Verda Colvin is the newest justice on the Georgia Supreme Court.
ATLANTA – A judge from the Georgia Court of Appeals is moving up to the state Supreme Court.
Gov. Brian Kemp Tuesday named Judge Verda Colvin to fill the vacancy left at the beginning of this month by Harold Melton, who stepped down as the state Supreme Court’s chief justice to enter private practice.
“It is an honor to appoint such an experienced and accomplished justice to our state’s Supreme Court,” Kemp said. “With Justice Colvin on the bench, Georgia’s highest court is gaining an immensely talented and principled judge who will help guide it in the years to come.”
Colvin has served on the Court of Appeals since being appointed by Kemp in April of last year. Before that, she served for six years as a Superior Court judge in the Macon Judicial Circuit.
Prior to her appointment to the bench, Colvin was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Middle District of Georgia. Before that, the native of Atlanta was an assistant prosecutor in Clayton County and assistant general counsel at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta.
After receiving a dual bachelor’s degree in government and religion from Sweet Briar College in Virginia, Colvin earned a law degree at the University of Georgia.
Melton stepped down from the state Supreme Court July 1 after serving for 16 years and leading Georgia’s judicial system through the disruption to normal court activities caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Presiding Justice David Nahmias was unanimously elected by his colleagues to succeed Melton as chief justice.
ATLANTA – A local utility and telephone company in Coastal Georgia are teaming up to offer high-speed broadband service in three counties.
Coastal Electric Cooperative of Midway and Darien Communications will invest $40 million with new broadband provider Coastal Fiber Inc., an affiliate of the cooperative, to serve 16,000 homes and businesses in Liberty, Bryan and Long counties. The first phase of the project is due to be completed in four years, with the first customers connected as early as next year.
“I am thankful to Coastal Electric Cooperative for stepping up to help hardworking Georgians gain access to new job opportunities, improved education tools, telemedicine, and much more,” Gov. Brian Kemp said Tuesday. “This project will allow thousands of Georgians to have access to reliable, high-speed internet – which is a fundamental part of continued growth.”
The coastal project is only the latest in a series of broadband expansions launched across rural Georgia since the General Assembly passed legislation two years ago authorizing Georgia electric membership cooperatives (EMCs) to get into the broadband business. In all, EMC broadband projects are bringing high-speed internet to about 200,000 Georgia homes and businesses.
The state is also stepping up the investment of public dollars in rural broadband. Between them, the fiscal 2021 mid-year budget and the fiscal 2022 spending plan the General Assembly adopted during this year’s legislative session earmarked $30 million for rural broadband projects.
The governor also has made expanding broadband in Georgia the priority for one of three committees he formed late last month to determine how to spend $4.8 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds.
While it’s long been clear that rural Georgia needed high-speed internet connectivity to compete economically, the push for broadband projects took on even greater urgency when the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to close, putting students living in rural areas without internet service at a disadvantage.
“Our community deserves access to the tools that help our residents and businesses successfully participate in today’s economy,” said state Rep. Al Williams, D-Midway. “Thanks to Coastal Electric and Darien Communications for making broadband a reality in this area.”
ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia (USG) generated an economic impact statewide of $18.6 billion in fiscal 2020.
While that was up 0.6% over fiscal 2019, the system actually produced slightly fewer jobs in fiscal 2020, generating 155,010 jobs directly and indirectly compared to 157,770 in fiscal 2019.
Fiscal 2020 marked the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in Georgia, forcing the university system to shut down in-person instruction and switch to online classes during the last couple of months of the spring semester that year.
“With strong support from the state and significant planning from our campuses, USG’s economic impact on local communities across Georgia held steady despite a challenger year,” said Teresa MacCartney, the university system’s acting chancellor.
The annual economic impact study conducted by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia found that every $1 spent directly by the system’s 26 colleges and universities generated an additional 47 cents for the surrounding region’s economy. Of the $18.6 billion in economic impact in fiscal 2020, $5.9 billion was spent within those local communities.
Of the jobs the system generated, 34% were on-campus positions, while 66% were off-campus jobs in either the public or private sectors.
A second study the Selig Center conducted found that system graduates in the Class of 2020 on average will earn an additional $862,162 during the course of their careers as a result of their degree.
Those graduates who end up working in Georgia are expected to bring in a combined $175 billion in lifetime earnings, of which 34% can be attributed can be attributed to their degrees, according to the report.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Lottery generated more than $1.5 billion for the state’s HOPE Scholarship and Pre-K programs during the last fiscal year, a record that came despite a global pandemic that dampened economic activity.
The fiscal year that ended June 30 marked the sixth straight year the lottery has exceeded $1 billion in profits for education, surpassing the previous fiscal year by $307.6 million. Fiscal 2021 also was the lottery’s 10th consecutive year of growth.
“Over the past year, like many organizations, we faced numerous challenges,” said Gretchen Corbin, the Georgia Lottery Corp.’s president and CEO. “We pivoted, made adjustments and worked hard each day … to maximize revenues for HOPE and Pre-K.”
Scratchers and draw games performed particularly well, getting a boost from the introduction of new games as well as large Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots. The lottery’s line of online products also gained in popularity as players became more familiar with online play options.
The lottery has returned more than $23.8 billion to education in Georgia since voters approved a referendum creating the program in 1992. More than 1.9 million students have received lottery-funded HOPE scholarships, while more than 1.6 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide voluntary Pre-K program.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s top elected leaders vowed Monday to make the current spike in violent crime across the state and particularly in Atlanta a top priority.
Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday he will add crime to the General Assembly’s agenda for a special session on tap this fall primarily to draw new legislative and congressional district lines.
Meanwhile, Georgia House Speaker David Ralston said House budget writers will allocate $3 million in additional law enforcement resources aimed specifically at fighting crime in Atlanta.
Kemp, Ralston and state Attorney General Chris Carr addressed members of the House Public Safety and Homeland Security, which is holding hearings this summer to try to identify what’s behind the crime wave and how the state might help fix it.
Kemp, who gave an update last week on the Gang Task Force he formed two years ago, told lawmakers Monday the state’s multi-agency Crime Suppression Unit has arrested 109 criminal suspects, impounded hundreds of vehicles involved in street racing, seized hundreds of stolen firearms and made thousands of vehicle stops.
The governor also thanked the General Assembly for passing laws aimed at human traffickers and street gangs since he took office in 2019.
“These initiatives have helped us move the needle,” Kemp said. “[But] the dangerous gangs aren’t letting up.”
Ralston cited a 60% increase in homicides in Atlanta this year, along with a rise in shootings and stabbings in the city, as reason enough to put more resources into fighting the crime wave.
Of the $3 million he proposed Monday, $2 million would be used to add 20 state troopers to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s SWAT and DUI task forces to focus on crime in and around the city of Atlanta. Another $1 million would double the size of the GBI’s Gang Task Force and the Human Trafficking Task Force, which operates out of the attorney general’s office.
“I want you to bring people to the table who want to offer solutions,” Ralston told members of the House committee. “I want us to work together to find a way forward.”
Kemp repeated criticism he leveled last week at Atlanta officials for not taking an aggressive enough stance in fighting the crime wave.
Carr echoed that theme by accusing some prosecutors around Georgia of selective enforcement of state law, deciding which misdemeanors they wish to enforce and which to let go.
“Georgia has one of the toughest anti-gang statutes in the nation,” he said. “It needs to be put to use.”
While lawmakers could consider legislation related to crime during the upcoming redistricting session, action on Ralston’s funding proposals won’t happen until lawmakers take up the fiscal 2022 mid-year budget and fiscal 2023 budget early next year.
