by Dave Williams | Feb 9, 2023 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation to increase the limit on commercial truck weights in Georgia cleared a state House committee Thursday over the objections of local government officials, traffic safety advocates, and the Georgia Department of Transportation.
The House Transportation Committee approved the bill 18-11 following an afternoon-long hearing that lasted more than five hours.
House Bill 189 would raise the legal limit on commercial truck weights in Georgia from 80,000 pounds to 90,000.
In reality, trucks weighing up to 95,000 pounds already are being allowed in the Peach State under an emergency order Gov. Brian Kemp signed nearly three years ago at the beginning of the pandemic, said Rep. Steven Meeks, R-Screven, the bill’s chief sponsor.
While truck weights have been a contentious issue the General Assembly has debated for years, supporters said the three years of experience with the emergency order are good reason to approve higher truck weights permanently.
“We’ve been doing this,” former Georgia Rep. Chad Nimmer, a board member at the Georgia Forestry Association, told the committee. “We’re at a unique time because we have evidence now.”
A coalition of Georgia’s agriculture and timber industries support the bill.
Will Bentley, president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council, said the proposed increases in truck weights would let farmers move their products on fewer trucks, saving 172,000 truck trips per year, according to a University of Georgia study.
Fewer truck trips translate into savings for local businesses, said Toby McDowell, who runs a logging company in Butts County.
“I’m one of the few people who can say the pandemic saved my business,” he said.
McDowell said his company was struggling before Kemp’s executive order allowed him to reduce the number of trucks he uses to haul logs from nine to five while carrying the same amount of freight.
But local government officials said the legislation would damage local roads and bridges that rural cities and counties on tight budgets would be hard pressed to repair.
“Rural counties have a hard time keeping our roads maintained,” said Nancy Thrasher, a county commissioner in Lamar County. “I guarantee you local government officials … are going to get more calls from citizens complaining about closed bridges [and] potholes.”
Georgia Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry said his agency would be forced to redirect funds from critical highway projects to repair the damage the legislation would cause. He put price tags on what House Bill 189 would cost the DOT: $500 million a year to rebuild state roads that would be damaged because of the higher truck weights and $7 billion to replace 1,408 bridges that would be posted as unsafe for heavier trucks.
McMurry said the projected growth of freight traffic in Georgia will more than offset any reduction in the number of trucks on the highways that would be possible with heavier trucks.
“More weight will not take trucks off the roads,” he said. “More freight is coming.”
Other opponents of the bill brought up safety concerns. Atlanta businessman Steve Owings founded the organization Road Safe America after his 22-year-old son was killed in 2002 when his car was rear-ended by a fully loaded tractor trailer that was speeding.
“This is exactly the wrong direction,” Owings said of House Bill 189. “If anything, we should be looking for ways to make trucks safer in Georgia.”
The bill now moves to the House Rules Committee to schedule a vote on the House floor.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
by Staff Writer | Feb 9, 2023 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate approved legislation Thursday that would require the state to assess whether educational requirements for many state jobs are necessary.
The “Reducing Barriers to State Employment” bill also encourages the Georgia Department of Administrative Services (DOAS) to reduce the number of jobs for which a four-year college degree is necessary.
Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, sponsored the bill in an effort to address the challenges state agencies are facing in hiring new employees.
“This is an initiative … for us to review all the positions we have in state government to assure that the education, the skills and experience match up with that position we are currently hiring for,” Albers said.
“We want to make sure that we’re not requiring a four-year degree, an advanced degree or a certification that may not apply to that job and lose out the opportunity of having our best and brightest apply for that job. We have many technology jobs in our state that Bill Gates [who was a college dropout] is not qualified for.”
Albers emphasized that the bill simply instructs the DOAS to review the requirements for state employment. The state could continue to require college degrees or other certifications for jobs that are deemed to require them.
The bill passed nearly unanimously with a 49-1 vote. Sen. David Lucas, D-Macon, voted against the bill. Lucas said he is concerned the proposal could lower salaries as well as the quality of state employees.
The bill will now be taken up by the state House of Representatives.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
by Dave Williams | Feb 9, 2023 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The interim commissioner at the Georgia Department of Revenue will take over the position on a permanent basis. Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday.
Kemp appointed Frank O’Connell interim commissioner of the revenue agency last November when then-Commissioner Robyn Crittenden left state government to take a job in the private sector.
“Frank O’Connell has demonstrated the leadership and expertise necessary to lead the Department of Revenue in the days ahead,” Kemp said.
“Under his leadership, I am confident the Department of Revenue will remain focused on its duties to the people of Georgia and responsible stewardship of the resources entrusted to us by taxpayers.”
O’Connell served as the revenue department’s general counsel and director of legal affairs and tax policy before being named interim commissioner.
He began almost 20 years of service with the state in the agency’s Compliance Division before transferring to the Legal Affairs & Tax Policy Division as assistant director.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
by Dave Williams | Feb 9, 2023 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Georgia House committee has approved legislation aimed at breaking a legal logjam that has held up the state’s medical marijuana program for years.
