Coronavirus has sickened hundreds of thousands people and killed thousands more in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
The long winter of COVID-19 looks to be coming to an end in Georgia.
All Georgians age 16 and older will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine starting this Thursday, March 25, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday.
The long-awaited expansion comes as Georgia is set to receive another boost in the weekly shipment of vaccines, largely due to the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine that increased the state’s allotment this week to 450,000 doses, according to the governor.
“This is our ticket back to normal,” Kemp said. “We’re getting closer to that point every single day.”
Speaking at a news conference, Kemp said Georgia expects to gain another bump in vaccine doses next week from the federal government – though he was not sure yet how much more the state will receive.
So far, Georgia has distributed roughly 3.2 million vaccine doses to groups that have gradually become eligible since mid-December, including all residents ages 55 and older, health-care workers, nursing home residents and staff, first responders, judges, courtroom staff and people with physical, mental or behavioral health conditions.
The vaccine rollout has seen nearly 75% of the state’s residents ages 65 and older receive at least their first dose, setting Georgia on a path to having its most vulnerable population inoculated in the coming weeks.
Still, state officials continue to see “vaccine hesitancy” in rural areas, particularly parts of Georgia south of the Columbus-Macon-Augusta line.
In a show of confidence, Kemp said he is scheduled to get his first vaccine dose on Friday and has been talking with former University of Georgia football star Champ Bailey to spread awareness in Georgia about the efficacy – and importance – of receiving the vaccine.
“I just want to encourage everybody to get the vaccine,” Kemp said. “We’re seeing this across the country, but especially in the South, we’re seeing vaccine hesitancy.”
“There should not be hesitancy. This is a medical miracle.”
Amid hesitancy in rural Georgia, Kemp said Tuesday officials this week sent 70% of the state’s weekly vaccine doses to sites in metro Atlanta, where demand has been consistently higher.
The governor said many providers in the Atlanta area currently have appointments available for the shots, including a mass site downtown run by the federal government at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“If you’re in the metro where demand continues to be high, we’ve got great options,” Kemp said.
Georgians can pre-register for a vaccine appointment at myvaccinegeorgia.com even if they do not yet qualify under the governor’s eligibility criteria. They will be notified once they qualify and scheduled for an appointment.
State officials have opened nine mass vaccination sites in Atlanta, Macon, Albany, Savannah, Columbus, Waycross and Bartow, Washington and Habersham counties.
Nearly 845,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Georgia as of Tuesday afternoon, with more than 203,000 more reported positive antigen tests indicating likely positive results. The virus has killed 16,187 Georgians.
Georgia state lawmakers are pushing for an alternative to penalties that would halt construction of a $2.6 billion electric-vehicle battery plant in Jackson County amid trade-secrets theft allegations.
South Korean manufacturer SK Innovation, which has hired 250 people for the plant so far and pledged to hire thousands more, was slapped last month with a ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission that found it pilfered trade secrets from rival battery maker LG Chem.
The commission imposed a 10-year exclusion order barring the U.S. from importing SK Innovation’s lithium-ion batteries, effectively scuttling work on the Northeast Georgia plant that has been touted as a boon for the state’s manufacturing industry.
Lawmakers in the Georgia Senate unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday calling on SK Innovation and LG Chem to negotiate a settlement without having to close the local plant in order to preserve jobs and “protect the United States’ competitive edge in electric vehicle battery production and supply chain.”
An earlier version of the resolution had pressed President Joe Biden to ditch the commission’s ruling, noting he has authority as president to do so. It was revised after input from Senate Democrats.
The revised resolution now heads to the state House of Representatives for that chamber’s backing.
Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, stressed the loss of SK Innovation’s plant would cost Georgia billions of dollars in public and private investments while putting hundreds of people out of work.
“Georgia has significant economic investment in this,” Miller said from the Senate floor. “This is a real opportunity for Georgia to lead in another great manufacturing way.”
Democratic senators joined Republicans including Gov. Brian Kemp in backing the measure, noting that while the theft accusations against SK Innovation are troubling, a solution should be reached that would avoid scrapping the plant project entirely.
“I think this is the time to push both of these companies when there is uncertainty among both before it comes to the president,” said Sen. Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta. “Hopefully, these folks can come together and make sure these people stay employed.”
The plant set for construction in Jackson County marks the second SK Innovation battery plant located near the city of Commerce. The two plants aim to supply the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., the Ford plant in Kentucky and possibly the BMW plant near Greenville, S.C.
