by Dave Williams | Feb 10, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) recently urged Gov. Brian Kemp to block a proposed mine near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge on her way out the door.
In a letter to Kemp dated Jan 15 – five days before leaving office to make way for the incoming Trump administration – then-FWS Director Martha Williams called the Okefenokee “one of America’s greatest natural treasures.”
Advocates for the swamp have been fighting Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals’ (TPM) plan to open a titanium oxide mine along Trail Ridge adjacent to the refuge for several years. The project’s opponents are looking to a new Fish and Wildlife Service plan to expand the refuge by about 22,000 acres as a way to stop the mine.
“Experts have highlighted that the proposed mine significantly risks the ecosystem and cultural values of Okefenokee,” Williams wrote. “The (Interior) Department, the state of Georgia, and private landowners have the opportunity to stand together to protect this unique swamp ecosystem within Georgia.
“I urge you to exercise your leadership and authority as governor of Georgia to help us achieve a mutually acceptable solution.”
Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) is seeking state permits for the mine. While company executives have said the project would not harm the swamp, scientific studies have concluded the proposed mine would significantly damage the largest blackwater swamp in North America by drawing down its water level and increasing the risk of drought and fires.
Josh Marks, president of Georgians for the Okefenokee, praised the Fish and Wildlife Service for its advocacy on behalf of the refuge.
“This letter correctly highlights the scientific consensus that mining along the swamp’s hydrologic boundary is a terrible idea,” he said. “Hopefully, Governor Kemp will agree, deny TPM’s permit applications, and instead accept FWS’ offer of collaboration around conserving Trail Ridge, so that Georgia’s greatest natural treasure can finally be saved for future generations.”
by Ty Tagami | Feb 7, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Advocates seeking health insurance for more low-income Georgians are encouraged that Medicaid expansion is starting to draw support among what for years has been unified Republican opposition.
Although just four GOP state senators joined 17 Democrats when Senate Bill 50 was introduced late last month, it was still a milestone for Laura Colbert.
“This bill is really exciting because it’s Georgia’s first bipartisan legislation that would close Georgia’s coverage gap,” said Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future.
The measure would create PeachCare Plus, expanding Medicaid access for Georgians making less than 138% of the federal poverty level.
Currently, only Georgians who earn at or below the poverty level qualify for coverage. Unlike 40 other states, Georgia has not sought the expanded access – and associated federal money – that has been on the table for more than a decade.
To qualify in Georgia now, a single person must earn less than $15,650 and a family of four is capped at $32,150.
To qualify for the state’s Pathways to Coverage program – a limited form of Medicaid expansion Gov. Brian Kemp rolled out in 2023 – adults must work, go to school, volunteer or do other qualifying activities for 80 hours a month.
No other state has such a requirement. The upshot: a tiny fraction of eligible Georgians are covered.
“If you take away the 6,500 people in Pathways, we have over 200,000 people living in the health insurance coverage gap, without access to affordable health care,” said Leah Chan, an analyst with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
Expanding Medicaid to allow access for those earning up to 138% of the poverty level would add hundreds of thousands to the eligibility list.
The federal government would cover 90% of the cost, but Kemp has consistently questioned the longevity of that funding stream, worried about the cost shifting to Georgia taxpayers.
Grant Thomas, deputy commissioner with Georgia’s Department of Community Health, said at a recent hearing for SB 50 that Kemp’s approach is saving taxpayers money.
“Because we only expanded to 100% of the federal poverty level, we were able to keep 816,000 Georgians on private insurance in which the state does not pay a dollar,” Thomas said. “So that’s 816,000 people we’re not paying 10% of those costs as a state had we fully expanded Medicaid.”
Kemp has said he will petition the federal government to extend Pathways another fire years. His extension request will also ask for changes that would expand access a little by waiving the work requirement for impoverished parents of children 6 and under.
The sweeping changes advocates seek aren’t part of his plan, and there aren’t great odds that lawmakers will force his hand.
One of the four Republicans who signed onto SB 50 has since dropped off. That leaves three Republicans. There are 23 Democrats in the 56-member Senate, and even with those three there are not enough votes for passage.
And it would still have to get through the House of Representatives, where no Republicans have signed onto similar legislation by Democrats
Still, everyone knows about spiraling health-care costs, including residents in Republican-leaning rural areas, said Sen. David Lucas, D-Macon, the chief sponsor of SB 50.
“Now rural legislators who are Republicans, they’ve got to consider who they represent and how they’re going to help the folks that they do represent,” he said.
Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Cogdell, is one of the Republicans who signed SB 50.
He said he doesn’t know that he would vote for the measure, but he worries about the finances of rural hospitals.
It’s personal: his son was electrocuted at age 11.
“He lived, but he had to be life flighted,” Goodman said. “If we didn’t have a rural hospital 12 miles from my house, I don’t know that he’d be here today. I live in a very, very, very rural area.”
Goodman said he just wants the Senate to discuss Medicaid expansion.
Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, also signed SB 50 to have a discussion. He wants to talk about whether expansion would help rural hospitals.
“We’ve had some hospitals on the verge of closing for 10 years,” he said. There are millions and millions of dollars available, he added. “Let’s tap into it.”
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Georgia’s pending federal request for changes to the Pathways to Coverage program must go through a public comment period. The deadline to post a letter is Feb. 20. Mail to: Shawn Walker at the Georgia Department of Community Health, P.O. Box 1966, Atlanta, GA 30301-1966. Georgians can also participate in a live hearing via Zoom from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday.
by Dave Williams | Feb 7, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia Power would not be allowed to pass on the costs of providing electricity to data centers under legislation before the state Senate.
