ATLANTA – It was jobs versus protecting a national environmental treasure Tuesday when a Georgia House subcommittee held a two-hour hearing on a proposed titanium mine near the Okefenokee Swamp.
Environmental advocates urged lawmakers to pass legislation banning surface mining along Trail Ridge near the Okefenokee. That’s where Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals is seeking state permits to mine titanium oxide.
House Bill 71 failed to make last week’s Crossover Day deadline for bills to pass at least one legislative chamber to remain alive for this year’s General Assembly session. However, the measure boasts 91 cosponsors among the 180 House members and could be resurrected by being attached to another bill that is still before the legislature.
Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville, the bill’s chief sponsor, urged her colleagues on the House Natural Resources & Environment’s Resource Management Subcommittee to give the measure a chance.
“The Okefenokee is one of the largest remaining intact freshwater ecosystems in the world,” she said. “It cannot be replaced. A miscalculation cannot be corrected.”
Rhett Jackson, a professor of hydrology and water resources at the University of Georgia, said the proposed mine would remove enough water from the drought-sensitive swamp to render it more susceptible to wildfires.
Other supporters touted the Okefenokee’s economic benefits as a popular tourist attraction. Michael Lusk, refuge manager at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, said the swamp draws about 400,000 visitors a year, is responsible for 955 jobs, and generates $24 million in annual economic impact.
The bill’s opponents said the mine, too, would provide an economic boost to an economically distressed area of the state. Twin Pines CEO Steve Ingle, in video testimony, said the mine would create 100 to 200 full-time jobs.
“Our county greatly needs large quantities of high-paying jobs,” said Drew Jones, a Charlton County commissioner. The commission has passed a resolution supporting the project.
Ingle said Twin Pines has pledged to restore the site with indigenous pines after the mining activity is completed.
“There’s no way we’d do anything to expose us to regulatory action or put our investment at risk,” he said.
The bill’s opponents also brought a hydrologist, Sorab Panjay, who told the subcommittee the amount of water the mine would remove from the swamp would be negligible and do no environmental harm.
Bill Sapp, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center and chairman of the Okefenokee Protection Alliance, said it’s the General Assembly’s duty to “protect and preserve” the Okefenokee and not leave it to the discretion of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), which is currently reviewing Twin Pines’ mining land use plan for the project.
But Lewis Jones, a lawyer representing Twin Pines, said it’s the EPD’s job to evaluate permit applications and approve them only if a project will not harm the environment.
“This rigorous process is only going to result in a permit if it can be shown mining can be done safely,” he said.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate overwhelmingly passed a $1 billion one-time state income tax rebate Tuesday, sending it to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
The 46-7 Senate vote followed House passage of the legislation last month by a vote of 170-2.
The tax rebate will yield $250 to single taxpayers, $375 to heads of households and $500 to married couples filing jointly.
Kemp and the General Assembly have provided income tax rebates two years in row, using portions of a budget surplus that has reached more than $6 billion. The only difference between this year’s bill and the 2022 version is that the rebate also will go to students listed as dependents on their parents’ tax form but who worked during the last tax year.
The rebate fulfills a promise Kemp made on the campaign trail last year.
“We’re sending money back to the people because they know how to use it,” the governor said Monday during a signing ceremony for the mid-year state budget.
But the rebate received pushback on the Senate floor Tuesday from Democrats who argued it isn’t the best use of the state’s surplus revenue.
Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, who voted for the bill, said he was doing so only because Georgia voters have come to expect tax rebates when the state builds up a large surplus. He said the money should be used to address the state’s serious workforce shortage.
“We have a critical understaffing problem in critical areas of government,” McLaurin said. “Our government is starving and has been starving for years.”
Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, who voted against the bill, said Georgia’s workforce shortage is partly a result of the state failing to live up its promise to fund promised 3% cost-of-living increases for state retirees.
Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, another of the legislation’s opponents, suggested the surplus be spent on a state-level earned income tax credit for low- and middle-income families, an idea that has drawn some Republican support in the past.
But Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, said the tax rebate was made possible largely because of one-time revenues – including federal pandemic assistance – that are not likely to reoccur.
“Isn’t it more prudent to give it back to taxpayers rather than have a deficit the following year?” he asked.
After passing the tax rebate, senators followed with a unanimous vote ratifying seven executive orders Kemp issued last year temporarily suspending the state sales tax on gasoline and other motor fuels. The governor issued the first of those orders last March as pump prices spiked in Georgia and across the nation.
ATLANTA – Container trade at the Port of Savannah was down last month even as the Georgia Ports Authority reported its highest ever national market share.
Savannah handled nearly 395,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containerized cargo in February, the agency’s second busiest February ever but significantly below the record 460,400 TEUs that moved through Georgia’s ports in February of last year.
Inflation, rising interest rates and high warehouse inventories were important factors in the container trade dip, port officials said.
Meanwhile, logistics data provider PIERS reported the Georgia Ports Authority now handles one out of every 8.8 loaded TEUs in the U.S., its highest national market share ever.
