Georgia Supreme Court Presiding Justice David Nahmias
ATLANTA – David Nahmias was unanimously elected by his colleagues on the Georgia Supreme Court Thursday to become the court’s chief justice starting July 1.
Current Chief Justice Harold Melton announced last month that he would be stepping down from the court this summer after serving on the court for 16 years.
Nahmias, currently the court’s presiding justice, was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 2009 by then-Gov. Sonny Perdue to fill a vacancy. Georgia voters then elected Nahmias to a six-year term in 2010 and reelected him in 2016.
Before joining the court, Nahmias was U.S. attorney for the Atlanta-based Northern District of Georgia. Before that, he served as a senior member of the U.S. Justice Department.
The DeKalb County native earned his undergraduate degree at Duke University and his law degree from Harvard Law School, where he served on the Law Review with former President Barack Obama and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. Nahmias went on to serve as a law clerk to the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
In his new role as chief justice in Georgia, Nahmias will lead the state’s judicial branch and act as the Supreme Court’s spokesman. He also will chair the Georgia Judicial Council, the policymaking body for the judicial branch.
Georgia chief justices serve one four-year term.
Also on Thursday, the justices unanimously elected Justice Michael Boggs to succeed Nahmias as presiding justice.
ATLANTA – First-time unemployment claims in Georgia rose last week for the second week in a row, even as jobless claims nationwide were on the decline.
Unemployed Georgians filed 28,387 initial claims last week, up 2,940 from the previous week, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday. Nationwide, first-time unemployment claims fell by 42,000 during the week to 712,000.
On the positive side, the labor department also reported Thursday that unemployment in Georgia fell slightly in January to 5.1%, a drop of 7.4% since the coronavirus pandemic began a year ago and 1.2% below the national jobless rate for January.
Meanwhile, the labor department began gearing up to implement the extended unemployment benefits contained in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that gained final passage in Congress on Wednesday. President Joe Biden then signed the bill on Thursday.
The legislation will extend the $300-per-week unemployment supplements Americans have been receiving for an additional 25 weeks. Without the new bill, those benefits were due to expire this month.
“If the … [U.S. Department of Labor] issues guidance on the extensions that does not include significant programming adjustments, we do not anticipate interruptions in payments for those currently receiving [Unemployment Insurance] benefits,” Georgia Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said Thursday.
“We will meet with the [federal labor department] … to review the details of the implementation and subsequently update our system and programs.”
Since COVID-19 took hold in Georgia in March of last year, more than $19.3 billion in state and federal unemployment benefits have been paid out to nearly 4.5 million Georgians, more than during the nine years before the pandemic combined.
The job sector that accounted for the most initial unemployment claims in Georgia last week was accommodation and food services with 5,336 claims. The administrative and support services job sector was next with 2,922 claims, followed by manufacturing with 2,811.
More than 206,000 job listings are online at https://bit.ly/36EA2vk for Georgians to access. The labor department offers online resources for finding a job, building a resume and assisting with other reemployment needs.
ATLANTA – Substance-abuse centers would not be allowed to pay third parties to procure patients under legislation the Georgia House of Representatives passed unanimously Thursday.
Senate Bill 4, sponsored by state Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, R-Marietta, cleared the Georgia Senate last month. It would make illegal what is known as “patient brokering.”
The practice has been on the rise as the emphasis on addressing substance abuse has shifted from criminalizing the behavior to treating it, said Rep. Bert Reeves, R-Marietta, who carried the bill in the House.
“A lot of aspects of this industry are shady,” he said. “There are always some bad players.”
Rep. Shelly Hutchinson, D-Snellville, is a mental health and substance abuse services provider.
“I’m contacted constantly to offer referrals for a fee,” she said. “This is a problem that really needs to be addressed in Georgia.”
The bill also criminalizes fraudulent and excessive medical testing, including overbilling for multi-panel drug screening.
“Some testers are breaking it into separate tests and billing accordingly,” Reeves said. “That’s just wrong.”
The bill sets fines and prison sentences that would rise in severity depending on the number of patients involved. The maximum penalty would be up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000 per violation for patient brokering involving 20 or more patients.
Fraudulent testing would be a misdemeanor subject to a jail sentence of up to one year and a fine of up to $1,000 per violation.
Because the House Insurance Committee offered Senate Bill 4 as a substitute to the original version, it now must go back to the Senate before it can gain final passage.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s net tax collections soared last month due to a large decrease in taxpayer refunds, the state Department of Revenue reported Wednesday.
The state agency brought in more than $1.93 billion in February, an increase of 42.9% over the $1.35 billion the state collected in February of last year.
Most of the increase was driven by individual income tax receipts, which rose to $1.06 billion, up 96.7% compared to February 2020.
Most of the increase was the result of a 77.5% drop-off in refunds issued last month because of a delay in processing both tax returns from 2020 and the resulting tax refunds until mid-February, a step the revenue department took to comply with new IRS guidelines.
Net sales taxes rose by 16.3% last month, while corporate income tax collections plummeted by 69%, a decrease due to a large drop in corporate tax payments coupled with a big increase in refunds.
The revenue agency warned that as the processing of tax refunds picks up during the next several months, the favorable impact the large increase in net tax collections that occurred in February had on the state’s coffers will go away.
ATLANTA – As was the case with the entire U.S. House, Georgia’s congressional delegation voted along party lines Wednesday on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package.
The Democrat-controlled House passed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 by a vote of 220-211, with all but one Democrat supporting it and all of the Republicans voting “no.” Georgia’s six Democrats voted in favor of the legislation, and the eight Republicans opposed it.
The plan includes $1,400 economic stimulus checks for Americans earning up to $75,000 a year and couples earning up to $150,000 annually, an extension of $300-per-week in unemployment benefits, aid to state and local governments, funds to help schools reopen safely and an expanded federal child tax credit.
It also provides new funding for small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program and additional funding to administer COVID-19 vaccines and expand testing and contact tracing.
“This bill is about saving lives and livelihoods,” said Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, D-Suwanee.
“After a year of grief and pain in America, a year that caused economic hardship for hardworking families across America … this bill helps us move past this year of pain and struggle,” added Rep. Lucy McBath, R-Roswell.
But Georgia’s congressional Republicans called the legislation a hugely expensive overreach by Democrats that goes far beyond what is needed to address the public health and economic impacts of the pandemic.
“You can’t call it a COVID-19 relief bill when 91% of the $1.9 trillion goes toward unrelated Democrat priorities,” said Rep. Rick Allen, R-Augusta.
“It’s nothing but a liberal wish list parading as pandemic relief,” added Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-West Point. “This package is wrong for America, and it’s wrong for the state of Georgia.”
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston objected to a provision in the measure that prohibits state and local governments from using any of the relief funds to offset tax cuts. Legislation the state House of Representatives passed last week and sent to the Georgia Senate would reduce taxes by $140 million a year by raising the standard deduction for state income taxpayers.
“In Georgia, we have prioritized providing tax relief to our citizens, and [the American Rescue Plan] appears to prohibit that relief,” Ralston wrote in a letter to Biden dated March 10. “I pray that you will prevail upon Congress to have this flaw in the legislation corrected before signing it into law.”
Of the $350 billion the bill earmarks for state and local governments, $8.1 billion is headed to Georgia. Of that, $4.6 billion will go to the state, with the rest earmarked for local governments.
Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who voted for the legislation when the Senate passed it last weekend, said the relief will go to those who need it most.
“Zero percent of the tax credits and stimulus checks go to the top 1%,” he said. “This is getting help directly to working class and middle class people.”
