the state House. It passed out of the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee on Thursday and now heads to the House floor.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Brian Strickland, would let victims petition the court to vacate convictions for crimes committed while they were being trafficked.
Strickland, R-McDonough, said Thursday the measure would help victims overcome legal problems that linger after they are no longer being trafficked.
“The biggest hurdle they have outside of the emotional impact … is trying to get employment,” Strickland said.
ATLANTA – Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Jon Ossoff is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue to a series of five live televised debates throughout Georgia, the Ossoff campaign announced Thursday.
Ossoff, an investigative journalist, won last week’s Democratic primary outright, avoiding a runoff despite a field of seven candidates. Perdue’s bid for the Republican nomination to seek a second six-year term was unopposed.
“Our country faces great challenges – public health and economic crises, unequal justice and compromised voting rights, and widespread corruption in our political system,” Ossoff wrote in a letter to Perdue. “Georgians deserve to hear candidates for office debating these issues publicly.”
Since capturing the Democratic primary, Ossoff has picked up the endorsement of one of his opponents for the nomination, Marietta businesswoman Sarah Riggs Amico. Amico, who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor two years ago on the Democratic ticket, came in third in the Senate primary to Ossoff and former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, who finished second.
Perdue and Ossoff will face off in the general election Nov. 3.
Georgia students may get another pass on standardized tests next school year after year-end testing was scrapped this spring amid the coronavirus pandemic.
School officials and Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday they plan to seek a waiver from the federal government to allow local public schools not to administer the Georgia Milestones tests for the 2020-21 school year.
Kemp and State School Superintendent Richard Woods also aim to suspend annual teacher evaluations for the upcoming school year, according to a news release Thursday morning.
Resuming the oft-dreaded tests would both complicate classroom learning already challenged by social distancing restrictions and hurt the budgetary bottom-line for local schools, said a joint statement by Kemp and Woods.
“In anticipation of a return to in-person instruction this fall, we believe schools’ focus should be on remediation, growth and the safety of students,” reads the statement. “Every dollar spent on high-stakes testing would be a dollar taken away from the classroom.”
The move to do away with testing comes after Georgia received federal approval in late March allowing more than 2,200 public and state schools to be exempted from 18 requirements under state law.
Those exemptions included the Milestones test and other student exams, teacher performance evaluations and course curriculum for the coronavirus-impacted 2019-2020 school year.
School districts across Georgia totaling around 1.7 million students shut down in-person classroom activities in March as concerns mounted over coronavirus. They remained closed throughout the semester as students and teachers pivoted to online classes.
Local school officials were handed guidelines earlier this month on how to safely reopen classes for the upcoming school year, with plans outlining steps schools should take to prevent the highly infectious virus from entering classroom environments and to curb its spread if an outbreak occurs.
The bid by Kemp and Woods to suspend testing for a second school year in a row also comes as legislation works its way through the General Assembly to permanently scrap several standardized tests in Georgia.
Senate Bill 367, sponsored by Senate Education Committee Chairman P.K. Martin, R-Lawrenceville, would get rid of five year-end tests including exams in American literature, geometry, physical science and economics.
It passed out of the state Senate in March but is poised for changes in a House committee as the legislative session speeds toward its conclusion.
The bill has drawn support from local teachers’ associations but skepticism from some state lawmakers concerned that less testing could inspire students to slack off.
On Thursday, Kemp and Woods said their request for another federal waiver from testing is in step with their push to ease stress for teachers and students by reducing tests.
“These efforts are in line with our longstanding shared belief that assessment has a place and a purpose in education, but the current high-stakes testing regime is excessive,” their statement read.