This story and its headline have been updated to correctly reflect that the Senate’s resolution urges the two battery companies to reach a settlement, not for President Biden to overturn the International Trade Commission’s ruling.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate unanimously passed Gov. Brian Kemp’s $27.2 billion fiscal 2022 budget Tuesday, setting the stage for negotiations with the state House of Representatives on a final version of the spending plan.
Senators supported the budget’s emphasis on education and health care.
With state tax revenues coming in stronger than expected despite the pandemic, the budget would restore 60% of the “austerity” cuts to Georgia public schools the legislature made at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak last year.
Thanks to the American Rescue Plan Congress passed earlier this month, Georgia schools soon will receive $4.2 billion in federal funds, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Tillery told his Senate colleagues.
“That more than wipes out any reductions we’ve made during the pandemic,” said Tillery, R-Vidalia. “Our school systems are going to more than adequately be made whole.”
The Senate also supported the House in adding about $40 million to Kemp’s original budget plan for mental health services.
The Senate budget also includes pay raises to help retain employees in state agencies that have been hit with a lot of turnover, including the departments of Agriculture, Banking and Finance, Driver Services, Corrections and Juvenile Justice.
Senators agreed with the governor’s recommendation for $39.5 million for a new Rural Innovation Fund to help local elected officials and economic development leaders create jobs.
“It would help spread jobs in rural communities,” Tillery said.
But Sen. Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta, objected to putting such a large allocation under the governor’s control without input from the General Assembly.
“It has been referred to as the ‘governor’s slush fund,’ ” she said. “There are no parameters on how that money can be spent.”
Tillery responded that how the fund is allocated would be determined by a governing board that includes legislative leaders.
Jordan also complained that Kemp and legislative leaders are not willing to take up the federal government’s offer through the American Rescue Plan to fund Medicaid expansion in Georgia.
Expanding Medicaid coverage in Georgia has been a sore spot between Republicans and Democrats since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Democrats say the state is missing a chance to provide health coverage to an additional 500,000 uninsured Georgians, while Republicans say it would cost the state too much.
In a new wrinkle to the debate, the American Rescue Plan offers to increase the federal match to the 12 states yet to expand Medicaid from 57% to 72% for the next two years.
“What an opportunity!” Jordan declared from the Senate floor. “That’s what we should be doing, not allocating $40 million for a slush fund for the governor.”
The Senate budget acknowledges that the state government will receive nearly $4.7 billion from the American Rescue Plan.
Language senators added to the budget indicates the state should spend that money to respond to the health and economic crises sparked by the pandemic, provide pay raises to essential workers, backfill revenue reductions and invest in water, sewer and broadband projects.
A joint House-Senate conference committee will work out the two chambers’ differences on the budget and hammer out a final spending plan to present next week during the last days of this year’s legislative session.
Georgians are poised to decide whether statewide elected officials who have been suspended amid felony charges for abusing their office should continue to draw a paycheck while awaiting trial.
The state House of Representatives gave final approval Tuesday for a constitutional amendment that would put to voters whether to bar pay for officials facing felony charges like Georgia’s governor, secretary of state and insurance commissioner.
The measure sponsored by Sen. Larry Walker, R-Perry, comes after it was recently revealed former state Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck has continued receiving his salary for nearly two years since being suspended following his indictment on felony fraud charges.
It passed unanimously in the House on Monday after clearing the state Senate earlier this month by a nearly unanimous vote, with Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, voting against. The question will be on the ballot in 2022 if Gov. Brian Kemp signs the amendment.
House lawmakers also have a separate measure by Walker on their plate that would apply the same ban on pay for county and city elected officials indicted on felony corruption charges.
Beck, who was elected insurance commissioner in late 2018, was on the job for only a few months before being suspended amid a 38-count felony indictment handed down in May 2019 on allegations he stole more than $2 million from the Georgia Underwriting Association, where he previously worked.
He has continued reeling in roughly $350,000 in compensation since then even as current Insurance Commission John King also draws a salary for the job. The revelation earlier this year of double-pay – which state law allows – sparked outrage from state lawmakers who moved to correct the issue.
“If you can’t do the job, you shouldn’t get paid for it,” said Rep. Matthew Wilson, D-Brookhaven. “We’ve got to make it so that public corruption doesn’t get so comfortable that you stick around and collect a paycheck until the clock runs out.”
