ATLANTA – Former state Sen. and 2018 gubernatorial candidate Hunter Hill was named executive director of the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) by the agency’s board Tuesday.
Hill, who currently serves as GEFA’s executive director, will succeed the retiring Kevin Clark on July 1. Hill was recommended for the promotion by Gov. Brian Kemp.
Hill was elected to the Senate in 2012 representing a suburban Atlanta district including parts of Cobb County and North Fulton.
He left office in 2017 to seek the Republican nomination for governor but finished third in the 2018 GOP primary.
A West Point graduate, Hill served three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
After leaving the military, he worked in the private sector in commercial real estate, executive leadership coaching and wealth management.
GEFA provides financing for a variety of energy, land, and water projects. Since 1985, the agency has approved financial commitments totaling more than $5 billion to local governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Gov. Brian Kemp (left) has opened a huge fundraising lead over former U.S. Sen. David Perdue
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp continues to dominate former U.S. Sen. David Perdue in fundraising heading into their Republican gubernatorial primary showdown.
Kemp’s campaign had raised $22.4 million through the end of last month toward his bid for a second term, according to a report filed Monday with the Georgia Government Transparency & Campaign Finance Commission.
Perdue, who is mounting a rare primary challenge against an incumbent governor, reported raising only $3.5 million as of April 30, including a $500,000 loan he made to his campaign.
Kemp also has a lot more to spend getting his message out to voters in the final weeks leading up to the May 24 GOP primary. The governor’s campaign had $10.7 million remaining in its treasury as of the end of last month, compared to just less than $900,000 left for Perdue.
Three other Republican candidates for governor lag far behind Kemp and Perdue in the battle for bucks.
Educator Kandiss Taylor had not filed a report with the state covering February, March, and April as of Tuesday. Her campaign had raised about $175,000 as of the end of January.
Conservative activist Catherine Davis had raised only $13,777 through April 30, while Tom Williams hadn’t raised or spent any money, according to his report to the state.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia tax collections skyrocketed in April for the second month in a row, the result of last year’s late tax filing date of May 17, the state Department of Revenue reported Monday.
The agency brought in just more than $5 million last month, up 78.9% over April of last year.
Individual income tax receipts were up 158.7% due to a huge increase in tax payments.
Net sales tax collections rose by a much more modest 12.9%.
Corporate income tax revenues were up 56.9%, as tax payments increased by 75%.
Tax receipts on motor fuels including gasoline fell by 39.5% in April, reflecting Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to temporarily suspend the tax to help offset rising pump prices. The governor’s executive order suspending the tax is due to expire May 31.
The revenue department said year-over-year tax comparisons will be comparable again after the end of this month.
Even when the temporary spike in tax revenue ends, the state is expected to be sitting on a huge budget surplus that has made spending decisions easier both for Kemp and the General Assembly.
The $30.2 billion fiscal 2023 budget due to take effect July 1 would increase spending by 10.8% over the spending plan lawmakers adopted a year ago. Kemp is expected to sign the budget later this week.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp signed two tax credit bills Monday along with legislation authorizing “co-responder” teams of law enforcement officers and mental health professionals to answer emergency calls.
The three bills were priorities of Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who presides over the Georgia Senate. All three passed the General Assembly with bipartisan support.
“We worked together across the party divide,” Duncan said during a news conference at the state Capitol before Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bills.
The “LESS” (Law Enforcement Strategic Support) Crime Act will provide Georgia taxpayers a dollar-for-dollar income tax credit on contributions to public safety initiatives in their communities.
Law enforcement agencies will be able to use the money for police officer salary supplements, to purchase or maintain department equipment and/or to establish or maintain a co-responder program.
“This gives much more resources to local law enforcement,” said Sen. Larry Walker III, R-Perry, the bill’s chief sponsor.
The bill includes a statewide cap on the program of $75 million a year. Individual law enforcement agencies are limited to $3 million annually.
Single taxpayers will receive a tax credit of up to $5,000, with married couples filing jointly eligible for up to $10,000.