“I support data centers coming to Georgia. … They can be a significant contributor to property taxes,” Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, the bill’s chief sponsor, told members of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee Friday during an initial hearing on the measure. “But they do require considerable resources. I want them to pay their fair share of those investments.”
The rapid growth of the data center industry in Georgia has prompted concerns among state lawmakers and energy regulators during the last couple of years. When Georgia Power executives asked the state Public Service Commission (PSC) in 2023 to approve 6,600 megawatts of additional electrical generating capacity for the Atlanta-based utility, they said 80% of that new demand was coming from energy-intensive data centers.
The commission voted last month to prohibit Georgia Power from passing on the costs of providing electricity to large-load customers including data centers to residential and small-business customers. The new rule also requires contracts with customers using more than 200 megawatts of electricity to be submitted to the PSC for review.
Khara Boender, senior manager of state policy for the Virginia-based Data Center Coalition, an industry association, said she considers Senate Bill 34 unnecessary because the PSC already has acted on the issue. Boender also complained that Hufstetler’s bill unfairly singles out data centers when there are other large users of electricity in Georgia, including the fast-growing advanced manufacturing sector.
But Hufstetler said legislation is needed to ensure Georgia Power’s residential and small-business customers don’t end up footing the bill for power-hungry data centers.
“This is just too huge an issue for us not to make sure we’re taking care of the citizens,” he said. “We need to protect the citizens of Georgia.”
The committee didn’t act on Hufstetler’s bill Friday. A vote could come at the panel’s next meeting.
by Dave Williams | Feb 7, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Fulton County Superior Court judge has upheld a ruling by the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) granting Sandersville Railroad Co. the right to take land from several property owners for a planned rail spur.
However, Judge Craig Schwall also issued a partial stay preventing the company from invoking the power of eminent domain to start the project pending an expected appeal of this week’s ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court.
The case began in March 2023 when Sandersville moved to condemn and take land owned by Don and Sally Garrett, which has been in Don Garrett’s family for generations. Two months later, 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.
The PSC sided with the company, voting unanimously last September that the company’s plans for the 4.5-mile Hanson Spur connecting raw material producers to a CSX rail line constitute a legitimate public use under the state’s eminent domain laws.
“A private railroad’s desire to build a speculative new line entirely for the benefit of a handful of private companies is not a public use under the U.S. and Georgia constitutions and Georgia’s eminent domain laws,” said Bill Maurer, senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, which represents the property owners.
“We look forward to the Georgia Supreme Court’s review, and we are thankful our clients will not have to deal with Sandersville building tracks on our clients’ property until the higher court weighs in.”
The company issued a statement praising Schwall’s ruling and defending the project.
“The Hanson Spur is a critical infrastructure project that will open new channels of trade for local businesses, reduce truck traffic, and serve the public with minimal impacts on our neighbors,” the company wrote.
Sandersville Railroad Co. asserted that the Hanson Spur is expected to generate more than $1.5 million in annual economic benefits for Hancock County and the city of Sparta.
by Ty Tagami | Feb 6, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Republican-controlled Georgia Senate moved to purge transgender athletes from female teams Thursday in a near party-line vote.
Senate Bill 1 would prohibit public school and state college students from competing on teams that do not match the sex on their birth certificates. Private institutions that compete against them would be affected, too.
Noncompliant public schools would risk loss of state funding and exposure to lawsuits.
Public schools are already facing financial consequences at the federal level.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes. His “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order withholds federal funding from schools that do not “oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports … as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed its own bill with the same goal last month. The U.S. Senate has yet to consider it.
On Thursday, Republican state senators said a state-level law is needed because of “male advantage” in sport.
“Without a boundary around female sport that excludes male advantage, males would dominate every major sporting competition,” said Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the chief sponsor of SB 1.
Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, said it was “common sense” that males and females should not compete on the playing field.
Democrats argued that Republicans are exploiting the issue from a “cynical, strategic” standpoint.
They said transgender people comprise a tiny fraction of the population and are not a real threat to female athletes, especially younger children.
“Why are you making these transgender girls into super girls that are just going to dominate everything?” said Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones II, D-Augusta. “They just want to play. They just want to participate. Have you ever thought about that?”
Legislative Republicans have repeatedly pointed to a 2022 NCAA swim meet at Georgia Tech where a transgender student born male dominated the women’s competition.
Legislation the General Assembly passed in 2022 empowering state athletic associations to ban transgender athletes has also eliminated such occurrences, but Republicans say a law is still needed.
Democrats have taunted their GOP opponents over the fairness issue by pitching their own equity legislation.
They have bills before the state House of Representatives and the Senate that seek to mandate equal funding for girls’ sports teams in schools. They also tried, and failed, to amend SB 1 with such a requirement, then derided Republicans over their vote against it.
“My colleagues are not invested in truly leveling the playing field for girls’ sports,” said Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, a co-author of the failed amendment.
SB 1 passed 35-17, with two Democrats crossing the aisle to support the measure.
The measure now goes to the state House, where Republican leaders have their own legislation on the issue in House Bill 267.
The support by the GOP leadership in both chambers hints at a likelihood that something will pass on the issue this year. Georgia would then join more than two dozen states with a similar prohibition on the participation of transgender athletes in school sports.
