ATLANTA – The state has awarded a $3 million grant to Chatham County to help acquire and preserve Green Island, Georgia Rep. Jesse Petrea, R-Savannah, announced Wednesday.
Petrea has been working for the last two years with the county, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Savannah lawyer and philanthropist J. Curtis Lewis III. The Lewis family owns the 450-acre island in the southern end of Chatham County.
“As a native coastal Georgian, I can think of no better environmental success than to preserve for future generations more sensitive land along our beautiful coast,” Petrea said during a news conference at the state Capitol.
“We have had multiple successes in land preservation in recent years. I am proud to add Green Island to the list of accomplishments.”
The state grant is coming through the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Act, a program funded through a state tax on purchases of sporting goods ratified by Georgia voters as a constitutional amendment in 2018.
Petrea said negotiations are underway with the county and Lewis on a final price for the property. He would not disclose what the price tag might be, citing the ongoing talks.
“We have agreement on what it’s going to take to do it,” he said. “We have a clear path forward.”
Petrea said plans call for Green Island to become a county park where families can boat, picnic, and hike. There is no road access to the island.
“We’ve got to have places for our young people to be outdoors. We learned that during the pandemic,” he said. “We see it being very actively used.”
Petrea said the park could be open before the end of this year.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgians ranging from expert scientists to a high-school student testified against a proposed mining site on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp Tuesday night during a virtual public hearing.
The diverse group outlined the potential environmental and cultural damage the proposed titanium oxide mine could inflict on the largest blackwater swamp in North America.
Twin Pines Minerals, an Alabama mining company, has applied for permission to build the mine along Trail Ridge in Charlton County near the southeastern edge of the swamp.
The controversial proposal has been the subject of a jurisdictional back-and-forth between federal and state environmental agencies.
Currently, the state Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has jurisdiction over the mining company’s plan. Earlier this year, Twin Pines submitted a draft Mining Land Use Plan to EPD. The plan must be finalized before the EPD can proceed with a draft permitting process.
During the hearing, opponents outlined a host of reasons they believe the mine should not be built.
“According to numerous independent scientists, the mine will damage the swamp, first by lowering the swamp’s water level and second by dumping over one ton per day of salt into the swamp as a result of its wastewater evaporation,” said Joshua Marks, president of Georgians for the Okefenokee.
Marks also highlighted a letter signed by University of Georgia professor Rhett Jackson and ten other hydrology professors that contends the EPD used incorrect locations in evaluating the impact of the mine.
“EPD used the wrong river gauge [location], 15 miles downstream of the swamp to evaluate the mine’s impact, instead of the gauge right next door,” Marks said. “This would be like going to a doctor for a shoulder sprain [but the] doctor instead examines your ankle.”
Seventeen-year-old Natalie Kloss, a student at The New School in Atlanta, recently visited the Okefenokee Swamp on a field trip.
“It’s a beautiful place. It’s inspiring.” Kloss said. “It’s an invaluable resource for students and for young people, especially now, and I think it’d be a shame for Georgia to be the one that allows it to be unprotected.”
Brian Foster of the Georgia Conservancy explained some of the unique benefits the swamp provides to Georgia: It is a gold-tier International Dark Sky Park, a national wilderness area, and a national natural landmark that provides boating, fishing, birding, hunting and photography opportunities. The swamp, which is home to the headwaters for both the St. Marys and Suwanee rivers, draws more than 650,000 annual visits and supports 800 jobs.
In contrast, the jobs the new mine might provide are not worth the cost, said Stephanie Ramage, who grew up in Laurens County.
“Anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear … can see that it is unlike any place in the world,” Ramage said. “Look, South Georgia, don’t trade what you’ve got – don’t trade it for a handful of jobs because that’s all you’re going to get.”
Maelyn Belmondo, who lives in Blackshear in Pierce County, described visiting the swamp as a child with her parents and grandmother.
“Some of my greatest memories were trawling around in the swamp,” Belmondo said. Now she hopes to recreate those memories with her own children.
“We have started going canoeing as a family,” Belmondo said. “I also look forward to planning our first overnight canoe trip … so we can lay out under the stars and enjoy the darkness of the swamp due to the lack of light pollution.”
“When I think about these memories that I have … I think about how traumatic this mining project can be.”
ATLANTA – A state Senate committee narrowly approved legislation late Tuesday that would replace Georgia’s certificate of need (CON) law governing hospitals with a less restrictive “special health-care service” license.
The original version of Senate Bill 162 introduced last week called for a complete repeal of CON, a move legislative Republicans and conservative public policy organizations have advocated for years but that has been opposed by hospital groups. The CON law, which the General Assembly passed back in 1979, requires applicants wishing to build a new hospital or provide a new medical service to demonstrate a need for it in their community.
Representatives of Georgia hospitals have long argued that getting rid of CON would allow physician owners of ambulatory surgery centers to open for business near existing full-service hospitals and siphon away paying patients. Under federal law, full-service hospitals must treat every patient regardless of ability to pay.
A new version of Senate Bill 162 presented to the Senate Regulated Industries Committee Tuesday is aimed at removing that argument by ensuring that Georgia hospitals with the highest concentration of Medicaid patients and patients without health insurance no longer have to shoulder the financial burden of uncompensated care.
The bill would establish a “direct payment plan” without using state dollars to cover uncompensated care provided by Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, the state’s 21 research hospitals, and Georgia’s 61 rural hospitals, said Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, the legislation’s chief sponsor.
“This takes care of the Medicaid patients and all the ones who don’t have insurance,” he said. “With this windfall … there’s going to be significant money.”
