The state Capitol building in Atlanta at night after lawmakers adjourned the legislative session shortly after midnight on April 1, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Gov. Brian Kemp has signed into law several bills on taxes, time change and teacher retention that the General Assembly passed in the 2021 legislative session.
Among the more high-profile measures Kemp signed at a ceremony in Savannah Wednesday is an income-tax credit to recruit and retain teachers for high-need subjects in underserved Georgia public schools.
Sponsored by Rep. Dave Belton, R-Buckhead, the measure allows teachers in 100 rural or low-performing schools picked annually by the state to apply for a $3,000 credit on their income taxes for up to five years if they teach certain subjects that students struggle to learn.
The teacher credit figured as a priority for Kemp in this year’s session. He has also pushed for state budgets to include teacher pay raises and legislation to cut down the number of year-end standardized tests that students must take.
Kemp also signed a bill aimed at putting Georgia on daylight saving time permanently if Congress takes action permitting states to make that change. The measure was passed over separate legislation that proposed establishing standard time year-round.
Also signed into law were bills to levy a $5 per-night excise tax on short-term stays in vacation rentals and hotels booked by online vendors and allow district attorneys to access previously confidential records on offenders seeking parole after serving prison time for a violent felony or sexual abuse of a minor.
The 2021 session wrapped up a few minutes after midnight April 1 amid heated debate over Republican-led legislation on voting procedures and criminal justice issues.
Kemp signed a controversial bill changing Georgia mail-in and early voting laws shortly after state lawmakers passed it on a party-line vote late last month.
The election changes have since become a national lightning rod with Republicans calling them needed for voting integrity and Democrats condemning them as voter suppression.
ATLANTA – Georgia Rep. Bert Reeves is leaving the General Assembly to join the administrative staff at Georgia Tech, the university announced Thursday.
Reeves, R-Marietta, will serve as vice president for institute relations at his alma mater starting May 1. He will report directly to Tech President Angel Cabrera and serve as a member of the president’s cabinet.
“Bert’s unmatched passion for Georgia Tech and his firsthand experience as a leader in state government make him a perfect match for this role,” Cabrera said. “I very much look forward to working with him in moving Georgia Tech forward and finding ways to increase our impact in our community, our state and our nation.”
Reeves, a Cobb County native, was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2014 in a district that includes parts of Marietta and Kennesaw. He is one of Gov. Brian Kemp’s House floor leaders and serves as vice chairman of the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee.
In his new role, Reeves will be heading Georgia Tech’s government relations and economic development efforts.
“I am truly thrilled to have this opportunity,” Reeves posted on Facebook. “This is a perfect place for me to be, and I couldn’t be happier!”
Reeves said he is particularly proud of the work he did in the legislature on child welfare, adoption and foster care reform. This year, the General Assembly passed a bill he sponsored increasing the annual tax credit for new foster parents from $2,000 to $6,000 for the first five years after adoption.
During his student days at Georgia Tech, Reeves served as the school mascot “Buzz” from 1997 to 2000. He also has served as a trustee for the Georgia Tech Alumni Association.
Reeves’ last day in the General Assembly will be April 30. He also is closing down his law practice.
The Stone Mountain Confederate carving was dedicated in 1970.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp has appointed the first African-American to lead the Stone Mountain Memorial Association.
The Rev. Abraham Mosley of Athens will chair a state board that has come under growing pressure from civil rights groups to reduce the presence of Confederate imagery at a park that houses the world’s largest Confederate monument.
“I appointed Reverend Mosley to the Stone Mountain Memorial Association in 2019, where he has been an active, passionate board member,” Kemp said Wednesday. “With this expanded role, I am confident Reverend Mosley will continue to rely on his experience in bringing people together.”
Stone Mountain has long been dominated by a giant carving of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.
Carved by the same sculptor who created the Mount Rushmore carving of U.S. presidents, the Stone Mountain memorial was dedicated in 1970 after fits and starts that delayed completion of the project by decades.
Well before that, Stone Mountain hosted the rebirth of a then-dormant Ku Klux Klan at a ceremony in 1915.
The adjacent park features Confederate flags and street names, all of which came under fire during last summer’s wave of protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a Black man, at the hands of a white police officer. Former Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter earlier this week.
There are limits to what the Stone Mountain Memorial Association can do to alter Confederate themes at the park. Kemp signed legislation two years ago that prohibits the desecration or removal of historic monuments from public property.
