by Dave Williams | Apr 8, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Democrats and Republicans are boasting of their fundraising success early in what is an off-year for elections in Georgia.
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., raised more than $11 million during the first quarter of this year, the most ever raised by a Senate incumbent in the first three months of an off-year.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Republican Party brought in President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump to its Spring Gala, which raised more than $300,000.
Ossoff received donations from 156 of Georgia’s 159 counties, with an average contribution of $32 from nearly 260,000 donors. Ossoff will be up for re-election to a second six-year term in the Senate next year.
“I’m grateful to the hundreds of thousands of record-shattering supporters who have already joined what will be the biggest and most relentless turnout effort in Georgia history,” he said.
Republicans have yet to field a challenger to Ossoff. Potential GOP candidates are waiting to see whether term-limited Gov. Brian Kemp enter the race. If he does, he would be the clear frontrunner on the Republican side.
Last week’s Spring Gala was the Georgia Republican Party’s largest fundraiser in the last two years. More than 300 attending the event heard from GOP luminaries including Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, state Insurance Commissioner John King, and a host of Republican state lawmakers.
Headliner Lara Trump is a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
“I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to Lara Trump for joining us in Georgia, just as she did so many times in 2024,” Georgia Republican Chairman Josh McKoon said. “I also want to recognize all of our sponsors and donors whose generosity made this incredible night possible.”
by Dave Williams | Apr 8, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia Board of Regents will vote next week on a proposal to consolidate Georgia Southern University and East Georgia State College.
The university system launched a wave of consolidations back in 2011 under the late Chancellor Hank Huckaby that initially involved eight consolidations and later led to five more. The goal was to reduce administrative costs while maintaining high standards for teaching and research.
“When we began our consolidation initiative, the system hadn’t changed much and needed to do things differently to better serve our students and the state,” system Chancellor Sonny Perdue said Tuesday. “The dollars saved through consolidation have always been reinvested directly in our campuses – fueling the hiring of strong faculty, expanding student support services, and driving measurable improvements in retention and graduation rates. … Our commitment in making this recommendation is no different.”
Both Georgia Southern and East Georgia State College are four-year institutions. Georgia Southern is located in Statesboro, and East Georgia State College is in nearby Swainsboro.
If the regents approve the consolidation, it would then need approval from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. An implementation team with representatives from both schools would work out the details.
Georgia Southern was previously involved in a consolidation with the former Armstrong State University in Savannah in 2017.
The proposed consolidation would reduce the number of public colleges and universities in the system to 25.
by Dave Williams | Apr 8, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Port of Brunswick handled an all-time record of 91,360 units of Roll-on/Roll-off cargo last month, up 18% compared to March of last year, the Georgia Ports Authority reported Tuesday.
As was the case with container trade at the Port of Savannah, higher volumes of vehicles and heavy equipment at Brunswick was due in part to customers front-loading orders to avoid new tariffs. The Port of Brunswick has become the nation’s busiest for Roll-on/Roll-off cargo.
“More manufacturers are making Colonel’s Island a main hub for the global trade of autos and machinery,” said Griff Lynch, the ports authority’s president and CEO. “Brunswick’s central location in the fast-growing U.S. Southeast market and unmatched capacity to take on new business mean our customers can plan for the long term.”
To better handle growing trade at Brunswick, the first phase of a new railyard on the south side of Colonel’s Island Terminal will be completed next month. That will double rail capacity from five to 10 trains per week, increasing the port’s annual rail capacity from about 150,000 autos to more than 340,000.
A second phase in the project will bring annual rail capacity to 590,000 units, more than three times the current capacity.
The ports authority also recently competed $262 million in capacity upgrades in Brunswick, including new warehousing and vehicle processing space. A fourth berth for Ro/Ro vessels is in the engineering phase.
Lynch said uncertainty over tariffs has not affected the agency’s plans to invest $4.2 billion in capacity expansions at Savannah and Brunswick during the next decade.
by Ty Tagami | Apr 5, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia legislators clocked out unusually early Friday night, leaving behind stacks of unfinished bills, many of them torn into pieces for the ceremonial throwing of confetti that marks the final moments of a legislative session.
Among the abandoned bills were several that had seemed to be a priority for Republican lawmakers. They had devoted many hours of hearings to them, to the consternation of Democrats, who called the measures “hateful” and a waste of time.
Left on the table were a bill to withhold puberty blockers from teens and a ban on coverage of transgender-related care for employees on the state health plan. A measure to financially punish colleges and schools that promote diversity, equity and inclusion also foundered. So did a “Red Tape Rollback” touted as Georgia’s answer to Elon Musk’s DOGE. An overhaul of election law also failed to pass.
Before they left, lawmakers did pass a measure banning medical care for prisoners changing their gender. They also gave a Senate committee that has been investigating Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis permission to pursue former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. And they gave that committee subpoena powers, with Democrats labeling the effort “authoritarianism.”
“This is a dangerous bill,” Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, the minority whip in the House of Representatives, said before the House passed Senate Bill 255 Wednesday. The Senate sent it to Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday.
The flurry of partisan legislation had Democrats fuming as Republicans ignored many of their bills, including measures about guns after the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County last fall.
The General Assembly did pass a comprehensive school safety bill with bipartisan support, but some Democrats complained it did nothing to curb the availability of firearms.
For the second year in a row, legislation that sought an income tax credit for Georgians who buy trigger locks or gun safes failed to pass. Other priorities for Democrats, from expanding Medicaid to tax breaks on clothing and school supplies, went nowhere.
“Instead of coming to the table and working across the aisle with us to address real issues Georgians are facing, they have introduced the politics of hate,” Rep. Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus, the House minority leader, said last month amid the fusillade of bills that she said were trickling down from President Donald Trump. “Because you know what? Hate wins elections.”
Republicans countered that popular opinion was on their side with their priorities, such as a ban on transgender athletes in female sports that the Senate sent to the governor Monday and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed by Kemp on Friday.
Then-Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed a religious liberty bill nine years ago, fearing the boycotts and other economic harm that might have resulted. At least three dozen states now have such a law, Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, noted on Friday.
“So it was time for Georgia to take that final step, and we did it, with very little opposition from the business community,” said Gooch, the Senate majority leader. “You didn’t see the protesters. You didn’t see the chambers of commerce coming down to the building in protest like we’ve seen in the past.”
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones gaveled the Senate’s session to a close a little after 9 p.m., which shocked many observers — and lawmakers. They are used to voting past midnight on the last legislative day, called Sine Die.
The House gaveled to a close an hour and a half later, formally ending the first half of the 158th biennium of Georgia’s General Assembly.
Jones told reporters that he was in no rush to hammer bills through during this year’s session.
“This is a two-year cycle,” he said after leaving the Senate floor. “That means whatever doesn’t get done this this year will be available exactly where it sits for next year.”
by Dave Williams | Apr 5, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – An unexpectedly early end to the 2025 General Assembly session Friday night left a bid to put some restrictions on school-zone speed cameras in Georgia on the shelf until next year.
While the Georgia House of Representatives was debating a substitute version of House Bill 651, the state Senate abruptly adjourned “sine die” shortly before 9:15 p.m., calling an end to the legislative session. The General Assembly usually works until midnight on the last day of the session.
The House went on to pass the substitute 140-29, but with senators gone home, final action on the bill can’t take place until the 2026 session begins next January.
“This is the first time in my 30-plus years that I tried to pass a bill, and there was no one left to receive it,” veteran Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, the measure’s chief sponsor, said on the House floor.
While school-zone traffic cameras have reduced the number of speeders and possibly the number of student injuries and deaths, supporters say, the resulting tickets have frustrated many motorists. That tension explains why House lawmakers introduced two bills this year to regulate or even do away with the devices.
Powell’s House Bill 651 sought to strip school boards of the authority to install the devices, leaving that decision to cities and counties. The other measure, House Bill 225, sponsored by Rep. Dale Washburn, R-Macon, called for prohibiting new contracts with the companies that install school-zone speed cameras starting in July 2027 and repealing the law allowing them starting in July 2028.
The opposition stemmed from the rapid expansion of the cameras, driven at least in part by the revenue generated for local governments.
One lawmaker said the cameras produced 120 tickets per day in one small city, or about 22,000 over the 180-day school year.
“And at the current price of $75 per ticket, that’s over $1.6 million for one location, for one city,” Sen. Timothy Bearden, R-Carrollton, said during the Senate debate on HB 225. “That’s over $1.6 million for one location, for one city.”
The money, said Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, during the debate on HB 651, is like “crack cocaine for government.”
But Sen. Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia, said the automated enforcement has had the intended effect. A little girl was killed by a speeder in front of her school in Banks County before a camera was installed there, he said. There have been no fatalities there since the cameras were installed, Hatchett said, adding that the number of crashes in front of the school has declined despite an overall increase in the county.
Some local governments are “bad actors” just trying to make money from the cameras, he said, but other communities are using them the right way.
“The issue is people are driving too fast in front of schools,” he said.
The Senate passed HB 651 by a 51-3 vote. But rather than agree with the Senate version of the bill and give it final passage, the House proposed a lengthy amendment.
Among other things, the amendment would have required that flashing signs accompany speed-zone cameras informing motorists how fast they’re driving, that no tickets could be issued unless the violator was driving more than 10 miles an hour over the speed limit, and requiring cities and counties to dedicate revenue from speeding tickets to school safety purposes.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, strongly chastised the Senate for calling it quits before giving Powell’s bill a final vote.
“It appears the Senate has checked all their priorities, their political priorities, and decided to end their night,” Burns informed his House colleagues. “But this chamber puts policies before politics. … Let’s do our work.”
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who presides over the Senate, said he called an end to the session when he did because the Senate had completed work on all of its priorities.
“It’s a two-year cycle,” he said. “What we didn’t get done this year is available (in 2026).”
Jones went on to take a shot at his House counterpart.
“I don’t tell the House how to run their chamber, and they don’t tell me how to run mine,” he said.
After the House vote on Powell’s bill, House lawmakers gave a handful of other bills that didn’t have to go back to the Senate final passage, then adjourned for the year shortly after 10:30 p.m.