The second tax credit bill Kemp signed Monday will provide up to $20 million a year to nonprofit organizations that help foster children about to age out of the foster care system. More than 700 young men and women age out of the system each year.
“They don’t have a huge constituency down here lobbying us … to give them the same chance I had,” Duncan said.
The money will pay for services such as housing, food and transportation to help foster children leaving the system pursue college or technical school as well as provide mentors to help influence them to make good decisions.
The third bill will for the first time set up a statewide co-responder program to let mental health workers respond with police to emergency calls involving people who appear to be in mental distress.
A comprehensive bill overhauling Georgia’s mental health system the General Assembly passed unanimously this year calls for funding five co-responder programs around the state, including a training component.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA — The Georgia House Democratic Caucus held a press conference Monday in which representatives – all women – decried the potential loss of abortion rights in Georgia and urged voters to support pro-choice candidates in upcoming elections.
The caucus called the press conference in response to the leak of a draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion that indicates the court is likely to overturn the Roe v. Wade precedent that legalized abortions in 1973.
“I was shocked that it actually seems to be happening,” said Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, about the leaked Supreme Court opinion. “This is a significant change in the history of our country.”
“I am deeply afraid for the lives of women,” Oliver said.
The Georgia legislature passed a law in 2019 that outlawed most abortions in the state. House Bill 481 – the so-called “heartbeat bill” — prohibited most abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, generally at around six weeks of pregnancy.
Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law in May 2019. Reproductive rights groups then successfully challenged the law in federal court. A judge permanently enjoined the law in January 2020.
But if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, Georgia’s HB 481 could quickly go back into effect, Oliver said. There would be an “open door” for the state to move the courts to reinstate the law.
Oliver said she keeps “hearing rumors” that Kemp may call a legislative special session to enact a ban on abortions before the 2023 session.
Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, who is running against Kemp in the Republican gubernatorial primary on May 24, has called for a special legislative session to ban abortion in Georgia as soon as Roe v. Wade is overturned.
“You are either going to fight for the sanctity of life or you’re not,” Perdue tweeted last week.
Some Republican primary candidates have said they are against abortion with no exception for rape or incest.
Rep. Shea Roberts, D-Atlanta, said Monday she decided to publicly share her own story about deciding to have an abortion after finding out about the leaked opinion.
Roberts said she terminated a pregnancy 15 years ago after learning that her fetus had an incurable chromosomal abnormality that was “incompatible with life.”
Roberts, who already had a child, considered carrying the pregnancy to term. But she decided not to because of the health risks that would pose to her.
“Is it worth risking your life and possibly leaving your daughter an orphan only to delay the inevitable?” Roberts said her doctor asked at the time.
Though the decision was painful, “I have absolutely no doubt in my mind it was the right decision for me and my unborn child,” Roberts said.
“It’s unthinkable that despite a trained physician recommending to the contrary, [someone] might be forced to stay pregnant at great risk,” Roberts added. “That is not pro-life.”
Other representatives pointed out that women would continue to seek out abortions even if they are illegal, potentially putting lives at risks.
“Let me be clear: outlawing abortions does not stop abortions but just limits the access to safe abortions,” said Rep. Kim Schofield, D-Atlanta.
If Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion is banned in Georgia, “Women will die,” Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta, emphasized.
Rep. Park Cannon, D-Atlanta, pointed out that 79 counties in Georgia lack a single ob/gyn doctor who could provide labor and delivery services to women and that many hospitals in the state have closed.
Other legislators pointed to the potential economic fallout of an abortion ban in Georgia.
Rep. Betsy Holland, D-Atlanta, said an abortion ban would be an “economic disaster for the state.”
She pointed out that after HB 481 passed in 2019, some businesses decided to withdraw from the state. Parents of female college students told her they wanted their daughters to study out-of-state, where their rights would be protected.
“If you’re an ob/gyn, are you going to come to a state where you have to choose between upholding the Hippocratic oath or keeping yourself out of jail?,” asked Holland.
Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick, D-Atlanta, argued that the legislature should focus on jobs and health care rather than regulating women’s rights that are “none of their business.”
“We have to be prepared for the worst,” Kendrick said.