But the board could take up some proposals for changes at a meeting set for Monday.
Mosley, a native of Hancock County, has served as pastor of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Athens for nearly 47 years.
He is not the first African-American to serve on the Stone Mountain association’s board. DeKalb County CEO Mike Thurmond was named to the board in 2017 and served for one year.
Federal officials have approved Georgia’s plan to extend Medicaid coverage for low-income new mothers in the state, Gov. Brian Kemp’s office announced Wednesday.
The plan will lengthen the period for income-eligible mothers to receive Medicaid benefits from the current two months up to six months post-partum. Coverage is available for mothers with incomes up to 220% of the federal poverty level.
The extension follows passage last year by the General Assembly for state officials to request a waiver from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which has now granted approval.
Legislation allowing the state’s waiver request came from Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, and passed unanimously last June amid the coronavirus-interrupted legislative session. Kemp then signed the bill.
“We recognize that maternal deaths are a serious public health concern, and the approval of the Georgia Postpartum Extension waiver underscores Georgia’s commitment to continually enhance the level of care for new mothers in the Peach State,” Kemp said in a statement Wednesday.
Cooper’s bill also extended Medicaid coverage to lactation specialists for mothers having trouble feeding their babies.
Extending coverage for low-income mothers with newborns stemmed from a House study committee on maternal mortality in 2019 that looked at 101 cases of pregnancy-related deaths in Georgia and found 60% could have been prevented with better health care.
“We view this as a significant steppingstone in helping to ensure that post-partum women throughout Georgia can continue receiving the best care possible,” state Department of Community Health Commissioner Frank Berry said in a statement.
State lawmakers this year also passed separate legislation brought by Cooper to create an easier path for low-income Georgia children to automatically start collecting Medicaid benefits if they are already eligible for food stamps.
Pending approval from the federal government, the automatic enrollment would allow an estimated 60,000 Medicaid-eligible children who receive food stamps to also join the joint state-federal health program, according to the nonprofit advocacy group Georgians for a Healthy Future.
Georgia Power Co. will need to retire Plant Scherer and other coal-burning plants to achieve parent Southern Co.’s long-term goal of net-zero carbon emissions, according to a new study. (File photo)
ATLANTA – The rate at which Atlanta-based Southern Co. and other utilities in the Southeast reduce carbon emissions will flatten during the coming decade, preventing them from reaching long-term zero-carbon goals.
That’s the conclusion of a new study released by the Southern Allliance for Clean Energy (SACE).
While Southern Co. is on track to meet its interim goal of reducing carbon emissions 50% from 2007 levels by 2030, it is not close to being on pace to achieving a longer-term goal of net-zero carbon by 2050, the study reported.
Southern and other utilities were able to make significant strides reducing reliance on coal for electrical generation during the last decade mostly by retiring coal-burning plants and replacing them with natural gas.
Keeping up that rate of progress going forward will require retiring remaining coal plants at a steady pace and replacing gas with clean energy sources like wind, solar, battery storage and energy efficiency, according to the SACE report. But that’s not expected to happen, said Heather Pohnan, SACE’s energy policy manager.
“While decarbonization by mid-century could be possible if utilities reduce emissions at the rate observed over the past decade, that is not what current utility plans show, she said. “Instead, plans show that decarbonization will slow now that the lowest-hanging fruit has been picked.”
Based on the average annual reduction in carbon emissions of 3.8% Southern Co. realized during the last decade, the utility would reach its goal of net-zero carbon by 2056, just a few years later than originally anticipated.
But with carbon emissions expected to decline by only 1.8% annually on average during the current decade, the net-zero carbon goal set for 2050 would not be attained until 2086, according to the SACE study.
That conflicts with a Biden administration proposal that the nation’s electric sector reach 80% clean energy by 2030 and 100% by 2035.
“This is an important policy initiative that will require Southeast utilities to move beyond talk and into more serious actions,” SACE Executive Director Stephen Smith said.
“We anticipate regional utilities will need to increase investments in clean energy resources and get their resource plans on track to achieve the deep decarbonization required to meet this policy goal and limit the impacts from dangerous climate disruption.”
The study of Southeastern utility systems analyzed power generation and emissions from Southern Co., Duke Energy, NextEra and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Georgia Power Co. is a subsidiary of Southern Co.
