ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp appointed two Black women Thursday to head Georgia’s revenue and technology agencies, the first to hold those posts in the state’s history.
Robyn Crittenden becomes the new commissioner at the state Department of Revenue, effective July 1. She will succeed Interim Commissioner Frank O’Connell, who took over the role when David Curry resigned at the beginning of this month.
Crittenden is a veteran of state government. She currently serves as commissioner of the Georgia Department of Human Services and was interim secretary of state for a few weeks in 2018 after Kemp – who had held the office – was elected governor.
Kemp also announced Thursday the appointment of Shawnzia Thomas as executive director of the Georgia Technology Authority following a GTA Board vote making her the state’s new chief information officer. Thomas, too, will take office July 1 after beginning to transition into the role next week.
She will succeed Calvin Rhodes, who is retiring after running the technology authority for the last decade.
ATLANTA – First-time unemployment claims in Georgia increased last week, but state labor officials expect the trend to be short-lived.
Jobless Georgians filed 22,524 claims last week, up 284 from the previous week, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
The Georgia numbers mirrored an unexpected rise in unemployment claims nationally, the first in six weeks.
The slight increase in claims in Georgia came even as the labor department reported another drop in the state’s unemployment rate in May, down 0.2% from April to 4.1%.
But the number of jobless claims is expected to fall significantly after June 26, when the state stops paying out $300 weekly supplemental federal unemployment benefits Georgians have been receiving this year.
Gov. Brian Kemp announced the move after businesses complained they were having trouble finding workers. Business groups said many potential employees were receiving more in unemployment benefits than they could earn by going back to work.
Indeed, Georgia’s labor force declined by 12,478 in May to 5.16 million.
“We have a serious workforce issue reflected in the monthly drop in the labor force,” state Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said Thursday. “We are looking to reemploy Georgians as a critical component for our economic recovery.”
The state has paid out more than $22 billion in federal and state unemployment benefits since the coronavirus pandemic began in March of last year. During that time, the labor department has processed nearly 4.9 million initial unemployment claims, more than during the 10 years prior to the pandemic.
As has been the case throughout the pandemic-driven recession, the accommodation and food services job sector has been hit hardest by layoffs.
More than 233,000 job listings are posted at the labor department’s Employ Georgia website, more than triple the number of listings in April of last year. Nearly three-fourths of the available jobs pay more than $30,000 a year, which translates to nearly $15 an hour.
In many cases, employers have offered to train quality candidates and help them get additional credentials.
ATLANTA – The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday denied a bid by Georgia and 17 other Republican-led states to overturn the Affordable Care Act.
In a 7-2 ruling, the justices declared the two plaintiffs in the case had no legal standing to bring the suit because they could not show they had been harmed by the law.
While the suit was aimed at a portion of the law requiring Americans to buy health insurance, a Republican-controlled Congress repealed the tax penalty enforcing that provision back in 2017. Without the penalty, the plaintiffs could not claim they had suffered economic harm because of the law, the court ruled.
Thursday’s decision marked the third time federal courts have upheld the Affordable Care Act, which then-President Barack Obama steered though a Democratic Congress in 2010.
In 2012, the Supreme Court held the ACA constitutional but removed a provision in the law requiring states to expand their Medicaid programs. The ACA survived another Republican-backed effort to scuttle it in 2019 when an appellate court upheld Congress’ decision to repeal the penalty but left the rest of the law intact.
President Joe Biden hailed the ruling as a major victory.
“It is a victory for more than 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions and millions more who were in immediate danger of losing their health care in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic,” Biden said in a prepared statement.
“After more than a decade of attacks on the Affordable Care Act through the Congress and the courts, today’s decision – the third major challenge to the law that the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected – it is time move forward and keep building on this landmark law.”
During this year’s ACA open enrollment period, 517,331 Georgians signed up for health coverage, 88% of whom received financial assistance to lower their premiums or other out-of-pocket costs, according to the nonprofit Georgians for a Healthy Future.
“We are hopeful this will be the last attempt to overturn the law that has provided quality, affordable coverage to hundreds of thousands of Georgians,” said Whitney Griggs, a health policy analyst with the group.
The coalition of states that brought the suit, led by Texas, argued that Congress’ repeal of the tax penalty should render the entire law invalid.
“Our coalition felt strongly that the ACA was unconstitutional,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said following the ruling. “While we are disappointed that the court declined to weigh in on the merits of the case, we will respect the court’s decision.”
Justice Stephen Breyer, one of the court’s three liberals, wrote the majority opinion. He was joined by fellow liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Also ruling with the majority were Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative who has sometimes sided with the liberals in significant cases, and conservative justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas.
The two dissenting votes came from conservative justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch.
ATLANTA – Two former Georgia Department of Transportation employees have been indicted on charges of misusing state-issued purchasing cards.
Oscar Cooke of Riverdale and Roosevelt Addie of Jonesboro worked as mechanics at the DOT’s District 7 maintenance shop in Avondale Estates, according to the Office of the State Inspector General.
The two men are accused of making 55 fraudulent purchases at a NAPA Auto Parts store between 2015 and 2017 totaling $18,732.79.
Cooke and Addie claimed the purchases were made in conjunction with their DOT vehicle maintenance duties. But an audit revealed the auto parts they bought were designed for various luxury cars made by Ferrari, Cadillac, Hummer, Bentley, Porsche and Lexus.
The case was initially referred to the Office of State Inspector General by the DOT.
“State employees are regularly entrusted with the safeguarding of state assets,” State Inspector General Scott McAfee said. “When that trust is violated for personal gain, it not only hurts the state but all Georgia citizens.”
Cooke and Addie are charged with theft by taking and unlawful use of state funds to obtain items of value for personal benefit.
The case is being prosecuted by the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.
Georgia Power Chairman, President and CEO Chris Womack speaks at a ceremony dedicating a microgrid project at Georgia Tech.
ATLANTA – Officials with Georgia Power and Georgia Tech have cut the ribbon on a project that will be used to evaluate how so-called “microgrids” can contribute to the overall electric grid.
A 1.4-megawatt microgrid project located in Midtown Atlanta’s Tech Square will serve that portion of Georgia Tech’s campus.
“The Tech Square Microgrid … will help us better understand microgrids to help service our customers,” said Chris Womack, chairman, president and CEO of Georgia Power, who spoke at Wednesday’s ribbon cutting ceremony.
“The Microgrid’s distributed energy resources are vital to enhancing grid resiliency and bringing sustainable energy solutions to Georgia’s communities.”
The project was approved by the state Public Service Commission in 2019.
The microgrid will help Georgia Power learn how smart energy management systems, such as the one installed at Tech Square’s CODA data center, can interact with the overall grid to optimize use of energy. The project also will serve as a teaching and learning opportunity for Georgia Tech professors and students.
“Georgia Tech is committed to … leading by example with our own practices,” Tech President Angel Cabrera said. “In our partnership with Georgia Power and the Georgia Public Service Commission, we will be developing and adopting some of the most advanced, efficient and responsible energy solutions available in the hope we can serve as an example for others.”
The microgrid includes fuel cells, battery storage, diesel generators and a natural gas generator. It is also designed to accommodate microturbines, solar panels and electric vehicle chargers in the future.
