Gov. Brian Kemp speaks with reporters outside Amazon’s new warehouse in Gwinnett County on Sept. 1, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Georgia saw strong enough economic growth over the past year despite the devastating COVID-19 pandemic to land recognition as the top state in the country to do business per an industry magazine, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday.
It’s the seventh consecutive year Georgia nabbed “Top State for Doing Business” status from the magazine Area Development, which focuses on economic development projects. Kemp has also previously touted a similar distinction of top-business state several years running by Site Selection Magazine.
The governor is poised to trumpet the accolade as proof of Georgia’s continued economic recovery after being battered by coronavirus and as evidence of business success under his leadership ahead of an upcoming reelection campaign in 2022.
“After all of these years, it’s abundantly clear that Georgia remains the epicenter for job growth, economic development and investment because of strong conservative leadership,” Kemp said at a news conference Tuesday.
While coronavirus-prompted closures hammered local service industries, Georgia still managed to drum up more than $7.4 billion in new investments stemming from around 350 development projects since July of 2019, Kemp noted.
With more than 24,000 jobs created during that stretch, Georgia also saw a 30% bump in jobs created outside metro Atlanta since last July, highlighting the governor’s emphasis on stimulating economic growth in more rural parts of the state.
But Georgia still carries a high unemployment rate at 7.4% with roughly 378,000 out-of-work Georgians due to the impacts of COVID-19, though that figure does fall below the national unemployment rate of 10.2% as of July.
Georgia also continues to see a concerning number of people testing positive for coronavirus, though the state’s positivity rate, seven-day rolling average and hospitalizations have all fallen over the past month following a spike from the Memorial Day and July Fourth holiday weekends.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 272,000 people had tested positive in Georgia for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel strain of coronavirus that sparked a global pandemic. It had killed 5,733 Georgians.
Georgia Democratic leaders were quick to pan Kemp’s announcement Tuesday, calling it a diversion tactic as thousands of Georgians remain out of work and people continue falling sick to COVID-19.
“Working families don’t need Kemp’s self-congratulations,” said Maggie Chambers, spokeswoman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “They need real leadership to get this virus under control so that Georgians can get back to work safely.”
Ahead of the upcoming Labor Day holiday, Kemp urged Georgians to wear masks, wash hands and limit gathering sizes to promote virus-fighting social distancing.
“Let’s don’t have a Memorial Day bump after Labor Day weekend,” Kemp said. “Let’s don’t have a July Fourth bump. … Let’s try to avoid that spike.”
Kemp joined local leaders and state Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson outside a newly built Amazon warehouse in Gwinnett County to make the announcement Tuesday.
The new 640,000-square-foot facility will feature the company’s first robotics center in Georgia and is set to open before the end of the year.
“We look forward to being part of the fabric of Gwinnett County and the local community,” said Robert Packett, Amazon’s southeastern regional operations director.
ATLANTA – Georgia Power residential customers will receive an estimated $12 credit on their bills next month under a resolution the state Public Service Commission (PSC) approved unanimously Tuesday.
The credit, based on the typical customer’s monthly use of 1,000-kilowatt hours, reflects a one-time refund of $61.6 million in earnings the Atlanta-based utility realized last year above its allowable return on equity (ROE) range. A rate increase the PSC approved last December set the ROE range at between 9% and 12%.
Paired with lower fuel rates Georgia Power implemented at the beginning of the summer, the typical residential customer will see a reduction of more than $17 in October.
Georgia Power customers have received several credits this year. In June, the commission approved an $11.29 credit resulting from $51.5 million in earnings above the allowable ROE band during 2018.
The utility rolled back its fuel rates in May, saving customers $10.26 per month, part of which came from an interim reduction the utility provided to help customers weather the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
And back in February, Georgia Power passed on savings the company realized from the tax cut legislation Congress passed in late 2017, which came to about $22 a month for the typical residential customer.
The February savings came from the last installment of three reductions made possible by the federal tax cuts, which totaled $106 million.
Capt. Chris Stallings became director of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency on Sept. 1, 2020. (Photo from the Office of Gov. Brian Kemp)
Gov. Brian Kemp tapped a new emergency-management director for the state Tuesday shortly after extending for another two weeks health measures aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus in Georgia.
Capt. Chris Stallings, a former state trooper and most recently head of a state Department of Public Safety unit tasked with protecting top elected officials, steps in as director of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency (GEMA), effective immediately.
Stallings replaces outgoing GEMA Director Homer Bryson, who retired Tuesday after nearly four decades in public-safety roles including prior tenures overseeing the state’s prison system and wildlife rangers.