The bill’s supporters called it a fundamental change in the economics of hospitals in Georgia.
“CON is an outdated law,” said Jesse Weathington, president of the Georgia Association of Health Plans. “It was sold as a cost saving metric. It has failed. This bill is transformative.”
Representatives of groups that have long defended the CON law expressed some concerns with Watson’s bill but said it warrants further study.
“We support CON,” said Monty Veazey, president and CEO of the Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals. “However, we are willing to come to the table and have discussions.”
Watson’s bill squeaked through the committee by a single vote, with Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, the panel’s chairman, providing the winning margin. It now heads to the Senate Rules Committee, which will decide when and if to bring it to the Senate floor.
State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, flanked by a group of bipartisan lawmakers, describes the changes that a new mental health bill would introduce.
ATLANTA – The state legislature is set to consider a wide-ranging mental health reform bill that aims at improving services for Georgians struggling with mental-health or substance-abuse challenges.
House Bill 520 has bipartisan support and is cosponsored by state Reps. Todd Jones, R-South Forsyth, and Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur.
Last year, the General Assembly unanimously approved a sweeping mental-health reform bill as part of an effort spearheaded by the late House Speaker David Ralston. A mental-health reform commission has continued to meet since then and developed recommendations that informed this year’s bill.
“This is in fact the decade of mental health,” Jones said about the ongoing efforts of state policymakers to address the problem in Georgia.
“There is not a week that goes by … where we literally have at least one or two Georgians contact us personally and say, ‘My son, my daughter … what am I supposed to do?’ They can’t find a bed [for treatment].”
Currently, more than half of the 600 intensive psychiatric-treatment beds available for children in Georgia are used for children from out-of-state because Georgia charges less than other states, Oliver noted.
The legislation would address the shortage of treatment beds by creating a committee to study the problem.
“We need a lot of analysis of where our beds are, who’s using them, why are they using them, and what is the need?” Oliver said.
The bill would also require state agencies to work together to create a shared definition of “serious mental illness.” This would help state agencies collect data and coordinate services, Jones said.
The new legislation also tries to address the needs of people who cycle between homelessness, jails and hospitals due to serious mental-health or substance-abuse problems.
“These individuals … make up a small population but they draw down so much of our resources,” Jones said.
The bill would require the state Department of Community Affairs, which oversees housing policy in the state, to study ways to improve housing prospects for these so-called “familiar faces.”
If passed, the bill would create a loan forgiveness program for mental-health providers who are already in practice.
“If they’re serving people in Georgia and still have a student loan, we want them to apply and get the benefits,” Oliver said.
The bill would also streamline some aspects of professional licensing procedures.
Two “peer support specialists” would be added to the Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission, which is tasked with studying Georgia’s mental-health system and recommending policy reforms. Peer support specialists are people who have lived through mental-health or substance-abuse challenges and use that experience, coupled with specialized training, to help others with similar problems.
“It’s important for peers to be on there because they are the ones … who have been through this system and know what works and what doesn’t work,” said Kim Jones, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Georgia.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia Senate budget writers approved a $32.5 billion mid-year budget Tuesday that signals leaner times likely lie ahead in the coming fiscal year.
The mid-year spending plan, up 6.8% over the fiscal 2023 budget the General Assembly adopted last spring, includes Senate changes that would move some construction projects originally to be financed with bonds in fiscal 2024 into the current fiscal year and pay for them with cash.
With many economists expecting a recession to hit Georgia and the nation later this year, state tax collections could fall or at least not grow as much as they have in recent years.
“We feel we have more flexibility in the ’23 budget than we will in ’24,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, told committee members Tuesday.
Tillery said the Senate’s version of the mid-year budget meets or exceeds Gov. Brian Kemp’s spending recommendations on 27 of the governor’s 30 top priorities. It includes $1 billion in state income tax relief, a $1 billion property tax rebate, and $1.1 billion to backfill the loss of state sales tax revenue from gasoline and other motor fuels that occurred during a 10-month suspension of the tax ordered by Kemp to compensate for rising pump prices.
The Senate committee also supported the governor’s spending requests to give every k-12 public school a $50,000 school safety grant and “learning loss” grants to help offset the impacts of the pandemic on student instruction.
About $137 million sought by Kemp would be earmarked for the additional staffing that will be necessary to accomplish “the great unwinding” of Medicaid in April, when the federal government will relax pandemic-era regulations that prevented states from disenrolling people from Medicaid.
Senate budget writers anted up more funds than the House provided in its version of the mid-year budget for a variety of programs, including doubling a $5 million House appropriation aimed at the “hoteling” of children in foster care.
“It’s just not the best place we should be caring for those youth, who are our wards,” Tillery said.
The Senate committee added $3.5 million to a $3 million House appropriation to expand the state’s nursing program, recognizing the current shortage of nurses in Georgia, and doubled to $4 million state funding of domestic violence shelters.
The Senate committee also added some spending items of its own to the mid-year budget, including $50 million for transportation infrastructure needed to accommodate the Hyundai electric vehicle manufacturing plant being built in Bryan County. The Senate added another $1 million for a community arts and education center in Lowndes County.
The accelerated projects came in the University System of Georgia budget, where $5 million in fiscal 2024 bonds to finance new equipment and infrastructure for the Georgia Research Alliance was moved into the mid-year cash budget. A $19.9 million appropriation for planning and design of a robotics training center at Ogeechee Technical College in Statesboro also was moved into the mid-year spending plan.
The mid-year budget heads next to the Senate floor for a vote, probably later this week.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