Beck has denied the charges and pleaded not guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. His trial on felony charges of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering is scheduled to begin next month.
State Sen. Max Burns (center) oversees debate on an omnibus Georgia election bill in the Senate Ethics Committee that he chairs on March 22, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Republican state lawmakers hammering out changes to Georgia’s election system have dropped controversial proposals to scrap Sunday polling hours and no-excuse mail-in voting amid pushback from Democratic leaders and voting-rights advocates.
With the General Assembly set to adjourn the 2021 session next week, two omnibus bills moving through the House and Senate include dozens of proposed election changes that continue to irk opponents, especially tighter voter ID rules for casting absentee ballots and a ban on giving out water or food to voters waiting in line outside polling places.
But the move to repeal no-excuse absentee voting and shrink weekend hours during the three-week early voting period mark a breakthrough for opponents who viewed those proposals as chief among attempts at voter suppression, particularly targeting low-income and minority voters.
“It’s an improvement,” said the Georgia Senate Democratic Caucus on one of the two measures, both of which faced committee hearings on Monday. “But many of the provisions usurp local control.”
Republican backers frame the election changes as voter-integrity protections after the 2020 elections sparked doubts over the security of mail-in voting and identity verification. Democrats argue those issues were created out of thin air by former President Donald Trump’s allies who alleged voter fraud that election officials and federal courts consistently rejected.
In the Senate, lawmakers took up a 40-page bill sponsored by Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, that previously proposed barring county election officials from opening the polls on Sundays for early voting. That proposal has been ditched.
Instead, a separate 94-page measure moving in the House of Representatives would give counties the option to hold early voting on two different weekends ahead of an election, including mandatory open hours on Saturdays and optional hours on Sundays.
“Both Saturdays and both Sundays are possible … if locals want it,” said Fleming, who chairs the House Special Committee on Election Integrity.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, could face tweaks in the coming days due to concerns from election officials in Georgia’s smaller counties who typically see few voters show up to cast ballots except on Election Day, citing unnecessary costs to hold sparsely attended weekend voting.
The measure by Burns, who chairs the Senate Ethics Committee, gained approval Monday in Fleming’s committee and now heads to the full House.
Conversely, Fleming’s bill faced debate in the Senate committee that Burns chairs on Monday but did not receive a vote to advance to the full chamber.
Neither of the bills by Fleming and Burns contains a proposal to roll back the ability of Georgia voters to cast mail-in ballots without having to give a reason. No-excuse absentee voting has been in effect since 2005 under then-Gov. Sonny Perdue.
The no-excuse rollback was pitched in a third omnibus election bill by Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan, R-Carrollton, who has signaled he will drop the repeal amid opposition from top state Republicans including Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge.
Dugan said Monday the repeal of no-excuse absentee voting was not added to Burns’ bill after it “seemed to cause consternation” among voters and advocacy groups.
Both bills by Burns and Fleming still contain rules changes that would require registered Georgia voters to provide the number on their driver’s license or state ID card to request and cast absentee ballots.
If they do not have those ID forms, voters instead would have to send in a copy of their passport, employee ID card, utility bill or bank statement.
The change to state voter ID laws, the most likely change to pass in the Republican-controlled legislature, has been criticized by opponents as a means to disenfranchise voters who lack driver’s licenses – though Ralston has pledged to make free state ID’s available to every Georgian.
Ralston threw his support behind Burns’ bill shortly after its passage Monday, saying the measure “makes voting more accessible and improves election security.”
“By providing for expanded weekend voting and enshrining drop boxes into law for the first time, we are making it easier to vote across our state,” Ralston said in a statement.
Beyond the ID rules, Democrats and voting-rights groups have bashed proposals still in play to curb outside groups’ ability to send voters applications for absentee ballots and give counties grant funds for elections, as well as to require that mail-in ballot drop boxes be located inside polling places.
Critics have also called for more analysis of how much counties would have to pay for implementing operational changes under the bills after outside reporting recently estimated local election boards could face tens of millions of dollars in added costs.
“There is not a fiscal note for this bill and there are many things that cost money,” said Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain, on Fleming’s bill Monday. “I think there should be a fiscal note for this bill.”
The advocacy group Fair Fight, which 2018 gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams founded, singled out Burns’ bill that advanced Monday as a “power grab [that] takes away local control and threatens our economy.”
“Had it been law in 2020, it could have allowed the GOP to overturn the election,” Fair Fight said on Twitter. “It’s bad for democracy and bad for business.”