Bryson’s departure comes as the state continues grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, which through Monday had killed 5,633 Georgians and led to more than 240,000 positive cases.
As GEMA’s director, Bryson was tasked with leading the procurement and distribution of millions of masks, gloves, gowns, face shields and goggles sent to local hospitals, schools and elderly care facilities struggling to combat the virus.
Late Monday, Kemp renewed a long set of distancing and sanitizing requirements for Georgia businesses, daycare centers, social gatherings and other pursuits that have remained largely unchanged in recent months after the governor began relaxing far stricter measures in late April.
The governor’s renewed executive orders also extended a shelter-in-place mandate for persons in elderly care facilities and those with chronic health issues through Sept. 15.
Going forward, Kemp also extended Georgia’s public health state of emergency through Oct. 10, which gives him authority to continue issuing executive orders unless the General Assembly convenes to strip that power from him.
At a news conference Tuesday, Kemp praised the work of Bryson and GEMA officials since the pandemic took hold in the state in March.
“These men and women have played a huge role in the fight to protect lives and livelihoods in our state, and we are forever grateful for their service,” Kemp said.
The governor also touted the new GEMA director, Stallings, saying he had “full confidence in Chris and his ability to run GEMA with the integrity and hard work that this job demands” as well as take the reins from Bryson amid the ongoing pandemic.
Bryson, who also helped lead the state’s disaster response in the wake of Hurricane Michael in 2018, called the GEMA director role “the crowning jewel in my career.”
“Our passion is truly protecting people and protecting property,” Bryson said. “That’s our priority. We put that ahead of everything else.”
ATLANTA – A veteran of two statewide political campaigns in Georgia has launched a political action committee to raise money for Democratic women seeking elective office.
Sarah Riggs Amico lost the 2018 race for lieutenant governor to Republican Geoff Duncan and unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination this year to challenge U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga.
Now, she’s putting her experience on the campaign trail into the Our American Dreams PAC, which hopes to raise $50,000 to $100,000 this year on behalf of 21 candidates for state and local offices.
“Over the last three years, I’ve been through a little over 150 Georgia counties,” Amico said Tuesday. “One of the things you hear is how many communities feel the idea of the American Dream is slipping away.”
Amico said the burden of economic insecurity and lack of opportunity has fallen disproportionately on women and minorities, particularly during the current pandemic.
For example, more than 90% of women- and minority-owned businesses were shut out of the first round of federal loans distributed through the Paycheck Protection Program.
Amico, a businesswoman from Marietta, has an affinity for women who owns businesses. More than half of the 21 candidates her PAC is endorsing are women business owners.
Seven of the group are first-generation Americans, and three of them are naturalized citizens. Amico is married to an immigrant.
“These are voices that for too long have been left out,” she said. “One thing I’ve found is that to change the output of a system, you have to change the input.”
Of the 21 candidates the PAC has endorsed, 13 are running for seats in the Georgia House of Representatives and five are seeking election to the state Senate. The other three are running for the school board, district attorney and a county commission chairmanship.
Of the 18 running for the General Assembly, five are incumbents. A dozen are either challenging incumbent Republicans or looking to fill a vacant seat, while one of the candidates defeated a fellow Democrat in a House primary.
The list includes the following:
Regina Lewis-Ward, House District 109
Mokah Jasmine Johnson, House District 117
State Rep. Donna McLeod, D-Lawrenceville, House District 105
Sarah Beeson, Senate District 56
State Rep. CaMia Hopson, D-Albany, House District 153
Nikki Merritt, Senate District 9
Geretta Smith, Senate District 23
Dr. Michelle Au, Senate District 48
State Sen. Valencia Seay, D-Riverdale, Senate District 34
State Rep. Angelika Kausche, D-Johns Creek, House District 50
Dr. Rebecca Mitchell, House District 106
Sara Ghazal, House District 45
Former state Rep. Stacey Evans, House District 57
Zulma Lopez, House District 86
Nakita Hemingway, House District 104
Ebony Carter, House District 110
State Rep. Bee Nguyen, D-Atlanta, House District 89
State Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick, D-Lithonia, House District 93
Nicole Hendrickson, Gwinnett County Commission Chair
Audrey Gibbons, Glynn County School Board
Former state Rep. Deborah Gonzalez, district attorney, Western Judicial Circuit
Amico said she would like to expand her PAC out of state eventually but, for now, has plenty of work to do building a pipeline of women candidates in Georgia.
