ATLANTA – A federal judge appeared to throw cold water Wednesday on efforts to challenge new congressional and legislative maps the General Assembly’s Republican majorities drew during a recent special session.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones declared during a hearing that the case has focused on the rights of Black voters, not either Asian or Hispanic voters, the Associated Press reported.
The new maps created seven new Black majority districts in the General Assembly, two in the state Senate and five in the Georgia House, as well as an additional Black majority district in the state’s congressional map, as Jones ordered in October when he declared the maps lawmakers drew in 2021 in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
But legislative Democrats argued during the special session that Republicans failed to protect so-called “coalition” districts, where Blacks do not make up a majority of voters but together with Hispanic and Asian voters wield enough political clout to elect a minority candidate.
The prime example Democrats cited was Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, which was a coalition district centered in Gwinnett County under the 2021 map. The redrawn district would become 75% white under the new map, as Republicans moved the district completely out of Gwinnett and ran it as far north as heavily white Dawson and Lumpkin counties.
But Jones said Wednesday that no evidence concerning Asian and Hispanic voting behavior was introduced at the earlier trial. He said he was reluctant to rule on what amounts to a new alleged violation during a short time frame.
The judge indicated he would issue a decision soon to meet a mid-January deadline for the 2024 elections.
The first of two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle went into service at the end of July.
ATLANTA – Georgia energy regulators unanimously approved a plan Tuesday to let Georgia Power pass on to customers almost $7.6 billion of its costs in building two additional nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle.
The Atlanta-based utility agreed in August to reduce the costs it was asking the state Public Service Commission (PSC) to declare “reasonable and prudent” by about $2.6 billion after years of delays and cost overruns that more than doubled the price tag from the $14 billion the commission authorized back in 2009.
The first of the new reactor units at the plant south of Augusta went into service at the end of July. The second is due to follow by the end of March. The project will increase the average residential customer’s bill by $8.95 per month.
Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, the only member of the PSC who was on the board in 2009, acknowledged the difficulties the project has faced during the last 14 years.
“It has been a journey,” McDonald said before Tuesday’s vote. “(But) for the first time in 34 years in America, a nuclear plant has been built. … We suffered the pain, but we’re also going to enjoy the benefit.”
“The Vogtle … nuclear expansion project represents a long-term investment for our 2.7 million customers and Georgia, providing clean, safe, reliable, and emission-free energy for decades to come,” Georgia Power added in a statement.
“We believe this decision by the Georgia PSC acknowledges the perspectives of all parties involved and takes a balanced approach the recognizes the value of this long-term energy asset for the state of Georgia and affordability needs for customers.”
Representatives of environmental and consumer advocacy groups that signed onto the agreement with Georgia Power pointed to the company’s commitment to significantly expand its energy efficiency programs and increase the number of seniors who will qualify for its bill-relief program.
“We are pleased the commission included programs that will provide the most vulnerable customers with some bill relief,” said Codi Norred, executive director of Georgia Interfaith Power and Light. “That being said, Georgia Power customers have and will continue to pay heavily for Vogtle’s budget overruns.
“After Vogtle, we hope the commission will double down on their support of cost-saving renewable options like solar and battery storage.”
Bryan Jacob, representing the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, complained during a hearing last week that the August agreement fails to set forth how the costs of the Vogtle nuclear expansion will be allocated between residential and small-business customers and large industrial customers.
“Georgia Power has the obligation to prove its rate allocation is just and reasonable,” he said.
Jacob also suggested the commission should have required Georgia Power to credit residential and small-business customers for what they’ve already paid up front for the project.
Nuclear Watch South, one of the environmental organizations opposed to the agreement, said the rate increase for Plant Vogtle is one of several Georgia Power has received during the past year.
“The smart money knows nuclear energy is a bad investment,” said Stephen Wing, a member of Nuclear Watch South’s Board of Directors. “Yet the profit on that investments goes to Georgia Power shareholders … while we get stuck with a 26% rate hike to cover the project’s construction mistakes, on top of three other rate hikes in the past year alone.”
Georgia Power is a 45% partner in the Vogtle expansion, working with Oglethorpe Power, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG) and Dalton Utilities.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp is taking aim at state employee retention and school safety.
Kemp announced Monday that the fiscal 2024 midyear budget will include $330 million for one-time pay supplements of $1,000 for each of about 112,000 state employees and 196,000 teachers and school support staff.
The governor also plans to put more than $100 million toward providing every public school $45,000 for personnel and infrastructure improvements to strengthen campus security.
“Throughout the pandemic, a summer of unrest, and the unprecedented challenges of the last several years, our state employees have worked hard, taken on additional challenges, remained committed to serving their fellow Georgians, and become more streamlined so we remain the best state for opportunity,” Kemp said.
“This retention pay supplement will arrive during the holiday season, and it’s part of my administration’s way of showing our appreciation for all that they do.”
Unlike the pay supplements, the school safety funds will be built into the state’s annual base budget as ongoing expenditures. Kemp previously authorized two school safety grants, with $30,000 going to each public school in 2019 and a second round of $50,000 grants announced earlier this year.
