by Ty Tagami | Aug 22, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The Republican National Committee elected Joe Gruters, a Florida state senator and long-time ally of President Donald Trump, as its new chairman Friday.
Gruters, who was the only candidate for the leadership post and was endorsed by Trump, stepped down as RNC treasurer, a spot then filled by Jennifer Saul-Rich of New York.
Gruters succeeds Michael Whatley, who is leaving the chairmanship to run for U.S. Senate in North Carolina, also with Trump’s support.
Whatley raised the specter of a repeat of the Trump impeachments under Democrats should Republicans fail to keep control of Congress after next year’s mid-term elections.
“We have a choice: Two more years of a golden age or two more years of impeachment,” he said at the party’s summer meeting, held in a ballroom at the Westin in downtown Atlanta.
Gruters is a former chairman of the Florida state GOP and now chairs two committees in the Florida Senate — Banking and Insurance, and Fiscal Policy. He said his party has a financial head start on the next elections, with an $84 million war chest, which he said is more than five times what Democrats have on hand.
He also said his party has many factions to unite, adding that his priority will be election integrity and voter registration.
“Together, we will expand our Republican majority and deliver sweeping victories that will shape America for generations to come,” he said, closing the meeting by saying the GOP is Trump’s party and “we’re going to do everything humanly possible to help him advance his agenda and make sure that he’s successful and he has a full, full four-year term.”
The Democratic National Committee also elected a new chairman this year. Ken Martin, who headed the Democratic Party in Minnesota, was chosen in February to lead the Democrats’ efforts to recapture at least one of the legislative chambers in Congress in 2026.
by Dave Williams | Aug 22, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A leading industrial storage and automation solution company will invest $36 million to build a new plant in Gordon County, Gov. Brian Kemp announced this week.
Stow Group’s manufacturing facility will create about 200 jobs in the Northwest Georgia county.
“Georgia’s reliable infrastructure network and strategic location ensure we remain a gateway to opportunity,” Kemp said Thursday. “Companies like stow Group are a big reason why our robust logistics industry continues to deliver results across the state.”
Based in Belgium, stow Group produces industrial racking systems and develops customized warehouse and storage solutions for its clients, which include companies in logistics, food and beverage, life sciences, and other industries.
“I am very excited to ramp up a highly automated production plant with the latest technologies in rack manufacturing,” said Michael Morgenroth, plant manager at stow U.S. “We believe this will offer great career development opportunities for anyone in the local workforce interested in steel manufacturing.”
The new plant will occupy 240,000 square feet in an existing building along U.S. 41 in Adairsville. Operations are expected to begin next year.
The company will be hiring for production roles related to profiling, stamping, welding, powder coating, automation, and assembly as well as logistics, administrative, and management roles. Interested individuals can learn more at www.stow-group.com/en/careers.
The state Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce team worked on the project in partnership with the Gordon County Chamber, the Development Authority of Gordon County, Georgia Power, and the Technical College System of Georgia’s Quick Start program.
by Ty Tagami | Aug 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Smoking kills, but many still do it, and a small group of Georgia lawmakers want to help people kick the habit and discourage others from starting.
A big challenge for a bipartisan panel in the state House of Representatives: their main proposal is a tax increase, and tax increases are not popular in an election year. Their proposed legislation would come up for a vote in 2026, observed the chairwoman, Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, at the last of three hearings for the House study committee on smoking and vaping Thursday.
Committee members are considering other ideas, too, such as requiring ingredient disclosures on the packaging of vaping products and banning flavors. They also discussed increasing the $10 licensing fee for vape shops to suppress their numbers. (In Georgia, it costs $10 for a tobacco sales licensing fee and another $10 to sell tobacco vape products.)
“There are more vape shops now in Georgia than Chick-fil-A and Starbucks combined,” said Dr. Daniel Miller, a thoracic surgeon at the Medical College of Georgia who offered a buffet of statistics at Thursday’s hearing. “They pop up anywhere for $10. It’s incredible how they’ve exploded. It’s because it doesn’t cost anything.”
Miller said vaping products contain 25 times more nicotine than cigarettes, making them highly addictive for children.
It is illegal to sell tobacco products to children, but observers complained about lax enforcement. One in five middle school students and one in four high school students vape, Miller said, adding that one in three college students do, as well.
Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, said he floated a sales tax increase to the chairman and members of the House Ways & Means Committee, which holds jurisdiction over taxes.
He also disclosed at the hearing that his wife’s sister, a smoker since the 1970s, had died Wednesday.
“It touches a lot of families,” said Stephens, a long-time advocate for increased tobacco taxes.
Back in June, as the committee was getting underway, Stephens said the likelihood of federal budget cuts might decrease resistance to higher taxes on products like tobacco.
Georgia has one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the nation, the committee heard in June.
At 37 cents a pack, it is well below the national average of $1.97. Only Missouri, at 17 cents, charges less.
