by Dave Williams | Sep 24, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A group of property owners who stand to lose their land to Sandersville Railroad Co. in an eminent domain proceeding filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to overturn a decision allowing the taking.
The Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) voted unanimously early this month to uphold a hearing officer’s recommendation declaring a proposed spur the freight rail line plans to build would be for a legitimate public purpose.
The Institute for Justice (IJ), an organization representing the property owners, argued unsuccessfully that the spur would be used only by a few private companies.
“What Sandersville is proposing is not a public use under the U.S. and Georgia constitutions,” IJ Senior Attorney Bill Maurer said Tuesday. “If a private company can take people’s land for the benefit of just a few private businesses, nobody’s property is safe.”
The case began in March of last year when Sandersville moved to condemn and take land owned by Don and Sally Garrett, which has been in Don Garrett’s family for generations.
In May of last year, the Garretts, Blaine and Diane Smith, and Marvin and Pat Smith teamed up to challenge the condemnation. In July 2023, more property owners joined the suit.
Robert Highsmith, a lawyer representing Sandersville Railroad, argued last month during a hearing before the PSC that eminent domain reform legislation the General Assembly passed in 2006 law states that business conducted by railroads qualifies as a public purpose. Five business owners who plan to use the spur provided testimony to the hearing officer.
The Hanson Spur is expected to generate more than $1.5 million in annual economic benefits for Hancock County and the city of Sparta, Sandersville Railroad wrote in a news release following the Sept. 4 commission vote approving the eminent domain order.
The property owners’ appeal was filed in Fulton County Superior Court.
by Dave Williams | Sep 24, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Former President Donald Trump vowed Tuesday to make the United States a “manufacturing powerhouse” if voters return him to the White House.
At a rally in Savannah devoted primarily to the economy, the Republican nominee for president said he would restore manufacturing jobs through substantial tariffs that would stop foreign countries from enticing U.S. companies and their jobs overseas.
“We’re not going to let that happen,” Trump said as the crowd roared its approval. “Under my leadership, we’re going to take other countries’ jobs.”
Trump said he would boost America’s economy by lowering the corporate tax rate to 15% for companies that locate their manufacturing operations in the U.S. Businesses would be further incentivized through reduced regulations and lower energy costs made possible by stepping up drilling for fossil fuels, he said.
“We have more energy under our feet than any other country,” he said. “I call it liquid gold.”
Voters have consistently told pollsters they trust Trump to handle the economy more than Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent. He also has polled better than Harris on the issue of illegal immigration and tied the two issues together on Tuesday.
Trump said economic development won’t be possible without reducing the flow of illegal immigrants over the U.S. border with Mexico. He blamed illegal immigrants and the smuggling of illegal drugs including fentanyl into the country for much of the nation’s crime.
“We have to have a safe country or nobody’s going to want to come here,” he said.
Trump doubled down on claims he and U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, have made about an influx of Haitian immigrants into the small town of Springfield, Ohio. Even though other Republicans – including Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine – have said the Haitians came to this country legally, Trump called for them to be deported.
“You have to move the people back to the country from which they came,” he said.
Trump sought to bury the hatchet in a long-running feud with Gov. Brian Kemp, who refused to go along with the then-president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. While Trump supported former Sen. David Perdue’s unsuccessful primary challenge to Kemp two years ago, the governor is backing Trump’s bid to return to office.
“He really has been fantastic,” Trump said.
Trump also vowed to push to end taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security.
Harris also has promised to end taxes on tips. On Tuesday, the Harris campaign responded to Trump’s speech in Savannah by asserting the higher tariffs he is advocating would cost middle-class taxpayers $4,000 a year.
Trump didn’t raise the issue of abortion during his nearly 90-minute speech. But that didn’t prevent the Harris campaign from bringing it up.
“Donald Trump is coming to Georgia as reports are uncovering the horrific legacy he left behind: women denied care and losing their lives because of the Trump abortion bans,” said Adelaide Bullock, Georgia communications director for the Harris campaign.
While Harris has said Trump would sign a national abortion ban if he’s elected, Trump has countered that he supports the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that left the issue to the states.
by Dave Williams | Sep 24, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The State Election Board is launching an investigation into allegations that local election boards in eight counties are routinely thwarting citizen activists’ challenges of thousands of voter registrations.
The five-member board voted 3-0 Monday to direct Mike Coan, the board’s executive director, to look into how challenges are being handled in Athens-Clarke, Bibb, Chatham, Cobb, DeKalb, Forsyth, Fulton, and Gwinnett counties and report back to the board at its next meeting Oct. 8.
