Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium is set to host a mass COVID-19 vaccine site. (Mercedes-Benz Stadium photo)
Federal officials are planning to open a temporary mass COVID-19 vaccination site at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta, adding to several other large vaccine sites scattered across Georgia.
The Atlanta vaccine site inside the stadium is expected open in the next two weeks and should be able to administer about 6,000 shots a day, or 42,000 per week, according to a news release from President Joe Biden’s administration.
It will be open for eight weeks, marking a test run for mass vaccine sites overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in vulnerable communities hit hard by the pandemic.
Officials from FEMA, the state Department of Public Health, state emergency-management staff and Fulton County planned to meet Friday to shore up details on running the site, according to the White House.
Gov. Brian Kemp’s office praised the new partnership Friday as a way to boost vaccine administration and protect vulnerable Georgians.
“Governor Kemp is proud to partner with the federal government, Fulton County, and private partners to vaccinate more Georgians at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium,” said Mallory Blount, Kemp’s press secretary. “By working together at a federal, state, and local level, we can save lives and get Georgians back to normal.”
The new site in Atlanta comes as Georgia school teachers and staff become eligible for vaccines starting on Monday. Health-care workers, nursing home residents and staff, first responders and people ages 65 and older are already eligible.
Combined, those nine state-run vaccine sites should have the ability to give around 42,000 shots a week to eligible Georgians, with capacity to ramp up once the federal government approves the state for larger shipments of the vaccine.
Georgia’s weekly vaccine supplies are set to stand at 223,000 doses starting next week of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
Roughly 2,217,000 vaccines have been administered in Georgia so far, with nearly 867,000 of those shots being second doses to provide full inoculation, according to state data.
Nearly 824,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Georgia as of Thursday afternoon, with more than 192,000 more reported positive antigen tests indicating likely positive results. The virus has killed 15,462 Georgians.
Churches and other places of worship would have to remain open in Georgia during public emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic under a measure that passed the state Senate on Friday.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, would forbid Georgia governors from closing churches, mosques, synagogues or “other religious institutions” during a state of emergency.
It has backing from Gov. Brian Kemp who faced criticism for moving to impose distancing requirements in churches at the onset of the pandemic’s spread last March. He has also faced backlash for a largely hands-off approach to allowing businesses and churches to stay open during the pandemic.
Anavitarte’s bill also would allow Georgia businesses to remain open during emergency declarations so long as they comply with safety rules set by the governor.
“I think we as a people have a right to assemble in our churches,” Anavitarte said from the Senate floor on Friday. “As long as we follow the necessary health protocols that the experts put out there, we should be able to move forward.”
The measure passed the Republican-controlled Senate on a nearly party-line vote with Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, voting against. It now heads to the state House of Representatives.
Anavitarte’s legislation is similar to a separate bill limiting the governor’s emergency powers over religious groups in the House, sponsored by Rep. Dominic LaRiccia, R-Douglas.
Opponents argue barring churches from closing could endanger Georgians during a public-health crisis by promoting gathering spaces where viral outbreaks could occur. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called the measure “extreme, dangerous and unnecessary.”
“The right to exercise one’s faith is among our most fundamental constitutional rights,” said Andrea Young, executive director of the ACLU’s Georgia chapter. “But it is constitutionally appropriate for the government to place restrictions on religious activities and religious institutions.”
Kemp faced blowback from religious-freedom advocates last spring after authorities shut down a handful of local churches for congregating with too many people during the pandemic’s early days.
Despite the open-door policy, many churches and other places of worship have chosen to avoid resuming in-person services, opting instead to hold services online.
Kemp, who has credited his decision to let Georgia businesses largely stay open with shoring up the state’s economy, touted his move to work with local congregations rather than shutting them down. He threw his support last month behind Anavitarte’s bill, dubbed the “Faith Protection Act.”
“In Georgia, we never shuttered churches, synagogues, or other places of worship because we value faith, family and freedom,” Kemp said in a statement. “With the Faith Protection Act signed into law, Georgia will be a sanctuary state for people of faith.”
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate passed a constitutional amendment Friday asking voters statewide to decide whether to legalize online sports betting.
Senators voted 41-10 to approve the measure, three votes more than the two-thirds majority needed to pass it and send it to the state House of Representatives.
Friday’s floor vote marked the most progress any proposal to legalize any form of gambling in Georgia other than the lottery has made in the General Assembly in more than a decade of failed efforts.
