Neighbors of a North Carolina hog farm filed a successful nuisance lawsuit late last year.
ATLANTA – After a year in limbo, “Right to Farm” legislation being pushed by groups representing the farming and livestock industries will be back before the General Assembly this winter.
“There’s no bigger issue to our organization than right to farm,” Will Bentley, president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council, told members of the Georgia House Rural Development Council Dec. 8. “It’s becoming more and more of an issue around the state.”
The Right to Farm Act would make it harder for property owners living in areas zoned for agricultural use to file nuisance lawsuits against nearby farms or livestock operations. The Georgia Senate passed the bill during the 2020 legislative session but it fizzled in the state House of Representatives.
After staying quiet during this year’s session, groups including the agribusiness council, the Georgia Farm Bureau, the Georgia Forestry Association and the Georgia Poultry Federation are vowing to renew their campaign in support of the measure during the 2022 session.
The need to protect farms and livestock operators from nuisance suits has grown increasingly urgent over time, said Mike Giles, president of the poultry federation.
Year after year, more and more urban and suburban residents move to the country to enjoy the rural lifestyle, Giles said. Once they get there, some are bothered by the smells, dust and noise associated with nearby farms and livestock operations and file nuisance suits, he said.
Giles pointed to $100 million awards in nuisance suits in North Carolina that have crippled farmers.
“Trial attorneys can put farms and agribusiness out of business,” said state Rep. Robert Dickey, R-Musella, chairman of the House Agriculture & Consumer Affairs Committee. “That’s what we’re trying to prevent.”
Opponents say an earlier Right to Farm law Georgia lawmakers passed during the 1980s contains adequate protections for farmers.
“Existing farmers are protected,” said Gordon Rogers, executive director of Albany-based Flint Riverkeeper.
But supporters of updating the Right to Farm Act say new farming operations are most in need of protection from nuisance suits because Georgia is running out of sparsely populated areas where residential encroachment has not occurred.
“There’s just no part of the state where you can put agriculture where there’s not already people there,” Bentley said.
Jacob Matthews, a governmental affairs specialist with the Georgia Farm Bureau, said Right to Farm protection is an economic issue.
“If we’re trying to boost rural Georgia’s economy, it’s important to make sure the opportunity is there for people to come in and start new farms,” he said.
Rogers said environmental organizations that oppose the updated Right to Farm Act don’t object to row crop farming or timber operations.
But he said the bill’s real intention is to protect giant livestock operations like the industrial hog farm operated in North Carolina by Smithfield Foods that was sued successfully by neighbors late last year.
“Nobody wants to be next to them,” Rogers said.
The Senate amended the 2020 bill to require that lawsuits challenging farms or livestock operations must be filed within two years of when a nuisance occurs. More restrictive language in the original legislation would have required suits to be brought within two years of an applicant obtaining a permit to start or change a farm operation.
While environmental groups working the issue accepted the new statute of limitations as a compromise, it didn’t go over well with the original bill’s backers. Supporters in the House sought to strip the amendment from the measure, but when that effort failed, the legislation died.
It’s unclear whether the two-year statute of limitations will be in the 2022 bill because it is not among the measures that have been pre-filed in advance of the legislative session.
“The question is, ‘Do they want to have that same fight, or are they coming up with something more creative?’ ” Rogers said.
The bill isn’t expected to be introduced until after the General Assembly convenes next month.
This story available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Making school board elections in Georgia nonpartisan would help reduce the divisiveness that has roiled school districts in the pandemic era, a series of speakers primarily from Gwinnett County told state lawmakers Friday.
A Georgia Senate study committee is considering whether to support legislation to require school districts statewide to make school board elections nonpartisan.
More than 100 of Georgia’s 180 elected school boards are already nonpartisan, and a bill introduced in the Senate during the recent special session would switch the Gwinnett County Board of Education from a partisan to a nonpartisan board.
The Gwinnett parents who testified at the state Capitol Friday complained that the local board has become more partisan since the last election, when the board shifted from entirely Republican to majority Democrat.
Quarrels over mask mandates and curriculum have taken attention away from quality education, said Michael Rudnick, a North Gwinnett parent.
“Our school system has been hijacked by politics. It’s very divisive,” he said. “If we can take partisanship out of it, we could be more focused on success for our children.”
Two of those who testified Friday were arrested at a Gwinnett school board meeting last month at a security screening area outside the board chambers.
Brenda Stewart of Suwanee described herself as a fully vaccinated moderate who opposes mask mandates based on her research as a nurse.
“I think the pandemic is part of it,” she said. “The partisanship is not helping. … We are not coming together.”
Angela Palm, director of policy and legislative services for the Georgia Schools Boards Association, she her organization has long supported making school board elections nonpartisan.
“Children are not Democrats or Republicans,” she said. “They’re children there to get an education.”
But Cecily Harsch-Kinnane, policy and outreach director for the group Public Education Matters and a former Atlanta Board of Education member, questioned imposing nonpartisan elections statewide. She said local school boards already have the legal right to switch from partisan to nonpartisan if they choose.
“Our local communities know our local communities the best,” she said. “This isn’t something that needs to be done at the state level.”
The study committee will hold a second meeting next Thursday at Gwinnett Technical College in Lawrenceville.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – A federal judge has ruled a series of lawsuits challenging the election reform law the General Assembly enacted last March may move forward.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee Thursday denied motions to dismiss suits filed by civil and voting rights group opposed to Senate Bill 202.