The Port of Savannah had moved 11.4% of the nation’s loaded international containers during fiscal year 2023 through December, with more than 2 million TEUs. The ports authority’s share of the U.S. container trade constituted an increase of 0.7%.
“Our global economy is facing headwinds, but Georgia’s deep-water ports continue to deliver dependable performance to keep business thriving,” authority Executive Director Griff Lynch said Tuesday. “As the nation’s top gateway for American farm and factory exports, the Port of Savannah serves as a hub for global commerce.”
At the Port of Brunswick, trade in autos and heavy machinery increased 18.5% last month to 52,720 units of Roll-on/Roll-off cargo.
“Volume and market share trends show that despite a slowing economy, Georgia is outperforming the competition,” authority board Chairman Joel Wooten said. “Cargo owners and their logistics providers are mitigating uncertainty through the reliability and connectivity of our deep-water ports.”
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp has signed a $32.5 billion mid-year state budget that includes property tax relief for Georgia homeowners and security grants for every public school in the state.
“It delivers on the promises I made last year,” Kemp, who won a second term in office last November, said Monday during a ceremony celebrating the spending plan he signed last Friday. The General Assembly had given the mid-year budget final passage the day before.
The mid-year budget, which covers state spending through the end of June, provides $950 million in property tax relief, down slightly from the $1 billion Kemp requested in January. It will save Georgia homeowners roughly $500 on their property tax bills.
The legislature supported the governor’s recommendation of $115.7 million for school security grants, with $50,000 going to each school. The Georgia House had increased the individual grants to $60,000, but the Senate went back to Kemp’s original proposal.
The General Assembly also backed Kemp’s request to fully fund Georgia’s Quality Basic Education k-12 student formula (QBE) and earmark $128.2 million to cover student enrollment growth in the state’s public schools since last year.
Also in the education arena, the spending plan provides $5 million to help paraprofessionals obtain teaching certificates and $3.5 million in grants to help nursing programs with waiting lists increase student capacity.
The mid-year budget adds $105 million for a new electronic medical records system at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.
Lawmakers approved Kemp’s request for $73.1 million to help train workers for the electric vehicle manufacturing plants being built in Newton and Bryan counties.
The mid-year budget increases state spending by 7% over the fiscal 2023 budget lawmakers adopted last spring.
“Having a $6 billion surplus allows us to fulfill a lot of needs,” Lt. Gov. Burt Jones said Monday.
Kemp said the surplus also will protect Georgia taxpayers at a time when inflation and other “economic headwinds” threaten a recession.
“We have a robust rainy-day fund that will keep us going regardless of what the economy looks like for the next 18 months,” he said. “Hopefully, we won’t see the storm here.”
Students from the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition oppose House Bill 147, which gained state Senate approval today. (Photo courtesy: Georgia Youth Justice Coalition)
ATLANTA – The state Senate passed legislation Monday that will require Georgia public schools to conduct active-shooter drills by Oct. 1 of each year.
Gov. Brian Kemp’s “Safe Schools Act” also creates a school-safety and anti-gang certification for teachers and other school employees who complete a school safety and gang-deterrence training program.
“This modernizes school safety protocols for the year 2023,” said Sen. Mike Hodges, R-Brunswick, the bill’s Senate sponsor. “There’s no greater priority than keeping our children, teachers and personnel safe.”
Though the bill ultimately passed nearly unanimously, it drew criticism from Democrats.
“This bill highlights our failure year after year to make meaningful changes to address the gun violence that is plaguing our schools, our communities, our streets and our homes,” said Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta.
Parent, who ultimately voted for the bill, noted that several Democratic-sponsored gun control bills have not received committee hearings during this year’s legislative session.
“Prevention of school shootings must involve a comprehensive approach if we are serious, including gun safety and gun violence prevention and mental health strategies,” she said. “Instead ,we’re here with a bill that offers synthetic protection.”
The bill’s focus on gang-violence prevention also drew concerns.
“I’m concerned that identification-focused training could result in racial profiling of students, and it could increase their likelihood of being exposed to the criminal justice system,” said Sen. Nikki Merritt, D-Grayson.
To address that concern, Merritt and other Democrats proposed amendments that would have struck language focused on deterring gang violence from the bill. However, majority Republicans rejected those amendments.
Sen. Jason Esteves, D-Atlanta, also proposed an ultimately unsuccessful amendment that would have required, rather than allowed, local school districts to provide parents the ability to opt their children out of the intruder drills.
“We are disappointed, but we will continue to work as hard as we can to ensure that we minimize harm to Georgia students with regards to the racial profiling aspect and shooter drill trauma,” said Francesca Ruhe, a Georgia State University student who is also a lobbyist for the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition, an organization made up of high school and college students.
Ruhe and other students pointed to research from Georgia Tech that found active shooter drills are associated with increases in stress and anxiety among both students and teachers.
The bill now moves to the governor’s desk for his signature.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