The board’s three Republican members approved the investigation after DeKalb County Republican Chair Marci McCarthy said 5,215 voters are on the rolls in her county who are not eligible to vote. She said the vast majority of those voters – 4,861 – have not had any contact with local election officials for more than a decade, while the rest either are registered at non-residential addresses or have moved to a different jurisdiction and voted there.
“When ineligible voters remain on the voter rolls, it increases the likelihood of those persons voting in our county, which dilutes the legitimate votes of our citizens,” McCarthy said. “We have some of the dirtiest voter rolls in the state, in the country.”
The General Assembly’s Republican majorities passed election reform legislation this year making it easier to file mass voter challenges. Senate Bill 189 established the standard for challenging a voter’s registration “probable cause.”
Two years ago, Republican activists filed thousands of voter challenges in Democratic-leaning counties only to see local election boards dismiss the vast majority as baseless.
While Republicans argued that making it easier to file challenges would clean up the voter rolls by removing ineligible voters, Democrats maintained Republicans would use the legislation to get rid of eligible voters in Democratic counties.
On Monday, the board’s lone Democrat – Sara Tindall Ghazal – said Republicans who believe Democratic counties are blocking efforts to clean their voter rolls should take their case to court. In fact, DeKalb Republicans have filed a lawsuit to force the county’s election board to enforce the voter eligibility requirements.
“That is the proper venue,” Ghazal said.
Republican board member Janice Johnston, who made the motion to launch an investigation, said some counties are guilty of “blanket refusals” to accept voter challenges.
“This is an opportunity to put the counties on notice that we are aware of what is happening,” added GOP board member Janelle King, who joined Johnston in voting to authorize the investigation.
by Dave Williams | Sep 23, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Coastal Georgia is the beneficiary of a fifth round of grants through Gov. Brian Kemp’s Rural Workforce Housing Initiative.
Brunswick and Chatham County will receive more than $4.8 million for infrastructure supporting 129 housing units, Kemp announced late last week.
The governor launched the program early last year during his annual State of the State address to the General Assembly. The grants are overseen by the OneGeorgia Authority.
“We have made supporting communities in developing the infrastructure they need to meet the demand of historic economic growth a top priority,” Kemp said. “We look forward to these projects supporting the hardworking Georgians who deserve to be able to live in the same areas where they work.”
The city of Brunswick will get $2.5 million to build water, sewer, road and drainage improvements for the Reynolds Street Cottages development, enabling the construction of 46 new homes. The city and the nonprofit revitalization group Forward Brunswick will contribute nearly $1.4 million to the project.
Chatham County’s grant of $2.3 million will go toward infrastructure projects for an 18-acre development containing 83 new single-family detached homes and multi-family housing units. The city of Port Wentworth and Chatham County will contribute more than $3.7 million toward the project cost.
“The demand for workforce housing is growing throughout Georgia,” said Christopher Nunn, commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs. “The OneGeorgia Authority is pleased to support local communities pursuing deliberate workforce housing strategies.”
by Dave Williams | Sep 20, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Vice President Kamala Harris Friday put the blame for the deaths of two Georgia women after doctors delayed abortion care squarely on former President Donald Trump.
At a mid-afternoon rally in Atlanta, the Democratic presidential nominee said the deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller shortly after Georgia’s six-week abortion ban took effect in 2022 were a consequence of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion. Trump appointed three of the six justices who joined the majority in that 6-3 ruling.
“Doctors have to wait until the patient is at death’s door before they take action,” Harris said. “This is a health-care crisis. Donald Trump is the architect of that crisis.”
Thurman and Miller died after taking abortion medication left them with some fetal tissue remaining in their uteruses, ProPublica reported this week. Both needed a dilation and curettage (D&C), a common procedure that removes remaining fetal tissue.
But in Thurman’s case, doctors delayed the procedure for 20 hours, worried they could run afoul of Georgia’s “heartbeat law,” which prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, typically at about six weeks into a pregnancy. Miller didn’t seek medical care because of the same concerns with the law, according to the ProPublica report.
“Amber’s death was preventable,” said Harris, who met Thursday night in Michigan with Thurman’s mother and sisters. “She should be alive today.”
Harris warned that if Republican nominee Trump is elected, he would sign a national abortion ban. If she is elected, she vowed to push for legislation codifying the Roe v. Wade decision into federal law.
In response to Harris’ appearance in Georgia, the Republican National Committee (RNC) accused Democrats of spreading misinformation about the two Georgia cases.
“The loss of any life is always a tragedy,” RNC spokesperson Morgan Ackley said. “[But] Georgia not only established clear exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, but also included providing necessary care in the event of a medical emergency. There was no reason that doctors could not act swiftly to protect the lives of mothers.”