The controversial measure, which the Republican-controlled legislature passed along party lines, replaces the signature-match verification process for absentee ballots with an ID requirement, restricts the location of ballot drop boxes and prohibits non-poll workers from handing out food and drinks within 150 feet of voters standing in line.
Boulee ruled that the groups had legal standing to sue because they suffered harm from the election law in that it forced them to divert funds and other resources from other priorities to fight the measure.
The judge also declared the groups have sufficient cause to make a claim against the defendants, including Gov. Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the Republican National Committee.
Representatives of the plaintiffs praised the judge’s ruling.
“The right to vote is one of the most fundamental freedoms of a democracy and one of the most important ways people can advocate for themselves and their communities,” said Poy Winichakul, staff attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“As the litigation proceeds, we believe it will become even clearer how S.B. 202 was based on a false and dangerous narrative about past elections, erects unlawful barriers to voting, and places undue burdens on Georgians.”
“Georgia’s anti-voter law makes it harder to vote for Georgia’s citizens of color and citizens with disabilities, and we look forward to continue to fight this law in court,” added Rahul Garabadu, voting rights staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.
Georgia Republican leaders say the lawsuits are a politically motivated effort aimed at a legitimate attempt to restore election integrity in Georgia and prevent voter fraud.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Forrmer U.S. Sen. and gubernatorial candidate David Perdue (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue plans to make next year’s gubernatorial race a double referendum on what fellow Republican Brian Kemp has done as governor and what Democrat Stacey Abrams would do if she gets into office.
“I like Brian. He’s done OK in most areas,” Perdue, who entered the Republican primary contest against Kemp this week, told Capitol Beat Thursday. “[But] people have lost confidence in this governor.”
Perdue said he decided to challenge Kemp for the Republican nomination because he doesn’t believe the incumbent, who narrowly defeated Abrams in 2018, can pull off a repeat in 2022.
“We have a divided party,” Perdue said. “I think Brian Kemp is responsible. I wouldn’t be doing this if I thought he could pull us together.”
Perdue’s discontent with Kemp goes back to the aftermath of last year’s presidential election, when the governor refused to help then-President Donald Trump overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia.
Trump and his legal team sought to de-certify the state’s election results, alleging issues with Georgia’s voting machines and the process for verifying signatures on absentee ballots.
Statewide recounts showed Biden the winner and subsequent lawsuits challenging that outcome were dismissed for lack of evidence.
“I asked the governor to call a special [General Assembly] session, not to change the election in November but to fix it before the runoff election,” Perdue said Thursday.
Perdue finished first in the November election against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff but lost in the runoff in early January.
Kemp spokesman Cody Hall denied that Perdue sought a special session ahead of the runoff.
“His campaign – and Perdue himself – knew that a special session could not overturn the 2020 general election and that changes to election rules for an election already underway are not allowed under state law or court precedent,” Hall posted on Twitter.
In order to defeat Kemp and then Abrams, Perdue said he must have a message for voters. He said a top priority he would pursue if elected is a phased-in repeal of Georgia’s income tax. He said nine states including Florida, Texas and Tennessee, don’t levy state income taxes.
“We’ve got to become more competitive for jobs,” he said. “We’re falling behind right now.”
Georgia Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, who is running for lieutenant governor, pre-filed a bill last month to eliminate the state income tax.
The idea drew opposition Thursday from the Atlanta-based Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
Danny Kanso, a senior policy analyst with the institute, said the income tax is the main source of funding for such vital state services as education and health care.
“We’re not talking about a small fraction of the budget here, or something that could be easily eliminated in any way,” he said. “We’re talking about literally the main source of revenue that’s powered the state budget since the mid-20th century.”
If Perdue gets by Kemp in May’s Republican primary, he likely would face Abrams, who appears to have a clear path to the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
“The failures of the Biden administration are what Stacey Abrams says she wants to bring to Georgia,” Perdue said. “This race is all about who can beat Stacey Abrams.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Supply chain issues aren’t affecting the Port of Savannah’s ability to move containerized cargo.
The port’s Garden City Terminal handled 495,750 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) last month, a 6.7% increase over November of last year and a new monthly record for the Georgia Ports Authority.
In fact, Savannah has set record cargo volumes for 16 consecutive months, authority Executive Director Griff Lynch said Thursday.
During the last six months, the port has begun a series of improvements aimed at growing Savannah’s annual cargo capacity by 25%.
Those projects have allowed the port to increase its container handling space by 200,000 TEUs, with another 200,000 TEUs of capacity to be added by the end of this month.
Another 500,000 TEUs of cargo space will be added by March, raising total new capacity to 1.6 million TEUs by June.
“Through the cooperation of our customers and the innovative thinking of our operations team, we’ve trimmed the number of boxes on terminal to allow for more efficient container handling and faster vessel service,” said Joel Wooten, the authority’s board chairman.
“Additionally, crews are working every day to build the new container yard and dock space that will keep commerce flowing.”
The Savannah port also has activated four “pop-up” container yards near manufacturing and distribution centers in Savannah, Statesboro, Atlanta, and near the authority’s inland terminal in Northwest Georgia’s Murray County to reduce the length of storage time at the port.
Eventually, there will be 500,000 TEUs of annual capacity at those off-port sites.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