As has been the case with attempts to put casinos and pari-mutuel betting on horse racing on the ballot, supporters argued Georgians should have the right to vote on sports betting.
“I have never had any problems with allowing the people to vote,” Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, the constitutional amendment’s chief sponsor, said on the Senate floor.
Mullis said an estimated 2 million Georgians already are betting on sports illegally and spending more than $4 billion a year, money that goes into the pockets of bookies instead of the state.
Under Senate Resolution 135, a state tax of 16% on the proceeds from online sports betting would be divided between need-based scholarships, rural health and broadband deployment.
Originally, the constitutional amendment did not specify what percentage of the proceeds should go toward each of those three purposes.
“I feel like we ought to let the legislature have a little latitude in deciding what’s most important to us,” said Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, a cosponsor of Mullis’ resolution.
However, senators amended the resolution on the floor to specify that at least 50% of the proceeds go to need-based scholarships. The lottery-funded HOPE Scholarships program originally was need-based but later began offering awards strictly on merit.
Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, who proposed the amendment, said need-based scholarships would help Georgia meet its workforce needs.
“We need many more people who can afford to matriculate to some form of higher education,” she said.
Some lawmakers have pushed this year for legalizing online sports betting by statute rather than a constitutional amendment because statues only require a simply majority to pass. A bill pending in the Georgia House takes that approach.
But Cowsert cited legal opinions that legalizing sports betting and putting it under the jurisdiction of the Georgia Lottery Corp. requires changing the state Constitution because sports betting doesn’t meet the legal definition of a lottery game.
“It’s cleaner and uncontroversial to let the voters decide,” he said. “We’re not imposing our will on the state without letting them be heard.”
After passing the constitutional amendment, the Senate voted 34-17 to approve an “enabling” bill specifying how sports betting would operate in Georgia.
Senate Bill 142 requires companies interested in running sportsbooks to pay the lottery corporation a nonrefundable application fee of $10,000. At least six companies would be selected and would pay license fees of $100,000 per year. The license fees had been set at $900,000 under the original bill.
Cowsert said the lower fee would prevent giant operators such as DraftKings or FanDuel from monopolizing the business in Georgia.
“Reducing that to $100,000 allows Georgia businesses to offer sports betting, not just Las Vegas,” he said.
Senators approved two amendments to the bill to ensure that women-owned businesses and businesses owned by veterans get a shot at licenses and to make sure the enabling bill would not take effect until the beginning of 2023, and only then if voters approve the referendum in November of next year.
Cowsert, who played a major role shaping both measures as chairman of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee, said he opposes casinos and made sure sports betting in Georgia would be online only.
“It’s something that’s not [going to be] in land-based facilities,” he said. “It doesn’t have crime associated with it.”
The enabling bill also prohibits minors from betting, and bettors would have to be physically inside Georgia, a provision that would be enforced through geofencing technology.
To participate, bettors would have to open an online account and could not deposit more than $2,500 per month into the account. Also, betting on credit would be prohibited.
“I want to make sure we protect people from themselves,” Cowsert said. “They don’t bet the mortgage. They don’t bet the groceries.”
The vote on the constitutional amendment was bipartisan. Although need-based scholarships was an important provision Democrats wanted to see in the measure, three of the 10 “no” votes came from Democrats.
The Georgia Professional Sports Integrity Alliance, a coalition of Atlanta’s four major pro sports teams, issued a statement praising Friday’s vote.
“A new state law with strict regulatory requirements that protects consumers will bring significant new revenue to the state; strengthen HOPE Scholarships; and protect the integrity of professional sports, a multi-billion industry in Georgia,” the statement read. “The people in Georgia overwhelmingly support sports wagering and we are confident the legislation will become law.”
ATLANTA – Georgia House budget writers approved a $27.2 billion fiscal 2022 state budget Thursday that restores 10% across-the-board spending cuts the General Assembly imposed last year, with a special emphasis on education and mental health.
The House Appropriations Committee supported Gov. Brian Kemp’s recommendation to restore $567.5 million in “austerity” cuts to the state’s public schools. The fiscal 2021 mid-year budget Kemp signed last month already had put back a similar amount of more than $1 billion in reductions to K-12 schools lawmakers approved last June at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Among other education spending, the House added $5 million Thursday to the Department of Education’s school nutrition program, which has been forced to scramble to deliver meals to students stuck at home because of COVID-19.
The committee also added $36 million to the $22 million the governor requested for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, making a total of $58 million for the fiscal year starting July 1.