“Sometimes the pocketbook and the squeeze changes minds,” Stephens said in an interview that month, adding that the tax revenue could offset health-care costs that would be borne by Georgians in the event of federal cuts, which subsequently became a reality when President Donald Trump signed his “Big Beautiful Bill” into law in July.
“If you smoke long enough and hard enough,” Stephens said, “you’re going to get sick, and somebody’s got to pay for it.”
By then, federal actions were already having an impact, something anti-smoking advocates noted Thursday, saying Georgia should restore $2.1 million to the Tobacco Use Prevention Program.
The Georgia Department of Public Health shuttered the program in May due to federal cuts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention though the state agency said “core” tobacco and vaping prevention and cessation programs were still operating.
by Dave Williams | Aug 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
PERRY – International Paper will close two pulp and paper mills in Coastal Georgia, a move that will put about 1,100 employees out of work, the company announced Thursday.
Mills in Savannah and Riceboro will shut down by the end of next month, as will the company’s Savannah packaging facility. The combined changes will result in a net reduction of International Paper’s annual containerboard capacity by about 1 million tons.
The company will offer severance packages along with outplacement assistance for eligible employees, said Tom Hamic, president of International Paper’s North America Packing Solutions business.
“We understand how deeply these decisions affect our employees, their loved ones, and the surrounding communities,” he said. “We are committed to supporting both our employees and customers as we navigate this transition.”
“These mill closures will undoubtedly deal a devastating blow not only to Georgia’s timber industry, but to the economic fabric of the entire Southeast Georgia region,” added Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington.
The pulp and paper industry has been buffeted by a long-term reduction in demand for its products. The number of mills in Georgia has fallen from 18 at the height of production in 1977 to just nine with Thursday’s closure announcements, Marshall Thomas, president of Albany-based F&W Forest Services, told an audience of political and ag business leaders at the annual Ag Issues Summit at the Georgia National Fairgrounds in Perry.
Gov. Brian Kemp said he will mobilize Georgia’s technical colleges and the state departments of labor and economic development to connect affected workers with job opportunities.
“Thankfully, the strong state economy we’ve built together over the last seven years has made our job market healthy and resilient, with a steady pipeline of investments and opportunities coming to the regions affected by this announcement,” he said.
Kemp said he has asked the economic development agency to make attracting more businesses that use wood to give the struggling timber industry a boost.
Thomas said Georgia lawmakers are working to increase demand for timber products, including a state Senate study committee that began meeting last year to explore developing sustainable aviation fuel from biomass, which has become popular in Europe.
“Why aren’t we doing this?” he said. “The world wants green stuff … and we’ve got some of the greatest forestry in the world.”
Thomas said another way to increase demand for timber is being worked on at the federal level. While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s renewable fuel standard is aimed at increasing the use of renewable fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it bans the use of commercially produced trees in producing those fuels.
“If we could get that relaxed to include trees, it would go a long way,” he said.
“I, along with each member of our delegation in the House, remain committed to working tirelessly with our state leaders, federal partners and timber producers to navigate this difficult transition, secure new employment opportunities for the hundreds of citizens impacted by the closures and safeguard the long-term strength and viability of Georgia’s timber industry,” Burns added.
by Ty Tagami | Aug 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Anticipating federal cutbacks or funding freezes, Georgia lawmakers held a hearing Wednesday to explore a redesign of the state’s public health system, which protects residents from diseases and offers preventative health care in some places.
The state’s public health districts operate under the Department of Public Health. Most of the staff work for local government, but the amount counties must contribute has not changed in 50 years. Nearly $403 million of the $922.5 million budget for public health comes from the state while almost $465 million is provided by the federal government.
Some expect the administration of President Donald Trump to issue more “block grants” with less oversight, giving states an opportunity to redesign their systems for health services, such as dental hygiene, and for the tracking and the prevention of diseases, such as syphilis.
“These changes at the federal level are giving us an opportunity to really reimagine what public health can be,” state Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey said.
But cuts in services may have to accompany that flexibility as the federal government pushes more costs to the local level. So Rep. Butch Parrish, R-Swainsboro, asked Toomey to assess which programs merit funding from the state if federal dollars wane.
“We can help some, but I don’t think we can make up all of those dollars,” said Parrish, chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee.
“I think there can really be some challenges out there, and I know that y’all will be up to it,” said Parrish, who represents a district south of Augusta. He was among several lawmakers on the panel who expressed concern that rural areas get fewer services than urban areas.
A funding freeze could be less than two months away given Congress’ challenges in passing a timely budget, said Carolyn Mullin with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Her group predicts a “high likelihood” of a government shutdown Oct. 1. If that does happen, she said, federal payments for public health could be frozen, pushing costs to the states.
That would further stress an already stressed public health system in Georgia.
The House Study Committee on Evaluating Funding for Public Health was created by a House resolution that said “public health has historically been underfunded.”
Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville, who chairs the study committee and has a seat on the House Appropriations Committee, will hold two more hearings this year.
“We are all waiting to see final outcomes and what Congress does,” she said.
