ATLANTA – The Georgia Chamber of Commerce endorsed Republican state Sen. Burt Jones for lieutenant governor Wednesday.
The business group cited Jones’ pro-business record in its endorsement announcement. Jones also is the owner of a small business.
“His lifetime ‘A’ rating with the chamber during his tenure in the General Assembly demonstrates that Senator Jones has prioritized economic growth and opportunity in Georgia,” chamber spokesman David Raynor said.
Jones and GOP U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker were the only Georgia Republicans endorsed by former President Donald Trump to win their statewide primaries in May. Jones handily defeated Georgia Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller and two others to win the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor.
Jones will oppose Democratic nominee Charlie Bailey in the general election. Carrying an endorsement from Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, Bailey won the Democratic primary in a crowded field of candidates, defeating former Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall in a June runoff.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – A nonprofit group dedicated to clean air for children encouraged Georgia school districts Tuesday to apply for federal funds to purchase electric school buses.
A new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program aims at providing school buses an alternative to gasoline or diesel fuel by funding electric buses. Currently, most buses in Georgia run on diesel.
The agency will award around $1 billion annually for the next five years to school districts that want to purchase electric, propane, or CNG (compressed natural gas) vehicles.
The funding comes from the infrastructure spending bill Congress passed last year. Some of the funding can also be used for setting up electric-vehicle charging infrastructure.
Increasing the number of electric buses on the road will improve Georgia children’s respiratory health, Stephanie Blank, co-founder of Mothers and Others for Clean Air, said during a news conference.
Asthma is the top reason children are absent from school, Blank said.
Electrification of buses can also help with racial inequities, said Laura Turner Seydel, the group’s other co-founder.
Children from communities of color are more likely to ride buses to school and, therefore, more likely to be exposed to air pollution from buses, she said.
“No child should be made sick or die from dirty air,” she said.
At least 50 school districts in Georgia are submitting applications to the EPA, said R. Sam Ham, the director of alternative power for Yancey Bus Sales & Services. The Austell-based company is helping districts apply for the program.
School districts can use the funding to purchase propane and CNG-fueled buses along with electric buses.
The first set of EPA awards will be announced in October.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The federal agency in charge of Medicaid Tuesday denied Georgia’s application for a waiver to set up the state’s own health insurance marketplace.
The waiver program was a cornerstone of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s approach to reforming health care in the Peach State.
Under Kemp’s model, Georgians would have enrolled in insurance plans through private insurance brokers rather than the federal healthcare.gov health insurance marketplace.
The plan to set up Georgia’s own marketplace system initially gained federal approval under then-President Donald Trump in November 2020.
But after the Biden administration took office, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) asked Georgia to submit a revised plan for the waiver that would reflect new federal policies and rules.
Georgia challenged the HHS findings and did not submit the requested changes to the plan. Kemp argued at the time that the healthcare.gov website was cumbersome and inefficient.
Now, HHS has suspended Georgia’s waiver plan.
A letter Tuesday from Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the agency’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), outlined some of the problems with the Georgia waiver plan that led the agency to suspend it.
Georgia did not provide the federal government with sufficient information to prove that its plan for health insurance would prevent coverage losses, the letter noted.
Georgia also did not provide HHS enough information about how it planned to communicate about the new marketplace and engage underserved populations. The program was not yet ready to go live, according to the federal letter.
“Consumers in Georgia will continue to use HealthCare.gov, which CMS will operate, to purchase individual health insurance coverage for 2023,” a CMS spokeswoman said.
She also noted that Georgia could still submit a corrective action plan that would allow the state to implement the plan in the future.
“We’re evaluating our options based on CMS’ decision,” said Katie Byrd, a spokeswoman for Kemp.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock praised the move.
“Permanently suspending the state’s harmful Section 1332 waiver will ensure that Georgians will be able to keep purchasing affordable health care coverage,” Warnock said Tuesday. “This will save lives and save families money.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The home of the national champion Georgia Bulldogs is getting some upgrades.
The University System of Georgia Board of Regents voted Tuesday to make a series of improvements to the south side of Sanford Stadium.
The $68.5 million project will be built in two phases to minimize disruption during the 2022 and 2023 football seasons.
The first phase will include construction of a new connection to Sanford Drive at Gillis Bridge for easier fan access, creation of an adjacent plaza space, a significant widening of the 100 Level Concourse, and restroom upgrades.
The second phase will vertically expand the southwest corner of the stadium to include a new press box, six premium suites, and additional restrooms on the 300 Level. The current press box will be converted into additional premium seats.
Construction will begin at the end of the upcoming season and be completed following the 2023 season.
The project is being financed by the UGA Athletic Association through a combination of private donations and bonds.
In other business Tuesday, the university system launched a website designed as a central location for Georgia high school students and others considering enrolling in one of the system’s 26 colleges and universities to find information on the schools so they can compare them.
“We want students and their families to be able to make informed decisions about what degree they want to have and where to go to get it,” system Chancellor Sonny Perdue told the regents.
The Georgia Degrees Pay website will include data on the costs to attend each school, a link to information on student aid including the HOPE Scholarships program, and the future earnings potential of various degree programs at one, five and 10 years after graduation.
“We’ve needed this for a long time,” Regent Thomas Hopkins said. “Our students are really going to benefit from this.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Judge Robert McBurney (photo credit: Fulton County Superior Court)
ATLANTA – Lawyers for abortion-rights groups asked a state judge Monday to temporarily block Georgia’s new abortion law.
The law – which bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected – took effect in July. Initially approved by the General Assembly in 2019, it had been under legal challenge in federal courts. Last month, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the Georgia law and put it into effect immediately.
Lawyers for abortion-rights groups including Planned Parenthood Southeast and SisterSong then took their fight to state court, contending that the abortion ban violates the Georgia Constitution’s right to privacy.
They argued the law was void from the moment it passed the General Assembly three years ago because it violated then-settled U.S. Supreme Court precedent about the right to an abortion.
The state – represented by Solicitor General Stephen Petrany – countered that Georgia law does not require a judge to temporarily block a law before he or she has issued a decision on the case.
Although the 2019 law did not necessarily fit the Supreme Court’s abortion precedents at the time, the Georgia abortion law represented legislators’ – and through them, Georgians’ – will, Petrany said. Therefore, it was valid from the start.
McBurney indicated he would issue a ruling on the request for an injunction soon.
In a brief press conference after the hearing, abortion-rights advocates said Georgians have been directly harmed by the new abortion ban.
“The Georgia Constitution says there is a right to privacy and that right to privacy extends to a person’s body and a person’s health,” said Susan Lambiase, a lawyer for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
“[People] either have to forcibly remain pregnant, or they have to figure out a way … to go to some state that provides more access [to abortion].”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