“This additional investment in school safety will benefit every part of the state,” he said.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who presides over the Georgia Senate, and House Speaker Jon Burns expressed support for both initiatives Monday.
“The safety and wellbeing of our students across the state is always my top priority,” Jones said.
“We want every child in our state to have the opportunity to learn, grow, and explore in a safe and secure environment,” added Burns, R-Newington. “This proposal will help ensure that happens.”
ATLANTA – A nonprofit formed to help administer a new state tax credit to support foster children aging out of the system is working against a tight deadline.
Fostering Success Act Inc. has until Dec. 31 to process $20 million in annual tax credits the General Assembly authorized last year. As of the beginning of this month, $15 million still remained available, said Heidi Carr, the organization’s executive director.
“We’ve been reaching out to a lot of companies and individuals to get their applications in,” she said. “But time is running out.”
Under legislation Georgia lawmakers passed unanimously, individual taxpayers can receive dollar-for-dollar state income tax credits for up to $2,500 per year contributed to the program, while married couples filing jointly can receive up to $5,000. Corporate donations are limited to 10% of the company’s annual tax liability.
“They have to pay taxes anyway,” Carr said. “This is an opportunity to make a difference.”
About 700 young Georgians age out of the foster care system each year, most with no family to return to after they leave the system.
Carr cited statistics showing 97% of those youths end up living in chronic poverty, 71% of the girls get pregnant within a year of leaving foster care, and 81% of the boys encounter police.
“They don’t have anywhere to go back to, so they end up on the street,” she said.
Contributions to the tax credit program will be used for “wraparound” services – including housing, food, and transportation – to help support these young people while they attend a university or technical college. Former foster care youths ages 18 to 25 are eligible for the program.
“We want them to learn a trade or get a degree,” Carr said.
Fostering Success Act Inc. currently is distributing funds raised through the tax credit to 20 nonprofit organizations, with more in the pipeline for 2024. One of those is Alpharetta-based FaithBridge Foster Care, which has helped kids aging out of foster care enroll in colleges across the state, from Dalton State College in Northwest Georgia to the College of Coastal Georgia and Valdosta State University.
“Over 50% of foster kids sign out of foster care at 18,” said John Solberg, vice president of youth opportunities at FaithBridge. “They believe they can support themselves, but they can fall into homelessness and have other issues because they’re not mentally or emotionally prepared for the challenges of adulthood.”
Applications for the tax credit to the Georgia Department of Revenue are accepted on a first-come basis. Once approved, taxpayers have 60 days from the date of approval to send their contribution check or pay online.
Carr said she’s not surprised the program is getting off to slow start because the tax credit is new and a lot of taxpayers aren’t aware of it. Thus far, about 100 youths have contacted her organization for help, she said.
“We were able to help some start school in August, and we have more lined up for January,” she said. “This gives them hope. Hope is something they don’t have a lot of.”
ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., vowed Thursday to help two federal agencies responsible for child welfare to develop the tools needed to protect foster children from abuse and neglect.
The Senate’s Human Rights Subcommittee, which Ossoff chairs, launched an investigation last February to assess the safety of children in foster care.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) found in October that between 2018 and 2022, 1,790 children in the care of Georgia’s foster care system were reported missing. During a hearing of the subcommittee last month in Atlanta, witnesses testified that children missing from foster care are particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking.
“What is happening to foster children across the United States is not acceptable,” Ossoff said Thursday during another hearing held by his subcommittee. “The number of children who are going missing from foster care is unacceptable.”
Ossoff and Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, the subcommittee’s ranking Republican, criticized lax oversight by federal and state child welfare agencies when it comes to missing children.
Ossoff cited audits of multiple states that found 45% of missing child incidents were not reported to NCMEC and that most missing children were not screened for sex trafficking after they were recovered.
Blackburn said the federal government can’t find 85,000 missing migrant children.
“We’ve seen reports of these children working in factories (and) food processing plants,” she said. “We should not have to read more reports of children being used for child labor or sex trafficking rings.”
Jose Perez, deputy assistant director at the FBI, said one of law enforcement’s biggest challenges is end-to-end encryption, a technology that allows participants in organized criminal rings to communicate with each other without anyone else gaining access.
Perez said the FBI’s 56 field offices operate more than 85 task forces across the country. Investigators prioritize cases involving missing children ages 12 and under who have gone missing under suspicious circumstances, he said.
“If we believe it’s a kidnapping, that’s an all-hands-on-deck scenario,” he said.
Rebecca Jones Gaston, commissioner of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration on Children, Youth and Families, said her agency requires state child welfare departments to submit plans outlining their policies. Those that don’t meet federal requirements are offered technical assistance so they can improve, she said.
Ossoff said making sure states have adequate policies for dealing with foster children isn’t enough.
“Putting something in a policy manual is not always implementing that policy in practice,” he said.
Jones Gaston said ensuring polices are put into practice is up to state and local child welfare agencies. However, her agency can and does issue corrective action plans and assess penalties if those policies aren’t followed.
Ossoff said the full Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing next month to hear from CEOs of tech companies on steps they’re taking to protect children from online predators.