“We will make a significant statement as it relates to mental health this year,” said Appropriations Committee Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn.
The extra money includes $12.3 million to give providers of mental health services a 5% rate increase and almost $300,000 to help Georgia join a new national 988 suicide hotline and add a full-time epidemiologist to work with suicide data.
Nursing homes, which have been hit particularly hard with patient hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19, would get $7.4 million to “stabilize” staffing. Another $11.9 million would go toward a 2% rate increase for skilled nursing centers..
The House also added $25.3 million to pay for a 10% increase for home- and community-based services, while the Department of Public Health would receive $1.5 million to track the state’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
The House budget recognizes high turnover rates in some state agencies by raising salaries, including $1.6 million earmarked for medical examiners with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
“Many of our docs in that division are being hired away,” England said.
Two House adds to the Secretary of State’s office include $150,000 to help cover the costs of processing temporary licenses for nurses who have come to Georgia from out of state to work with coronavirus patients, and $667,642 to help jump-start Georgia’s medical cannabis initiative.
Nearly 70 businesses have applied for licenses to produce low-THC cannabis oil for medical use in Georgia, the commission in charge of the program announced last month.
The Department of Driver Services would receive $250,000 for a new program to provide free IDs to Georgians who now have to pay $32 for the cards. Georgians who don’t have a driver’s license could use the card to comply with voter ID requirements.
The Republican-controlled House passed a controversial bill this week that includes stricter identification requirements for absentee voting.
“We have heard from Georgians who are concerned about fees associated with obtaining a voter identification,” House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, who proposed the initiative, said Wednesday. “I am committed to eliminating barriers to voting for all legally eligible Georgians.”
House budget writers also added $50 million to the $883 million package of bond projects Kemp recommended in January.
Highlights include $32.2 million for construction of the Jack and Ruth Hill Convocation Center at Georgia Southern University, named in honor of the late Sen. Jack Hill, R-Reidsville, and his wife, up from $12.2 million the governor requested. Both died last spring.
Other projects the Appropriations Committee added include:
$4 million to renovate Bandy Gymnasium on the campus of Dalton State College.
$3.5 million for Phase 2 of renovations to the campground at Stone Mountain Park.
$2.95 million for an extension of the campground at Jekyll Island.
$2.8 million for the Dr. Mark A. Ivester Center for Living and Learning at North Georgia Technical College in Clarkesville.
$2.5 million to renovate Christenberry Field House at Augusta University.
The full House is due to take up the budget on Friday.
Legislation allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition for Georgia public colleges and universities cleared a major hurdle in the General Assembly on Thursday.
The House Higher Education Committee passed a measure brought by Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton, that would extend lower-cost tuition rates to thousands of so-called “Dreamers” in Georgia who are protected from deportation under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Carpenter’s bill stalled in the same committee last year amid uncertainty over then-President Donald Trump’s moves to scrap the DACA protections that were created during former President Barack Obama’s administration.
The bill now heads to the full House of Representatives where it could face stiff opposition from Republican lawmakers fearful of incentivizing undocumented immigrants to reside in Georgia illegally for the benefit of their children.
However, some Georgia Republicans have praised Carpenter for bringing the bill in the face of attacks from immigration hardliners in the state legislature and outside advocacy groups.
“This took a lot of courage and a lot of guts,” said Rep. Bert Reeves, R-Marietta. “This measure makes a tremendous amount of sense.”
The bill would cover DACA recipients who have lived continuously in Georgia since 2013 and are younger than 30, estimated by Carpenter at about 9,000 potential students who would be newly eligible for in-state tuition.
State law currently bars many non-citizen residents like DACA recipients from qualifying for in-state college tuition, which tends to be much lower than what students arriving from outside Georgia pay.
Carpenter’s bill would ease financial pain for DACA recipients who consider Georgia their home but tend to pay double or more to attend public colleges. It would let schools set the rates for DACA recipients at in-state tuition levels or up to 10% higher.
The bill would not allow in-state tuition to attend Georgia’s research schools including the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University and Augusta University.
Supporters say lowering tuition rates would bolster Georgia’s workforce with better-educated and higher-skilled workers in Georgia while giving longtime residents a reprieve as they navigate paths to citizenship.
Opponents have criticized the measure as a slap in the face for Georgia citizens that could attract more undocumented persons and take college spots away from U.S. citizen students from other states.
Carpenter’s bill still needs to clear the House Rules Committee and pass out of the full House no later than Monday for it to remain alive in the current legislative session.