House Bill 196, which cleared the House Judiciary Committee (Non-civil) late Wednesday, would expand the number of medical cannabis production licenses the state awards to 14, up from the current six.
The eight licenses not already awarded would go to companies that filed lawsuits when their bids for licenses were denied. Those legal protests remain pending and – if unresolved – could drag on for up to two years, preventing the program from moving forward and providing low-THC cannabis oil to Georgia patients suffering from a range of diseases.
“I’m recommending a fix to get this thing up and going,” state Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, the bill’s chief sponsor, told the committee. “This gets us out of litigation. The licenses could be issued, and [the companies] could go forward.”
The General Assembly first legalized possessions of cannabis oil for medicinal purposes back in 2015. However, it wasn’t until 2019 that lawmakers passed legislation allowing commercial businesses to grow marijuana indoors under close supervision, convert the leafy crop into low-THC cannabis oil and sell the product at dispensaries they own.
The 2019 law created a state commission to oversee the program by issuing six licenses to winning bidders, two Class 1 licenses allowing marijuana to be grown in spaces up to 100,000 square feet. The other four were for a smaller growth space of up to 50,000 square feet.
The Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission has awarded the two Class 1 licenses, and the winning companies are preparing to launch their operations.
Botanical Sciences LLC recently dedicated its production facility in Glennville, while Trulieve Georgia is ramping up its plant in Adel.
“We have already begun the production process, which starts with the seeding of cannabis plants in our indoor growing facility producing a variety of tinctures, capsules, and topicals formulated to address the needs of Georgia patients,” Botanical Sciences CEO Gary Long said this week.
“The opening of our facility was a key milestone for our company, for the city of Glennville, and for the many thousands of those in need awaiting access to this critical form of medicine.”
While the two Class 1 licensees move ahead, the four Class 2 licensees – which were awarded tentative licenses last year – are in legal limbo, with their awards being held up by lawsuits pending in the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Kristen Goodman, a lawyer representing four of the losing bidders, called the commission’s procurement process a “train wreck” veiled in secrecy. Without naming names, she said donations were made by winning bidders to some of those involved in evaluating the bids.
Goodman said the licenses the commission has awarded – both tentative and final – have gone to out-of-state companies that have concentrated their planned dispensaries in the more populated areas of Georgia around Atlanta, Macon, and Augusta.
“They’re not serving the children who have excessive seizures in Northwest Georgia. They’re not serving the children with cancer in Southwest Georgia,” she said. “They have all the market they need right here in the central part of the state.”
Goodman urged the committee to approve the bill because the additional licenses would render the lawsuits moot and allow the program to move forward.
“We owe it to the citizens of Georgia waiting for this medication,” she said.
Powell’s bill now heads to the House Rules Committee to schedule a vote on the House floor.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
by Dave Williams | Feb 8, 2023 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Congress passed last year includes nearly $370 billion to address climate change, enough to launch a “whole new industry,” Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday on the campus of Georgia Tech.
“There are going to be a lot of new jobs, a lot of new work,” Harris said during an appearance promoting the State of the Union message President Joe Biden delivered Tuesday night. Biden was promoting his speech to the nation almost simultaneously with Harris during a presidential visit Wednesday to Wisconsin.
Harris’ remarks in Atlanta were focused on the portion of the State of the Union message in which Biden called climate change “an existential threat” that the IRA will begin addressing with “the most significant investment ever in climate change.”
Harris, America’s first Black vice president, said she approaches climate change from the perspective of the need for environmental justice.
“Some of the poorest air quality zones in our nation are where people of low income and people of color live,” she said.
Harris said the same dynamics are at play when it comes to water policy in America, citing the discovery in 2014 that the water supply in mostly Black Flint, Mich., was contaminated with lead.
“Access to clean water should be a right and not just a privilege to those who can afford it,” she said. “Government should be paying to remove those pipes. We shouldn’t be putting it just on the residents and homeowners in those communities.”
The government is striking another blow for environmental justice in the tax rebates being offered to Americans who purchase not just new electric vehicles but used EVs, Harris said.
“Everyone should be able to participate in this new clean energy economy,” she said.
Harris said the Biden administration feels a sense of urgency when it comes to dealing with climate change that is already causing a rise in droughts, wildfires, floods, and hurricanes.
“The clock is not just ticking,” she said. “It’s banging. It’s requiring us to move quickly.”
Republicans criticized Harris’ trip to Georgia.
“While hardworking Georgians … are burdened by the high cost of everyday goods, Kamala Harris’ visit today proves just how out of touch this administration is,” said Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, echoing Arkansas GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Republican response to the State of the Union address.
“Instead of spewing more of the same empty rhetoric that Biden delivered last night, Democrats need to take accountability for their failures on everything from rising prices to skyrocketing crime.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation
