by Ty Tagami | May 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A federal staffing shortage has resulted in the closure of Georgia lakeside recreational areas just ahead of the busy Memorial Day weekend.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ announcement Wednesday that it would close 31 parks and public use facilities around waterways in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi is already drawing political heat.
U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Suwanee, issued a statement saying he was disappointed to learn of the closures of beaches and docks around Lake Lanier, noting the lake draws more than 10 million visitors a year. And Georgia’s two U.S. senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, both of them Democratics, blamed President Donald Trump.
The Army Corps announcement listed 20 sites at Lake Lanier, two at Allatoona Lake, and one along Lake George W. Andrews southwest of Blakely. The announcement also included a public shoreline area along the 240-mile Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River system, which runs through Georgia.
Some sites in Alabama are near Georgia and those closures may also affect Georgia residents.
The Army Corps gave no reason for the closures, but the agency was targeted for cuts by the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that Trump established under billionaire businessman Elon Musk.
McCormick blamed Democrats in the House of Representatives, saying they blocked an appropriations bill introduced last year that would have prevented campground closures around Lake Lanier.
Warnock attributed the closures to “this administration’s reckless cuts,” and Ossoff said the Lake Lanier closures were “a direct and predictable result” of what he called the Trump administration’s “reckless and chaotic mismanagement.”
by Dave Williams | May 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia Power’s pledge this week to freeze rates for the next three years would benefit both the utility’s customers and bolster the state’s ability to attract jobs and investment, Gov. Brian Kemp said Wednesday.
“This is good news,” Kemp told reporters during a news conference at the state Capitol. “Georgia’s going to be in a great place.”
Kemp appeared with two members of the state Public Service Commission two days after Georgia Power and the commission’s Public Interest Advocacy Staff announced an agreement to hold the line on base rates through 2028. The agreement, subject to the PSC’s approval, would cancel the rate case the company had been planning to submit by July 1.
Georgia Power has raised rates three times in the past three years, a period that has seen a huge increase in demand for electricity sparked in large part by the rapid growth of power-hungry data centers across the state.
“All of our neighboring states are going to have massive increases,” commission Chairman Jason Shaw said Wednesday. “We’ve worked on our grid system so we can handle this growth.”
Wednesday’s news conference took place amid a backdrop of criticism from consumer watchdog and environmental groups that the proposed agreement would not prevent some rate hikes because the deal would allow Georgia Power to recover from ratepayers increased fuel costs and costs associated with Hurricane Helene, which devastated large portions of the southern and eastern halves of the state last September. Under the agreement, the PSC would consider those costs next year.
Shaw, who lives in South Georgia, noted that his region has been hit by hurricanes three times in the last 14 months.
“These are reasonable and prudent expenses,” he said.
Kemp said freezing Georgia Power’s rates would make Georgia more attractive to prospective business tenants.
“This will be a huge talking point as we compete with other states,” he said.
The governor pushed back on arguments from critics that the rate freeze is being timed to coincide with this year’s PSC elections. If the commission approves the agreement, incumbent Commissioners Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson – both Republicans – wouldn’t have to vote on a rate hike before voters decide whether to retain them in office.
“We’re not basing our calendars on when political elections are coming up,” Kemp said.
The PSC will hold a public hearing on the proposed agreement on June 26 ahead of a vote set for July 1.
Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald appeared with Kemp and Shaw at Wednesday’s news conference.
by Dave Williams | May 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The head of a commercial real estate investment firm has been sentenced to 87 months in prison and ordered to pay $45 million in restitution in a fraud scheme involving the Atlanta Financial Center in Buckhead.
Elchonon (Elie) Schwartz, 46, of New York City pleaded guilty in February to one count of wire fraud. Schwartz convinced more than 800 investors to send him $62.8 million, including $54 million earmarked for the huge office building on Peachtree Road. Instead of using the money for legitimate purposes, he diverted it into buying luxury items for his own use.
“Schwartz’s greed was boundless,” said Theodore S. Hertzberg, interim U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. “He callously abused the trust of hundreds of investors to line his own bank accounts. … Schwartz’s sentence reflects our office’s commitment to hold fraudsters accountable for exploiting investors who innocently rely on their false representations.”
According to court records, Schwartz set up a crowdfunding website – CrowdStreet Marketplace – that raised nearly $63 million, including $54 million for the Atlanta Financial Center and $9 million for a mixed-use building in Miami Beach. He represented to investors that he would safeguard their funds within segregated bank accounts, would not commingle the investors’ money, and would use the funds only for investment in each property.
Schwartz then directed the money into his personal bank account as well as unrelated commercial real estate investments he controlled, using it to buy luxury watches, invest in stocks and options in a personal brokerage account, and cover payroll expenses for unrelated commercial real estate businesses.
The case was investigated by the FBI with assistance from the Security and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement.
Along with the jail time and restitution order, Schwartz was sentenced to three years of supervised release after he completes his prison term.
by Dave Williams | May 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Businesses front-loading orders to avoid looming tariffs are continuing to drive containerized cargo traffic at the Port of Savannah.
The port handled 515,500 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) last month, up 17% from April of last year and the third monthly record in a row, the Georgia Ports Authority reported Tuesday.
“Our operations remain business-as-usual,” authority President and CEO Griff Lynch said.
Officials at the ports authority feared the worst back in February when President Donald Trump slapped across-the-board tariffs on imports from countries across the globe, kicking off a trade war, including a 145% tariff on China. However, Trump backed away from that high tariff earlier this month and reduced it to 30% while pausing tariffs elsewhere for three months.
“With the latest news on tariffs, we’re optimistic the situation will settle down and cargo will continue to flow through Savannah and Brunswick,” Lynch said. “We’re already seeing an uptick in business for the months ahead.”
However, last month’s numbers at the Port of Brunswick were not so encouraging. The nearly 63,000 units of Roll-on/Roll-off cargo Brunswick handled in April was down 22% from the same month last year.
That monthly decline occurred after Brunswick had posted an 18% increase in RoRo units in March, the result of many auto and heavy equipment manufacturers rushing orders in anticipation of the tariffs.
At the monthly meeting of the authority board, Lynch announced that a new $44.5 million U.S. Customs inspection warehouse will come online in July at Savannah’s Garden City Terminal, more than doubling the previous space to 300,000 square feet. Lynch said the on-terminal site will save customers time and money because containers won’t have to be moved off-port for inspection.
The board also approved construction of a fourth berth for RoRo units at the Port of Brunswick’s Colonel Island Terminal. Work on the $99.8 million project is due to begin by the middle of this year, with completion set for 2027.
by Dave Williams | May 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms entered the 2026 race for governor Tuesday, vowing to push back against the disruption perpetrated by the Trump administration.
“We know there’s a lot of chaos coming out of Washington, D.C.,” Bottoms, a Democrat, told Capitol Beat in an exclusive interview. “It’s been destabilizing to the economy. I’m a fighter. I want to be able to fight for Georgians.”
Bottoms, a lawyer, served two terms on the Atlanta City Council before being elected mayor in 2017. After deciding not to seek reelection four years later, she joined the Biden administration as a senior advisor and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.
She said her most important accomplishments as mayor included steering the city through an economic downturn brought on by the pandemic, leaving office with Atlanta boasting $180 million in budget reserves without raising taxes and while providing historic pay raises for police officers and firefighters.
Bottoms pledged to expand the state’s Medicaid program if she is elected governor, a goal Georgia Democrats have advocated for more than a decade but that has been blocked by Republican governors and GOP majorities in the General Assembly.
“We’ve had nine rural hospitals close because we’ve not expanded it,” she said. “We’ve got 300,000 people in this state that don’t have health coverage.”
Bottoms said building her name recognition in rural Georgia will be an important part of her campaign. Her family history goes back generations in Crawfordville, the county seat in tiny Taliaferro County.
“You can be the most popular person in Atlanta, and it doesn’t mean a thing statewide,” she said. “I’m going to be out and about across the state.”
The only other Democrat running for governor at this early stage of the race is also an Atlantan. State Sen. Jason Esteves, a former member of the Atlanta Board of Education, declared his candidacy for governor last month.
The only announced Republican candidate thus far is state Attorney General Chris Carr. Other potential candidates to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Brian Kemp include Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
